How to build a market survey your client will actually read

A market survey is the first real deliverable a new client sees from you. It sets the tone for the whole assignment. Yet most surveys are a 30-page PDF of flyers stapled together, and most clients open it, scroll twice, and ask you to "just send the top three."

The fix is not more pages. It is a survey built around the decision your client actually has to make. Here is the process, and how to run it inside Survey.

1. Start from the requirement, not the listings

Before you pull a single listing, write the requirement down in one paragraph: size range, budget, target submarkets, must-haves, and deal-breakers. Get the client to confirm it.

Every site in your survey should earn its place against that paragraph. If you cannot explain in one sentence why a space is on the list, cut it.

2. Cap it at 8 to 12 options

More options feel like more work, but they make the decision harder. A tight survey signals that you already did the filtering. That is the value you are selling.

If the market is thin, say so. If it is deep, show your best options and keep the rest in your back pocket.

3. Lead with the map

Clients think in geography first: how far is it from where our people live, our customers shop, our competitors sit? A list of addresses cannot answer that. A map answers it instantly.

In Survey, every site is pinned on an interactive client map. Your client can see the whole market at a glance, then click into any site for photos, rate, NNN, and available square footage.

4. Show the four numbers that matter

For every option, put the same four numbers in the same place:

1. Available square footage
2. Asking rate
3. NNN or operating expenses
4. Availability date

Consistency is what makes options comparable. When every site shows those numbers the same way, your client can compare them without calling you.

5. Add the context a flyer never gives

Listings tell your client what the space is. You tell them what the location is. Use Demographics to show income, population, and traffic counts around each site, and Competition Tracker to show who is already nearby.

One slide of context on a site is worth more than five pages of the landlord's marketing copy.

6. Send a live link, not an attachment

A PDF is out of date the moment a space leases. Share the survey as a live link instead. Your client can open it on a phone, comment on sites, and mark favorites, and you can update it as the market moves without resending anything.

7. Turn the shortlist into a tour

When your client narrows it down, plan the tour in the same place. Route Planner orders the sites into the most efficient drive, and Tour Books turn the shortlist into a branded, print-ready book for tour day.

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A great survey is not the one with the most listings. It is the one your client can make a decision from. Start from the requirement, keep it tight, lead with the map, and give every option the same numbers and real context.

Ready to build one? Start a free trial of Survey and send your next survey as a live map.