In 2026, the global real estate market is showing clear signs of recovery. Savills forecasts that worldwide real estate investment will surpass $1 trillion for the first time since 2022, roughly 15% higher than in 2025. Georgia is following a similar trajectory: the country’s real estate market grew by about 6% in 2025, reaching roughly 78,500 transactions, while home prices in Tbilisi and Batumi also rose. TBC Capital expects that growth to continue in 2026, with prices projected to increase by around 3.2% and overall market volume by about 4.5%.
“That kind of growth intensifies competition across the industry,” says Irina Vysochanska, a business consultant focused on sales development, revenue growth and client acquisition in real estate. “There are more developers, and their products are often very similar. Companies have to find ways to stand out, while marketing budgets keep rising. That is why the decisive factor is increasingly not the project itself, but how well the sales system and the transaction process are structured.”
Vysochanska specializes in consulting on the sale of premium real estate assets, including apartments, houses, large land plots for private or investment projects, commercial properties and office space. In her view, companies are being forced to rethink their sales models because of market volatility, digitalization, rising customer-acquisition costs and property prices that, in many countries, are increasing faster than inflation. One response is to bring in outside advisors.
Sales Under Control
The consulting market itself is also expanding. Mordor Intelligence estimates the global consulting-services market at about $388.74 billion in 2026, with projected growth to roughly $490.67 billion by 2031, implying a CAGR of about 4.8% from 2026 to 2031. That reflects sustained demand for outside business expertise, including sales-development consulting.
According to Vysochanska, consultants have long been a standard part of the operating model for top-tier real estate players such as CBRE, JLL and Savills, where specialized teams focus on sales strategy, conversion analysis, pricing and project absorption speed. Her own clients typically engage her when they need to increase profits and expand their customer base. She does this by analyzing the market, identifying a company’s competitive edge and building strategies for growth.
The Illusion of Abundance
In residential real estate, the number of inbound leads often creates a false sense of strength. According to estimates cited from the National Association of REALTORS, average lead-to-deal conversion in residential sales typically ranges from 0.4% to 1.2%. In practical terms, that means one signed contract may require anywhere from roughly 100 to 250 incoming inquiries.
This imbalance is especially visible in the premium segment. The more expensive the property, the more polished and persuasive the presentation has to be. International market analysis generally shows that premium properties account for only around 5% to 15% of total transactions, yet they often generate 20% to 40% of total market value.
“Imagine trying to sell a business-class apartment in a new residential complex in the city center, priced at around $480,000 to $520,000,” Vysochanska says. “The buyer is an entrepreneur. People like that arrive prepared, knowing all the alternatives, ready to ask difficult questions. When the client walks away, managers often assume the problem was price. But once I start reviewing the meeting itself, it turns out the real concern was the legal structure of the contract, and those questions were never properly addressed.”
In her view, the role of a sales-development consultant is to identify those hidden friction points and redesign the deal structure around them.
Rebuilding the Sales Model
Vysochanska points to one business-class development project she advised, where the internal team had been closing only two to three deals per month at an average ticket of about $500,000, translating into roughly $1 million to $1.5 million in signed contracts monthly. After she restructured the sales process, monthly deal volume rose to 20 or more, and in peak periods reached 50. That translated into as much as $10 million per month, and in certain periods up to $25 million.
Importantly, she did not change the property price or the concept of the project itself. The growth came from higher conversion and lower loss rates during negotiations. Her impact was significant enough that she later received an equity stake in the project as a strategic adviser.
New Technology as a Growth Tool
Technology is becoming a larger part of this equation. JLL reports that more than 90% of commercial real estate companies are already testing or planning to implement AI solutions. Meanwhile, PwC’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe 2026 found that AI usage among market participants rose from 51% to 75% in just one year.
But widespread adoption does not automatically translate into higher sales. In many firms, AI is still used only for auto-replies, listing descriptions or lead intake. Vysochanska argues that AI should not be treated as a goal in itself, but as a way to strengthen the business model.
“We started implementing AI as part of a complete redesign of the sales system,” she says. “Automating replies and property descriptions is already the minimum. We went further and were among the first in the sector to configure a lead-processing model that evaluated not only the source of the lead, but also the client’s behavioral patterns. Our AI algorithms helped predict which inquiries were most likely to turn into deals.”
According to internal company figures she cites, that automation produced tangible results. Initial-response speed increased by three to four times, significantly narrowing the buyer’s decision window. The share of leads classified as “purchase-ready” rose from around 18% to 42%–47%, because the system learned to filter prospects before a manager even got involved. In projects optimized with AI, the average time it took a buyer to make a decision fell by 25% to 30%. The system was also able to function during peak periods without constant manual oversight.
“It is important to understand that AI does not replace the human being in sales,” Vysochanska says. “It removes the routine and allows people to focus on what actually requires human involvement—consultation and showing the product. And once managers were freed from repetitive tasks, the quality of their communication with clients improved as well.”
Growth Requires Structure, Not Just Demand
A growing market does not guarantee growing profits. As more projects come online, competition increases. Buyers also become more rational and demanding. In those conditions, real estate companies need to control the sales process with much greater precision. Leadership has to understand exactly where the business makes money and where clients are being lost.
Well-designed deal processes allow companies to control transaction speed and, as a result, forecast revenue more accurately. That is where sales-development consultants come in. Their role is to transform sales from an operational function into a managed business system—one capable of producing a consistent financial result.
