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ROD: This is Rod Santomassimo of The Massimo Group and this week we have the pleasure of having Jeff Kelley, Senior Vice President and Principal, of Colliers International Atlanta joining us for a brief moment and discussing the office market, both nationally as well as focusing on Atlanta. Jeff, before we get started I want to give you a brief introduction. I know that you’ve done over—believe this number folks—450 transactions, 450 lease transactions during his tenure with Colliers, close to 5 million square feet of leases that have been negotiated by this gentleman. Jeff heads up, the office group in the Atlanta office. Now Jeff, I know you’ve been with Colliers for about ten years and probably in the commercial real estate business well longer than that. Jeff, thank you for joining us.

JEFF: Thanks for having me. Glad to be here.

ROD: Jeff, it’s our pleasure. Let’s get right to it in the short time we have. You’ve been in the Atlanta market now for 10 years. What are you seeing in regards to the transactions you’re doing, the tenants you are representing, what do you see going on in the Atlanta market today?

JEFF: Well, Atlanta was highlighted in the Wall Street Journal as a place of exuberance and development. And what we’ve had here in Atlanta is a little bit different than probably many other markets in that there are certain submarkets, mainly the high profile in-town markets, where there were four trophy towers built by four different developers that pretty much delivered at the worst time that you can possibly have happen in the marketplace. So in Atlanta, what we’ve seen a lot of is large law firms, large professional services firms often with several years left on their lease, being out in the marketplace trying to take advantage of some of these opportunities. And the opportunities are, a lot of these landlords have basically written down their investment, they’ve taken the write-off, they’ve recapitalized. The new financial partner basically has a zero dollar interest in the property so anything they get at this point is upside. So there’s a lot of action being driven by those kinds of opportunities that I don’t think is really happening in Main Street America outside of Atlanta. The other thing is that there’s a struggle with companies who are, although their revenues are up, they’re feeling good about the economy, feeling good about the marketplace, but there is a lot of uncertainty in the market. Plus, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the political arena. We don’t know what is going to happen with the economy, consumer confidence, a lot of these things that are driving deals. So our clients are really struggling with how they lock into these never seen before deals in Atlanta on a long-term basis while we still have that flexibility to react and be nimble in the future if market conditions change. We are now seeing a lot of flexibility in leases.

ROD: Interesting. Now, Atlanta’s always been a target for corporations to set up a headquarters, to come from other markets. Are you still seeing an influx in activity from outside markets to Atlanta?

JEFF: There’s a tremendous amount of activity. And, depending on who you ask at the Georgia Economic Development those numbers will be different, but I can tell you it’s a lot. We’re actually engaged on a couple of assignments—one in excess of a couple hundred thousand feet, one a little bit smaller than that. The drivers for Atlanta are going to be the airport, the inexpensive office space, the access to skilled labor and these kinds of things. Our incentives, we’ve got some statutory incentives that probably aren’t the best in the country but folks are looking at the Southeast. It’s a great climate, great quality of life. And we’re getting a lot of interest from companies outside of the state looking to relocate here.

The challenges we have, obviously, which are probably more well-known to people in Atlanta is, one, we’ve got a major traffic problem. The infrastructure was not done probably as efficiently as it should have. We’ve got a major urban sprawl problem. There have been some discussions of doing an outer belt loop to alleviate that but that involves numerous counties, numerous jurisdictions and for right now it’s kind of stalled.

The second issue we have is we’ve got a major water supply here in Atlanta. There’s been a battle with neighboring states for some time about sharing some of the water resources and that’s not really been ironed out completely. That’s all the way up to the Governor’s level. They’re involved. There’s been some movement and some compromise with the Core of Engineers on Lake Lanier, which is our primary water source but we’re actively looking as a city for alternative water sources. And that is going to really hinder our ability to grow.

The third thing is that education in the state of Georgia is not the best in the country. We’ve got great talent. We’ve got several universities here in the city, Georgia Tech, Emory, Georgia State. Some of the brightest minds are graduating from these schools. But, if you look at the public school system, it’s pretty low on the radar or its pretty low on the list as compared with some of the other states in the country. And so for those reasons we certainly have our challenges and those are kind of always the big objections that get highlighted when people are looking at Atlanta.

ROD: Well, Jeff, the take-away I get from that and for the thousands of brokers across the country that will certainly listen to this interview, is that not only are you an expert and a leader in your market as far as real estate. You know your market cold. You know the challenges of the market. You understand issues such as the water supply, the education, the infrastructure and the like. That is so key and that’s a differentiator of why Jeff works on the big deals. Jeff, because you work on the big deals and you are no doubt a leader in the office market in Atlanta, can you give us some indication—don’t release client names of course—but what kind of deals are you working on right now? I’m sure your pipeline is full but give us some indication of what you’re working on.

JEFF: Well, Rod, pipeline’s never full enough and I think that’s the problem is we’re working on probably too much. There’s everything from local law firm business to Fortune 500 companies, companies that are looking to downsize still, who may not have had the opportunity to do it because 12-18 months ago they were a little too far out, maybe still too far out to restructure right now. But we’ve got those kinds of deals. But we’re looking at Fortune 500 all the way down to the local law firms and really everything in between. The interesting thing is there are certain segments and certain clients we’re working with that are thriving right now. In their industry, they’re dominating. Revenues are way up. And then we’ve got other companies who are just really bracing for a long bump along the bottom, just let’s try to take advantage of some of these concessions and sit still. But I would say it’s all over the board as far as what types of companies are actually doing transactions.

ROD: I know you are focused on office and I know also you’re representing the higher end deals as far as size and stature, but let me ask you this, you’ve been—I don’t want to use a fortunate, but you’re good. You’re very good. What do you base your success on there, especially in a very competitive market like Atlanta? What would you say is a key thing you do, either activity trait, behavior, whatever it might be, habit, that separates you from the rest?

JEFF: Well, I think understanding the marketplace is a big differentiator right now. And I don’t mean just knowing what markets have vacancy. I think you’ve really got to dig into the ownership structures of different buildings. Fortunately, we’ve got a fairly active capital markets group who does nothing but everyday go out and look in the marketplace for opportunities. They’re exploring ownerships. Where might there be an opportunity to sell at some point? And we’re really sharing a lot of that information and so that creates opportunities. It creates strategies for clients. And that’s helping us get in front of the deals. And I will say we’re doing deals of all sizes right now. We’re doing big and small, 5,000 to hopefully maybe 100,000 or more. But everybody’s kind of looking around to take advantage of savings right now. But really understanding the opportunities within the submarkets is where I think we’re going to differentiate ourselves. And what I mean by that is you may have a landlord has, for example, in Midtown, one of our tower buildings here. There’s a landlord that’s got a stipulation in their construction loan document that if they don’t have a certain amount of square footage leased then they’ve got to dump in a bunch more money in equity. So with that kind of knowledge in place, you can go make deal that may be just absolutely crazy and way outside of the market but for this particular situation it’s a way to create a lot of value for your client.

The other thing is, you’ve got to stay real close to your clients these days. They’re getting phone calls from everybody in the marketplace and we’ve taken a pretty proactive stance of trying to be in front of them, explaining opportunities in the market. If there’s really no opportunity for them, at least reaching out to them, explaining to them that there’s not really much of an opportunity. You’re below market, if you don’t need to grow or shrink kind of thing. So those are some of the things we’re doing in leverages relationships that we have, looking for referrals, looking for people to kind of spread the word on their experience with our firm and use that to leverage new business as well.

ROD: Wow, what a great take-away there, Jeff. Thank you so much for sharing your insight and your expertise with us today. Again, this has been Jeff Kelley, Senior Vice President and Principal of Colliers International Atlanta. And until next time this is Rod Santomassimo with The Massimo Group. I’ll talk to you soon. Take care.

JEFF: Thank you, Rod. I really appreciate it. I enjoyed talking with you.

ROD: Thank you, Jeff.

MASSIMO GROUP: Good afternoon this is Rod Santomassimo of the Massimo Group and welcome to this version of the Massimo Minute. This month we have a very, very special guest, Mr. Warren Greshes, who I am fond to say is a friend of mine. Someone that a client had introduced me to and told me, “Rod if you are in the North Carolina area, you have to reach out to Mr. Warren Greshes because he is an international phenomenon”. Of course I was curious to see who this gentleman is, so I reached out and gave him a call and several lunches later I am now proud to call him a friend. Warren is a professional speaker. If you haven’t read it, you should, he is the author of the best selling Best Damn Sales Book Ever, Sixteen Rock Solid Rules for Achieving Sales Success. Certainly Warrens a keynote speaker and speaks on issues such as customer service, sales and leadership. So Warren, welcome to the Massimo Minute and thank you very much for your time.

WARREN GRESHES: Oh, no problem. Glad to be with you Rod.

MASSIMO GROUP: It is certainly a privilege of us and our audience. The few minutes we have, Warren, it really hit home in today’s market place specifically with commercial real estate brokers. It is an extremely challenging market. This is probably true for any sales in particular. But tell me if you can, what are you seeing out there in the market place and certainly I am finding more and more people, I don’t want to say that it is a crutch while using and leveraging other tools such as social media, and certainly other platforms to try to get their message out. I surely think the social media has a place. Let me ask you, where’s this fits into the total prospecting package from the sales perspective?

WARREN GRESHES: I think, like you said, I agree with you. Social media has a place and has a definite place in today’s sales effort and today’s prospecting efforts. It is a great way to reach a lot of people in a very short period of time. It’s a great way to set yourself up as an expert. It’s a great way to find prospects. It’s a great way to focus in on specific niches in the market place.

But what I just said is not selling. See what I just said is marketing. There is a big difference between marketing and selling. I’m not an expert in social media, and I don’t use it as well as I could. I realize it is a real hot topic these days and I really see the benefit in using it; but I’m really scared that a lot of sales people are using social media as a crutch to not sell, to not have to talk to anybody one-on-one, to not have to pick up the phone, to not to have to get in front of somebody. There is a lot of pit falls in social media. Just as there are many pit falls in e-mail, which was another crutch. Sales people love e-mail, sales people love social media; because, they are lead to believe that if you use this you never actually have to go through the hard part of selling which is the picking up of the phone, or getting in front of people. In other words you never actually hear anybody say no via Linkedin Facebook, Twitter, or on e-mail.

MASSIMO GROUP: Very, very true. That is one of the reasons that most sales people utilize those platforms. But I agree too, it is certainly marketing vs. advertising something we use here in the Massimo Group. We say it is presence vs. prospecting. You know selling vs. not selling, creating that market presence. And certainly production goes nowhere just with the marketing side. You need to prospect, you absolutely need to prospect.

WARREN GRESHES Rod, you and I had this discussion and we talked about this. We talked about presence and prospecting. I really like that term you coined, presence and prospecting, I think that’s great. But remember I posed the question to you. If you had to go without one, what would be better off going without presence or prospecting?

MASSIMO GROUP: Well if you had to go without one, if I had to choose I would go without presence. Because you can’t go without prospecting.

WARREN GRESHES: Right. You cannot go without prospecting. I know people who have gotten clients on Linkedin and I know they have gotten clients through social media. But I got to tell you something, nothing takes . . . You know my father-in-law was a salesman and he is 84 years old. He doesn’t work full-time anymore, but he is still out there one day a week, maybe two days a week. And you know what; he is having a terrific year. And I don’t know how the heck he is doing it because he doesn’t have a computer, he doesn’t have a PDA, he doesn’t have a Twitter account, he doesn’t even know how to use a computer, he’s not on Linkedin, and he is not on Facebook. You know what he does? He gets in his car and he goes to see prospective clients, he goes to see clients, he on the phone with them all the time. And somehow this guy manages to do business without a Facebook account. How the heck is he doing that?

MASSIMO GROUP: How the heck is he doing it? At that age kudos to him. Hey Warren a few minutes left so I want you to give away all your 16 golden rules
I think people need to certainly take a look at what you have to say. But I want to ask you a question. If you can

WARREN GRESHES: Sure.

MASSIMO GROUP: Please give me three key ideas as far as if I want to prospect more effectively. What are some ideas you would have?

WARREN GRESHES: Okay. Well first of all know who you want to call before you call. Very simple. If you are going to be making prospecting calls via telephone or in person, your list should be set up the night before. I find a lot of sales people is what they do is that start looking. They make a call then they look up who they are going to call next, and they make a call, and then they look up who they are going to call next, and they make a call. They do this over and over again. And basically all they do is waste time.

You should also focus on who you want to deal with. I have a customer profile put together and know exacting who you want to call, what kind of companies, what kind of people, who are you looking for. I mean, you know in our business, we are looking for VPs of sales. We are looking for sales executives. Why? Because most of my audiences I speak in front of are sales people. I speak at a lot of annual sales meetings, big incentive conferences, and who’s going to make the decision on that. It usually a sales executive so who’s going to make the decision on what it is you are selling on your commercial real estate business, who is going to make the decision to buy it from you. And you want to first of all figure out where those decision makers are. That’s where things like Linkedin can come in. They can help you find those decision makers. Once you find those decision makers then you got to call them and then you got to set the appointments.

Do your calls every single day. I would rather see you do a little bit a lot rather than a lot a little bit. In other words, if you are going to make 50 prospecting calls a week, I rather see you make 10 prospecting calls a day five days a week then 50 calls once a week. Because if you do 50 calls once a week, you are not developing a habit. All that is going to happen is you are going to really dread one day. It is working out. If you work out a little bit every single day you are going to get in shape. If you work out a lot once a week you are just going to say, oh god who the heck wants to do this. The night before you are going to be dreading the next day and eventually you are going to say oh the hell with it. And the only time, as well we all know, the only time you only fail is when you give up. So do a little bit a lot not a lot a little bit. You know when I first started in sales, we didn’t have cell phones, we didn’t have laptops, we didn’t have all this technology.

I know I am sounding old here: but the fact in the matter is when I was on the road, when I was going on appointments I would stop at pay phones to make calls. I always had a list with me, a hand-written list of at least ten people I could call while I was in my car. Now with cell phones and PDAs, I mean I got a blackberry here, boy I could do it while I am driving. I know you are not suppose to. I am not encouraging that, but you can do it while you are driving. There is no excuse not to make the calls. I mean the biggest part of prospecting is you have to do it every day. You know there is an old saying, you are throwing up against the wall something is going to stick. I’m a big believer in that. The single biggest reason that sales people do not do business is because they do not talk to enough people. I’m not telling you don’t do e-mail, I’m not telling you don’t do Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook but they are in addition to. They are not in lieu of.

MASSIMO GROUP: Very strong, very applicable and so, so accurate. Warren Greshes, thank you so much for your time. But one last question before I let you go. I’m sure there are many people out there saying wow how this guy got me motivated. How can we get more? So Warren, is there a website? Is there something we can look for in regards you, your books, and your keynote speeches? Where can we direct them to?

WARREN GRESHES Well, my website is www.greshes.com obviously. And my e-mail address is warren@greshes.com. And so you can either e-mail me, go to my website, contact me through my website. You can find my book on there. There is a link to my Amazon page right from my website. All the information you need about my services and me.

MASSIMO GROUP: So there you go, a man who practices what he preaches. He does utilize social media but he also prospects proactively and aggressively. So Warren Greshes thank you very, very much. And till next time this is Rod Santomassimo with the Massimo Minute. Talk with you soon.

In an earlier blog post I outlined the three key variables of top commercial real estate brokerage success. They were skill, will and thrill. You need the skill set to service your client, the willingness to do the work and ultimately possess the thrill of being a commercial real estate broker. Seems simple enough, except there is one distinct problem for many brokers who are struggling in today’s market.

Hopefully you have been told, since how knows when, that “you can be anything you want to be”. And the fact is anyone can be anything they want to be. Let’s face it; commercial real estate brokerage is not rocket science, but it can be tremendously challenging. There are brokers who have far greater skill than others in specific areas in the practice. And yes, they likely are top producers. Experience is by far one of the greatest skills to progress a listing to closing. Experience affords a broker the skill to get a deal closed.

But experience alone is not the only factor to success. There are first year brokers who have made over $1,000,000. Relationships are also an integral factor in success. Traditional approaches, coupled with today’s technology create a plethora of relationship building opportunities. Anyone can build relationships. Anyone can gain experience and yes, anyone can earn $1,000,000 or more a year.

Unfortunately the ability to do something has little correlation to accomplishment. Success requires will. Will you put in the work? Will you become a market expert? Will you invest in yourself, in your personal brokerage business? Will you?

For those that say “I can’t”.. then the obvious answer is “you won’t”. I can’t always equals you won’t.

For those of you who say “I can”, I say yes you can! But will you?

ROD SANTOMASSIMO: This is Rod Santomassimo of the Massimo Group. Welcome to our next session of the Massimo Monthly. This is where we talk to some of the best and brightest industry leaders in regards to what they are doing in today’s marketplace to be successful.

Today we have the extreme privilege of having Mark Myers of Marcus and Millichap’s Chicago office joining us. Mark, welcome.

MARK MYERS: Thank you, Rod, I appreciate it. It’s a pleasure to be here.

ROD: Mark, maybe some of the people out there don’t know you, believe it or not. Certainly, I know of you because of your level of consistency throughout your career, especially, at Marcus. I don’t want to embarrass you, but I want to list a couple of your accomplishments… you’ve had a Sales Recognition Award for seemingly forever. A National Achievement Award of Sales, again, 10 or 15 years…Chairman’s Club…Chairman’s Circle of Excellence…top 10 investment professionals… all have been Marcus and Millichap. Mark, certainly, you’ve had some great consistency throughout your tenure. Can I have a little indication of how long you’ve been doing this commercial brokerage practice, Then, how long have you been with Marcus?

MARK: I’ve been with Marcus and Millichap 17 years, approximately. I started with them after being an asset manager for a small real estate syndicator. I had my rough spots like a lot of other folks in the industry. I would just encourage people just to keep at it. I graduated from Wheaton College, a small private school in Illinois after growing up in Arizona. I met my wife there and her family is from the Chicago area. So, I stayed here. I, literally, could not find a job in 1983. A friend of mine whose sister was an accountant hired me as a bookkeeper. I started off in a small real estate vacation shop. Then, I went to a real large shop. That was just before the tax changes, TRA86, when they changed the depreciation laws. Two of the three companies I worked for went bankrupt, because of the tax laws themselves. I worked for a small real estate investor for 6 ½ years. I went to Kellogg Business School during that time and met a broker who had sold a couple of properties to us and really liked what he did for a living. Frankly, I saw the kind of money he made. It really wasn’t that big of money at the time. Compared to what I was making, it was. I decided that’s what I wanted to do with the rest of my career. I interviewed with a few brokerage companies. I picked Marcus and Millichap. I felt that they were a good fit for me. They were a very entrepreneurial company. I wanted to be an entrepreneur…in essence a company within a company…I liked that very much about Marcus and Millichap. They’ve allowed me to spread my wings and grow a team here and it’s been very profitable, very successful. I thank God for it and it has been great.

ROD: That’s fantastic and certainly you have the same hurdles, challenges, success over the last 17+ years. You’ve seen a lot of cycles to say the least. We use to say “Stay alive until 95”, then, we had 2001. Recently we thought it was going to be “heaven in 2011”. Tell me about this, you used the magic word where you said, team. A lot of brokers today are working in teams. What’s the depth? Tell us about the team you’ve built, give us a quick review of what their responsibilities are.

MARK: I know this call goes out to a broad audience. I want to encourage people if you’re just starting off in the business and you’re with a medium to large size company, you can’t afford to have your own marketing person and your own business development people, like I have. What you can do is utilize the resources of the firm. Typically, you’ll have a regional manager, a managing director, that will support you or they wouldn’t have hired you. If they don’t support you, find another firm, obviously. Ask that person to go on appointments with you, train you, teach you what a cap rate is, what a gross rent multiplier is, get you involved in the right real estate courses and use the resources of your company. When you sell to clients, make sure you’re selling your company, not your own track record because you don’t have one yet. If you’re a veteran in the industry, I would encourage you to offload everything that is not making you money to an administrative or a support person or a person that can help you lift…you know, you’re not Atlas, you’re not trying to lift the world yourself…you want a team of people around you. What people have encouraged us to do over the years is to form teams and actually, there’s an exercise that you can do where you take what you want to make or what you do make on an annual basis divided by the hours you actually work. Figure out what your hourly rate is and ask yourself this question, “Whatever I’m doing in a certain task, would I hire somebody for that amount of money to do that task”? If your calculation works out to $200 an hour, would I pay someone $200 an hour to make copies for me? Obviously not. Would I pay them $200 an hour to answer the phone? Obviously, not. So, hire somebody at whatever market rate it costs for those functionalities and then, you do the things that have to do with meeting clients, creating proposals, presenting proposals, negotiating transactions because that’s where the dollars are made that translate into $200 an hour. Otherwise, you’re underpaying yourself for tasks that you shouldn’t be doing.

ROD: Perfect, Mark. I’m a great believer in that delegating and outsourcing. I’d love to hear this is working with you. Mark. Let me ask you, how many folks are on your team? It is just yourself and it’s a flexible team or do you have a structured team in itself?

MARK: We have three people on a team here in my office. But, then, we are part of a looser team, if you will, where we do some deals together and some deals apart from one another that consists of about 20 other people in various offices around the country.
Then, as a part of a national platform we have, if you will, a team of 1,300 other real estate agents around the country in 76 offices that are part of the national Marcus and Millichap firm that are all licensed real estate agents, many of them brokers themselves. They also help us find buyers for our properties. We do the same for them. There is a good networking system. Marcus and Millichap has a corporate policy as part of their culture that you have to share information. You cannot pocket listings. You have to put them in the Marcus and Millichap system and that’s one of the big advantages of our firm for the other agents in the firm…especially, the newer people that can work on anybody’s listing and it’s also an advantage to the sellers. We always represent sellers. We are a seller’s representation firm and the seller wants the property exposed to as many potential qualified buyers as possible. That sharing of information helps. So, in effect there’s a small team here that’s part of a larger looser team where we do some deals with them, they do some deals with us. They do deals with others. They do deals themselves. We’re part of a very large team at Marcus and Millichap…the support people, too.

ROD: What type of product do you focus on? Did you focus on a product there in Chicago or more regionally?

MARK: Yes. We sell senior’s housing properties in our group. Anything ranging from senior’s apartments all the way to sub-acute or even long-term acute care hospitals to what they refer to as LTAC. Again, when I was an asset manager before I was a broker, I had a general partner who encouraged me to specialize, specialize, and specialize. He had been a broker himself. He learned that whether you’re selling senior family homes…in which case you want to concentrate on a specific market area…a specific product type…a specific way of marketing yourself or commercial product…whether you’re in self-storage or industrial office, retail market family, you want to be a specialist. You should become such a specialist that in the first 10 minutes of meeting a client, they should be able to say to themselves, “This person knows more about my business, than I do. They know what its worth. They know how to market it, how to position it in the market. They understand my weak spots”. You really want to not just put yourself out there in words, as they say, but in deeds and have actually done it, have actually learned it. So that they have the confidence that when they give you their…you have to understand some people, at least that we work with, are giving you their life savings in their hand. It is a very serious matter. It’s not as serious as, obviously, being on an operating table with a surgeon. But, in a financial sense, it’s about the same. Someone is giving you a 5, 10 million dollar asset to sell…sometimes a 20 hundred million asset to sell or group of assets. That represents 90% of their net worth in most cases. They’re handing that to you to maximize the value of that and that’s why it’s a very important function that we serve in the economy. We are creating liquidity and we are getting people the most amount of dollars that we can. There’s a process to do that and it takes a team effort and it takes a lot of different skill-sets. The sellers have to feel confident that we possess those skill-sets and can execute them.

ROD: Fantastic, Mark. Let me ask you one final question. You touched upon being a specialist. You touched upon valuing your time and delegating and outsourcing where ever possible. You talked about utilizing your company resources and, yes, we talked about you being a consistent performer for almost 20 years now. But, here’s the question I have for you and the final question. The market has obviously changed the last several years for a lot of folks out there. Most of the brokerage community has not been through a cycle like this. You and I have, but others haven’t. Have you adapted, have you changed at all, what have you done in regard to today’s marketplace?

MARK: Initially, we did not change. I’ll admit, we didn’t change as much as we should have because I don’t believe any of us who were even senior in the industry realized how deep this dip was going to be and how many troubles we were going to have particularly, in the area of obtaining financing. I would say 6 of 10 deals we do today or 60% of the deals we do today are done all cash, believe it or not. Even 14 or 15 million dollar deals, people are stroking a check for that. They are not going out to get financing. There just is not a great deal of financing in the marketplace. Are there lenders? Of course, there are. There are specialty lenders, and senior’s housing, I’m sure there are some for self-storage and multi-family and office and so forth. There are lenders out there. Also, in the multi-family sector, in the senior’s housing sector, there is the government entity financing group, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD. But, nonetheless, we didn’t adapt to that initially. What have we done since we figured out that we need to adapt even further. We’re testing motivation a great deal more. No longer should you take an engagement or a seller who seems to be motivated or they might list the property at 10 million dollars but you think they might take 8 million. You really need to know on the front end. Will they conform to the market? If you bring them four solid offers after talking to a hundred qualified buyers, and all those offers are in the 8 to 9 million range, are they going to sell the property? Can they sell the property? Make sure you understand what the debt-loan was on the property. Was the debt pre-payable? You need to understand if the property is deliverable, if the seller will conform to the market and then you need to think ahead of time what buyer is going to purchase this asset and are they going to be able to obtain financing because it pencils out, it underwrites, there’s that coverage. Or if it doesn’t pencil out, are there buyers out there that will for whatever reason want to pay cash for this property or put down a fairly hefty down payment? If you cannot answer those questions on the front end, you’re just going to end up taking a lot of engagements like we did and expired some listings because we just didn’t do a good enough job checking motivation on the front. We are doing a much better job of that now. Sellers are also conforming to the market much better. I think sellers were waiting to see if the market was going to fall further. I think buyers were waiting to see if people say don’t try to catch a falling knife like in the stock market, same in real estate. Buyers were trying to figure out how far is the market going to go? I think they finally gave up and said, “You know what, there are bargains out there, let’s go out and buy something”. So, test motivation, visit your clients, block and tackle, execute, but at the end of the day, test motivation. Don’t drive 300 miles to go see somebody until you know for sure they are a seller and they have something that’s sellable.

ROD: Wow. All those reasons are why you are one of giants in commercial real estate brokerage. Mark Myers, we thank you so much for your valuable time. We appreciate you not outsourcing this interview. Mark, any final words for our audience?

MARK: Again, I would just say keep putting yourself under the tutelage of people like Rod and his company and others who will train you how to block, how to tackle and just go out there and execute it. Use your own personality and your own skill-set and your own business history and take all of those talents together, which are God-given. Just keep at it. It’s a long process. It takes a lot of effort. If you want to be a professional athlete and can make a million dollars a year, how much effort does that take? Well, that same amount of effort it’s going to take to make a million dollars a year in any field including brokerage.

ROD: Mr. Myers, we thank you so much for your valuable time. Until next time, this is Rod Santomassimo of the Massimo Group with this version of our Massimo Monthly.

Next time, we’ll try to get someone…I don’t know if we can…who is as gigantic as Mark Myers, himself. Until then, we’ll talk to you soon. Thank you.

MARK: Thank you very much.

Lately I have heard more and more from brokers and real estate advisors who are creating income by “Sponsoring” or “Syndicating” Group Investments. A leading authority on group sponsorships is Gene Trowbridge of Trowbridge and Taylor. I had the pleasure of interviewing Gene earlier this week to learn more about how a commercial real estate broker can leverage their market knowledge and relationships to create opportunities in today’s challenging market.

These type of opportunities are not for everyone. However most of Gene’s clients are creating group investments which total less than $2 million. Thus, this may be more of an opportunity than you first thought.

The following is a transcript from my interview with Gene Trowbridge of Trowbridge and Taylor

ROD SANTOMASSIMO: Good Afternoon, this is, Rod Santomassimo of the Massimo Group. Welcome to our next installment of the Massimo Monthly. Each month we interview an industry leader that will impact you as a commercial real estate broker. This morning we have the privilege of having Gene Trowbridge of Trowbridge and Taylor on the line with us. Gene is without a doubt the foremost expert on commercial real estate syndications and specifically group sponsorships.

Gene, welcome to Massimo Monthly, Please, introduce yourself and welcome to the group.

GENE TROWBRIDGE: Well, thank you, Rod, it’s a pleasure to have you interview me and I’m looking forward to it.

ROD: Well, fantastic, let’s get right into it. Our listeners are owners, brokers, associates, advisors, all in one way or another practicing in the commercial real estate arena. This arena, let’s face it; it’s a different one for most of them. Most of the folks have yet to see a cycle such as this during their tenure. I, unfortunately, have seen several. I’m sure you have as well. But, this I see as also one of opportunity. I know because of your expertise, you’re really taking advantage of the markets. Tell us, what opportunities are you seeing today for individuals like a commercial real estate broker in regards to your expertise?

GENE: Thanks, Rod. You mentioned the different cycles that we have. I was a real estate syndicator myself from 1972 – 1994. I have been involved in cycles like this. What a cycle like this always presents to a syndicator is an opportunity to be a buyer of properties that you couldn’t buy in more of an up cycle. That’s what I think is attracting commercial real estate brokers today…brokers and owners to the syndication business…is that there are good properties that are going to be coming for sale that normally wouldn’t be coming for sale. This is going to be our opportunity to take our investors and take our money and buy some of those properties. I think another thing that’s happen…that always happens in a downturn like this…is financing becomes an issue. The availability of financing is the issue today. Not so much the cost of financing, but, the availability of it. Rod, as I always say if the world is made up of investors who expect to buy something with 20% down, in our marketplace today the banks want 40, 50, 60% down, sometimes we have to buy property all cash…we simply have to pool our investors to come up with the increased equity necessary to buy some of these good properties that are out there.

ROD: Makes perfect sense. Gene, the word in itself, syndication, can be pretty intimidating. Syndication sounds so complex and so comprehensive. But, you think about it who is better than the commercial broker who is an expert in a particular marketplace to understand the trends of the market to identify the opportunities? How do we get beyond the bridge, beyond that challenge? Maybe the stigma of most syndication that sounds like trouble?

GENE: Rod, when was the last time you took an airplane ride?

ROD: I am seemingly always on a plane. I took one just last week.

GENE: Ok. Every time you get on an airplane ride, Rod, you’ve entered the syndication world because you have pooled your resources with a bunch of other passengers and you have hired good equipment and you have hired professional management. The purpose is to get you from one place to another while you’re on your trip. You can’t do it yourself. That’s all we’re trying to do in commercial real estate syndication. We’re trying to use the commercial real estate person as the pilot and the pieces of real estate that you can’t own yourself as the vehicle. Let’s just get a bunch of people together and let’s just go out and buy something. It’s as simple as that, Rod. Let’s just go out and buy something. It’s a security and, yes, there are IRS issues but, that’s a topic for a different day. All we’re going to do is find a good property and find a bunch of investors who don’t want to own it themselves, can’t own it themselves, need a professional commercial real estate person to do all the work. Let’s go buy something.

ROD: Ok. When I heard it, I heard opportunity. It screamed to me opportunity. Other people though may have heard, a couple of times there, let’s go do the work. It’s work. That’s a lot of work. But work generally comes with a reward. Are there potential fees you can earn or just income you can generate through being a group sponsor? Give us a quick overview of the potential, not the amount, but the potential for fees if you were to actually create the sponsorship on your own as a real estate broker.

GENE: Sure, Rod. I think we could identify up to seven to ten different ways that you can make money being a real estate syndicator. Let’s just keep it to the major ones. First of all, there is an opportunity to get real estate brokerage commissions throughout the syndication process through acquisitions, through leasing to financing to sale to property management. All the things that I call deal-making activities that you like to do anyhow as a commercial real estate person. Those are all available to you in the syndication process where you actually step-up and control the property. That’s pretty attractive from a deal-making perspective. Then, you can make money on acquisition fees. You can make money on asset management. Shares of the cash flow can come to you as you share the profits with your investors. Two major areas…number one, there is all sorts of real estate work that you can do that you can get paid for. Then, there’s all the effort that you have to put in managing the investors. There are fees. There are shares of profits that you can attract, you can keep for your own for the work you do in managing the investors. Rod, action in the syndication business is much more about managing the group of investors than it is about real estate. We can do real estate. The question is can we manage ten investors for the next five years in a deal. That’s a lot of work. You should get paid for that.

ROD: That’s fantastic, the points, Gene. Thank you very much. I have to always be transparent with our listeners. I have a series of coaching clients who have initiated their own personal group sponsorships based on either reading your book or going to one of your programs. I have heard nothing but fantastic things about these opportunities available to the brokers’ community by going to your website. Gene, you want to share that website for everyone else so they can make sure they can learn more about your programs?

GENE: Sure, Rod. My website is www.groupsponsor.com. At that website you’ll learn more about me. You’ll learn about the book. You’ll learn about the workshops we offer. Then, you’ll learn about the availability of using me as the attorney to write the documents that you need to do all this business painlessly and legal.

ROD: Gene, I’ve got to tell you that there are some great opportunities out there. Thank you for making us aware of these alternative sources.

The first quarter of 2010 has now come and gone and many brokers are finding small changes from the prior calendar year.  Others are finding velocity, at least in terms of inquiries, if not transactions, have risen dramatically.  The difference is not a matter of market or sector of focus, but on performance.  The greatest increase in client inquiries and interest  are being generated by brokers who also have the highest failure rate.  These are the commercial brokers who will be the leading income producers both this year and next.  To them failure is an option, why – well you will need to read on.

I was recently reviewing “The Best Damn Sales Book Ever” by Warren Greshes, a national best seller.  Warren makes the point that the salesperson who gets to the most “no’s” in business is usually the top salesman in an organization.   Seems counterproductive on the surface, but it’s ironically accurate.  Top performers don’t mind getting “no’s”.  Yes, rejection is a failure in terms of not getting a listing, leasing assignment or tenant rep assignment, but it is also substantial proof that you are at least getting in front of enough decision makers to build a business.

For example, at the Massimo Group we make between 300 and 1,000 calls a month to potential clients.  Heck, I personally make between 300 and 400 myself each and every month.  Why?  Because I know that if we contact less, our business will suffer and if we contact more, our business will grow.  To me, getting a “no” is the second best possible answer, after “yes” of course.  The “maybes” and “call me in x months” are the worse replies of all.  This is not a decision, it’s just a way to keep a fish on the hook while it frantically twists to get back in the water.  Who wants that?  Not me.

So for all those who feel “failure is NOT an option”, and suggest, perhaps you are not making enough effort in your sales – it’s ok to fail, in fact it’s one of the best barometers of success!

When I was young my mom forced me to eat peas.  Even today my wife “strongly encourages” me to eat them.  I don’t like peas.  Yes they are nutritious, full of vitamins and essential stuff, but for me far from delicious.  Some peas are simply harder to swallow than others.

When it comes to commercial real estate brokerage, it is also essential that you take your peas, or in our case your “P’s”.  When you look at top performers, you quickly recognize that they implement a daily regimen of P’s.  Here are the top five P’s that every commercial real estate broker should follow if they want to grow up to be big and strong, or more applicably, become a top producer in their respecting market.

1.       Planning – need I say more?  You can’t simply “wing it to win it”.

2.       Prospecting – you cannot “tweet” your way to long term success.

3.       Presence – #2 and #3 complement one another.  They are, not opposites.  There is no greater force for securing new business and for clients to find you than the synergistic meshing of prospecting with presence.

4.       Performance – it’s great to plan (#1), but you won’t produce without performing the tactics and strategies outlined in your plan.

5.       Persistence – There is a fine line between persistence and  a pain in the butt, but very few brokers come close to ever crossing it.  Push the envelope, without becoming the pain.

Practice the 5 aforementioned P’s and you will find you will more easily acquire the most important P of all… production.

Statistics overwhelming demonstrate that coaching is one of the mostsuccessful decisions of individuals looking to maximizing results.  Athletes, Fortune 500 CEOs and top performing residential agents all have coaches.  Recently a growing trend in commercial real estate is the hiring of a coach who specialized in the industry. 

The very first question we ask anyone when they contact our company regarding our coaching services is “Why do you feel you need a coach?”  This is followed up with a more telling question “What does a successful coaching relationship look like to you?”  Time and time again the inquirer outlines the main reasons our client’s desire, select and value coaching. 

1)      A coach will work with you in defining what the most important elements to focus on based on your personal vision of success.  Your role in your organization and possibly on your team has a significant impact on what is going to maximize your and/or your teams’ production or commission income. 

2)      Coaching will create clear, and more importantly, relevant metrics to measure your progress and provide the critical feedback during the journey.  Goals and vision are great, especially if they are clear and committed to, but without a metrics, they are meaningless.   More often than not, sales meetings and pipeline meetings are focused on the result or effect and not the metrics that drive the cause.  Without metrics, success is not planned, it is simply accidental.

3)      A coach should work with you in not only monitoring and providing feedback on your behavior, but should also assist in defining the actions to reach specific goals.  The bridge between planning and production is performance.  If you are going to achieve a goal you have not reached before, you must change your behavior.  

4)      The coach will highlight both the positive progression as well as any regression made.  A coach will help identify alternatives if there is an obstacle to performance or behaviors.  Without a consistent review of the aforementioned metrics, action plans and results, the likelihood of achievement on what truly drives income depreciates exponentially. 

5)      Hiring a coach is an investment in your greatest asset – YOU.  A professional commercial real estate coach will be your partner, your motivator, your confidant and your trusted advisor. 

Coaching is certainly not for everyone.  No doubt many less seasoned and less successful commercial real estate brokers look at items such as coaching, training and education as a cost.  With this perspective, coaching would rarely be successful.  Coaching is an investment.  The dividends are real, but they are also earned.  If you are truly committed to success, than hiring a commercial real estate coach may be one of the best investments you can make.

The holiday’s are upon us once again and unlike prior years we are not necessarily focusing on the splendor that was commercial real estate over the past 11 months.  For many commercial real estate professionals are rather looking for opportunities in what has been a slow year of activity.

The ideas of “doing the same thing” or “all will work out” have faded along with market velocity.  Crafting a vision for 2010 seems more like a daydream, if not nightmare, to many.  How can you plan for September of 2010, when you don’t even know if you will close a deal in before March?

Take these four simple steps

1. Complete a comprehensive review of 2009. What went well, what could you improve upon?

2. Focus on short term strategic plans. Annual goals are still valid, but activities require more focus.

3. Take a proactive look at every aspect of your personal brokerage business, including your operational, financial, marketing and personnel plans

4. Do not simply focus on your pipeline.  Income is created by performance, and performance is best supported by planning.

What creates your pipeline is activity and what create the activities are your plans.  This includes your operational plan, your marketing plan, your financial plan and even your human relations plan.  Whether you work by yourself, or you work with a team of 50 brokers, you need to account for each of these.

Keys to any business planning are your goals, the metrics to reach these goal and the resources to support these metrics.

For example, your financial plan may call for a Gross Brokerage Commission Income of $50,000 in the first quarter, but your metrics will define when and how you are going to reach these goals and the resources will define the time and the cost.  Your marketing plan may include a robust online marketing platform or a simply post card campaign.  Your human resource plan may and should consist of a personal investment (education, training or coaching) and certainly a personal savings plan.

You have two choices in 2010.  A) Take the same approach and chase deals or B) Plan for success and lay a foundation for the long term by creating short term strategic plans.

Now implementing the plan.. that’s a entirely different blog topic.

I was recently forwarded an article by a client who hand wrote on top of it “this is exactly what you do, thanks coach”.  Based on the client’s note I felt compelled to give it a cursory review.   Once I read who the author was, Stephen Covey of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame, I figured I read the entire article, at least twice.

In the article, titled “Sharpen Your Focus”, Covey outlines four disciplines that, if practiced consistently, can vastly improve an individual’s ability to focus on, and execute their top priorities.  This in fact is the core to coaching, especially when coaching commercial real estate practitioners.  All too often, with the manifold of responsibilities a commercial broker has, we forget the key to success is doing 2 to 4 things really well.   It’s the ability of a coach to assist the client to identify these top priorities as well as provide the platform and support for ensuring they are pursued and executed to completion.

In his first discipline “Focus on the Wildly Important”, Covey uses the analogy of an air traffic controller. The point is the most important thing is to land one plane at a time and not all at once.  Think about it.  What is wildly important to you as a commercial broker?  Certainly you have the continuum of finding, winning and fulfilling business, but these may not be the “Wildly Important” focal points at any given time.  Your role in your organization and possibly on your team has a significant impact on what is wildly important.  A good coach will be able to work with you through a series of interviews, audits and exercises to assist you in defining what the most important elements to focus on based on your personal vision of success.  A coach should provide clarity and ensure your commitment, not just “buy in” to these wildly important initiatives.

The second discipline is “Create a Compelling Score Board”.  Of this I could not agree more.  Goals and vision are great, especially if they are clear and committed to, but without a score card, they are meaningless.  This is the one area over my 25 year of commercial real estate where I see most brokers fall short.  They create beautiful business plans in January, only to look at them again in December when they are clearing out their files for the next plan.  More often than not, sales meetings and pipeline meetings are focused on the result or effect and not the metrics that drive the cause.  Coaching will create clear, and more importantly, relevant metrics to measure your progress and provide the critical feedback during the journey.  As a commercial real estate broker, you should have a daily dashboard that is essentially your score board.  Without metrics, success is accidental; it is not planned.

The third discipline is “Translate Goals in to Action Specific Plans”.  Put differently, the bridge between planning and production is performance.  If you are going to achieve a goal you have not reached before, you must change your behavior. This is the foundation of Covey’s message.  A coach should work with you in not only monitoring and providing feedback on your behavior, but should also assist in defining the actions to reach specific goals.  For example, let’s say your goal is to implement a consistent and proactive prospecting plan.  OK, sounds simple, but upon a keener view, you need to define what exactly this is, how often, what mediums, how much the cost, what is the specific value proposition during the prospecting, what is the follow up, what is the drip campaign, how about the timing, and so on.   You coach should be able to work with you through these action plans and assist you in understanding and defining the performance and behavior required in each.  You may find some goals are too costly or take too much time once an action plan is complete.  But this is best determined sooner than later.

The fourth and final discipline of Covey’s is “Hold Each Other Accountable ALL The Time”.  Think about this.  How often do you have a sales meeting where you are held accountable for specific and shared goals?  Ironically, a majority of commercial brokerage offices do not hold such meetings more than once a month.  Without a consistent review of the aforementioned score board, action plans and results, the likelihood of achievement on what is “wildly important” depreciates exponentially.  This is one of the more important elements of a successful coaching relationship.  The coach should highlight both the positive progression as well as the regression made.  A coach should help identify alternatives if there is an obstacle to performance or behaviors.  Accountability, although loathed by most commercial brokers, is one of the key differences of top performers and the general brokerage public.

Admittedly I am a Covey fan.  I feel his work is both poignant and prominent.  His four disciplines of focus and execution outlined above are the building blocks of success.  A good commercial real estate coach should help their clients in all four facets of goal definition and achievement.  A good client understands this process and recognizes that a coach can be a strategic partner along the path to success.