Congratulations, you secured an invitation to present your proposal to a client. You can’t hit a home run without getting to bat, so now it’s time to take your swings.  Forgive the baseball analogy; corny as it is, it is true.  Now what do you need to do to make your presentation a success and win the listing or representation assignment?

If you haven’t already, and the opportunity is for a listing, get out to the property and become an expert on it. Take pictures, drive the neighborhood and drive all of the comps you will be using in your proposal. You should also do research on the area to ensure you are aware of any upcoming projects which could affect the marketability of the asset.    If this opportunity is for a tenant or landlord representation, find out everything, and I mean everything, about the company/owner.

We see  listing and representation presentations, almost daily, from across North America.  Many miss the point of the proposal.  Prepare a presentation you can be not only be proud of, but also addresses the specific needs/issues of the opportunity.  Believe it or not, many brokers frequently just slap a few pages together and hope for the best. If you’ve been invited to present, you can be pretty sure your competition was invited also. Put your best foot forward and prepare a well-structured proposal.  Remember, “You Can’t Wing It to Win It”.

Practice. Then practice some more. Make sure you know what you are going to say and that you can say it concisely and convincingly. Brush up on your ability to overcome the client’s objections. The best way  to do this is to role play with a mentor, colleague, your coach or your spouse.  Don’t laugh, my wife has  improved a vast majority of my speeches.. then again maybe she enjoys correcting me.. but I digress.  Whoever  you use, encourage them to throw you some curve balls, to make sure you can think on your feet when the time comes.

I know I just told you to prepare a great presentation, but when you get in front of the client, remember the most important thing is your ability to tell the story, which is completely different than telling your story.  It’s not about you.  It starts with telling the story of the opportunity and how the client sees it. Once you’ve told that story, you can tell the story of why you are the only plausible broker to service the account.  The presentation keeps you in the game, but articulating the right story is what wins you the business.

The Massimo Group, the nation’s premier commercial real estate coaching and consulting organization is once again seeking full-time and part time commercial real estate coaches for its growing practice.  The Massimo Group is proud to include every major commercial real estate brokerage firm and/or its individual brokers as clients, along with scores of regional and local firms.

The position will be responsible for delivering the Massimo Group’s proprietary coaching systems, as well as supporting several of the Massimo Group’s consulting assignments.

The position, shall be independent contractor-based.  Licensed candidates are welcomed, and even encouraged.

This is an opportunity for an independent, driven, real estate professional to be part of one of the fastest growing companies in the industry.

The ideal candidate will possess:

• Minimum 10 years of commercial real estate brokerage experience
• Proven track record for success
• A higher industry-related designation, such as an SIOR, CRE, or CCIM is preferred, though not required
• Brokerage management experience is a major plus
• Excellent Communication, Presentation and Writing Skills
• Excellent Listening Skills
• MS Office, and ACT CRM Skills, preferred but not required

Serious inquiries only please.  Submit resumes to info@massimo-group.com, under the subject “CRE Coach Candidate”.

• Before Duke’s debacle in the NCAA tournament (one of the few reasons I will watch TV) a new Staples commercial caught my attention.  In this commercial, everyone in the office, including the President, the receptionist, the IT guy and the marketing team were the same person.  Dave, the redheaded, bearded entrepreneur, was the reflection of many struggling business owners and commercial real estate brokers.

They try to do it all and be all.

In my 25+ years as a broker, owner and manager of local, regional and international brokerage firms I have yet to find a top producing broker who can do it all.  I have however seen thousands of average brokers who try.

It’s either one of 2 scenarios.  Average brokers think that they really know more about prospecting, presenting, closing, marketing, social media, web design, computers, administrative work and answering the phone than anyone else, or they believe they can simply do it cheaper.

In Brokers Who Dominate, the 8 traits of top producers we explored how top performers
attained and maintain these top production levels.  One key trait is top brokers are “Team
Oriented”.

It doesn’t mean you have to go out and hire a team at high fixed costs or give away a nice portion of your commissions to create a team.  What it does mean is that you have to do these important steps to stop being average.

• Take an inventory of everything you are currently doing – and I mean everything.
• Determine how much you are worth –in relation to dollars per hour.
• Create a ‘Not To Do List’ and simply stop doing those things that do not:
• Make you money
• Bring you pleasure in doing

• Find someone else to do things that is better at doing them and cheaper than it is for you to do them!

Sorry to say top performers are smarter than average performers; they have accepted that they cannot do it all.  Take the 4 steps noted above and leave the ranks of average.  Don’t  be a Dave.

Statistics overwhelming demonstrate that coaching is one of the most successful 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 Massimo Group is proud to include every major commercial real estate firm and/or their individual brokers as clients.  In addition we provide services to many regional and local firms as well as associations.  To learn more about our services, please see our 2012 Service Offering package.

It is our pleasure to present our 2011 Holiday Video for you and your commercial real estate brokerage team.  2011 was full of both challenges and achievements, but you made it through.  Despite the obstacles facing all of us in 2012, greater success is certainly ahead!

Please click on the link below to play the motivational message, or copy and paste it into your browser. Your speakers must be on; it fact CRANK the music!

 http://play.goldmail.com/bd0q0538e2zd

Happy Holidays!

The Massimo Group

Wherever I travel throughout the country for presentations or workshops, or speak with our coaching prospects, there always the No. 1 question:  What do top producers do to both attain and maintain their dominant positions in the market?  

Having worked with, studied and/or managed literally 1,000’s of brokers during my 25+ year career, I have identified the 8 traits of dominant brokers.  Over the past weeks we have share with you these essential qualities of success.  This week we will explore traits 7 and 8; Team Orientation and Entrepreneurial

Team oriented is your leverage.

It’s amazing how many brokers work in little silos and don’t even try to leverage the skill sets and knowledge of others to maximize their effectiveness. When I talk to some of these brokers, they’re frustrated and often say something like, “I can’t do it all,” but they don’t take the next logical step and investigate the resources they have or can acquire to make their day, and more importantly their effort, much more productive. Here’s the simple exercise we use with clients who want to build a team.

First, identify exactly everything you believe you have to do, from the mundane to the most productive. Put everything in one big list. Don’t leave anything out. Next, go through the list and identify everything you’re good at and everything you like to do. Then we go through that inventory with our clients and we prioritize, we allocate, we figure out what the broker needs to do and then we delegate everything else. Take some time and do the same thing; you should wind up with a list of your most productive activities and a list of everything else to delegate.

Then identify sources, whether external, virtual, or in your office who can handle “everything else.” Now comes the hard part. You have to invest in those resources. That’s a big hurdle for some people, so let me remind you that what you’re really doing is investing in yourself and your career. Don’t forget, your greatest asset is you.

Entrepreneurial approach brings everything together.

Most brokers think and act like an employee, even though the legal fact and practical reality is that most brokers are independent contractors. If you work for a large firm, your firm may have terrific resources and brand, but ultimately your success is measured by how well you leverage those organizational assets. Many of the brokers profiled in this book are aligned with strong regional and national firms, but they act like they’re the CEO of their own firm. They use their brokerage firm as a platform to launch their personal success.

Wherever I travel throughout the country for presentations or workshops, or speak with our coaching prospects, there always the No. 1 question:  What do top producers do to both attain and maintain their dominant positions in the market?

Having worked with, studied and/or managed literally 1,000’s of brokers during my 25+ year career, I have identified the 8 traits of dominant brokers.  Over the next few weeks we are going to share with you these essential qualities of success.  Follow these principles and you too can put yourself on the path to brokerage success.

Last week we addressed market presence and industry focus.  This week we will dive into traits 5 and 6; Navigate Careers and Assertive.

Navigating your career means taking the long view.

The biggest mistake I see in navigating a career is brokers’ making a change without thinking through what the results will be and how the change fits into their career plan. They jump at an offer, thinking the business or the managing broker will be better someplace else. But they usually forget a couple of things. Number one, the grass is not always greener on the other side. For example, higher commissions are higher for a reason, maybe because the supporting resources are fewer. Number two, when you change your company, your address, there is absolutely a down period, a slow period that will happen during the transition, no matter how sound you think your client relationships are.

Assertive moves you to the front.

Lack of assertiveness shows itself as caution or conservatism. That cautious approach, in a more extreme form, can suggest fear. During their careers, brokers may face several things they fear. Fear of rejection and fear of failing are probably the most obvious. Brokers rarely suggest they fear anything. Instead they say. “Prospecting isn’t really effective” or they need to do a little more homework before they call a client, or they know that client really isn’t in the market or something else that sounds like it makes sense. If you find yourself making excuses for things you know you should be doing, like prospecting or making presentations, ask yourself what you might be afraid of.

Assertiveness is a personality trait. We screen all our clients at the Massimo Group with a personality/behavioral assessment to better understand several such traits, with assertiveness being a key component. We also know if you don’t test at the top of the assertiveness scale, there are things you can do to become more successful. Psychologists tell us people who are fearful usually spend their time and energy thinking about what could happen, but people who overcome fear concentrate on what needs to be done.

It’s the dog days of summer; and if you are like me you enjoy the longer daylight hours and time with the family.  However you also recognize that any day in July can have the same impact on your business as any day in November.  Or do you? 

I have been told you should never go to Italy in the summer and especially not in August.  It’s said that native Italians take the summer off from working and no one is there to help you.  Funny, this tradition seems to have been adopted by  many in the American brokerage community as well.  Where have all the brokers gone?

Okay, I understand.  The market, although recovering at a slower pace than desired, is still not producing the velocity we would all like to see.  Likewise; with the mergers and acquisitions in the industry lately, Cassidy Turley, NAI Global, Avison Young and pending Grubb & Ellis to name a few, many brokers are in a wait and see mode.  Add to this, summer vacations are taking focus away from revenue producing vocations.

Still, this is the worse time to “take a break” from brokerage.  As a commercial broker you are more than likely an independent contractor.  You are a business owner. So what does this mean?

• Act as if you were a public entity and the second quarter earnings report is due by July 15.
• Perform a semi-annual review and take care to note:
  • What did you do well – acknowledge this and leverage this
  • What did you do that needs improvement or frankly failed to accomplish
  • What will you implement immediately to improve your results over the next six months
  • Write out action plans for getting you to your goals

Don’t get me wrong, we all need to unwind in some form or fashion.  It’s just many brokers forget to rewind and review their progress thus far.  When they get back from their vacations, it’s the same old approach, which will simply yield the same old results.

Hell yes, I am proud of my Italian heritage, but folks this isn’t Italy, it’s America and it’s time to get to work!   Arrivderci!

At least this was one of several opinions I received the past two weeks when I asked some 800 members of our Linkedin Group – CRECoach – why they thought commercial real estate brokers are so reluctant to invest in themselves.

We had a robust online discussion, with opinions provided by some of the leading commercial real estate minds in the brokerage industry.  Do I agree most commercial brokers are cheap?  Let’s just say the majority of commercial real estate brokers lack the vision, understanding and/or confidence to invest in themselves.  

In contrast, top producers and consistent performers do not hesitate in investing in their business; whether it is new technology, hiring administrative help, attending a tradeshow, participating in a training webinar or hiring a commercial real estate coach.  Top performers understand they are their greatest asset.  So naturally, they must invest in themselves.

Doug Wolf, of REA software suggested “Brokers fall victim to the e-myth, always working “in” the business and no time for working “on” their business. When the flow of deals is slow, the compulsion is to act to generate more deals, but then when busy, no time to invest.”   Right on Doug!  There is a common misperception among brokers that their number one priority is to close deals.  The fact is their number one priority is to build a business that leverages the broker’s time and skill set to generate a consistent deal flow.  This is not the same thing.

Jim Tucker, CCIM and owner of NetworksCRE felt the issue was deeper than that.  According to Jim “brokers are not inclined to invest in a “fix” until they clearly understand what needs to be fixed. Most of us don’t want to know what is wrong with us and therefore never will be willing to take the “cure.” When one is wise enough to enlist the skills of someone who can help us recognize what we need, then we have a better chance of making the decision to do something about it….and possibly even pay for it.”  As always Jim’s profound insight has strong merit.

Bob McComb, who created Top Dogs, a CD-based training program, which has an excellent reputation for assisting new to business brokers get off to a fast start, felt the issue was more one of the broker becoming more open minded. “Generally speaking, most of the also-rans in CRE will do pretty much anything to be successful except read about it or think about it. Conversely, ALL the top producers I have met are all on a self-development path…. They never ask themselves “will this program benefit me?” Instead they ask, “how will this help me to get better?” and “where do I enroll?”

Jim Garrett Jr, MCR and Chief Operating Officer of Colliers International’s Ohio offices shared a very telling story.  “I had an agent tell me one time he felt that commercial real estate agents invest more annually in their golf games than they invest their professional growth.  I then challenged the next 20 agents to whom I spoke with. With one exception, they all agreed in the assessment. The one who disagreed is probably what most would call a “Ten Percenter”.   Is it because they don’t see their business as “their” business, rather they see it as the broker’s business?” 

All those participating in the CRECoach group discussion had similar comments. Kevin Fitzgerald, CSE who now heads the leadership council at NAI Global added “It’s been my experience Commercial agents and brokers alike see the investment not as a necessary event but as an expense. If they could just see the benefit of the investment before the investment has to be paid then they might realize by not investing their progress will be much slower.”

And therein lies the obstacle for most brokers who continue to struggle in the business, and are not consistent producers.  Investing in self development is simply that; an investment.  Like all investments there is a level of risk with anticipated returns.  Expenses, by definition, have no risk, and appropriately have zero return.

There are truly scores of platforms and programs where an indvidual can invest in him or her self.    However, commercial real estate brokerage is not a risk-free business.  If someone is not willing to take on a little risk, then they are most likely not willing to invest in themselves.  If this is the case, it is not necessarily an issue of being “cheap”, but rather it is more likely they are in the wrong business .

The following Blog Posting was written by Brad Umansky, author of Value Added. Brad will be a guest facilitator on a handful of our upcoming webinars this year. We are excited to announce Brad as a member of our extended faculty.

“Which is a better listing?
A) a $15M building for sale or B) a $5M building for sale?
On the surface it would seem that the answer is clearly A. Probability brokerage is about looking deeper and doing a quick calculation to really understand each of these listings.
Let’s make the following assumptions:
$15M Office Building
• The $15M building is institutionally owned;
• The owner has asked 5 brokerage companies to compete and they will only pay a 1% fee to your firm and a 1% fee to a co-broker, if there is one;
• The building is 100% occupied, but a tenant occupying 30% of the building has a lease coming due in 18 months;
• The building is in a trade area with 15% vacancy and the market has not been improving.
• Based upon these factors, you think that you and the broker that brought you in on the deal have a 50% probability of selling the deal during the next 12 months.

Let’s do the math: $15M x 1% = $150,000. $75,000 would go to you and $75,000 to your partner, but there is only a 50% probability of collecting this fee so your “probability fee” is equal to $37,500.
$5M Building
• The $5M building is owned by a private individual that has substantial motivation to sell;
• You have been calling on this owner for 3 years and because they know you are the expert in the market you did not compete for the listing. The owner will pay a 4% fee regardless of whether you co-broker the deal or there is a co-operating broker.
• The building is 85% occupied by a diverse group of tenants with leases at market;
• The building is in a popular trade area for investors.
• Based upon these factors, you think that you have an 80% probability of closing this deal in the next 12 months.

Let’s do the math on this deal: $5M x 4% = $200,000. There is no partner so you don’t need to split it. Although let’s assume that there is a 50% probability that you will co-broker the deal. So the list side is $100K and the co-broker side is $100K. If there is a 50% probability of co-brokering the deal then you multiply the co-broker fee by 50% and you get $50K. Therefore, probability says that you can expect to receive $150,000 from this deal upon a sale. If there is an 80% probability of receiving this fee, then you multiple $150,000 x 80% which equals $120,000.

$120,000 is a lot better fee than $37,500.

Now there are other factors you must always consider. For example, if you are successful at selling the property for the institutional seller, there could be a lot more business down the road. Or maybe the broker who brought you in on the $15M deal is someone whom you really want to work with. There could also be some glory from the $15M deal because it might be the largest deal sold in your market.

The purpose of this exercise is to make sure you are not fooling yourself into believing the $15M deal is a much better deal for you just because it is $15m.

This exact same exercise can be applied to leasing. In leasing it is more complicated because each property has so many spaces and because the leasing of the property is usually spread out over a much greater period of time. If your business plan involves leasing in addition to sales, I encourage you to apply a similar model to leasing. My experience has been when brokers apply the “probability brokerage formula” to leasing they frequently realize they do not have enough quality product listed to achieve their goals.

Value Added Brokers know that time and knowledge are their primary resources and they use “the probability brokerage formula” to maximize the use of these precious commodities