The 2010 Difference: YOU

Today’s post may be short in length, but I hope you’ll agree that it is powerful in terms of content. I’m not going to pontificate about the state of the current market, nor am I going to prognosticate on where I believe the market will trend in 2010. What I am going to do is pose the following question: “What will YOU do differently in 2010?” You cannot simply repeat your 2009 performance in 2010 and expect the outcome to be any different. The message today is a simple one…The market doesn’t matter, but YOU do!

It’s never been about the market. Great producers don’t only thrive during robust markets, they thrive regardless of markets. Top performers understand the need to adapt their business practices to help clients in advancing, declining or flat markets. Sub-par performers, on the other hand, often fail to adjust their plans of attack out of stubbornness or lack of knowledge. Regardless, I would submit to you that salespeople adjusting to a changing market is more of a challenge than dealing with the market itself. You cannot control the market, but you can control how you choose to deal with it. Let me point out one thing that should be obvious, but seems to be invisible to many…At no time do clients need more advice and counsel than during down markets. Your clients need you more now than they ever have. Your clients are seeking solutions, but are you providing them? The strongest relationships are built during the toughest of circumstances. The simple truth is that you have the opportunity to earn more trust and engender more confidence by solving tough problems when no one else seems to have the answer.

If you want to have a better year in 2010 than you did in 2009 you need to create a better 2010 for your clients. Your clients want more of everything from you, and it is the advisors that are capable of understanding and can delivering this that will be the most successful in the coming year. I believe 2010 will be a defining year commercial real estate advisors as they are either going to step up, or step away. Advisors perceived to be stepping away will have a difficult time surviving, while those advisors who step up will position themselves as a cut above the rest.

So, will the market get better, will the market get worse, or will the market stay the same? The truth is that it doesn’t matter. What matters is what you’re going to do differently. My challenge to you is this…find ways to grow and develop, not to shrink. I’m not advocating that you don’t seek to eliminate waste or to create sustainability, but wherever possible, reinvest those resources to expand other areas.

Bottom line, even if you were a top performer in 2009, it will take changes in your business plan to continue to grow in 2010. If you weren’t a top performer in 2009, than you business plan for 2010 better incorporate massive changes that are built around growth and not shrinkage.