6 Questions Commercial Real Estate Brokers Need to Ask Themselves Now That Q1 2017 is Over

Welcome to the second quarter of the year. If you were a CEO of a company, you would be reflecting on the first quarter of 2017 and asking yourself and your team several questions; as well as setting specific goals for the second quarter. Then again, there is no “if”; you are the CEO of a company – your own personal brokerage practice. So, it’s time to start asking yourself some questions to position yourself for your most productive quarter yet.

Although I don’t personally broker anymore (our coaches do though), like you – I am a CEO of a company. This weekend I took a few hours reviewing sales results, pipeline opportunities, our marketing efforts, my personal presence efforts, our operational achievements, and the development of our new team members. On Monday I met with the sales team, then the operations/marketing team – and asked them all the same questions I asked myself:

1. How was my production compared to my goal? If greater than – why, if less than – what happened and what could I have done to better control any deficit?

2. How does my pipeline look going into Q2, 2017? Do I have the right number of opportunities to keep on track to reach my goal? If not, what am I going to do in Q2 to increase the number of opportunities? If so, am I positioning myself and my clients for success?

3. What opportunities do I need to let go, to fire myself from? Yes, this is a hard but deeply liberating question. You know you are working on something that is not only costing you money, but emotional energy and worse – opportunity cost of time.

4. What have I done to increase my personal presence in the market? Are you more famous now than you were a quarter a go, or have you lost touch with key influencers? Most importantly, what have you done that allows more people to get to know you?

5. How did I perform against my ratios? We are talking about calls attempted/completed, meetings held, and assignments secured. These are the 4 most basic ratios of all. If you are not keeping score, there is no way you can tell if you are truly winning.

6. What will I need to do to make Q2 2017 my best quarter yet? OK, buried in this blog is the fact that we are currently in year 9 of a CRE recovery that for all purposes – should have ended years ago. Have you seen the latest Morgan Stanley report on 2018 pending CRE defaults? My point is this – the time to get right, is now. You must do everything in your power to make sure you and your company are best positioned to sustain any market shift that will inevitably come. If not next quarter, next year, or whenever. This is your prime responsibility to your business, your peers, and yes – your family.

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As far as the Massimo Group, I was thrilled with our team’s response to all 6 questions – but mostly the last one. As we look to Q2, we are finding better ways to convert leads to sales, the pipeline is full, and the marketing team has some exciting stuff on deck. We are also going to host an ultra-exclusive live event in November (with only 50 seats!) to assist folks to prepare for possible market shifts – I will share more in the weeks ahead. First quarter 2017 is over. We can’t go back; we can only look forward. Ask yourself these 6 (plus) key questions and position yourself for your best quarter yet. As CEO, this is your role.