Build the right systems to maximize your income potential

True or False?  In tough markets, the most important factor in making sure you survive in commercial brokerage is having the right business skills (including market knowledge, networking ability, sales skills, etc.).

What do you think?

Is there anything more important than your business skills when it comes to surviving a tough market?

After all, if you’re good at what you do, then you should be able to survive any market… right?

Wrong!

In tough markets, all bets are off!

What used to work in good times doesn’t necessarily work any more…

In tough markets, the name of the game is SPEED!

Here’s what I mean…

Efficient Systems - That’s The Key!

To survive tough markets, you must be able to adjust quickly to the changing market conditions. You must stay ahead of your competition in identifying opportunities and taking advantage of them.

It’s all about staying sharp and being nimble when you spot a change or an opportunity.

So assuming you’ve taken the right steps to supercharge your vitality and energy, and your business skills are sharp enough to spot changing trends and opportunities, the question becomes…

How Do You Become Nimble?

Think of your commercial brokerage business as a lifeboat on the ocean.  Until early last year, your lifeboat was tethered to a yacht called “The Good Times”, being tugged along on the water without much drama.

If you needed food, water, or anything else (like income), you just went to “The Good Times” and grabbed what you needed.

Unfortunately, “The Good Times” started to take on water and sink early in 2008.

Now that you’re on your own, you need the right systems in place to help you:

• Identify your destination and chart a course from where you are to where you’re going
• Detect storm clouds in the far distance and forecast the on-route weather
• Plot course changes to avoid the storm
• Continuously adjust the power settings and headings to steer your boat

OK… I hope the analogy isn’t too difficult to get.

I’m sure you can see the parallels between captaining a lifeboat in rough seas and making your business a success in rough markets.

Both situations are highly fluid and highly deadly!

Becoming nimble hinges on your ability to:

1. Quickly consider several inputs from the environment (markets, buyers, sellers, available financing, government action, etc.), and
2. Make several simultaneous changes to the way you run your business
3. Forecast and monitor the results of these changes on your entire business (sales pipeline, margins, income ratios, etc.) and repeat steps 1-2 with the necessary adjustments.

That is what having efficient systems gives you.  And efficient systems are what make you nimble.

One Size Does NOT Fit All

Unfortunately, you can’t really copy someone else’s system and expect it to work for you as well as it does for them.

The most efficient systems are typically built to complement your personality, your abilities, and your priorities.

Efficient systems are like custom-built ores that are fitted for your arm length, your height, and the size of your lifeboat.

They are an extension of who you are, and how you work.

So the only true way to build an efficient system is to build one that fits you!

You can get a head-start by using someone else’s systems as a template, but ultimately, you will need to customize them to fit you.

Custom-Fit Systems

Building custom-fit systems that complement your personality, your abilities, and your priorities must start with an assessment of these factors.

There are several self-assessment books that help you get a head-start in this area (like Personality Types: Enneagram for Self-Discovery).

Personally, I use personality assessments from reputable companies for my clients.

They are more expensive to get, provide better insights, and are far more complex to interpret… but I think they give my clients an edge over their competitors because of the additional insight I bring to my clients.

This is like measuring your arm length, your height, and your hand size for that custom-fit ore…

Once you have figured out these personality, ability, and priority factors, you’ll need to identify and document every one of your critical brokerage processes.

After all, how can you design a system to improve your borkerage processes if you don’t understand them?

There are several ways to do this, as well.

You could do as much or as little as you need in this area to get a good understanding of what you do in your business, from lead generation to prospecting to relationship building to deal making.

If you’re short on time, I would focus on the manual processes first.  That’s probably where you’ll get the biggest bang for your bucks.

This is like taking a tally of how you change directions in your lifeboat, or how you make it go faster.

Once you have a good handle on your critical brokerage processes and your personality, ability, and priority factors, you’ll need to put them side-by-side and figure out if they clash.

In other words, you’ll need to figure out if your business processes — the way you’re doing them now — clash with your personal tendencies (personality traits, ability, priorities, etc.).

For example, if your current brokerage processes require you to spend a great deal of time in face-to-face meetings with clients, and you’re as shy as a nun in a wet t-shirt contest, then your current processes don’t work for you.

Your challenge, then, is to change your business processes in ways that support who and how you are.

Is Your Head Smoking Yet?

OK… I know that was a lot to cover in one sitting.

I typically do all the things I mentioned to you for my clients.

But I tried to be as short and to-the-point as I could for a blog post.  But I’m sure I either lost you half-way in the middle of the post, or your head has overheated with a bunch of questions and smoke is coming out of your ears…

So use the comments form below and ask your questions.

I’ll do my best to answer them…

In the meanwhile, I’ll write more on this process in future blog posts.  So keep you eyes out for that!