S.E.C. Real Estate Observer

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Over the past couple of weeks, several people have asked what makes a marketing meeting successful for me. This really got me thinking about my approach, what works for me, and what I could share with others about it. There are essentially three main benefits for me in attending marketing meetings.

The first benefit to me is the people. Notice I did not mention the properties in the book. I did not mention the book period. (We will get to it later.) First and foremost are the people at the meetings. It is these relationships started, grown, and enhanced at the marketing meetings that generate the vast majority of my transactions. It is through getting to understand and know more about how my fellow attendees think and operate that I know who can best work a potential deal and how to approach it. The product may or may not have been in the book, but the deal itself generally flows from this understanding. A successful example would be an office building some partners and I bought from some friends met through the meetings. The property had been in the book, but our transaction flowed strictly from us sitting down and them understanding better what I was looking to do. The relationship allowed us to lay all the cards on the table very early and make the negotiation one of the simplest and most enjoyable multimillion dollar transactions I have ever been a part of.

The second benefit to me at marketing meetings is the energy I pick up. Being a part of the flow of deals, ideas, creativity, and so on really does play a large part in reinvigorating me. There are plenty of times I have been beaten down in the deal doldrums when getting on that plane heading to a meeting only to come home with the energy and excitement of a first-time attendee again! Sometimes it is the energy and excitement gained from helping someone else who is in the doldrums by giving them a new idea, outlook, or formula. Energy is contagious. Excitement is contagious. I have been to meetings recently where just the time to talk through my business plan with someone from a different perspective has been worth every dime spent on the cost of the meeting and trip. It’s like getting a B12 vitamin shot for your business.

The third, but certainly not final, benefit I get from meeting attendance entails the properties and product in the book. I hear folks say they never close deals from the book. I’ve closed several, including one this month. Discounting the value of the book at our marketing sessions is a bad miscalculation. I have been a part of buying, selling, and exchanging packages that were in the book or that I had in the book—not to mention the transactions that stemmed from ideas or thoughts on my own product that came from reading the packages in the book. I can and have learned a lot from the way others have positioned their properties or products. Sometimes it is as simple as learning from the current owner’s motivations and thought process.

I hope this helps those thinking of attending our meetings as well as those who already attend understand what works for me at least. It simply boils down to the people, the energy, and the product. Those three ingredients have offered me a career that I can’t imagine trading for anything else.