Commercial Investment Real Estate November/December 2018 | Page 22

CCIM
EDUCATION
Controlling the Deal
Create deal value by making yourself invaluable.
by Mark Polon, CCIM
E
20
November | December 2018
the potential time wasted if messages get delivered in a way that
does not compel the receiver to act.
Know Who You Should Be
More work on your part is required, but it’s essential to understand
the psychological and emotional triggers that drive each of the
participants in the transaction to act. That way, you can present
the road forward to them based on their personal triggers, help-
ing ensure their buy-in every step along the way. Does this mean
that you need to be a different person depending on who you are
talking to? Yes, it does.
Some might question the use of such a persuasive technique in
a transaction; however, with the understanding that a successful
outcome will benefit all parties, it’s in everyone’s best interest to
employ these techniques.
Controlling the deal means that you must actively manage the
transaction. That means identifying not only the hot buttons
that drive each individual participant, but also understanding the
inherent powers you bring to the transaction. Recognizing your
strengths, coupled with the ability to adapt your communication
style based on your audience, will allow you to seamlessly assume
the role of transaction manager. Your ability to effectively man-
COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE
ver wonder why the deal falls through, despite everything
being in place, the numbers working out, and the asset
looking good? You might pin the blame on the other side
or one of the lawyers, or the appraiser, or the lender. The
fact is, the reason the deal fell through is most likely you.
Numbers don’t make deals, people do. More precisely, you do.
Every transaction needs a driver to maintain momentum, some-
one to push the deal forward using all available tools. The driver
is responsible not only for his or her side of the deal, but the entire
deal — everybody and everything.
Your goal in every transaction is to make yourself absolutely
essential. You do this by using time-honored access to and delivery
of relevant information, as well as the much overlooked psycho-
logical and advertising strategies to communicate individually
with each participant in the deal. The key to your success is rec-
ognizing that every player in the deal has different motivational
triggers. To reach a successful close, it is essential that you interact
with each of the players based on the way they think, act, and
feel — not the way you do. This requires research on each of the
players in the deal to determine what kind of a person they are,
how they treat others, and what their individual hot buttons are.
The time you spend doing this research more than makes up for