Michael Edward
Title: Senior vice presidnet and head of Boston brokerage
Company: Lincoln Property Co.
Age: 49

The economy’s rapid and sustained deterioration has thrown commercial brokers for a loop. Sales transactions are on ice, and most employers who aren’t shedding office space have put their real estate decisions on hold or signed short-term renewals. For Michael Edward, it’s the perfect time to make a play. Edward, head of brokerage services in Lincoln Property Co.’s Boston office, is moving into the recession’s teeth and expanding his brokerage staff.

How do you apply what you’ve learned from your years in the business to the way you run your brokerage operation now?

I think the most important thing I learned coming through the years in the business is teamwork is key. The days of the lone wolf broker are gone. There’s too much information out there now, and the clients are too sophisticated. They want a team working on their project, whether they be a landlord or a tenant. And the beauty of a team is, you get so many different perspectives, and it’s better for the client because the client just has better coverage.

You talked about the days of the lone wolf broker. How has the business changed in the years you’ve been working?

In a lot of ways, the business has come full circle. When I first got into the business, it was all about relationships. It was all about who knew whom, and the sophistication of the business is not what it is today. Then there was a period through the ’90s when there really was a gap between the haves and the have-nots in terms of data. Now, it’s gone back to the relationships. You assume everybody has the same information, and it’s about who do you feel comfortable with? Who do you see yourself working with long term?

So where is Lincoln’s brokerage operation today?

We’re at the beginning of what we hope will be some very strong years. The goal is to steadily move up the list and be competitive. We know we’re not going to win every account, but we want to get to the point where we feel any meaningful requirement that’s going to be in the market – downtown or the suburbs – we are aware of it, and we are competing for it. It’s not going to be a good transaction year. We’ll get our share, we’ll make money. We’ve accepted that. But what it is going to be is a great relationship year. It’s a great time to get out there and meet people, so when the market does turn and the economy comes back, we’ve done our legwork, we’ve made our calls, we’ve had our meetings.

It’s more important to build relationships now, when business is off?

That’s what we tell our younger people here who’ve never been through a downturn. They say, ‘What do we do?’ You get out there and talk to people, more than ever. Now is the time to build relationships. People need you. They don’t know what’s going on. They need you to tell them what’s happening in the market. Now is when we have value. When the market’s going through the roof and everyone knows they’re going to pay top dollar, you can work with anybody.

From a business plan standpoint and a process standpoint, how do you go about ramping up your organization in a down market?

From the company’s standpoint, it’s easy. We’re one of the largest privately held real estate firms in the country right now. We have zero corporate debt. We’re very strong financially. So the resources to go out and hire brokers are there. We’ve gone through every firm in the city and we made a list of folks we’d like to see join our team.

When you’re out there pitching people, what’s the logic for them jumping?

I think the logic on their end should be that they’re coming to a company that has a national platform. They’re coming to a company that is growing locally, and they can be an integral part of a team. Part of it is the feeling of being part of something that’s growing, and the confidence that it’s going to grow because of the strength of the company. Our compensation system is different than any other system I know, by design. We have a salary, it’s not a draw, and in addition the brokers earn commissions from dollar one. It protects people on the low side, and it really gives them the opportunity to earn as much as they can on the up side.

Edward’s Five Pieces Of Advice For Rookie Brokers:

Have a plan. But make your plan flexible enough so that, if circumstances change, you can modify it. Don’t abandon the plan, but be flexible enough to change.

Expect things to change. Everybody hates it, but it’s a fact of life. When it happens, you have to embrace it and adapt to it.

Keep getting back up. Dust yourself up and get back into the game. You’ve just got to keep working. If there was magic to it, everybody would be doing it.

Whenever you’re going to undertake a job, or you set goals, make sure they’re measurable. If you can’t measure it, you don’t know if you’re making progress.

And goals have to be sustainable. If you can’t sustain it once you’ve done it, you’ve probably not set a good goal. If it’s worth doing, then it’s worth sustaining.