I recently read this in Dan Kennedy’s NOBS Marketing Newsletter and I thought it was worth repeating: “It’s Happy New Year and GOOD NEWS – here’s a partial list of store closings or occurring or scheduled to occur shortly: ANN TAYLOR, 117 stores; CACHE, 20 stores; LANE BRYANT and FASHION BUG, 150 stores; HOME DEPOT 15 stores; MACYS, 9 stores; MOVIE GALLERY, 160 stores; PACIFIC SUNWEAR/DEMO, 153 stores; PEP BOYS AUTOMOTIVE, 33 stores; SPRINT-NEXTEL, 125 stores; WILSONS LEATHER, 158 stores; BOMBAY, 384 stores, KB TOYS, 356 stores; DILLARDS, 6 stores; TALBOTS and J.JILL, 22 stores; GAP, 85 stores; FOOTLOCKER, 140 stores; ZALES, 23 stores.

There will be 1956 departures. Hundreds of stores also disappeared in the latter part of ’08, thousands to die this year. The bloodbath will continue. And why is this Good news? The Darwinian death of the dumb and weak is always good news for the smarter, stronger survivors. The renaissance of the independently owned, local business is underway. Opportunities for astute, aggressive local merchants who will step up and provide exceptional service to grab market share and expand abound.

The disappearance of hundreds to possibly thousands of auto dealerships and with them thousands of car salesmen provides exciting opportunity for the smart, surviving sales pro to go after all those orphaned customers, step in to solve their services problems, form relationships, and build a bulging book of clients. The reduction in population of mortgage brokers by 45%+ and of real estate agents by 30%+ is a very good thing for the smart, aggressive ones remaining.”

WOW, what does this mean for those of you reading this? OPPORTUNITY! Why? Because if you aren’t willing to provide a fantastic client experience you too will become obsolete and be forced to “close up shop”. Let me explain.

Up until now the market has been willing to tolerate mediocrity. As a commercial real estate professional you could have earned a decent living doing your thing without tremendous effort up until now. So what’s changed? We have! Our society is shifting and as we shift so are our expectations.

Many commercial real estate professionals have never experienced a down market and so their answer will be to continue to perform the same tasks, the very same way, only trying harder. Hmm…

In order to be positioned for success this year you MUST build your business based on the fundamentals of using leverage (delegation), lead generation, seeing the people seeing the properties and last but not least – follow up. In other words, take a look at the systems you currently have in place, identify what tweaks need to be made and then make them! This will require a mind shift on your part – it’s easier said then done. You’ll accomplish this one step at a time so cut yourself some slack.

After all it’s business as usual in 2009; but it’s doing business differently!

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