Keeping your eye on the ball delivers sub-par results in golf and negotiations

Recently, researchers tested 40 golfers in England to see what degree of staring at the ball yielded the best results for weekend warriors on the links. The results pointed to somewhere between the “Rodney Dangerfield-ADD-glance about,” and a hawk’s ultra-focus is the right mix. The researchers call it the benefits of the Quiet Eye, and as is often the case, there are great parallels between the game of golf and business.

We can all agree that successful commercial real estate brokers are very good at doing a lot of different things at the same time. There is such an urge by a busy broker to make progress; success can start to feel like simply solving one client’s problem in a list of hundreds of emails, overdue tasks, and commitments. Without the broker’s drive to get the deal done, the market wouldn’t work.

It is important for the broker to truly understand the client’s objectives to the point where they have the Quiet Eye, but not too loose. Unless the client and the broker have a conversation early in the relationship about what the client’s objectives are, then repeat them during the assignment, it is easy for the broker to lose track of all of the details.

At Cardinal, we use the Prepared to Win-Win(TM) worksheet to carefully track the progress made on an assignment and the client’s goals. We set our fees based on achieving the client’s objectives (“KPIs”), and bring these goals up with our clients early and often.

For a free copy of our Prepared to Win-Win(TM) worksheet, go to our resources page on our website: www.cardinal-partners.com