The commercial real estate market has changed – and is changing. Although many believe the market still hasn’t hit bottom, one thing is certain, commercial real estate brokers need new skills in order to thrive in the face of current market realities. Beyond the tried and true relationship strategy, I believe commercial real estate brokers need to focus primarily on honing their business development skills.

Just because the commercial real estate market is shifting doesn’t mean brokers should shift into panic mode. As Gary has shown us in SHIFT: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times, there are always opportunities in the midst of challenging environments. So, if you maintain a business development mindset and keep your foot on the accelerator, you are more likely to discover and leverage those opportunities to your advantage.

Before you can hone your business development skills you need to understand what business development is – and what it isn’t. Business development is not merely sales role, it combines sales, marketing, strategic analysis and negotiations to accomplish one goal…building new relationships with potential clients.

With an ever-shifting market, you need to begin to think creatively about the opportunities that lie before you and how you might approach them. Here are a few steps to get you started:

• Identify local market opportunities: Stop and ask yourself, “What are the opportunities in my local commercial real estate market?” If your local market is like most, things are pretty quiet right now. Capital is sitting on the sidelines waiting for the right timing to invest. Therefore, investment sales are soft and will remain soft into 2010. Few are placing bets until unemployment stops rising because much of commercial real estate velocity relies on job growth. Many distressed property owners are holding on tight. It is imperative for you to know your market! That’s why you should focus on landlord leasing and management, tenant representation and SBA/user transactions, as well as building relationships with key banks.

• Realize new and emerging trends: Foreign investors are entering the U.S. market to play against a weak dollar, and bank foreclosures on commercial properties are setting the stage for fire sales. Real Estate Investment Trusts are going to make their moves at the right time. And with market lease rates so low, tenant representation brokers are staying busy helping negotiate blend and extend deals or upgrades from Class B to Class A properties. Think creatively about the trends you are seeing. Find a new angle and execute your strategy.

• Prepare for 2010: For some, the New Year will mean a shift into tenant representation. For others, it may mean working with banks on REOs or commercial property management. For still others, that may mean aggressively marketing to foreign investors or private equity firms with massive hedge funds of cash waiting for the bottom. As you identify new and emerging market opportunities, SHIFT your business practice to prepare for the coming commercial trends.

You might also want to look at ramping up your training and coaching if you haven’t, and join networking groups or form strategic alliances. Whatever it takes, once you’ve identified a valid business opportunity, begin taking steps toward developing that business. Although cost cutting is wise and relationship-building is a must, business development is a key skill that will pay off in the up and down cycles of commercial real estate. And, right now has never been a better time to hone these business development skills.

Leverage is ultimately about focus. You hire talent to keep you focused on your most dollar-productive activities and they focus on everything else. After entrusting your admin and marketing chores to another person, you look for help on the buyer sales side of the business. Successfully showing homes can be extremely time intensive and help here should keep you focused on leads and listings. So who do you hire?

In the past, research pointed us to a licensed buyer specialist paid on a 50/50 commission split. Today, some successful agents are first hiring an unlicensed Showing Assistant to keep their costs of sale low and their productivity high.

A Showing Assistant can literally jump into the driver’s seat with your buyers while keeping you in the driver’s seat when it comes to converting buyer leads, getting signed agreements, identifying wants and needs and eventually writing and negotiating contracts. A good one should be able to successfully show homes to around three to four buyers a month while earning bonuses based on 25 percent of each deal. Based on a $5,000 average commission, a good Showing Assistant could earn $60,000 a year. This is a terrific opportunity for someone. Better yet, you get to stay focused and 75 percent of the buy-side income stays on your side of the ledger.

You are still looking for someone who has the ability to grow into your Lead Buyer Specialist. So when you have someone with the ambition and proven ability to succeed with a high volume of buyers over time, your Showing Assistant earns the right to be promoted to a licensed Buyer Specialist. Your Buyer Specialist would then handle buyers from the appointment to closing and now earn 50 percent of the commissions. Again, a good one should be able to handle three to four buyer sales a month without burning out.

Burnout is a key word. Once you have identified a great Buyer Specialist, you don’t want to lose them! When they burn out and walk out, guess who gets their job? You do. And you’ve already got a job.

When your business is generating enough leads on a consistent basis to push a great Buyer Specialist past their ability to successful manage them all, the Showing Assistant concept reenters the picture. Now your Buyer Specialist has the opportunity to hire a Showing Assistant of their own. The Showing Assistant is still paid on a 25 percent bonus; however, that money comes out of the Lead Buyer Specialist’s half of each commission. Effectively, you continue to earn 50 percent of each buyer transaction, while the Buyer Specialist earns 25 percent and the Showing Assistant earns the final 25 percent as a bonus. Any buyer transactions your Buyer Specialist closes without the help of a Showing Assistant would still be on a 50/50 split.

Now your Buyer Specialist might successfully help four buyers on their own and another four with the help of a Showing Assistant. That’s now eight closed buy-side transactions each month. And with an average commission of $5,000, your Buyer Specialist has the ability to gross as much as $180,000 a year while just personally showing three or four buyers a month!

Showing Assistants may come and go—each auditioning for a shot at being your Lead Buyer Specialist. But once you find one, hiring and managing Showing Assistants moves from your plate to theirs. You have found your leader for working with buyers. Any additional help needed to keep your buyer transactions on track becomes their issue and opportunity.

Showing Assistants can save you money on the frontend, reduce turnover on the backend, all the while providing the best possible service to your buyers.

Click here for a video highlighting The Organizational Model and MREA.

(with Jay Papasan)