We all no doubt know the feeling; a boardroom set-up, lots of people who don’t know each other sat around it, and then the meeting convener makes the ultimate faux pas: “Could we please go around the room and get everyone to introduce themselves and briefly explain what they do.”
First up is easy, but if you’re down the line you start to think “What is it that I actually do? I mean, I do lots of things. Oh dear, I’m up next!”
With this anxiety-filling thought in mind, we’d like to explain what a tenant advisor actually does, or should do, so that we don’t get confused with what others should be doing.
1. Space Requirements Analysis: A good advisor interrogates the client wishlist and forms an educated prioritisation matrix. This is the art-of-the-possible.
2. Site Selection: A good advisor buffers the noise and the emotion of so many options. With process and patience they work the matrix and narrow them down, until only the few remain. This is threading the needle.
3. Market Scanning: The client might know what they can predict today, but a good advisor must have knowledge to plan for flexibility tomorrow. By continually assessing emerging trends and sectors their advice is both intuitive and data-validated. This is the all-seeing-eye.
4. Lease Negotiation: A good advisor understands the deal prerequisites for both parties, the levers to pull, and the hot buttons to push, to deliver a win-win outcome. A lease is a long-term relationship which should start on an equal footing. Experienced instinct is paramount. The calm amongst the storm.
5. Lease Review and Analysis: A good advisor effectively translates the minutiae of the current contract, and explains the detailed implications. This is laying the deal foundations.
6. Renegotiation and Restructuring: A good advisor knows what value means today, for all parties. They work the matrix again, creating an environment of competitive tension amongst the shortlisted targets. This is narrowing the expectation gap.
7. Project Management: A good advisor has a good team around them, and they have experts who turn the bricks and mortar building into the complete and finished result. This is curating perfect spaces.
8. Cost Savings: A good advisor is empathetic to the impacts of cost. When their advice saves the client on the unnecessary, so that the necessary can be invested in, that’s true service. This is eeking out incremental wins.
9. Dispute Resolution: A good advisor maintains the goodwill amongst tenant and landlord, even during moments of strain. This is balancing the needs of all.
10. Ongoing Support: A good advisor, is available to the client long after the deal is done. With sage advice or a proactive new idea, value is lived as a continuum. This is paying it forwards.
In, summary a good tenant advisor fully understands his or her client’s ongoing needs and does not just turn up when a lease expiry notification materialises in their calendar.
