The people at CBRE know a thing or two about portfolio transitions. At a BOMA International Conference & Expo education session, CBRE senior managing director Joe Markling, regional asset services director of operations Karl Schnitger and director of strategic accounts Lacey Willard shared their stories and gave insights on how to perfect portfolio transitions of all sizes.

The discussion centered around a key point: preparation is everything. At the start of the discussion, they shared an Abraham Lincoln quote they thought applied well to portfolio transitions: "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax."

No trees were chopped down at this session, but the CBRE pros shared some of their best practices to smoothly manage transitions of large portfolios. Joe stressed the importance of having clearly defined roles, both internally and with your clients.

"Define leaders of each group up front," Joe said. "If you don’t define the roles really early, you're going to find yourself spinning out of control really fast."

Even though you may feel like you and your client are on the same page, Joe says it is important when shaking hands at the end of a meeting to confirm what each parties next steps are and what you are going to accomplish after you walk out the door.

Karl talked about the importance of staffing a transition team that can fully manage the portfolio.

"Take a look at what's coming in, what that portfolio looks like," he said. "You have to talk to your experts and get an idea of what the staffing should look like for a portfolio."

He said there has been a relative scarcity of qualified people able to come in at a moment's notice to help with a transition, so it is important to be constantly developing talent within an organization.

Lacey talked about the importance of celebrating even the smallest of victories, learning from your successes and giving credit where it is due.

"Getting those shout-outs is key, and making sure they're front and center sometimes in the form of press releases, when the entire industry needs to know," she said.