What makes a great asset manager different from an average one?
What makes a great asset manager different from an average one? Skillsets? Best practices? Personalities?
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A great asset manager stands out from an average one through a combination of skillsets, best practices, and personality traits. Here's a breakdown based on the most helpful WSO content:
Skillsets
Best Practices
Personality Traits
In summary, great asset managers combine technical expertise, strategic foresight, and strong interpersonal skills to deliver exceptional results and build lasting client trust.
Sources: What Separates Good PMs From the Great PMs?, Life as a Top Asset Manager, Life as a Top Asset Manager, Q&A: Managing Director at Large Global Asset Manager
Returns.
But seriously, you want the same things from an asset manager that you want from any service provider or employee: reliability, proactivity, capability, and results.
As an AM myself, several traits, skills, or experiences come to mind but #1 on that list for me is the ability to keep everything tracking.
There are AM's who are clever lease negotiators, influential project managers, operational savants, etc. But given how many moving parts and time-sensitive requirements we're faced with, the best thing you can be as an asset manager is someone who moves the ball forward. There are lease RFP's to respond to, leases to negotiate, lease expirations to track, A/R to collect, legal feedback to respond to and incorporate, work proposals to approve, development schedules and budgets to monitor, annual budgets and variance reports to review, valuations to perform, investor/portfolio teams to report to, etc. etc. etc. Mixed into all of those things are the unexpected hiccups that arise, like a deal falling through and having to check in with the tenant/broker to understand why and if the deal can be saved, or a $50k emergency repair that needs to be approved or further bid out ASAP, or a default notice to a tenant that needs to go out, or a lawsuit/insurance claim from one of your tenant's customers against you.
There's so much that needs to receive the AM's attention, and ASAP, that being able to keep as many plates spinning as possible and put as many balls as possible back into other people's courts is hugely advantageous for the job. Organization, quick decision-making (where it makes sense), and proper prioritization are the skills that feed this ability.
There are a ton of other skills/traits/experiences that make a great AM, like being detail-oriented, having curiosity and not being afraid to be the least knowledgeable in the room and still ask questions, having abundant experience negotiating leases, not being afraid to hop on a call or the phone to talk through something complicated, being measured in your approach to things (not going off the rails when something bad happens), having a balanced level of "service-oriented" in your relationships with property managers, brokers, vendors, portfolio teams, effective communicator (written/verbal), etc. But again, I think first and foremost is the ability to keep as many pieces as possible involved in managing your asset tracking towards resolution.
An average AM lets things fall through the cracks.
Just realized this was posted in AM forum and not RE so not sure my answer still applies haha
Yeah, I kept reading leases and rubbed my eyes lol
Sales/Distribution
Having good returns is table stakes for selling a product, but you need a real go-to-market competency to have any hopes of growth. It’s not enough to perform well and hope people will find you, you need people hammering the phones and out on the road telling the story putting it in front of clients. This is particularly important because most funds are going to go through tough times and you’re going to lose assets during those tough times. So you need to make things happen when the sun is shining.
Growth solves a lot of other problems and makes a lot of things better in AM, but your tip of the spear is your sales team and it has to be sharp.
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