In this testimonial video, Larry Selzer, CEO and President of The Conservation Fund, shares his insights on the transformative impact of RED BEAR's negotiation training on their organization. As a leader in environmental conservation, his perspective offers a unique glimpse into how effective negotiation skills are essential in advancing their critical mission. Watch as Selzer discusses the details of this partnership and its meaningful impact on The Conservation Fund.
Transcription of the Video:
The Conservation Fund is a nonprofit organization and the nation’s leader in buying land for conservation, national parks, state wildlife agencies, urban greenways, opportunities for outdoor recreation, and of course, working lands like farms, forests, and ranches.
Since 1985, we’ve protected more than 9 million acres—4,000 individual transactions across all 50 states, valued at more than $10 billion. And public agencies at the Federal, state and local level, as well as the American people depend on us to conserve the lands that matter most.
With new funding sources for conservation coming online at the Federal and state level and the loss of land accelerating every year, we realized that we needed to move faster, and so we shifted into growth mode, and that meant hiring some terrific new professionals onto our team.
We realized that sharpening their negotiation skills was a critical part of onboarding these new professionals and delivering for the American people.
In addition, we’re operating in a new environment today with interest rates rising and real property values declining for the first time in more than a decade. Understanding the power of negotiation was essential for us to deliver the most value to the American people.
When we decided to bring our entire real estate team together for some training, which we do because we’re distributed all across the country, we realized that negotiation was at the very heart of what we wanted to accomplish.
We looked around and RED BEAR was the obvious choice for us.
First, RED BEAR truly took the time to understand The Conservation Fund, what we do…what our mission is…how we achieve our goals. And they customized the training to suit our organization and our mission.
Second, they had the right balance of instruction and interactive training opportunities. This was essential because we’re a group of seasoned real estate professionals, and having the opportunity to learn in an academic setting but then put those learnings to practice right away was essential to solidifying the capacity building we hoped to get out of the training.
And finally, RED BEAR’s emphasis on negotiation to build long-term relationships and win-win scenarios is critical to our work. We work on behalf of the public agencies across this country, and all of our business is repeat business. And we work with landowners who often own multiple tracts of land. And so these types of long-term relationships and win-win scenarios were essential.
RED BEAR’s training has prepared us for this and prepared us for the future in a way that no other organization has. They delivered a clear and engaging learning experience. The training made us better in negotiations.
They certainly have helped advance our mission—the mission of conservation for the American people. And we would come back to RED BEAR when we need additional negotiation training in a heartbeat.
See why The Conservation Fund highly recommends us. Contact us today today for workshop options tailored to your needs or download our corporate brochure to learn more.
