PARK CITY, UT—During a mega session at the GlobeSt.com national Women of Influence conference here in Park City, panelists discussed how honing negotiation techniques has never been more critical than it is today—especially when having to suddenly pivot to digital negotiations.

Moderator Deena Zimmerman, VP and national retail council co-chair for SVN, began the session by discussing how, for many, pivoting and switching to digital negotiations at the beginning of Covid-19 was hard. "Yes, trying to learn all these new meetings and what to do during the pandemic was difficult," said panelist Eddy Nevarez, a first VP of investments at Marcus & Millichap. But she added that it really did educated her and became her way of transacting. "Now whenever anybody wanted to have a meeting, they would send a Zoom link or a webcast versus me getting on a plane and flying," she said. "Everyone wants to do more digital."

But it worked for Nevarez, who, during the beginning of Covid executed a massive hotel portfolio deal and became the first female at Marcus & Millichap who had made it to the Circle of Excellence—the company's highest level. "During the pandemic, I was trying to survive and I was just working and said I wasn't going to fail. I am familiar with the market going down and how it can affect you. I was surviving, working around the clock, had all these transactions under contracts, but you don't know until a deal is final."