No matter what level of success a real estate agent has achieved in their career, they all had to start at the bottom and work their way up the ranks to earn their stripes.
Without climbing up these levels, an agent would never get the opportunity to experience the vision and passion required to be a professional sales person.
Dan Walker started his real estate career as a 17-year-old work experience student, learning the ropes with First National. He then went on to become a cadet, fired up after his initial taste of the industry.
“My first impression was that there is great potential in the industry and you can go as far you want. I just wanted to get involved and thought this was the industry for me,” Mr Walker said.
As an eager 17-year-old cadet, Mr Walker grabbed every opportunity and he was soon elevated to a sales position. “I went from a cadet role straight into sales, which was a little bit out of my depth. I’d just finished my HSC and didn’t have a real grasp on the industry and how everything worked,” he explained. “It was a good and a bad experience; I had to learn very quickly and I probably learnt some things quicker than I would have in a year as a cadet.”
While he enjoyed his sales role, Mr Walker understood the importance of believing in what he did. He realised not all agents felt the same passion for their job as him. After training at the Real Estate Academy and listening to people he admired, such as John McGrath and Lee Woodward, Mr Walker said he realised, “There are two classes of people – those who are really switched on and people who have got very complacent.”
“The brand I was with and the principals of the group were fairly complacent and had been in it for a long time. They didn’t seem that pumped about it, but I got in there and I was pumped.
“You’ve got to be excited about what you’re selling. That’s what sales is all about, isn’t it - transitioning from the emotion of the products to the person you’re selling it to,” he said.
Working in a fairly traditional area, Mr Walker found his work was predictable, but used the experience to hone his skills. “Most of the clients were older. It was what you’d call your ‘bread and butter’ area; there was not much variance in the marketplace as far as pricing and what you could and couldn’t sell,” he explained.
Deciding to put his career on the track he envisaged when dreaming about the industry while at school, Mr Walker took a chance and stepped backwards to another cadetship, this time with McGrath Central Coast. “I wanted to work with that brand because I had a connection with it and what it represented as far as the technology and the client service that they gave,” he explained.
“It wasn’t an easy move, because I did ground myself in that original office, but I could see long-term this was the best thing for me to do - to work for Mat [Steinwede] and Jamie [Doman] and work in the culture that they’d built in that office.”
Mr Walker freely admits his first months in the cadet role were difficult, saying he thought about leaving several times – and was on the verge of being sacked just as many – but decided to stick it out because he knew it was where he wanted to be.
“The first couple of months were very interesting and a little bit rocky, where I was on thin ice,” he said, adding it was very different going from sales where he could decide what to do and when, to being told he had to pick up contracts at a certain time, make deliveries or even drive to Sydney and drop off a newspaper and commitment letter by 6am in the Eastern Suburbs, which was a two-and-a-half-hour drive away. “So it was a bit of a learning curve.”
Thinking back to the tasks he had to complete to earn his stripes, Mr Walker said he realised how important it was to go the extra mile. “Every year Mat gives out gingerbread houses to his elite clients. My first year I was driving around Sydney for 10-12 hours dropping off gingerbread houses from Vaucluse, over to the Northern Beaches, to the Castle Hill area, so there is no length they won’t go to impress,” he said.
But the gamble paid off. “After a few months I started to see the success and how much people really appreciated what they [McGrath] were doing and the different relationship they had with their clients, compared to your standard, average 9-5 real estate agent,” Mr Walker said.
Joking about his minimum wage as a cadet, he said once he saw where his career was headed there was no turning back, because the experience gave him a completely different perspective of what it took to be a top performer. “I am so blessed that I did stay on and I did stick it out because the work ethic I have gained from that position has set me up for life,” Mr Walker added.
Now responsible for sales in the soughtafter beachside suburb of Terrigal, Mr Walker’s potential sales vary greatly from where he started in a suburb with homogenous properties. “The area I’m in now has units starting from $300,000, up to beachfronts worth $3-4 million.”
From the bright-eyed work experience kid eager to jump into the industry, to a professional sales person who was willing to take his career back a step to put it on the right foot; Dan Walker has earnt his stripes in the industry.
“You’ve got to be excited about what you’re selling. That’s what sales is all about, isn’t it - transitioning from the emotion of the products to the person you’re selling it to.