Adrian Wilson is the Principal and Sales Director of Wilson Property Agents with offices in Sydney , NSW. He was was recently approved as one of the very first agents in Sydney with the prestigious accolade of Accredited Property Specialist (REINSW), and listed as one of BRW’s Fast Starters in 2012 and 2013.
What was your first job, and what was the most important thing it taught you?
My career began in the Telecommunication and Marketing industries where I spent a number of years managing retail phone stores for company owned Vodafone Stores. As a young kid, fresh out of school, I found myself in a highly competitive sales environment where customer service, customer retention and solution oriented sales strategies were the key ingredients to success. These were the glory days of mobile telecommunications, so there were fantastic training programs and support along with highly targeted marketing strategies that I was able to be a part of. The combination of these elements and key learnings I observed during my time at Vodafone have helped shape not only my commitment to delivering exceptional client service to our clients, but also internally within our team today.
What do you like most about your work now?
I feel a great sense of accomplishment and pride in seeing our fantastic team grow both professionally and personally by accomplishing their goals and adopting new learning. This has resulted in our market share and brand awareness growing in our marketplace.
What do you still find most challenging about what you do, and how do you deal with it?
The hardest thing is sharing 14 years of knowledge, experience and results with people new to the industry and expecting them to grasp the entire business of being an elite agent from day one. We have a fantastic learning and development program aligned with our exclusive membership to the Real Estate Results Network, which has assisted me to deliver the consistently high expectations I place on myself and the team towards client service, communication and results.
Define “Success” for you personally? What will you have achieved?
Success is a continually moving goal post, so I’m not sure I will ever feel comfortable saying that I have achieved it. I think there will always be room to tweak, hone and improve our services and skills to increase our market share and of course deliverables. Although I am thinking big-picture and long term for our team and agency, I prefer to aim for quick wins, making each step of the way rewarding and enjoyable experience for myself and the team. I love celebrating the small successes with our guys and setting the next challenge is all part of achieving success.
Describe what a typical day looks like for you?
Reply, file and review my emails and calendar of meetings and appointments in the morning so I can set up my day. Then I confirm my appointments for the day as well as one-on-one catch-ups with our team to see what’s on the agenda so I can determine where I can add the most value to the business. At the moment I’m working on a range of significant marketing based projects, business strategy and looking for some extra people to join our growing team. When I’m not doing that I’m on the phones talking with my clients, listing and selling real estate while working with my team on deal progression and business development. My day doesn’t normally end until late as I have appointments out of hours as well as personal training sessions twice a week. Saturdays of course are open houses. When I have time, a trip to the beach or a nice glass of red and a good meal are on the agenda.
Is there one thing that’s not obvious about you that you wish more people would “get”?
That I truly care about the lives of the people who work on our team and who choose to do business with our agency. This business was built on referrals and the hard work of those who turn up each day to spend it with me and our team. People come first, and often people who don’t know our agency or me personally may not appreciate the approach and style that we have to doing business compared to others. We truly care, are seriously passionate and strive to deliver outstanding results.
What’s your secret skill or superpower that makes you so good at what you do?
Attention to detail and proactive communication – if you can master these two things you will have a brilliant real estate career. Everything we do falls under or into these two categories.
What makes you laugh?
The number of people to turn down one way streets in the city – it’s honestly unbelievable!
