‘Selling with value’

Sales cures all” is one of the simplest yet most valuable business insights that I heard from my favorite shark, Mark Cuban.

It has aligned with my 19 years of experience—that for as long as sales are strong, we can adjust the sails of everything else, no matter how overwhelming it can be.

Reflecting on her role at Ovialand, Olivares-Vital highlighted the need for business leaders to ensure value creation across the entire ecosystem, encompassing customers, employees, suppliers and sales partners. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

A time of crisis

I was called into the family business during a time of crisis. Back then, we had only one development that was accessible to the town via a small one-lane bridge. It was the year 2007 and while the industry was booming, we were faced with many internal challenges.

Overnight, the access bridge to our lone development was destroyed by Typhoon Milenyo. Sales were slow, and that definitely made things worse. What used to be 5 minutes away from the town proper was now 45 minutes, due to the destroyed bridge.

Inquirer Property and Ovialand tapped a powerhouse panel of speakers for the latest lef of INQTalks entitled, “Selling with Value”.

We were forced to get creative as we had to work double, even triple, time to get that one sale. We tried many things: attention grabbing promos, freebies and a myriad of gimmicks. It was a lot of trial and error. We moved swiftly trying to find the most effective strategies.

During that time, my friends were starting out their new jobs in multinational companies, and they eagerly talked about the sales rallies that they would attend in 5-star hotels. I was inspired by the idea. And while we could not afford 5-star hotels, we did our best to still adapt the concept.

We held our sales trainings and rallies under tents, and sometimes, in fast food function rooms. I enjoyed every minute of it, grateful for the limited resources we had, but also determined that one day, we would find ourselves in fancy venues too.

Guests remained fully engaged throughout the forum and posed insightful questions for the speakers.

Value creation

Almost two decades later, we have learned many lessons and realizations about sales and marketing, which all boils down to value creation.

This has been the inspiration for Ovialand’s mission of “Premier Family Living” and our “HousEasy” model—both of which focused on the ease and convenience of our homebuyers.

It is a lesson that I carry with me everyday—that as business leaders, our main challenge is to be able to create value for the whole ecosystem of our enterprise, whether it be our main customers, employees, suppliers and sales partners.

The author is the president and CEO of Ovialand Inc.

Pammy Olivares-Vital

The author is the president of Ovialand Inc., a fast- growing developer of affordable horizontal projects in South Luzon Being in the business of homebuilding takes commitment and a sincere understanding of the clients.