Navigating the tides: Inspiring ways to make a distinct mark in real estate
Inclement weather did not stop over 300 sales leaders and sellers of Filinvest Alabang Inc. (FAI) from filling the Acacia Hotel Grand Ballroom in Filinvest City for a learning summit held earlier this week.
The event, held in partnership with Inquirer Property and INQTalks, brought together experts in sales, investment, and real estate, among others, to discuss the theme: “Navigating the Tides: Inspiring Ways to Make a Distinct Mark in Real Estate.”
The full-day program featured discussions on empowering leadership and selling products with market trends in mind.
“This summit was thoughtfully designed for the entire FAI sales force. As leaders, you play a crucial role in bringing its impact to life,” said Melanie L. Glinofria, Filinvest Sales Support and Leasing Group senior assistant vice president, in her welcome message.
She added: “It’s about sharpening our heads with insights that guide better decisions, strengthening our hands with tools and strategies that help us perform with excellence, and filling our hearts with a drive to inspire and empower the people we need.”
Practical pointers
To open the day, property guru Carl Dy shared “3 Techniques I Wish I Knew as a Sales Leader”—practical pointers for FAI sales team leads.
According to Dy, sales managers should first see themselves as talent managers. Leaders must treat their team the way a manager would handle a celebrity client: play to their strengths, hone their skills, and find opportunities for them to shine.
“Before I send my sales people to their clients, I will rehearse with them,” Dy said. “I will not simply rely on pressure, but will instead set an example on how to prospect or close a deal… I will open up opportunities where they can prospect more.”
A second suggestion was to use Max Landsberg’s “Skill-Will Matrix,” which proposes adapting management styles—guide, delegate, direct, or excite—based on a team member’s position on the matrix. Finally, he encouraged participants to liken the sales process to a customer’s journey in a restaurant, where the key to a pleasant experience is eliminating friction points.
“…[T]he ease of making an income [is among salespeople’s motivations to work]… As leaders, we have to improve our advertisement, our awareness, our product so it becomes easier for our people to reach their goal, which is to make a sale,” Dy explained. “Human beings look for a leader who will guide them—someone they look up to, and someone they can model themselves after.”
Opportunities and challenges
Those pointers resonated with the sales force amid a real estate landscape presenting a mixed bag of opportunities and challenges—a context Roy Golez detailed in his “Philippine Property Market Outlook.” Golez is the director for Research, Consultancy, and Valuation at Leechiu Property Consultants.
“[We have a] positive outlook for the retail [segment], positive outlook for hotels because of the potential. The residential [segment sees] tempered growth,” he summarized. He placed much emphasis on residences since it was “what Filipinos have considered as their primary vehicle for wealth creation.”
Revenue from the IT and business process management (IT-BPM) industry and remittances from overseas Filipino workers, totaling over $76 billion, remained tailwinds for the property sector, Golez said, adding that some 50 to 60 percent of that amount went to real estate, based on figures from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
An oversupply hampered the residential condominium sector in Metro Manila, he added, noting that there are about 82,800 units of available supply in the capital region.
Golez thus recommended highlighting property investment as a resilient investment, an excellent inflation hedge, and a safe bet due to constant demand and a growing housing backlog. He also said that ready-for-occupancy (RFO) units, a less risky option, should be promoted more aggressively.
In the end, he reminded his audience that the products in the FAI portfolio made their job of selling easier: “The cliche of location, location, location still holds, but good concepts capturing the right market are also ideal… I think Filinvest has a good team of planners, as well as implementers, who study their market and implement their projects well.”
