"An agent must be able to sell anything!"
"I don't believe that," says Dominik Šesták, who has just celebrated five years with our company. Today, he has already worked his way up to a senior position in the commercial sales team, and heads his very own junior team.
My previous experience was in the field of sports; from the age of 15 to 20, I spent almost every day on the volleyball court, and went on to study physical education. Nevertheless, I eventually discovered that what I really wanted to do was business, and decided to continue in sport as a hobby. My first experience with sales was from when I was about 16 years old, selling Czech grower’s fruits and vegetables at the markets. Then I was hired in my first "classic" sales position; I was selling what was, in my opinion, ineffective internet advertising. I was not successful in this sales job. That's when I realized how important it is for me to truly believe in the product that I am offering the client.
As far as I can remember, I always had an interest in houses and buildings, whether in Prague, Amsterdam, Brussels, or in Bratislava… buildings have always fascinated me in some way. Then I was also considering ways I could make a living. I had interviews with five real estate agencies, and I was unpleasantly surprised that the exact same scenario played out each time: after 15 minutes I was leaving with the option to start immediately, and with a vision of making a lot of money, but I was never told how. I felt an absolute disinterest in me as a human being. These companies didn't care if I would finish with them in a week, and they gave no hint of any work or costs involved in my future training. Then I was invited for an interview at E&V. I understand that coming from me, as someone who has worked here for over 5 years, it may sound a little biased, but the difference in approach really was gargantuan. In those days there were no Career Days, unlike today; I went through a three-round interview, each round lasted about two hours. Just the fact that people at the company gave me so much of their time was a sign that someone here really wants to get to know me, to find out if I truly want to do this work. I'm looking for a different word so that it won’t sound so contrived, but the process felt completely different than all the other interviews: it was serious. Now, after my years of experience, I believe that our other business associates here also had the same impression about the interviews as I did when I was a potential candidate. Perhaps just one more thing: I had absolutely no experience with the real estate market, surprisingly, at my interview with E&V, I found that this was rather welcome.
If you decide to go into commercial sales, you must be prepared for the fact that closing the first deal can often take half a year or even longer. In my opinion, this is the main difference between our team and the others, in other departments you can close your first deals within just two weeks. For me, it was worth the wait - the reward was then that much sweeter (note: smiles). But if what you are looking for is several property viewings every day, to be in constant contact with lots of people, and not to be sitting at a computer in the office most of the time, then I believe that the rental department is the right one for you. In the commercial sales team, the phone and computer are definitely our best friends, right from day one.
Žižkov! I’ll admit it…when I started, I was not utterly excited; I wanted to sell property in Old Town and Malá Strana (Lesser Town). But when I look back on it, I'm very glad that I was assigned Žižkov. With increasing experience, I see it as a beautiful, developing part of Prague, and I can no longer imagine that I would work primarily anywhere else. In the meantime, I’ve also managed to sell property in Old Town and Malá Strana, so I’ve managed, nonetheless, to fulfill this "childhood" dream.
Since childhood, my main leisure activity has been enjoying sports. Mainly volleyball, but I also like to play tennis, squash, ping pong and all kinds of other things. I can't imagine winter without skiing. I have recently started playing golf, which I am very pleased about, especially given the current situation, with Golf being one of the only sports that one can engage in now practically without restriction. I like to spend time with friends, cook, read, listen to music, and sometimes I just lie down and do nothing at all.
It's all still relatively new to me, I have never before found myself in such a position, and, like my juniors, I'm learning. After half a year of our mini-team operation, I must say that I am fully satisfied. It's not just that Terka and Martin are performing well above expectation, and that they learn quickly, which is fundamental; what is equally important to me is that we understand each other and get along as people. We know what we want to achieve, and we often have a lot of fun in the office.
I could name various properties I have sold - that is, after all, why we do this work; or I could mention complex negotiations that end successfully, or the times we have saved the owner tens of millions of crowns at the 11th hour - but when I see my juniors growing and improving in a relatively short time, I must say that I am truly happy about that.
There are a lot of those things (note: smiles); the kind of team we have in commercial sales, and how we work together. I do not want to name anyone in particular, because I would hate to omit someone, but I have to say Andreas - for many reasons (ed’s note: Andreas von Schlik, CEO). For example, he has a way of bringing perspective and calm to even the tensest of negotiations. Lukáš is our team leader – commercially, I have learned the most from him. I would also like to mention Ríša Vítek, a former team leader who is the one who gave me a chance to be part of the E&V team. I would not want to omit all our other colleagues who do not work directly in sales; without them we agents couldn’t do much at all.
When I joined the company 5 years ago, we were a team of 5 commercial agents. Selling an apartment building was quite difficult. Now we have a 20-member team, and the differences in our success at selling property is marked. Nonetheless, the cooperation that arises when one of us lists a new property on the market, and everyone else in the team tries to sell it too, is, in my opinion, our team’s greatest strength. I don't think we have to deal with any strong rivalry. Everyone knows that when they are offering a property, all of the colleagues are going to help in this way to successfully sell it.
I definitely feel that I have come far, both commercially and as a person. My greatest “education” has been in dealing with clients, but colleagues have also taught me a lot. Here, I learn new things every day. We also have regular training with various lecturers, each one is different, and each one had a lot to offer me. Nonetheless, there is still always more to learn, and many further things to become acquainted with.
I made my first sale together with Andreas. He passed me a client who wanted to sell a commercial building in Chodov. I knew I had a buyer looking for just such a building. After a couple of weeks, the property was already theirs. That experience just confirmed to me just how important it is to know exactly what buyers are looking for; with that particular knowledge, I am then able to offer it.
I have several goals; generally, I want to close deals and conduct negotiations in such a way that all involved parties are satisfied. In fact, I would like to improve Czech society’s perception of real estate agents, at least by a little. And then I'm also looking forward to being the one sitting with the notary when I’m buying my very own apartment building (note: smiles).
First of all, it should be a very fair person, both with regard to colleagues and clients, a person with common sense and developed thinking. The person should be open to new things. Here, we must be proactive. Many things can be learned, and the people at E&V provide you with an opportunity for great personal development, but what you choose to do with it is up to you. Needless to say, a person can be a great salesman, but if they don’t want to make phone calls, it won't help them very much.
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