A great year for hockingstuart Ballarat

Firm celebrates taking top prize in four categories at annual company awards

THERE’S a team at hockingstuart’s corporate head office who spend all year phoning the firm’s clients and asking for a rating out of ten on every sales agent in the organisation.

The collated results of the surveys on over 400 sales-people across the company decide the winner of the Customer Experience Sales Agent of the Year.

This year the top award went to freshly minted hockingsturart Ballarat partner Matt Wiltshire, who said the awards was totally unexpected.

“I’ve watched people accept this every year and I think to myself ‘they must have really looked after their clients’,” he said.

“The way I see it is it comes down to treating people like people, you don’t treat them as a client you treat them as an individual.

“I talk to them as if I was at the pub having a beer with them, I try to make them a bit more relaxed.”

Customer Experience Sales Agent of the Year is the most prestigious award in terms of looking after clients said Tim Valpied, Director at hockingstuart Ballarat.

Selling or purchasing property is often a stressful situation for the vendor which requires ongoing engagement and support from the agent.

“Because Matt was rated so highly, he is obviously delivering a high level of quality and frequent communication,” Mr Valpied said.

It is also about developing a high level of trust, Tony Douglass, fellow Director said.

There is unfortunately a perception amongst the public that some agents don’t have the best reputation.

“It’s really important when someone is selling your property you deal with a sales agent you can trust, and Matt is that person,” Mr Douglass said.

Mr Douglass and Mr Valpied were also announced as winners at the event.

They equally shared the Sales Director of the Year Award and it’s the fourteenth year in a row that one of the office’s Directors have achieved the accolade.

It is calculated from the total sales figures for the year across all hockingstuart offices.

“It would be amazing if just one of them won the award but the fact that two of them did is more than exceptional,” Mr Wiltshire said. “They beat every other single sales director so it is sort of like a double whammy.”

Apart from the individual awards the Ballarat office was also lauded for its achievements taking out the Highest Performing Sales Office (value of sales) and the Highest Performing Sales Office (number of sales).

Mr Valpied attributes some of the sales performances to the Ballarat market having stood up during the past twelve months.

“The city has been robust in the marketplace in comparison to Melbourne or Sydney,” he said. “The more affordable markets like Ballarat have been very consistent and are still quite strong.”

Statistics show that 45 per cent of their sales are made to people moving to Ballarat from outside the city.

All three men have lived in Ballarat for most of their lives.

“Half the job is selling the house, the other half is selling the experience and the lifestyle,” Mr Wiltshire said.

“We draw a lot on our personal experiences to sell the whole package to our clients, which helps them fall in love with the house.”