What is a Yacht Broker?
A Yacht Broker is a sales specialist acting as the conduit between buyer and seller during the purchase of a vessel. A successful broker is an expert at every step of the sales process from prospecting and enticing offers to account management and closing deals. I have outlined below the necessary skills to succeed as a broker.
Outbound Sales - Prospecting to secure exclusive listing contracts
An exclusive listing agreement is a contract between the broker and seller of the vessel giving the broker sole rights to advertise and sell the vessel.
To secure a listing, the broker must build a relationship with the client and provide value added services. This comes in the form of providing market insights, comparable sold data, and having a digital platform to attract buyers.
I’ve had great success in cold calling leads, using targeted email marketing campaigns offering free valuations, networking with industry service technicians and utilizing ad word campaigns to boost brand awareness.
Account Management - building and nurturing relationships
At any given time, a top broker will have 35+ listings and relationships to manage.
Interacting with both buyers and sellers is important as is being their go to resource for industry knowledge. I strive
On a daily basis, a broker is fielding calls from buyers and sellers, booking appointments, and providing sales consulting advice.
Crm Management
Incoming leads, pipeline development, deal progression and communication would be impossible to manage without top-of-the-line sales software.
Tools such as Sales Force are utilized to help organize the sales process by tracking calls and emails, collaborating with team members, and automating the outbound sales processes.
A CRM provides insight into brokers performance and can be used to optimize sales performance.
listing presentations - Attracting buyers anD Enticing Offers
In today’s digital age, having an effective online presentation is imperative to securing a deal.
A broker has in-depth product knowledge and the ability to communicate the value proposition to buyers.
He/She will exhibit high emotional intelligence, the ability to perceive buyer intentions and target these.
Negotiations - avoiding the Zero-Sum bias
If there was no mediator between the buyer and seller, many deals would fall apart due to aggressive negotiating tactics and emotional bias.
The broker acts as a mediator between buyer and seller - often providing strategic advice for an effective negotiation avoiding a zero-sum game.
A Yacht Broker is an expert negotiator well versed in negotiation theory and strategy such as hard ball tactics and how to diffuse them.
A negotiation should NOT be zero sum - both parties can walk away with a larger piece of the pie instead of splitting it down the middle.
closing the deal and ensuring repeat business
Finding a buyer is only the first step towards a successful deal and it takes careful management along the process to see it to fruition.
Checkpoints along this pathway are as follows: Searching for a buyer —> Offer —> Pending Survey —> Pending Sea Trial —> Bill of Sale —> Won.
The broker’s role is to progress the deal through these stages tending to the buyer and seller’s needs and expectations.
Each deal is treated as a mini project with checkpoints that need to be reached, contractors scheduled and managed, budgets to adhere to and deadlines met.
To close the deal, the broker facilitates the transfer of money and ownership, advises on tax strategy and facilitates the transfer of large sums of money in excess of $1M.