The Veteran Rookie

Cheryl Byrne describes how she created differentiation between her product—50 Columbus in Jersey City—and a similar competitor. Click here to listen to the clip.

Category//Rookie Sales Person of the Year
Gold Winner//Cheryl Byrne, Sales Associate, The Marketing Directors, New York
Price range of homes//$1.4 million to $6.25 million
Net sales//92

Cheryl Byrne isn’t new to the new-home sales industry; she’s been with The Marketing Directors for eight years. But she is new to selling new homes; she started as an administrative assistant. “That’s exactly how I like to learn in any company. I feel like you learn the most in that position because you get to see both sides.”

She eventually got her real-estate license but bided her time taking advantage of the sales training The Marketing Directors offers. Being a good student earned her Nationals gold.

“I’ve heard many presentations over and over, so it definitively helped,” says Byrne. “Their training is unbelievable. It was good for me. And once I was ready, I said, 'Give me a chance.’”

Angela Ferrara, director and vice president of sales at The Marketing Directors, in her nomination of Byrne, called her “a bright and shining addition to our sales team. Cheryl is constantly looking to learn everything she can to evolve in her career.” Her strategy worked; she netted $42,227,400 in sales.

“That’s what it’s about. She’s doing everything right,” says one Nationals judge. “Everything she talked about [in her application] supported good sales.” Cheryl sold homes at 50 Columbus, a luxury condominium building in Jersey City, N.J., located near the waterfront and close to transportation — a key attraction for commuters who work in nearby New York. There was a challenge in that another new luxury condominium building with similar amenities was located just down the street. But Byrne’s training prepared her to sell against it.

“I focused on all the value-building attributes our property had, which are the views, a well-known developer/manager and overall more open and flexible floor plans,” Byrne says in her Sales Rookie of the Year application. “We never felt the need to bash the competition but rather worked on the strengths of our community. We were always prepared with answers that made the choice to stay with us an easy one.”