When you pivot into a new career, how far do you plan to go? Come with us as we follow Tyler’s successful transition from light installation into real estate, where he lit up the stage as our Salesperson of the Year after receiving several other accolades in our recent Sales Meeting.
An electric connection
While helping expand his uncle’s LED retrofitting business to the Toledo area, Tyler felt like things were going well, until his wife returned to school, and he needed something more consistent. Though he had already planned to go into sales, a meeting between one of Tyler’s relatives and America’s Preferred Home Warranty (APHW) leadership ignited the career change of a lifetime.
At a real estate conference, Tyler’s mother-in-law met Brendan, APHW’s Senior Vice President of Sales. Brendan shared the need for an Area Sales Manager (ASM) in Toledo, and once he received Tyler’s information, everything was set in motion. With mentorship from sales leadership, including his Regional Sales Director, Kelly, as well as several Regional Sales Managers, such as Matt and Brian. Tyler took their advice and was off to the races!
“I wanted to integrate their advice into my trainings and my meetings,” he shared. Though some try to directly apply the strategies of their mentors to their interpersonal relationships, Tyler decided to, “be myself and use my strengths and personality to help propel my business.”
Strategies for a new era
A few months after Tyler had officially started his ASM journey, COVID-19 began reaching all corners of the globe. The demand for video conferencing reached an all-time high, and Tyler maximized the moment by, “holding one-on-ones and trainings as often as I could.”
Once restrictions were lifted, Tyler’s hours of video interaction paid off – he was immediately recognized by several real estate professionals while out and about in his community.
Things came full circle in the Circle of Excellence
All Tyler’s hard work culminated in a Sales Meeting to remember. “Toward the end of last year, I let my wife, Tori, know I earned a spot in the Circle of Excellence,” he stated, adding, “I told her she needed to tell me if anyone called to let her know I won Salesperson of the Year.”
Ever one for a pleasant surprise, Tori kept the call a secret from him, until she appeared with their young son in the congratulatory video played at Sales Meeting. Shocked and overwhelmed in that moment, he summed up the experience as, “a really, really, really great feeling.”
Tyler made a few trips to the stage that day, as he accepted additional awards for the Circle of Excellence, Most Growth in Units Closed Year Over Year, and Most Growth in Revenue Year Over Year.
How do you achieve your next level? By being yourself
Upon accepting these awards, he told APHW’s President, Randy, and our CEO, Rodney, “I don’t think I could’ve achieved *this* anywhere else. The typical salesy guy is not my personality,” Tyler said. “I’m much more of a relationship person, and I truly care about the people I’ve formed relationships with. This company has enabled me to not only be myself, but actually thrive and be very successful, while just being myself. I feel I’m being paid to make friends, and it’s a pretty incredible feeling.”
So what’s next for our Salesperson of the Year? “I just want to continue growing. I would love to hit Circle of Excellence and Salesperson of the Year multiple times. I want to continue to be the very best at what I’m doing – not necessarily better than anyone else, but better than where I was the year before.”
In every new level he achieves, Tyler looks forward to doing so at APHW. As he puts it, “I quickly decided I’m not going back to what I was doing before – I love it here way too much.”