Felicia Pavlica
This interview was recorded on September 14, 2019.
The following are some of the most notable excerpts from the interview:
Q: “So, go ahead and introduce yourself.”
Felicia: “My name is Felicia Pavlica, and I am a realtor with Re/Max Newport Elite.”
Q: “What has been one thing in your career that you’re really proud of, above everything else?”
Felicia: “It’s been so exciting that in sales you can write your own paychecks, and they say, “The sky is the limit.” but truly not just the sky. Napoleon Hill has a statement: “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” I feel that it is so incredible in this role that, that’s exactly it! You set the goal that you want to have, and you can absolutely obtain it. It’s so exciting that you get to achieve such great things while helping so many people along the way. So, I am really proud that I have been able to learn that skill and apply it in helping people, and take my business to whatever level my goal is at that time.”
Q: “For people who don’t know a lot about it, what does being a realtor entail?”
Felicia: “So, I always say it’s helping people achieve their hopes and dreams. So, taking the idea from an initial thought, and actually making it into a reality for somebody. Truly, it’s just helping somebody buy and sell a home, but farther than that, it’s helping them achieve a dream.”
Q: “I have heard that sales is the most transferrable and important skill that you can have. What about sales makes it such an important skill?”
Felicia: “I feel like a fabulous sales person, you’re not selling them something that they don’t need. You’re truly a great listener, and you’re truly understanding what they’re saying and what they need and you’re helping them achieve it. So, why it’s so vital, it’s effective communication. In whatever business you go in, you need to be a good salesperson. Someone in my office, their assistant just said, “I want a raise.” You’re never gonna get what you want in your life if you don’t learn sales. That girl would have very easily got the raise if she would had just said it the right way. There is a video about a homeless guy, and he was sitting there with a sign that said: “Please help me.” He was blind and nobody was putting money in his thing. Somebody came and re-wrote the sign to say something along the lines of: “I am not able to see the world the way you do.” Then everybody started giving money. He was asking for the same thing, but the way you say it makes a world of difference. You do sales in every aspect of your business, whether you realize it or not.”
Q: “Do you perceive yourself to be successful in your field?”
Felicia: “I will very humbly say that I am very successful in the field that I’m in. The reason that I’m successful is that I truly care. So, I’m not selling someone something just to get the next deal or to fill a quota for me. I am really understanding and trying to help the people.”
Notes: Felicia goes on to say that long term success is gained through building relationships with clients and helping them. She says that when you are only focused on what you’re getting out of it, the success that you gain will not stay.
Q: “Are there any big misconceptions about sales that you think frame the role incorrectly?”
Felicia: “With every client that I bring on, I sit down and I have a consultation with them. Why I do that is because I want to really listen and understand what they want. So, the misconception in my business is that the salesperson, they don’t care. They’re just so worried about selling the product that they don’t really listen and they don’t really care. In my industry a good salesperson is not interested in making the sale more important than the client.“
Q: “To you, what does it mean to be successful in sales?”
Felicia: “I think it’s different for every person. So I think the definition of being successful is really laying out what your hopes and your goals are, really understanding what you want to accomplish, and achieving it. Setting out what you want, setting out a plan to get there, and making it happen. I was nineteen when I started to sell real-estate, and I didn’t know how to do it, but I just did it. There are all these people out there who are just so afraid to be perfect, that they just never did it. So, there are all these people who are smarter than me or have better ideas than me, but because they’re so worried about working on preparing that they never end up doing anything with them, I have achieved more than them because I just did it. When you’re learning to walk, how many times do you fall? If you were too afraid to fall, you’d never learn to walk. Don’t let fear stop you.”
Q: “What kind of person does well in a sales role?”
Felicia: “Anybody."
Notes: Felicia goes on to say that people do business with people that they like and trust. She says that not every client is going to like someone who is loud and outgoing. She says that more introverted or reserved clients will likely prefer more reserved sales people. She says that as long as you truly believe what you are saying to a client is true, you can sell anything.
Q: “What are some of the differences between framing your words in a “salesy” way versus just saying something normally?”
Felicia: “So, there could be a very expensive product shoved in at a thrift store. So, why can I charge more for the product when it is properly displayed and the value is built versus the product that’s just shoved in at the thrift store? Because I displayed it, I built value, made you see why you have to have this. So, in the assistant example, if she would have built the value prior to the ask she would very possibly have got what she wanted.”
Q: “I have heard that there are a lot of similarities between marketing and sales. What do you perceive those similarities to be?”
Felicia: “In marketing you’re building value. In sales, you need to have effective communication and build value first. To use the assistant as an example again, she needed to market herself. If she shows that the value is there then she gets what she wants, the raise. I was twenty years old, and I moved to Florida, and I needed a job. I went into an insurance company and I wrote him why I would make his company better. So, I built value and I sold him on hiring me in a completely different field. So, if you don’t have strong marketing and sales skills, you will never reach the success you want in any field.”
Q: “If you had to give your advice to someone who is interested in going into sales, in just a few sentences, what would it be?”
Felicia: “Establish what you’re working towards, and know that it’s possible. Too many people are floundering. They don’t know what they want, so then they don’t do anything. Enjoy life, have fun with it, and really embrace it. Do something.”