Key Accountability

Martin Brady of The Marketing Directors talks about how the luxury condo market in New York was doing well until recently, but he’s still optimistic about the sales that can be made.Click here to listen.

Category//Sales Manager of the Year
Gold Winner//Martin Brady, Vice President of Sales, The Marketing Directors, New York

“To be on our sales team, you must be accountable!” Martin Brady writes in his application for Sales Manager of the Year. “In our company, following up is never optional.”

“He’s not afraid of his salespeople,” says one Nationals judge. “There’s a lot of support to help them be accountable and be successful, so if they’re not, they have no excuse.”

Being fearless is needed in this market environment and has allowed Brady to win Nationals gold this year.

Brady says tracking his salespeople’s success guarantees results and performance while providing them with an incentive to keep their performance levels high. He uses a Web-based customer tracking system as well as a proprietary Notes and History Report that monitors follow-up procedures that Brady can check from anywhere at anytime.

The high-rise luxury condo market in New York has being doing well compared to the overall housing market for the last few years, up until the credit crunch of last fall.

“In September, our market definitely became more challenging with the Wall Street woes,” says Brady. “A lot of our market is based on the financial [industry]. We just have to work a little harder and better these days. There are still sales to be made.” Brady says sales training on financing is extremely important today.

“Salespeople have to be much more prepared for their customers,” he says. “We train a lot heavier on all the different financing available and the requirements and how to be creative with financing.”

Brady trains his entire staff and has a regular schedule of touch points with them — weekly training vignettes, monthly individual mentoring sessions, quarterly sales rallies and twice-yearly company-wide training with a nationally known sales trainer such as Bob Schultz.

“Martin Brady is a driving force in the industry,” says Adrienne Albert, CEO of The Marketing Directors, New York, who nominated Brady for this award. “He is a natural leader, liked and respected by all. Trainer, mentor, delivering inspiration, he outperforms all others in good times and bad.”