>> My name is Tim Wilbricht
and I'm a yacht broker.
>> Tim, can you tell us a
little bit about your story?
How'd you get in to this career field?
>> Well, I graduated from University of Virginia
in Systems Engineering and then took a job
at Procter & Gamble in their
brand management division.
I worked there for a few years and then
decided to buy a sailboat and sail away.
So I took another job doing kind of
company building, trying to take a com--
a smaller company and make it bigger.
It was successful that I bought a
sailboat from Annapolis Yacht Sales
and took four years off and
sailed the Caribbean.
When I got back, I did some more company
building with a couple of companies,
a couple of start ups and then for whatever
reason, I got tired to that and decided
to go back to that job that looked so cool.
When I worked as the yacht broker, I
thought, what a great job and so, just--
my wife got pregnant, decided to move back
to-- close to our family and then ended up back
in Annapolis Yacht Sales where I bought my boat.
>> Can you describe what your
job consist of on a daily basis?
>> Mainly it's follow up with customers,
answering e-mails, making phone calls
from a database, trying to-- pulling couple of
some customers and then of course, you know,
on a regular basis also,
showing boats and selling boats.
So, you do get to do a lot of outdoor work
if you decide to do so but there is a lot
of phone work involved, a lot of,
you know, calling people on the phone
and reminding them, hey,
it's time to buy a boat.
>> What do you love about your job?
>> Well again, I've had a few different jobs
and played many roles in many companies and--
you know, this is one of the few
jobs I've ever had where I don't feel
like I'm coming to work everyday.
You know, I like it because I'm talking
and consistently selling something
that people are excited to hear about.
It's, you know, it's an enjoyable field
to be in because it's a pleasure business,
it's a luxury business and people here-- they
come in here generally looking to enjoy life
and that's what I give to help them to do.
>> What are some of the challenges
that you face?
>> Well again, with any sales position,
there's a lot of rejection involved
so you got to keep a positive upbeat.
You can't get too, you know, inundated with
the negative because that will drag you down
but I think, if you can just, you know, keep
a positive attitude, keep making phone calls,
you know, keep yourself excited
about what you're doing, you know,
the challenges are pretty, pretty small.
>> What does it take to be successful?
>> If you really want to be successful of
being a broker, I think you have to try
and treat people with respect and you know,
the three keys to sales which I learned early
in my career are follow up,
follow up, and follow up.
I mean, the reality is when somebody
is buying an expensive toy like a boat,
you've got to give them reliable information
quickly and I think that if you can, you know,
somehow make a connection with these people out
there buying, again, they're going to go out
and talk to many different people and
hopefully, you know, you can spark some type
of interest level with them and get them excited
about your ability to help them find a boat
and once you do that, it's, it's
you know, it's a lot of fun.
>> Do you get to sort of test drive some
of these boats before you sell them?
>> Absolutely.
That's the best part.
You do a survey typically before you
sell a brokerage boat and quite often
in selling a new boat which
is also what we do here.
You get to take people out for test sails.
So I spend at least three or
four days, if not more than that,
a month out sailing with customers.
>> Anything someone could do to prepare
themselves for this type of career?
>> Well, really, I think you have to have a
basic knowledge of boats and I think you have
to have real positive attitude and a
lot of energy to, like I said before,
continually engage people and engage customers
and work the database that
you get very, very hard.
I think that-- again, one of the
things that I did when I came
in is I really started hitting the phones and
making follow up call after follow up call
after follow up call and many of my sales are
due to the fact that I get to know somebody
so well over the phone before they even
meet me, you know, they basically tell me,
"You were the few brokers out there that
consistently calls and consistently stays
in contact so I'm going to buy a
boat from you when I buy a boat."
That may be a year, two, three down the road
but, you know, you keep these relationships
around and keep the constant
communication flowing in.
Sooner or later, you're going
to sell this guy a boat.
>> Any type of college major you would suggest?
>> Really, I honestly think
that any thing in communication,
anything that can gear you towards sales, you
know, I was an engineer so it really had nothing
to do with my background but I did have
a passion for the water and I think that,
you know, study something that interests you
and maybe that will help you make a connection
with some of the customers but the bottom
line is, you know, I think that you have to be
in a field where you're going to feel
comfortable connecting with people.
>> What are your hours like?
>> Basically, it's a 9 to 5job
which is comfortable for me.
I have a family with two young boys and
so being at home is important to me.
It is however more than a five day a week job.
I often find myself coming in here
briefly if not, on my days off.
You typically are going to work at least
a Saturday so weekends are something
that are very, very foreign to me now.
I typically do work Saturdays.
I don't often work Sundays but I do have
a day off during the middle of the week
that I sometimes take off or I
sometimes end up in the office.
>> Do you work from home at all?
>> Not much.
I think you could.
I think that technology these days would allow
more of that to happen but I think that a lot
of the way that we acquire new customers is
really literally being here in the office
or being available very readily
on the telephone.
So, working from home would be something you
could do to make phone calls and that kind
of thing but I just assume be here
just in case the customer stops in.
>> Do you get to travel at all?
>> You can if you wish.
I sell a lot of boats outside of, you know,
the area that I live in here in Maryland,
I sell a lot of boats in Florida
and up and down the East Coast.
So, I technically could travel
a lot more than I do.
I don't tend to travel that much just because
I like to stay closer to home and be closer
to my family, but certainly the option is there
if I wanted to travel down to these other boats
that I'm selling but, you know, sometimes I will
never meet the customer that I sell boat to,
I'll never see the boat that I sell,
you know, and so it doesn't, you know,
it doesn't necessarily have to happen
that way but you certainly can travel.
I did just recently get a chance to take
a customer or participate with a customer
in a rally from Annapolis all the
way down to Tortola on his new boat.
So, you now, and certainly, that's an
option and, you know, I've had customers
that have homes and boats and really
pretty locations that have offered me time
in their houses and on their boats.
So, those are great vacations you can take,
there are a lot of fun and don't cost a lot.
>> Any final advice for someone
interested in entering this career field?
>> I think basically, you want to make sure
you have a pretty tough skin when it comes
to rejection because again, part of sales is,
you know, facing a lot of, you know, rejection.
Not always in, you know, face-to-face
but certainly, you know, over the phone.
So you got to be comfortable making phone calls
or want to make phone calls and, you know,
certainly, I think somebody that's
very well organized is also going
to be more successful than
someone not well organized.
So if you find yourself, you know, a little bit
on the [inaudible] side or good around people,
have good communication skills and you have a
personality that can adapt to different types
of personalities, I think
this is a great career.
I think-- foremost though, you have to
have a passion for sailing 'cause I think
if you're trying to sell something you're not
passionate about, it's going to be a struggle
to stay interested in that over
the long hall and in this job,
you're not going to make a lot of,
you know, ton of money your first year
or even your second year but over time,
you can earn a very respectable
salary doing this type of work.
>> So do you work on commission base thing?
>> Yes. Straight commission so, you know,
the more boats I sell, the more money I make
which again, is another plus to this job
because again, there are a lot of jobs out there
where it rewards you as handsomely
for your work.
Some commission jobs have a base salary and
then commission is almost kind of like a bonus.
In this job, we are hundred percent commission,
you know, every single time you make a sale,
you know, you increase your
salary and I think that for me,
that's a lot of my motivation as well.
I work hard and I get to earn a lot of money.
>> Great advice.
Thanks so much for your time.
Tim, yacht broker, Annapolis Yacht Sales.
Thanks.