How My Sales Experience Transfers to
Software Development Support Roles
To be effective at closing real estate deals, you must wear many hats. Similarly, UX and SCRUM roles, on product/software teams, require practitioners to cultivate broad skills inside a specialized knowledge base.
I learned from my UX Design course this broad skill set and specialized knowledge is illustrated as a T in the industry. Broad skills is the horizontal line. And the intersecting vertical line down represents the specialization depth.
In multifamily sales, my depth was communication as facilitator to keep all balls moving. Broadly, I operated as a communicator (i.e., presentation and copywriter), negotiator, marketer, flyer-graphic designer, financial analyst, collaborator, and coordinator to name a few. At any moment, I had to put on one of those hats and execute.
The sum of all those skills were required to persuade a seller to list their property with me. For example, to prepare for the listing pitch, I had to do market research to come up with the most competitive listing price. I had to understand basic math and finance (time value of money) to provide accurate financial ratios for investors.
I had to collaborate, communicate, coordinate, and manage relationships with appraisers, inspectors, and lenders on my deals to preempt any unpleasant closing day surprises.
I had to have technical savvy and a decent creative eye to design listing flyers, then post and track them on marketing platforms.
![KMO24781-Edit](https://latishagrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/KMO24781-Edit.jpg)
![669Boulevard](https://latishagrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/669Boulevard.jpg)
![1135 Oakland Lane](https://latishagrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1135-Oakland-Lane.jpg)
I had to stay current on market and social media trends and tools.I had to write marketing copy that resulted in sales. I had to attend networking events and build positive relationships with other brokers for future deal collaboration.
All this experience transfers, almost, seamlessly to the competencies required for UX research and design operations. Or to roles like SCRUM product owner or project management roles. These roles require one to be just as agile and cross-functional as I was as a multifamily investment sales consultant. For example, replace real estate buyer and seller clients with user/customer and business stakeholder. All we do is for their pleasure.
As to cross-functional communication and coordination, insert appraiser, lender, and inspector as the team members instead of SCRUM master, developers (coders, UX/UI design, etc.) and SCRUM product owner team members in a software context. And as to necessary communication with business stakeholders, my investment analysis and bookkeeping experience enable me to speak to and translate their concerns. This is how I see my real estate sales experience transferring to a software development support context.
If you are interested to learn more details about my real estate journey and career lessons (e.g., cautionary tales) then read My Journey and Multifamily Properties the Smart Way.