REA : Reflecting on six years of leadership in Sales, with Rose Angelopoulos

At REA, our sales teams are energised by possibilities. And it is these possibilities and opportunities that have kept Rose Angelopoulos here for almost 6 years.

I spoke with Rose about her experiences as a Sales Leader working across our Residential and Real Commercial Australia brands. She also shared her learnings over the years, as well as the top skills she looks for in a sales candidate.

Rose, tell us about your career journey at REA? 

I have been fortunate enough to have had significant career development opportunities at REA. Almost 6 years ago, I joined as a Sales Manager in the Residential sales team based in Melbourne. After almost 4 years in that role, I moved across to our Real Commercial Australia (RCA) sales team to learn another brand under the REA Group. Most recently, I was promoted to a new role heading up our sales team in Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia for both Residential and Commercial.

What has been a pivotal moment in your career?

There have been many pivotal moments in my career, however, I have two standouts. One being when I moved from the Residential team to the RCA team. While the customers were similar in that they were real estate agents, they were also a lot of differences. Our Commercial customers often work with investors or people in business that can be local, national, or international. A residential customer works with people selling or buying their "home" which can lend itself to more local area. Some customers will work across both residential and Commercial, however most customers tend to specialise in one.

The transition to another team at REA was also a great opportunity for me to work a lot closer with internal stakeholders such as Marketing, Finance and Product, and to use a different website and App with different resourcing and operating rhythms.

Another standout was when I returned from maternity leave. It was an adjustment getting back to working life, however I quickly realised two things:

1. I still had all of my skills; it was just like getting back on a bike after not riding for a while,

and

2. REA was super supportive and flexible in helping me transition back to work effectively!

Rose with her team from Real Commercial Australia.

What are the top sales skills that you look for in a candidate?

Behaviours and values are most important to me. Anyone can learn about a product or a service offering. You can't necessarily teach someone to have that hunger, passion, or drive. Sales is a fast-paced industry that requires resilience, grit, and a passion for what you do. We also work super close as a team, so for me a person that is a suitable cultural fit is very important. And finally, you need to be able to connect with our customers and understand their needs with a curious mindset.

What has been an important learning(s) for you as a leader?

There have been so many over the years and I think as leader you always learn; you never really graduate from the school of leadership! An important lesson I learnt early on, is to be me, bring my true self to work, people want the authentic you as a leader. I also think being vulnerable as a leader is important as it sets the tone with the team and allows them to do the same.

Rose and James Rogers, one of our Senior Account Partner's on the road seeing customers with a cafe stop to prepare for the meeting.

How do you make sure your team feels empowered?

Setting clarity is important to ensure your team feel empowered, it's also important to then get out of their way and let them do what they are great at. Feedback and regular check ins are also important along the way and this helps the team to feel connected, heard and supported.

Team Real Commercial Australia.

What are you most proud of? What do you love most about your job?

I am most proud of seeing my team grow, develop, and learn. It's so rewarding when you see your team succeed in the way that they want to, it's really something very special to see while knowing that you played a role in that. When you see someone close that important deal or get that promotion they've worked hard for, it's very cool.

There are so many things I love about my job. I choose to come to work because I genuinely enjoy what I do, I love helping the team and helping our customers. Seeing our customers thrive is exciting and working for a company that supports their people and continues to innovate is what has kept me at REA over the years.

What has been the best piece of professional advice you've ever received?

Focus on the big rocks, as a leader you can be pulled in many different directions. It's important to focus on the things that will have the most impact for the team, the business, and our customers. It's also OK to not know it all and take the many gifts that come from failure or a missed opportunity.

Looking to the future. What do you think the Sales market will look like/what kind of skills will be pivotal in ensuring we can deliver best value to our customers?

Looking to the future, I think we will continue to see sales working in a hybrid world of in-person and virtual. I also think we will need sales teams to continue to personalise value based on each customer's challenges and pain points. Salespeople will need to continue to be agile, and we will need to continue to find ways to support the ever-changing needs of our customers.

Thanks to Rose for sharing her awesome sales leadership experience with us. In the spirit of development, we look forward to seeing how the world of sales continues to evolve with today's hybrid working environment, and the implications that will have on the types of talent we bring into our teams.