Sarah Dawson has joined Real+ as Head of Growth bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and experience from her 20 years in the real estate industry.
Sarah will be working in a senior capacity alongside Real+ CEO Fiona Blayney and General Manager Lauren Kirk and is responsible for the recruitment and outsourcing team and growing the business across the Real+ pillars.
Formerly Head of Sales at Rockend, Sarah spent 16 years with the company leading the sales teams across all products.
Sarah’s goal is to build the Growth team to ensure Real+ services all parts of the customer journey.
“My role is about looking at a sales strategy from a customer and internal perspective and finding the opportunities we have to provide services to the industry,” Sarah said.
“The Growth team is about ensuring we are leveraging each portion of our business so we are able to help businesses.”
Sarah says businesses need to first look internally and ask what can be done better to make the customer the focus rather than “automation for automation sake,” and then create efficient systems and procedures to support that.
Sarah’s expertise in property management means she can see the pain points felt by the industry and the way possible solutions like technology are under-used. Part of helping business uncover their potential is finding opportunities for technology to be in line with their business propositions and values. This means investing in training staff when implementing new tech systems.
“Systems across any industry are often not used to full capabilities. The project around the implementation of tech is just as important as the purchasing decision. Businesses need to know exactly what this is going to look like and that the final outcome will be in line with their end goal. There needs to be transparency so that everyone is on board and they are excited about change.”
Sarah’s experience leading and growing teams has given her insight in recruiting for a collaborative team.
“I’ve always believed that when you recruit people, it’s about them understanding the business as well as the products they are selling. A really strong supportive induction process always helps.”
“Successful people within a company are able to sell story of company. Rather than pitching product, it’s about ‘let me tell you why you should partner with us’. I’ve spent quite a bit of time doing that, and they build better, long-term relationships with the client based on trust.”
