Photos by Ryan Parent
By Kelly Putter
When you tally the numbers in Maggie Tessier’s career you’d be foolish to say the figures aren’t impressive. But the irony is it’s never been primarily about being a top-performing real estate professional for this Sudbury native.
Tessier is a fitting example of someone who gets a big kick out of helping people. While that can sound lame and cliché, it’s her passion for people that has driven her to be the success she is today. Simply put, she’s into helping others in a big way.
“I love what I do, that’s a definite,” says Tessier from her Exit Realty office in Embrun, Ont., a largely French-speaking bedroom community of about 8,700 some 25 minutes outside of Ottawa. “I get excited by my work.”
Helping others now extends to mentoring and coaching other real estate agents. She has counselled many sales reps across the country, who after hearing of her success, call her looking for advice or direction. She even assists non-agents when they come to her puzzled by questions about career development, marketing or hiring staff.
“That’s where the joy is – it’s about sharing all of this with other people,” says Tessier, who loves taking people under her wing and sharing her business acumen. “I want to be a blessing to the people around me. I think my purpose is about giving back.”
The mother of three launched her real estate career against the advice of many naysayers in 1997 after a divorce. She would soon find Exit Realty, a company whose hands-on, supportive philosophy was simpatico with hers. In 1999 she was asked to open an Exit office in Cornwall, Ont., driving the hour commute back and forth from her home in Hawkesbury. But it wasn’t long before she decided a move to Ottawa was the only hope for her youngest son, who needed more intensive help with a learning disability.
Joining Exit Realty in Ottawa in 2001, Tessier was put to the test. The big city daunted her small-town sensibility. Understanding north from south or east from west was problematic at first and she had no real contacts. Essentially, she was a fish out of water. So she took every course imaginable, hired a graphic designer and set about branding her practice. In the end, she became known as the agent with the orange VW beetle that hollered the simple word “Results” on the side.
She farmed one geographic area, handing out flyers, doing other agents’ open houses, booking previews and visiting builders to learn about their model homes. Her hard work and untiring dedication paid off. In her first year she sold more than 50 homes. Tessier’s daughter Julie joined the family business in 2003, a year before Tessier opened her second Exit office in Orleans. She is planning to open a third office this summer on Merivale at Hunt Club in Ottawa.
With Exit Realty, Tessier has sold over 2,000 properties and taken on nearly 2,300 listings in the last 10 years. With a sales volume of almost $450-million in the past decade and a gross commission of over $10-million, Tessier can sit back a little. Today, she takes Friday nights and weekends off, though she still puts in 55 hours a week.
Tessier’s achievements were lauded recently at Exit’s annual convention, held this year in Washington, D.C. Tessier earned the company’s all-around sales champion honours known as the Tri-Real-A-Thon Award. Tessier also took home the awards for top grossing sales in North America and the top listings taken in North America. She was also the recipient of the Million Dollar Circle Designation Award, Platinum Sales Award and Double Diamond Award recognizing more than 2,000 cumulative sales transaction ends.
One of the secrets to her success is putting good, solid people and systems in place.
“You’ve got to give people the tools and the training to do their job,” she says. “I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t have good people around me. I sometimes think the administrators and secretaries are the ones who should be getting the praise. For me, it’s very important that they know I truly value them.”
Sales reps also need to know their product inside out to be successful. In addition, they need to consider their core values and their brand – what sets them apart from the next agent. Tessier says it’s important to let people know you’re a real estate agent, so shout it from the rooftops if you have to (or paint your car orange). Use your sphere of influence – the core area of people, groups, associations, businesses, schools – that you deal with on a regular basis and really work it. Farm a geographic area and learn all you can about it. Ask for referrals and have a strong database. Implement systems that help you stay organized and on top of things.
“Things will begin to mushroom into different areas. But you have let people know you’re in business. You can’t be a top secret agent.”
Tessier’s need for helping others extends beyond Canada and she has volunteered her time in Kenya doing cleaning and sterilization work for dentists at a mobile medical camp. Her experience led her to meet up with two young boys and a girl, all of whom she now assists by helping pay for their education.
Tessier and her husband Guy Bianchi, a kitchen and bathroom cabinet manufacturer, are avid adventure travellers who enjoy roughing it with the locals in exotic locales and lesser-travelled parts of the world. They’ve been to Vietnam, Egypt and Cambodia. The pair is planning a trip to China this fall.
In the meantime, Tessier is the extremely proud grandmother of six grandchildren (a seventh is on the way) and she enjoys nothing better than babysitting, attending their soccer matches or watching them perform in a music recital.
“Right now I’m having so much fun with my grandkids,” she says. “We all go to church on Sundays and then they come out of Sunday school and we go out for breakfast. My little grandson had his last ski lesson and they had a little parade and to see him coming down on his skis in the parade – well, there’s nothing better than that.”
