This arTicle is reprinTed from The ausTin Business Journal, residenTial real esTaTe awards, mar. 8, 2013 page B8

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practice makes perfect, or closer to it, for Tim heyl, who took a class in real estate prospecting five times because he felt there was more to be learned each time.

agents (2-3 licenses) winnerTim Heyl

Master of cold calling

TiTle: Owner and team leader

Company: the heyl GrOup llC

Team members: ray Shapley and

nate peller

WebsiTe: www.heylrealeState.COm

ToTal sales: $34.3 milliOn

Top Closed sale: $1.4 milliOn

no. of Closed TransaCTions: 135

A 25-year-old who closes 135 home sales for more than $34 million in a year is rare. Yet Tim Heyl of The Heyl Group LLC seems to have achieved this success in the most basic way: practicing the fundamentals with the patience of a veteran.

Heyl leads a five-person team that has quickly become one of the best listing and best selling teams in the Keller Williams family of agents and one of the top producers in Central Texas. And this small team has been producing because Heyl has demonstrated a unique ability to learn and relearn within the craft of residential real estate.

He once took a real estate prospecting class and learned so much he retook the class — five times.

“You don’t become an expert at something just taking a class one time,” he said.

What has come from that learning is a commitment to cold calling and searching for business.

“There are not many people who would cold call four hours a day, five days a week,” he said.

Heyl said he took up the habit of cold calling when he was getting started in the business as a means to meet people and participate in the residential real estate in-

dustry. Then he also kept taking classes through Keller Williams in cold calling. He has turned cold calling into his own art form.

When he started he would make calls until he had 20 conversations with prospects. Realizing that sales is a numbers game, his goal was to interact with 5,000 people a year. Eventually he calculated that he was getting one face-to-face appointment for every 15 calls so he resolved to have 30 conversations every day.

Heyl made an impression on Gene Rivers, a brokerage owner from North Florida who came to Austin a couple years ago to give a training class on prospecting to Keller Williams agents. Heyl approached Rivers after the class and asked if he could call him later for additional advice. Heyl continues to call Rivers for guidance.

“He is a willing student,” Rivers said. “That’s a sign of early wisdom. … He’s practiced [cold calling] more than anybody else I’ve seen. And the more he does it the better he gets.”

Rivers added that Heyl is also unique as a young agent by balancing work and life.

“Unlike most, he’s got a feel for the balance of growing

his business and having a personal life,” Rivers said. “He does what he needs to and then he goes home.”

Heyl was born and raised in Austin. After graduating from St. Michael’s Academy he attended Texas A&M Uni-versity. While taking classes in real estate finance and appraisal and other finance courses, Heyl earned his real estate license in his spare time.

“I like homes. My father is a custom homebuilder in town, and I always wanted to work for him. But he helped me realize my strength was in sales,” Heyl said.

Besides learning about prospecting, Heyl has also learned about management in working with a buyer spe-cialist, a operations manager, a listing coordinator and a team assistant.

“Just because you’re good at getting leads or making sales doesn’t mean you’re good at managing people,” said Heyl, who meets with his teammates daily to discuss their goals and how the team members can align their goals. “Everybody is working together to get the same client satisfied.”

n mick normington

Tim Heyl puts himself out there daily as he strives to convert cold calls into conversations and then to business