I’ve met many outstanding business owners and agents during my “four-i tour” of Australia including Alexander Phillips who sold properties that gave him a personal commission of $8.15million, (that’s pound sign 4.89million for readers in the UK), last year.

As I hope you’d expect, I asked one very simple question: “how did you do it?” His reply might disappoint some of you as it’s a GOBO, (Glimpse of the Blindingly Obvious), but despite that it’s worth noting as whilst being very simple in theory it’s rarely put into practice.

Alexander replied, and I quote word for word: “Mate, it’s really simple – first you’ve got to work in an area where you can generate that level of income – if the area isn’t big enough or affluent enough, or where people don’t move that often, you’re not going to do that level of business and second, you’ve got to make the calls.”

That’s it – Alex made $8.15million by working in the right location and calling people.

I delved deeper. “Tell me about your area”, I asked. “Mate”, (he uses that term a lot), “I work in a part of Sydney where there are lots of expensive properties, with lots of people who move frequently who are prepared to pay a decent fee.” I noted this sounded quite easy and he said, “well it would be if it wasn’t for the competition” – as you can imagine, Alex isn’t the only EA to see the opportunity. “So how do you beat the competition?”, “I call more people than they do” was his reply.

This is the key part – Alex prospects every single working day calling people on his database and updating his records and is relentless with this activity. Up to four, 45-minute call sessions per day is his norm, and what’s more, this activity is his priority – nothing else take precedence. And the calls are all structured and rehearsed and they’re relevant and remarkable. Most interesting of all perhaps is that these conversations are practiced and practiced – they are not left to chance or “winged” in the moment. And here’s something else that’s noteworthy – despite being Australia’s number one, in terms of commission income, Alex is still coached to do even better, indeed this year he’s chasing  a target of $10million. And here’s some great news for UK readers, his coach for the last eight years is returning to the UK in just a few weeks. Josh Phegan meets Alex every Saturday morning at 7am and they discuss all aspects of EA that help to drive this incredible performance. And Josh is in London on September 30th to deliver his “Step Up” programme – details here and will be sharing many of the initiatives he has developed with Alex, and his other elite coaching clients.

There is a third reason Alex is so successful that perhaps he’s not aware of or it’s just hardwired into his system – and that’s his passion for the job he does. Quite frankly, his enthusiasm is second to no one I’ve met, he lives and breathes estate agency. And my sense is that it’s this passion that is lacking in so many of his and for that matter your competitors. When you love doing something it no longer is work, it’s just what you do – and of course, as you get better at what you do, so it’s all the easier to do it again and again. Which is what Australia’s $8million man does, the same thing day in, day out… Prospecting – making calls: calls that deliver $8million.