What qualifications do you need to become a yacht broker?

Incredibly, the answer to that question is “NONE”!

That’s right, you can sell superyachts worth millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars, without so much as a rudimentary high school education. 

Does that mean that it is an easy thing to do? Absolutely not. The requirements for selling yachts don’t lie in having a university degree or any form of formal education, although doubtless being well educated helps with most things in life, including sales! The requirements are more linked to an emotional IQ rather than an Academic IQ.

One of the greatest requirements is the ability to build relationships. Yacht brokerage is, in fact, a relationships business.

I was reminded of this fact a few days ago whilst filming a beautiful explorer yacht in Turkey. One of the owners of the yacht was on board because she wanted to explain some of the design features to me, and she had her two young children with her. During the visit, the broker representing the yacht sent her a WhatsApp message with this cleverly made picture of the yacht for the kids to colour in so that they wouldn’t get board.

 This kind of thoughtful gesture makes such a difference to the relationship between client and broker. It is so much more pleasurable to do business with a thoughtful person who has your best interests at heart. Little things like that build up to make a very strong business relationship that is difficult to break down when other brokers are pursuing your client.

The Yacht Broker Masterclass has an entire module entitled “It’s a Relationships Business”. It’s not just the relationship with the owner of the yacht, but also relationships with a host of other people involved in the deal..I recount some pretty interesting stories to illustrate the point.

On July 17th at 7pm CEST I shall be hosting another webinar, this time entitled “Three Secrets to Brokerage Success that I learned the hard way!”. I look forward to sharing more tips with you on that occasion, so please do  register for the webinar here.