Kevin Shuker - Bringing business acumen to real estate career

Having recently joined Tall Poppy’s Tauranga South team, Kevin is bringing his four decades of business skill and his Midas touch, and turning his hand to the real estate industry - a move he says makes his career feel fulfilled. 

Sales, he says, ultimately comes down to the “old-fashioned values” of gaining respect and trust from clients by being polite, friendly and knowledgeable, first and foremost. 

“I’ve been selling for the past 40 years and was brought up and trained to always build a relationship with your clients while you sold to or for them,” he says. 

With a combination of owning his own businesses, as well as consulting with others to help them build their businesses and brands, Kevin has vast experience in every part of the sales process. He started out in commercial furniture before founding a manufacturing business that he ran successfully for 20 years, seeing an impressive 30 to 40 percent year-on-year growth throughout.  

A move to the Bay of Plenty in 2015 saw him shift focus onto helping others achieve those levels of growth, but he missed the interactions and relationship-building aspects of selling - and the real estate industry beckoned. 

“Real estate is probably the best structured selling environment you can find as a salesman,” he says. 

“A professional salesman needs the contact of people and product to keep them active and to allow them to shine. I looked at the whole industry, and the offerings of different real estate brands before being drawn to Tall Poppy.