Broker Di Antonio on trust and the long game
Virginia Di Antonio is a sales and charter broker for Moravia Yachting.
The first time she sat down with the owner he pulled out five proposals from five of the biggest brokerages.
“Why should I trust you?” he asked. Virginia Di Antonio was hoping to secure the listing for the 52m Sanlorenzo Seven Sins but as a fledgling broker she knew she was up against it.
She took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you why, because to all of these brokers who have been in the industry for 20 years, you’re just another boat,” she said.
“I’ve never represented a 52m yacht, but that’s what’s going to make me tick because for me, you are the most important vessel that I represent.”
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For Di Antonio, the strategy was to turn her own limitations into her strengths.
“I tried to really embody the things that made me valuable,” she says. “Yes, I am young; yes, I do have a lot to learn, but that’s also why I might look at things in a different way.”
This creativity manifested this week in Di Antonio’s sale of the 18m Arcadia Goddess of the Moon.
With only one cabin but a spacious aft deck, it was a “very specific platform” and needed some ingenuity to sell it.
“People in that size range are very price sensitive,” adds Moravia Yachting’s Di Antonio. “If they’re going to spend €2m they want real estate. I said, ‘OK, we need to change the narrative. This cannot be just any 18m day boat. It needs to be something that people can see themselves using.’”
She organised open days with music bubbling and drinks flowing on deck to show the lifestyle the boat could offer. The owner’s trust in her paid off and it sold within five months.
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For Di Antonio, it is testament to playing the long game and building relationships that endure. She had known the client since she first began in the industry five years ago as a 22-year-old sales assistant at Y.CO.
“It’s not about the boat, it’s about the relationship that you have with someone and the way they trust you,” says Di Antonio.
“It’s about being who you are and being authentic. For me it’s being very transparent, open and knowing your limitations. You can’t make people do anything. They need to get to that conclusion themselves.”
Sowing seeds
The owner of Seven Sins was convinced and gave her the listing. She didn’t go on to sell it, but the client still seeks her advice.
“I very much look at the bigger picture rather than the quick win,” she says “I’m also someone who wants to maintain certain integrity and values. This industry, unfortunately, sometimes lacks that. If you are who you are, you believe in yourself and you have those values, they will come to you.
“It’s an industry where there are a lot of ups and downs. There’s a lot of moments where you doubt yourself.”
When she set out on a career in yacht sales following a master’s degree at the University of Monaco, people said to her: “You’re crazy, you have a death wish, on what level are you going to be able to sell a boat?” Her answer was to never stop learning.
“When I started, I was confronted with the fact that sometimes people don’t want to work with you, maybe because they see something in you,” says Di Antonio, who was raised between Italy, Spain and the US.
“It put me back a little, but it was also the thing that made me move forward and say, ‘OK, I know I have what it takes, build a thick skin and keep moving’. After so many years, you start seeing the seeds that you planted flower.”
‘Nothing surprises me any more’
From Y.CO she moved into a sales broker role with YPI. It was there she represented the seller and introduced the buyer for Alamshar, the 50m vessel capable of speeds in excess of 45 knots built by former British yard Devonport in 2014 for Aga Khan IV, who died last year.
“It’s very specific. It’s one of the fastest boats ever built, with six gas turbines,” she says. “Given the maintenance and operating costs, there were very few people in the world who would have even looked at it.
“So again, I thought, how do we market this? I looked for people who would appreciate the yacht’s history and what she represented. That’s how I found the buyer.”
Except that she left YPI during this period and didn’t get the credit for it.
“News never came out that I was the one who introduced the buyer,” she says. “But then again, the industry is so small. The boat is based in Monaco and people walk past it and I’m sitting having coffee with the new owner. So it doesn’t take a genius to understand who did what. But it was disappointing.”
She adds: “Nothing is straightforward in this industry. Nothing surprises me anymore. I find it fascinating, in a sense.”
The first question to ask
Recognition is part of the equation, but it is a byproduct of making her clients happy, she insists.
“I kind of hate when people call us brokers, because, yes, we do broker a deal, but we do that knowing that we want to look after their own interests,” says Di Antonio, who has built an extensive client base in the Middle East. “We’re advising them on where we believe their experience will be with that particular vessel.
“It’s about getting to know the people that you work for and with. That’s what keeps me hooked to the industry, because you sit at tables and have conversations with people that otherwise you would never get to meet. It’s stimulating.”
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Certain clients always leave her “in awe” when they meet, she says.
“I always learn something when they speak. It’s mostly about the way they live life. It’s not about being happy. It’s about feeling joyful,” she explains. “The two are very different things. Joy is about feeling grateful for what you have and where you go and what you do with the people that are around you.
“Some people who have a lot of money are miserable. And that makes you think. You can have everything you want. But then if you don’t have that ecosystem around you, then it’s not worth anything.”
That’s why the first question she asks people who say they want to buy a boat is: “What do you want to do with it?” She’s trying to work out if it is more for a trophy asset or as a platform for enjoying swimming with their kids, for example.
“They are different things. As brokers, we really need to start listening more to clients and understanding what they want,” she adds.
Where are the mentors?
For Di Antonio, the younger generation of professionals in the yachting industry can add real value because they look at the world through a different lens.
“Younger people understand it’s not about the asset itself, it’s about the experience you have with the people you bring on board,” she says.
“I took a client to the Fort Lauderdale boat show who is 21 and came in by helicopter. He wants to spend half a million dollars on a charter.
“These people don’t want to sit uptight looking at someone dressed like a lawyer or a banker. They want to go out and have fun.”
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On the flip side, to harness this “creativity and understanding of where the world is going”, the younger generation in yachting needs mentors, she suggests.
“We do need people who are not gatekeepers,” she says. “Nobody wants to be the kind of person who takes you under their wing and shows you the ropes. And it’s a true shame because it’s a beautiful industry. There is enough for everybody in this industry.
“The whole point to me is we need to learn how to collaborate more with each other.”
There have been setbacks and “hard lessons”, but they just add to that veneer of resilience, says Di Antonio.
“I know that having this experience early on has helped me and will help me in the long run,” she adds.
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