Woody Heller, executive managing director at Julien J. Studley, is a still youthful star in the real estate business who has done billions of dollars worth of transactions.

Mr. Heller sees himself as a teacher as much as a sales agent. Besides his reputation for clinching big deals, he’s known in the industry for mentoring his associates, displaying the sort of patience one wouldn’t expect of a hard-driving executive in a competitive industry.

“Teaching is gratifying,” Mr. Heller said. “I always tell my associates, ‘It’s one thing having information, but it’s how you handle it that matters.’ The way we deal with our clients is extremely important. It’s not just the quality of the product, but our style and conduct. As much as closing transactions, it’s the experience of dealing with us that I consider important.”

For example?

“I tell my associates to never use the word ‘contract,’ ” Mr. Heller said. “It can seem intimidating to a lot of people. A more acceptable word is ‘agreement.’ I constantly emphasize the importance of developing people skills, of acquiring a pleasing style. I’m very focused on how I train my staff.”

That training involves observing him in action. It means reviewing drafts of the documents they’ve prepared. It means paying attention to how they express themselves so that “ideas can resonate.”

“I want my staff to speak well,” Mr. Heller said. “That’s why I also ask grammatical questions. Language is a means of influence. That’s part of my brand.”

His brand is on display at myriad industry events where he’s asked to speak, as well as at philanthropic occasions, such as the benefit dinner that Mr. Heller recently emceed at the Rainbow Room for the Harlem Educational Activities Fund. It’s also on display when he meets potential customers from major financial institutions, pension funds, private investors, and offshore owners.

When it comes to showing a property, Mr. Heller works from the perspective of the buyer.

“I always start with points of concern,” he said. “I say to a buyer, ‘Here are the problems, here’s how we’ll solve the challenges.’ By relaxing their concerns, prospective buyers are able to better focus on the positives of the transaction.”

When he was studying at Stanford University, Mr. Heller considered becoming a composer. But he switched his major from music to social sciences because “I was afraid I’d starve in music.”

He went through campus job interviews. Then he came across an old friend while playing squash. The friend persuaded him to go into real estate.

“I didn’t know anything about real estate,” Mr. Heller said. “My expectation was that I’d stay in the field for a few years and then move on. But it’s now 24 years later, and I’m still here.”

When he started in the business, computers were a rarity, and slide rules and calculators were ubiquitous. Mr. Heller quickly learned the fundamentals of computers and just as quickly became indispensable to his firm. He was asked to travel around America to provide technical assistance at his company’s national offices.

At the same time, Mr. Heller acquired a couple of mentors – Peter Sharp Jr., and Paul Pariser, the founder of Taconic Investments and before that the CEO of Balfour Holdings.

“From them I learned selling and marketing, I learned about style and people skills,” Mr. Heller said. “I also learned that people tend to come to you once the word gets around that you provide real and thorough answers. When I’m asked to value a property, anybody can estimate a price. But it’s how you explain and justify the valuation that counts.”

As he honed his skills, he began to rack up big deals. In April 2001, Mr.Heller brokered the sale of the 1.6 million-square-foot Citigroup Center in Manhattan for $725 million. By that time, he had already closed asset and note transactions worth more than $5 billion, involving 28 million square feet of property – a stellar record by any standards.

His work caught the eye of Studley CEO Mitchell Steir. Fifty-year-old Studley is a leading national commercial real estate firm focused primarily on tenant representation and advisory services.