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House Beat

Paul Deffenbaugh
The editor's spot at a Professional Builder offers the best armchair view of the housing industry. In this blog, I hope to take you inside that view, presenting the industry to you in new ways that are fun, surprising, eye-opening, and -- I hope -- refreshing.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Hello Management, Your Sales Office Is Calling

Aug 4 2008 3:51PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (5) |
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I received an anonymous note today from a new-home sales professional who has obviously had enough of some of his company’s management practices. There was a lot of emotion in the letter, which is natural given the tough times we’re facing, but buried beneath that emotion were some specific ideas and advice for management.

Now, I’m not normally one to give credence to an anonymous note (and please don’t send me any more assuming I’ll be your clearing house for grievances against management) but I thought there were some good ideas, so I’ll summarize his points below.  

  1. Education – Please allow sales people time off to take classed offered by the NAHB. Up to four days per year helps keep the edge and – this person asserts – their loyalty to the company. You might even consider picking up some of the costs, he asks.
  2. Prospects – Purge the prospect database of leads that are more than a year old. Working out-of-date databases is a waste of resources. Any salesperson wants golden leads, of course, databases have to be updated regularly. He also points out that if advertising dollars are tight (and of course they are) invest in mailing lists.
  3. Meetings – Holding sales meetings for their own sake is a waste of time and de-motivating. Make the team accountable for providing content. Suggestions include: a challenge to the sales team, community survey results, book review, new website to share, street buzz, product information, tips from outside the industry. Consider creating mini teams to do role playing. My anonymous writer also suggests rotating meeting chair responsibility.
  4. Shoppers – This is a touchy subject because it has the potential for embarrassment. My writer asks that sales managers review the tapes before going over them with the individual to get a sense of the team’s deficiencies. Then put together a program to address that. Above all, don’t view the tapes and then not have any follow up. That only embarrasses the sales person without giving the structure necessary for improvement.
  5. Wages – The crux of the matter is that sometimes sales people don’t make projections and it’s not because of them. (Read construction delays, here.) Joe Anonymous asks that mid-year adjustments to the sales expenses to cover out-of-pocket costs; offer performance incentives; provide bonuses for work beyond the sales such as money-saving tips, community involvement, achieving industry designation, great marketing ideas.
Please comment. Good? Bad? Ugly?

Reader Comments


at 8/23/2008 5:26:17 AM, Roger Fiehn MIRM said:
AMEN!

at 8/23/2008 12:59:05 PM, Kirk Hartley said:
Stated to the point, agree, agree.

at 8/27/2008 5:55:20 AM, Alan Parrow -Bull Free Solutions said:
purging the database of leads more than a year old would purge about 60% of true buyers in that "longer cycle" market. But, with the downturn now well into its third year, I will bet dollars to donuts that even for builders working in starter and move-up markets, the majority of people who will buy soon have been in the databse for well over a year.

at 9/1/2008 12:05:37 PM, Janis Randazzo said:
On the topic of sales meetings, this has been an issue in both good and bad markets. For too many years Sales Managers have held "housekeeping" meetings that could easily have been conducted via memo or email, mainly due to their inability to come up with a fresh idea or something motivating for their team. With the price of gas, a sales meeting for the sake of "meeting" makes no sense and will have the opposite effect on the frontline teams. I believe the most positive part of this market shift will be the shift of sales management. Hopefully this results in a team of managers that asks their teams for help, topical ideas and makes them part of the meeting process, as the writer suggests.

at 9/7/2008 2:26:13 PM, wattsline said:
I''ve been doing this longer than most will admit to and would say that it is time that the housing industry catch up with other industries out there when it comes to sales. Sales people are just that PEOPLE pay them a salary with a bonus that is paid, quarterly. And for exceptual proformance an annual bonus. CRM are used in every form of sales. The challange is making sales friendly. I have helped to design 3 CRM''s and every time management and IT department get to envolved it become a tool to evaluate the sale staff productivity. Instead of a tool increase productivity. I currently work with a CRM that requires 5 clicks to get to the record and 5 click to get out. Shoppers are used in every industry and if your on your game it''s no big deal. As long as it is used to improve the rough spots and not as a reason to fire a sales person. Meeting some time turn out to be administrative overload meetings. Sales meeting should leave the sale people with smile on the face an a buring in their gut to go get a sale.

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