Sales All-Star: Judy Coffey

Judy Coffey was around the mortgage business long enough in a previous job to realize where the real action is. In just her third year after switching into new home sales, she has garnered a number of accolades, most notably a Silver Award in February from the National Sales and Marketing Council of the NAHB.

U.S. Home sales associates are trained to follow a critical path, a planned presentation that takes buyers in a specific direction that ultimately matches their needs with a one-of-a-kind fit of house and lot location. But before qualifying begins, Coffey plies prospects with cookies and beverages (a brunchlike spread on weekends), and asks questions directed at understanding their situation.

"We just kind of visit like they were a guest in my own home," says Coffey. "I take it one family at a time, and I don't count the numbers. Most times I honestly don't know how much I've sold."

Later in the first visit, she'll begin to "pre-qual" with questions about desired price range and room configurations. Hers is a "counselor" sales style. After getting "a feel for where they are coming from and where they want to go," she says, "I try to find the perfect home on the perfect lot for that experience."

When asked how she manages to stand out among her peers, she goes back to an observation that her supervisor, Sue Miller, made about Coffey's sales approach. "My boss says I sell from the heart and that people can see that I have their best interests at heart. And that I would not want to take advantage of them."

As Coffey says this, she is in her model home, waiting for a father and two sons she met only minutes before to come back into her office after viewing the models alone. "It seems like he and his wife are splitting up, so he is trying to find a home on his own for the first time," Coffey says, "and that can be a difficult process."

Audio Clip

  Judy on her sales technique