Strategies for Building a Strong Sales Team

If you’re a home builder producing a few units a year on scattered lots and you most often sell through word-of-mouth, you may think a more formal and strategic approach to home sales—and a team to implement it—is only for larger-volume companies.

It’s not. In fact, a strong sales process and team can improve your business. And if you want to build more homes and sell at scale, a sales process and dedicated team are crucial.

Start With a Leader to Help You Build Your Sales Team

Going from smaller volume to production building is no easy task, but a sales consultant or knowledgeable mentor can provide great value to help you navigate that journey.

Having an experienced home sales manager to help you find, recruit, and onboard sales consultants can save months or even years of frustration and missteps. If you lack production building experience or are unfamiliar with a given market segment, having access to others who have traveled that road before is an opportunity not only to learn from their first-hand experiences, but also to avoid the mistakes they made along their path.

Recruiting and Hiring for Your Sales Team

There are a lot of stereotypes for salespeople, especially in real estate. For example, managers often assume anyone with the gift of gab would be a natural for a sales role. In reality, there are other, more important, traits than being able to talk with customers.

Being process-oriented is key for salespeople—especially for production home builders. Builders often get inquiries from many potential buyers at once, and there are many interruptions in the sales cycle. Being able to follow a clear process can help the sales team stay on track and remain organized.

You also want to hire someone who is open-minded to your process. Just because a candidate has a lot of real estate or even new-construction sales experience doesn’t mean he or she understands your process. Being able to adapt is vital. Look for candidates who are not married to their ideas around sales and what tactics have worked for them in the past or in other industries. 

Creativity is important, too. There should not be a lot of rules or limitations in their thought process, such as assuming a buyer must see a house in person before buying it. Given the increase in online sales and “buy it now” behaviors, not to mention the frenzy of demand we’ve seen during the last two years, old rules may no longer apply in all cases.

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Self-motivation is also critical for salespeople. Your sales representative must be able to identify their individual life goals. What is the driving force behind their passion and desire to sell homes? Undoubtedly, production homes sales is a competitive market. A salesperson’s “why” keeps them going during the highs and lows of the sales process. 

It can be difficult to find salespeople who are both qualified and willing to leave their existing job to join your company. Open your mind to candidates outside of home building; the job is often a great fit for someone with experience in property leasing or retail sales, for example. And don’t be afraid to recruit in high-end shopping areas. If someone knows how to sell the value of something and has the traits mentioned above, they can probably sell the lifestyle you’re offering homebuyers.

Provide Support to Keep Salespeople Engaged and Growing Professionally

Hiring the right people helps reduce turnover, but it’s even more important to provide continued training and support to keep your team members engaged and improving. Training should be ongoing, even for experienced home salespeople, and should be specific to your process.

It’s important to understand burnout and challenges as well, so you help your sales teamwork through both common and unique sales obstacles they may face. Staying motivated and persevering in sales is critical to sustained success. You need to monitor your sales team’s motivation levels and stress before they burn out.

A great sales team also needs support from other areas of the business. Make sure you’re providing floor plans and amenities buyers want to buy. You might be the best home builder in the area, but that won’t matter much if you can’t get potential home buyers in the door, whether in person or virtually.

Also, marketing experts are important in helping to establish and grow a brand presence in your local market and driving leads to your sales office and (increasingly) to your website. Marketing is nuanced, and therefore requires continuous evaluation and refinement. Working alongside someone who understands your brand and product, and can keep their finger on the pulse of the marketplace, goes hand-in-hand with closing home sales.

Your sales team can be your greatest asset, but you have to put the right people in the right jobs and provide the support they need to thrive to see true results.

Amy McCormick is national sales manager at Epcon Franchising. Epcon Franchise Builders are given exclusive access to the home building business blueprint that has helped Epcon become a top U.S. builder year after year. For more information, visit epconfranchising.com.