By Aaron Wagner, Sales Director in Florida - New Home Star
The new home sales industry is in continuous flux. Homebuilding professionals understand that countless factors contribute to the rise or fall of sales, and these factors are constantly discussed in magazines, conferences, and webinars to help sales agents better grasp market conditions. These tools bring us tremendous insight, and we should absolutely take advantage of them; however, many of these resources only look at the new construction market on a macro level. Enter the quarterly business plan.
What is a quarterly business plan?
Grasping large-scale economic conditions may not help fix that one underperforming community in your division. A tool that every homebuilder has but sometimes fails to use is its own sales team. Who better to offer insight on a micro level than the people who are in the trenches, day in and day out? A quarterly business plan is a strategy that helps align new home sales team leaders and their teams on current business goals. The plan consists of the previous quarter's completed tasks, projects, and the goals achieved. It also adjusts current goals and outlines objectives for the next three months.
To harness the strength of this knowledge, New Home Star has developed a quarterly business plan presentation initiative. In a nutshell, each sales agent stands in front of their builder and communicates impactful observations and ideas about their community.
The quarterly business plan structure
1. Review of the previous quarter's traffic, sales, and marketing initiatives.
2. Preview of new quarterly traffic, sales, and marketing goals.
3. Address items needed from the builder to achieve these goals.
Whether you deliver a formal presentation or not, it's good to adopt a structure similar to this when collaborating with your builder partner. Here are a few tips for maximizing salesperson-builder communication:
Quarterly business plan tips for sales professionals
Be accurate. Understand who is in your audience. In most cases, the individuals in the room are financially or engineer-minded. Make sure that the numbers you display are 100% accurate. Any misstep in detail can discredit your entire presentation.
Be specific and strategic. Create and deliver a thoughtful, detailed, and objective plan for your community. Ambiguity in your presentation — whether from insecurity or lack of preparation — will only result in apathy from your audience. As one of our top builder partners said, "Generalities are the sign of a weak mind."
Don't complain. Nothing positive can come from being negative. Don't let your emotions cause you to lose sight of why you're communicating these thoughts in the first place. Set the stage for a successful quarter!
Quarterly business plan tips for home builders
Be present. This means more than just being in the room. Close the laptop, turn off the phone, and truly listen to your salespeople's feedback. View this exchange as an opportunity to collaborate on ideas to make your business more successful.
Be open-minded. Remember that you and your salespeople are on the same team. It can be challenging to embrace new initiatives, especially if they are costly. However, the greatest strength of these presentations is that many new strategies have the potential to drive more traffic and, ultimately, more sales!
About the author: Aaron Wagner is a successful sales leader based in Central Florida. Entering the industry as a sales trainee for New Home Star in 2012, Aaron has ascended through the ranks to now serve as a sales director for Maronda Homes in Melbourne, Florida. Aaron's passion for leadership fits perfectly with New Home Star's mission to Build the Best Sales Team in the World, and he is working every day to achieve it for Maronda Homes.
