It’s no secret that the housing industry is in the midst of a down market: existing home sales have ticked down over recent months, and amid falling demand, prices have tumbled from record highs. Economist Ian Shepherdson predicts a “sustained decline” in the sector through next spring.
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun shared an interesting quote on the future of the market that was included in a recent Forbes article:
“Inventory will remain tight in the coming months and even for the next couple of years,” Yun says. “Some homeowners are unwilling to trade up or trade down after locking in historically low mortgage rates in recent years, increasing the need for more new-home construction to boost supply.”
With new home construction still on the rise, why consider partnering with New Home Star?
New Home Star is the largest private seller of new homes in America, partnered with some of the industry’s most revered home builders. We are a modern new home sales management firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation. With a tech-first approach, we have our fingers on the pulse of customers’ needs and are fully in touch with best practices for building a top-performing sales team that can sell in any market.
Below are five reasons why builders have decided to move forward with a New Home Star partnership — and how we might be able to help you weather the current market:
Our Training is Top-Notch & Ever-Evolving
To keep pace with today’s changing customer needs, new home salespeople need to be learning and re-learning everything about the markets they operate in — and staying in touch with how to meet new customer demands.
When you compare what we can do from a training perspective, our offerings are unmatched. First, we have an entire department of sales trainers and consultants creating new training material on a weekly basis. Second, we combine that intelligence with the use of an Ops Cycle.
Our Ops Cycle is very unique in that it arms our salesforce with nuanced community intelligence collected through a systematic approach — and on a quarterly basis. It culminates in a complete community sales blueprint and provides a defined framework for action. The entire process is done through our online platform for easy sharing, exporting, and analysis.
We like to think of our Ops Cycle as an “Apple Watch” of sales training: just like an Apple Watch shows your heart rate history plus steps walked for both the day and data from the past month, the Ops Cycle can show you all of this historical data (AND make predictions for the future based on them). Together, we not only teach the best sales strategies and tactics, but we provide agents a framework to sell their unique community offering.
We’re a Sales-First Team & We Always Will Be
At New Home Star, we maintain a hyper-specific focus on building the best sales team we possibly can and arm our agents with everything they need to succeed. The nature of how our company is structured is sales-first: it’s the only thing we do, and we pride ourselves on being experts in the field.
We have a strong focus on motivating each other through peer learning workshops and team events. In addition, we host national team-building events around the country to gather together and foster our culture.
Our sales support team is also top-notch: we have a dedicated team of people whose job is to come into a market and analyze any issue or challenges that might happen. This is unheard of at other new home sales companies! Our robust support team always steps in and has seen it all — they can tackle any issue that may arise and predict future problems.
Not having the right sales training and support can mean the difference between creating a premier brand position or falling short with an unmemorable one. During a downturn especially, building a memorable brand is of the utmost importance to entice and retain customers. If customer service is not properly implemented, the damage to your online reputation and Realtor community can stay with you for years. Making strong sales and support a priority is worthwhile for long-term, sustained success.
Our Executive-Level Consulting Makes All the Difference
The New Home Star Executive team has nearly 150 years of combined experience and provides hands-on support for our clients. While new home sales work at other companies can typically be outsourced and led by more junior team members, we make it a priority to weave executive-level experience into our client support and ensure our clients receive the level of expertise they need. Our seasoned executives have weathered downturns before — they know what your team needs to make it through this type of market and continue providing the best possible services to customers.
We fly our executives in to participate in on-the-ground events and make sure they get ample time in person with clients. One recent example: we flew our Executive team to a partner event. The day started at 7:30 am and ended at 5:30 pm, and our team was focused intensely for the duration of the day on strategy planning with partners. Our execs provide the necessary guidance and industry knowledge on market position, new communities, product positioning, and more. And, they help teach our junior team the ropes and guide them toward pillars of successful new home selling.
We’re Experts at Scaling Growth Into New Markets
Opening operations in a new area, especially if located out of state, can be one of the most demanding challenges builders face — and it’s hard to get it right from the start. A tremendous amount of effort is required to recruit, train, and manage a new sales team that can provide the same quality service as in your established markets. Not only will your executive resources be stretched thin to manage the sales side of the business, but you will also have to lay the foundation for the operational processes and the building out of trade partnerships.
By choosing to partner with New Home Star, you gain access to our expertise, processes, and Recruitment team to build a top-performing sales team that focuses on your expansion effort. We do the hard work that expansion into new markets entails while allowing you to focus on the big picture. We provide community-level market analysis — a market performance report that looks at both new construction and resale trends for optimal pricing and positioning.
We also have an award-winning Recruitment team: we’ve recently been named a top-three best place to work by Glassdoor and the #1 firm by Crain’s Chicago Business (large category). With our brand on your side, you can tap into a new level of sales potential for your new markets.
We’re Skilled at Fixing Struggling Communities
We’re glass-half-full people: we like taking problems and turning them into opportunities. You’ve likely experienced or currently deal with a community in your division that isn’t performing well: let us help!
Our formulaic approach gives us the ability to turn your struggling community around with a proven track record. In a 90-day period, we can come in and provide a business plan that includes a community assessment, SWOT analysis, competition study, and a top-performing salesperson to staff it. We pour all of our strategic recourse as the largest private seller of new homes in America to make it work.
Many new home sellers who have been hired in the COVID-19 era of virtual everything don’t have the necessary people skills and emotional connection with clients to make lasting relationships happen. In a down market, relationships matter more than ever: you want sellers you can trust to connect 1:1 with your customers and represent your brand with positivity, personalization, and genuine connection. Let us do the hard work for you with the years of expertise and knowledge we’ve gained working with some of the biggest builders in the company. We’re here to help your team weather any economic environment and become equipped to handle any challenge thrown your way.
We offer a variety of solutions ranging from online sales concierge services and the licensing of our technology to full strategic outsource relationships for entire divisions or a single community. Contact one of our Business Strategists to provide a complimentary assessment.
