Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) February 04, 2012
Jeremy Skogquist of NIH Homes, a home builder in Minneapolis, recently needed to hire a new salesperson. He thought with the current economy and unemployment he’d have a plethora of great candidates to choose from. He was wrong.
“I reviewed nearly 100 resumes and had trouble finding 6 candidates I’d consider,” Skogquist recently commented.
It seems with all the negative news towards the home building industry many qualified candidates are steering clear of this career path. This became clear to Skogquist as he reviewed resumes.
“I wasn’t looking for someone with experience in new home sales. On the contrary, I wanted someone with a background in sales outside of the industry that we could train in our system,” said Skogquist.
Skogquist turned to Rick Storlie of New Home Sales Coach for assistance. Storlie has put together a three step process for recruiting, training and managing new home and remodeling salespeople.
“I see a lot of builders who limit the growth of their company by not hiring a salesperson or keeping the wrong salespeople around too long. They’re not sure how to find, compensate, train or manage salespeople,” said Storlie.
Storlie’s system begins with an online recruiting process that removes unqualified candidates through a series of filters. By the time a builder sits down for an interview, they only need to talk with the top 2-3 candidates and don’t waste their time with others not suited for the position.
“You never want to post an ad in a newspaper because any candidate looking in the paper isn’t in tune with how new home and remodeling prospects shop, which is online,” said Storlie. “It’s also incredibly important you never sell the candidate on the job. They need to sell you and there’s a specific process we walk them through to prove their skill set.”
The second part of Storlie’s system is introductory sales training. It’s designed to be completed in the first 60 days a candidate is hired.
“I designed an initial 16 part home builder sales training and 9 part remodeler sales training course that is accessible online 24/7. The new hire can access video training tutorials along with sample scripts to complete the training. They have to prove to the builder a thorough understanding of the sales process through written answers and role play demonstrations,” Storlie commented.
Finally, Storlie designed a process for managing the daily activities of salespeople.
“The mistake builders make is using a sale, or lack thereof, as the only metric for management. The right activities will create the next sale. The key is to measure those activities and build a support system around them,” Storlie remarked.
Storlie makes an interesting point on firing a salesperson. He claims that if the proper expectations are established and measured a builder never has to fire a salesperson. Rather, the salesperson will “un-hire” themselves when they fail to meet expectations.
“Managing salespeople is all about directing energy. When you direct energy towards sales-generating activities and measure them weekly, you’ll have successful salespeople,” said Storlie.
Storlie has documented this recruiting, training and management process into his Game Day Coaching membership website. Any builder can try Game Day Coaching for 6 days at no cost.
Simply visit http://www.gamedaycoaching.com/welcome/ to discover more about Game Day Coaching and start a free trial.
About Rick Storlie: Rick Storlie of New Home Sales Coach has been helping home builders and remodelers reach their sales goals since 1992. Visit NHSalesCoach.com to access Rick’s free Sales and Marketing Tutorial Library full of home builder marketing tips from generating new leads, Realtor strategies, sales techniques and sales management secrets. Storlie can be reached at 952-895-5566 or by visiting http://www.nhsalescoach.com.
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