Continuing education is a term that is often discussed in the real estate industry, but it takes on a whole new meaning for New Home Star. We don’t just put our Sales Associates through training and then leave them on their own to sink or swim. We consistently push new training content, methodologies, and resources to keep our people sharp and constantly hone their skills. By doing so, we are left with more successful sales teams that are better able to adapt to and tackle the issues of today’s selling landscape. We have structured this so that continual training happens on three scales: independently, as a local team, and as a national company.
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Independently Sharpening Skills
One of our best resources for consistently training and educating existing Sales Associates is our online platform, New Home Connect™. New Home Connect™ is built like a social media platform but offers so much more. In addition to the common features like the wall feed and chat capability, our platform offers features that help our Sales Associates to persistently become better versions of themselves. This tool accomplishes three major tasks: unify an otherwise nationally-dispersed team, motivate Sales Associates to go above and beyond, and equip them with the training tools and resources needed to tackle their responsibilities at full force.
Perhaps one of the most important features of New Home Connect™ is the training section. This section hosts nearly 150 videos that cover topics ranging from obtaining a guest registration card to reading non-verbal communication cues. This library is thoughtfully created and organized so that Sales Associates can instantly access a video that covers nearly any situation that they may be facing. Accompanying the videos are PDF notes and quizzes for each, guaranteeing that the audience has taken away the key points and will be able to use them effectively. We are committed to constantly growing and updating this video library. By listening to the feedback from our Sales Associates and funneling this feedback into our new releases, we make sure that our videos and quizzes stay current with the needs of the modern market and that they have a lasting positive impact on the rookie and the veteran Sales Associate.
To help Sales Associates become more knowledgeable on the builder side of operations, we require that they complete a quarterly cycle that we call the OPS Cycle. This section of New Home Connect™ involves monthly assignments and takes them into a deep dive through their builder, community, and product, as well as the competition's builder, community, and product. The objective here is to train them to be able to differentiate and build value for their builder over the competition. This cycle culminates in a quarterly business plan that outlines specific goals and action steps for the community. While this end product is essential to their operations, the process of developing it is even more important. The knowledge and insight gained are crucial to continuous development.
The culture at New Home Star is driven by the ideals of a team that works to help each other grow. Through New Home Connect™s Peer Learning, Sales Associates are able to connect with others throughout the country to solve any problems that they may be facing in the field. These issues can range from closing sales, driving traffic, selling specific inventory homes, or even working with buyers who possess different personality types. Sales Associates can pose questions regarding any topic that they are struggling with and expect to see seven unique answers coming straight from their peers, New Home Star’s network of mentors, and a few of the company’s industry experts in just 24 hours. These interactions allow Sales Associates, both new and old, to collaborate by asking for and giving help.
Growing as a Local Team
While it is important to constantly train and push yourself further independently, it is also important to train and grow as a local team. Ongoing team training is mainly driven throughout the country through the guidance of local leaders. Every week, local sales teams meet together for a sales meeting. Composed of 60% training, 30% motivation and 10% administration, these meetings touch all bases and motivate the teams to go out and tackle the week ahead. The majority of these meetings are focused on a specific training topic that is supplemented through New Home Connect™ and weekly role-play exercises that are designed to hone skills. These meetings supply an avenue for constant and never-ending improvement that compliments the skills previously learned by veteran team members.
Another way in which our local teams grow is through one-on-one meetings. Our network of mentors, Sales Managers and Sales Directors is constantly growing, and these individuals are invested in the success of our local teams. On a weekly basis, veteran Sales Counselors will be visited and challenged by their local leadership team. Our team of veteran sales counselors also make field visits to ensure that the local leadership team is supplemented with a national perspective. Sometimes it is difficult to see and clearly define solutions to problems when you are deep in the situation. These visits provide an outside view and insight from experts that have gone through and succeeded in, many of the scenarios being faced.
Growing as a National Team
Our favorite way to grow and train at New Home Star is on a national level. By getting everybody on board, we not only create the most well-trained new home sales team, we also ensure that the culture is one of collaboration and constant growth. One example of this is our All-Stars Sales Call. In this monthly live-stream video conference, Founder David Rice addresses the specific factors affecting performance for each exact time of year, while also taking time to celebrate the accomplishments of rockstar Sales Associates throughout the country. These live calls are typically viewed by 250-400 members of our team, helping to build and strengthen our organization with an emphasis on uniting our geographically dispersed sales divisions.
Training on a national scale is beginning to take on a new form for New Home Star. For the first time in our company’s history, our entire sales team united as a single group for a time of training and celebration in Cancún, Mexico. This inaugural Sales Rally took advantage of having our entire organization together in one place. The training sessions hosted during this event were comprised with both content and opportunities to practice the ideology through role-playing exercises. Learning and applying best practices with peers that live in other parts of the country always provides an opportunity for growth that is unmatched by any other learning environment.
By offering opportunities for Sales Associates to continually better themselves independently, as a local team, and on a national scale, New Home Star continues to deliver on its vision to build the best sales team in the world. The beauty of this process is that Sales Associates can consistently challenge themselves, and those that embrace the training wholeheartedly will be the best prepared to surpass the competition. It is for that reason that New Home Star can continually legitimize its claim of the most robust training strategy in the industry.
