2008 Nationals: Train and Conquer

In the present sales environment, most builders are happy if they don't lose market share. Imagine how you'd feel if you actually gained market share last year.

Cindy McPherson is broker and CEO of Landmark 24 Realty, the exclusive marketing arm of Hallmark Homes and Jerry C. Wardlaw Construction. The two companies comprise a large share of the local Savannah new-home market. Hallmark president Steve Hall and Jack and Jerry Wardlaw of Wardlaw are partners in Landmark 24, several other companies and their respective building companies.

"Hallmark Homes and Wardlaw Homes each have some of their own product lines," says McPherson. "In some communities they are different. In some communities they build exactly the same things with the same features in the same way. The only difference is who owns the home site, in terms of who gets the contract. It's a challenging approach in a lot of ways because you've got to keep both builders happy."

Last year Hall told McPherson he was going to have to make some cuts in the sales staff.

"We told her she was going to have to suck it up and get out there and handle a lot more of what she did already on a day-to-day basis," says Hall, "plus a lot more of the ongoing sales training."

This request was not unusual in light of what's been happening in the industry. What is unusual is how sales improved afterward.

Under McPherson's leadership the two builders increased market share last year. They went from a 10 to 11 percent share in 2006 to nearly 18 percent in 2007. They sold 235 homes in 2007, compared with only 165 in 2006. D.R. Horton, one of five national builders that recently entered the market, had only a 5 percent share. Those are the kinds of results that earn you a Nationals Sales Manager of the Year award.

How'd she do it? McPherson says one good thing about being a small local builder is that you can quickly regroup — an advantage in an unpredictable market.

"We have the agents cross-selling now," she says. "If you're a really good salesperson, don't let that buyer get out of your hair. Hold on to them and go sell them something somewhere else. That also helps bleed those two builder's product together."

Another strategy was to not be reactionary when the nationals and others in the market made deep discounts.

"We tackled it head on with a sales strategy that focused ... on the message that we were not so desperate and were not overpriced in the first place," she says in her nomination statement.

McPherson also says the refocus on training after "seven years of a gravy ride" was important.

"This year, we just killed it," McPherson says, "whether it was through role play, training or use of sales trainers. I use the Melinda Brody tapes and we did Bob Schultz. We shopped [our salespeople] and looked at the results and had a really fantastic improvement."

"Cindy came up with the idea of having some incentives in place if people performed exceptionally well [on shops]," says Hall. "Nobody that worked for us did above 70 [percentile] before. We had one or two in the 60s. Most were in the 50 and 40 percentile. We had a $5,000 incentive for anyone who scored above a 90 percentile. But everybody was so away far from it, we didn't think there was any way anybody would score that high."

They ended up with four agents who sold around the 90 percentile, and one who had a perfect score. Hall says every one of their agents improved their scores at least 30 percent in the second round of being shopped.

"Our sales agents were really on the ball and doing what they needed to do to make the sale," says Hall. "It was incredible. I didn't mind paying out those bonuses." "Cindy gets credit for a lot of that," Hall adds. "She's terrific leader, connects well and knows the business. She does a great job for us."

"I love this business," says McPherson in her nomination form. "Starting in new home sales in 1982, I have never considered doing anything else. ... My personal goal for success would be to watch any (or all) of my agents achieve their potential in sales and know that one day they will look back and thank me for all the role play they groaned about."