Mystery shopping has been around for decades. As a business owner, you hire someone to go into or contact a business, posing as a customer. This mystery shopper then reports back on the experience. It’s been used in homebuilding for a long time—just not done well. So, Cannonball is diving into mystery shopping to make it more effective for our clients.
We recently acquired New Home Sales Connections, a mystery shopping company that specializes in the new home sales industry. After years of outsourcing our needs for this type of service and not getting quality data, we decided to extend our company to bring these services in-house.
What was missing from the mystery
The problem with other mystery shopping services has been the lack of training for the shoppers themselves. Shopping companies just hire random people with no training and send them into a model home. They have a generic scorecard that they use for every builder. But builders are different, in structure, product, process, and markets. A builder in one market could require a program that is different from one in another part of the country.
If you’re out of touch with what a builder is trying to achieve, how can you effectively evaluate them with a one-size-fits-all scorecard? That’s done for the ease and convenience of the service but limits the quality of their findings and basically shrinks the return on investment.
Problem solved
It doesn’t take a super sleuth to figure out the root of the problem. It just required someone who could see what was missing from a good mystery shopping experience. Once we acquired New Home Sales Connections, we were able to rework the service to be more personalized to each builder we serve.
We train the shoppers so they know what to look for, which questions to ask, and how to act like a new home buyer, which includes doling out the right objections. We customize the scorecard to the builder, so we’re gathering useful information. Then, the Cannonball coaches can coach the builders and their sales teams in the areas where each one needs help.
From clueless to clued in
Years ago, Cannonball’s founder, Chad Sanschagrin,, was mystery shopped when he was in new home sales. At the time, he thought he was doing great, but when he saw the video of the experience, he was surprised.
“Is that me? Did I actually do that?” Chad uncovered ways to improve his selling skills. He applied the lessons, made adjustments, and also recognized the skills he did well.
Ever since that first mystery shopping experience, Chad appreciated the value of this service. But he had difficulty finding a provider who could do it right. Then came the opportunity to acquire New Home Sales Connections. And to bring a new, more targeted level of research to our clients.
Cannonball Moments is bringing the same personalization to New Home Sales Connections’ mystery shopping service as our coaching and training programs.
Take the mystery out of your customer experience
The biggest return on investment any company can get with bringing in any mystery shop company is getting real data and real information. From that, you have something to work with!
Look at pro athletes. They practice and they watch game films to find out how to get better.
This kind of video evidence from mystery shopping differentiates the professionals from the practitioners. Your people get to see themselves in what they do. Sales professionals are always striving to get better. Salespeople, not so much. Sales professionals love being shopped.
New Home Sales Connections offers a variety of mystery shopping services. In addition to in-person visits, our team can shop by telephone calls that are recorded, shop the competitors, provide competitive analyses, and offer one-on-one personal coaching.
If you’re interested in learning more about New Home Sales Connections, get in touch and we’ll reveal all the possibilities!
About the Author
Chad Sanschagrin, founder of Cannonball Moments, is a sought-after leadership and sales coach with extensive experience in the homebuilding industry. He has delivered more than 400 keynotes presentations in more than 40 states and seven countries. He can be contacted at chad@cannonballmoments.com or connect with him on LinkedIn
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