NAHB Education is offering a thoroughly updated Certified New Home Sales Professional (CSP) course designed to provide new-home salespeople with the tools to thrive in today’s markedly different and challenging sales environment.

A key element in NAHB’s Institute of Residential Marketing (IRM) comprehensive educational program and a primary requirement for achieving the CSP designation — the most widely recognized national certification for new-home sales specialists — the three-day course is being offered through local home builders associations across the country.

“The emphasis of the entire program is on the balance between the art and science of selling,” said Gian Hasbrock, an NAHB master instructor, who along with Trina Ripley Excellence in Education award-winner Jean Ewell and sales coach, instructor and speaker Ross Robbins, updated the course to better address today’s market realities.

“The art is all about understanding the buyer. The science is about understanding the process by which people buy,” he said.

Using instructional techniques that reflect individual learning styles, the updated course includes new information on:

• Selling with and without model homes
• Using financing as a selling tool
• Capitalizing on social media
• Writing scripts using personality types
• Managing the sales environment as a retail business
• Construction terms, blueprints and the home building process
• Model and site preparation; shopping the competition; and customer communication to remove construction confusion

Already a hit since it was introduced through a pilot program last year, Hasbrock said course attendees “have uniformly praised its attention to detail while offering the big picture of new-home sales and on-site builder representation.”

He said the program already has led to an IRM course attendance increase of 44%.

Stressing the need for new as well as experienced new-home sales professionals to take the course and earn their CSP designation, Hasbrock pointed to the success of new-home sales professionals in  Jacksonville, N.C., where 50% of all homes sold last year were new homes — the highest ratio vs. existing home sales in the country last year — and where a higher-than-average number of real estate professionals hold the CSP designation, including 27 earned in April 2010.

To Find or Offer a CSP Course

To find a CSP course or to hold one at a local home builders association, email the NAHB Professional Designation Help Line; or call 800-368-5242 x8154.

In Today’s Market, 'Think Sold!' With Help From NAHB BuilderBooks

“Think Sold! Creating Home Sales in Any Market,” available at NAHB BuilderBooks, is a practical, how-to guide for developing the self-awareness, knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the competitive field of new home sales.

The book covers everything from the home buying process and new home financing to strategies for making better sales presentations and sizing up the competition. It teaches readers how to overcome customers’ concerns and provides specific examples of how to explain the benefits of new home features in customer-friendly language.

“Think Sold” provides insights on how to approach sales and life from a position of optimism that will create successful outcomes; how to improve upon potential customer prospecting and follow-up skills; and how to communicate effectively with various types of buyers and learn how to adjust communication strategies to increase rapport and alignment with buyers’ motives.

To view or purchase this publication online, click here, or call 800-223-2665.

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