Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] There's always been this tension in home builder sales teams. Management needs visibility in reporting, but salespeople just want to sell homes without getting bogged down in complex admin tasks. Today, I'm excited to share how HubSpot's new sales workspace is transforming how sales teams work by solving both challenges at once. Now, several of our clients are already calling it a complete game changer. And in this episode, I'll show you exactly why this new command center for sales is getting such positive feedback. You'll discover how it gives management the insights that they need, while making it dramatically easier for your sales team to focus on what matters most. Selling homes. In this episode, you'll discover exactly how this new command center for sales can help your team close more deals with less effort. Let me ask you something. Is your sales team wasting hours every day digging through HubSpot trying to figure out who they need to follow up with? Are they constantly switching between different views and tools just to keep track of their prospects? If so, you're not alone. This is one of the biggest challenges that I see when working with home builders. Their HubSpot setup is making life harder for their sales team instead of easier. Well, that's about to change. HubSpot just released their new sales workspace, and it's a complete game changer for how home builder sales teams work inside a HubSpot. You know, we've been a HubSpot certified partner for 13 years now, specializing in home builder marketing. And in that time, we've worked with dozens of builders to set up and optimize their HubSpot portals. We've learned a lot about what works and what doesn't when it comes to sales enablement for home builders. Now, prior to the sales workspace, even with a properly configured HubSpot setup, sales teams still had to navigate through multiple custom views to track their prospect's journey. Now, it worked, but it wasn't as efficient as it could be. And for builders who didn't have a proper setup, well, forget about it. Their sales teams were completely lost trying to piece together what was happening with their prospects. The thing is, the home building industry has some unique challenges when it comes to sales. You've got these really long sales cycles that can stretch anywhere from three months to well over a year. You and you've got different types of buyers at different stages of readiness, and you need to be able to track and nurture all of them effectively. That's why having the right tools and systems in place is so crucial. This is exactly why HubSpot created the new sales workspace. So think of it like a command center for your sales team. Instead of having your pipeline generation in one place and your deal management somewhere else, sales workspace brings everything together in one unified experience. Now, whether you're an OSC that's focused on lead generation or a sales rep that's balancing prospecting with closing deals, you've got everything that you need right at your fingertips. And the best part, it's powered by AI, which means it actually helps guide your team on what to do next. When I saw this new workspace, I was really excited because it addresses so many of the pain points that we've been helping builders work around for years and years. So think about your typical day as a sales manager. You're trying to keep track of how many leads are in the pipeline, which prospects need follow up, what deals are at risk of stalling. It's a lot to manage, and until now, there wasn't really a single place where you could see all of that information clearly laid out.
[00:03:23] Now, I know what you're thinking, Jeff. We've tried new sales tools before and my team just won't adopt them. But I get it. Here's what makes the sales workspace different. It's not about adding another tool to your tech stack. It's about making the tools that you already have work better together. So it's like we've taken all these disconnected pieces and finally connected them in a way that makes sense for how homebuilder sales teams actually work. The interface is really clean, it's simple, and it's focused on what matters most, helping your team to sell more homes. And that's really the key here. It's designed around how sales teams actually work. So let me give you a real example. One of our clients, a production builder that was doing about 200 homes a year, was feeling overwhelmed with their lead follow up. So their sales team felt like leads were falling through the cracks because they were just spending so much time clicking through the different views just to figure out who to contact next. Now, with the sales workspace, all of that's going to change. Now their team will be able to see exactly who needs attention and what actions will move each prospect forward. Not because they're working harder, but because they're working smarter with these new tools. And what I really love about this new workspace is how it adapts to different roles on your sales team. So, for example, your OSCs can focus on lead generation and nurturing, and your sales reps can easily track their active opportunities. And your sales managers can get a bird's eye view of everything that's happening. So it's like everybody finally has their own personal dashboard that shows them exactly what they need to see. Here's what really makes the new HubSpot sales workspace powerful for home builders. It finally gives you proper lead management separate from your deal's pipeline. See, in the past, builders would try to track everything in the deal's pipeline, which got messy really quick. Now you can properly nurture your leads until they're ready to become an opportunity and then smoothly transition them into your deal's pipeline when the time is right. This is huge because it means your sales team can focus on the right activities at the right time with the right prospects. Now, I really want to emphasize this point about lead management versus deal management because it's such a critical distinction for home builders. So think about it. At any given time, you might have hundreds of prospects in your database. Some are just starting their research, others are actively comparing builders, and a select few are ready to sign a contract. Being able to properly segment and manage these different groups is absolutely crucial for maintaining a healthy sales pipeline. Now, I should mention that the sales workspace is only available in sales hub, professional and enterprise. But honestly, if you're a production builder doing any kind of volume, you should be on professional or enterprise. Anyway, the ROI of having a properly set up sales system is just astronomical. We regularly see builders getting two to three times more value out of their leads just by having the right systems in place. And with sales workspace, it's easier than ever to achieve these kinds of results. Okay, so new features and new tools is always cool, but what really matters is what can this do for your sales team right now? Let me show you what makes HubSpot Sales workspace so powerful for homebuilder sales teams. You know, when I talk to builders about their sales process, one of the biggest frustrations that I hear is about how fragmented everything feels. So their team needs one system to track leads, another for follow ups, and then another for reporting. And it's just exhausting trying to keep up with it all. You know what kills sales productivity faster than anything else? Context switching. Every time that your sales team has to jump between different tools or different screens to piece together what's happening with a prospect, they lose momentum. That's exactly what HubSpot's sales workspace solves. It brings everything that your team needs into one unified view. Prospect, information, engagement, history, next steps, everything. It's like having A personal assistant that keeps all your important information organized and at your fingertips. And when your sales team can stay focused on selling instead of searching for information, that's when the magic happens. This unified approach completely transforms how your team can work with prospects. So instead of treating every website visitor like they're ready to buy today, you can actually track and respond to their engagement in a way that makes sense. So this is crucial because we know that home buying is a journey, sometimes a pretty long one. So here's a sales best practice that HubSpot Sales workspace makes incredibly easy to implement. Instead of treating every lead the same way, you want to prioritize your follow up based on engagement signals. So the workspace helps you track key activities like email opens and website visits and content downloads. These signals help you identify your hottest prospects, the ones who are most likely to convert. And by focusing on these highly engaged leads first, you can dramatically increase your conversion rates while making better use of your time. So it's about working smarter, not harder. You see, this is where traditional CRM systems really fall short. For home builders. They're often designed for transactional sales. You know, deals that close in a few days or a few weeks. But building a home, that's a completely different story. Your prospects might be researching for months before they're ready to talk seriously about building. That's why having a proper system for managing leads separate from your deals is so critical. HubSpot's sales workspace introduces a game changing way to manage your sales pipeline. So instead of forcing prospects into your deals pipeline too early, you can now properly nurture them in the lead work space until they're truly qualified. So this matters because when you try to treat every prospect like they're ready to buy, you end up with a cluttered pipeline that makes it impossible to focus on your best opportunities. So the workspace helps you to maintain a clean and focused pipeline where deals actually mean something. This is how top performing sales teams are consistently hitting their numbers. Now, this separation between leads and deals might seem like a small thing, but it completely transforms how your team can work. So think about your OSCs. They're typically focused on lead development and qualification. So meanwhile, your sales team needs to focus on working with qualified prospects and closing deals. The workspace gives each role exactly what they need to be successful. Want to know the secret to higher conversion rates in home builder sales? It's all about asking the right questions at the right time. HubSpot's sales workspace makes this easy by giving you customizable qualification Fields right where you need them. So you can track things like budget, range, preferred communities, timeline to move whatever matters most for your sales process. And the best part is this information stays organized and it's accessible so anyone on your team can pick up the conversation without missing a beat. So the consistent qualification process is what separates these high performing sales teams from the rest. And this is where the workspace really starts to shine. Because it's not just about collecting information, it's about making that information actionable. So one of my favorite features is how it helps your team to stay proactive with follow up. Instead of relying on memory or endless sticky notes, the system actually guides your team through what needs to happen next. The most successful homebuilder sales teams all have one thing in common. They're proactive, not reactive. HubSpot Sales workspace helps you to stay ahead with real time task tracking and activity monitoring. So you'll see at a glance which prospects need attention, what follows are due, and where you need to focus your energy each day. And this proactive approach means that fewer leads are falling through the cracks and more deals are closing on schedule. And the impact that this has on team performance is pretty remarkable. Sales managers love it because they finally have clear visibility into what's happening with every prospect. And sales reps love it because they can focus on selling instead of all this administrative work. And OSCs really love it because they can properly nurture leads until they're truly ready for sales. Success in home builder sales comes down to consistent execution. So HubSpot's sales workspace makes this easier by turning your best practices into repeatable processes. So you can create templates for common scenarios, set up automated follow up sequences, and you ensure that every prospect gets the right attention at the right time. And the result of doing that is that your entire team operates more efficiently, delivering a consistent experience that turns more prospects into buyers. It's about making excellence repeatable. Now, a lot of builders ask me about the investment required for these tools, since sales workspace is only available in Sales Hub Professional and enterprise. And I always tell them the same thing. Look, you need to look at what it costs you not to have these capabilities. How many leads are following through the cracks? How much time is your team wasting on administrative tasks instead of selling? If you're a production builder doing any kind of volume, upgrading to HubSpot Sales Hub Professional is absolutely worth the investment. Beyond just the sales workspace, you get access to sales automation, customer reporting and advanced pipeline tools. All these things that can dramatically improve your team's productivity. You know, we regularly see builders getting two to three times more value out of their existing leads just by having these systems in place. And when you're closing more deals without needing more leads, that's when you know you've got a system that's working. Think about this. What would it mean for your business if your sales team could handle 30% more prospects without working longer hours? What if they could consistently follow up with every single lead, never miss an opportunity, and spend more time actually selling instead of managing administrative tasks? That's exactly what these tools will help you to achieve. And for a production builder, the return on investment isn't just good, it's transformative. So let's talk about how implementing HubSpot's sales workspace actually changes your day to day sales operations. You know, one of the things that I'm really passionate about is helping sales teams to work more efficiently. Because at the end of the day, the more time that your team spends selling instead of managing administrative tasks, the more homes that you're going to sell. Success in home builder sales really comes down to having a repeatable process. So here's what a typical day looks like with the HubSpot Sales workspace. So you start your morning by reviewing your guided actions. So these are your AI powered suggestions for your highest impact activities. So you can see exactly which prospects need attention, what follow ups are due, and most importantly, why these actions matter. This structured approach means that you're always focusing on the activities that are going to actually move deals forward. So this shift in how teams start their day is actually transforming productivity levels. Think about how much time your sales team currently spends just trying to figure out who they should be following up with. For most builders we work with, it's anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes every single day just planning who to contact. And that doesn't even account for the opportunities that they might miss because something fell through the cracks. Best sales teams always start their day with a plan. And HubSpot's sales workspace makes this incredibly efficient by organizing your tasks by impact and urgency. So instead of spending 30 to 45 minutes sorting through your CRM, trying to figure out who to contact, you get clear guidance on where to focus. This means more time actually talking to prospects and less time planning who to talk to. So when you multiply this time savings across your whole sales team, the impact on productivity is substantial. Now, beyond just making your team more efficient, this workspace is also transforming how builders manage their sales pipeline. So you know what I mean. If you've ever sat in a sales meeting where nobody really knows exactly what's in the pipeline or where deals stand, and it's frustrating for everyone. Sales leadership can't forecast accurately, and sales reps are wasting time updating spreadsheets instead of selling. You want to know why some sales teams consistently hit their numbers while others struggle. It's all about pipeline visibility. So HubSpot Sales workspace gives you real time insights into your pipeline health. You can instantly see how many leads are in each stage, which ones are moving forward and which ones might be stalling. And this level of visibility means that you can start to address issues before they even become problems. So when you can spot bottlenecks early, you can take action while there's still time to hit your numbers. So let's break down how this actually changes your sales process. So I'll use a real example that every builder can relate to managing web leads. We all know the struggle of trying to make sure that every lead gets the proper follow up, while also trying to prioritize the ones that are showing the most interesting. So here's a practical example of how HubSpot's sales workspace improved your sales process. Let's say that a prospect fills out a form on your website before that lead might sit in your CRM until somebody manually reviews it. Well, now the workspace automatically guides your team through a structured qualification process. So it prompts them to gather key information like budget, range and timeline. It tracks engagement signals, and it helps to identify the best next steps to take. This systematic approach means that every lead gets proper attention, not just the obvious hot ones. And this is where it gets really interesting for production builders, because we all know that our sales cycle is longer than most industries, so most of our prospects are planning six to 12 months out, sometimes even longer. Traditional CRM systems really struggle with this longer buying journey because they're designed more for transactional sales. But home building isn't transactional, it's relational. The reality of home builder sales is that not every prospect is ready to buy today. And HubSpot's sales workspace helps you to build value throughout that longer buying journey. So you can see exactly where each prospect is in their journey, what information they've engaged with, and what questions they might have next. And this insight helps you to provide the right information at the right time, which is going to build trust and keep prospects engaged until they're ready to make that decision. So it's about playing the long game effectively. So you might be wondering, when will you actually start to see results from implementing this. So it's a fair question and it's one I get asked all the time when builders are considering any kind of sales process change.
[00:18:17] So when implementing any new sales tool, you want to know the timeline for results. With HubSpot's sales workspace, you're going to see benefits immediately, like better organization and clearer priorities. But the real impact comes in waves. So in the first month, your team might save time on administrative tasks. By month two, you're starting to see better follow up consistently. And around month three, you're going to start seeing improved processes starting to turn into better conversion rates. So the key is committing to the system and letting it work. But here's what's really powerful. The workspace doesn't just help you to execute your current sales process better. It actually helps you to improve your process over time through what I call the success feedback loop. So every interaction, every follow up, every deal that's won or lost becomes an opportunity for you to learn. Here's how top performing sales teams can use HubSpot's sales workspace to continuously improve the results. So the system tracks not just what you do, but what works best. So you can see which follow up sequences are getting the best response. You can see which content resonates most with prospects and which qualification questions best predict success. So this data helps you to refine your process over time, focusing on the activities that actually drive sales. So when you know what works, you, you can scale those winning strategies across your entire team. One of the things that excites me most about this workspace is how it solves one of the biggest strategic challenges in home builder sales. You see, there's always this tension between focusing on immediate opportunities versus building your long term pipeline. And most CRMs force you to choose one or the other. But in home building, you need to do both. You need to hit this month's numbers while also building for the future. And the most successful home builder sales teams are masters at something that's crucial. They are able to balance closing deals today while building their pipeline for tomorrow. HubSpot's sales workspace really makes this easier by helping you to organize your prospects by their time frame for purchase, and so you can focus on your hot opportunities without losing track of future buyers. So this structured approach means that you're not just hitting this month's numbers, but you're building this sustainable pipeline that delivers results consistently. So when you step back and look at the big picture, this workspace represents a fundamental shift in how builders can manage their sales process. So it's not just about having better tools. It's about having a system that actually matches how home builder sales teams need to work. So they have better pipeline visibility, they have more efficient processes and the ability to balance that short term and long term opportunities. These aren't just nice to have features, they're the building blocks of sustainable sales growth. Okay, so we've talked about the impact that sales workspace can have on your sales process and your results, and that's pretty exciting stuff. But I know what you're thinking, hey, this sounds great, Jeff, but how, how do we actually make this happen in our company? Well, let's get into the nitty gritty of setting some of this stuff up. So we've been implementing the sales workspace with several builders over the past few weeks, and I want to share some of the key insights that we've gained so far from those setups. So one thing that's become really clear is that taking the time to plan before you dive in makes a really huge difference in how successful your implementation is going to be. So before you even open HubSpot, you need to map out your sales process. So what stages do your leads go through? What information do you need to gather from them to qualify them? How do you want to track your follow ups? Getting clarity on these questions up front is going to make your setup that much smoother. So the first thing that we do when we're setting up this new HubSpot Sales workspace is map out the lead stages. So for home builders, you need specific stages that match your sales process. So we always add stages for appointments booked and nurturing. That nurturing stage is crucial because of how long the home buying journey takes. So this framework helps you to track exactly where each prospect is in their journey. But it also tells you what needs to happen next. And when your stages match your process, then your follow up becomes systematic instead of scattered. Once you have your stages mapped out, you need to think about qualification criteria. So this is where a lot of builders stumble because they either track too much information or not enough. And you want to find that sweet spot where you're gathering all the essential information without overwhelming your sales team with too many fields to fill out. So here's what successful builders track inside of HubSpot's sales budget, range, product type, land status. Especially important if you're a custom builder. Community preference and purchase timeline. These custom properties act like your qualification checklist. So think of it this way. Every time your sales team or OSC talks to a prospect. They're gathering pieces of this puzzle, and when you have all the pieces, you know if someone's qualified or not. So this structured approach means that everyone on your team is qualifying leads the same way, using the same criteria. After you've got your stages and your qualification criteria set up, that's when you can start thinking about automation. And this is where things get really interesting. You see, one of the biggest challenges in home builder sales is keeping track of all of these prospects that are at all different stages of their journey. So some are actively looking, but others are months away from being ready. And without automation, trying to manage all of that manually is nearly impossible. So if you want to keep your sales pipeline automatically organized, here's how you can set up the HubSpot Sales workspace for home builders to do that. So we create simple automations that update the lead status property based on prospect behavior. And so when someone books an appointment, their status changes. When they go dark for 30 days, it changes again. And so it's like having a virtual assistant that's keeping everything organized. This automation means that your sales team always knows which prospects need attention, which without having to manually update anything. Now, throughout our recent implementations, we've noticed some common pitfalls or areas that builders could run into troubles with. The biggest one has to do with when do you create a lead record. So if you create too many leads, your workspace gets really cluttered, really quick. But if you're not creating enough, then you're risking missing some opportunities. So here's a crucial setup tip for HubSpot's sales workspace. Decide up front what criteria triggers creating a lead record. Some home builders might create a lead for every form submission, but that's going to create a lot of clutter. Others are going to end up waiting too long and they're going to risk missing opportunities. So what we would typically recommend is create a lead when there's a direct sales conversation or when someone shows clear buying intent through a specific form submission. So you need to have that clear criteria, because that's going to help maintain this clean and focused system that your team can trust. Another critical aspect of implementation is obviously training. And so we've seen too many builders that often rush through this part when it comes to implementing HubSpot, and it always comes back to bite them. So your team needs to understand not just how to use this new workspace, but why each part matters. They need to see how it makes their job easier and, and how it's going to help them to sell more homes. So the key to successful adoption of the HubSpot Sales workspace is going to be starting small. So begin with just the essential features. Focus on lead stages, basic qualification and how to do follow up tracking. Then once your team masters those, then you can add in the automation and the advanced features. So it's like learning to drive. You start in an empty parking lot before you hit the highway. This gradual approach is going to build confidence and prevent overwhelm. And when your team starts to see these early wins, they're going to be excited to learn more. So this is where having a solid change management strategy really becomes crucial, because you can have the perfect setup, but if your team doesn't buy into using it, none of that really matters. And this is something I'm really passionate about because I've seen how much of a difference that it makes in implementation success. So the most successful implementations of HubSpot Sales Workspace happen when you involve your team early. So show them how it simplifies their current process. Get their input on the lead stages and qualification criteria, let them help design the follow up sequences. And when your team feels ownership of the system, they're much more likely to embrace it. So remember, this is a tool to help them to sell more homes, not just another piece of software to learn. You also need to think about how you'll measure success. So setting up some basic reports from the start, that's going to help you track progress and identify areas for improvement. So we typically recommend tracking things like the number of leads in each stage, or the average time in each stage, or your conversion rates between your different stages. This data becomes invaluable because as you refine and optimize your process, you'll be able to prove that your hunches were correct. The key thing to remember is that implementation isn't a one time event, it's an ongoing process. So start with a solid foundation, get your team comfortable with the basics, and then build from there. Focus on getting the essentials right first, then add more sophisticated features as your team's confidence begins to grow. And don't be afraid to make adjustments as you go either. Every builder's sales process is a little bit different. And what might work well for one might not work for another. So the beauty of the sales workspace is that it really is flexible enough to adapt to your specific needs while still maintaining that structure that keeps everything organized and efficient. So we've covered a lot today about how sales workspace is really revolutionizing the way that home builder sales teams are going to work inside a HubSpot. So remember, this isn't just another tech update. It's a complete transformation in how your team can manage your leads, follow up with prospects, and close more deals efficiently. And if you'd like to see the sales workspace in action or learn how it could work for you and your specific sales processes, I'd love to show you that. Book a free strategy session with me at velocity23.com forward/schedule, and during our call, I'll give you a personalized demo of the workspace. I can answer any of your questions about implementation, and if you're interested, we can even discuss how to get your team set up a Sales hub Professional now, if you found this episode valuable, please subscribe to the Homebuilder Marketing and Growth show and share it with a colleague who could benefit from a more efficient sales process. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn. Just search for Jeff Schneider or you'll find a link to my profile in the show Notes. Thanks again for tuning in. And remember, your sales team's efficiency directly impacts your bottom line, so make sure you're giving them the best tools to succeed. We'll see you next time.
