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What's really happening in your sales offices when you're not there? Leah Turner, national sales coach and trainer at Melinda Brody & Company, is back on the show for the 40th anniversary year of one of the most unique research studies in new home sales. In this episode, she and Anya Chrisanthon dig into the 2025 Annual Benchmark Report - and what the data reveals about where sales teams are winning and where they're still leaving sales on the table. Listen to a previous episode with Leah here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/secrets-to-successful-realtor-engagement-with-leah/id1602564768?i=1000623849874

What video mystery shopping actually looks like
Shoppers walk into your sales office with a hidden camera. The full interaction is recorded, scored, and sent to the sales manager. But what makes Melinda Brody & Company different is the one-on-one call before the shop - where the shopper is briefed on the specific challenges that sales manager wants to address. It's not a gotcha. It's a baseline.

The builder story gap - still
Only 49% of sales associates shared the builder story in 2025. Leah says the problem isn't awareness - it's the introduction. Salespeople don't know how to bring it up naturally. Her fix: start with "Have you ever built a new home before?" and let the answer lead you in. And whatever you do - say the builder's name. One associate described the warranty, the quality, and the energy efficiency for several minutes and never once said who the builder was.

The model demo jump
From 84% to 95% in one year. The biggest shift Leah has seen: top producers are bypassing the sales office entirely and taking buyers straight into the model. Into the kitchen. Let them walk. Join them. The forced "sit down in the sales office first" approach was raising everyone's anxiety - including the salesperson's.

Closing is not a moment - it's the whole presentation
Closing sits at 52%. Leah's take: salespeople treat closing like something that happens at the end, which makes it terrifying. If you ask "what's important to you in a home, a homesite, a builder, a community?" upfront - and customize everything around those answers - the close at the end is just a natural next step. You've earned the right to ask.

The buyers walking in today are already qualified
Buyers use technology to disqualify. If they made it through the research phase and walked into your sales office, they are interested. They are a hot lead. As Leah puts it - they're more like a B-back than a first-time visitor. Treat them that way.

Follow-up jumped from 51% to 67%
Technology and CRMs are helping. But Leah's warning: generic follow-up is worse than no follow-up. If your message is "thanks for coming out, call me if you have questions" - don't bother. Make it specific. Make it memorable. Reference something real from the presentation. Better yet - shoot a 30-second video of yourself.

The cringiest things caught on camera
Smoking cigarettes on the home site. Painting fingernails. Eating lunch. Not standing up when a prospect walks in. And the shift Leah has seen over the last ten years: top performers now ask to be video shopped. They want to see themselves. They want to improve.

Connect with Leah: leah.turner@melindabrody.com
Connect with Ben Marks: ben.marks@melindabrody.com
Melinda Brody & Company on LinkedIn and Facebook

About Anewgo
Anewgo is an all-in-one new home sales and marketing platform. We equip builders with AI-ready homebuilder websites, interactive design tools, floorplans, sitemaps, AI Sales Assistants, and data analytics to create personalized buyer journeys. Learn more at anewgo.com or find every episode at anewgo.com/podcast.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768

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Imagine you have an old analog TV from the nineties. Right now there is the most incredible programming available - streaming, 4K, immersive audio, interactive everything. But you're watching it on that old boxy TV with rabbit ears. You're not getting a fuzzy version. You're getting static. Because the technology delivering all of that content is simply not compatible with the hardware you're using to receive it.

That is exactly the situation a lot of home builders are in with their websites right now.

In this solo episode, Anya Chrisanthon - CCO at Anewgo - rolls up the June AI brief and answers the question every builder needs to be asking: can your website actually keep up with what AI is doing right now?

The June AI brief
Google announced the best ads must now be answers - already testing a format in real estate where buyers ask questions inside an ad and get answers pulled from your website. Apple rebuilt Siri from the ground up as an agentic AI that takes actions across apps on behalf of the buyer, introduced Visual Intelligence in the camera so buyers can point their phone at your model home and ask what elevation it is and what it costs, and quietly built infrastructure for buyers to swap ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini inside Siri. AI Overviews now reaches 2.5 billion users. AI Mode searches run three times as long as traditional searches. Buyers are asking AI questions before they ever visit a website.

That is the programming that's available right now. The question is whether your website can receive any of it.

Three things an AI-ready website can do that traditional builder websites cannot

First - it can be understood by AI. AI systems aren't reading your website for emotion or brand vibes. They're looking for specific, structured, consistent information. Vague taglines, generic community descriptions, and marketing language that sounds great to humans give AI nothing to work with. An AI-ready website is written so AI can read it, understand it, and summarize it accurately to a buyer who asks. That is AEO - Answer Engine Optimization.

Second - it connects to the platforms buyers are already using. An AI-ready website isn't just a destination. It's a connected node in a larger ecosystem. Anewgo's ChatGPT integration lets buyers design their home inside ChatGPT and arrive on your website already identified, already engaged, already partway through the journey. A traditional builder website built on a standard CMS has no pathway to that experience. It doesn't matter if your website is new or was just launched. If it wasn't built for AI, it's already outdated.

Third - it learns. Every buyer who visits, every floor plan they view, every color they select, every question they ask the AI assistant - all of that is behavioral data that feeds back into the intelligence layer of your platform. 99.5% of your website visitors never fill out a form. On a traditional website, those buyers are invisible. On an AI-ready website, they have a profile.

Two things from today:
(1) Free AEO Assessment - email your website URL to beth@anewgo.com, subject "AEO Assessment" - no obligation, no cost, specific to home building.
(2) See what a fully AI-ready builder website looks like: anewgo.com

About Anewgo
Anewgo is an all-in-one new home sales and marketing platform. We equip builders with AI-ready homebuilder websites, interactive design tools, floorplans, sitemaps, AI Sales Assistants, and data analytics to create personalized buyer journeys. Learn more at anewgo.com or find every episode at anewgo.com/podcast.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768

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Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference just happened - and the message for home builders is bigger than most people realize. In this solo episode, Anya Chrisanthon - CCO at Anewgo - breaks down the biggest announcements from WWDC 2026 and translates them into plain language for home builder sales and marketing leaders.

Siri goes agentic
Apple rebuilt Siri from the ground up - powered by Google's Gemini and Apple's own on-device models. The new Siri doesn't just answer questions. It takes actions across apps on behalf of the user. Composing emails, managing files, performing multi-step tasks without manual navigation. The home buying version of this - scheduling tours, requesting brochures, getting answers about a specific floor plan - is coming. The builders whose digital presence is ready for it will have a significant advantage.

Visual Intelligence in the Camera app
Apple introduced a dedicated Siri mode inside the camera app. A buyer standing in front of your model home points their camera at the exterior - and Siri tells them the elevation, color scheme, community, and starting price if that information is structured and accessible online. Apple just built the infrastructure for a visual AI layer that sits on top of every physical space a buyer walks into. That changes what a model home experience looks like.

The hidden feature Apple didn't announce
After the keynote, developers discovered a hidden Extensions framework in the iOS 27 developer beta that lets users swap ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini inside Siri - infrastructure Apple built but chose not to announce. Apple is hedging. Siri becomes the container. The AI model underneath can be whatever the user prefers. When a buyer asks their phone about your homes, it might be Siri answering. Or ChatGPT through Siri. Or Claude. Or Gemini. If your digital presence doesn't give any of those AI systems enough specific, accurate, structured information to answer with confidence - you're not in that conversation. This is exactly why AEO matters across all platforms, not just one.

Search gets faster
Apple rebuilt the foundation of search across Spotlight, Mail, and Photos - and the new infrastructure indexes new files and data almost immediately. The lag between publishing content and having it surfaced by AI systems is closing. A community page that hasn't been updated in six months is going to look stale in a way it never did before.

📋 Three things from today:
(1) Free AEO Assessment - email your website URL to beth@anewgo.com, subject "AEO Assessment"
(2) Marketing App 3.0 webinar replay
(3) See what a fully connected AI-ready buyer experience looks like: anewgo.com

About Anewgo
Anewgo is an all-in-one new home sales and marketing platform. We equip builders with AI-ready homebuilder websites, interactive design tools, floorplans, sitemaps, AI Sales Assistants, and data analytics to create personalized buyer journeys. Learn more at anewgo.com or find every episode at anewgo.com/podcast.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768

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Google Marketing Live 2026 just happened - and the message wasn't about features. It was a warning. In this solo episode, Anya Chrisanthon - CCO at Anewgo - breaks down the biggest announcements from GML 2026 and translates them into plain language for home builder sales and marketing leaders.

The headline nobody said out loud Google's Chief Business Officer opened with "I'm not exaggerating when I say we have made a decade's worth of innovation in the last year alone." That's not marketing speak. That's a warning for anyone still in wait-and-see mode.

How your buyers are already searching differently AI Overviews now reaches 2.5 billion monthly users. AI Mode has passed 1 billion. Searches in AI Mode run three times as long as traditional searches. Your buyer is having a conversation with AI right now - and if your website doesn't give AI enough to work with, you're not in that conversation.

The best ads must be answers Google's VP of Ads said it directly on stage: "The best ads must be answers." Google introduced a Business Agent for Leads - already being tested in real estate - where buyers can ask questions inside an ad and get answers pulled directly from your website. If your website doesn't have clear, specific answers to real buyer questions, AI has nothing to pull from.

AI Brief: great news for smaller builder marketing teams AI Brief lets advertisers give Google's AI a creative brief in plain language and let it handle execution. The role of your marketing team is shifting from doing to directing - and that levels the playing field against national builders with big agencies.

The Universal Cart - and why John Lee called this years ago Google's Universal Cart follows buyers across Search, Gemini, YouTube, and Gmail without losing their place. John Lee has been talking about this exact connected, agentic buyer journey for years. Anewgo's ChatGPT integration - where a buyer designs their home in ChatGPT and arrives on your website already identified and engaged - is the home building version of this. It exists today.

Measurement finally grows up Google's Meridian marketing mix modeling tool is now inside Google Analytics 360. For the first time, builders have infrastructure to show leadership exactly which channels are driving sales - not just leads.

📋 Three things from today:

(1) Free AEO Assessment - email your website URL to beth@anewgo.com, subject line "AEO Assessment" - specific to home building, no obligation.

(2) Watch the Ecosystem Webinar replay with John Lee

(3) Register for the Anewgo Marketing App 3.0 launch webinar - June 9th, open to everyone: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w0K2dtK9QW2Bp26h9vZu_A

About Anewgo Anewgo is an all-in-one new home sales and marketing platform. We equip builders with AI-ready homebuilder websites, interactive design tools, floorplans, sitemaps, AI Sales Assistants, and data analytics to create personalized buyer journeys. Learn more at anewgo.com or find every episode at anewgo.com/podcast.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768

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In a market where a lot of builders are pulling back, Jennifer Cooper is making the case for why that's exactly the wrong move. Jennifer is the founder and CEO of Evolution Marketing and Evolution Design Studios - a fractional marketing consultancy with seasoned teams across the country serving home builders of every size. In this episode, she and Anya Chrisanthon of Anewgo get into the real conversations happening in builder boardrooms right now.

The budget conversation nobody wants to have If your growth goals are going up but your marketing budget is staying flat, you're setting yourself up to miss your numbers. Jennifer explains why spend has to match growth - and what it signals when leadership doesn't value what marketing can actually do.

AI adoption in the field right now Jennifer isn't scared of AI - she's brought it to the table as a strategic partner. She breaks down what smart teams are actually doing with AI, why she keeps an "invisible chair" for it in every strategy conversation, and how builders can use it to work faster without losing their brand voice.

AEO, authority, and the PR comeback AI is looking for authoritative content and third-party validation. Jennifer shares how one of her builders built a PR strategy that AI is now actively sourcing - and why blogs, content, and earned media are more important than ever in the AIO era.

The CRM conversation we're still having in 2026 Having a CRM isn't enough. Jennifer explains why most builders have it but aren't using it right - and how to think about your full tech stack from OSC tools to self-touring to visualization.

Shoppable model homes: the business case Evolution Design Studios brings a full shoppable model program to builders of any size. Builders save an average of $10,000 or more per model, get a revenue-generating online storefront, and create a stickier digital experience - without handling a single purchase order. Jennifer breaks down exactly how it works and who it's right for.

The secret to staying ahead Wake up every day and ask why. Jennifer's advice for marketing leaders navigating one of the most challenging - and most opportunity-rich - moments in the industry.

Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn or at evolutionmarketingco.com.

About Anewgo Anewgo is an all-in-one new home sales and marketing platform. We equip builders with AI-ready homebuilder websites, interactive design tools, floorplans, sitemaps, AI Sales Assistants, and data analytics to create personalized buyer journeys. Learn more at anewgo.com or find every episode at anewgo.com/podcast.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768

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Two episodes ago, a Florida builder went from a 16% ChatGPT citation rate to 72% in a matter of months. This episode answers the question everyone kept asking: how? In this solo follow-up, Anya Chrisanthon - CCO at Anewgo - breaks down Answer Engine Optimization in plain language, no jargon, no tech degree required.

SEO vs. AEO SEO gets you found in a list. AEO gets you recommended as the answer. When a buyer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini for a builder like you, AI doesn't return ten options - it picks one or two. If your digital presence doesn't give AI enough specific, consistent, verifiable information to recommend you with confidence, it moves on to a builder whose story it can actually tell.

Why most builder websites are invisible to AI right now Vague taglines, generic community descriptions, inconsistent naming across platforms, and missing pricing all create uncertainty for AI. Uncertain AI doesn't recommend you. And with ChatGPT now rolling out ads in the US, the landscape is shifting even faster.

What AEO-ready actually looks like Specific community names, locations, and price points. Real buyer descriptions that go beyond demographics. Differentiators that are stated, not implied. Consistency across your website, Google Business profile, social presence, and any third-party coverage. Earned media - reviews, press, industry recognition - because AI gains confidence when your claims are reinforced by sources outside your own website.

Three things to do this week (1) Search for yourself the way your ideal buyer would - in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, or Claude. (2) Read your own website like a stranger - could AI accurately describe who you are and who you build for? (3) Get an AEO assessment from Anewgo - email your website URL to beth@anewgo.com, subject line "AEO Assessment."

📖 Get the case study (free - enter your name and email): https://nut.sh/ell/forms/328341/bzkECM 🎙 Listen to the case study episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768?i=1000766308908 📝 Latest from the Anewgo blog: anewgo.com/blog

About Anewgo Anewgo is an all-in-one new home sales and marketing platform. We equip builders with AI-ready homebuilder websites, interactive design tools, floorplans, sitemaps, AI Sales Assistants, and data analytics to create personalized buyer journeys. Learn more at anewgo.com or find every episode at anewgo.com/podcast.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768

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Most builders are responding to a slower market with more incentives. Jeff Shore says that might be making things worse. In this episode, Anya Chrisanthon sits down with the founder of Shore Consulting and one of the most respected voices in new home sales training for a straight-talking conversation about buyer psychology, sales confidence, and what actually separates teams that will come out of this market stronger from the ones that won't.

What's covered: Uncertainty - not rates or pricing - is what's slowing buyer decisions right now, and Jeff explains exactly why. He shares the two-word response every salesperson should have when a buyer asks about incentives, how to reverse-engineer the sales presentation so "I'm just looking" never comes up, why dissatisfaction is the single greatest predictor of urgency, and how to normalize a first-visit decision before you ever show the home.

For sales leaders: Jeff's two non-negotiables are a daily lead conversion hour and weekly one-on-one skill development coaching for every rep. And for the teams that will win - confidence is the product of belief and mastery, and it's contagious.

Sales & Marketing Leadership Summit - San Diego, July 15-17 Anewgo is a proud sponsor. Use code ANEWGO to buy one ticket and get one free: whova.com/portal/registration/4MA1nFzvsqp4sg4JwSu1

Free ticket giveaway - apply here (admission only, travel not included, winner announced Friday): Apply Now

About Anewgo Anewgo is an all-in-one new home sales and marketing platform providing builders with AI-ready homebuilder websites, interactive design tools, floorplans, sitemaps, AI Sales Assistants, and data analytics. Learn more at anewgo.com or find every episode at anewgo.com/podcast.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anewgo-of-new-home-sales/id1602564768