What is the sales administration department within a company like SIC houses, a specialist in the construction of individual houses for 50 years? It is, among other things, the monitoring and support of all the administrative stages (including relations with the bank, the broker, the notary, etc.) up to the programming of the opening of the site. With, as a primary objective, always, the greatest possible customer satisfaction.
Sales administration: a service at the heart of the company
Martine Laborde has been an executive assistant in charge of the sales administration department at Maisons SIC for more than 6 years. With her 3 assistants, Martine Laborde monitors sales, from the signing of the purchase order to the signing of the construction contract, until the lifting of the conditions precedent. Once these conditions precedent have been lifted, the opening of the site can be programmed. Each assistant then has a specific geographic sector and Martine Laborde supervises the 5 sales sectors: South, East, West, Center and Paris, with the 5 sales managers and the 30 sales representatives. The company Maisons SIC also has an office in Paris which allows it to build new houses in the South-West for Parisians who leave the region and come to settle elsewhere.
Where does Martine Laborde come from? The head of the Maisons SIC sales administration department worked in a financial establishment for more than 20 years, but which was put into extinction. In this former profession, she was already working in collaboration with Maisons SIC since she handled construction contracts for Maisons SIC but on the other side, on the financing side. And when a position became available at Maisons SIC, she did not hesitate to apply and has never looked back.
How does a file evolve within Maison SIC's sales administration?
At Maisons SIC, as soon as the order form is signed by the sales representative, the file is compiled for the design office. Once the design office draws up the contract, it goes down to the sales administration department, which will proceed with the drafting of the construction contract and all the CERFA administrative documents for the filing of the building permit. Working on the conditions precedent allows the sales administration department to help customers with all their administrative procedures: obtaining the permit, loan offers and deed of the land.
As Martin Laborde rightly points out: “we are really in the concrete help for the customers, in order to carry out their projects. On a daily basis, we are in external contact with town halls, town planning departments, banks, brokers and notaries. And internally with the design office, the sales representatives and the technical department.”
While the members of the sales administration department work in close collaboration and in good harmony with all the colleagues at Maisons SIC, relations can prove to be a little more complicated with the external departments. Because the town halls, the urban planning services can be difficult to reach, just like in the banks and at the notaries. The deadlines have also increased enormously since the COVID period. Same thing with notaries.
In order to better manage all the stages and carry out all the files, the sales administration department has a very effective tool: the portfolio, by sector. This is the company's logbook.
“Our goal is to complete all these steps within 5 months between the signing of the construction contract and the signing of the land deed”
A key value: customer satisfaction
The values of the Maisons SIC company in general and of the sales administration department in particular are very dear to Martine Laborde's heart. Among its values, the most important for it are: being as close as possible to customer satisfaction, demonstrating responsiveness, speed, listening to their requests so that their project is carried out as well as possible. “When customers are happy, we are happy too.”
Martine Laborde loves her work and finds it very rewarding because it is a very diversified and rewarding profession: “we never get bored because each client is unique. So each course necessarily is. No day is ever the same.”
For example, she cites the example of this couple of first-time buyers, who had signed a construction contract and who had just had a child. They then asked to build a small two-bedroom house. And during the realization of their project, the woman became pregnant and was expecting… twins. The whole project then had to be reviewed. The entire Maisons SIC team then mobilized to make all the changes necessary for their change of situation as quickly as possible, so that they could be as comfortable as possible in their new home when the children were to arrive. A beautiful anecdote that perfectly underlines the solidarity and positive interactions between each department of the Maisons SIC company. “We had big projects, very beautiful houses and it is always a pleasure to accompany clients in their beautiful houses and it is very rewarding.”
Reality and typical day in the sales administration of Maisons SIC
What is the typical day for a sales administration manager? Martine Laborde starts by checking the emails that have arrived, processing them, then she calls her assistants and together they give a daily update on the progress of the files. It is she who organizes all the technical development appointments with the works manager, the client and the sales representative. Then she takes care of the management of the construction contracts since they are all solely managed by the head office: she checks them and they are prepared for the signature at the management and the sending to the client.
On average, over a normal period, the sales administration department of Maisons SIC processes about thirty contracts per month. : “Last year, for example, we handled around 290 construction contracts.” But today, with the rise in materials, the RE 2020, inflation and the decline in purchasing power, for buyers, it can become complicated to build a new house, the banks having increased their rates. But the Maisons SIC teams remain mobilized so that each of their client's projects can see the light of day.
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Discover Martine Laborde's video RIGHT HERE !
