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Your sales team is already using AI. The real question is whether they’re pasting buyer information into a free account. Lindsey Ayala, Chief Growth Officer at Impact Eighty Eight, joins Anya to share the AI strategies she teaches sales teams and leaders across the country, starting with the first move: get off the free plan.

Lindsey explains what happens to your data on a free account, why a team plan beats individual logins, and how memory and projects turn a generic chatbot into an assistant trained on your voice, your communities and your buyers. She walks through the automations that give leaders hours back, including the morning leadership brief, meeting prep with a pre-drafted follow-up, and a new-client intake that files, notifies and invoices on its own. She also shares her BRIEF prompting framework, what belongs in a company AI policy, and the one thing every listener should do today.

Lindsey’s BRIEF framework: Background, Role, Instructions, Examples, Feedback (end every prompt with “Ask me any clarifying questions”).

Connect with Lindsey on LinkedIn, where you can also subscribe to her weekly AI Powered Leader Note. Learn more about Impact Eighty Eight’s AI training, School of Impact, Speak to Lead and Revenue Getter at [IMPACT88_WEBSITE_URL].

Connect with Anya on LinkedIn.

Get your free AEO Assessment: email your website URL to [email protected] with the subject line “AEO Assessment.”

🎟️ Builder Tech Summit: April 28-30, 2027, Loews Kansas City. 150 seats only. Early bird $799 with code EARLYBIRD through Oct 31: buildertech.com

Learn more at anewgo.com

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Brohn Homes builds the lowest-priced new construction in central Texas, starting at $179,990 just outside Austin, and has tripled its community count in under two years. Melissa Galland, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Brohn Homes, joins Anya to talk about marketing to first-time buyers across Austin, San Antonio and Houston.

She shares why financial education builds more value than incentives, how a downloadable homebuyer guide turned into a high-converting lead source, why their first virtual buyer class outperformed in-person events that sometimes drew no one, and why Brohn kept investing in marketing while other builders cut back. Melissa also explains how she keeps sales and marketing working like best friends, why OSCs make her marketing smarter, what makes her skeptical of a tech pitch, and the career advice that stuck with her: pull up your own seat.

Full disclosure: Brohn Homes is an Anewgo client, and Melissa gives her honest take on how buyers use interactive tools before and during the sales appointment.

Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn or visit brohnhomes.com.

Get your free AEO Assessment: email your website URL to [email protected] with the subject line “AEO Assessment.”

🎟️ Builder Tech Summit: April 28-30, 2027, Loews Kansas City. 150 seats only. Early bird $799 with code EARLYBIRD through Oct 31: buildertech.com

Learn more at anewgo.com

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Gen X is now turning 55, and the 55+ buyer looks nothing like the stereotype. Rob Krohn, VP of Marketing at Epcon Communities, returns to the show to talk about how this buyer is changing and what builders need to do differently.

We get into why AI use may be higher among Gen X and boomers than among Gen Z, why the fastest way to lose an Xer is to gate your information, and how Epcon works on organic AI visibility before considering paid AI placements. Rob also shares how Epcon splits its budget, why buyers can take two years to decide but only about 45 days from lead to contract, how they pay (roughly a third each cash, conventional and reverse mortgage), and the mistake franchise builders make most often when they enter the 55+ space.

Connect with Rob on LinkedIn or visit epconcommunities.com and epconfranchising.com.

Get your free AEO Assessment: email your website URL to [email protected] with the subject line "AEO Assessment."

🎟️ Builder Tech Summit: April 28-30, 2027, Loews Kansas City. 150 seats only. Early bird $799 with code EARLYBIRD through Oct 31: buildertech.com

Learn more at anewgo.com

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September was the month AI agents became front-page news. An agent hit #1 on the App Store, moved the stock market and got blocked by Amazon, all in the same week. Anthropic opened an app store for AI. And the industry had its first real agent safety scare.

In this month's State of AI, Anya covers both sides: the agentic future arriving faster than expected and the growing pains that came with it. She explains why "friction" was quietly holding up entire business models, why AI shopping is splitting into open and closed worlds, and why the conversation is moving from AEO to ACO (Agentic Commerce Optimization) and its 5 Cs: completeness, context, citations, correctness and customer acquisition. She also shares an honest take on the OpenAI and Hugging Face incident and what responsible AI adoption looks like for builders.

Get your free AEO Assessment: email your website URL to [email protected] with the subject line "AEO Assessment."

🎟️ Builder Tech Summit: April 28-30, 2027, Loews Kansas City. 150 seats only. Early bird $799 with code EARLYBIRD through Oct 31: buildertech.com

Read more: The Ecosystem Advantage: How Connected AI Is Changing New Home Sales

Learn more at anewgo.com

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Special announcement episode! Think about all the conferences in our industry - sales training events, marketing summits, the big trade shows where technology is one track out of forty. Not one of them is solely focused on new home sales and marketing technology. Until now.

Builder Tech is officially back. Anewgo CEO John Lee and Chip Johnson of Builder Designs have known each other for over a decade, and after years of "we need to build this" conversations in the back rooms of conferences, they finally did. In this episode, Anya Chrisanthon shares their conversation about why Builder Tech is back, why now, and who should be in the room.

Why now
Tech went from a four-letter word in this industry to a two-letter word: AI. As John puts it, the fear of being left behind is now scarier than the fear of early adoption. ChatGPT has been out since 2022 - we are way past introduction and deep into application. And builders are discovering you can't just buy AI off the shelf: legacy systems, processes, and partners all have to evolve together.

Where the buyer journey is heading
Buyers shopping you from their Gemini and ChatGPT conversations. Buyers delegating the search to AI buyer's agents. The progression from generative AI to agentic AI to agentic commerce - with AI accompanying the buyer through the entire journey, from discovery all the way to loan applications, insurance, closing, and warranties. And the one thing that makes any of it work: good data about your unique position in your market.

What the event looks like
This is a working event, not a gala. Panels as real productions. Testimonials from builders who have actually implemented this technology. Roundtables where vendor partners sit with builders and learn from each other - not booths, but kiosks featuring only the best of the best. You won't just leave with ideas. You'll leave with mentors, peer partners, and relationships to help you navigate a disruptive AI world.

Who should attend
Marketing directors, CEOs, CTOs - anybody with a stake in their business and their digital footprint, and an appetite for getting better.

🎟️ The details:

• April 28-30, 2027 · Loews Hotel, Kansas City (Power & Light District)
• 150 seats total - when they're gone, they're gone
• Early bird $799 with code EARLYBIRD through October 31, then $899
• Team discount for groups of 3+ and a discounted hotel block at the Loews
• Get your seat: buildertech.com
• And go say hi to Marcel, the AI assistant on the site - he'll give you a preview of what this whole new AI world is about.

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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Back in June we celebrated Sophie's birthday - one year of Anewgo's AI assistant. At the end of that episode, Anya Chrisanthon made a promise: we'd come back and do it again from a different angle. Not our AI talking to builders... a builder's AI talking to homebuyers. Today's the day.

Anya interviews the AI sales assistant living on the website of one of Anewgo's homebuilder clients - six months live, talking to real homebuyers every single day. The builder stays confidential to protect their data, but everything you'll hear is real.

The after-hours reality
60-70% of buyer engagement happens outside normal sales office hours - and Sunday night is serious shopping time, as families finalize housing decisions while planning their week. At 10 PM on a Tuesday, buyers aren't casually browsing. They're deep-researching school districts, lot availability, and floor plan comparisons while the house is quiet.

The most common question - and the greatest hits
Number one, without a doubt: pricing. "How much does the Redwood 2 start at?" Beyond that, the top five: location and community amenities, floor plan availability and modifications, construction and move-in timelines, school district boundaries, and build-on-your-own-lot.

The silent research phase
The biggest surprise of six months: buyers returning to the exact same floor plan multiple times over several days without asking a single question. It looks like inactivity - it's actually one of the strongest signals of serious intent.

What buyers tell AI that they'd never tell a salesperson
No pressure to perform, no fear of judgment. Buyers admit they're barely pre-approved. They confess they're going through a divorce. They reveal they hate a community feature but don't want to offend the builder. The AI becomes a safe space to test real boundaries before committing to a real conversation.

The silent nos
The intelligence that never used to get captured: which floor plan a buyer looked at three times but rejected because the master closet was too small. The community a buyer loved but left because they couldn't find lot pricing. Before, the sales team just saw a cold lead. Now they see a specific, solvable objection.

The readiness signal
The clearest sign a buyer is ready: they shift from "what if" questions to "when and how" questions. "Is lot 42 still available?" "Can we tour the model this Saturday?" That's the green light.

Sophie's advice to builder leadership
Double down on speed and transparency around pricing and availability - hesitation there causes the most drop-off. Buyers do their homework late at night and expect immediate answers. If they wait until morning, they often move on to a competitor who responds.

And the big one: buyers have done about 80% of their shopping online before they ever want to talk to a person. They aren't avoiding you because they aren't interested - they're avoiding being sold before they feel informed.

Plus: the buyer who asked if the model home came with the furniture and the puppy sleeping on the rug, whether buyers say please and thank you (they do, even at midnight), and what Sophie wants to get better at before her one-year check-in.

🤖 Want to know what YOUR buyers are asking? Get your own AI sales assistant: anewgo.com/ai-assistant or email [email protected].
🔍 Free AEO Assessment: email your website URL to [email protected], subject "AEO Assessment."
✉️ Topic ideas or want to be a guest? Email [email protected].

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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What happens when the best trainers in homebuilding stop competing and start collaborating? Anya Chrisanthon takes you inside CoLab - the Collaborative Leadership Conference in San Antonio, where Anewgo was a proud sponsor. No sales pitches. No company names on the name tags. Just two days of honest, practical conversations about leadership - recorded live on site.

Ryan Taft - why CoLab exists
The co-founder on looking out at an industry full of single-company events and asking: what if trainers collaborated instead of competed? The result: an event that's about pouring into the industry - so much so that name tags don't show companies or titles. Just people talking with people. CoLab returns to San Antonio next April - if you lead anybody, it's for you.

Cory Charles - resilient leadership
We do a good job showing up as tough, strong leaders. But are we fueling ourselves to be resilient in the way our teams actually need? Plus the framework everyone kept quoting all weekend: the mom hat and the dad hat. When your team comes to you - do they need you to solve, or to listen?

Anne Miller, Trumark Homes - one month into the VP seat
The eager leadership loop: action is the proof that empowerment works. Earning trust in a new role by listening first. And the discipline of not interrupting your own loop by being unclear on roles, responsibilities, and follow-through.

Omega Builders - the local builder playbook
Michaela Vaughan (sales management) and Ashley Robustelli (marketing) on competing with big-box incentives as a 55-year, second-generation family builder an hour north of Austin. Their approach: lead with discovery and customer experience, sell the value of local - quality, warranty, service, resale - and use incentives as the final push, not the opening line. Plus the legacy takeaway: the sales assistant you're onboarding today could be a CEO someday.

Dominic Baca, Riverside Home Builders - the coaching matrix
Coach up or manage out. And a confession every leader will recognize: "I'm a huge problem solver - and that's my biggest strength and weakness." The shift from solving everyone's problems to coaching from the sidelines.

Lindsey Ayala, Impact 88 - the AI wake-up call
90% of what's on a leader's plate doesn't require leadership - and AI can absorb it. The four stages of AI maturity: assistant, teammate, collaborator, trusted partner. And the stat that stunned the room: 98% of salespeople have logged into an AI tool - but roughly 70% are on free accounts. No memory. No security. Builder data at risk. The single best investment within your control is about $20 a month. Lindsey is coming back for a full AI deep-dive episode - subscribe so you don't miss it.

📅 CoLab returns to San Antonio next April.
 🤖 Want to see what an AI-ready buyer journey looks like for your communities? Email [email protected].
✉️ Topic ideas or want to be a guest? Email [email protected].

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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31% of leads come in after your model home closes - and for some builders, it's over 50%. Carson Anderson, Customer Success Specialist at NterNow, joins Anya Chrisanthon to talk self-guided tours, the after-hours buyer, and why the industry's traditional 10-to-6 sales model is leaving deals on the table. Carson also happens to be the son of homebuilding legend Kimberly Mackey of New Homes Solutions - and yes, we ask what it was like growing up going "undercover" mystery shopping at seven years old.

Two ears, one mouth
The best advice from his mom: use them proportionately. It's not about having all the right answers - it's about asking the right questions.

The after-hours opportunity
The average worker gets off at 5 with a 35-45 minute commute. Most models close at 5 or 6. The math is simple: builders are missing buyers who said "I'm interested NOW" - and historically, the industry's answer has been "come back when we're open." We all know what happens between "come back tomorrow" and tomorrow. And that 31% stat is an average - Carson has seen builders over 50%, and never below 20%.

The 90-second experience
Drive by, see the sign, scan the QR code, verify with your driver's license and a selfie, get a text code - and you're in the home. Security concerns? Across thousands of tours, theft is virtually nonexistent. You think twice about doing something dumb after scanning your ID.

84% aren't working with an agent
Lead delivery happens in real time - the agent on duty gets a text the moment a tourer enters their information. That's not permission to bombard - it's an opportunity to follow up fast with relevant information. The first agent to connect usually wins the deal.

Does this replace salespeople? No.
NterNow opens the door - it can't replace the human relationship behind the biggest financial decision of someone's life. What it replaces is friction. Let technology handle the access point so your salespeople spend their time closing, not unlocking doors. And for the buyers who avoid salespeople entirely in the early stage - the self-tour is the low-barrier entry that actually gets them in the door.

The pilot that converted a skeptical team
One Charlotte builder started with a couple of homes and saw a 150% increase in traffic. Now their salespeople are asking management when it's coming to their communities.

Also covered: NterNow joining the Allegion family (the company behind Schlage locks), the build-to-rent platform, the white-labeled connected buyer journey, and what's next - including HomeScribe AI, a voice AI agent that sounds just like a human.

Connect with Carson at [email protected] or on LinkedIn. Learn more and request a demo at nternow.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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Most sales reps are lucky to get coaching once a week. What's lost in all the conversations nobody sees? Malcolm Walker-Hendricks, Enterprise Sales Executive at SalesAsk, joins Anya Chrisanthon to talk about AI-powered conversation intelligence built specifically for home building, home renovation, and home improvement - recording every sales appointment, generating follow-up, syncing to your CRM, and giving every rep a personal coach.

The flashlight versus the light switch
A mystery shop or ride-along is a flashlight in a dark room - a snapshot in time. Continuous coaching hits the light switch on the way in: you see the habits, the patterns, and the path to improvement. Unbiased feedback with full context, after every single conversation.

Trained on the industry, not generic AI
Handing a generic AI your sales conversations is like eating soup with a fork. SalesAsk's model is trained on over 250,000 successful conversations in home building, home reno, and home improvement - it knows the terminology and what good looks like before it ever learns your company.

Multi-session tracking for a 300-day purchase cycle
New home sales isn't one conversation - it's OSC to sales agent to design center over months. SalesAsk stitches every conversation together so the buyer never has to say "I want green tile in the washroom" three times. Plus a context brief before every meeting: CRM history, past objections, and what actually matters to this buyer - on your phone or Apple Watch before they walk in.

Meet CoachDean (soon to be Agent Dean)
The all-knowing personal assistant and sales coach - named for legendary North Carolina coach Dean Smith. Follow-up help, reports from past conversations, and role-playing through Rep Lab, where practice scenarios are scored the same way as game day. As one top-100 builder put it during a slow season: instead of waiting for a mystery shop report, reps practice, practice, practice.

The recording question, answered
How do reps feel about being recorded? Change the mindset: if you could convert more deals without changing anything in your workflow, would you? And for buyers, Malcolm keeps it simple in any state: "Do you mind if I record our conversation so I don't miss anything in our notes?" The result: a +37% average close rate improvement - driven by speed, follow-up, and sales process adherence.

The motorcycle story
A buyer went MIA. The rep searched his recorded conversations, found a through-line about an upcoming motorcycle trip, referenced it in a P.S. - and closed the house. We're salespeople, but before that, we're humans.

Where it's heading
Agentic AI: follow-up done on your behalf, context delivered in a click or two, and the mundane automated so reps spend their time where it matters - closing.

Connect with Malcolm on LinkedIn or email [email protected]. Learn more at salesask.com and replab.ai - and catch the SalesAsk team (and Malcolm's top 20 sneakers) at CoLab in San Antonio this September, where Anewgo and SalesAsk are mutual sponsors.

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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Our 200th episode! Thank you for being part of this community - whether you've been here since episode one or found us last week. Want to shape the next 200? Topic ideas, guest suggestions, or your own pitch: email [email protected]. And if the show has ever helped you, a 30-second review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify is the best gift you can give us.

Fittingly for the milestone, this is a big one. In this August State of AI, Anya Chrisanthon - CCO at Anewgo - breaks down the month that moved AI search from theory to infrastructure.

The crossover moment
A Semrush study of nearly 500 marketing professionals found more marketers now plan to invest in AI search optimization than traditional SEO - 38% vs 36%. For 25 years SEO was THE discipline every budget started with. For the first time ever, it just got passed.

Google's August 19 update: Search becomes a workspace
Gemini Notebooks now live directly in AI Mode - imagine a homebuyer research notebook with floor plan PDFs, community brochures, pre-approval letters, and every AI conversation about builders in their market, all in one workspace that remembers everything. Custom document creation means a buyer can generate a comparison one-pager of the three builders on their shortlist - and whose information ends up in it depends entirely on what AI can find and trust about you.

The 3D moment
The headline update: Search can now generate interactive visual widgets and 3D simulations on demand inside AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google calls it generative UI - the AI isn't just writing an answer, it's building an interface. If Search can generate a rotating 3D molecular model today, how far away is "show me what an open-concept 2,400 square foot floor plan feels like"? Interactive content isn't a nice-to-have anymore. It's becoming the raw material of the answer layer - and the builders who invested early are the ones AI will build from.

Google published the rulebook - and called out the snake oil
There is no special technical trick that unlocks AI visibility. What Google's official guidance rewards: unique, non-commodity content grounded in genuine expertise - your communities in real detail, your building practices, your actual differentiators. Not generic slop.

Who's winning and who's invisible
85% of marketers say AI has changed how they approach search - but 40% still check their AI visibility by manually typing prompts into ChatGPT. The chart that matters: teams with fully integrated SEO + AI visibility report more leads from AI 81% of the time. Completely siloed teams: 36%. Same tools, different results - the difference is whether it's connected. And when brands actually checked how AI describes them, nearly 9 out of 10 found something wrong.

Zuckerberg's signal
Meta's 6,500-word manifesto commits hundreds of billions to "personal superintelligence" - a world where every buyer has their own powerful AI working on their behalf. Every major platform is now building toward the same buyer: one who arrives with superintelligence riding shotgun. Is your digital presence ready to talk to it?

There is no page two
When AI recommends two or three builders, most buyers just accept them. The recommendation is the market. The gap between cited and not cited isn't a difference in degree - it's a difference in kind.

🔍 Free AEO Assessment: email your website URL to [email protected], subject line "AEO Assessment" - free, no obligation, measured across multiple AI platforms.
✉️ Topic ideas or want to be a guest? Email [email protected]
📖 Anewgo AEO case study: How a Builder's ChatGPT Citation Rate Rose from 16% to 72%

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