Supporting and taking charge of Redrow Homes’ South West sales force as new head of sales over the past few months has been an unexpected experience for Sian Smith. The national housebuilder promoted Sian just as the Covid-19 pandemic struck and the whole of the UK went into lockdown.
Sian’s role is to manage and drive sales activity in the South West region, however, due to the unprecedented time that the UK found itself in, her job presented new challenges with sales centres closed and construction work suspended for several weeks.
Now Sian is focused on the phased return of building work and the gradual reopening of the region’s developments for home viewings as lockdown eases in-line with our social distancing protocols.
Throughout the past couple of months Sian has been supporting her 34-strong team, across 12 developments located in the South West. She has played a central role in upholding our robust Covid-19 safety measures for staff and customers since lockdown restrictions were revised by the Government in England on 18th May.
The housebuilder has developed and put in place rigorous cleaning regimes and a range of physical measures to reduce the spread of Covid-19 at its sites, including fitted adaptations to sales centres and site facilities.
We have also produced videos for both customers and construction employees which offer clear guidance to fully communicate the new processes in place.
Commenting on her new role and time as head of sales, Sian said; “I love working for Redrow and seeing our developments bring joy to those who decide to make one of our houses a home.
“The past few months have been challenging as there was a period in which we were limited on what work we could carry out because of government guidelines. However, we have now successfully opened our sales centres and started to welcome customers back to our developments, both virtually online and physically, and in line with strict new social distancing protocols. On every site we have enhanced signage and PPE for visitors and staff’s safety.
“We’re seeing a gradual return of site presence at all locations as contractors un-furlough staff as well as a steady increase of interest from potential homeowners which is fantastic.
“It has certainly been a very interesting time to step up to this new role.”
Since joining us 13 years ago as a part-time sales consultant, Sian rose through the ranks at our Cardiff office where in 2012 she was promoted to part exchange manager and in 2013 area sales manager.
Lee Hawker, managing director of our South West division, said “Sian is a fantastic asset to the South West team. Her tenacity for sales and passion for the business are second to none.
“Sian has proven herself invaluable through the lockdown period in ensuring customers are still able to move through the sales process via alternative means such as WhatsApp and Zoom calls – which is no mean feat.”
We have reported an annual turnover of £176m in the South West in the last financial year.
For more information on Redrow developments in the South West please visit https://www.redrow.co.uk/locations/south-west.
