Melinda Brody and Company

What Melinda Brody and Company does

Melinda Brody and Company is a privately held market research firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that has specialized exclusively in video mystery shopping for the new home building industry since its founding in 1986. The company operates a three-tier service model — Shop, Coach, Train — comprising onsite video mystery shops at model centers, recorded phone shops, online sales counselor shops, and competition shops; one-on-one 90-minute sales coaching sessions delivered by Sales Coach & Trainer Leah Turner; and customized team sales training workshops. Video mystery shoppers equipped with covert recording hardware (Lawmate PV-500 button cameras) visit model centers posing as prospective homebuyers, and independent evaluation specialists score each associate's performance against proprietary or third-party scorecards (including Jeff Shore's 4:2 Formula and FPG's 5/4/3 Factor). Clients access results through a Shopmetrics-branded online client dashboard that provides videos, scorecards, and drill-down performance reports with a standard 5-business-day turnaround.

The company sells through a consultative, sales-led go-to-market motion targeting production and custom home builders nationwide, with revenue generated on a transaction-fee basis per completed shop (no setup or upfront fees) supplemented by quote-based professional-services fees for coaching and training engagements. Customer acquisition relies on referrals, industry association relationships (Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association, Mystery Shopping Providers Association, NAHB Sales & Marketing Councils), speaking engagements at builder shows, content marketing through a weekly insights blog, and monthly client email newsletters. The customer base spans national enterprise home builders — including D.R. Horton, Taylor Morrison, PulteHomes, and Ryan Homes — alongside regional and mid-size builders such as Beazer Homes, Ashton Woods, Smith Douglas Homes, Stanley Martin Homes, Neal Communities, Schumacher Homes, and DeYoung Properties.

Ownership transitioned from founder Melinda Brody to current Owner & President Ben Marks in 2016; the company remains closely held with no disclosed institutional investment, no parent company, and a leadership team of three (Ben Marks, Kim French as Director of Operations, and Leah Turner). Over 40 years, the firm has accumulated a longitudinal dataset drawn from approximately 25,000 undercover video mystery shops, which underpins its annual Benchmark Report and Leah Turner's published industry book. There is no disclosed use of AI/ML technology, no mobile app, no API, and no public integrations; the technology stack centers on the proprietary scorecard system, the Shopmetrics client portal, and third-party recording hardware.

Name

Melinda Brody and Company

Legal name

Melinda Brody & Company

Website

https://melindabrody.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1986

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Melinda Brody and Company is a privately held Atlanta-based market research firm, founded in 1986, that provides video mystery shopping, one-on-one sales coaching, and team sales training exclusively to U.S. new home builders, including enterprise clients such as D.R. Horton, Taylor Morrison, and PulteHomes.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mystery Shopping Services

akta.pro primary industry

Undercover Operations & Integrity Shopping (Internal Theft Testing) (BPAKAJAI)

Keywords

• Video mystery shopping
• New home builder sales
• Sales coaching training
• Competitive market research
• Sales performance evaluation

Headquarters

HQ city

Atlanta

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Mystery Shopping Services: Onsite video mystery shops, recorded phone shops, online sales counselor shops, and competition shops for new home builders. Revenue generated per completed shop with no upfront or setup fees.
2. One-on-One Sales Coaching: 90-minute online coaching sessions with Leah Turner following shop review, including 30-day action plan and follow-up accountability check-in.
3. Team Sales Training Programs: Customized workshop-based training delivered in-person (half-day or full-day formats) or as speaking engagements for home builder associations and sales teams.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Melinda Brody and Company provides video mystery shopping, one-on-one sales coaching, and team sales training services exclusively to the new home building industry. Trained mystery shoppers pose as prospective homebuyers to covertly video-record sales associates at model centers, phone, or online, with results evaluated by independent specialists using proprietary scorecards. The integrated Shop-Coach-Train offering helps builders evaluate, coach, and train their sales teams to improve performance.

Product overview

Melinda Brody & Company offers a three-tiered integrated service offering — Shop, Coach, Train — exclusively for the new home building industry. The core offerings are (1) Onsite Video Mystery Shops, Online Sales Counselor Shops, Recorded Phone Shops, and Competition Shops, in which trained video shoppers evaluate sales associates; (2) One-on-One Sales Coaching, a 90-minute personalized session using shop video analysis; and (3) Team Sales Training workshops customized to shop findings. These are supported by an Online Client Dashboard for report access and a Shop Evaluation Scorecard system that clients can customize or replace with third-party scorecards. The company was founded in 1986 and has operated exclusively in the new home builder industry for over 40 years.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Onsite Video Mystery Shops Professional video mystery shoppers visit model centers posing as prospective homebuyers, covertly video recording sales associates in real-world settings. Each shopper is matched to the client's desired demographic and buyer profile. Designed for new home builders seeking objective evaluation of their onsite sales team.
• Online Sales Counselor Shops Shoppers initiate community inquiries through the builder's website or phone call to evaluate response time, handoff efforts to onsite associates, and follow-up quality of online sales counselors. Designed for new home builders with digital lead capture.
• Recorded Phone Shops Shoppers place and record phone calls to sales associates or online sales counselors posing as prospects, with reports including scorecard results and call recordings for review and coaching. Designed for new home builders seeking to evaluate phone-based sales interactions.
• Competition Shops Shoppers visit competing builders to gather information on incentives, pricing, best-selling floor plans, build times, and other competitive intelligence; collateral material collected is also forwarded to clients. Designed for new home builders seeking competitive market intelligence.
• One-on-One Sales Coaching

Named customers17 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Super ShoppersminorOthersTraining partner for video mystery shop opportunities. Super Shoppers holds free live webinars where aspiring shoppers can learn the '3 Steps to Becoming a Certified Video SuperShopper.' This partnership helps Melinda Brody & Company recruit and train new mystery shoppers.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Quality Assurance (QA) Mystery Shopping: Specialized mystery shopping provider delivering covert shop programs to retail and service brands. Operates a comparable transaction-based shop model with client-facing reporting portals, similar in service design to MB&C.
• Second To None: U.S.-based mystery shopping and customer experience firm offering onsite video shops, phone shops, and reporting tools across multiple verticals. Directly comparable to MB&C in service model and evaluation methodology, though not narrowly focused on homebuilders.
• Intouch Insight: Canadian-headquartered mystery shopping and CX research firm with a multi-industry vertical focus, including retail and service-based clients. Comparable in providing video-based mystery shops, scorecards, and client dashboards.

Emerging players

• Behaviorally (formerly PRS): Shopper insights and behavioral research firm serving CPG and retail brands with in-store and digital shopper research. Adjacent to MB&C through its focus on retail sales effectiveness evaluation, though more product-centric than new-home sales.

Broad incumbents

• Ipsos Mystery Shopping: Global market research and CX division of Ipsos with a large mystery shopping practice serving multiple industries. Comparable in service offering and client type, but operates at significantly greater scale and breadth than MB&C's homebuilder vertical.
• MaritzCX: Major customer experience research and mystery shopping provider with broad industry coverage. Comparable in evaluation methodology and client portal functionality, but not vertically specialized in homebuilding.
• Kantar (CX Practice): Global research firm with a customer experience and mystery shopping practice serving many enterprise verticals. Provides similar shop + scorecard + reporting workflows, but at substantially larger scale and broader industry coverage.

Others

• Jeff Shore (Sales Training): Sales training consultancy producing methodology frameworks (the '4:2 Formula') referenced in MB&C's third-party scorecard options. Comparable as an adjacent sales training provider for the homebuilder vertical, offering substitute or complementary coaching programs.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Melinda Brody and Company