The Prospect asks the Home Builder, “Why Should I Buy From You?” What is Your Answer?

That’s the question constantly going through your prospect’s mind-

Why choose you?

“Why Should I Buy from You?”

Have you ever stepped away from your business and really given this question some thought? Do you struggle trying to answer it?

If you’re like most of the home builders and remodelers I’ve talked to, you’re probably busy…

…Running your day-to-day business
…Trying to get your next sale
…Keeping your current customers happy

Let’s face it- it’s really easy to get bogged down in the details of working IN your business. Working ON your business is constantly getting pushed to the back burner. But if your prospects are constantly asking themselves, “Why should I buy from you?”…

And please don’t go down the road of…

…because we’re family owned
…because we’re a quality builder/remodeler
…because we have 20+ years of experience
…because we have excellent service

All those things are MINIMUM expectations of buyers today.

So how do You get MORE Buyers to Choose You?

This is a no B.S. conversation about how the best home builders, remodelers and salespeople are using market positioning to gain market share.

I’ll demystify market positioning and show you 5 easy-to-implement steps that will reignite your sales for 2010 and beyond.

You can watch a copy of the webinar using the link below (and why not- it’s FREE!)

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/787568195

90% of what you do is just like your competitors. This program will show you how to leverage the 10% that makes all the difference to your bottom line.

To get started on re-positioning your company, neighborhood or personal brand- get my FREE e-guide below

http://www.nhsalescoach.com/free-sales-resources.html#findprospects

P.S As a bonus to everyone that attends I’m going to help you get started repositioning your company, neighborhood and/or your personal brand. This tool is invaluable for your future success.

Register here

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/787568195

Click here>> and get Rick’s FREE copy of 6 Secrets to Maximizing Your Home Sales in Any Market Revealed.

Ask Rick a question and he may feature it in an upcoming issue of Coach’s Corner>>

Rick Storlie has been helping home builders and remodelers maximize their sales since 1992. Get your FREE e-guide, “6 Secrets to Maximizing your Sales in any Economy Revealed by visiting

www.NHSalesCoach.com.

My brother is home on leave from Afghanistan and father is up from Florida so we snuck away for a quick grouse hunting trip.

I’ve been hunting grouse for 30 years and tried something different this time…something that is a valuable lesson for everyone in the housing industry…

~Rick

Follow the Red Lanterns

It was this very quote I was thinking about on my last grouse hunting trip. For years I’ve pretty much hunted grouse the same way- get into the woods and WALK.

I’d spend 5-6 hours a day walking trails for grouse with many times not even a “flush,” hearing or seeing a bird.

This year, I tried something different…

Instead of focusing on the amount of time I would spend in the woods WALKING, I would spend time before the trip RESEARCHING the type of cover where grouse like to “hang out.”

This led me to the red lanterns (see the photo above).

Red lanterns, to an avid grouse hunter, are dogwood tree berries. In the early to mid season, grouse love to feed on these berries. The theory is, find the berries and you will find the birds.

My research focused on finding these trees even if it led me off the “beaten trail.”

My first afternoon hunt I got into the woods around 4:00. The first trail I walked had some nice young aspen trees (another grouse favorite) but lacked the “red lanterns” I was looking for.

I tried a different trail and soon began to see red lanterns. My young and incredibly inexperienced Red Setter Bentley and I began to move off the trail and into the areas of these dogwood trees.

A wind storm and ice storm this year made the walking incredibly difficult. There were down trees all over the place in addition to the thick cover already present.

About 30 minutes of walking through the thick forest I heard a series of incredibly fast wing beats…Bentley and I had our first flush!

The same thing happened a few minutes later- another flush but no opportunity for a shot.

We continued to walk around the dogwoods until the lack of daylight encouraged me to turn around and head back to the car. I was silently congratulating myself for the 2 flushes when I heard another bird flush over my right shoulder…

This time I not only had a visual, the bird had flown into a small clearing where I had a shot. I got lucky and downed the bird. Bentley found the bird in the forest and he had officially retrieved his first grouse.

This bird flushed right out of a tree- a dogwood tree that is…

Your Challenge

Thinking about this experience I couldn’t help but look at the similarities of what has happened to the housing market over the last 5 years…

• Walking the same trails gave me a great workout but wasn’t leading me to birds. Are you taking the same path in your business and are you finding the buyers you’re looking for?

• Sitting in front of the computer and researching grouse cover wasn’t much fun- but it made all the difference when I went into the woods. Are you taking time each week to work ON your business and find new avenues for attracting buyers?
  

• Moving off the trail and into the woods was tough. It would of been a lot easier to stay on the trail for an easy walk but that’s not where the birds were. Changing how you attract buyers is tough at first too…you’re not used to it and it’s much easier to go back to what you know.

• I spent 2.5 hours walking through and over some of the thickest cover you can imagine to bag one bird. Today, you have to not only arm yourself with the knowledge, strategies and techniques to find buyers- you have to remain persistent to find those few buyers out there.

I wrote the Ultimate System for Attracting Home Buyers to give you all the tools you need to find today’s home buyers.

My client’s are consistently using these strategies to find buyers today, in every type of market, from entry level to luxury.

Get your copy of the Ultimate System for Attracting Home Buyers by clicking here>>

Happy Hunting AND Happy Selling!

P.S. If you don’t want to start changing the way you attract buyers today, no problem.

Just remember, the time will pass anyway…

You can spend your time implementing proven strategies to get more buyers or spend your time “walking down the beaten path.” It’s your choice…

Make a difference and start today>>

Beware of the Middle-

The middle is never the best or never the cheapest….

Your prospects never remember you if you’re in the middle- you’re just like everyone else.

As builders, remodelers and salespeople we find the middle comfortable. We’re just trying to fit in.

Our presentations, homes and designs are OK.

Not the best…

Not the worst…

Not the most expensive…

And not the cheapest.

We forget that nobody is looking for average. Either we buy on perceived low price or perceived high quality- neither of which is found in the middle!

Happy Selling!

Get your free new home and remodeling sales resource guide here (and get out of the middle)>>

As I sat in front of the second customer in a two week period last October that told me “all home builders are the same,” the brutal reality came crashing down on me: Everything Has Changed. Yes, I was working with a well known, well regarded 30+ year home builder, but, to the customer, we were just another price quote. Between 2004 and 2007, every rule has changed. Indeed, it’s time for a Revolution!

Prior to writing this article, I went back and reviewed an article I wrote in November of 2006 called Seven Ideas for 2007. The article had many good, solid, boilerplate ideas that are still relevant for 2008. The problem is, even though the information is only one year old, it’s no longer enough for a year of changes in our new home market.

Are you angry?

Are you angry yet? Everything you knew (or thought you knew) has changed. And don’t give me the standard ‘this is like it was back in the early 80′s’ hyperbole. Our current climate has absolutely no similarities to that market (think interest rates, unemployment, media, lending and national home builders). The reason I ask if you are angry is because angry people are ready for a Revolution. Angry people are ready for change. Think 2008 is doom and gloom? Think again. Think opportunity.

Idea #1- Burn Baby Burn. In 1519, Capitan Hernando Cortes and a small army left the Spanish held island of Cuba and set out on one of the greatest conquests in the history of the world. Cortes was going to accomplish his goals no matter the consequences. He put to death some of those who opposed him, got himself appointed Capitan-General in order to get out from under Diego Velazquez’s authority, and even destroyed his fleet in an attempt to motivate his men to adapt to his at-all-costs attitude. The destruction of the ships has been widely studied and is still debated today.

Here’s the idea: In – in order to move forward, you can’t go back. The first list you need to create in 2008 is your “Stop Doing” list. I suggest:

1. Redefine who you are today and what you want to be tomorrow. The market will not build your business for you now or in the future.

2. Stop focusing on your houses (more on this later).

3. Stop treating your customers as you have always treated them.

4. Stop being ordinary (much more on this later).

5. Stop holding on to ideas that worked in the past.

6. Stop worrying about failure and fail forward fast.

Past Success = Enemy of Future Success

Idea #2- Your competition…today. Think mass retail with me for a moment, specifically discount store chains. On one end we have Wal-Mart (low price leader) and on the other end we have Target (more expensive but a pretty cool shopping experience). The problem with the majority of home builders today is that they fall into the Kmart category (stuck in the middle). They’re not as cheap as the national home builders, yet there is absolutely nothing compelling about their home designs or the customer experience. The customer looks and says, ‘they aren’t the lowest price so I won’t buy them.’ Thus we believe that we have a price problem when we really have a differentiation problem.

Your biggest obstacle to overcome is not the competition down the street. Your obstacle is the customer’s indifference toward your homes and the experience (or lack thereof) you provide.

Idea #3- Design please. “If a product’s future is unlikely to be remarkable – if you can’t imagine a future in which people are once again fascinated by your product – it’s time to realize that the game has changed,” Seth Godin from the book Purple Cow .

“The best design solves problems, but if you can weld that to the cool factor, then you have a home run,” Mark Schurman of Herman Miller, manufacturer of the $750 Aeron office chair.

Here are your design questions for 2008. What one thing does your home have that is the absolute best in the micro market you compete in? What problems will your home(s) solve for the customers you serve? If you can’t walk through your home(s) and answer those questions, how will your customers be able to?

Idea #4- Brand=Talent. “It’s been said that the most important decision an organization can make isn’t what to do, but who’s going to do it. That means that before you charge headfirst into the changes necessary to take it to the next level, you’d better decide if everyone on the train is really on board with their entire heart and soul,” Joe Calloway from the book Becoming a Category of One.

A lot has been written about branding your company over the years. Your brand is not an external thing created by an advertising campaign. Each individual within your organization creates your brand by what comes from their hearts.

Therefore, do whatever you have to do to keep the most talented folks around and don’t be afraid to weed out those that don’t fit into your revolution.

Idea #5- Go Green (just don’t pay more). According to Renegade Marketing, “Going Green” is a top 10 marketing trend for 2008. The good news for most homebuilders is that many of their current practices and products are already green. They just aren’t advertising it.

About 40% of the consumer market is interested in products that make their home safer, use less energy and tread lightly on the earth; they just don’t want to pay more for it. And when you do find the few people that will pay more, the payback needs to be in five years or less. Here’s the idea: Show them what you are already doing that is green (even if everyone else is also doing it). Think 2X6 exterior walls!

Idea #6- What are you selling, really? It’s a home, not a house, right? If you think people buy your homes because you are a “quality” home builder, think again. In today’s economy, every home builder brings a quality home to the marketplace. The builders that don’t are gone or will be gone soon. Quality is an entry level factor.

If your buyer’s are not buying a “quality” home, then just what are they buying? I suggest they are buying an emotional connection to your brand through a personal relationship.

In 2008, the salespeople that will sell the most homes are the ones that will discover more about their customer’s problems and get closer to them than anyone else. These salespeople will create an individual, thoughtfully staged experience and transform their customers ONE AT A TIME.

Don’t think marketing to the masses.

Think marketing person to person.

Idea #7- Women Rule! For any man reading this, let’s take a crash course:

• Women are directing the finances in nearly 70% of all U.S. households.
• Women purchase 62% of all new vehicles and influence another 30% of decisions.
• More than 80% of NFL products are sold to women.
• Women make 83% of all consumer purchases.
• Women directly purchase or have controlling influence in the purchase of 91% of all new homes.

Women in the U.S. make up the largest economy in the world. Need any more proof? A recent article in the Star Tribune about the buying habits of women vs. men when it comes to luxury cars reveals some stark contrasts. “Ask a man what automotive luxury means and chances are he’ll mention horsepower, handling and gadgetry. For a woman, there’s nothing more luxurious – in cars as in life – than safety, service and being taken seriously.

Are you designing homes and experiences that appeal to the women in your target market? Revolution me boy!

Idea #8 – Believe. At a seminar a few years ago, I learned there are four types of people in the workplace: the critics and the skeptics, the laughers and the mockers, the perplexed and the believers.

In my work with home builders and their sales staffs I am privileged to work with some believers. These folks get it. They believe in the systems I teach and they implement the strategies on an on-going basis.

They sacrifice daily and understand they can’t be all things to all people but they can focus on, say and do one thing. They become absolutely excellent at it. In other words, they do small, remarkable things on a daily basis.

“Don’t be boring. Safe is risky. Very good is bad.”

- Seth Godin

“Blame no one. Expect Nothing. Do something.”

-Bill Parcels, 2 time Superbowl Champion Head Coach

Happy Selling and Happy New Year!

What’s Working in Today’s Market…

Are you a member of the Builders Association of Minnesota (BAM)?

Would you like some help in your marketing and sales efforts?

How about finding out how to double or triple your sales?

If you are an associate, home builder or remodeler, you have a once-in-a-lifetime (no B.S.!) chance to discover a system that is selling today.

I’ll be traveling the state of Minnesota the week of May 19^th – 22^nd with three other speakers to show you how builders and remodelers are transforming their websites into lead generating machines using the Woman-Centric philosophy.

Some of these builders have doubled and even quadrupled their sales!

Check out this case study and download a FREE e-guide to see how it’s being done>>

BAM has put together a first rate event “Tune Up & Jump Start: Best New Ideas For Reinventing Your Business” which delivers five of the most interesting speakers on four different days around the state giving you helpful information on topics to help you reinvent your business for the new economy.

All events will be held from 8AM – 12PM (Paul Foresman and me will be speaking from 8:00 – 9:30) , and the dates and locations are listed below. I think most of the sessions will be Free but you need to call your local home builder association to find out. The numbers are below…

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Prior Lake

To register call 651-697-1954

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

St. Cloud

To register call 320-251-4382

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Brainerd

To register call 218-829-4982

Friday, May 22, 2009

Duluth

To register call 218-722-5707

**Also, a FREE ENERGY CODE CLASS “Major Changes to the New Residential Energy Code: Overview and Open Q & A Session” will be held in the afternoon from 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm for all members, building code officials, licensed residential contractors, HVAC contractors and insulation contractors.