5 Home Builder Ideas for Generating More Leads During Model Home Hours

Happy summer to you!

I’ve been working with my clients on a recurring problem for home builders and remodelers…

Maybe you’ve experienced it. It’s called “generating qualified leads- in the summer- with a tax credit & low consumer confidence hangover.”

Let’s face it, summer time has always been a challenge for new leads, model home traffic, etc. But with the tax credit ending April 30th many of the housing markets, especially lower priced, have seen traffic/leads nearly dry up.

After reading a great article in the May issue of Realtor Magazine I got 5 great ideas for dealing with this issue. Here they are…

~Rick

How to Beat the Summer Doldrums, Tax Credit & Low Consumer Confidence Blues

If you’ve worked in this industry long enough you may have heard the saying, “You have to make hay while the sun shines.”

Well may be YOU haven’t heard this before but my father grew up on a farm so I got to hear it a lot! Historically the home builders and remodelers have generated the bulk of their leads with spring home shows, home tours and marketing events.

Since about 2006 most of these events are no longer working the way they once did. You’re not seeing the numbers, quality and certainly the confidence at these events today.

As consumers continue to evolve and change our housing market it’s time we did the same. Let’s look at the most traditional way to generate leads- model hours.

Model Hours- Are they still viable today?

In our old housing market we’ve used the retail mentality when it comes to model hours- Be open for the convenience of the consumer. This meant 7 days a week and 6 – 8 hours a day.

Now unless you’re a public home builder and have a large advertising budget to drive traffic- you’ve spent your fair share of time at the model getting skunked. It’s demoralizing to the salesperson and the builder. But what are the options?

Open House vs. Model Hours

“Open Houses That Work,”is an article in the May issue of Realtor magazine that showed how some Realtors were “redefining” this traditional advertising method.

Many Realtors have written off the open house since 9 out of 10 buyers are starting their home search online. But other Realtors are focusing more of their energies on open house with dramatic results.

What if you were to treat your model hours more like an open house?

What would you do differently?

What would be the results?

Here’s my top 5 ideas for increasing leads during your model hours by treating them as an open house.

You can get more specifics for these ideas for FREE by clicking here>>

1. Change Your “Shotgun” approach to that of a rifle. Sitting in your model home 5-7 days a week with no traffic is a recipe for disaster. Instead of focusing on quantity of hours, change to QUALITY of hours. That is, put more time into promoting a specific event that will appeal to your target market. Here are some ideas:

• • Plan 1 special weekend event for consumer prospects each month. Give them a special reason to come out or come back.
  • Plan 1 special weekday event for Realtor prospects each month. Give them a special reason to come out.
  • Spend 12-20 hours promoting and planning each event OUTSIDE of your model. More details on this to come.

2. Leverage the web. Since prospects are searching online get your “open house” event online too. List it on the MLS, Craigslist, any local event clandars (check your local paper), Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com.

Blog about the event and utilize Active Rain’s Localism tool.

3. Get Your Signs Out There! Try a mix of 20-40 different signs from company branded to hand-made specialty signs advertising any giveaways.

If you can use balloons do it. Helium containers can be rented from most party stores. Check with your municipality guidelines and see if they’re allowed attached to signs.

4. Use Partners and Themes- Give Realtors and consumers a compelling reason to stop by. You have dozens of local businesses to partner with and cross promote your open house events. Start attending the local chamber events and meet these people. Look to suppliers and manufactures to help too.

5. Make it Memorable- Now that you’ve got that prospect at your model how will you make it memorable? What kind of experience will you deliver? Why would they leave their contact information?

Here’s your litmus test…What is your favorite business to visit? Take a close look at what they do to deliver a fantastic experience and incorporate that into your event.

Does this take more work? Yes absolutely.

Does it take time to develop a database of prospects to market these events to? Yep.

But what’s your option?

I’ve compiled a more specific summary of the above 5 ideas that you can download for FREE on my website.

You can get it by clicking here>>

By the way, do you have some other ideas to get more leads? Leave a comment below and tell me about them!

Happy Selling!

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.

3 Fundamentals to Getting More Leads- A Home Builder’s & Remodeler’s Guide to Advertising

I was speaking with a home builder the other day about advertising. A quote came up that I’ve heard before- maybe even you’ve uttered it…

The builder didn’t advertise in the traditional sense (print, radio, bill boards, etc.). But they do advertise. They just were defining it wrong.

What followed was my explanation of how advertising has evolved. And why virtually no home builders and remodelers advertise correctly.

If you’ve ever wondered why your advertising isn’t working you’ll find the answer here. Enjoy!

~Rick

I was watching a video blog last year when the presenter asked, “Do you know the difference between advertising and marketing?”

It was a great question and I didn’t know the answer. So I started looking at the difference- which led me to TRULY understand what’s missing from home builder’s and remodelers marketing plans.

Advertising vs Marketing

Wikipedia defines advertising as…

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action.

Pretty simple, right?

Now take a look at Wikipedia’s definition of Marketing…

Marketing is the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It is an integrated process through which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.

Happy Selling!

Happy Fall to you! As a hunter, there’s no better time of the year. I just got back from my first grouse hunting trip with my 9 month old dog Bentley.

We flushed a few birds but didn’t put any in the bag. We DID, however, scare the you know what of out some Chipmunks and Tweedy birds!

~Rick

If you missed Part I (Kick-off & Research), you can click here for the article>>

According to Marti Barletta, author of Marketing to Women and PrimeTime Women, when men and women buy as partners, women control at least four out of five stages of the purchasing process (well really all 5 but us men need to get our egos stroked a bit .

Stage III- Purchase
If there’s one area of the purchasing process where we feel men are in charge, this is it. Why?

Historically this is where the “man” takes over as primary contact and negotiator.

It’s why we get confused as marketers…

…that men are the primary influencers in the decision to buy.

We get confused because it was her idea to move or remodel in the first place (Stage I) and she did all the research to find your company (Stage II).

Doesn’t it seem like you work and work with her and when it comes time to write the purchase agreement “Mr. Negotiator” steps in?

The question I ask all my clients in this situation is this, “Is she on board?” If they say ‘she is,’ he’s just trying to get the best deal.

In this situation stand firm on your negotiation. Give him something to make the deal happen- just not the farm!

Click here for a sales process that will have her selecting you and your company>>

Stage IV- Ownership

She’s back in the saddle again! The post purchase stage has her making selections, finalizing design, dealing with construction details, etc.

This is where your staged guest experience comes in. If you aren’t proactively staging a “Nordstrom’s” type  customer experience you’ll let her down, and you can’t afford that…

…because the ownership stage leads us to…

Stage V- Word-of-Mouth
OK guys…this is where we get BURNED.

Use this link to get the ONLY new home and remodeling sales system designed to appeal to a woman>>

Happy Selling!

“Green is for Idiots!” Part II- The Green Marketing Answers Home Builders Have Been Looking For…

If you missed Part I of this article and are a bit “miffed” about my title, you can get caught up in about 3 minutes by clicking on this link.

Below you’ll find answers from actual HOME BUYERS- Not from any crack pot marketer or 3rd party Green designation theories…

~Rick

In my humble opinion, the National Association of Home Builder’s (NAHB) Institute of Residential Marketing (IRM) courses are the finest the association offers. To become a member of the IRM, you have to write a case study on the history of a residential development.

I submitted my case study back in 2006 and when I received the critique from the IRM- two comments stuck out in my mind…

1. “How could the developer run out of marketing money?” This was 2006 and the project was a bit “ahead of the curve.”

2. “The developer did a great job of selling lots to builders.”

Yes the project was now in foreclosure. Yes, besides only a few end users, the only owners in this project were builders.

This story reminds me a lot of how the Green movement within the housing industry is selling itself today. It’s doing a great job of selling to our own builder members but how good of a job does it do relating to home buyers?

Have most home builders and remodelers taken some sort of formal education regarding Green housing?

Answer: Yes!

Have many of these same companies attempted to provide a 3rd party certified Green home or project?

Answer: Yes!

Have these marketing and positioning strategies been consistently successful?

Answer: No!

Why?

In a 2008 National Association of Realtors (NAR) study of Home Buyers, recent home buyers were asked what is the “Importance of a Homes Environmentally Friendly Features?”

The answers are below and will tell you EXACTLY home you should be promoting Green…

To See the full report use this link>>

Using the above data you can see home buyers are VERY INTERESTED in one common theme- more money in their pocket through lower utility bills.

What’s the Lesson Here?

The lesson is the same as the builders in my case study learned…

It’s why you need to Segment Your Green marketing and identify what is important to your target market. You need to make it personal, make it real and most importantly- use it to differentiate your company from used homes.

Use this link to watch a video on how to segment Green and finally take the mystery out of selling it>>

Do you agree? Disagree? Think I’m clueless? Have a better idea?

Tell me what you think. Leave your comments below…

Happy Selling!

I found this fascinating quote today:

With the expansion of the marketer’s toolbox to include social media, marketing is no longer about pushing out one way communications. The marketing world is no longer defined solely by impressions; it’s now a world of interactions. Today’s marketing includes the customer’s voice throughout the process, whether it’s intentional or not. Customers will talk online and comment on a brand’s marketing campaigns, products, services, and even how a company treats employees. It’s not enough to think about how companies communicate outwards; it’s just as important to think about how customers can communicate back, with each other, and arguably most importantly, with new prospects.adamhcohen.com, The New Marketing Funnel, Aug 2009

You should read the whole article.