It’s Rick Storlie, your New Home Sales Coach…

I wish I was coming to you under different circumstances – because it’s been a long time since I’ve talked with many of you.

My plan was to connect with you, because I’m about to release a brand new online training program for custom home builders and remodelers (it will help you completely eliminate the dreaded “pricing issue”) but instead, we’re all dealing with Covid-19.

So what I decided to do is to go through my strategic business plan that I’m sharing with high level coaching clients, because I want to help everyone through this crisis.

Stick with me over the next 60 days because I’m going to share with you, week by week, exactly what you should be doing to achieve your sales and marketing goals, so you come through this strong.

I see lots of different emails coming through – lots of people saying “just do this, or do that, or just connect by zoom” – it’s a lot more complicated than that…

I’ve been operating online for more than 10 years and you have to be very strategic with it.

So we’re going to help you to translate from where you at – in a model home, or doing on-site consultations – into doing things virtually.

We’re going to assume a few things:

1.  You have a social media presence, a social media following
2. You have a database comprised of leads, prospects, buyers and home owners

DOWNLOAD THE HANDOUT HERE

Week One

Update your website masthead. DON’T just do a popup (I don’t recommend those, for several reasons.) You want to update your masthead so it is easy to read on all devices. (Desktop, tablet, or mobile)
Create a blog post on your website. It should deal with 3 types of clientele:

People you are already building for – or people who have already moved in, and they are in warranty.
People who are your prospects. People you are already in active communication with. They may have some sort of deposit down, or at least you’re in active communication.
People who are your fans – in other words, your future clients.

What we want to do with your blog post is give some options with calls-to-action.

Examples:

1) The first website example (in the video) is of a custom home builder in a geographic area that does not have a Corona Virus “Shelter-in-Place” order. They’ve changed their model home hours, and are doing tours of the model by appointment only, and they are doing virtual planning consultations.

2) The second example (in the video) is a custom home builder in a geographic area with a Corona Virus “Shelter-in-Place” order. You’ll see that they are strictly offering virtual planning consultations to keep everyone safe.

If you’re in an area that has a whole lot more density of Covid 19 cases, advise clients that you can easily connect virtually.

Notice that when I click on the masthead alert in this example, it takes me directly to the blog post I described earlier – dealing with the three types of people I described earlier.

In the handout, there’s a template for this post that you can simply modify for your use.

Let’s get back to your prospects…

One of two things will happen:

1. They’ll either be prepared to continue moving forward on their project, and you can work with them virtually;
2. or, they’ll feel they need to pause their project, for now.

The psychological impact of what we’re dealing with is going to far outweigh any truly economic issues – we hope – if they want to pause we’re just going to set-up a timing plan.

Obviously there are lots of things your customers can do – even if the project is on pause – such as making selections, continuing to give feedback on floor plans, lot locations, or homesites, etc.

You need to set-up a virtual platform right now.

There are six virtual platform options that I recommend (two free, four are paid).

Check out the options (in the handout) and set-up your virtual platform as quickly as possible, so you can connect, share your screen, and do video chatting, etc.

Final notes and takeaways:

What I encourage you to do is:

1) Be Transparent!

Don’t pretend it’s not happening, don’t pretend it’s not in your area – and at the same time, don’t claim it’s worse than it is…but simply be transparent that you are concerned about your employees, your customers, your trade partners, your community, our country, and truly the world at this point.

2) Be humble.

You are just like your prospective clients. There are very few companies that aren’t being impacted by this, so simply be humble. Don’t be flippant or pretend it’s not a big deal, or make it a bigger deal than it needs to be.

3) Be a community leader.

Network with people. Help those in need – especially those who can’t get out of their homes (people with other health conditions, or age issues). Just be a leader. You have a huge network of people. Work with them to share the love.

4) Be reassuring.

We will come through this. We’ve been through things like this before. From past diseases to the 2008 recession.

Be active in your communication. Track people back to where they can get frequent updates. That could be on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter – but the very best place is to do frequent updates on your blog. That’s where most people will go.

I like to share one of my favorite Bible verses:

Romans 5:8

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Everyone is scared. People are doing irrational things. Lean on your faith and share the love. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Come back next week for more of Rick’s tips and advice for helping custom home builders and home remodelers through the Corona Virus.

Rick Storlie, New Home Sales Coach

P.S. Here’s the link to Week 2 of the plan