Accelerate Your Sales
Overextended with the bank? Underbid on those last few projects? Profits shrinking?
No worries. Sales, the engine behind your operation, can cure all. Even if the fenders of your business are banged and dented by mismanagement and operational blunders, if the sales engine is strong you can accelerate out of the red.
 The trouble is that a signed contract, the fuel for the engine, is getting harder to obtain. This is especially true for small-volume independents suffering from increased competition and longer build times.
In such situations, builders tell themselves that word of mouth will bring in a steady stream of buyers. Today, however, buyers use word of mouth to make a purchasing decision about as much as they use 8-track tape. Thanks to an increasingly transitory population, a proliferation of builders and a growing cynicism among buyers, the only word of mouth is overwhelmingly negative.
That’s why to succeed you need to actively market your homes. This can be a daunting task for many independents since they don’t have a production builder’s staff of advertising professionals, graphic artists, photographers and sales consultants at their disposal.
This is where embracing a building system can be a boon to independent builders. Many systems manufacturers invest in national advertising campaigns, focus groups and other marketing tactics to learn what home buyers want and to create sales momentum for their network of builders. As a systems builder, you can make their efforts increase your sales volume—without increasing the amount you spend to bring in more buyers. Manufacturers can furnish these and other programs to help you increase your exposure:
• Sales literature, brochures and warranty information
• Sales contracts and checklists
• Promotional videos
• Co-op advertising programs
• Analysis of your market, including what’s selling
• Model home discount programs
• Model home merchandising advice
• Advertising slicks for print media
• Commercials for radio or TV
• Catalogs of home designs
• Creation of new home designs
• Professional photography of finished homes
• Product samples for clients to choose from
• Home show booths to display your product
• Promotional giveaway items for clients
• Internet presence and promotions
In years past, systems manufacturers might give a new builder/dealer a box of brochures and catalogs with the curt message that it was time to sink or swim. But today’s manufacturers recognize that their success is predicated upon the sales and marketing programs they offer their builder/dealers.
Site builders switching to building systems to increase their volume and profits often need advice on how to make the transition from site management to selling more homes. That’s why many manufacturers offer extensive training in sales and communication skills along with the nuts and bolts basics of how their particular system works. In addition to extensive in-house training programs, many manufacturers bring in outside consultants to address their builder/dealer meetings. Their message is typically equal parts inspiration and education.
It’s not all work and worry, however. Top builders in a manufacturer’s network are often rewarded handsomely with cash bonuses, trips abroad, vacation destinations or other compensations.
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