Who is Coming Up With This Stuff? THIS is Marketing?
I just received an email blast from a BIG builder (you know who you are!) on another expensive campaign that is going to do little to advance their number of sales for the quarter. (And after being in the home building industry for so many years . . . I am well-familiar with trying to make those agonizing numbers for Wall Street.) The builder's new promotion is an interest rate buy down across the board for all of their homes and communities. Seriously. In today's market.
Here's my wonderment: someone within the builder's organization actually approved this. I can not believe how poorly thought through some of the marketing strategies are that are rolling out of the home building industry. Seriously. Who is coming up with this stuff? People, is this the best that you can do? Do you really think that one tactic will fix a lack of sales across the board? Is this something you came up with or the lame 'marketing' attempt of some advertising agency that doesn't have a clue about home building and buyers?
Sorry if I spout off and foam at the mouth, but really, people, what are you thinking, and why do you still have your "BIG" corporate jobs? For the love of God and all that is holy . . . wake up and get to the heart of the matter! You are wasting time, money, and the energy of your sales team on "promotions" that have little value and no substance. And we know that our sales teams have very little energy to spare at the moment. They are emotionally and mentally exhausted. Giving the sales team a promotion that builds them up but will do little to help them achieve their numbers (and yes, it is about the numbers) and feel good about themselves will only make them crash even further and harder than before. This type of sales management and marketing platform is tantamount to you being the pusher and your site team being the junkie. Oh, these are hard, hard words, but the facts are the facts.
People, today's home shoppers are not delaying the buying decision because of the monthly investment. A mortgage buy down across the board from 5 % to 2.875 % for the first year is not going to convert traffic. You could drop the interest rate to ZERO and it is not going to spur urgency! IT IS NOT ABOUT THE PAYMENT!!! (By the way, did someone in your office forget that the buyers will still have to qualify at the higher rate?)
People are afraid to purchase today because they are unsure that the value of the home that they are buying will remain at that value in the days ahead. Who wants to buy a home for $x and have the home valued at $x-y in the months to come? It is the difference between $x & $y is what the buyers are worried about! Who wants to be on the hook for more money than a product has value??
Folks, I could go into a litany of reasons people are not buying homes. It is different buyer by buyer, and I do not have the space in this blog to address each "OPPORTUNITY" that is preventing your prospects from calling one of your homes THEIRS. Let me just say this: do what I did and do on a regular basis. Review your prospects/leads community by community and person by person, and come up with a way to get that person off of the fence and into your home. After all, the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
Please stop trying the "one-size-fits-all" idea in the hopes that it will generate sales across the board and be all things to all people. Those days are gone. People took those promotions at the time because they were going to buy a home from you regardless. It was a BONUS to them. Even a poorly trained sales staff and a lack of customer service kept them from buying. Today, those buyers that went for those promotions are having their homes auctioned off at the courthouse or are mailing the keys back to the bank. If you want to sell homes, start looking for REAL promotions to REAL buyers.
It's what I am doing, and probably why WE ARE SELLING HOMES!
Secondly, get back to TARGETED market. Put the shot gun away. Get out a rifle with a scope.
So, Mr "BIG" Builder, in response to your incredible offer (rotflmao) I am hitting the delete button. Email me when you come up with a series of strategies and tools to convert each buyer one home at a time.
I have (well-meaning) cyber-friends who send me all of the promotional stuff the builders send them because they know I am a marketing junkie, and an analytical one at that. Thanks for sending me stuff. Keep it coming. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I love the direct mail stuff as well, so please overload our postman and give him continued job security. I long for the day when I have my own zip code.
PS. I don't care if you are offering a Realtor 10% commission. 10% of nothing is still nothing. I think the Realtors would prefer even 2.5% of something. It is still more in their pockets than they had before. Use your money to make purchasing your home IRRESISTIBLE to THE BUYER. That is what will turn prospects into down payment producing buyers.
PSS. As a sales and marketing professional in the homebuilding industry for more than two decades, and president of a marketing company geared to builders and developers, (as well as the owner/broker of a real estate brokerage) please consider using our consulting services. Not only do I teach at the NAHB's IBS and the SEBC the very stuff I am talking about, stuff that works, but I am portable. In fact, I would enjoy walking your homes and communities, reading your market, doing a little research to get a temperature on your market. Besides, you really, really need someone outside in the real world not worried about their job to step back and look at your efforts to tell you how it really is.
Some of you might say that it is very unwise of me to go sticking my finger in a potential client's eye. Well, do you think that they want to pay me for the truth and results or do you think that they want to keep investing time and money into ideas that produce poor results?
Oh, yeah, I forgot. The reason why we are still churning out garbage like this is that we are afraid of the unknown and we don't like change. That being the case, maybe some of you ought to start trying out the unemployment line just so you are comfortable when you end up there.
I used to think that sound marketing isn't rocket science . . . but now I know that it is. To bloody brilliant marketers and sales managers everywhere: Salute! Our value is better than 10,000 shares of stock on Wall Street.
Here's my wonderment: someone within the builder's organization actually approved this. I can not believe how poorly thought through some of the marketing strategies are that are rolling out of the home building industry. Seriously. Who is coming up with this stuff? People, is this the best that you can do? Do you really think that one tactic will fix a lack of sales across the board? Is this something you came up with or the lame 'marketing' attempt of some advertising agency that doesn't have a clue about home building and buyers?
Sorry if I spout off and foam at the mouth, but really, people, what are you thinking, and why do you still have your "BIG" corporate jobs? For the love of God and all that is holy . . . wake up and get to the heart of the matter! You are wasting time, money, and the energy of your sales team on "promotions" that have little value and no substance. And we know that our sales teams have very little energy to spare at the moment. They are emotionally and mentally exhausted. Giving the sales team a promotion that builds them up but will do little to help them achieve their numbers (and yes, it is about the numbers) and feel good about themselves will only make them crash even further and harder than before. This type of sales management and marketing platform is tantamount to you being the pusher and your site team being the junkie. Oh, these are hard, hard words, but the facts are the facts.
People, today's home shoppers are not delaying the buying decision because of the monthly investment. A mortgage buy down across the board from 5 % to 2.875 % for the first year is not going to convert traffic. You could drop the interest rate to ZERO and it is not going to spur urgency! IT IS NOT ABOUT THE PAYMENT!!! (By the way, did someone in your office forget that the buyers will still have to qualify at the higher rate?)
People are afraid to purchase today because they are unsure that the value of the home that they are buying will remain at that value in the days ahead. Who wants to buy a home for $x and have the home valued at $x-y in the months to come? It is the difference between $x & $y is what the buyers are worried about! Who wants to be on the hook for more money than a product has value??
Folks, I could go into a litany of reasons people are not buying homes. It is different buyer by buyer, and I do not have the space in this blog to address each "OPPORTUNITY" that is preventing your prospects from calling one of your homes THEIRS. Let me just say this: do what I did and do on a regular basis. Review your prospects/leads community by community and person by person, and come up with a way to get that person off of the fence and into your home. After all, the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
Please stop trying the "one-size-fits-all" idea in the hopes that it will generate sales across the board and be all things to all people. Those days are gone. People took those promotions at the time because they were going to buy a home from you regardless. It was a BONUS to them. Even a poorly trained sales staff and a lack of customer service kept them from buying. Today, those buyers that went for those promotions are having their homes auctioned off at the courthouse or are mailing the keys back to the bank. If you want to sell homes, start looking for REAL promotions to REAL buyers.
It's what I am doing, and probably why WE ARE SELLING HOMES!
Secondly, get back to TARGETED market. Put the shot gun away. Get out a rifle with a scope.
So, Mr "BIG" Builder, in response to your incredible offer (rotflmao) I am hitting the delete button. Email me when you come up with a series of strategies and tools to convert each buyer one home at a time.
I have (well-meaning) cyber-friends who send me all of the promotional stuff the builders send them because they know I am a marketing junkie, and an analytical one at that. Thanks for sending me stuff. Keep it coming. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I love the direct mail stuff as well, so please overload our postman and give him continued job security. I long for the day when I have my own zip code.
PS. I don't care if you are offering a Realtor 10% commission. 10% of nothing is still nothing. I think the Realtors would prefer even 2.5% of something. It is still more in their pockets than they had before. Use your money to make purchasing your home IRRESISTIBLE to THE BUYER. That is what will turn prospects into down payment producing buyers.
PSS. As a sales and marketing professional in the homebuilding industry for more than two decades, and president of a marketing company geared to builders and developers, (as well as the owner/broker of a real estate brokerage) please consider using our consulting services. Not only do I teach at the NAHB's IBS and the SEBC the very stuff I am talking about, stuff that works, but I am portable. In fact, I would enjoy walking your homes and communities, reading your market, doing a little research to get a temperature on your market. Besides, you really, really need someone outside in the real world not worried about their job to step back and look at your efforts to tell you how it really is.
Some of you might say that it is very unwise of me to go sticking my finger in a potential client's eye. Well, do you think that they want to pay me for the truth and results or do you think that they want to keep investing time and money into ideas that produce poor results?
Oh, yeah, I forgot. The reason why we are still churning out garbage like this is that we are afraid of the unknown and we don't like change. That being the case, maybe some of you ought to start trying out the unemployment line just so you are comfortable when you end up there.
I used to think that sound marketing isn't rocket science . . . but now I know that it is. To bloody brilliant marketers and sales managers everywhere: Salute! Our value is better than 10,000 shares of stock on Wall Street.
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