Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Aareas is the Official Renderings Provider of the International Builder Show
The International Builder Show is only a month and a half away. This years show is going to be the biggest yet for
Aareas and myself, we just keep finding ways to top ourselves. This year
Aareas is the official renderings provider of both
IBS showcase homes. The renderings look spectacular and I can't wait to see how the actual homes turn out.
This year marks the first year that two homes have been built, The New American and Renewed American homes both feature the latest in industry technology and are entirely energy efficient.
If you would like to learn more about the homes visit the official Builder Show website at
www.buildershow.com or visit
Aareas' website to view the
architectural renderings of both homes.
Hope to see you at the show
Frank Guido
President and CEO
Architectural RenderingsLabels: IBS Showcase Homes
Monday, December 18, 2006
Acquiring Information on Potential Leads
Detailed lead information can mean the difference between selling and not selling a home. Detailed information about your contacts can help you to create better marketing campaigns, personalized literature and sales visits and even enhancements to future models and communities. In fact, detailed personal information is so valuable that companies regularly spend a considerable amount of money purchasing it.
In recent years, consumers have become a lot more aware about lead buying and as such have become a lot more hesitant in giving out their personal information. With this becoming more and more regular, the
responsibility of information gathering now belongs in the hands of each individual builder.
There are about a half dozen ways in which to acquire quality lead information, the first of which we already discussed. A second common form of information gathering are surveys. Surveys allow you to gather
relevant information for your development including
in depth qualitative answers. This data can go a long way in improving not only the
individuals purchase experience but the purchasing experience as a whole. The surveys can be distributed in the sales center, in shopping malls or any other public place containing your target demographic.
As beneficial as surveys are, they do have their drawbacks. Surveys take a great deal of time, effort and dedication from your workforce to design and to implement. What this means is that although you are obtaining a wealth of information, the potential costs associated in obtaining it may not be
worthwhile. If only there was a way to obtain the same information that surveys provide without all of the costs attached to it.
Fortunately, we live in a technologically advanced world where information is available at our fingertips. The
Internet is a perfect channel to capture potential purchaser's information. Whenever a visitor browses to your site in search of information, allow them to register for information that they can not access on the website. This provides a perfect opportunity to capture specific purchase information and preferences. Ensure that the data captured is measurable and has a purpose within your overall sales and marketing strategy.
Join us later this week as we cover how to gain detailed statistics on individual leads and prospects. See you then.
Frank Guido
President and CEO
Real Estate CRMLabels: lead information
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Effective Lead Management
Over the last several years Ive attended numerous
trade shows and have spoken with countless builders at the seminars Ive taken part in. One of the biggest concerns raised is how do I effectively manage my leads?
That's a good question and the answer is one that is fairly easy to comprehend and easy to implement.
In
to days high volume high interest industry, it is common place for builders to have several thousand leads available to them at any given time. The problem with this is that due to the massive size of the contact list, individual leads become more and more difficult to maintain. The key to effectively managing your leads is through categorization and lead strategies for each category that is defined.
Categorization of contacts allows you to easily determine serious buyers from those that are just casually interested. Serious buyers are where your sales team should be spending the bulk of their time. Begin by asking your contacts a set of specific questions geared towards their new home purchase. Questions such as, what is the
time frame for your new purchase? what price range are you looking at? and others. Define the importance of each question that you add and assign a value from 1-10 for each, 1 being the least important and 10 being the most. Once the contact has answered all of the questions, take the score for each question answered, multiply it by the weight assigned to the question and then add up all of the questions to obtain a total score. The higher a person scores on the test the more likely they are to purchase.
Once you have defined your contacts, you can then proceed to group them into defined categories. Categories might be defined as , A prospect, B lead, C Purchaser and combinations of all three. Whatever you decide to name the groups is up to you, as long as they are descriptive and clearly define the group and their status in the home buying cycle.
In order to utilize the grouping to its fullest ensure that strategies are put into place to address each groups buying needs. For example, top prospects may require a followup call as well as a consultation visit while low prospects may only
receive an email or letter in the mail. No matter what your strategy entails it should always contain the necessary components to address each purchasers needs with the end goal of creating a purchase.
Starting this week be on the look out for Housing Starts a weekly informative newsletter covering the latest in new technology based sales and marketing products in the real estate market.
Join me next week when I cover tips and techniques for acquiring information on potential leads.
Frank Guido
President and CEO
Virtual Design CenterLabels: How to effectively manage leads and prospects
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
This months article of TecHome Builder features an interesting article that I wrote entitled, Creative Ways to Maintain Your Sales in a Slowing Market. The magazine comes out this week and it's a definite must read. Below is a snippet of the article. Make sure you visit
www.techomebuilder.com.
It finally appears as though the current North American housing cycle has crested and is beginning its retreat from record starts and unprecedented prices. Housing starts by June 2006 are down by approximately 15% compared to the same period last year. Consequently, industry heavyweights such as D.R. Horton, Ryland Group, and KB Homes are beginning to report significant decreases in revenue, a sure sign the North American home and condo market is beginning to lose its luster. With this change in purchasing behavior, the focus of builders is beginning to shift towards establishing creative ways with which to maintain sales in a declining market. In this months edition, we explore how to effectively manage your sales center costs, ensuring that your business remains healthy.
In this new age of building, in order to ensure a healthy bottom line it is absolutely vital for a builder to manage and even reduce their costs. With the abundance of new projects coming online, the amount of capital tied up in building, designing, furnishing and managing the associated sales centers and model homes is skyrocketing in comparison. So how can you maintain the impact and visual cues a model home provides while trying to minimize or even reduce the financial impact? The answer may surprise you: Build fewer model homes!
Since 1994, Tridel Corporation, a prominent builder in the Toronto, Ontario, Canada market has been achieving tremendous sales results without the aid of a model unit. By taking advantage of both virtual reality and
interior vignettes Tridel has been able to effectively communicate to and capture the attention and imagination of potential purchasers Early on, Tridel identified their need to eliminate physical model units.
"Prior to 1994 we relied largely on physical suites but since that time we have used 100% virtual suites," says Jim Ritchie, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Tridel. "The elimination of physical suites has saved us on average $250,000 per sales center and ultimately reduced sales center construction costs substantially."
It was clear to this progressive company that the traditional approach to selling units would no longer suffice in a revitalized and competitive marketplace. In order to meet their goals, some difficult decisions had to be made. The result: All of Tridels model units were abandoned in favor of virtual models. The virtual models had practically none of the maintenance cost and logistical issues that had once hindered the company, and in a synergistic twist allowed Tridel to better and more effectively convey their message to potential purchasers, actually increasing customer satisfaction during the critical purchase phase.
Within the past several years, a number of builders have opted to follow Tridels lead and make the transition from building a physical model to hosting a virtual one. This strategy has proven to be quite lucrative for some, saving the builder hundreds of man hours and countless dollars in the process. You may think this strategy cannot possibly work for your company, but read on and you may find that NOT building as many model homes can be one of the best decisions you make:
Pinnacle communities was able to drastically decrease their sales center costs through the reduction of model homes. "By reducing the number of physical models from 4 to 2 we were able to significantly reduce marketing costs by $160,000 without loosing sales."
In contrast, the cost of designing and fully rendering a virtual model would only require a $5,000 expenditure, a fraction of the cost of a traditional model!
Integrating
virtual renderings into your traditional sales center and marketing campaign is also crucial to a successful sales strategy. Often, a builder will rely upon renderings and
virtual tours to do the selling for them rather than using them as tools to aid in the sales process. When incorporating these virtual tools into your existing sales environment, ensure that the virtual and physical complement one another functionally. A virtual kitchen tour should be located in proximity to the cabinet, tile and countertop samples enabling visitors to better visualize these options in their proper context. Another effective technique includes
pairing a virtual tour with a models black-line floor plans. The blackline drawing anchors the viewers perception of where in the model they are, while the virtual tour can take them inside to see and experience what being in the space is actually like.
As described above, the net result is that visitors to your sales center still receive the same benefits they would have with a physical model, yet your company achieves this at a fraction of the traditional cost. As you are well aware, what weve discussed above is just one of the ways a builder can maintain a healthy balance sheet during times of uncertainty, next month we’ll discuss another: How to reduce your sales and marketing budget while simultaneously decreasing the time it takes to sell through your project.
Labels: Creative Ways to Maintain Your Sales
Monday, December 11, 2006
Creating Repeat Customers
Several months back I wrote an article about the benefits of retaining your current customers and how to take advantage of the 7 year sales cycle. With the lack of new home buyers entering the market recently, I thought it might be beneficial to repost the article. So here it is in its entirety, "Repeat Customers Exist in the Housing Market too."
If youve ever heard the old adage it costs a lot less to retain a current customer than it does to obtain a new one then youre already ahead of the game. For those of you who havent, then its time to adopt a different strategy and start paying attention to one of the biggest untapped resources you have: your existing clients!
Its hard to believe that todays home builders overlook their clients as often as they do, the reality though, is that it happens daily. Once a consumer has purchased his or her home, builders generally assume that their work is done and they must move on to secure the next potential buyer. The truth of the matter is that past buyers will benefit as much from literature and sales information as prospective buyers will. According to a U.S government study, almost 70% of all current home owners will purchase their second home from a different builder due to no other reason than indifference. Thats a lot of business that could have been retained had a strategy for retention been put in place.
The key to having a successful retention strategy lies within communication. Communicating to a consumer on a continual basis creates lasting value and recognition of both your company and its products. Its simple to create a successful communication strategy. All you need to remember are these three easy steps
Make it a common practice of your company to diligently collect new home buyers information at the time of purchase. Besides the general contact related information ensure that you ask value adding questions such as what is your preferred size of home? And what is your desired price range? Even socio related questions are important and can be used to paint a vivid picture of your consumer and his or her lifestyle.
Use the information you have gathered from your consumers and create information rich content that incorporates their lifestyle. Use a combination of both informative articles and subtle product placements to captivate home owners attentions and keep them informed of new products. Deliver the message through various forms of media including email and print, this ensures the message remains fresh and relevant.
Ensure that you are constantly updating consumer information and keeping your messages timely. Keep up to date with home owners from time to time as their wants and needs change over the course of their home life cycle. The message to your consumers will constantly change, but they manner in which they are delivered will remain.
It is imperative that in order to have a successful rate of return you must time your messages accordingly to coordinate with the buyers sales cycle. On average a person changes residences once every seven years. Ensure that your current customers are aware of your new product offerings and the key benefits and features attached to them. This way when its time for them to move in seven years time they are already well aware of your product offerings.
If you ensure that you keep the customer happy and up to date there is a greater chance that they will be inclined to stay with you and your company. After all, the alternatives are researching new developments, getting to know the developers, weighing the pros and cons of each one and then comparing them to one other. Save buyers the trouble and hassle. By having an effective retention program youll convert more of your clients into repeat customers and your customers will thank you for it.
Frank Guido
President and CEO
Aareas Interactive
Labels: 3D architectural renderings
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Welcome to Aareas Latest Website Addition
I'd like to personally welcome every visitor on this site to the new Building Success blog. This blog will serve as a resource for the latest in new technology based sales and marketing products for the building industry.
Twice a week we'll cover new noteworthy topics all designed to help you during the market slow down. Topics ranging from how to sell a model before units are built, how to automate the communications process and the benefits of construction management software.
It all starts next Monday, I'll see you there.
Frank Guido
President and CEO
Aareas Interactive
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