Are you maximizing your CRM database with relationship marketing?

By now I think we can all agree that developers and builders need to rethink the way they sell. The days of simply moving units and cashing in are over...at least for a while. As we continue to explore ways in which developers and builders need to position their communities to sell lifestyle and a “sense of place,” this blog is the first in a series that examines successful techniques in getting these messages to the right people and getting one step closer to closing the sale.

Besides the community website and model homes, a community sales agent’s best selling tool is a CRM database. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management which is basically a computer system that allows you to store information about a prospect and keep all information on prospects organized.

We’ve seen the standard questions on “request more information” forms such as how many bedrooms, when would like to make a purchase, price range interested, etc. These are all very relevant questions that help agents rank how interested a prospect may be. But it’s the behavioral questions that I want you to focus on here. If you’re not asking behavioral profiling questions (either through a website form or with your trained sales agents to put into your CRM database), you’re working in the dark. These questions are how you can begin to segment groups of prospects, and begin talking to them in a manner that is 1) relevant to their interests and 2) sells the lifestyle.

Once you establish behavioral profiling questions and build your CRM database, then what? Unfortunately, with the majority of developers and builders, nothing is ever done with this data! But this is a gold mine of information. The next step at this point is to go for the gold and mine the data. This is not a glamorous task but one that will be worth it in the end. Data mining can be performed by simply exporting your CRM database into Excel, using the sort function to find commonalities and analyzing the information.

So lets skip ahead and say that you’ve asked profiling questions and know – that Group A is highly interested in ceramic art, Group B is highly interested in hiking and Group C is highly interested in volunteer work. You then need to start communicating to these groups differently. By promoting each group’s interests and making the connection that their particular interest is an important aspect of your community’s lifestyle, you’ll have delivered a more relevant and compelling message to that prospect – getting you one step closer to making the sale.

This means more work. Instead of developing one direct mail piece, you need to develop three versions – one that talks about ceramic art, one that talks about hiking and one that talks about volunteer work. The same versioning applies for e-blasts and sales letters. This data can also be used for sales agents when calling on prospects to make a personal connection or to invite them to that ceramic class you planned at the Residents Club for Sunday afternoon.

Crunching numbers, behavioral profiling and developing multiple versions of marketing is a tedious process but it’s the right way to maximize your CRM database. Developing and sending these more targeted messages leads to more intelligent, cost-effective selling and ultimately a greater return on your marketing investment. You’ve always heard, “it’s all about relationship sales,” at Marketing Specifics, we strongly believe it’s all about relationship marketing.

Soft Amenities Combat High Gas Prices

It seems these days that no matter where you turn, you can’t escape the news of high gas prices. And let’s face it, for good reason. Gas prices are high and they don’t appear to be receding anytime in the near future. Furthermore, the high price of gas is affecting so many other facets of our daily lives, from the price of food to the amount of police that patrol our streets.

With the average commute in the United States topping 39 minutes, combined with the high price of gas, some analyst are predicting the death of the suburbs. For a housing industry still recovering from the sub-prime lending crisis, this will surely be the old nail in the coffin right?

Well…not necessarily.

It boils down to simple economics and the theory of Opportunity Cost. By definition, Opportunity Cost is the cost of passing up another potential choice in making a decision.

In other words, builders and developers need to refocus and repackage the very attributes that have made suburbia so successful. Recent studies still indicate that three of the four most important factors in choosing where to live are: safe neighborhood, close to good schools and close to parks, water or other recreation.

The point is, now more than ever builders of masterplan communities need to showcase lifestyle. And lifestyle doesn’t always require more space and a huge budget to achieve - lifestyle is a soft amenity! It’s not enough just to build the clubhouse, but you need to establish a social infrastructure – book clubs, Wall Street clubs, wine tastings, cooking classes, the programming options are unlimited. The goal here is create a sense of place and up the energy level of the community. Your residents will be paying more to commute to work, but on evenings and weekends, make it a place they don’t want to leave. This will be noticeable to potential buyers and help them in their decision process.

You can also become innovative and tackle gas prices head-on by developing Rideshare, Park & Ride and Vanpool options for commuters. Use these commuting options to help sell your project to the local government. Build a state-of-the-art telecommuting facility in your clubhouse with video conferencing.

These are just a few examples of offsetting the cost of higher gas prices in your development. Remember, it’s all about Opportunity Cost. Tip the scale in your favor.

Gas Prices and the Search for Real Estate

Yet another significant blow has been wielded against the selling of new home communities.

What is it? Simple…gas prices.

With the price of a gallon of gas now over the four dollar mark, prospective homebuyers are turning more to the web and narrowing down their searches while choosing fewer new home communities for actual in-person tours.

So it may be time to pull out some traditional marketing strategies from the past and merge them with new technologies of the present. In other words, enhance your community’s web experience by providing a simple and effective incentive for people to visit the community in-person.

And why not harness the iniquitous gas prices we all face today? One of the most successful incentives you can offer the American consumer right now is free gas. Therefore, make an investment in gas gift cards and promote this on your community website, with the hook being the gift card can be picked up at the community sales center. Some cards may be purchased in dominations as small as five dollars, all they way up to $100 - the typical cost to fill-up an SUV these days.

The following is a list of merchants offering gas cards on the web:

Chevron Gift Cards
ExxonMobil Cash Card
Gulf Oil Gift Card
Wal-Mart Shopping Card
Texaco Gift Card
BP Gift Card
Circle K Gift Card
Arco PumpPass
Shell Gift Card
Sunoco Gift Card

Or perhaps gas is a little too contentious but you still would like to utilize a gift card incentive and entice prospects to visit your community. A full list of retailers who offer gift cards can be found at:
http://www.svmcards.net/home/shop/all_cards.cfm

Which market segment is feeling the gas crisis the hardest? The active-adult market whose buyers are already in many cases, living on a near fixed income.
But the sad news for all of us in this industry – It appears that rising gas prices is yet another blow to the struggling real estate market and this latest development is destined to slow the market’s recovery time.

What Women Want? Marketing New Homes to Women

Women have become increasingly influential when it comes just about every buying decision that takes place in the American household.

In Judith E. Nichols' book, "Understanding the Increasing Affluence of Women," she says in the majority of U.S. households women bring in half or more of the income and women control about 80 percent of household spending, including new car purchases.

"Women want the same things as men, but they want more," said Ford Motor Company’s Sheryl Connelly, the company's chief marketing office manager for global trends and futuring.

Marketing to women, is definitely different, Connelly said. "Men respond to things and women respond to people," she noted. "It isn't that men won't respond to people, but women just respond differently. So, we look at this in the types and ways we advertise."

Michael Albano of General Motors’ global design group says women's influence in the automotive market has hit an all-time high, noting 85 percent of all vehicle sales decisions are influenced by women with women buying 45 percent of all vehicles.

And when it comes to new home purchases, women are THE decision makers in most new home purchase decisions. Don’t under estimate how much this phenomenon effects your bottom-line. Sensitivity and awareness of this significant and growing importance needs to be centermost in your brand experience for prospects as well as buyers, at the sale and in your service to them after the sale so that you get their referral.

In reviewing your company’s woman-friendly and focused positioning…are you giving them the detail and specifics that they need…are you giving them what they want?

 

Joan N. Barnes, M.I.R.M.

Virtual Advertising – Real Estate Advertising Musts for a 2008 Economy

When it comes to the real estate marketing of new homes and new home communities, the Internet has become the killer prospecting medium.

Over the last two years, the smart buy for building brand awareness and cultivating new prospects for communities and urban projects alike is plain and simple…it’s the Internet. Traditional media plans that include an emphasis of the past tried and true outlets such as newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc., are being rewritten with a totally new emphasis on online marketing and advertising. The new home real estate industry is now recognizing that executing marketing and adverting plans that focus heavily on the key placements on real estate-oriented portals such as golfcommunities.com, move.com, livingsouthernstyle.com and scores of others are more effective in producing interest and driving traffic at a reduced cost. Media buys on Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL that include the purchase of key words for real estate as well as non-real estate oriented words but relevant to attracting potential buyers for a specific location or lifestyle are becoming the smart advertising buys.

Think like the buyer………..where to they shop and dine; what do they do for entertainment and enrichment; where do they spend their disposable income……..are these places to attract new buyers? Also, don’t forget your competitors when planning your keyword purchases…spend some time researching words and phrases they have purchased by exercising a little internet recon.

Gone are the days when a great looking ad in a glossy magazine will get your homes sold. So, if your 2008 Marketing and Advertising Plan placements doesn’t look dramatically different than your 2005 plan, you’re probably either not going to attract the number of prospects you need for your conversion ratio to meet projections or you are going to have to spend a lot more money to make the numbers!

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Lisa