IBS 2012: Day One – Myers, Marketing, & Mobile Oh My!

February 9, 2012 By 1 Comment

IBS2012 - Day One!

To kick start my first full day at IBS2012, I met for an early breakfast with Myers Barnes. Holy Cow! Everyone knows Myers is high energy, but if you ever have the chance to meet with him for breakfast – you won’t need any coffee! We talked about a number of subjects, but negotiation, in-bred sales team errors (“lift and put” anyone?), and working your way to success despite any economy were high on the list.

Mike Lyon at IBS2012

Then I headed over to watch Mike Lyon, Scott Stroud, and Shirleen Von Hoffmann present on 100 Ideas to Maximize the Benefits of Your Existing Traffic. If you roll up all the ideas into a few main categories you get the following:

  • Maximize your website traffic
  • Maximize your Realtor traffic
  • Maximize your grand opening traffic
  • Maximize your lead conversions
  • Maximize your community events
  • Maximize your gorilla marketing
  • Maximize your social media and tech tools
  • Maximize your referrals
  • Maximize your registration / qualifying process
  • Maximize your follow up

It was a great session filled with immediately implementable ideas. It also included references to Zack Morris (what a guy!), Chris Farley, and Jack Nicholson!

After such an information packed session I needed to take a break and let my mind absorb it all, so I headed out to the show floor. A quick visit to Kohler, Heat & Glo, Dow, to see what was new (it turns out – a lot) and then I began final prep for my talk on mobile marketing at 3:30pm with Tim Costello of BHI. Here are the key points for most builders to understand when it comes to mobile:

  • Your customers want you to interact with them via mobile. Most builders see 20% or more of their online traffic from mobile devices (for my builder it is nearly 25%)
  • You already are doing mobile marketing even if you don’t think you are because of point number one. Your prospects just not might enjoy the experience.
  • Start with content. Until you have high quality photography, videos, and more don’t spend a dime on mobile that you might need to create that content. You will use that content on ALL media, not just mobile!
  • Don’t build it yourself, at least to start. There are plenty of pre-built options for builders to take advantage of (like from Builder Designs) and it will prevent costly delays and errors. With these solutions you could have a mobile site in days, not months.

Today I will be tweeting live from the Super Sales Rally (@BrandPossible) at 9am, and going to more educational sessions as well as the Builder Tech show after the days official events are completed, so stay tuned for more!

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Filed Under: Market Research, Marketing Psychology, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Systems

What is “not in my market” code for?

January 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Not in my market - new home brandingAs professionals in the building industry we are all very familiar with the phrase “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) when we are attempting to get a new community approved. Even my builder, whose average sale price is 3 – 4 times the average resale in the region, hears from the NIMBY crowd from time to time even though their property values will increase. The NIMBY crowd seems to be against progress and improvement (unless it is your own backyard we’re talking about – right?) simply because they don’t like change.

Let me introduce to another group that is equally as large in our industry – the “not in my market” (NIMM) crowd. Those with the NIMM mentality may say they want to improve, but the reality is that they too are afraid of change.

Almost five years ago I packed up my family and moved to Pittsburgh. I spent the first two weeks at my new job shadowing other managers and asking a lot of questions. I was just trying to soak it all in. As I was riding along with a particular manager I was sharing how my previous employer did a lot of training around the model home demonstration because without it customers would miss a majority of the built-in value.

“Oh. That’s interesting. Yeah, see people in Pittsburgh are very different. They won’t let you walk through the model with them,” they told me. “Yeah they feel like you are hovering over them and they just want their own space to look around. It would just be too strange to guide someone through the model… in this market anyway.”

I wondered what kind of place I had moved to! People in Pittsburgh didn’t like good customer service, to have their questions answered, or feel important? Thankfully I learned quickly that people in Pittsburgh are perfectly normal.

Even more impressive to me is when a NIMM person will tell a paid consultant the same message. You are paying for coaching and advice from someone who travels around the country and gets a chance to see a TON of different markets… and learn what consistently works across all markets. So why would you pull out NIMM on them?

It made me think that NIMM must really be code for something else… but what?

What is it code for?

NIMM is code for “that sounds scary”

Change is always scary, and it is always necessary in some form.

NIMM is code for “I don’t think I could execute that idea”

I want to be very clear here – executing ideas is hard work. I also think it is legitimate to say that to execute a particular idea would cost more time and energy than it is worth for your company. I am simply advocating an honest discussion around that topic instead of ignoring the current reality of your situation. It may open up other doors you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

NIMM is code for “we tried that before”

Did you only try it once? Is it possible you tried doing it the wrong way? Remember Vince Lombardi’s classic line – “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” More than likely you just hadn’t practiced enough before you tried it.

NIMM is code for “I don’t need to do better”

This is the scariest one. Complacency has set in, and sooner or later you will no longer be relevant or able to keep up with those around you. I suggest you go read Who Moved My Cheese? Right now.

But you don’t understand

I can feel the push back – but every market IS different! There’s even a national campaign that says so. I actually agree. However you are making a big mistake if you translate every market is different into – the PEOPLE in every market are different. Sure, the supply and demand curves of land, inventory, and materials will vary by market. The local job creation rate will be different. Even local aesthetic tastes may cause a home to look completely different from a home only 200 miles away.

However, as Jeff Shore said at PCBC last year, people always want to improve their lives. To that I would add that people always want to feel important, always want to be treated fairly, and always want the best value that they can afford. All of those things may display themselves as different preferences by market – but what drives those preferences is the same everywhere.

I’m not asking you to stop disagreeing or thinking critically. I am asking you not to stick your head in the sand and be a NIMMrod.

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Filed Under: Marketing Psychology, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Systems, Presale Without Fail, Selling Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Oh, Just Make a Decision!

January 16, 2012 By 2 Comments

Just make a decision! (help them!)Andreas Weigend, the former Chief Scientist of Amazon.com “helped to build the customer-centric, measurement-focused culture that has become central to Amazon’s success.” So when I got a chance to hear him talk about influencing consumers online for a few hours – I listened.

What did it boil down to? Google helps people find stuff, but Amazon helps people make decisions. In fact, part of his job was to research how to get them to make decisions faster than ever before – or simply to make a decision at all. Why was this important to Amazon?

Amazon, unlike Google, makes absolutely zero dollars from you until you purchase. You could spend five hours researching, comparing, or “shopping” and never make them a dime. In fact, the more time you spend on their site without buying you cost them money to pay for servers, bandwidth, etc. No, Amazon only makes a profit when you make the decision to purchase something.

Andreas went to work in his digital lab and invented something that was pure genius:

Amazon helps you make a decision - fast

What he and other scientists at Amazon realized is that they could tap into the herd mentality hard wired into humans to reassure them that the item they were considering purchasing was worth the money. They lowered the perceived risk and fear of making a decision without actually changing the product at all. They didn’t offer a huge promotion, or a 200% money back guarantee… in fact price played no role at all.

In our industry, the low tech version of this has been well known for decades – Feel, Felt, Found. You acknowledge how the person feels, tell them that’s how others like them felt, until they found out that your product gave them X, Y, Z (best when backed up by actual testimonials). As marketers, it is our job to take this tried and true low tech method and bring it – smartly – to our websites, email campaigns, and collateral material available to the sales team to use as needed.

Here’s just one very direct example of what I’m talking about. What if your website could let your next prospect know that 22% of those who wanted a side-entry garage home design chose the floor plan they were viewing? Even better, all you have to do is make the criteria more specific to make the number higher. Example: 39% of those who wanted a side-entry garage with an optional 1st floor master bedroom chose this floor plan.

What if the next time your customers viewed their appliance options they saw a bullet that said “68% upgrade to this appliance package” on your mid-tier upgrade?

Time to get in the decision making business. Your bottom line depends on it.

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Filed Under: Market Research, Marketing Psychology, Marketing Strategy, Marketing Systems, Selling Strategy Tagged With: , , , ,

12 Books to Read for 2012 – Part 2

January 9, 2012 By 1 Comment

Continued from 12 Books to Read for 2012 Part 1

7. Steve Jobs - I’m not going to even try to pretend that Steve Jobs made for the best role model of a father, husband or – even at times – a CEO. However, this insightful look at the development of many of the hottest consumer products ever helps you to understand just how far passion can take you. The idea to put an artist front and center in the development team, to not be run by focus groups, and to add value through curation  are all part of Job’s legacy. You will not want this book to end after you get into it.

8. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – What if you knew that by performing two simple actions you could almost guarantee improved responses to your marketing materials? What if you could drastically increase your sales conversion rates by making a subtle change to your presentation? These seem like fairy tale statements. The promise of a magical silver bullet, right? This classic shows you how you can predictably and repeatedly persuade others to take a desired action. You must promise only to use these powers for good!

9. Browsers to Buyers - When I left Ohio to join Heartland Homes in 2007, the first thing that arrived at my new address was Browsers to Buyers. I had ordered it during my last week at my previous employer, and it spurred the creation of our online sales position shortly after. It is currently being updated by the author – but it still is your best entry into the online sales person role. Just do what it says and see an immediate impact. This year, my online concierge team of 2 will assist with over 170 sales.

10. Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - Brands are not just symbols you can recognize or names that roll off your tongue. Brands, used properly, are a weapon that the competition has no easy answer for. This is perhaps the best book of 2011 that you have never heard of.

11. What’s the Secret: To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience – No one sets out from the beginning to provide bad customer service, but the reality is that most places end up doing just that. What’s wrong here? This insightful book is packed with real life examples and illustrations of how to recruit, train, and empower those who work with you to provide truly remarkable experiences. I don’t know of a home builder yet who does this right… yet. You could be the first with this book.

12. The Toyota Way – Yes, I know about the whole problem with car brakes in 2009/2010, but that still doesn’t mean you can’t learn a thing or two about business from Toyota. Most of us know that “waste” is something that is no longer needed and disposed of, but this book taught me that waste also occurs when you over engineer a product beyond the value level that your prospect is able to perceive. This book is packed with similar insights and is NOT just for manufacturing companies.

That’s it. The 12 books you shouldn’t put off reading any longer. They’ll have a positive impact on your attitude, your outlook, and most importantly – your results and how you achieve them. Here’s to a great 2012.

PS – Let me know what book you would add to this list!

Click here to see the first six books that made the list.

12 books to read in 2012

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Filed Under: Marketing Psychology Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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