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.

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!

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.

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:

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 1^st 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.

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.

As the New Year began I had many people ask me for a book recommendation. Some were sales people, some were small business owners, and some were just close friends so my answered varied widely. It made me think about what books I would put on my “must read” list for anyone in real estate marketing, advertising, or sales.

So here they are – The first six books on my list of must read books for 2012. Some are old classics, and some are recent best-sellers. Just know that if you read them all then you will be a step ahead of your competitors! (You can click the title of any book to learn more about it!)

1. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing- This should be the first book anyone in marketing, branding, or advertising reads on the subject. Then you should read it a second time and make flash cards. Then you should memorize them. Yep, it’s that important. It is also a very quick and easy read.

2. Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose - What kind of person would offer new recruits $2,000 to quit before training classes were over? Or encourage his employees to help customers order a pizza at 2am? A successful entrepreneur and customer service and company culture visionary – Tony Hseih, the CEO of Zappos.com. In 2009, Zappos.com was sold to Amazon.com for $1.2 billion. His insights are all valuable – and applicable – to your business. They may run contrary to the way most companies are run, but that probably only serves to prove that he’s on to something BIG… and that there is more to business than making a quick buck.

3. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions - Have you ever met someone who told you that they think marketing is a waste of time and money? That humans are rational, and will always pick the best value for their money? We all have! That’s why you need to read this book in order to show them scientific research that proves the opposite is true. Humans are not just irrational from time to time – but consistently and predictably. This book changed my life.

4. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity- All the great ideas in the world won’t mean anything if you can’t execute them. This book gives a comprehensive solution for how to stay organized and affective in today’s high speed world. In as little as two days you can be up and running – but it will take a little longer to become a master at it. Besides the book, there are helpful start packets that make it easier.

5. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable - This instant classic from 2002 told the world that to be a successful marketer you could no longer wait for the product to be developed by someone else and then try to put advertising lipstick on their pig. Instead marketers needed to be involved in the development of the product from the start so that it would have something remarkable in it… something others in the company may dismiss or rule irrelevant because it is less efficient.

6. New Home Sales in a Nutshell – This fantastic 115 page book is packed with “hard-boiled advice, tried and true tips, sensible solutions and bold responses to every objection a potential homebuyer presents.” It is something that I have seen have an impact in the life of a sales person again and again in this business. Certainly not one to pass up!

Click here to read about the next six selections, and let me know what you think about the titles on the list – or what you think should have been added!

Q: We build upper end estate type homes typically priced $300K-$700k. Have you sold homes in this price range this way?

A: Our single family homes at Heartland sell from $260k – $900k with an average around $350-$400k so this absolutely works well at this price range. With buyers who have money – urgency is even more important because they have the resources to move forward when they feel the pressure!

Q: I read your eBook. Thank you for sharing this information. My question is have you ever had success explaining this process to another company and they went on and produced a great event? And follow up to that, do you think it is area specific? In other words, camping out at a new community might work well in California back in the day, but has never worked here.

A: I have not shared this information prior to the release of the eBook with other home builders in detail, so there hasn’t been much time to hear stories of success (but please do share yours with me!). To be clear, I have never had home buyers camp out overnight either. Because of the process everyone feels like there is an organized and controlled release of information… it builds urgency, but doesn’t ask your prospects to do anything “unreasonable” (like camp out the night before). We have done this process over 10 times now, and typically sell anywhere from 15% – 25% of the home sites on the first day. The key is to understand and trust the psychology of the system… and do it once just as it is before you try and change anything.

Q: How much do you normally budget for the entire process of the presale program?

A: Great question – it typical costs us around $5,000 in excess of what is already required to open up a new community (Ex: you need signage with or without this process). If we are concerned about desirability we may bump it up to $7,5000.

Q: How early should you hold the grand release before opening the model home?

A: They key is the Preview Event, not the release… but as a rule we will not hold the preview more than 90 days before we expect the community to be paved. Doing it any earlier will cause cancels as people tire of waiting.

Q: If you have a dog community and you decide to change a product line…ie..slab to bsmt or vice versa, do you think a re-grand opening/this type of presale will work?

Exactly! You may not need or have an extra 90 days to roll it out – but the key is to have an event attended by everyone who has interest (the minimum should be around 8 – 10 potential purchasers… couples count as only a single purchase unless they are buying two houses). If it’s an important change, and you have a database that your sales person has kept in reliable communication with using a good CRM system like Lasso – then you should get people who want to attend.

Q: What if someone has to sell their home first?

A: About 60%-70% of our buyers have homes to sell. This scenario is perfect for them because if streets are not yet even paved it gives them time to get organized and listed before construction on their home begins.

Q: What is your typical cancellation rate, after the Grand Release?

Typically less than 10% if construction of their home can begin within 90 days of the preview party date. The longer the delay, the higher your cancellation rate will grow.

Q: For the community where you sold 8 homes (where you had only sold 8 homes the entire previous year), was the marketing strategy the only thing you changed, or did you tweak price/product/etc.?

A: Nothing else was changed – same pricing, same product. It was a perfect “control group” to test this new process on. Logic would say the results should have been the same… but again emotion drives us (and the results of this program).

Q: What role does social media play in a community launch?

A: It’s important, but it really just help keep your costs lower in the awareness phase – and increases the buzz when you announce your fantastic results. Don’t rely on just social media though – use it as part of your overall marketing mix.

Q: This won’t really work for me in my market will it? People don’t line up for houses here, my buyers only care about the lowest price, etc… (ok, I made THIS question up. I do hear a variant of this all the time though)

A: No, your market isn’t so different that this won’t work. It works because of human nature – not because people in Pittsburgh are an easy sell! Prospects in your market may have different preferences about product details (stucco, exterior colors, shag carpet, etc) but those who travel across the country or even the world will tell you that human beings are remarkably similar in terms of our behavoir, and what influences and drives us.

Do you have any questions that weren’t answered by this post? Like the eBook on Facebook and join the community of others who are trying this program for their company. Share your experiences and ask any question you have and I’ll do my best to answer as time allows.

I’m very excited to announce that my first eBook will be launching on September 29th, 2011!

It is titled Presale Without Fail: The Secret to Launching New Communities & Phases with Maximum Results. Inside is a step-by-step guide to success that is backed by years of trial and error – and decades of scientific research into the mind of the consumer. I have used it to sell anywhere from 6 to 28 homes in a single day! If you keep your eyes open at some very important people’s websites (ie: Myers Barnes, Mike Lyon, etc.) in the coming days you’ll find a special code that will both give you exclusive early access to the eBook AND enter you to win on hour of Skype time with me to answer any questions you may have.

The download is available by clicking here.

I hope you enjoy it!

1% of your company’s gross revenue is the right number for most organizations to start with for an advertising budget (note – if you are the price leader you may need a bit less, and if you are typically the most expensive you may need a bit more). For today’s purposes let’s say your total advertising budget for the year is $500,000. That would mean your company’s gross revenue is $50,000,000. How should that money be allocated? There are a lot of factors that can change things, but the budget below is a great starting place.

Notice that I am not including model homes, salaries, etc. into this budget. Those numbers I would include in the cost of sales or other categories, but not advertising. If you have questions about that just let me know – I’d be happy to respond in future posts.

Next we’ll begin breaking down each chunk of the sample budget and see what is involved and some specific strategies. First up is the online development & advertising budget.

1. EARN Google’s trust
2. ENTICE people to visit your site
3. ENGAGE those “just browsing”
4. EMPHASIZE your differences
5. ENSURE you’re part of the short list
6. ELICIT a response – generate a lead and convert it
7. EMPLOY your happy home owners to earn more trust

You’ve done all the “hard” work of getting people to come to visit your website and convert to a lead, but it isn’t time to call it quits yet. You have one very important step left – capture your happy customer’s feelings on paper, in photos, or better yet – on video. They don’t have to be long. They don’t have to be professionally shot. They don’t even need to be 100% positive. (ie: stop making excuses)

Customer testimonials fall into a category that is known as the “wonderful and magical third party endorsement.” No, really. There is perhaps no more important or valuable asset for your marketing team to have on its side than a load of third party endorsements. Why? Because as Seth Godin says, and all consumers believe: all marketers are liars! (Don’t confuse this with the equally famous all husbands are clueless – although third party endorsements are key there too right? Just get the mother-in-law on your side and your viewpoint is sure to be accepted)

How to use them

We’ll talk later about best practices on how to capture testimonials, but assuming that you’ve got them – how should you use them on your website? The only thing I can tell you for certain is not to put them in only one place. This is true with all important content on your site – give the browser multiple points of entry on multiple pages. It’s too important to bury in one small corner of your website. Also keep in mind that many of the people who visit your site may never see the homepage because they will click on a link from Google that takes them deep within your site from the beginning.

Below are two examples from my builder’s website. The first one shows the homepage with two pieces of content highlighting customer testimonials – on the left is a video ready to play instantly, and on the right is a promotional button that will take the browser to the testimonial page. The second image shows how in a subtle and non-obtrusive way you can get this great content on every page of your site.

The final piece of advice is to use this content beyond just on your own site. Think YouTube, email blasts (opt-in only of course!), Realtor presentations, and more.

More sales are welcome, but the best part of referred prospects are that price becomes less important, as John puts it, “when your business comes highly recommended by a friend, the role of risk is minimized, and that fact alone moves the significance of price comparison down the list.” He talks about how non-referred prospects may instead think to themselves, well if I’m disappointed with the result… at least I won’t overpay!

Are you sick of having to justify your price – or worse… negotiate away your margins? This just might be what you’re looking for.

Below is a brief video by John to give you a taste, however if you want specific actionable strategies you’re better served to pick up the book for yourself. Highly recommended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeSDYhdmm9Y