The Application ofKnowledge is Power

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The Importance of Collecting Intelligence

Mike Curtin www.TheSaleStream.com

Email: MikeCurtin@TheSaleStream.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/the-salestream

Tel: 941.704.4422

Google +: http://goo.gl/ZQUfiS

Knowledge is not PowerThe Application of Knowledge is

Power

History has taught us that the greater the understanding we have of our sales center prospects including their thoughts and feelings, the more we can clearly understand their motivations, both physically and emotionally and use that information to better develop marketing stimulus and sales strategies that can grab their attention, get them to react favorably and sell more homes.

My experience as a Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing

of a publically traded, 3 billion dollar developer and homebuilder

organization taught me the importance of garnering the right

information from new home sales center prospects.

The Importance of Collecting Intelligence

How did we gatherthe information?

• Direct mail surveys

• Focus groups

• In-depth phone surveys

What did we ask?

• Their interest in buying, when and why.

• If they were not interested in buying, why not and what could we do to persuade them.

• What were their reactions to the community, the amenities and the homes?

• What specifically appealed to them and what did not?

• How did we perform as a sales team and as a company?

• What could we do to improve our presentation and demonstration to more appeal to them?

• What was it, specifically, about our message that made them want to take the next step and visit the sales center?

Why is this information important?

It gave us the intelligence and the tools to sell more homes and profitably impact the bottom line.

Back in the day, the effort was very expensive and in some cases, the time it took made some of the information we gathered a bit dated. Needless to say, we successfully applied what we learned and it worked; the company grew from $500,000 million in sales in 1998 to over 3 billion within 10 years.

While our own investments and efforts paid off, not all homebuilder and developer companies had the financial resources or the inclination to understand their prospects. Most often, the technique used to elicit this type of prospect information is through sales meetings, which almost always go like this:

Typical Sales Meeting:

Part 1:

• Meeting is spent reviewing administrative issues, closings, financing and related topics.

Part 2:

• A meeting always starts with this statement… “Let’s review your hot prospects from the previous week, shall we!”

• The sales manager then asks each of his or her sales people the names of their prospects, what their “hot buttons” are, what their objections are, where else they are looking and what can be done to move them along This technique has been employed since

sales managers and sales teams were invented to sell new homes.

Here is the problem with that technique…the company that is

trying to sell a home for $200,000 to $2,000,000 is relying solely

on the opinion of the sales person. The first seven years of my

career were spent on the sales floor selling new homes, and I

guarantee I misjudged and misqualified many of my own

prospects.

The best sales person misjudges some of the prospects ALL of the

time and all of the prospects SOME of the time.

I love sales people, I was and am one, but the problem is, most of

the opinions sales people have and their motivations are self-

serving and understandably so, most are independent contractors

working on straight commissions. The information provided to

management is not always in the best interests of the company.

The result is a huge “disconnect” between what the prospect really thinks and feels and what management assumes they understand about them.

The Solution

The solution is obvious and easy…simply ask the prospect to tell you, in their own words, what they think about your community, its homes and amenities, if they want to buy, when and why, etc. Do this immediately after they have left the community and have had time to think about what they experienced.

Applying their honest answers to your business model will help you sell more homes since the potential customer is telling you exactly how to sell to them.

A Story

I had lunch recently at Ruby Tuesday and after paying, I looked at the receipt. It asked if I would take the time to tell management how my meal and service was by taking a short survey. I was directed to a web site. I took the survey (both the meal and the service were excellent by the way) and it struck me as odd…

Here is the management of a restaurant that is interested enough to want to know what I thought about my $40 lunch experience

As homebuilders, we don’t make the effort to learn what our prospects personally think about their experience when they were on our property looking to buy that $200,000 to $2,000,000 home. We rely entirely on our sales people for that feedback. It’s like the manager of that Ruby Tuesday asking my waitress if I was well-served and happy with my experience. ODD INDEED! If places such as restaurants, retail stores, financial institutions, and hospitality providers have figured out the importance of learning what their customers and prospects really think and feel, it’s high time homebuilders and developers jump on the bandwagon.  SaleStream has created a mechanism specifically designed for developers and homebuilders to do so.

Contact Us Today

Mike Curtin is a managing partner of SaleStream, LLC. SaleStream provides homebuilders and developers witha technologically advanced PROSPECT ENGAGEMENT PLATFORM delivering salesand marketing professionals with “real-insight” in “real-time.”

For more information, call Mike at 941.704.4422