Top Ten things home builders should do to make more new home sales

New Home Sales are down. 10 things Queensland home builders need to do now to improve new home sales.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock somewhere, you already know that new home sales are down, way down in Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich and the Gold coast.

It seems to be one thing after another

The Queensland floods have been a major disruption. These will have a lasting impact of home sales, so its important for home-builders to focus and the customer at this time.

Now we have the tragedy of the Christchurch earthquakes being played out in our living rooms, and this too will be a disruption to people thinking about building a new home, or selling their existing home to move up to a new home.

The Good News. New home sales are happening as we speak

Home builders that are building home designs that customers want, or on difficult lots or are custom designing homes for their clients will fair well because they are customer focused.

How New Home Builders are making sales in this market month in month out

The good news in the project home business is that there are builders making sales week in week out even in this market.  So what do you have to do?

1. Stop playing follow the market leader. They may be going in the wrong direction. Throw out your ideas about how you will copy your competitors floor plans and beat them. Stop watching their every move. The fact is that they will always be 6 months ahead of you, and you will always be a follower playing that game. You might want to deal with different customers they are going after.
2. Forget about databases. Too much work for none sales types. They are good for long term customers. You will be broke long before these customers are ready to buy. Have a buy now, today or never offer and mentality when it comes to new home sales.
3. Have a manual list of 30 hot prospects. Close them all near the end of every month. Burn them or sell them, or roll them over to the following month. [yes, no, next month or piss off] Then build up to 30 leads and rinse and repeat.
4. Be customer focused. Forget about your competition, what they are doing and not doing. Define who your prime customer is, and focus on satisfying their needs completely. Half baked plans for everybody means not for anyone. You lose with that play.
5. Have great home designs by testing what your customers want. Then build a test home and use this as a focus home for showing your target groups. Keep on testing till you have it right. sell theses homes as spec homes and move on.
6. When it’s right, build it as a display home. Not before. You can’t afford to build losing designs as displays homes anymore. Each display home needs to be a winner.
7. Always contrast one display home against the other. Unless you are a specialist, don’t have two story designs. make sure you are not next to a better home for your target market. It will suck your sales.
8. Explain to your sales consultants the product benefits, the target audience and why this home will appeal to these targeted buyers. Don’t let then suck and see. You will waste sales opportunities.
9. Create a targeted sales and marketing campaign to attract the clients you want in your display home. Never advertise to everyone, because everyone will never turn up.
10. Have great sales training program. Show people how to market the home. If you don’t know get someone who does to show them.

These ten things should be done by every builder who builds more than 50 homes a year. Most don’t because they haven’t had to in the past. They say history repeats itself. I say not in new home sales. Its different every month, and every years. Tune into the changing landscape.