The Builder1440 Blog

According to the National Association of Realtors^® (NAR) Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 80% of all homebuyers use the Internet as an information source.

With nearly all of today’s home buyers utilizing the Internet to find more information about builders and their communities, it is imperative to develop and commit to an eLead follow-up program. Read on below to learn some of our recommended best practices that will generate prospects and help you develop sales.

Best Practice #1: Identify the opportunity. As noted above, Internet eLeads are readily available. Develop and implement a lead capture form on your website and on Internet Listing Services (ILS), like Move.com and New Home Source to capture information from any prospects that review your lots and homes. For a more efficient process, forms can also be integrated with traffic cards in customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Best Practice #2: Follow-up in a timely manner. Unlike a visit to a sales center or a phone call from a prospect, eLeads expect immediate feedback. This can easily be accomplished by setting up an automated response, once a form is submitted, or by having a general bucket email address that disperses the information to all of your sales agents.

Best Practice #3: Continue systematic follow-up. Immediate follow-up is necessary but staying in touch with a prospect through an organized follow-up plan will help you close the sale. Once an eLead is assigned to a sales agent, have a multi-touch follow-up plan based on the lead’s attributes activated and tracked in your CRM system.

Best Practice #4: Track conversion ratios. By determining from where the majority of your eLeads are coming from, your website, an ILS or another source, sales and marketing dollars can be better proportioned. This will improve the quality and quantity of your eLeads. In addition, tracking conversion rates allows sales team members to test follow-up methods and find out which are most successful. When you integrate your website and CRM system, you can easily report on eLeads and track them from capture to close.

In today’s market, selling homes requires more time and dedication compared to previous years. Staying in touch and remaining top-of-mind with prospective buyers throughout the entire sales process is the key differentiator between losing a buyer and selling a home. Read our important tips below to find out more about creating effective follow-up.

1) Develop a strategic plan and remain consistent

Effective follow-up is not random. In order to be successful, follow-up needs to be developed into a plan of action and implemented on a consistent basis. Consequently, follow-up plans should become a top priority for management as well as a structured requirement for sales team members. Follow-up has the potential to make a difference if an established structure is in place.

2) Ensure your follow-up plans are adaptive

Every potentially buyer is different, and as a result, every follow-up plan should have the ability to reflect each prospect’s individual characteristics. Any follow-up is better than no follow-up, but being able to define and target a follow-up plan for a prospect at any stage of the sales cycle will prove more effective at building and nurturing a relationship.

3) Streamline your follow-up efforts

Developing a follow-up plan is essential, but executing the follow-up plan is necessary in order for it to be effective. However, remembering where each prospect is in the sales cycle and which type of follow-up they should receive can be a daunting task. As a result, utilizing a customer relationship management (CRM) tool with follow-up reminders for phone calls and letters along with automated email follow-up can not only make your life easier but also increase sales rates.

4) Utilize different channels for multi-touch follow-up

Dynamic follow-up is crucial for staying in touch with prospects over a period of time. As a result, effective follow-up requires communicating with prospects via a multi-channel approach including phone calls, emails, letters and direct mail. To make even more of an impact, each form of follow-up should have the ability to be personalized. The more diverse a follow-up campaign, the more likely a prospect will choose you over the competition!

Selling more homes and making more money seems to be on just about every home builder’s mind these days. How can a customer relationship management (CRM) and sales system help boost revenue in today’s housing market? Here are our top tips for increasing sales with CRM:

1. Improve communication & keep buyers engaged with automated follow-up plans.

According to sales gurus Bob Schultz and The New Home Specialists, builders can increase sales 20% by using a structured follow-up system and methodology. To make it easy for sales associates to stay in touch with buyers, select a CRM/sales system with customizable follow-up templates or simply create your own within the system. Builders can then segment and target prospective home buyers with personalized scripts and copy for phone calls, emails and letters.

2. Capture web leads automatically in your CRM system.

The NAHB reports an astonishing 50% of homebuyer leads are not followed up on. By funneling leads from a builder’s web site and Internet Listing Services, such as NewHomeSource.com and Move.com, directly into a CRM system, builders can ensure no web lead gets lost and sales representative can follow-up with buyers immediately. When builders automatically capture web leads in a CRM system, they eliminate manual data entry, saving time and reducing errors.

3. Regularly report on sales, traffic & marketing so you can work smarter, not harder.

With dashboard analytics and customizable reporting, builders have the insight needed to close more sales and make more money. CRM systems enable builders to track home buyer follow-up to learn what communications are working; quickly see where leads and sales are coming from; and determine where marketing dollars should be spent for the best ROI. Builders can customize CRM reports to gather the information that is critical to their company’s success.

4. Integrate your CRM system and website to display homes and engage buyers.

What tools do you have on your website to attract prospective home buyers and engage them in the home buying process? With 86% of home buyers using the Internet to shop for a new home, a builder’s website must provide buyers with the information they are looking for, get and keep their attention, and make it as simple as possible to request information. This can all be done very easily with CRM–website integration by allowing builders to display homes and options stored in a CRM system, connect with prospective home buyers, and schedule sales appointments online.

5. Use home buyer portals to increase options revenue and enhance the home buying experience.

Home buyer portals provide builders with a competitive advantage and help keep prospects excited during the home buying process. When builders integrate home buyer portals with their CRM system, they can enable buyers to conveniently access personalized sites to select options as well as monitor the progress of their new home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. As a result, builders will have more satisfied home buyers, shorter design center appointments, and increased options revenue.