The Builder1440 Blog

Small production & custom builders can now benefit from the home building industry’s leading CRM and sales solution!

Officially launched on June 4th, Sales1440 Standard Edition (SE) provides builders with all of the core functionality of Sales1440 Enterprise Edition (EE), the industry’s leading customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Sell More Homes and Make Money!
- Capture web leads from your website and Internet Listing Services (ILS)
- Manage and track contracts effortlessly
- Automate follow-up, email marketing and marketing campaigns
- Generate sales and marketing reports

If you’re are small or custom home building and need a CRM, discover the Sales1440 advantage by scheduling s Sales1440 Standard Edition (SE) demo today!

Timberline Users Group, the organization committed to supporting users of Sage Timberline Office software, is hosting their annual users’ conference in Nashville, TN on April 29 - May 2 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort. Builder1440 will be present as an exhibitor and TUG member at this year’s event.

For more information, visit TUG Web.

If you are attendig the event, stop by and find out how Sales1440 CRM can help you sell more homes and make more money.

Cornerstone Solutions, the Sage Timberline Office Solution Provider, is hosting their annual users’ conference in Chicago, IL on April 23 & 24 at the Hyatt Lisle. As a partner and sponsor of this year’s event, Builder1440 will be hosting two sessions:

• Lunch and Learn on April 23 — 12:00pm - 2:30pm

• Tracking Tools for Builders on April 24 — 1:30pm - 2:00pm

For more information, visit Cornerstone Solutions Users’ Conference 2008.

If you are attendig the event, stop by and find out how Sales1440 CRM can help you sell more homes and make more money.

Ensure your emails are compliant with federal spam legislation by reviewing the following points:

“Canned Spam Act”
The “Canned Spam Act,” effective on January 1, 2004, legislates email whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product. The law dictates that email “may not contain false or misleading routing information.”

CAN-SPAM Guideline #1: False or misleading information is banned in email
headers and routing information must be accurate, to identity
the sender.

    CAN-SPAM Guideline #2: Email subject lines cannot be deceptive or mislead
the recipient about the contents of the email.

CAN-SPAM Act Guideline #3: Email recipients must be given an opt-out method.

     CAN-SPAM Act Guideline #4: Emails must be identified as an advertisement and
include the sender’s valid physical postal address.

In the down housing market, many home builders wonder the benefits of spending valuable sales and marketing dollars on a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Budgets are tight and the idea of incurring the expense for a CRM software system may be the furthest thought from any management team’s mind. However, the reality is without utilizing a CRM system, many builders are missing out on opportunities and potential sales.

Discover below the key reasons builders should consider implementing a CRM into their sales and marketing strategy.

1. CRM and sales systems allow home builders to manage all traffic to the fullest potential. From the time the prospect visits a website, or walks into the sales center, to follow-up and email marketing, lot and floor plan selection, home configuration, contract generation, and change order management, an effective CRM system will streamline the processes and increase the number of sales based on a multi-touch approach.

2. Management teams should empower sales people with best possible sales tools. A great sales team is important but without the right tools, sales people are not given the best opportunity to succeed. A comprehensive CRM system will offer the resources to track, follow up with and close the sale with prospects

3. Management teams must consider software that will offer thorough reporting analysis of prospect opportunities and closed sales. Without reporting functionality, home builders suffer the loss of determining the most effective way to drive business and succeed in the competitive market.

4. A market upswing is inevitable. As a result, now is the pivotal time to get a jump start on developing best business practices and equipping your sales team for success, so when market turns you will be forward position with a competitive edge.

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.

Some of the top construction software and service providers are coming together under one alliance to bring a new integration initiative to builders.

The initiative, BASE (Builders Alliance for Software Efficiency), www.basealliance.com, consists of Builder1440, www.builder1440.com, Baltimore, Md.; Sage Software, www.sagetimberlineoffice.com, Beaverton, Ore.; Customer Velocity, www.customervelocity.com, The Woodlands, Texas; Avid Ratings, www.avidratings.com, Madison, Wis.; AxisPointe, www.axispointe.com, Lehi, Utah; BuilderMT, www.buildermt.com, Lakewood, Colo.; Corrigo, www.corrigo.com, Redwood City, Calif.; RIM (Research In Motion), www.researchinmotion.com, Waterloo, Ont.; Sales Simplicity, www.salessimplicity.net, Chandler, Ariz.; and Sprint Nextel, www.sprint.com, Overland Park, Kan.

The software solutions from the members in BASE are integrated, which means information in one product can be linked to other BASE member’s products. For builders, this means easily transferring information from one process to the next with connected solutions.

While the BASE alliance was announced from IBS (Intl. Builders’ Show), held in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 12-15, multiple members of the alliance also made news on an individual basis at the show.

Customer Velocity, announced two major initiatives: myBuilderWebsite and Lead Velocity EXPRESS. Both initiatives are designed for the small-sized construction company in the down market.

myBuilderWebsite is for builders to manage content on their Websites. The basic package is free, but upgraded features can be added for a cost. Lead Velocity EXPRESS is similar to Customer Velocity’s Lead Velocity Pro and Enterprise software for CRM (customer-relationship management). EXPRESS is designed for small-sized companies to close leads.

Builder1440 released the latest version of its Internet-based Sales1440 for CRM. Sales1440 6.2 includes a Consolidated Notes feature, which allows builders to organize notes on customers. The product also allows for tracking of customer Web leads with the automated Lead Funnel.

“Sales1440’s newest version gives builders what they need to sell more homes in today’s market: cutting edge performance, system dependability, and common-sense functionality,” says Matt McShane, vice president, Builder1440.

Sage Software gave builders an opportunity to switch from QuickBooks to Sage Master Builder with free data conversion tools in addition to a discounted Sage Master Builder solution.

“We understand our customers are facing tough market conditions and we want to do everything we can to help them stay competitive,” says John Geffel, senior vice president and general manager, Sage Software.

For builders who weren’t able to take advantage of this deal at IBS, Sage says there are still other methods available to make the switch from QuickBooks to Sage Software.

Click here to read the article.

Builder1440, LLC, the home building industry’s leading provider of Internet-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and sales systems, announced their Builder1440 application suite was voted one of the Top New 100 Products of 2007 by Professional Builder magazine.

Each year, Professional Builder editors evaluate hundreds of industry products and recognize 100 as the Top New Products of the year. The annual awards emphasize technical innovation, increased growth and market position within the home building industry.

The Professional Builder editors base their evaluation on four criteria: technical advances in technology, significant product improvement, new products lines or features and increased product competition.

“The Professional Builder editorial team chose Builder1440’s software suite because of the enhanced suite of applications available,” explains Paul Deffenbaugh, Editorial Director for Professional Builder.
“With noteworthy growth and innovative technology solutions, Builder1440 has helped establish the future of home building software systems.”

The Builder1440 application suite, which includes the cornerstone software solution Sales1440, was developed to help home builders concentrate on building and selling homes by leaving the technology worries to the Builder1440 experts.

Sales1440 automates the entire home buying process, from the time the prospect requests information from a builder’s website or walks into the sales center, to lot and floor plan selection, home configuration, contract generation, loan calculations, change order management and customer relationship management.

The Sales1440 CRM system makes it simple for builders to sell more homes by ensuring constant communication with prospects through customizable targeted Follow-Through^® plans from Bob Schultz and the New Home Specialists.

Also included in Builder1440’s software suite is DealWorks1440, an online sales pricing and analysis tool that seamlessly integrates Sales1440 with Sage Master Builder/Sage Timberline Office. Dealworks1440 enables builders to easily establish retail pricing, improve profit margins and streamline operations.

MyHome1440, another complementary product to Sales1440, is an Internet-based home customization portal for prospects and home buyers that enhances the home buying experience by displaying inventory and pricing in real time and allowing prospects to view and select communities, plans, plot maps, homes & options from Sales1440.