When we think of poverty, we think homelessness, food banks, and welfare.
Chronic poverty was once compared to catching a grasshopper in a jar when we were kids. The jar had a lid with holes poked in it. For a while, the grasshopper jumped up and kept hitting his head against the lid. Then he would only jump high enough to try to cling to the glass and finally he would just stay on the bottom of the jar and gave up all hope of getting out.
A lot of builders and suppliers feel that way about doing business during the COVID-19 pandemic. They keep trying to get out of that jar and now that the lid has been removed, they simply do not have the strength or the knowledge to jump back into profitability. Even the outrageous demand for new homes and the lowest interest rates ever do not seem to be enough for many modular home builders to escape the jar.
Poverty is a “deficiency in amount.” Many home builders and suppliers surely fit the criteria. So, what are these deficiencies that face the construction industry?
Marketing poverty
This is a problem because most of us have neither the resources nor the training to mount an effective marketing program. Factories’ sales reps have not been taught how to help builders get the message out to the home buying public and the factories often do not market their product.
A page on Facebook and a good website are just the tip of the iceberg. What is needed to fight the poverty of marketing is someone, either a group or an individual, to step up and begin developing individual marketing plans for builders.
Knowledge poverty
Many builders have limited knowledge of the green, sustainable, or energy conservation methods used by the construction industry. The sales reps are supposed to be knowledgeable about these things, but they are also facing the same poverty of knowledge. This is an area that needs to be given special attention by the factory.
There are only a handful of factories that hold builder meetings or offer training directly associated with these topics.
Look at your jobsite…do you have a sign on it with all of your contact info along with your website and email address?
Language poverty
There are thousands of books and articles written about how to sell new homes, get referrals, and retain customers. What is missing from most of these articles is that an average new home builder only uses 400–600 words when they try to sell their homes.
The builder has become very succinct in the selling phase of the process. They have developed canned speeches that are used in just about every sales presentation. Unfortunately, buyers have been reading everything they can about new building techniques, architecture, and sustainability, so they want a longer, more in-depth conversation with the builder. The solution is easy. Read a book a week and an article a day about the building industry. Learn the language of the buyer.
Financing poverty
Builders still think that, after they give the buyer their house quote, the buyer is somehow inherently knowledgeable enough to go forth and acquire one.
Fat chance! Builders not only have to know how to build a home, they have to become a partner with the buyer throughout the mortgage process, especially when the rapidly rising costs of building material can make the house unbuildable because the mortgage won’t cover the cost of building it.
To do that, a builder must learn what the buyer will be going through when they apply and help them over the pitfalls and speed bumps imposed on buyers today. This is as easy as sitting down with a couple of lenders and asking what they need from the builder and how best to help the buyer.
How many builders still view the lender as a necessary evil instead of a necessary partner?
Stop being the grasshopper on the bottom of the jar and begin taking marketing seriously. Learn what your factory is doing to improve their homes and then you can talk to your potential new buyer as an expert in housing. You also must work with the buyer and their lender closely to make the buyer’s dream into a reality which will keep you and your family out of real poverty.
Gary Fleisher is a housing veteran, editor/writer of the www.ModcoachNews.com, www.Modular-homecoach.com blogs and the ‘coming soon’ www.ModcoachConnects.com, Construction Consultant’s Directory. Contact modcoach@gmail.com.