Is your competition slashing prices and trying to sell off inventory homes that have been sitting around forever? Are they touting more square footage for the price, ie selling a cheaper, bigger boring blah box? Is your sales team frustrated that they “can’t compete” with those lower prices? Are your New Home Consultants complaining that their prospective buyers are walking into their sales center asking them to “match” the competition’s “deals”? Is your competition the existing resale (“used) homes which offer out-of-date construction methods and finishes for a cheaper price?
Well, if you answered yes,and you offer buyers the opportunity to personalize their home, (get more of the home they really want) then I have both good and bad news for you. And it’s the same thing: There’s a good chance there are buyers out there who aren’t buying your homes, but probably could and should!
You’ve heard coaches say: “You can’t worry about what you can’t control. You can do the BEST job on what you CAN control.” Let’s stop worrying about what “the other guy” is doing since it’s out of our control. Let’s start getting our sales team and our buyers to focus on what we CAN control. And if what you can control is your buyers ability to get the home they want, a home which will support their family’s lifestyle needs and allow them to express their sense of design and style so that they truly love the home they live in day after day and so that they’re not SETTLING on the biggest and most emotional purchase of their lifetime…then let’s GET TO IT!!
Many New Home Consultants get sucked in to focusing on price price price. You need to reframe your prospective buyers’ home-buying criteria so that what you offer is INVALUABLE. You can’t put a dollar value on GETTING MORE OF THE HOME YOU WANT! On NOT SETTLING! On NOT GIVING UP CONTROL! On NOT GIVING UP ON YOUR DREAMS! This is a priceless opportunity that often comes around only once or twice in a lifetime.
Given a choice, most if not all, buyers would rather choose a home consisting of a floorplan plus performance and design features which their family actually wants and needs. (Rather than settling for an outdated floorplan and outdated finish features that another family chose when they bought the house years ago. Rather than getting stuck with what the builder chose when building the house for an unknown I’ll-settle-for-that buyer-of-the-future) Most, if not all, buyers would rather not pay for stuff that they don’t want or need and potentially have to rip out after they move in. Thus, the powerful question asked by all professional New Home Consultants selling built-to-order homes: “Why would you want to move in to the home of your dreams and start remodeling it and ripping it apart when you could be enjoying a home that’s just right for you from Day One?”
But, in today’s price-focused market, in today’s rough economic times, it’s so easy for buyers to think that the smartest thing is to focus on buying the lowest price home, even if they have to settle to get there. It’s also easy (with a little prompting) to remember the other polar-opposite force concurrently pulling on the collective consumer psyche: the need for self-expression and the ability to satisfy that need on a daily basis in today’s world of mass customization.
Aren’t there some buyers who will invest more to get a built-to-order new car in the color they want with the features they choose and value, rather than buy a cheaper used car? But wait, aren’t there some buyers who’d never settle for gas station coffee, but only want a built-to-order Starbucks coffee? (Yes, of course, I realize that a $4.50 latte is an affordable luxury to many people, but it’s also 4.5 times the price of a gas station coffee. I doubt your homes are 4.5 times the price of your competition. Have you ever said: “Mr. and Mrs. Smith, if you’re willing to pay 4.5 times the cost of a generic not-what-you-really-want cup of coffee to get one that is exactly what you want and brings you great satisfaction, then aren’t you also the kind of person who would be willing to invest an additional $10/ $25/ $50/$100 per month, so that your home, possibly the most important item you’ll ever buy, reflects what you really need and value?” You might have to let this point sink in a little bit but, trust me, if you emphasize it more than once, it will resonate with them. Some of them. And some is all you need to gain those incremental sales.
Want to learn more about how to sell more homes by better leveraging your ability to give your customers “more of the home they really want?”
