Startling, but true! 64% of sales agents did not follow-up even though these were ‘motivated’ prospects who visited the sales center. This, according to a blog post written by Mike Lyon that includes a whitepaper from a study by Genisys and Red Tree Resultants conducted in the Denver area in 2008.

This study was conducted at mostly US big production home builder sale center sites and may not be indicative of your company.

But interestingly, the results are similar to ad hoc tests Lasso conducts every few months in which we register on new home project websites ‘Register here’ and Contact us’ pages in cities across North America. Often, upon registration, there is an email confirmation (not always) stating ‘you will be contacted’ by the sales team. Too often, there is never another follow up, by phone or by email.

The findings are troubling because builders spend $1000′s in marketing and advertising to attract the interest of potential buyers. And companies like ours exist to help builder marketing & sales teams:

• Capture every lead, then;
• Nurture prospects from interest to occupancy, and;
• Deliver ‘prospect intelligence’ so the marketing or sales person can differentiate themselves (and their company) from the competition.

First let me state that CRM software for home builders should never attempt to replace good people or processes. But it can and should be the plumbing, the infrastructure to at the very least:

• Deliver a high quality thank you email.
• Support a step-by-step sales activity process to nurture the prospect from interest toward close.
• Provide key information about website visits (and repeat visits) and page popularity (think of it as online digital body language).
• Inform about who opened your emails (and who did not) from your latest campaign.
• Report on whom and what was the last contact date and activity.
• Provide a history of every prospect communication.

Changing tradition and old habits in marketing and sales can be challenging. But recurring studies like the one above reiterate that change is a needed recipe for sales success. The recipe includes some leadership, some discipline and a little time. It costs a little too, but literally a fraction of what is spent on advertising and promotion to attract potential buyers in the first place.