Strategic Residential Marketing

I have always found the phrase “be prepared” of special interest, perhaps due in some small part to my enjoyment of musical satirist Tom Lehrer’s song parody from the 1950s.  If you are not familiar with his work, here is a link, hope you find it enjoyable – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSwjuz_-yao.

Recently I had a birthday.  I had stopped celebrating several years ago as the candles were setting off the smoke alarms.  But this year promised to be something special as my son had flown in from Boston with one of my grandsons to celebrate with us.  And “special” it was, although not quite as I had envisioned even though the cards and emails from over one hundred of my social media friends were certainly appreciated.

Several months ago I had coincidently scheduled a doctor’s appointment on my birthday as I try to make those appointments early Monday morning so that I may travel to clients Monday afternoon.  This appointment was for my regular six month check-up but when the doctor looked at my chart and noticed that it was my birthday he decided to do something that he thought was “special” so he drew a smiley face on his exam glove for my prostate exam.  He found this quite amusing; I did not and should have known then that the day was not going to go as had been expected.

After the exam I returned home to pick up my son and grandson to meet my mother-in-law for breakfast. The meal turned into an unanticipated extended event as, after waiting for our food for forty-five minutes, an “extra-special” treat when one of the diners is a three year old, our server realized that she had not turned the order in to the kitchen.

Now rushing to complete a few last minute errands before taking my son and grandson to the airport for their return to Boston, a phone call from my wife informed me that my mother-in-law had fallen on returning home from breakfast.  As she had struck her head, the paramedics were taking her to the only level-one trauma center in the area, the county hospital 35 minutes away.  I drove the kids to the airport and raced to the hospital to join my wife where I sat for the next seven hours while Grandma was immediately examined but then left virtually unattended for the next five hours until admitted for overnight observation.

My mother-in-law is fine, a hairline fracture of her nose, some bruising and injured pride and vanity.  But the day was shot, no “special” birthday celebration for me.  All I had time to do was snarf down some fast food, race home and pack for my 6 AM flight the following day.  Fortunately, I am a follower of the creed “be prepared” and had updated all of my client files and materials for my trip several days in advance so that no serious harm was done, just minor annoyances in the great scheme of things.  And I did have the opportunity while at the hospital to make some new friends – but more on that subject in a future blog.

The point to this lengthy introduction is that the world will constantly throw things at us that we do not expect.  To survive we need to be adaptive and flexible and that can only be achieved by being prepared.  That is true in the homebuilding business as well as in every other aspect of our lives. Read the rest of this entry »

An investment counselor decided to go out on her own. She was shrewd and diligent so business kept coming in and fairly quickly she realized that to protect herself and her customers she needed an in-house counsel.

She placed advertisements in the legal publications and boards, monster.com and theladders.com and with the economy still in an uncertain state, resumes rolled in and the investment banker began to interview young lawyers.

“As I’m sure you can understand” she began with one of the first applicants, “in a business like this, our personal integrity must be beyond question.” She leaned forward. “Mr. Deerson, are you an honest lawyer?”

“Honest?” replied the job candidate. “Let me tell you something about honest. Why, I’m so honest that my father lent me $25,000 for my education and I paid back every penny the minute I tried my very first case.”

“Impressive” the investment counselor replied. ”And what sort of case was that?” she asked.

The lawyer squirmed in his seat and admitted, “My father sued me for the money.”

I believe that honesty is an absolute; someone either is or is not honest, there are no degrees or partial honesty and one cannot be honest in some aspects of life and not in others.  I am often asked what qualities define a good new home salesperson and my answer is honesty, integrity, intelligence, dedication, loyalty and empathy.  And those same qualities are, I believe, also essential requirements for any consultant.

One of my clients recently forwarded to me an e-blast from one of the more visible advertising firms in the homebuilding industry which claimed that a builder had taken their advice regarding the repositioning of a residential community.  My client thought that this would be of interest to me as the community referred to sounded very similar to a property being developed by another of my clients.  I checked and, in fact, the builder referred to was my client and I was then rather disturbed at the agency’s claim as I had personally prepared not only the original market analysis and strategy for this community but also ongoing updates, most recently last summer in which I had recommended the specific repositioning that the advertising agency had now suggested was their idea. 

I fully realize that business is challenging for many of us in the homebuilding industry today but I cannot accept that it is permissible to leave honesty and integrity behind when promoting one’s services.  What can possibly be the benefit of such action?  The builder referred to in this promotion also saw the e-blast and, rather upset, sent me an email that included the question “is there any truth to their (the agency’s) other stories?”

And that brings up the topic of “why hire a marketing consultant and how should it be done correctly?” Certainly many builders and developers could perform their own market analysis and create proper development and corporate positioning strategies but the reality is they seldom do so and, even when they do, they fail to update them regularly.  Other times these internal studies lack impartiality and suffer the prejudices of the preparer, either succumbing to the politics of the company or pursuit of the individual’s self-preservation.  Read the rest of this entry »

The new division president of a major homebuilding company spent a week at his new office with the individual he is replacing becoming acclimated to the organization and the local market specifics. On the last day the departing president tells him, “I have left three numbered envelopes in the desk drawer. Open an envelope if you encounter a crisis you can’t solve.”

Three months pass by and there is a major “situation” where ‘you know what’ hits the fan. The new president remembers the parting words of his predecessor and opens the first envelope. The message inside says “Blame your predecessor!” He does this and gets off the hook.

About half a year later, the company is experiencing a serious drop in sales, combined with major production problems. The president quickly opens the second envelope. The message read, “Reorganize!” He fires the marketing director, sales manager, the advertising agency and the construction manager and with a new staff on board and a new enthusiasm throughout the company, sales rebound and the construction issues are corrected.

At the end of the first year another crisis occurs and he opens the last envelope. The message inside reads “Prepare three envelopes!”

I went to the doctor last Monday as I was experiencing some problems with my back. After an examination he prescribed an anti-inflammatory and a heating pad and five days later the pain was gone. I would not suggest that this was a miracle cure as I have a chronic problem with my L4, L5 and S1 discs which is a common cause of Sciatica, typically manifested by a pain running down one or both legs in a pattern determined by the sciatic nerve. But nevertheless, I was quite happy that the pain was now gone, that its cause was nothing more serious and that I had made the decision to promptly seek the aid of a professional in the medical field instead of procrastinating in the hope that a healing would occur spontaneously.

This entire incident could probably have been avoided as my disc problem is not new and when it last was bothering me I visited an orthopedist who recommended a regular course of exercise to strengthen the surrounding muscles. But when the pain went away last time after a few weeks of following the prescribed course of action, I became complacent and the exercise program was soon forgotten.

It would therefore appear that the homebuilding industry and I share a common history. When the housing market was strong in the first few years of this decade we forgot the “course of exercise” that had been prescribed in the last downturn. And when the market slowed down we were unprepared for the pain. Read the rest of this entry »