Exclusive Whitepaper Insider For New Home Salespeople & Aging-In-Place Providers If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads, You re Missing New Business Steve Hoffacker 1 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads, You re Missing New Business Steve Hoffacker, CAPS, MCSP, MIRM Contents 3 The importance of new leads for your business 4 The retail model 5 The prominence of print media 6 Conventional marketing is passive 7 Self-generation of leads is different 8 It all begins with the contact 10 Self-generation of leads makes the difference 2 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
The importance of new leads for your business Whether you are building new homes, selling new homes, contracting with builders to supply the systems, fixtures, and structures for their new homes, listing and selling existing homes, or providing remodeling and renovation services for people upgrading their homes or adapting them for aging-in-place purposes, one fact is constant. You need customers for your business. How you get them is what we want to examine. Unless you have a ready-made, continuous supply of people ready and willing to do business with you, you need to attract new leads for your business. You can do this in various ways. You can advertise. You can ask for and receive referrals. You can receive referrals along the way that are much appreciated but not specifically requested. You can generate and produce your own leads. Some methods of lead generation are more productive than others, and some are more expensive to implement. Some are more effective at yielding sufficient numbers of leads to sustain your business and give it positive energy. Some are more sporadic. You really have two choices let people find you and initiate the contact, or find them and engage them first. The one method of lead generation providing that you dedicate yourself to it and stick with it that seems to produce as many leads as you can handle is selfgeneration. Because you are talking to people and learning about their needs as you are meeting them or discussing their situations (for those you already know to some extent) prior to an actual sales presentation the chances of a more productive presentation are greatly enhanced. 3 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
Knowing that leads are the lifeblood of any business, let s look at how you can increase your chances of success. The retail model If you have a storefront, sales center, showroom, or other place where you typically greet new customers and work with them, you are using a retail model regardless of how you view your business or what your actual product or service happens to be. With the retail model, you open and staff your office at posted times say 5 days a week from 9-5, or something similar. You might close on holidays or take an extra day off during the week. You might be open weekends. You might open earlier or later and remain open longer. It could even be by appointment only. The point is that your potential customers can come to you or reach out to you during those posted hours of operation and expect to engage you. Thus, you literally are waiting for the door to open or the phone to ring. With the retail model, you are limited to how many customers you can see. This is based on how many people in a given day or period of time know how to find you (through advertising, your website or other online presence, or your physical visibility), how many telephone or email you because they had that contact information, or how many happened to contact you because someone else who had visited or worked with you mentioned it to them. Beyond this, you need a way of increasing the amount of people who can potentially do business with you. Otherwise, you limited to those people who find you during the hours you are there. If this is not a sufficient number now, it can only increase so much through additional marketing efforts. 4 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
Even when you take your retail model on the road at a trade show, home and garden fair, or other type of event, you still are dependent upon people coming up to you at your booth and engaging you. You have just temporarily moved the location of your store to the venue of the show, and the foot traffic that passes by and eventually stops at your location needs to be of sufficient quantity and quality for you to feel that the investment of being at that show was worthwhile. The prominence of print media For many years, classified and display newspaper advertising, yellow page advertising, direct mail, new home guides, property magazines, remodeling circulars and magazines, signage, weekly shoppers, and even radio and TV commercials (traditional 30-60 length as well as program-length and infomercials) have been the primary ways of promoting and marketing new and existing homes and remodeling activities. We were living in a traditional largely print media world. Then came the internet, and a dramatic change occurred. Now things were electronic and subject to instant postings, updates, access, and changes. Look at how quickly breaking news can be spread around the world and pictures can be uploaded and shared with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and similar sites. The internet did not make print advertising become any less important. In fact, the argument could be made that it became even more important. The only thing that changed and likely forever is the location and style of that message. Now, instead of searching the newspaper for ads about new homes, resale listings, or who to engage for renovations or home remodeling, or how to get a home 5 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
assessment, consumers can now search and shop online for new home communities and resale properties, read up on neighborhoods and companies, find out about remodeling solutions and new products, watch videos on a variety of topics, read reviews and testimonials from other consumers, and find other information online to assist their ultimate decision. The conventional (as I like to call it rather than traditional ) forms or methods of lead and traffic generation for new home sales now include print media, radio and TV, signage and billboards, direct mail, websites, internet advertising, promotions, sponsorships, strategic partners (such as trade and professional relationships), Realtor traffic, and casual or incidental referrals. Unless you are located on a major thoroughfare and are quite visible to passing traffic, drive-bys aren t a pure form of traffic generation and will emanate from one or more of the other sources. For remodeling activities general living space or room-specific updates, safety renovations, or those focused on accommodating aging-in-place or special needs the list of potential lead sources is similar except that more health care related referrals are likely. Word-of-mouth ( WOM ) is particularly important as a generation source for remodeling activities as people seeking help ask for and receive recommendations of who to call or have their friends voluntarily share their experiences. They want to work with someone reputable so they seek information from people that have had good results already. Conventional marketing is passive The key fact about all of this marketing is that it is passive. 6 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
You as the builder, on-site salesperson, Realtor, contractor, handyman, occupational or physical therapist, interior designer, architect, or other solutionsminded professional are not directly connecting with your intended audience on a personal, intentional, one-on-one way. You have no way to control the outcome. While some people will respond to your marketing efforts, there is no way to know in advance how many, which specific ones will, when they will come, or from where. It s all up to them. The second important fact about conventional marketing is that everyone in your marketplace your competition has access to essentially the same tools. Not everyone will use all of the tools at any one time or use them in the same amount, but they are basically available to everyone. This is where self-generation of leads comes in. This is where the two main parameters associated with conventional marketing cease to be a factor. Self-generation of leads is different Generating your own leads differs from traditional or conventional marketing, advertising, and lead generation in two important ways. First, self-generation of leads is proactive. It is not passive. It is taking your message to your potential consumers and involving them in your sales process. Second, it gives you a distinct advantage over your competition because they don t know or have access to the same people you do, aren t likely to put in the same effort as you, and can t outspend you no matter how much they might like to. Also, self-generation of leads has two main components and two areas of focus within it. You can choose to concentrate on either one or both. 7 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
The first is working with people that you already know. This can include friends, family, acquaintances, former or current neighbors, classmates from school, professional contacts, merchants that you patronize, fellow club or association members, current or former customers, and anyone else in your circle of contacts. This would include anyone in your database. The second is meeting strangers and developing a relationship with them. It can be total strangers or people you are familiar with by sight but have never actually met. Just in our daily activities we have an opportunity to meet so many new people or re-engage purposefully with people that we might already know if we are open to meeting and engaging them and introducing ourselves or striking up a conversation. It all begins with the contact In generating your own leads, the first step is meeting someone or making them aware that you would like their help. The second step is learning if they have a need for a new home or for renovation services in an existing home they have. Then, whether they have a need personally for what you provide or not, you need to take it a step further and have them help you identify people that they know (even if you don t) who might be looking for a new home or someone to help them renovate their current living space. Asking for help isn t a one-time occurrence or conversation but one that can happen over and over providing that you have laid sufficient groundwork for this to happen and kept the line of communication open. When you approach someone on the street even if you have known them for years you can t just rely on people knowing about what you do or even that you 8 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
would like their help to become a customer themselves or introduce you to someone that they know. You must intentionally connect with them and engage them in a meaningful way to build a case for them wanting to work with you. It all begins with the contact whether it s someone you already know (and maybe you haven t seen or spoken with them for a while) or a total stranger. As a new home salesperson, making a presentation to an office full of Realtors or dropping off flyers is not the same thing as meeting individual Realtors one-on-one and asking for their help or learning about their needs or those of the people they represent. Just telling people at the barber shop or hair salon that you do remodeling in case anyone might be interested in having some work done is not enough. It puts too much responsibility on your friends and acquaintances for them to act to respond to your invitation. Being helpful to someone at the hardware store or home improvement center that is looking for a product or needs advice about what they are selecting doesn t mean that that person you are helping will make the connection that you can help them with their remodeling project. You have to be intentional. Being intentional doesn t mean that you have to be aggressive or that you can t be friendly. It doesn t mean that you have to close the sale at your initial conversation. All it means is that you have to be looking for opportunities to meet and engage people that can use what you (and your team many times) are offering. You have to be aware of people around you. You can t count on people helping you just because they know you or like you. They may not know what your needs are or that you even are seeking their help. In the 9 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
case of people you are just meeting, how can they know what you offer, how you can help them, or what you might want from them if you never mention it? Self-generation of leads makes the difference Self-generation of leads in an outreach program that you must intentionally decide to conduct whether it is done by mail, email, telephone, or in-person. It is personal and targeted. It requires a commitment but is so worthwhile. It does not happen by itself or by chance. It gives you control of your traffic. You can still accept people produced by conventional marketing, but don t rely on it. Consider it a bonus. Operate as if the only people you re going to get to make a presentation to are the ones that you generate for yourself. This will give you the motivation to get serious about meeting people, determining where any interest might lie in people you already know, and creating strategic alliances with professionals who can work with you or feed potential customers to you (and vice versa). Don t feel that you must go out and create a brand new set of people to use your product or service. The people who already have purchased from you know what it s like to work with you. They have developed a trust and a relationship with you. They likely know others in their family, neighbors, co-workers, associates, friends, and acquaintances that they will share with you. All you need to do is ask. There are so many people waiting for you to connect with them that you literally can do all of your future business from your own self-generated leads. I ve seen this done, and there s no reason you can t do this as well. Clearly, the way to take responsibility for the people that you get to business with in the future whether that s selling them a home or helping them to enjoy the 10 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker
home they already have by creating enhancements and modifications in those homes is by making it a point to engage the people you want to work with and then involving them in your sales process. Not everyone you know or meet along the way will be a candidate for doing business with you just as only a small portion of those generated by traditional marketing ever purchase form you but you will working with people who already have some relationship with you. Often, establishing this relationship is the most critical part of making a sales, and you will be working with people (whether they were part of your circle of contacts previously or not) that have a good feeling about you from the outset. Your competition likely is looking to capture the leads that rise to the top those that respond to traditional marketing and advertising. They won t much beyond this except for incidental referrals that may come their way. This is why you can be such a dynamic force in your marketplace to generate business for yourself and your company and provide solutions for your customers and clients at the same time. Generating your own customers given the alternative of just sitting by and waiting for them to find their way to you makes sense and is the way to sustain and grow your business. steve@stevehoffacker.com 561-685-5555 www.stevehoffacker.com 11 Whitepaper: If You Aren t Generating Your Own Leads Steve Hoffacker