Talking with builders and sales reps over the last 20 years
has given me some idea of what they think is needed for our industry to break
out of its 4% market share and start being a major player in new housing.
Here are the 6 suggestions they have for modular factories:
1. Join together to market our industry. There has
never been a successful unified effort by our industry leaders to promote
modular housing on a national basis. We then to leave it up to postings on
Facebook and Pinterest but that is not telling people the advantages of a
modular home over site building. That is just promoting your own brand. The
Building Systems Council of the NAHB is totally out of touch with today’s new
home buyer. The Modular Home Builders Association (MHBA) is trying but is still
in its infancy. The only two companies I see on Facebook trying to promote an
industry are Modular Home Erectors with pictures of modular houses they have
set and Blu Homes who is on every possible social media site in existence. My
suggestion would be to join forces through the MHBA and push to begin a
marketing program about modular homes. Why didn’t someone think of this before…..Duh!
2. Train the Sales Reps. I am always surprised; maybe I should know
better by now; that the turnover in sales reps is so high. They jump from
one factory to another and get frustrated by the lack of real attention given their
needs. One modular factory sent all their sales reps to a seminar about selling
new homes and the reps found themselves listening for 2 days about how to
generate sales for a mobile home dealer lots. Sales reps are eager to learn
about new ways to prospect, close sales, new products and procedures. It’s time
to can those awful “weekly sales meetings” and go for quarterly all
day training sessions. The rewards would far out weigh the expense.
3. Make it easier to communicate with the factory. Builders
have a three tier approach to communicating with the factory. First they
talk to their sales rep who then talks to the person at the factory that can
actually handle the request or problem but the last tier is the one that
frustrates builders. It always falls into the lap of of Ida Know. She
holds it in her” in” basket until the builder starts getting upset
and begins calling anyone and everyone at the factory. Soon the builder is
red flagged as a trouble maker and nobody wants to talk with them. A Customer
Service rep at the factory would make life a lot easier for everyone. Builders
would have someone to talk with and the Customer Service rep could be the hub
of centralized communications. This would not be a job for the new hire or
someone without knowledge of the entire process.
4. Builders want training programs. Just like the
sales reps, builders are desperately looking for new ways to market their
homes, get ideas about new products and even just sitting down with other
builders in discussion groups to brainstorm. Builders are like sponges and will
absorb a ton of information if it is presented in an informative way. One
factory I know of holds quarterly meetings with all their builders and the
rewards have been tremendous.
5. Builders want territories. Giving a builder a
specific area in which to sell homes has always been a tricky thing. One
factory decided to give each of their builders a number of counties and if the
factory got a lead in any of those counties it was given to that builder. If another
authorized factory builder got a lead in another builder’s area, they could
either build the house there and pay the other builder a $3,000 fee or turn the
lead over to the authorized builder and collect $3,000 after the house is
built. All the factory builders had gotten together and decided that this was a
fair arrangement.
6. A factory rep at every house set. Most builders
would like to have someone from the factory at the set. If the house has
problems caused by the factory or has parts missing, this would be the time for
acknowledgments, not days or months later. Factories could have a sales rep do
this or assign someone from the factory to be at the set. It would be
interesting if someone from management would visit one or two sets a year to see
how the product looks upon arrival. I guarantee that eyes would be opened.
These are just some of the changes I’ve heard over the
years. If you’ve got any others, just add them to the comments. A lot of
factory owners and management read this blog daily.
