Did you hear the one about the site builder that wanted to
go modular? He ordered a house from a factory, lost his shirt and never built
another modular home.
That is what happens to a vast majority of site builders
that want to try modular. Here is a very typical scenario of what happens when
he/she decides to go the modular route.
For arguments sake, let’s assume that a factory rep
contacted the builder and set up an appointment to talk about buying modular
homes. When the rep sits down and talks about the advantages of modular, he/she
will always say that modular homes cost less and that the builder can make more
money. They may also mention that the home has about 20% more material and goes
together in a day. I’ve heard many sales reps say that the home is only on the
production line for about a week and that everyone working on it are highly skilled
professionals.
Then the rep invites the builder for a factory tour and
shortly afterwards ships a designer package to the builder which may include
samples of flooring, siding and trim along with all the brochures they can find
laying around the factory’s sample room and a handful of house plan books.
Usually at this point the rep declares it a win for the home team and sits back
and waits for the builder to send over some quotes and order their first home.
After a few weeks, the factory’s Sales Manager calls the rep
into his office and asks why the new builder hasn’t sent anything over to quote
or worse, hasn’t ordered anything. The rep calls the builder and finds out that
they currently have only one prospect and not ready to send anything over to
have quoted.
The rep reports back that the builder is close to ordering
their first home and the Sales Manager gets off the rep’s back; at least for a
couple more weeks. The rep decides to never try prospecting site builders again
and sticks with working to switch established modular builders over to their
factory.
In some cases the site builder buys a home from the factory
and because of little or no help in understanding the basics of building a
modular home ends up losing money and swears to never build another modular
home as long as they live.
What should have happened is for the rep to have been
trained in what a “new to modular” builder should expect in what they will be receiving
from the factory, how to work with subs, how to market and sell modular homes
and how the service departments works to help them in case of a problem.
In too many cases, the rep is not prepared to do any more
that be a Vanna White and flip through possible solutions after the builder
makes a call and asks for help. In a lot of cases, the builder will begin to feel
a total disconnect with the factory.
And we wonder why site builders go back to making sawdust
instead of buying modular homes.
I’ve been asked numerous times what can be done about this
problem. Here are my suggestions:
- Develop
industry training courses for Sales Managers and reps to better prepare
them to understand the home builder. - Every “new
to modular” builder must attend an “industry sponsored” training program
where they will learn what is involved in building their first home. - Industry
training for the factory team to promote and develop marketing and
business plans for the builder.
We all ask who could do this for the factory and builder and
nobody seems to have an answer and more often than not, the factory folks don’t
want to spend any money to help themselves because of they are afraid that a
well trained staff and educated builders will jump from factory to factory.
I am issuing a challenge to every factory owner, GM, Sales
Manager, CEO, COO, CFO and sales rep to come up with suggestions that will
bring in a new wave of successful “new to modular” builder. Send them to me at [email protected] and
I will personally start putting together programs and people to get this
started.
Everyone says that modular is the future of homebuilding but
nobody at the factory level is preparing to see it become reality.
