From Mike Blake, The Mike Blake Group
We know that nearly every home buyer is using the Internet in their buying process and in 2013, “best in class” builder organizations will attribute 25-30% of their net sales to direct Internet leads.
Best-in class performers realize that to be successful requires a paradigm shift. Previously, the purpose of building organization marketing departments was to drive leads to model sales centers.
This made sense because builders controlled the information prospects needed to buy a home, which also allowed salespeople to maintain control of the sales process. The basic paradigm was “I’ll give you the home information you need in exchange for your buying criteria”.
Today’s best-in class builders realize that they no longer have exclusive control of the information. In fact, almost all information like, community, school, tax, planning and zoning, home design, home features, etc. is now easily accessible on the Internet.
This shift in information control gives prospects greater control of the sales process. Potential homebuyers are exercising that control by moving further down the buying cycle before ever reaching out and contacting an onsite salesperson. As a consequence, salespeople are left in the dark many times up until the point the prospect is ready to purchase. The end result is on-site salespeople have less leverage to obtain the buying criteria and are in a weakened position to negotiate a purchase.
Best-in class builders now realize that in order to regain influence they need to reach prospective customers earlier in the buying process, while they are still in the “research” phase of the buying cycle.
They are quickly learning that to be successful requires becoming as “prospect focused” as they are “customer focused”. Best-in class builders understand that Internet leads regardless of the source are the lifeblood of the company.
These builders soon recognize that onsite salespeople are not the best suited to manage Internet leads. They rightly have come to the conclusion that the face-to-face selling process is significantly different from the process required to convert Internet leads. In essence, it is a difference in mentality. On-site sales people are “hunters” versus online sales people are “farmers”.
In conclusion, to be one of the best at converting Internet leads, become hyper prospect focused and hire dedicated and highly trained Internet sales staff. Lastly, develop efficient processes to effectively perform these four basic functions; lead generation, lead capture, lead dialogue and lead management.
To hear more from Mike about managing Internet leads, join him for a webinar on March 28th. Click here to register.
Mike Blake
The Mike Blake Group
“Inspiring Top Performers”
mikeblake@ultimatesalesdriver.com