Are you starting to notice finding and closing high-quality home building and remodeling leads is getting more and more difficult? If so, you’re not alone.

In this multi-part series called, Why Builders Lose Sales, we take a deep dive into why home builders and remodelers are losing sales and most importantly, how they can adjust their marketing efforts to start converting more opportunities into Leads.

Learn and close more deals by reading/watching/listening to this episode!

Builder Lead Converter captures & converts leads for home builders & remodelers so they can grow sales revenue and margins. Find out how at https://www.builderleadconverter.com

 

Transcript:

Rick:  Today at Conversations That Convert, we will be talking about why builders lose sales and what you can do about it. Specifically, this will be part one and we’ll get into marketing and why you might be losing, losing sales, and not even knowing about it. Let’s get started.

Welcome to Conversations That Convert. Every week, we’ll spend about 10 to 15 minutes tackling relevant lead generation, marketing, and sales topics for remodelers, home improvement companies, and home builders. Conversations That Convert is brought to you by Builder lead Converter, your perfect sales assistant. And now here’s Rick and Daiana. 

Rick: Hey everyone. Welcome to Conversations that Converts. Hi Daiana, how are you? 

Daiana: Hi, I am doing great. Welcome everybody. Looking forward to our conversation. 

Rick: Absolutely. I am too. And this is an exciting topic. This is a subject that is near and dear to my heart, but what are we gonna talk about today, Daiana?

Daiana: So today is part one and we hope it’s a conversation that converts and why builders lose sales to competitors and what they can do about it. So this is part one. So we start a new series and this is all about marketing and we do hope that this conversation will convert into many, many sales.

Rick: Absolutely. And the series is called Why Builders Lose Sales. There’ll be five parts to It. Part one is marketing. We’re gonna walk through the entire sales cycle from cradle to grave and we’ll be looking at where are those Achilles heels. Where are those weak spots? Where, where a builder will lose a sale? And today we are gonna get into a lot of consumer behavior as it relates to online shopping. And probably give you, some statistics and some thoughts that a lot of you have never thought about. So I’m excited, to jump into this. What do you think, Daiana? Should we get going? 

Daiana: Yes. I, I’m, I’m so excited and, to see why builders really lose sales. And can you lose sell, a sale without knowing? 

Rick: I think so. In fact, let’s start this with a question. So I’ll, I’ll ask this to, I’ll ask this to you. So do new homes and remodeling leads shop by process of inclusion or do they shop by process of exclusion? In other words, are they trying to add you to their list of builders to consider? Or are they trying to cross you off their list? What do you think, Daiana? 

Daiana: So looking at my behaviors, I noticed that I exclude everything. And then the one that will stay there, that’s the winner. 

Rick: That’s right. And that’s exactly how new homes and remodeling leads shop as well. When they visit your website, they are looking for reasons to cross you off their list, not add you to it, but cross you off. And so it’s very, very important that you understand. You understand what content they are looking for on your website. Because if they don’t find it or if they find the wrong content, they will cross you off the list. And this is what we call an opportunity leak. So every day, your website, your social media platforms, your online ads.

You have eyes on them, those are opportunities. A certain percentage of those opportunities will convert into a lead. But, if we do things right, we can get, say anywhere from three to probably 8% of those unique sets of eyes to convert into a lead. If we do things wrong, it’s seen a lot of billers where it’s less than 1%. So we’re gonna talk today about what you need to do from a content standpoint, to convert that opportunity into a lead. And the important thing to start out with, with is putting your, putting, yourself in the shoes of your lead. In other words, if you are a leader and I’m going, coming to visit your own website, do you know what they’re looking for?

And I say there are always three questions that every leader has. The first question is if they want to know what will my project look like. So that’s their product and that relates specifically to design. The second question is, are they wanna know how much it will cost? And then the third question is, where can I build it if it’s a new home, or do you remodel homes in my area? They’re trying to self-qualify themselves. So product, price, and place. Any thoughts? Daiana? 

Daiana: Yeah. So I like it’s a P P P, right? 

Rick: P P P.

Daiana: Product, Price and, and, and Place. Yeah. So they need to see it. So they visualize the project. Of course, they need to budget it so they ask about money and, and where. So they want to see the visual from the beginning till the end and everything that’s involved. And I think those are the three most important pieces, to take into consideration.

Rick: And it’s, it’s also important to note that everything else on your website that does not relate to one of these three questions gets in the way. 

Daiana: Yeah. 

Rick: So you can have too much as I said, the wrong type of content. If they can’t find the answers to these real quick, they, you, will lose them. So here’s the next question for you. How long do you have? How long do you have? Where that consumer will make a decision to include or exclude you. So, you land on the website, how long do you think you have before your thing? You know what? I’m gonna exclude them and cross ’em off. 

Daiana: I think less than a minute or so.

Rick: That’s 19 seconds. 

Daiana: 19. 1 minute and a half.

Rick: Yeah. 19 seconds. No, not even half a minute. 19. 

Daiana: 19 seconds. 

Rick: 19 seconds. So when, when that person lands on your website, you have 19 seconds to grab their attention and pull them in. If they do not find what they’re looking for in 19 seconds, they’re gone. You’ve lost them. You’ve, you’ve, you’ve lost that sale. So the other thing to do, it’s important to understand is 70 to 90% of the buyer’s journey is complete prior to them engaging you. So before they ever fill out a form, pick up the phone and call you, walk into your office or your model home, 70 to 90% of the buyer’s journey is complete just by what they will find online for you, and not just from your website, but also your social media and also some third party sites. So what do you say? Do we walk through the different types of online content that will influence your leads? 

Daiana: Some, some, sounds great. 

Rick: Okay.

Daiana: Let’s go and get started. 

Rick: Let’s move on. All right, so there are three types of online content that will influence your leads. There’s expert content branded and user-generated content. Each one will impact the lead on different parts of the buying process. So the first one we’ll start with is expert. So expert content is really critical at the beginning of the research phase.

And let me give you, a definition of expert content. It’s third-party content that the lead has defined as credible. So in our industry, this will relate to number one case studies. Video testimonials of your clients as well as any third-party articles or public relations. So getting local media to do articles on your business is critical to taking that opportunity and catching them at, the, first part.

So that’s very, very critical. And of course, from a search engine optimization standpoint, when that article is on a different website with a backlink to your website, oftentimes they’ll start there. And then come back to your website. So case studies are those of clients for projects you have completed. So that’s just where you imagine that you complete a project.

You hire a local professional, like say media organization produce a press piece. In other words, like a public relations piece. Well, that, that your client is, is, is interviewed and they run through their journey. That’s the case study.

So why did I wanna remodel or build a home? Why did I pick this particular builder, this particular design, these particular products, the selection, and so on and so forth? What was the production part like and what are the end results, you know? How has life changed since you moved in or had your project completed? That’s really, really important stuff. And, and, and it’s, it’s low-hanging fruit as far as I’m concerned. We’ve talked about case studies a lot, very few builders, if any utilize this and it’s the most important tool for getting your lead, to opt-in and start that relationship with you. All right. And your thoughts there, Daiana? On expert contact 

Daiana: Case study, testimonials, and just links and local media. So pr, so everything is important to just be there and be confirmed by a third party officially. 

Rick: Exactly, yep. It is that third-party content that’s really, really important. So next is branding content. So after the expert content attracts the lead, keeps ’em there, now they’re gonna move into your branding content. And that takes over when that initial trust and value have been established. So, branding content, this can, this is really produced by you and or your employees, excuse me, on your website, it is your available homes.

It is your design library. It is your projects page. If you are, a remodeler, it’s your photo gallery. It is your location or service area where you either build in, control land or lots as well as if you’re a remodeler, where you will serve. So that, that lead can self-qualify. So branded content is something that they, they, they trust you already and they understand that you’re producing the content. And, but they, they’re okay with that because they like what they’ve seen so far. Any thoughts, Daiana? 

Daiana: So first you establish value, then you continue to build on that value with and share your experience, picture, and projects so they can see the proof, of your expertise. And then probably you move into the third part.

Rick: Exactly. And, one of the things, another worrying way of saying the proof is believability. 

Daiana: Yeah. 

Rick: So if you, if if you look at it this way, it, everybody likes to see that you have done something that is above what they’re thinking. So as an example, let’s just say your budget is a hundred thousand dollars. If you’re only showing branded content that shows 50 and $75,000 projects, they question whether you could do a hundred thousand dollars project. However, if you are showing pro a hundred thousand dollars projects and my budget is 50, now, I believe you could do a $50,000 project because you’ve done a hundred thousand dollars project.

Daiana: Right.

Rick: So you know, it’s always down selling. We have to be careful though. We don’t always just wanna show very, very high-end projects. We wanna show all three levels of our branded content. So branded content should include your entry-level projects. It should include your mid-range projects and also your high-end projects. You wanna, want to show all three so you don’t exclude anybody by mistake and lose an opportunity. Does that make sense?

Daiana: Yes, that makes perfect sense. So just include everybody. So here we include things and then we ex and the client will exclude us or not.

Rick: Exactly. And we can go ahead. Once we go through the capturing process, we can go ahead and we can exclude people that truly are not a good fit for us. But on the website, we want to specifically just show a wide variety, our full breadth of offerings. So next, and what we call our third type of content is user-generated reviews. And what this does is it helps seal the deal and captures that opportunity. So user-generated reviews such as Google, and Facebook, are the big three for our industry.

There are other platforms where you can get reviews, but you want to be able to show these on your website. Because what this does is build enough confidence that your opportunity will take the next step to become a lead. So that’s where they go through the just visiting to capture, and then you can start your conversion process from there. User-generated reviews. It’s, it’s okay if you don’t have all five-star glare glowing reviews on your site.

You could have some four-star reviews, and you might even have three-star reviews. But at this point, it’s good to make sure that you are, If, if possible, you are responding to all your reviews, even if it’s a five-star or four-star, or three-star. And if somebody has a problem with you, oftentimes it’s actually not a bad idea to show that review that, hey, this person was not happy, and how you responded to it. That can be very, very important because people do question. If they come to a website and they see 40 reviews on there, and they’re all five stars, there’s nothing below five stars. So they kind of, start to question like, are these legitimate reviews? So you wanna make sure these look as organic as possible? Any final thoughts from you, Daiana? 

Daiana: I’m taking notes. I just, that’s very interesting. So if you have all those things on your website, then you can build trust and the client can, can buy easily from you. 

Rick: Yeah, that’s right. As I said, 70 to 90% of the journey will start just with the content you have on your website.

Daiana: Yeah. 

Rick: So when you, that opportunity does say, do say, okay, Daiana, I’m ready to talk. And they opt-in. So that opt-in can look like filling out a form. We use different tools on our, on our for our client’s websites to just engage them. One of the things we’ve found is that you don’t wanna just have like a static form, but you want to have tools they can use, like something where they can ask a question and get a response right away. Something where we have a scoping tool where they can start scoping out their project, but that engagement, that back and forth is really, is really important.

Then, the user-generated reviews are really the last thing that they will use to say, yes, I’m gonna take this next step. Sometimes they’ll call you. Sometimes maybe they’ll visit a model home, but most of the time it’s gonna be some sort of a form or tool that they will start filling out on the website. So the bottom line is we attract leads to your website by offering the content they are looking for. Remember, there are 19 seconds of what we to get them to avoid crossing us off the list. So we answered three questions.

What can my project look like? That’s their product. How much will it cost or the price and where can I build it? Or do you, do you remodel homes in my service area? So that’s the place. So product, price, and place, all content should be revolving around that. Any other content that you have on your site that does not answer those questions? Simply gets in the way. Is it still good to have other content such as about us or a blog? Of course, there is, but you do not want it to get in the way of being able to find this content very quickly cuz you just have really, that’s those 20 seconds to get their attention. And if you don’t, you’re gonna lose them and you’ve lost that sale. 

Daiana: So that’s how we, we can lose the sale. Right. Just not having that information on the website.

Rick: Absolutely. 

Daiana: Yeah.

Rick: Absolutely. 

Daiana: That’s very powerful actually, and very succinct, and it seems that it’s a clear structure and all you have to do is just to fill in the blanks. 

Rick: Absolutely. Yep. So if you would like to know more about this attracting and capturing and converting leads, go ahead and schedule a strategy call today. We’ll show you how we do it, attracting, capturing, and converting leads for our builders. And so you can pick and choose your clients and jobs as simple as that. So thank you very much for joining us today on Conversations That Convert, and for my brothers and sisters in Christ, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Always. We will see you next time. Bye-bye everyone.