The discussion about the sales process has historically focused on the interaction between the sales agent and prospects. I think a broader view has become necessary for Sellers to maximize their marketing ROI; wherein the Agents’ selling process is viewed as just one part of the organization’s total management system designed to achieve sales revenue objectives. When the organizational mindset shits to viewing all project activities as contributors to the ultimate sales success, a well designed and managed system, which I refer to as a Sales Performance System, is the most efficient path to optimum sales results. . The Sales Performance Systems concept establishes critical organizational infrastructure, processes, practices, and protocols to manage all internal and external communications that facilitates cross-discipline collaboration and incorporates ongoing prospective buyer feedback into the sales process. Sales Performance Systems are built on four fundamental practices.

1. Superior Agent Education. Today’s homebuyer expects sales representatives to be experts about the product, real estate, home financing, and the competitive market. To meet, and preferably exceed buyer expectations, Sales agents need a solid base of knowledge so they converse with clarity and confidence regarding all aspects necessary to lead a qualified prospect to the buying decision. Sales Performance Systems promotes educating the sales team with a comprehensive training curriculum of educational/training modules taught by an array of project experts such as the project visionary, project management team leaders, architect, interior designer and as many other team members that may be necessary When the agents a well-educated they will apply sales training from management and expert sales trainers in a manner that will establish their value in the eyes of prospects and empower them to lead prospects to a buying decision..

2. Communications Strategy and Process Management. Generally Seller’s have a well planned marketing strategy and budget that are thoroughly documented, but often lack the budget and detailed communication strategy and process designed to effectively manage the pool of prospects to achieve optimum conversion ratios Effective prospect management and follow have always been an important part of a professional sales system; however, the increase in marketing and communication channels due to the larger role of internet marketing and longer sales cycles, require that a larger share of the marketing budget be allocated to prospect management along with articulating a clear strategy and sales communications process in the marketing document.. Internet marketing is proven to be very cost effective as part of the advertising and promotional mix, but the increased speed and frequency digital communications of buyer communications Sales Performance Systems use a visual communications flow manager with protocols and practices that manage cross-team internal communications and maintains timely and relevant communications with each prospect

3. Advanced Sales Performance Metrics. Sales is still a numbers game, but the numbers have changed; enter the world of Key Performance Indicators. Many organizations tend to still evaluate performance based on sales. While sales are the ultimate objective, they are the end result (lagging indicator) of the successful completion of many sales activities. Identifying correlations between sales & marketing activities, as well as micro and macro market data, will reveal Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of future sales success. Furthermore, adopting KPIs to measure sales agent performance will keep the sales team more focused on important daily actions that contribute to sales provide the basis to help sales agents and sales managers more quickly make timely adjustments to improve performance.

4. Synthesize Information.  There seems to be no limit to consumer, management, and market information; the challenge is getting to information that is most relevant to the enterprise and using the information to improve sales performance.  The process of organizing, analyzing and presenting findings into terms that are easily understood by all sales and marketing stakeholders has been labeled Data Synthesis.  The process of data synthesizing data/information into knowledge to optimize sales performance requires identifying data sources, capturing data, and integrating multiple data sources into a single database.  Sales Performance Systems are designed integrate data sources and produce analysis that is distributed to the entire sales and marketing team to facilitate cross-team collaboration that result in highly effective, real-time, sales strategies and tactics.

Analysis of prospect data is key to creating follow-up strategies and tactics that maximize the return from each sales lead. 

Today, most prospective buyers begin their home search on the internet because it is the best portal for specific home, project, and general market information.  Use of the web to gather information and email to correspond with sales representatives have the added benefit to consumers of buffering direct contact with sales representatives.  Consumers are generally more comfortable working with a sales representative after they have decided they are interested in the project and are ready to seek more detailed information.  Sure, there are still spontaneous shoppers who drop-in to sales centers or call the sales center for information.  But, the trend is clear, most serious buyers are doing their research and comparing properties before they make direct contact with project sales representatives.  Recognition of this buyer trend requires that sales and marketing place a high importance on nurturing buyers through a series of strategic communications that establish value and develop buyer trust in the project and its sales representatives.

Data-mining and lead incubation are part science and part art.  Mining the database to identify potential qualified prospects that are systematically nurtured requires adherence to established protocols.  Data collection begins with tracking website browser activities of individual visitors and the aggregate of all visitors; time spent on the website, viewing specific pages, floor plans, amenities and any other measurable browser activities.   In addition, data can also be collected by tracking response patterns from registered prospects to broadcast database communications.  Tracking response patterns can identify the information or promotional messages that are most effective.  Finally, more detailed and personal data is collected through the sales team’s correspondence with prospects via email, phone or site visits.  The aggregation of all data sources and continual analysis, which is translated into user friendly reports, will lead to new insights into prospect tendencies that become catalysts to creative thought and more relevant prospect communications.

Often the art of sales is thought of as an individual sales person interacting with and influencing another person.  The art of nurturing buyers (lead incubation) is the collaborative effort of the development team, sales, and marketing influencing many prospects with a multi-dimensional communications strategy.  Prospects receive messages from different team members in various formats.  The array of different forms of buyer communication must be timely, relevant, and meaningful to prospective buyers to be effective.

Lead nurturing begins on the website.  The marketing message must resonate with prospective buyers and the quality of content needs to reward them for the time spent on the website; when both of these objectives are accomplished the process of establishing value and credibility has begun.  Periodic updates to the website, broadcast email (HTML) to targeted registrant segments, and special events are a few tactical methods that continue the nurturing of process.  The objective of each broad based tactic should always be designed to prompt a prospect inquiry to the sales team and thereby provide another opportunity to move a prospect through the sales process.  In addition to communications that emanate from the marketing team, the site sales representatives also systematically communicate with prospects through personalized email, phone calls, and various outreach activities.  The opportunity to convert prospect interest to sales is optimized when all channels of buyer communications are managed through a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM).

CRM can be defined as a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationship with customers including capture, storage and analysis of customer information.  CRM systems used in residential project marketing are either individual software installations with synchronizing capabilities or a web-application, the latter of which is broadly considered the preferred technology solution.  Like any technology used to support the project, it is important that the CRM solution fit the project requirements, which requires that a person highly experienced with CRM implementation be the lead in the identification of the CRM solution.

The project team will rely on data collected in the CRM system, but the sales team will be responsible to enter most of the data and will be the heaviest users of the application.  It is therefore very important that the entire sales team is properly trained and receive ongoing support during the initial learning curve.  The sales team will also need hands-on guidance and oversight to ensure that CRM is used to its full potential and that data entry consistently follows protocol. 

Mining the project registrant database and the lead incubation process require a well-planned communications strategy that is effectively implemented.  The developer will realize the maximum return on the dollars spent to create awareness and generate interest in the project by allocating sales and marketing time and resources to the nurturing of leads into qualified prospects.  Following a program to optimize every lead to its highest potential will result in achieving maximum sales velocity with the lowest possible promotional costs.

The project’s sales and marketing functions are either in-house, outsourced or a blend of the two solutions. The in-house solution gives the developer total control of marketing and sales, but requires a fixed cost commitment for upper-level management, supporting personnel, and overhead.  Also, the developer may benefit legally by funneling sales through an independent real estate broker, thus placing the Broker between the Developer and the Buyer.  The trend over recent years is to either outsource all sales and marketing management or selectively outsource to compliment and support in-house sales and marketing resources.

The project management team’s bandwidth can be stretched thin at various times throughout the lifespan of the project or the team may lack expertise in some aspect(s) of sales and marketing management.   Contracting with an independent sales and marketing executive is a cost effect option to assist in-house management during periods of peak demand and add expertise where needed.  This added support may be what is necessary to ensure that all sales and marketing elements consistently operate at optimum levels.  For example, if the in-house management team is running multiple projects, they may need support during the time intensive first sales release.  The independent sales and marketing executive could be effectively used to establish the sales team’s product training curriculum and conduct “sales drills” to prepare the sales team to be at peak performance with their very first live sales presentation.  There are a number of high demand periods through the sales and marketing phases of a project when additional executive level expertise is temporarily needed. Contracting the services of an experienced independent sales and marketing executive keeps fixed personnel costs down with the ability to add management on an as needed basis. 

 In addition to expanding sales and marketing management bandwidth, the in-house team may need outside expertise for technical and specialized components of sales and marketing management.  The components may be primary market research, project comparable analysis, data-mining and lead incubation, or developing sales scripts based on consumer behavior and preferences.  To illustrate one application, let us examine data mining and lead incubation.  While sales and marketing managers are likely to be conversant in these disciplines, they may not be expert in the process of mining data and implementing lead incubation systems.  The continual advancement of data collection methods and the application of analytical tools required to help the sales team fully leverage the data into timely and relevant prospect communications requires specialized expertise.  As marketing strategies become more sophisticated there is a growing need for higher levels of expertise in all the components of the sales and marketing process.  Incorporating the services of an independent sales and marketing executive will increase in-house management bandwidth and add expertise where needed.  The independent sales and marketing executive may also be a valuable resource to review project sales performance and provide useful insights and recommendations to the development team.

An independent review of sales and marketing strategies, tactics, budgets, and related management practices can be helpful to ensure that vendor services align with the development team’s goals and objectives as well as identify potential performance gaps or areas for improvement within the overall development team.  Throughout the course of a project the periods of heavy time demands on core team members require that management focus on priority projects and tasks, which may result in delays for other projects and tasks.   The non-bias nature of the independent sales and marketing review will provide a fresh perspective and identify “slippage” and performance gaps.  Properly administered, the reviewer provides positive feedback and collaborates with in-house and vendor personnel to improve performance.  The independent reviewer is only affective when viewed as an asset by all stakeholders.  Incorporating independent review of sales and marketing performance is likely to pay financial dividends through improved productivity and cost management.

In summary, whether the independent sales and marketing executive is used to expand human resource bandwidth, perform specialized management functions, or provide general management oversight, when and how to incorporate these services is determined by the project phase; experience levels and bandwidth of the developer’s project management team; and the scope of services provided by the sales and marketing vendors.  The ever changing marketplace for new residential development often requires innovation and new solutions that adapt to market conditions and the needs of the development team; using the services of an independent sales and marketing executive as needed is solution that fits today’s market conditions.

The value of project market analysis is dependent on the scope and quality of data collected and the analytics used to translate data into useful applications.  The project market analysis utilizes a broad array of data sources that include primary and secondary, quantitative and qualitative research methods.  The overall project market analysis should be designed to evaluate the five core components of every project: Product, Price, Position, Promotion, and People.

When evaluating the competitive price position of the project it is necessary to weight raw price data with construction, design, and location factors.  The more detailed the data the more accurate the price analysis.  The product data breakdown typically should include the interior and exterior materials by type and dimension; appliances and fixtures by brand and specifications; ceiling heights; window systems; HVAC systems; and every other project component relevant to cost and quality.  When formatted in side-by-side view, the data provide a basis to compare each building component with market comparables and lay the framework for an array of design, product, and pricing decisions.  In addition, the project comparables analysis is a valuable tool to train the sales team to effectively communicate the project’s attributes and key points of differentiation through sales scripts and presentations.

The strength of the project’s market position is determined by the overall design, price and features as well as consumer perceptions developed by the project’s brand and messaging.  Collaboration of the development team with sales and marketing early in the planning and design phase is an excellent method to help align the project’s position in the marketplace with consumer demand. The insights gained from sales and marketing will add valuable input for planning decisions; among them creating project differentiation and evaluating the likely impact of value engineering on buyer demand.  While product design and price are core structural factors in determining the project’s position in the marketplace, the marketing brand, advertising, promotions and all forms of communications shape the project’s position in the minds of consumers and real estate agents.

Advertising media selection and overall promotion of projects are going through significant transformation.  As newspapers’ revenue decline and the value of their content diminish, marketers and developers are seeking alternative promotional channels and tactics.  The use of the internet by consumers is quickly becoming the preferred method buyers use to begin their search for a home.  This is not to say that a project can be promoted exclusively via the internet.  Other media and promotion such as specialized publications, direct mail, networking through real estate agents and other established channels should still be part of the marketing mix.  However, creative channels such as social media, networking through social and business spheres of influencers, segmented direct mail, and intensive data-mining are among marketing methods that are becoming more prominent in the marketing strategy.  In addition to seeking more effective promotional channels, the development team is placing greater importance on the correlation between promotional initiatives and their measurable return on investment.

The final piece of the project’s competitive position is the performance of all the people representing  the project.  How does the development team stack up against the competition; what about customer service; marketing, construction management, and the front line sales representatives?  Major projects require competency at all levels.  It is critical that the development team select the best available vendors and allow each vendor to perform at their highest level.  Of course, the site sales team must meet the highest standards of excellence since they are the most visible to the public and the real estate broker community.  Site sales professionals must be able to clearly and accurately communicate all attributes of the project, build trust and rapport with prospects, and present themselves in a manner that compliments the project and creates a positive experience with every consumer and real estate agent contact.

When the development team begins the project on the right foot with a detailed and accurate market perspective based on solid research, and keeps the data current throughout the project sellout, the project has the best chance of a successful launch and the ability to make strategic and tactical adjustments as needed based on changes in the marketplace.

Far too many condominium projects rely on the initial sales launch to find the delta between price and sales velocity.  Unfortunately this approach can result in a significant loss of sales revenue as a result of pricing the initial release of units too low.  Applying proven test marketing utilizing a multi-faceted price model will provide the development team necessary feedback to achieve optimum sales prices starting with the very first sale.  Continual competitive market analysis and internal analytics that proactively spots buyer tendencies are the basis of price monitoring and strategic upward price adjustments.

The competitive market analysis is the foundation to establish project pricing.  (The best practices to develop the competitive market analysis are described in another post.)  Comprehensive data from the competitive market analysis is incorporated into initial pricing exercises to establish baseline parameters for price per square foot; price point thresholds; assigning value to various attributes, like view or large decks; identifying specific comparables for a cross-section of the project’s units; and creating spatial arrays and regression analysis.

The data gathering process above works when true product comparables are available, but when the project does not have comparables other methods are required to build parameters for the project in addition to limited data collected from various comparable sources.  When the developer is introducing a new product category to the market or an established category that does not have comparables within its geographic market, methods of primary research are recommended in conjunction with extrapolation of available data weighted to the new product offering.

Once the market data is collected and organized it is used as the initial baseline in the comprehensive pricing model Workbook.  When properly designed the pricing model workbook is the best method for all stakeholders participating in the pricing exercises to identify how the preliminary price for each unit is established.  Too often the process of establishing a price for each unit may be in the minds of one or two principal people, which diminishes the ability of other key project stakeholders to offer valuable input, plus normally  those who priced the units can’t offer supporting documentation to support their price recommendations.  The pricing model is driven by a number of quantifiable data fields such as base price per square foot with value adjustments calculated on all attributes of each unit such as view, floor, ceiling height, orientation, plan desirability, and others deemed relevant to each specific project.  When all key pricing stakeholders can literally see every element that affects the price of a unit, including market comparables, the entire team is empowered to optimize unit prices from the very first sale.

A well constructed pricing model is also key to making real-time price adjustments throughout the sales life of the project.  The pricing model will organize information for units sold and available units.  Breaking out data into a number of comparative tables tracking sales values by unit type, floorplan, floor level, orientation, view and other pre-determined unit attributes.  With the data organized in real-time the primary managers can more readily identify where price adjustments can be made to achieve sales velocity and profitability objectives.  Quickly identifying trends such as unit scarcity or lack of activity can translate into optimizing prices for remaining units or collaborating with the marketing team to stimulate sales in underperforming units.  The pricing model holds the keys to launching at optimum price points and achieving project proforma sales objectives.

Developers tend to implement market research during various phases of a real estate development.  Secondary research, the collection and analysis of available data, is typically a significant component of the feasibility study.  Continually updating secondary data through the sales phase helps the development team keep current with changes in market conditions.  Available data can be adequate to establish a general market perspective; however, primary research methodologies such as interviews with consumers and real estate agents, focus groups, and surveys are often required to more accurately access the validity of project assumptions.  Architectural design, unit mix, common area space allocation, amenities, and price represent some of the project categories that can be tested with primary research to ensure that the project is properly positioned to capture market share.

Market research can be very cost effective when integrated into the overall sales and marketing plans.  For example, web registrants generated during the pre-launch awareness campaign can be used as the research sample; this is a simple method to leverage the advertising budget to support research.  Also, marketing initiatives such as promotional events and outreach to real estate agents can be excellent opportunities to include market research.  Incorporating research as a component of overall project marketing and promotion effectively lowers research costs through leveraging promotional and advertising expenditures.  In addition, the growth of web survey applications significantly reduces traditional data collection costs.

Web survey applications include functionality to administer simple surveys or advanced question sequencing required to support complex conjoint analysis.   Web survey applications also include built-in reporting features that automatically produce tables, charts, and graphs.  Once the survey goals and objectives are clearly defined and the questionnaire written, the survey can normally be launched within a week.  In addition to larger scale periodic surveys, short web surveys are ideal to include as a regular feature on the project website.  This form of continual collection of market input keeps the pulse of buyers; provides dynamic consumer input on product and marketing questions throughout the project; and, when survey questions are of interest to buyers, publishing survey results will encourage repeat buyer visits to the website.  While quantitative data supports statistical analysis to identify preferences, tolerances, trends from data sets, conducting qualitative research adds the human connection to data.

Qualitative research methodologies are especially effective tools to understand consumer perceptions and gain subjective insights.  Many researchers prefer to implement qualitative research prior to quantitative as a means to write the survey questionnaire.  Alternatively, adding qualitative methodologies after a quantitative study can add clarity to the data analysis.  As with all forms of research, qualitative participants must be carefully screened to ensure that their comments are representative of the demographic and psychographic buyer profiles.  Qualitative research can also be cost effective by pulling participants from the prospect database and tapping into knowledgeable real estate agents.  Formal focus groups conducted by a moderator and observed by clients behind a two mirror are often the method people associate with qualitative research.  The formal approach may be merited; however, other qualitative methods such as more casual one-on-one encounters, conversations with small groups, or focus groups with direct interaction between the client and respondents are very effective methods.   Face-to-face interaction between research participants and the development team can establish greater empathy with prospective buyers and be a catalyst for insights that may not have been as apparent when viewed behind the two-way mirror or on video.

Research, when properly designed and implemented, will improve the knowledge base  of the entire development team throughout the feasibility, design, and sales phases of the project.  Incorporating secondary and primary research into the overall marketing plan, leveraging the advertising and promotional expenditures, and using cost effective web-base survey tools makes research more affordable and thereby better utilized to ensure the sales success of the project.

The sales script is a strategically planned sales approach that is applied to all aspects of the site sales team’s correspondence from email to the sales center presentation.  The concept of the script is to ensure that the highest quality sales messages are consistently communicated to prospects in a manner that is highly personalized and leverages the personality traits of each sales representative.  While sales representatives will naturally personalize scripts, it is important that sales management continually works with the site sales team to keep their presentations timely, fresh, relevant, and on message.

The concept of following sales scripts is not new in the field of residential project sales.  Since the inception of new construction site sales methods, the planned presentation has been a fundamental precept.  Sales trainers have routinely taught site sales representatives how to use specific key phrases; even demonstrating intonation and body language.  The sales stories and examples of scripted presentations taught by top trainers are reinforced with methods such as sales representatives writing their scripted presentations in workbooks and role-playing sales exercises to help polish their presentations.

Every “touch” the site sales team has with a prospect must have an objective and accurately represent the project.  Starting with the very first email reply and phone greeting, the sales team’s communications will either reinforce and enhance the prospect’s impression of the project established by the marketing message or potentially lessen the prospect’s interest.  A well planned and effectively communicated script is important for the site sales team to establish a positive first step in the sales process.

The sales team’s initial communication objectives with prospects are to establish rapport, learn more about the prospect, reinforce the attributes of the project, and motivate the prospect to visit the sales center.  These objectives are actually basic to successful selling, yet far too often the sales team’s communications may stray from these primary objectives.  The sales script is an aide that helps sales representatives maintain focus and achieve their primary sales objectives.  A high quality sales script also helps elevate prospect’s perception of sales representatives by demonstrating a high level of professionalism and knowledge of the market and the project offering.   When the sales team establishes their value to the prospect they take an important step in building a relationship, which then nurtured over time with well-planned communications that are highly personalized to appeal to the prospects motivations and needs will positively impact sales performance.

The most effective method to develop sales scripts is through a collaborative process that includes site sales representatives, sales management, marketing, and the development team. Analysis and reports derived from primary and secondary market research; registrant responses in the project database; and website data collection improve the team’s understanding of consumer behavior and buying preferences, which in turn stimulates the collaborative process.  The result of data analysis and the team’s collaborative creativity will produced sales scripts that feel authentic and relate to consumers.  This process requires a team leader conversant in analytics and the creative process to guide group collaboration to establish a strategic sales strategy, tactics, and scripts that are aligned with consumer demand and meet prospect expectations.   

Scripted email and voice communication to prospects over time play an important role in nurturing initial prospect inquiries to an eventual visit to the sales center.  The prospect’s experience with their first visit may be the catalyst that ultimately results in a decision to buy, therefore the entire site sales team must always be at the ready to flip the switch to their “showtime” personas when a guest arrives.  Every element of the guest’s experience in the sales center needs to follow a plan and script starting with the visual impact in the arrival area and a warm greeting through the entire sales presentation.  The sales presentation is most effective when the sales representative’s script feels fresh and is interactive; transforming from a presentation into a dialogue.  Skilled site sales professionals naturally use closing techniques throughout their presentation; however, brining the prospect to the point of sale will normally require post-visit follow-up and repeat visits to the sales center.

Personalized correspondence from site sales representatives to each prospect with periodic targeted HTML messages, special events and other creative methods to maintain meaningful engagement with prospects are examples of effective post site visit follow up tactics.   Follow-up requires a strategic plan to ensure that the messages and follow-up tactics are positively perceived and valued by prospects.  Far too often follow-up methods do not recognize the importance of being timely and relevant to the prospect; the old “touching bases” form of follow-up is not valued by prospects and eventually leads to less engagement and the prospect’s loss of interest.

All communications with prospective buyers from the advertising message to site sales presentation form impressions in the mind of prospects about the value of the project, the reliability of the developer, quality of the product, and how their lives will improve if they purchase at home at the project.  Team collaboration to create scripts designed to optimize the value of all the project’s attributes and the collective discipline to adhere to and continue to refine scripts are the best assurance to maximize the return on marketing expenditures.