I asked him to tell us a little bit about how it all works, and to answer some common questions he receives from others in the industry.

_________________________________________________________________________

Thanks Myers! I really can’t wait to see how this eBook will impact builders across the country – and I do hope you all will share your successes with me. Here are the answers to the most common questions I am asked about Presale Without Fail:

Q: My builder already creates a VIP list of people who are interested, how is this different?
A: It’s true that most builders today have VIP lists or waiting lists. That isn’t the challenge. Where most builders fail is that they don’t know what to do with that list to turn it into sales. What I outline is not just how to get more people on your list, but what to do with them at every step. The most common mistake I see is that they try to hold private VIP meetings with each prospect where the give them all the information up front and then people disappear… never to be heard from again.

Q: Isn’t your success going to be directly related to how much demand there is for your location?
A: The short answer is no. When I really knew that I had something that worked is when we had a new phase of an existing community about to open. The previous year we had only sold eight homes, and the new phase was the same product, at the same price point, and on the same size home sites. Using the Presale Without Fail process we sold eight homes on the first day the phase released.

Q: Do I have to be a large home builder to make this process work?
A: Not at all. Of course, a larger builder may have an easier time of the initial awareness of the project, but as a smaller builder you’ll be able to be more personal with every prospect. This book really levels the playing field and puts you back in control of your success, and not the current state of the market.

Q: Why are you giving this away for free if it is so valuable?
A: There are several reasons. The first is that I love to network with others in the industry and to learn from them what is working, and what isn’t. My hope is that this eBook opens new doors and new conversations that can lead to a true sharing of insights. I am not selling anything, and I am not looking to sell consulting and speaking services. The second reason is that it is my way of giving back to an industry that I love, and that has done so much for me and my family.

Presale Without Fail won’t be released until September 29th, but as a friend of Myers I’d like to offer you the opportunity to download it now. Just go to www.PreSaleWithoutFail.com and enter presale-myers as your pre-release code. By doing so, you will also be entered into a random drawing for one hour of Skype time with me to answer any questions you have about how to implement this with your builder!

I hope you enjoy the book, and I’d love to hear your experiences putting it into action!

- Kevin Oakley

If you are in competition with another builder who has a better home, but does minimal marketing, you will come out on top because the person with superior sales and marketing will always beat the person with a superior product.

Want proof? Think of all those infomercials. Remember the singing bass on the wall, the Pocket Fisherman and Ginsu Steak Knives? Were these the best products? Not by a long shot. But wait! There’s more! They did have one thing going for them – a great sales and marketing campaign.

I’m not suggesting that you don’t offer small incentives and promotions as a form of strategy. What I am suggesting is that, to improve sales, you don’t make promotions and pricing your major focus. Concentrate your efforts on selling solutions and marketing those solutions to buyers.

If you take a different approach, you may find that you won’t have to wait to get more.

“I know of at least a hundred ideas that will get buyers to come to my new homes,” Mr. Fox said.

“Really? How many have you tried?” Mrs. Cat asked.

“None yet,” Mr. Fox replied with a yawn. “They are all such great ideas, I’ve had a hard time deciding which one to do first.”

“Oh. Well, maybe you could share some of them with me. I’ve just started selling new homes and could use some help from a successful mentor,” Mrs. Cat told him.

“Yeah, well, maybe some day, when I have the time, I’ll share an idea or two,” he said. Just then they heard “You’ve got mail” on Mrs. Cat’s desktop computer. As she was printing out her e-mails, her cell phone rang. She hastily wrote down a name and appointment time, stuck her Bluetooth in her ear, grabbed her camera, briefcase, laptop, contracts and brochures. As she clicked off from talking to a potential buyer, she waved to Mr. Fox.

“Bye!” she yelled. “Since I’m not as clever as you, I have to go out and work this sales process I learned. It’s the only way I know to get buyers.”

Mr. Fox waved a weak goodbye. “Poor girl,” he said, shaking his head. “Why put yourself out there like that and risk rejection every day … day in … day out? And for what? They’re no qualified buyers, competition’s tough, builders are demanding. That’s not for me. I’ll wait right here. Buyers who are serious will come to me.”

So, Mr. Fox sat silently at his desk waiting for buyers and wondering which idea to pursue first. Before he could decide, however, poverty overtook him.

He tried to parlay his profession into a nightclub act, billing himself as Jed Foxworth and telling jokes like, “You know you’re a new home salesperson if you think Sherlock Holmes is a gated community in Florida.” However, no one understood his humor and the last time anyone saw Mr. Fox, he was wearing a trench-coat and selling knock-off Rolexes. Mrs. Cat, on the other hand, was still working the new-home sales process and could afford as many real Rolexes as she wanted.

The Moral: Learn a sales process, follow it and diligently pursue buyers instead of waiting for them to come to you. A single plan you work is better than a hundred ideas you don’t.

While you need the egg to house the chicken, it’s the chicken that’s walking around making noise and getting things done.

In home building, the chicken is the marketing end of your company. It’s the “meat,” the crucial part of the organization that brings in buyers for your “eggs.” You need both components to be successful.

Too many builders forget that. They build spec homes with the mindset that they will sell them at whatever cost. They think that their reputation … web site … or word-of-mouth advertising … will bring in enough buyers. It won’t.

Instead of beefing up their sales and marketing and holding the line on pricing, they end up with a community full of unsold houses. Or they sell the homes, but don’t generate a profit. What good is that?

Building and selling a lot of homes doesn’t make some builders more successful than others. It just means they hammered more nails…nails that could be holding down profitability.

Keep your focus. Remember, you have two sides to your business. Neglect the chicken, and you could end up laying an egg.

Let me ask you this: Which builder is better off … one who sold 500 houses in one year and broke even … or a builder who sold 50 houses in a year, but made a healthy profit? It’s possible to be the top builder in your region or in the nation and be teetering on receivership. It’s also possible to be the 50th builder in number of homes sold, but first in profitability.

Winning the title without showing any profit is like running a race without a finish line. There is no closure. You just keep going and going … discounting … offering incentives … negotiating … selling your homes for less than you know they’re worth.

End the cycle. Step off the treadmill. Get back to making a profit. And the most direct way of doing that is to harness your spending and halt discounts. It’s better to drop a few spots behind on the list … to lose a few sales if necessary … and be profitable than to be number one and not keep your profit margins intact.

What’s important is not how many houses you sell, but how much money you keep from the houses you sell.

Are you ready to “crack the code” of +30% close ratios? Join myself and Mike Lyon for a Free Webinar compliments of Lasso Data Systems. We will explore proven techniques to get positive sales results regardless of the economy.

We will demonstrate how to make the successful connection between online marketing to onsite sales with a proven formula that is not only pragmatic and ‘doable’, our combination of people, process and technology delivers proven results. Time after time!

Register Now>>

When: Tuesday, September 21st
Who: Mike Lyon and Myers Barnes
Time: 1:00 p.m. EDT / 10:00 a.m. PDT
Duration: 1 hour

Learning Outcomes:

* Successful integration between online & offline sales
* Role of the Online Sales Counselor
* The transition to the Sales Team
* Define the lead follow-up process
* Master a paint-by-numbers sales process
* Double your conversion ratio

All webinar attendees will have a chance to win one of the following:

* Myers Barnes’ new book: New Home Sales in a Nutshell
* Mike Lyon’s new book: Social Media Guide to Real Estate
* A Lasso QuickSTART Sales Subscription (value $1,495)

Register Now>>

Now no one likes taxes, so instead how about we call it an "experience fee." This fee is going to be rather substantial, perhaps up to several percentage points of the final sales price — now how do you feel? My guess is that most people in the room would say that it would cause lower customer satisfaction, that it would increase customer expectations, slow down construction time, and increase your costs (because you’d have to offer something extra to justify it). Here’s the reality — your company already has an experience tax, and it’s built into your current price.

Now the question is are you delivering a good enough experience to justify your higher price? If not, there is always another company down the road that is willing to cross out that experience tax (or substantially lower it) and offers a similar product for a lower cost. If profitability is a chief focus of your organization (and it always should be) then now is when the light bulb should be going off in your head. On many McDonald’s menus they used to say "smiles are free." Yes, smiles are free to produce, but they create an experience and emotion that cause people to buy more or pay more.

Note: I first learned of the concept of an experience tax from What’s the Secret to Providing a World-Class Customer Experience by John DiJulius. I’ve attended his workshops as well — and I highly recommend both.

Author BIO:
Kevin Oakley is a branding and marketing expert specializing in real estate. He is currently the Director of Marketing & Sales Training at Heartland Homes — a top 100 builder. You can interact with him on his blog at www.brandpossible.com.

Here’s the reality. Marketing is the act of attracting. Prospecting is the act of seeking. The Bible says, "seek and ye shall find." It doesn’t advise you to sit around and wait. In any economy, but particularly in a down market, you need to get out of your chair and find the buyers. Make it happen!

Prospecting is a contact sport. The more contacts you gain, the more sales you will close. Yet oddly, most salespeople wrap themselves in a cocoon and wait for change to occur, laying their hopes entirely in the ability of the company’s marketing campaign to generate leads. As a salesperson, you can let things happen or choose to seize control of your success. When you become an active prospector, you declare, "I accept complete responsibility for the traffic that comes in here. I depend solely on myself as a marketing department."

Every day that you wait for someone to come to you is eight hours wasted. Get in the game and make direct contact!

Remember, what the realtor wants more than anything is more REFERRALS. Even with cash incentives, the realtor may feel compelled to pass on some or all of this benefit to their client to get that coveted referral. So if you can structure a program that offers the realtor other incentives in addition to bonuses and good commissions such as trips to a spa, or travel gifts you’ll provide a spectrum of rewards that will help you attract more realtors.

And, if you can provide just as many rewards for the realtor’s clients such as upgrades or additional options, or help with costs or down payments, you will have given the realtor every reason to bring clients to your property.

Contact is also very important It’s not enough to have just an introductory event and send out an occasional postcard. Create events that encourage realtors to bring their clients to experience what your community has to offer, and do them more often. Provide give-away gifts or drawings that reward both the realtor and client for attending.

Always remember: Providing incentives is the key to successful realtor outreach, and that without realtor participation, you’re missing possibly more than 50% of your potential sales.

Stay tuned for more from real estate advertising & e-marketing expert Tom Nelson of NDG Communications.

With the website being the most fundamental marketing tool, and the hub of all information, here are some additional critical factors to consider for your sales website:

CONTACT DETAILS
Providing immediate contact details such as email addresses and telephone numbers on the home page will give the site an open feel and add a personal touch, thus increasing user confidence and instilling credibility.

CREDENTIAL VALIDATION/TESTIMONIALS
Providing the kinds of information that establishes credibility and consumer confidence, such as awards, is a useful way to build trust with the consumer. Providing independent comments on positive experiences (applicable to the product or company) will have an even greater impact instilling confidence in your brand and qualitatively boosting the consumer’s perception of the quality of your product and company.

STATEMENT FROM MANAGEMENT
This content will share the vision and values of the people who envisioned and are building the community. This information provides credibility and legitimacy for the property.

UP-TO-DATE
All content published on the website should be recent and up-to-date.

DISCLAIMERS & TERMS OF USE
It is very important to supply the appropriate disclaimers, terms of use, privacy policy, and other legal terms.

Stay tuned for the next part of this article for more new home sales insights from real estate e-marketing expert Tom Nelson.