The Cutting Edge of Manufactured Home Marketing & Sales

The early feedback on our new image building resource is in. So far, all of it has been very positive!

Examples of actual comments:

• "I like it. I like it so much, that I plan to steal some ideas"…from the new site and use it.
• "Very impressive. This keeps getting better and better."
• "The original site was OK, but too much work to find content. This new version is easy to navigate and visually appealing. It makes me want to come back and look more."

We have had some questions and comments too, all of which are appreciated, and all of whom still very much liked this site. Yours comments and suggestions are welcome too. For those who want to see what the original, version 1.0 of the site looked like, click here.

Version 2.0 of ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com – aka MHLivingNews.com – is linked above here.

There are a number of ways you can get involved in this Image Building Campaign.

They range from free no-brainers to pay to play and be featured on the site!

The paid options are all low cost, but more important, can drive business to your business that will pay. All of this will pay off for the industry, because improving the image will help our home owners along with all those dedicated pros in our industry

Quick Facts:

• We already have the first retailer – that we know about – who has set up an RSS feed on his site to ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com RSS and/or a hot link are a no-brainer.
• We already have our first sponsors for the site, with more welcome.
• We will provide opportunities for any legitimate MH Industry retailers, community, developer, manufacturer, lender or other product/service providers to have low cost pages and link backs. During the introductory phase, those who buy a page will have it on our site for the next 5 years (some common sense restrictions apply).
• We will welcome and encourage association involvement in this project in ways that will be mutually beneficial. Association members or executives, please feel free to call 815-270-0500 or email me tony@mhmsm.com or latonyk@gmail.com, thanks!

In the days ahead, we will give you a more detailed tour of the ManufacturedHomeLivingNews site, the concepts and how we will continue to add to it in the days ahead. But lets pencil out a few quick points.

Target Audience

• The general public.
• Public officials (image building will help win more efforts with them too).
• Current manufactured home owners and land lease community residents, because they can become our industrys promoters, if we are wise. They want to feel good about where they live! Give them a tool they can share with their friends, family, co-workers and associates, and they will share it for their own good reasons!
• Industry members. Use this as a closing tool when needed. Example, the video about tornadoes and manufactured housing has already closed business for a forward thinking sales pro at their community.

A top executive at vertically integrated company told me this recently. Tony, we follow up on all our leads. So we know that we lose more business not to others in manufactured housing, but to people buying a conventional, site built house.

That is one of many reasons the industry needs this website!

We will continually add content to this new site, similar to how we have done it for the past 3½ years here on MHProNews.com. Adding content is one of the many ways that we will keep visitors coming back.

Manufacturers, Retailers and Communities are all welcome to submit an appropriately decorated featured home. For more information, please click here.

We will also showcase for readers how even lower end or older mobile homes are a legitimate, value option. Over time, our featured articles, homes and videos will deal with all of the common objections that skeptical prospects and the public have. We will also update the video with a bigger, better version 2.0 of that tool, a sponsor(s) for that video update are welcome.

Just Do It

Youve asked for it. Youve got it. Now, learn to use it and run with it!

Pass the word onto your team mates and to anyone you know. Here is a starting how to use this New Business and Image Building “free” tip article. Your questions and feedback by phone or email are welcome. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for May and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach

MHLivingNews.com=Re-Discovering and Spotlighting the MHLifeStyle

MHProNews.com = MHMSM.com = Industry News, Tips and Views Pros can Use

Services:B2BandB2CAds, Proven MH Marketing & Sales Systems, Websites other Industry Solutions.

Office -815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com

www.MHC-MD.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach= connect with me on Linkedin.

http://pinterest.com/latonyk/manufactured-home-lifestyle/

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford

The main manufactured housing industry users of the power of indirect marketing to sell more homes are our clients and followers. The flip side of that fact is that the vast majority of MHPros uses direct message marketing. For those in both the indirect and direct camps, tapping into the power of friends and family ought to become a must.

Back circa 1993, MCI led the charge with an early loyalty and referral program they dubbed Friends and Family. Here is a sample video commercial that promoted it.

MCI was acquired in 1998 by WorldCom, which eventually became part of Verizon in January 2006. MCI was known for their historic role in breaking the AT&T monopoly on telephony, as well as this Friends and Family marketing.

Today, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other forms of social networking are the 'friends and family' options of choice.

But don't limit yourself to just those social media tools. Think about the powerful fact shared below as you develop – or redevelop – your operation's or location's marketing!

Manufactured housing and its precursor, the pre-HUD Code 'mobile home,' has some 23 million people in the U.S. living in one of our homes. What if just 5% of those residents in the next year became 'evangelists' for manufactured housing to the extent that they would bring a family member or friend to your community, retail center or development to buy a new home?

That would be a record setting 1.15 million new manufactured home sales! It would roughly double the highest water mark ever set by our industry.

You don't have to wait for the industry at large to get together on such a concept. You can start a friends and family program all your own! Tapping the power of friends and family could put your operation, career or location into overdrive. If you need help creating a successful friends and family – or other! – marketing and sales program, send me an email or pick up the phone and call. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for May and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach

MHLivingNews.com=Re-Discovering and Spotlighting the MHLifeStyle

MHProNews.com = MHMSM.com = Industry News, Tips and Views Pros can Use

Services:B2BandB2CAds, Proven MH Marketing & Sales Systems, Websites other Industry Solutions.

Office -815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com

www.MHC-MD.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach= connect with me on Linkedin.

http://pinterest.com/latonyk/manufactured-home-lifestyle/

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford

We aren't talking about the Al Pacino movie, or even the glories of women and their many perfumed scents. What we will discuss is the thought behind William Shakespeare's famous phrase, "A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet."

Let's see the two paths manufactured housing pros need to consider and implement in order for us to achieve our new home sales potential.

What's in a name?

There are many words that all mean "woman," and many that are used accent her scent delightfully. But some terms used are crude and rough, not fitting to be used to describe a lady in polite company.

By analogy, there are many names that all mean factory-built home. But some of the names used are derogatory, outdated and crude; not flattering at all.

We as manufactured housing professionals ought to realize that what's in a name truly matters. Which would you rather own:

• A modern manufactured home,
• A mobile home, or
• A trailer house?

Using the right name (terminology) at the right time may yield a more fragrant 'scent' to a qualified prospective customer, and thus more customers who are able to pay cash or who have good credit.

You better believe that the person capable of buying a residential style HUD Code Manufactured Home would not be nearly as interested – or may completely reject! – the notion of buying a "tr–ler house."

As the definitions provided by Texas manufactured home retailer, Frank Woody, linked here, a manufactured home is NOT a mobile or the T-word.

Now, let's acknowledge that the term 'mobile home' is used more online than manufactured home, and is thus useful as "Google bait."

That said, there are ways to get that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefits, without demeaning what should be the image of our quality, appealing home product!

Direct and Indirect Term Marketing

Many understand direct terminology marketing and use it daily.

Direct marketing term marketing is when you describe the homes you sell under a label like manufactured home. This is the most common kind of marketing in our Industry, and is not to be ignored, because some people want what we sell.

This is the concept behind the MHVillage approach. The success of their platform is clearly shown by their ability to attract over 42,000 visitors daily.

That group seeking a manufactured home (…or mobile home, or a tr–ler house) is roughly 15% +/- of all housing customers.

It is also common that many (not all…) of these shoppers seeking a 'mobile home' have sub par credit. Regardless, thousands of homes are being sold this way monthly, so we should not ignore this method!

Nevertheless, let's look at a different, often overlooked path to increased total housing market penetration to drive more sales success.

Attracting the higher-end Cash and Good Credit Customers

Then there is a second group of marketers, that drops the "manufactured housing" or "mobile home" terminology phrases from their vocabulary. If you have a high end location, you just call your homes, homes.

By doing so, you've now opened up your market to acceptance by the other 85% of the population's tastes.

Change your use of terms, and you improve your client base. Theory?

Nope. We do it for clients, but we are not alone.

Look at appealing Saddlebrook Farms near Chicago, IL as a 1400 filled-home-sites example of the success such a process can enjoy.

Having the chutzpah – and wisdom! – to define yourself and go after a more upscale client is part of the core of this successful concept.

This vision is defined inside and out by offering residential style examples of a quality lifestyle. There is an absence of the 'mobile home-ish' look at this appealing Gray's Lake IL land-lease community.

But what about 2 or 3 star locations?

Doing a process like this at a 4 or 5 star property that uses ground sets or mimics it with appropriate foundation enclosures or landscaping makes sense. But what about the 2 or 3 star properties, which in many markets are far more common? What do you do when you have pre-HUD Code, metal on metal, 1960s or 1970s model homes sitting next to vinyl- or hardboard-sided homes with shingle roofs?

We've pulled that off too with operations we've done this with, but it takes a much more savvy approach that uses indirect term marketing. It takes a trained professional who can engage a caller one on one, talking them past preconceived or false notions about modern manufactured homes.

This is a creative, free enterprise solution to selling homes that also attracts more customers with cash or good credit.

Combing an indirect terminology marketing process with a solid professional sales process that is customer friendly can make once struggling locations roar back to life.

Using parallel paths

MHLivingNews.com is the start of a direct approach at myth busting that can grow the sales of customers in markets where this resource is put to work. See this link for more details:

Start Your Free Manufactured Housing Image Campaign Here

At the public focused site linked from the above, we can showcase appealing homes, videos, facts and image building information. Properly used, this can have a positive impact in your market(s).

But combining indirect term marketing with the correct sales process will drive more customers with cash or good credit to the locations – like yours?! – that have the wisdom and discipline to use it. Learn more at this link:

Giving Good Phone

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet. The Scent of a Woman. And the appeal of quality, eco-friendly affordable homes. This process is not for the lazy, nor for the mere order taker. This is for the professional who is ready to learn more to earn more!

Once you or your team learns this system well, it becomes as easy as an other habit. Some mistakenly think that habit is a nasty word, not so. habits can be good, bad or neutral. In fact, a new, good, healthy habit formation is the essence of what we do. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for May and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach

MHLivingNews.com=Re-Discovering and Spotlighting the MHLifeStyle

MHProNews.com = MHMSM.com = Industry News, Tips and Views Pros can Use

Services:B2BandB2CAds, Proven MH Marketing & Sales Systems, Websites other Industry Solutions.

Office -815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com

www.MHC-MD.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach= connect with me on Linkedin.

http://pinterest.com/latonyk/manufactured-home-lifestyle/

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford

How often do you shower or take a bath?  Daily? Every other day? What ever it is, think of the number…

Now, how often do you purposefully read something motivational or inspiring? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?

Some people told Zig Ziglar that motivation is time wasted, because it 'wears off.'  Zig's response was classic.  “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” - Zig Ziglar.

The meaning is clear. You need a regular dose of motivation, the same as you need to wash regularly.  For those who don't, they may stink…

…and I've met people with 'stinking thinking' before, haven't you?  If we are candid, we have all at times been guilty of negative thoughts and thinking. So like bathing, we need a regular dose of motivation and inspiration.

If you don't have a good attitude, you can build one up! It may take longer than a shower does, but regular immersion in inspirational thinking pays off the same as regular doses of negative thinking tears someone down.

Motivation and Achievement

When I am recruiting for a client's company or myself, there are three things I look for, and they are summed up in this acronym: ASK.

> Attitude
> Skills
> Knowledge/Experience

If all three in A.S.K. are present in a candidate for a career role:

• a good attitude,
• the right skills and
• experience,

there is a good chance we have the right person for the job.  When only the second and third traits are there, but a good 'can do!' attitude are missing, that person just might be drag, dangerous or a liability.

The Sage of Omaha said something similar:

“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.”

• Warren Buffett

Think about Buffett's  'energy' quality as being positive or negative, and you see that part of what 'the Sage of Omaha' is talking about in having a good, positive 'energetic' attitude.  Integrity also reflects our attitude or mindset. The bad attitude is the one that is more lazy, lacks discipline and is more likely to be dishonest.

While positive motivation and integrity don't always go hand in hand, when they do, you routinely discover a better work ethic.

In our ground breaking marketing and sales training programs for clients who sell manufactured homes at retail centers or in land lease communities, I'm looking at the attitudes of those in front of me.  Are the pros being trained or coached sporting a good or bad attitude?  Are they embracing the training? Are they giving it their best effort? Or are they resisting it?

We know from experience that those who commit to our marketing and sales process get better results, often dramatically better. We've seen locations increase sales from the low single digits monthly into double digit closings monthly. But I also recall an operation where someone resisted the training, the supervisor didn't require that they buckle down and 'just do it,' so is it a surprise that they didn't change or improve much? Of course not. I've yet to meet someone working for a company that had so little skill, that they couldn't do what we ask. So what makes the difference between the successful team members and those who won't grow?

Clearly it is the motivation of the 'professionals' involved!

We created the free INspiration blog for the expressed purpose of providing a positive place in manufactured housing to come and get that routine boost of motivation!

Many of Tim Connor's or our Zig Ziglar columns are motivational or inspirational as well, as are other thougthful writers, such as periodic contributor and successful MH Retailer Greg McClanahan.

There are some who learn things fast and easy.

For others, change may start out hard, but with practice what is new in time becomes a habit.  Habits by definition become second nature, as normal as breathing.  Cultivate a good 'can do' attitude in yourself and share that with your team mates.  Feed your mind with good, inspirational and motivational thoughts.

It routinely pays off for those who do!

The logic of this is so obvious.  

”Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you are right!'”
- Henry Ford.

Be a part of the IN crowd, and see the INspriation blog here. ##

PS: Check our many Exclusive and Red Hot Featured Articles for April and see the

other new stories at MHLivingNews.com too.

L. A. "Tony" Kovach

MHLivingNews.com=Re-Discovering and Spotlighting the MHLifeStyle

MHProNews.com = MHMSM.com = Industry News, Tips and Views Pros can Use

Services:B2BandB2CAds, Proven MH Marketing & Sales Systems, Websites other Industry Solutions.

Office -815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com

www.MHC-MD.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach= connect with me on Linkedin.

http://pinterest.com/latonyk/manufactured-home-lifestyle/

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Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. – Henry Ford