Tips on Manufactured Home Sales For New Industry Professionals

by L. A. Tony Kovach

(Editor’s intro: Tony Kovach has sold or managed the sale of over 1500 manufactured homes.)

Are you new in manufactured home (MH) sales? Or perhaps you are in a sales slump? The following tips are basics - but they describe some of what to do, and what not to do!

Let’s make this really simple. We sell affordable housing! Apples to apples, new to new, used to used - we will be priced under site built homes - almost every time. New site built homes in our upper Midwest area start at around $125-150 per square foot for the ‘home only’ part of the purchase. By comparison, a new MH home may be around $65-$85 per square foot. Nice preowned MH homes in our area may run in the $35-$55 per square foot range. In short, we save people money!

People make decisions in part based upon comparisons like the ones above. Sales professionals have to supply the information prospects need to make those favorable comparisons. If we don’t supply information for favorable comparisons, then the prospect may rely on myths, fables or ‘facts’ from some by-gone era. So it is good for us to provide home shoppers printed or web based information! But we still have to be able to sincerely re-enforce such messages and comparisons to our customers ourselves! Remember, if they hear a message more than once, they tend to believe it more. Besides, is you are wise, everything you are sharing is all the truth!

There are basic Principles for successful sales, which include:

• Practice makes perfect. Studies have shown that reading something once, or hearing something once isn’t enough - the information is too rapidly forgotten. You have to read and re-read. Listen and listen again. Practice what you are hearing, and keep on practicing until it becomes second nature! Even then, refreshers are critical. Sales and management guru Tim Connor reportedly feeds his mind on 100 periodicals and 50 new books annually, investing 10% of his income in his own on-going training. “Around the Campfire’s” effective development program is based in part on this principle of reviewing and applying. The point is this: if a training manual, book, media or article makes sense, keep it! Review it routinely until it becomes a part of you!
• Smile. Be friendly. We don’t have to kiss their - well, you know what - but we do need to treat people well and with respect. Honesty goes a long way.
• Don’t over promise, or under deliver. This is part of setting the right expectations, more on that vital topic in a future column.
• Don’t ever, ever, ever lie. Lying doesn't make for a successful long term career, nor does it lead to customer satisfaction or referrals. Lying is often discovered and can lead to issues that are costly. If you’ve made a mistake, that’s different. Once you discover mistake, YOU bring it up and clear it up. People respect that, don’t hide from mistakes.
• If you don’t know, admit that, but then get the answers yourself and then follow up with them in a timely fashion. “Mr. and Ms. Jones, that’s a great question, and I want to be sure about the answer. Let me dig into that for you, and I’ll get back with you once I’ve got the answer in hand.”
• Remember, we have the best housing value available! If you believe, they are more likely to as well.
• Find out what ad or referral source they learned about your company. If you aren’t using a call tracking service, it is vital for you to know what is working and what needs to be changed in your marketing.
• Document everything in the sale. A part of every contract must be the statement that if it isn’t in writing, they don’t get it. If someone has 'shopped a lot' there is a tendency to 'blur' conversations between the various companies that shopper has spoken with. Often this happens unintentionally, but it still has to be dealt with and as the professional, it is up to YOU to head this off at the proverbial pass! By setting the right and proper expectation going in, by documenting everything, they won’t be disappointed on the ownership side of the fence. This both avoids future problems or litigation as well as increases your chances for referral business!
• When including something additional that isn’t ‘standard’ for your firm in a sale - a deck, landscaping, carport, garage, or storage building - we must describe it accurately and hopefully show a picture of it, so that there are no unhappy customers at the end of the sales process. Again, set the right expectation! Another step in the documentation process noted above.

Qualifying prospects properly is important. Qualifying is about discovering the clients needs, wants and potential and then putting the right person in the right home to fit their budget and needs. For example, there is no point in showing the biggest multi-section home (a.k.a. "double wide") to someone that can barely afford the least expensive single section home you have!

If you do show the bigger home, perhaps because they ‘insist’ on seeing it, then you should do so with the proper statements in advance: “We know that this is beyond your budget today, Mr. and Mrs. Home Buyer. But if you get the home that I showed you now, make good timely payments on it, then perhaps over time you can trade it in on for a larger or nicer home like this one. Of course, you should have the extra income you would need to afford it at that time.”

Way too many people in manufactured home sales show homes that people can’t buy. They end up buying a home from someone who did qualify them and put the prospective client in the right home for their needs and budget. Don’t be ‘afraid’ of offending a person, buy guiding them in the direction that makes the most sense for all concerned!

Additional tips:

1. Get the name and numbers of everyone you talk to - be it by phone or in person. Getting alternative follow up details such as email addresses as often as possible pays off over time as well. Have a contact manager or some other follow up system, and follow up until the buy from you or actual close with someone else.
2. Don’t set fuzzy appointments, set a real time and date to meet. Try to set appointments on the quarter or half hour when possible. An appointment for 3:15 tomorrow afternoon is much more likely to show up and be there on time. Please DON’T do the nearly useless “I’m here almost all the time.” or “I’ll see you sometime tomorrow afternoon!” - which sends a whole series of weak messages to your prospect, such as: you aren’t busy and thus they don’t need an appointment, and if you aren’t busy, why aren’t you, etc.. Get a phone number (or two or three-) to call them in case you need to reset, and give them a phone number to call you if they need to reset the appointment. Emphasize that step while you have them on the line. This will make a huge difference in how professional you appear to them, and also it will result in more people who will respect your professionalism, arrive and then buy from you!
3. Know your homes. This sounds so obvious, but it is startling how many times I’ve met sales people who didn’t know their own inventory properly. Know details such as which homes offers what sized rooms and special features. A detail that you know at the right time with the right client can make the difference between a sale or a missed sale!
4. Make sure your models are neat and presentable. Again, this is basic, but an often violated rule. While properly merchandising your homes is tremendously valuable, the first and most basic step is to make the home neat and clean. Little things send a message. For example, we adjusted the mini blinds essentially the same in every home, to block out some light, but angle it enough to let some light in. Properly adjusting the blinds is particularly important if the view beyond is less than stellar. We made it a habit to set every mind blind in every home at the same angles. We place a carpeting swatch or an entry mat in the entrance of every door to the home, to let people wipe their feet off on, and this keeps our homes cleaner fro their future owners too! Modest steps such as these gives a home a subtle 'neat' appearance. Doing the ‘little things’ time after time on our model homes sent a simple yet clear message that we cared about the homes. The prospect will respect them more too, and are more likely to buy.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale. It is important to ask for the sale - directly or indirectly - and I’d ask for the sale on EVERY visit until you have them on paper and committed. Among the many faux pas I see in visiting sales centers is the complete lack of any organized effort to close a sale. Is there any wonder that sales are down or sliding, when the people who do come aren’t asked to buy??
6. Know the key ‘get away stories’ and the key objections. Know the objections, know the reasons why people try to ‘escape’ if in fact you have the right home, price and terms. Some people are afraid to commit, we aren’t talking about high pressure, we are talking about helping people make good decisions!

Let’s review. Remember, we sell affordable housing! Be friendly. Set real appointments. Qualify. Know your homes. Keep your inventory looking neat and appealing. Be able to make helpful comparisons. Always get their name(s) and contact information so you can do follow ups if you don’t close them on their first visit. Ask for the sale routinely, and you’ll sell more homes!

Know your website’s message. Study! Read, watch or listen to training items often, especially as you are learning but also continuously throughout your career. Remember, if you TRULY want to be a career professional, you have to study and practice, just like any other professionals does!

Be PROUD of what we offer, because we sell a basic necessity of life. We are fortunate - blessed! - to offer good homes for good people!!!

L. A. "Tony" Kovach began his manufactured housing career in 1981. He has worked in both retail and MHC community marketing, sales and management. During the downturn in the late 1980s, AIH/MHD Magazine reported his sales center as among the top 1% in the U.S. in retail sales. This occurred in oil bust Oklahoma in rural Purcell, a town of only 4500 souls and an hour away from the state capital. During the 1990s, Kovach focused on marketing, sales and management consulting and writing, mostly outside the MH industry. He returned to the industry in the year 2000, after the current downtown began. Thus most of Kovach’s experience has been marketing, selling and managing during ‘down’ markets - like our current one - so his insights are timely. A current client is experiencing record retail traffic - 150 to 250 new prospect calls per week - at three assigned focus properties as a result of Tony’s marketing. He has been a featured speaker at association events in the U.S. and Canada, as well as at live training sessions such as the www.MobileWealth.com Seminars. He has been named to two different 'Who's Who' among American Executives lists. Tony Kovach has been published in a variety of newspapers, magazines and MH industry trade journals, including This Rock, Infinity Press, the Chicago SunTimes NewsGroup, Manufactured Home Merchandiser Magazine and what’s known today as Automated Builder Magazine. Kovach is the web founder of the www.abcsoffaith.com and www.TheWayandTheLight.com websites. You can grab some professional insights at www.LATonyKovach.com Comments below are on the topic above are welcome and encouraged!