Do you have all the essential marketing metrics your business needs to thrive today and predict the future for tomorrow? If not, there’s no better time to learn more about this high performance-driving strategy! Key metrics or key performance indicators (KPI) are critical to your company’s growth because they help to track growth, indicate progress, outline areas of improvement and inspire action. Of course, it is important to know what to track and how to look at it.

The June Sales and Marketing Power Hour focused on “Pipeline and Scorecards, Are You Measuring the Right Metrics?” This lively conversation explored the essential sales and marketing metrics to assess for your business, as well as how to predict profitability.

Hosts Kimberly Mackey and Carol Morgan were joined by marketing metrics expert Kevin Oakley from Do You Convert. With over 18 years of experience running marketing and sales operations for home builders of all shapes and sizes, Oakley is a highly trusted name in new home marketing to builders and developers across North America. During this discussion, Oakley shared how choosing and measuring the right marketing metrics significantly impacts your company’s trajectory.

Unpredictable times

If you’re in the new home industry, should you be worried about the current housing market? Not necessarily, but you should be highly aware of how your company is performing and where improvements can be implemented. Economic fluctuations are bound to happen, but it’s crucial to be vigilant and aware in today’s industry. Understand that endurance is far more important than quickly overreacting to market changes. Real estate is a dynamic industry with ever-changing market conditions. Rather than speculating about the market, utilize tried-and-true methods.

Focusing on the data

A normal inventory level is a four to six months’ supply of homes for sale. Metro Atlanta currently has 1.4 months of supply. Pending sales year-to-date are still close to 2019 and 2021 levels. In the last decade, home prices have become more sensitive to interest rates. If mortgage and refinance rates continue to rise incrementally, as some experts have forecasted, that could cool the market.

Knowing this context of the current market, when should you worry about your company’s performance? The first thing to pay attention to is the traffic your website receives. Kevin stated, “You should be concerned when consumers are not coming to your website in large quantities and you’re unable to fill that gap with advertising.” Before buyers take tours or visit your sales center, their first stop will be your website. Builders must continue to prioritize this facet as it acts as the primary initial pathway that guides buyers to conversion.

Another factor to note is the activity surrounding fully finished homes on the market. Kevin remarked, “The second thing to watch for is when completed inventory isn’t selling within the average days on market – the average days on market right now is 16 days.”

Preparation is key

Despite pauses and shifts in the housing market, it’s crucial to maintain focus on marketing and education. So many companies pulled the plug on marketing and failed to keep their website updated when they had more leads than they could handle. But is this sustainable long-term? We think not. In fact, now is the time to reevaluate your efforts and be prepared to make some changes.

What else can we do to prepare for what’s ahead? Start looking at the numbers and conduct experiments to determine how to best match your company’s messaging and positioning to the current market. Once you discern what works best to engage your audience, step on the gas and use that messaging to keep bringing in more traffic with ads. Some other best practices for success in the current market include:

• Nurture the pipeline that you already have.
• Understand mortgage options and what they mean for your buyers.
• Remember that referrals are going to gain importance once again.
• Train salespeople to ensure they understand how to discuss financing.
• Do not let a buyer fear they can no longer qualify because they’ve listened to the media. Ease their fears and show them the way.
• Your website needs a strong call to action. Give buyers something to do and pique their interest.
• You need a CRM that integrates with your website to know which of your buyers are coming back to website, when and why they revisit.

Appointments, appointments, appointments

As demand and buyer psychology continues to shift, marketers and salespeople must remain patient. If you can’t get the sale, get the next appointment. If you can’t get the next appointment, continue to find reasons to follow-up with potential buyers. Make it a priority to attain registration information in the system in order to follow up.

Now is the time to go above and beyond to provide superior customer service, and remember to start with nurturing prospect relationships to continue generating leads. It may not always be possible to close on the first appointment, so that’s why it’s crucial to find opportunities to get buyers back in the door.

Your product positioning, price points, messaging and advertising all add up to ultimately influence buyer decisions to purchase. Sales trainers, competitive analysis and market research are always worth your time, because they all play a role in affecting the appointment-to-sale ratio.

Let’s take your business to the next level

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system serves as an online database to help manage your contacts and save precious time on manual data entry. A CRM software acts as your single source of prospect and client information, allowing you to cultivate relationships and make data-driven decisions. For top-performing real estate agents, a CRM is an essential tool for managing a healthy pipeline in a way that saves time and brain power.

There are many amazing programs available with predictive pipelines that allow you to measure limitless. For example, builders can manage their entire business through the pipeline from their building process and everything in between. Although they are often undervalued in the sales department, pipelines are incredibly valuable.

REGISTER HERE FOR THE NEXT WEBINAR

Sales & Marketing Power Hour is a webinar series for new home sales and marketing professionals. Hosted by the dynamic duo Kimberly Mackey of New Homes Solutions Consulting and Carol Morgan of Denim Marketing, Sales & Marketing Power Hour was accoladed by The Nationals as a Silver Award winner for Best Professional Development Series.

Focused on providing solutions, tips and ideas to both sales and marketing teams in the new home industry, Sales & Marketing Power Hour offers best practices and practical advice on what is working in today’s real estate market. This program is appropriate for company visionaries, sales and marketing leadership, on-site sales professionals, and anyone who wants to remain relevant as our industry grows its technological footprint.

Upcoming Webinars:

• August 17 – TBD
• Oct 19 – TBD
• Dec 14 – 2023 Lasso Style Round Up