Fortunately, today's technology provides a way to not only capture and 'scrub' the lead, it provides the sales department a way to follow up and to monitor the entire process.
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First, there was the need for and the promise to deliver a top ten position on Internet search engines. Next came the 'social media' lifeline for new homes builders.
My guess is that any Internet company worth its keyboard is good at delivering prospects through search engine positions and implementing social media tools.
But if the prospects don't buy within the first sixty to ninety days, what happens to that lead?
I don't know much about Internet marketing, but I do know something about selling. I know that without follow up many sales are lost.
Fortunately, today's technology provides a way to not only capture and 'scrub' the lead, it provides the sales department a way to follow up and to monitor the entire process.
It is called database marketing. Designing and scripting a follow-up program for a new homes sales program takes a proven knowledge of contact management, database marketing and messaging.
"After all, the name of the game is not just Internet marketing, it is relationship building. Marketing is what gets them to the sales center. Selling is a process and it takes times, sometimes many months."
"If the Internet prospect is not followed up properly or long enough, it doesn't matter how many prospects are delivered," says Sharon Swendner, President of .Com Marketing, an Orlando Internet marketing and advertising company.
Swedner believes that while search engine marketing is a marketing imperative, it is not any more important to the developers' sales success than a well designed, comprehensive database follow up program.
"Today's email systems can quickly and easily deliver the right message to prospects at the right time during their sales and consideration process. Well thought out, strategic email strategies deliver incremental sales and profit to the bottom line." Swendner said.
"Research has shown that database marketing, including email messages can increase sales rates by as much as 25 percent simply by maintaining contact to stay top of mind with prospects over a minimum of a six-month period," according to Swendner.
It is well known in the industry that prospects start looking six months or more before they purchase. According to the National Association of Realtors, 90 percent of home shoppers are on the Internet.
Swendner, who holds an MBA Marketing degree from Arizona State University and is a former Vice President of Marketing for Centex Homes, says that 'six months is much longer than the time a sales representative will follow up with a prospect and stay in touch.
"They are sales people. Email marketing is a function of marketing." Swendner said.
"Builders understand the need for professional websites. Most understand that the prospect is one click closer to learning more about them by moving through the site or one click away from moving to other sites, according to Swendner.
"It is obviously important that the builder's website provide the three things Internet shoppers, and 90 percent of all homebuyers shopping on the Internet, want: fast delivery of the community's location, price points, and products."
There are a lot of Internet marketing companies out there. Google 'Internet marketing' and you will agree. It seems that most are selling search engine position and social media.
But Swendner has it right. Follow-up is just as important.
Of all the sales issues facing sales organizations today, follow up is still the number one 'crack' prospects fall through. Builders can measure the cost of a website and the traffic it draws in terms of sales as a percentage of traffic. But the cost of losing sales due to poor follow up is too expensive.
"That is why a permission-based, database email marketing program is so important, " Swendner said.
"Getting to prospects early in their search is critical. The right follow up can set the stage for a trust relationship from the time the prospect is contacted to the moment they step inside the sales center. "
"There is no excuse for Internet prospects not to be greeted as old friends and that a trust-based relationship by the time they walk into the sales office. After all, the sales consultant has been in touch by email, text messaging and hopefully by phone several times before they meet in person," Swendner said.
The moral of the story, if you want to increase your sales, maximize your follow-up database marketing strategy and tactics.
Getting prospects is a lot easier than keeping them.
Written by David Fletcher
March 4, 2010
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