“Sure, I can meet with you! I’ll send you a link to a Zoom meeting. How does 2:15 pm today work?” In March of 2020, things changed a lot. Here in the home building industry, more often than not, we rely on the tried-and-true sales structure of model homes and on-site appointments. Customers would spend a Saturday slowly driving through an up-and-coming area and see the flag for a sales model. They might stop in, chat with the sales agent, and tour the gorgeous new floor plan designs. However, due to COVID-19, the option for in-person tours diminished and practically halted overnight. It was time to pivot.
As the realities of the worldwide pandemic became imminent, our organization and team members looked for ways to make the virtual experience as interactive and informative as an on-site visit would be. The key was to have a brand new way to use some tools we already had. This led to a tremendous new adventure in personalized, individual virtual sales appointments.
With virtual platforms such as Zoom, we created an experience that mimicked all the various key steps in the New Home Star Sales Funnel. This takes the customer from Welcome to Terms in a private, one-on-one setting. With platforms like PowerPoint or Prezi and integrations with Google Maps, Matterport, drone videos, and developer tools, the experience is even more informative than ever before! We strongly believe that the customer should have the most favorable thought process coupled with the assurance that their needs matter, despite an uncertain environment. This avenue has bridged the world of in-person sales visits with the virtual world, and a majority of our team members have received impeccable feedback from their customers about the process.
Just like we train our Sales Associates to be the best in the industry within their model homes, the same applies to the virtual space. Learning, practicing, and becoming experts with the tools and the process is vital. Adding training tools and assets focused on communication and sales in a virtual environment has been the linchpin. We simply can’t implement tools we don’t understand. By providing such resources to our team members, it has allowed agents to be more heavily equipped to sell more homes more profitably.
Now, one may ask just how effective the virtual platform has been. Personally, to date, I have added nine sales to my communities by implementing the virtual sales process. In fact, here in Arizona, we launched an entirely new luxury community that is not using model homes at all! We have sold double our pace by making the experience unique and engaging with our target consumer profile, allowing them to have the highest level of customer service along the way. This simply can be our new normal.
As business continues to shift to more virtual interactions, the need for online sales teams has increased. For more information on continually expanding operations, check out our comprehensive guide to creating an online sales team for home builders.
