During the homebuilding boom, salespeople often found that their highest priority was to identify their hottest leads, or “A” leads, and to bring them to a fast closure. That is now a bygone era, when the sales process — more an “order taking process” — existed solely for improving speed and efficiency in writing contracts. When demand was high, a home builder’s sales and customer relationship management software tools were used to sort leads by types and priority, or to track and improve the contract creation and modification process. But now things have changed. Sales and customer relationship management software tools have assumed a new, more dominant role as homebuilders seek to bring efficiency to gathering leads and optimizing lead conversion.

This change has forced homebuilders from a sell-centric role to a buyer-centric role, where the homebuilder has to focus on (and deliver) what each individual buyer requires in order to build trust. In tight markets, the homebuilder’s ability do this is his biggest differentiator from the competition. For homebuilders, two keys to building trust are the ability to differentiate customers from one another and to communicate properly with them, with diligence through high-impact campaigns.

Using Technology to Truly Connect

To drive improved sales productivity, it is imperative that builders carefully consider the software tools they deploy in the sales organization. Technology is available that actually makes it easier to touch more people more often with fewer resources, and in a more personalized way. Recent National Association of Home Builders studies conclude that 80 percent of new-home buyers begin their searches on the Web. The average time spent on the Web researching prior to visiting a community is roughly 84 days. True customer relationship management must take into account that part of the buying cycle, which predates a visit by the customer to your newhome community.

What if you could track every interaction — both in person and through your Web site — that you have with a prospect, no matter when they enter the sales and search process? With the proper technology, you could know the floor plans they looked at when they visited your Web site. You could have a better understanding of how important schools, amenities and options are to that prospect. You could then act on things you learn, hear and see by quickly modifying Web content or e-mail messages to more directly address those items that touch your buyers personally. More importantly, you could discover new commonalities and buying signals — and perhaps even trigger specific events — based on what your prospects are doing and saying. These technology capabilities are affordably available today, and they are just part of the real promise of Web-based marketing.

Based on what the prospects identify as areas of interest — coupled with what is captured by monitoring their use of the builder Web site — the lead management or Customer Relationship Management systems you incorporate should allow you to initiate specific workflows and campaigns to assure proper follow-up. Some of these work steps are highly personalized and require human intervention; others can be automated. When e-mail outreach is automated to steer prospects back to specific communities, floor plans or even third party articles on the Web, they become highly personalized. By again monitoring the response to these messages and watching your buyer’s behavior through click-through reports, you can continually improve the effectiveness of your messages.

As the knowledge base of what works and what doesn’t work grows, the process can become more refined. At the end of the day, each lead can be worked for maximum quality and quantity of connection. Your “A” leads will undoubtedly continue to close, but perhaps at an accelerated pace. More importantly, your “B,” “C” and “D” leads will become “A” leads and also close.

The right software should do much more than just write a contract or sort out leads. It should also help you manage more leads with fewer people more effectively, closing more leads and making more money.

Tom Sieger is director of sales and business development for Customer Velocity, a maker of Web site technology and software for builders.