Virtual Design Centers are a Great Way to Let Homebuyers See and Experiment with Home-Tech Options, But They Require Careful Planning.
As a homebuilder, you may be perplexed about how to best package, promote, and profit from home-technology products and services. No matter how you sell home-tech upgrades today—through sales agents, design consultants, and/or sub-contractors—you may feel you could be doing more to boost your profits, streamline your sales processes, and improve customer satisfaction. One way that a growing number of builders are accomplishing this is by adding a Virtual Design Center (VDC) to the mix.
A VDC is an online options catalog and selection tool. Typically a builder sales agent creates a log-in for a contracted homebuyer. The homebuyer goes home, logs on to the password-protected site, and uses the VDC to view options and save selections to a wish list, before meeting with the builder to finalize selections in person.
Typically, VDCs feature detailed product information and images, pricing, cut-off dates, and visualization tools. VDCs also feature homebuyer management tools, so builders and design centers can prepare for the appointment by seeing who has logged in and what they have saved to their wish list. With VDCs, homebuyers come into the process much more prepared, buy up to 35% more options, and spend 30–50% less face-to-face time with you.
How VDCs Help Home-Tech Sales
1. Selling through builder sales agents.
While selling home-tech upgrades through sales agents allows a builder to be in the options business with minimal investment, this approach has two major challenges. First, sales agents often don't have the expertise—or incentive—to sell home-tech upgrades. Second, technology product manufacturers may have a very difficult time getting their messages through to the homebuyer.
With VDC technology, however, details about all homebuyer options, including home tech, are at their fingertips constantly. Sales agents simply create log-ins for buyers and send them on their way. All the information is there, online, for customers. So, up until the cut-off date, a buyer can research and pre-select options for his specific home, priced for his home. By the time they come back to finalize their selections in person, they have a really good idea what they want and can afford.
2. Selling through design consultants.
When you sell home-tech options through design consultants, timing is critical. Since so many home-tech options go inside the wall, you need to know buyers' selections as soon as possible. VDCs can speed the process in several ways, from automatically notifying the designer when you have a new customer, to communicating a buyer's final selections to you electronically. And having the data online can shorten the selection process in between.
In addition, VDCs can help compensate for any lack of training a designer may have in selling home-tech upgrades or packages effectively. Not only do VDCs deliver information directly to the buyer, but VDCs can be designed as a great tool for selling home-tech packages: bundles of products and services that appeal to your buyers' lifestyles.
3. Having buyers meet directly with subs.
Recognizing an opportunity to boost profitable home-tech sales, many builders have their customers meet directly with the product vendors. This can be done by the sub meeting with each buyer at the job site; or by the sub having a branded section within the builder's design center and schedules appointments with each buyer. While time-consuming and rather expensive, these approaches can be very effective. To help make them even more effective, consider bundling options and giving information to buyers to review prior to their meetings with the vendors.
So no matter how you sell home-tech upgrades today, when designed effectively, VDC technology can help you boost your home-tech profits, streamline your sales processes, and improve customer satisfaction.
Kristin Kennedy is the founder and CEO of YourDesignCenter in Dana Point, Calif. She has nine years' experience in building products and services, and was most recently the national builder account executive for Kohler Company. Contact her at kkennedy@ydcinc.com.