A review of market research and sales tools for home builders.

1. Market Research and Sales Tools
for Home Builders

2. Richmond Market Overview
• Generally positive and gaining
momentum
• Key indicators from Pacesetters:
– Home sales up in 2011 and 2012
– Inventory low
– Pricing bottomed out and stabilizing
• Q2 ‘12 number of sales up 9.6%
• Q2 ‘12 prices up 3.5%
• June survey from Richmond Fed
shows improved outlook

3. Identify Your Targets
• Key component of market research and sales is strategy
• Identify target demographics first
– Current customers
– Potential customers
– Customer leads
– General public or submarkets
• What are the goals of the research?
• What do you want to learn?
• Who are the best targets for the research?

4. When To Conduct Research
• When is the perfect time for research on your
target audience?
• The answer to this is simple…Now, always and
research as often as possible
– Your research on the market and your target audience is
crucial for selling your product or service
– You can’t sell your product/service if you don’t know who
to sell it to!
– The more focused you are on selling to the right
person/group the better your outcome for increased
sales

5. Types of Tools
• Qualitative Research: Exploratory studies
designed to open up new perspectives.
• Quantitative Research: Confirmatory
studies designed to settle on the single
best approach.
• Secondary Research: Most common type of
qualitative research.
• Best to start with secondary research.
• Readily available and cost effective.
• There is a great deal of data already available online.
• Internal vs. external secondary research (both can be valuable).

6. Types of Tools (con’t)
• Focus Groups: Small group interviews conducted
with a moderator.
• Focus groups are an example of qualitative research.
• They produce education, not findings; perspective,
not facts.
• Surveys: A questionnaire is completed by a large
sample of respondents.
• Quantitative research that allows conclusions to be
drawn about a population.
• Well‐worded questionnaire is critical.
• Sample size must be large enough.
• Can be conducted in person, on the phone, or online.

7. Types of Tools (con’t)
• Demographic analysis
– Where to start?
– What are you looking to achieve?
– Who are you trying to reach? What is
your target market?
• Segmentation studies
– What is a Segmentation Study?
• Different Groupings
– Where to get the study done?
– How to track your Results?

8. Segmentation Grouping

9. Types of Tools (con’t)
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems
– What are your needs for a CRM
– Do’s and Don’ts of choosing the system for you and your company
– Top three companies that are currently available
• Once chosen how do you move forward successfully?
– How to manage the implementation
– Implementation with you and your team
– How do you measure success? What is your ROI?

10. CRM Homepage

11. CRM Custom Search

12. CRM Registrant Screen

13. Research and Sales Metrics
• Measuring the results of research and sales is key
• Always start with a baseline to measure against
• Consistently track and evaluate results; adjust as needed
• Create processes to measure when and how to follow up
with prospects and to track who is interacting with you
• Online: Google Analytics and website back‐end support
• Email: Analytic programs with email services (18% open; 3% click)
• Social Media: Facebook Analytics, HootSuite, Buffer, Google Analytics
• CRM: Metrics/tracking programs built in

14. Questions?

15. Thank you!
Tim Parent Andrew Ryan
Gumenick Properties Commonwealth Partnerships
(804) 288-0011 (804) 385-2187
tparent@gumprop.com akr@commonwealthpartnerships.com
www.gumenickproperties.com www.commonwealthpartnerships.com

16. Helpful Links
•CRM
•Lasso - http://www.lassocrm.com/Home
•Builder 1440 - http://www.builder1440.com
•Salesforce - https://www.salesforce.com
Segmentation
•Mosbygrey - http://www.mosbygrey.com