This past week, I attended the 2007 MHI Congress & Expo for Manufactured and Modular Housing. I'm proud to say that Homes of the West, L.L.C. was a Silver Sponsor of this event. The event is a national congress and trade show for the industry, and is held each year in Las Vegas. Today I'm going to focus on two speakers from the event who presented compelling arguments for change in our industry. Currently, there is a lot of turmoil in the housing industry, and Manufactured & Modular Housing is not exempt from these forces of change. With the real estate economy changing (I won't say that the housing economy is in recession nor a "slump", because I personally do not believe the "expert analysts" who are predicting doom & gloom - there are many bright spots ahead in the marketplace), our industry needs monumental change.
Manufactured Housing, (less so Modular Housing) is an industry poised to go one of two directions. Like a dinosaur, it can lumber along down the same path it has always followed, or it can turn direction and move to join the myriad other housing options as a viable, affordable, attractive option. If the industry does not heed MHI's call for change, it could become, like the dinosaurs, a dying breed. The statistics bear-out more than just a negative change (i.e., "slow down), the production and delivery numbers have dropped more significantly than if it were just a reflection of the general downward change in housing in general. The numbers are kind of staggering - MHI reports that for February 2007, shipments of homes were down 38.8% for all surveyed areas from February 2006. Additionally, in the West North Central Region, shipments were actually down 49.9% and in our Region - the Pacific Region, shipments were down 40.5%. California, in particular, reported shipments which represented a drop of 46.6%.
So, what happened??
The changes in my opinion, are attributable in part to the actual housing market changes (i.e., "slow down"), and in part to consumer perception of the housing markets - enough negative media can actually exert its own forces on the market, and in part to problems with financing of manufactured homes - during the prior year, many lenders exited the market including Greentree Financial, but perhaps most important is a change in consumer perceptions of the industry as a whole. As the market started changing, consumers of housing product changed - they became better educated about their choices; traditional stick-built housing developers have offered more service, more product and all for lower prices and in some cases, captured buyers who might have otherwise been attracted to Manufactured and Modular Housing because of the price differential. Additionally, for traditional site-constructed homes, buyers are able to qualify much easier, and on better terms than MH, which has created an imbalance, and a loss of true "affordability" within Manufactured Housing.
What Needs To Change??
To paraphrase the message of Blake Ashdown of SureVista Solutions (www.surevista.com - bashdown@surevista.com - a sales and marketing consulting firm) delivered to the MHI Congress this past week, the focus of business needs to be different from the traditional "Sales Era" focus which prevailed until the 1990's. Unfortunately, the Manufactured Housing Industry has been stuck in this "Sales Era" way of doing business up to today. The focus in Manufactured Housing has been so long focused on "the sale" and "closing the deal" that the industry has completely missed the most recent change in business focus - the customer. To survive, the Manufactured Housing Industry has to change it's focus from selling a product, to creating an experience for the customer. Many manufacturers have begun or are fairly-well entrenched in increasing their Customer Satisfaction Index, however, that message hasn't completely trickled-down to the home retailer yet, and many new home buyers still have very difficult experiences with the retailer from whom they purchase a new home.
We at Homes of the West, L.L.C. recognize this need to change, and following the direction of national and local trade organizations like MHI, have launched a new Customer Satisfaction Campaign. Over the coming weeks, I'll be posting more details about the program, and what it means to our clients.
The second speaker I want to discuss is Joseph C. Adams, PHC® of The Housing Marketplace, Inc. (www.TheHousingMarketplace.com - jadams777@bellsouth.net - a major provider of sales and marketing services for builders and retailers). Joseph delivered a message at the Congress which was quite inspirational. He too focused on the need to change the way Manufactured Homes are sold, and agreed that change needed to come in the form of more focus on the customer's experience, rather than a focus on selling this home, or that home. Joseph focussed on seven key points for building a better sales organization:
- Take Risks
- Display Professionalism
- Radiate Energy
- Exude Enthusiasm
- Perform with Passion
- Develop a Plan
I've begun the process of incorporating these key values into our new Customer Satisfaction Campaign - while many of these might appear to be similar, they are distinct, and as discussed above, I'll flush this out more thoroughly in the coming weeks.
As always, thank you again for tuning in, and keep coming back - there is a lot more to come.