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Are you hurting? It’s time to Change Something.

Lance McGinnis - As seen in the 'The Journal'

It’s a tough market.

Sales are down. It doesn’t take a genius to know this. It’s not just happening in your community. In September, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute, shipments of homes were down 32.1% nationwide. That’s the culmination of a trend from the end of last year, when in November shipments had dipped 14.7%. That percentage has steadily grown, taking with it the confidence and even the courage of some retailers to stay in the business.

Recently I talked with one such retailer who was considering getting out of the game. It was his belief that the current trend would simply continue in its downward spiral to the point that he would have to close his doors. This retailer has been in business 31 years, selling 300-350 homes per year, or 25-30 homes per month, as of just a few years ago. Now he’s lucky to sell 10 homes per month, and many of these are used singlewides, as opposed to the higher-ticket, new doublewides he relied on to sell before the market downturn. Most significantly, this retailer is not computerized. Every aspect of his business, from bookkeeping, to service and sales is done manually.

This scenario breaks my heart. It is evident all across the country that people are hurting. Some take it as a challenge and make the changes necessary to make the most of what little sales activity is available now and prepare for busier times. Some just weather it out, expecting that the market will eventually have to get better, taking on a side business, or increasing their debt to stay alive. Others fold. In my view, I hate to see an owner who’s given 31 years of his life to a business and made it successful, walk away out of frustration, fear and resignation, particularly when there are things he can do to strengthen his business while waiting for the market to improve. The bottom line is that the market will eventually recover, and those that have used the downturn to their advantage to implement strategies to help them are the ones who will emerge stronger and more financially secure than before.

If it’s working, change something.
Change is essential, in good times and bad. Without change our lives become stagnant, and nothing grows in stagnant waters. Change keeps things moving and fluid. When sales are up, you probably have a million thoughts running through your head as to how you can make things even better: Give your signage a facelift. Spruce up your entrance display. Design a “Thank You” card to send as a follow up to every first-time prospect and home buyer. Develop a letter to merge “special sales” information with those prospects that are holding out due to price. Find ways to improve customer service so you build a strong referral base. Install an integrated computer system to help keep information consistent among departments, reduce errors, eliminate repetition and cut costs. Begin an in-house sales training program for new recruits … Success frequently spurs creativity, which is a catalyst for change and greater success.

If it’s not working, change something.
In a recent issue of Manufactured Housing Merchandiser, Fred Townsend wrote “Business can be good, even in a flat market. But you cannot capture a reasonable share of the pie by sitting, wishing and hoping. Equal parts creativity, professional sales skills, product knowledge, industriousness and positive mental attitude make up this formula for success!”

In a down market it’s easy to fall into negative thinking and forget about the changes you were committed to making when your days were filled with writing deals and customers on the lot. This is dangerous however, and eventually leads to the kind of end-of-the-line decisions that our retailer of 31 years is facing. With a pro-active, creative approach to the problem, instead of asking “How long can I afford to keep going,” you might ask, “What can I do to add value to my business, make good use of my staff’s time, encourage sales and improve customer loyalty?”

An investment in technology is never a mistake.
To make significant changes you need the right tools. Applying these tools to each department of your business can bring about dramatic changes (i.e., increasing bill backs as much as 100% by using a service tracking program), but since the market is tight, lets focus on your sales department. Did you know you can use computers to help you bring in more business, measure what you’ve got, and save time so you can sell more?

Using a renter’s list (a list of people in your area that rent rather than own), computers can help you do a mailing describing the benefits of manufactured home ownership and announcing a special open house (you could even include a brochure of your home lines) … Going further, once per month you can use the same database to send a simple postcard to each person on the list, announcing specials on new and used homes … Add to this database statistics such as age, number of children and marital status (you can always find pictures of newlyweds and newborns in the local paper) and you get an even more refined and likely audience for your homes. Computers make this kind of targeted marketing easy and less costly than radio, TV or even newspaper advertising. Some computer systems will even help you track your advertising dollars so you can see what’s bringing in business and what isn’t, thereby eliminating an expense that isn’t paying off. There’s more. These same computer systems will help you keep track of who you’ve contacted and when, what you said, and when you need to call back and for which part of the sales process. A simple report tells you everything you need to know for that day or week.

Once you’ve got the customer on the lot, computers can help you simplify the sales process so completely that you spend nearly all of your time in front of your prospects instead of writing or re-writing orders, and filling out credit apps and Form 500s. Quotes, orders, credit apps specific to the lender you want and even Form 500s can be printed in minutes or less.

Make the change that gives change (lots of it) back.
Computers are not perfect. They can’t think for you, they can’t set sales goals or make decisions. But they can help you cut down drastically on the amount of time any task takes. They can give you enormous flexibility in communication with others (i.e., email), they can help you share valuable resources (i.e., one printer can serve a whole office), and expand the use of others (i.e., fax from your computer). More importantly, they offer a whole realm of possibilities with regards to helping you drive specific areas of your business so they run more profitably.

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