2019 MH FacTOURy Summit Presenters Offer Insight
MHVillage teamed with IMHA to present the 2019 MH FacTOURy Summit in Elkhart, Ind. The June 17-18 event helps community owners and operators, as well as other manufactured housing professionals, better understand the business and best practices for customer service, management, marketing, sales and more.
What follows is a series of quick soundbites from the education series provided by MH FacTOURy Summit presenters.
Bruce Thelen, senior vice president at Sun Communities
MH FacTOURy Summit Presenter on “Building a Culture of Service to Achieve Results”:
- Use a “treat others the way you want to be treated” customer service philosophy
- “When you treat people right, the financial results will follow”
- Engage in leadership through service
- The average age of a millennial is 31… right at the “household formation years”
- Millennials expect to have trending features seen on HGTV (like a smart thermostat)
- Consider stilted homes like those being offered in the Florida Keys
- Two homes combined in one using the deck to create outdoor space
Darren Krolewski, co-president at MHVillage/Datacomp
MH FacTOURy Summit Presenter on “Social Media Mastery”:
- Social media has a higher close rate and is less expensive than Google AdWords PPC
- More than 80% of U.S. consumers have social media
- Facebook and Instagram are the most popular platform, with 88 and 60% saturation respectively
- 75% of consumers base purchases on reviews
- More than half of social media users would rather message/text than call for customer service
- When shunned on social media, 30% of those polled will go to your competitor
- 90 percent of Instagram users are 35 years old or younger
- What to do on social? Educate about the buying process, post engaging content, share news, talk about local events, share listings, take a poll, or share testimonials/reviews, video/virtual tour, publicize charitable giving
- No more free reach — organic reach on Facebook is dipping as low as 2%
- Facebook pixel = use a code on your site that tracks visitors and shows them your ads
- Be prepared to respond now — this generation wants things instantly
- The chance of closing an online lead diminishes by 65% within the first 15 minutes of receiving the lead
- You need to respond the way buyers want to reach you — don’t push toward other means of communication
Dee Pizer, Board Trustee for Zeman Homes
MH FacTOURy Summit Presenter “How to Buy the Right Manufactured Homes”:
- Start with the site, measure the lot
- Make sure the aesthetic of the home fits with the community
- Upgrade siding to a darker color for corner lots
- Create a color package — if someone wants to factory order, you have color packages that are sure to color coordinate
John Ace Underwood, of NRI Inc.
MH FacTOURy Summit Presenter on “Lead Management: Marketing Might Be Your Goldmine”
- Marketing is all about finding people who are interested in your products or services
- If you aren’t getting more leads than you can handle, you have a problem
- There are no good or bad leads, only leads
- We absolutely, unequivocally own the word ‘affordable’
- Do not qualify people over the phone. Get them in front of you and then qualify them.
- Never, ever end a conversation without having discussed and scheduled the next logical step in the sales process.
- Everything is about how your prospect feels after having spoken to you
