In the first article of this series, I would like to outline why it is important for a small builder, to understand the questions that exists in the minds of every potential customer, and why you need to address them even if they are not asked.
Supplying satisfactory responses to these questions will go a long way towards establishing a point of difference between you, and your competitors.
These questions are the triggers that will allow you to demonstrate your uniqueness as a home builder and helps your prospective customers journey along a well-defined pathway towards finding the solution to the issues involved in getting the best possible outcome for their building project and becoming happily involved with your services and product. Customers want a good experience and it is your role to help them be comfortable that you will deliver that outcome.
What Kind of Home Are You Able to Offer?
This question, and its many variants, is informed by a desire on the part of the customers to find out what you can do for them. The more accurate question would be; “I am hoping to do X, can you help me do that?”
It therefore follows that instead of responding to the literal question, you should respond in a way that will provide you with more detail about the outcome the customer is really hoping to achieve. The reality is that while you may be in a position to provide what the customer wants; it may be the case that providing that outcome may detract from the market focus you have. In which case it may be better to refer the client on to someone who will provide a better fit. Don’t be scared to stay true to your focus. If you want to focus on renovations, chasing after any new home that came your way will dilute your focus, and soon you won’t have one at all.
You don’t want to lead with a multitude of solutions before you clearly understand the objectives of your potential customers. So simply say; “I am happy to help you in any way I can. What were you hoping to achieve?” They will be appreciative of the opportunity to talk about their objectives.
It is important to remember that this is not about you. Customers are not interested in what you are doing, what you have done, and how good a builder you are at this point. That time will come and should be discussed when they feel the process is at a point where they want to explore those issues. Right now, they want to be convinced that you can provide the home design they are looking for, and that you have the processes in place that will likely help them find the right design.
What Sort of Home Design Can You Offer Them?
The only home that you should really be offering your customers, is the home that they are looking for, anything else and you risk alienating them from the get-go. You may get away with scatter-gun solutions for a while, but they will bring you back to the task at hand; but you should consider yourself lucky if you do.
The real answer is to have in place a process that will deliver to them what they are searching for. Your job at the beginning is to make them comfortable that if they invest time, money and effort into your process, they are likely to find what they are looking for exactly.
You can only do this if you have the infrastructure in place to provide this service. The Building Buddy Platform is an extremely cost-efficient way to bolt-on a fully-fledged pre-sales infrastructure to your business.
Becoming an affiliate entitles you to offer your customers a free design assessment which can extend into a free preliminary plan and cost-estimate. This offer is only available to affiliates of the Building Buddy Design and Build Platform. Find Out More…
The next question to answer is;
What is included in that price?
