Jan 15 2008 7:00AM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (1) |
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I had someone post a comment from my last blog. It really got me thinking. Thinking back to my “previous life” …. life on the “homebuilding side of the business”. Here’s what happened.

I wrote about conversion rates … and discussed a conversation I had with a manager friend in Phoenix. My friend talked about how he believed that the key to today’s market was conversion rates. Matter of fact, what I wrote went something like this:

A friend of mine believes that today’s market is all about the associate that does the best job in terms of selling. And not about the one that does the best job in terms of discounting. After all, everyone’s discounting these days … and everyone’s discounts are about the same.

My friend also poses one more question. If today’s market is all about conversion rates … why are we satisfied with what we are currently doing? And why don’t we think we can get better?

He continues by asking if six percent is what we are used to … why don’t we believe we can convert ten to twelve percent of our traffic? The answer is obvious. You can … but you just don’t know it’s possible.

Unfortunately, the homebuilding industry is plagued by a hideous disease. It’s called mediocrity. We’re trapped by a phrase I hear on a regular basis, “That’s the way we’ve always done it”. And if I’ve heard it once … I’ve heard it a million times. If only you knew.

There are companies out there … counting just like you do … that are averaging ten to fifteen percent conversion rates. And if they can do it you can too. All you have to do is “shake loose” of the past.

Frank’s comment disagreed with what I had to say. He believes that today’s market is about more about sales quotas rather than conversion rates. And you know what … he’s got a point.

His position is that if you ask a sales person for a specific conversion rate … then that’s exactly the conversion rate you’ll get. And from my experience as a Vice President of Sales and Marketing he could be right.

His point is that any time you demand a particular result, it’s easy for sales associates to give you exactly what you want. Especially in a tough market and if they believe their job is on the line.

My Phoenix manager friends point, along with mine, was different than if a sales person could “give” you the results you were looking for. Our point was this. All to often, we let history dictate what we expect, rather than working to set new breakthrough objectives.

Why can’t we do double or triple the conversion rates. Or for that matter, double the sales quota. The answer to those questions lies in our people and our sales process. I believe that, no matter what our goals happen to be, we need to question ourselves to see if we can stretch that number. Be better than we are and set new boundaries. And if we do … who knows what we can achieve.

PS: There’s proof we can!!!!