Yes, it is a very tough market. In my own state unit sales of new homes are down 60%, year over year. But that also means that 40% of sales are still happening. People are still getting married, divorced, transferred, having kids and retiring. How do you make sure that you are in the 40% and not in the 60%?

First of all, no matter what, remember that while things are tough, the reps who are in the 40% share a couple of traits. They understand that someone is selling, and they are determined that it will be them (attitude is important), and that they are always looking for and trying new ideas to close deals.

Below are some ideas to help you get more deals across the line. In this market one more deal this year can make the difference between being in the top half of closers or in with the also-rans.

General themes. You can’t skip the "small" stuff. There is no "small" stuff anymore, only the stuff you could have done, but didn’t. It takes three times longer to close a deal now than it did in 2005. It takes longer for buyers to become comfortable. That means they are not just getting comfortable with you; they are also getting comfortable with the local market, your community, the builder, their own finances and future appreciation. If it was easy, they could hire anybody to do your job. Let’s get started.

I have broken these ideas into six general areas:

· Generating traffic
· Marketing to your prospect
· Selling as a team
· Follow up
· Getting from the Close to Settlement
· Using your Website and the Internet Generating Traffic

Generating Traffic

1. Hold a community barbecue – Existing community home owners (who are already happy - presumably, and are just as interested in keeping values and appraisals up) are a great source of leads.

2. Hold a community yard or garage sale – Yard and garage sales will always generate traffic. It may not result in a close next week – but it may sometime.

3. Hand out community fliers at the local school and recreation council events. Make sure you get permission and offer to help with volunteer time and/or a donation.

4. Invite existing community owners to open houses – They are your best advertising and sales people.

5. Put community door knockers in older communities nearby where potential move-ups may live. "Keep your schools, friends and commute – just get a better, bigger, newer house."

6. Sell from a model if you can – Trailers are not selling as well as models are. Make sure you have virtual tours of similar models in other communities if you must work from a trailer.

Marketing to Your Prospect

1. Remind buyers of the difference between the local market and the national market. The media are reporting the broadest and most sensational statistics that they see. Often local figures are very different.

2. Buyers should remember that homes are like stocks everybody always tells you to buy low and sell high. Now is the time to buy to maximize your potential appreciation in the future.

3. In the long run, home prices will go up and gas prices will go down or level off in the future. Long term statistics bear this out over and over again.

4. Buyers who want to negotiate lower prices forget that once they are homeowners they will not want to hear that someone was a better negotiator than they were, and they certainly will not want their appraisal and home value lowered by the next buyer.

5. Sometime your do need to adjust prices – But they should be adjusted based on facts, not emotion. In an existing community you have the data about options included in the first homes and if any of those units have been re-sold recently on the open market. That will give you the data you need to adjust prices based the current reality of your situation.

Selling as a Team

1. Integrate your local real estate agents – Invite them to your open houses and other events.

2. Market to brokers and real estate agents with the same community news and other info you are sending to you prospects. Don’t assume that they know what is happening if you aren’t telling them.

3. Bonus co-ops to Brokers. Go to 4% to get their attention and some builders are paying up to $10,000 in bonus commissions.

4. Remember, your contingent buyers have a home to sell. Send them to your favorite broker or agent. They will help you clear that contingency faster.

Follow up

1. Follow up is much more important than it ever was. Every lead is precious. Don’t ever give them an excuse to go somewhere else.

2. Go back through your old cards and leads and real estate contacts – Folks who were prospects two or even three years ago may not have done anything – your timing may be perfect. Call them.

3. Campaigns help you help yourself – If the software you use allows for campaigns to prospects, use them. Maintain the notes and status of your prospects in the system so you and the software always know what to do with a prospect next.

4. Backlog management is critical – Remember a much higher percentage of closed deals are going away before settlement. Try to have another prospect to drop in when a deal does go south.

5. Backlog postcards – Keep your buyers posted on what is happening on their home, even bad news like a delay in starting the next section, but also the schedule and next milestones. Keep the excitement and have your buyers be part of the process. They will appreciate it and are much less likely to get the jitters while they are waiting.

6. Have a reason or question that you could answer but don’t right away, so you can follow up with a call or e-mail couple of weeks later. Don’t just contact. Have a reason for contact.

7. Referrals from your backlog – People who just bought from you are almost as good as someone already living in the community. Ask your buyer for referrals.

8. E-mail blasts – When you have something to tell people (another sale, only 4 homes left, new section opening, new school opening, etc.) tell everyone. Use email in Outlook or inside your sales application to let a large number of prospects know about the news all at once. Just remember that they should be sent one at a time so you don’t show all your prospects the other recipient’s addresses. Most sales applications have this capability.

9. More e-mail – A quick personal e-mail is as good as a phone call (sometimes better because buyers can take in the information when they choose to). A birthday, the first day of the new job or news about the community in general are reasons to maintain contact.

10. When a prospect does visit the model, call and leave a message at home thanking them for stopping by.

Getting from the contract to settlement

1. Too many deals that are signed don’t make it to the settlement table. Selling doesn’t stop when the contract is signed.

2. Finance Knowledge – Have some. With credit tighter than ever and more buyers being "credit challenged", your expertise may be the key to helping them buy a home. Learn all you can. You may have the one idea that puts them over the top.

3. Remind your buyer that they may have hidden assets that they may not have thought of like an inheritance or case value life insurance and other sources of cash to get them over the top.

4. Have your buyer take time to clean up their credit – You will still need buyers in six months. If they are just not there, give them specific homework to work on to get their score up so they will qualify when they come back.

5. Use a lender that has credit simulator software. This will help them to see how taking certain actions on their part will affect their credit score. Sometimes this concrete cause and effect is just what people need to take action.

6. Qualify buyer for a "To-Be-Built" – This will also give them time to fix up their scores.

7. Have your buyers save more for a down payment – Sometime the score is not the problem, the new cash requirements are. Again, put it on paper – "If you put aside this mush per paycheck, you will have this much more in six months and that is what you will need for this mortgage."

8. Have access to a great lender that does credit counseling – Sometimes it is who you know. Going through a credit counseling process can make a huge difference when the buyer returns and they will remember who helped them rather than turning them away.

9. Have your lead fill out a credit authorization as early as possible – This will help you qualify them, even before they have applied for a mortgage. Use your time wisely and let your prospect know what they will need to do to fix things, don’t just cut them off.

10. Have your buyers qualify for a mortgage first then sell to them – in this market it is hard to turn people away, but you may be wasting their time and yours by trying to close on a prospect that won’t qualify.

11. Use those credit authorizations to have a mortgage company reauthorize the mortgage in six months, after they have hopefully improved their score – What a great way to follow up. "I just re-ran your credit score and you now qualify for the mortgage. Come on back to the model and we can talk about what we can do for you."

12. If your buyers are selling their house first make sure they use a good realtor. This is really a repeat from the Team Selling section, but you know that a realtor can sell a house much faster than a "For Sale By Owner" ever could.

13. Sales and production joint calls – Also a repeat from above, but having Production on the calls with you, makes it real to your customer in a way that all the postcards in the world cannot.

Your website and the Internet

1. Remember that Internet lead sale time is often longer than a walk-in or a call. It could take up to two years to move that buyer to close.

2. Ask your marketing or Internet staff if you are able to see who downloads a community brochure from the website. It may not be as good as normal site registration, but an e-mail address will let you follow up.

3. Don’t forget that younger and first time buyers are much more Internet savvy. Use MySpace.com, YouTube.com and CraigsList.com to help you reach a different type of buyer.

4. Treat your web site registration like a be-back or follow-up – Just because it may take longer to close, doesn’t mean you should take an Internet lead any less seriously.

5. Leave your web site imperfect – Leave some questions unanswered on your website to generate a phone call, e-mail or be-back. Remember all sales are done face to face.