Winning market share in the new home building sector during a recession

During the last recession, I grew the market share of one of New Zealand’s leading home builders from 2.5% to 5%. In this article, I share the tactics used to achieve that – and I’m offering NZCB members a free 30-minute consultation to help you prioritise your own action plan.

7 tools to winning market share during a recession

1. Monitor your leading indicators

The key leading indicators to measure in the new home building sector are:

• •  Qualified leads: leads who have expressed interest in building a home and have the financial
    ability to do so.
  •  Number of appointments made with qualified leads.
  • Sales funnel velocity: The speed at which leads move through the sales funnel.
  •  Home showings.
  • Offers made.
  • Negotiation: Tracking the negotiation process helps identify potential obstacles in the sales
    process. If negotiations stall, it may be necessary to adjust the sales approach, or the price.
  • Contract signings: as a percentage of the total number of qualified leads. This shows the
    effectiveness of the sales process and potential areas for improvement.

2. Define your customer personas

Be clear on who your target customers are, and create detailed buyer personas that pinpoint the needs, preferences, and pain points of target customers at each stage of the buyer’s journey. This will help you to understand their motivations and tailor your sales process accordingly.

Also take a fresh look at your traditional market: is it still viable? Or are there new opportunities, for example customer segments that are less affected by the recession? E.g. first home buyers, or customers looking to downsize.

3. Understand the online customer journey

Your leads will have had multiple experiences with your brand online before they contact you. Therefore it’s vital to understand and map out the touch points prospects may have throughout the sales process. This enables you to create targeted content, and optimise your website for each stage of the buyer’s journey.

4. Documented milestone-centric sales process

Implement a formal documented milestone-centric sales process that uses a consultative selling methodology. Qualification criteria ensure that sales reps are targeting the right prospects. Sales enablement tools, such as CRM software and marketing collateral, should be provided to support the consultative methodology.

5. Deliver value

Focus on providing value to customers. This could mean offering more value or incentives that appeal to your buyer personas.

6. Streamline and reduce costs

Review how you do things, with the aim of reducing costs through efficient processes, or finding ways to
streamlining your business operations.

7. Invest in marketing

Invest in digital marketing and advertising: this can help you stand out from competitors. There are many case studies of companies across a range of sectors that increased their marketing activity during recessionary times and increased their sales revenue and market share. Now is definitely not the time to reduce marketing activity and risk becoming invisible in the marketplace.