^{It's About Selling More Homes
By Mike Moore
Reprinted from: Builder & Developer Magazine}

^{Three years ago I said, “Options wasn’t about options, it was an issue of how we sell and build new homes.”  Today I’m more convinced of this than ever. Homebuyer’s desire for choices and the ability to personalize their home isn’t going away and business as usual won’t be enough to satisfy your prospective buyers.  Many builders are addressing the demand that options puts on them by looking at their internal process from purchasing, to sales and construction, and beginning to make the necessary adjustments to make options work.}

^{At the risk of stating the obvious, a working option program allows your homebuyers to personalize their home, and in doing so enjoy the home buying experience.  This increases buyer satisfaction and creates customers for life.  In addition personalizing your homebuyer’s new homes should be a profit center that enhances your bottom line.}

^{Nothing worth doing, that has such tremendous upside as options, can be accomplished, without a solid plan, quality experience, and total cooperation of all the people involved.  With options being relatively new, and most builders hoping they would just go away, finding experienced assistance and an effective plan is the first challenge to a successful options program. Your next challenge, is to get all the people involved to commit to the time and cooperation necessary to execute you options program. Let’s face it no one has extra time today, we’re all working more efficiently than ever before, even though we all feel the pressure to do more.}

^{Options, needs more communication between more people than any other business process I’ve seen. You aren’t just selling and delivering a product, you are changing a product with every option selected. Think about the coordination between sales, marketing, construction, and purchasing just to select the options you want to offer. To do this well takes information about market conditions, buyer preferences, and availability. After you select the options to be offered the purchasing process now involves more changes, and more need for attention to details by vendors and sub-contractors than just standard contract bidding. After you get the options selected and your costs, how do you know what to sell them for? Even if you get them priced correctly how do you display them?}

^{Most sub-contractors aren’t experienced in selling to the homebuyer and aren’t fully aware of what you need to effectively sell their products. Their business has been selling them to you, not to the homeowner.  There are exceptions but they are just that, exceptions, and you need help in training your vendors and sub-contractors. This training can speed up the learning curve and improve the communication needed to make options work. Helping them understand your needs, so you can effectively present their products to your homebuyers is critical to making options an enjoyable experience for the homebuyer.}

^{Builders are making options work through this commitment to teamwork, communication, and real partnering. John Laing Homes, Pulte Homes, and Standard Pacific Homes are just a small sample of those who have accepted the need for more staff, professional partners, and increased communication to make options a benefit to their homebuyers. Community meetings and vendor meetings are just part of their commitment to give their homebuyers the best experience possible. The will to win and a vision for the future is seen in their commitment to improving their homebuyer’s satisfaction through a quality options program. Finding sub-contractors and vendors who have the same vision and will is a key ingredient in making your options program successful.}

^{I am beginning to see sub-contractors and vendors become more responsible in helping their customer, the builder, be successful in their options programs. After all, it benefits everyone, the homeowner, vendor, sub-contractor, and builder if options are successful. Builders are looking for vendors they can partner with who will provide the products, training, and services to enhance the homebuying experience. Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that options are about selling more homes, not about selling more options. Options sell more homes when they are delivered effectively. When you can create a team consisting of the builder, vendors, and sub-contractors who have this one common goal, everyone wins.}

^{For everyone to win all this teamwork and communication needs to be maintained in the community selling process. The community selling team of sales agents, designers, superintendents, options coordinators, administrators, vendors, and sub-contractors must communicate even more closely than those who built the options program. As I said, I’ve never seen the need for more people to communicate effectively to make any business process successful. To do this the community team will need proven procedures and the right technology. This is an ongoing process in and of itself, as procedures always need improving and technology is available, but must be updated to best serve those who serve your homebuyers. Even with proven procedures and the right technology in place this team will need to stay focused on their goal to make the homebuying experience enjoyable. The end result will be a more personal living environment in each of your homes and more satisfied customers, who will help you sell more homes.}

^{Today and tomorrows homebuyers want choices, and personal, private attention to their desires. To meet their demands a good sense of community is needed within the building process before a quality community, that offers personal choices, can be built.} 

^{Find your teammates and get busy because others already are!}