The Masthead

MHMSM.com is becoming MHProNews.com. Your Industry Place to Do Business. Based on reported statistics, readers like you have created more page views here than MHI, NMBC, NCC, The Journal and George Allen’s blog have combined. Now, thanks to you, our sponsors, writers and associates, the Manufactured Housing Industry PR/Marketing campaign is starting to take shape. Please see the Cutting Edge Blog for insights on what leaders who have seen the plan say. If you want to see the plan yourself, also check in at the Cutting Edge Blog as soon as possible.

We will also be unveiling the new MHProNews.com website format later this summer. Take a few minutes and click here to see a preview of all the improvements you will find that will make us your one stop shop for Industry news, tips and views you can use.

You are not alone when you are reading at MHMSM.com – MHProNews.com.  Here is our score card for July 2011.

Total Sessions/Visitors	79,650.00  (+13.06% vs. June-11)
Total Pageviews	387,750.00 (+24.76% over June)
Total Hits	1,138,423.00 (+7.2% over June)

August 2011 is here! We have another solid line up of Featured Articles by top writers! Let’s dig in to see what they have to share and say with you this month.

Featured Articles and Reports
for Vol. 2, No. 11, 2011

Alphabetically by Category

BOOK REVIEW

Tracey C. Jones – Resources for Manufactured Housing Business Success
• Savings: more than Building Wealth, can impact Moral Decisions

COMMUNITIES

Chrissy Jackson – Manufactured Home Land Lease Community Management
• Guidelines for Living: Content Area of Guidelines – Topics from Complaints to Emergencies

Joanne Stevens – Manufactured Home Community Value
• Demand Strong for Manufactured Home Parks and Communities

Steve Lefler – Manufactured Home Community
• The Senior Manufactured Home Community and its Unintended Consquences

FINANCE

Kenneth Rishel – Manufactured Housing Industry Financing
• Captive Finance – The Importance of Financing New Homes

Dave Shanklin – Manufactured Housing Industry Financing
• Five Issues that can Help or Sink your Manufactured Home Sales

GENERAL INDUSTRY/COMMENTARY

George F. Allen – Manufactured Housing Industry Commentary
• Shots Across the Bow: MHARR and MHI

L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach – Manufactured Housing Industry Commentary
• Manufactured Housing Plagues and Solution Orientation

George Porter – Manufactured Housing Installation
• Air Out Your Problems

Dan Rinzema – Manufactured Industry Commentary
• Will an MLS ever work for our Industry? Part 1,

INSPIRATION/PEOPLE SKILLS

Zig Ziglar – Motivation & Inspiration
• ZigOn…Why You Are Where You Are

LEGAL

Nadeen Green – Legal, Fair Housing
• Summer Swimwear and Fair Housing Law

MARKETING

Derrick Hachey- Manufactured Housing Use of Internet & Social Media
• Using the Internet and Social Media to make more Manufactured Home Sales

Erin Schmotzer-Manufactured Housing Industry Marketing
• Make the most of your advertising/marketing budget: Track where your customers come from

SALES

Tim Connor – Sales
• Has the Economy Affected your Sales Approaches?

Mark Hunter – Sales
• 6 Do’s and Don’ts of Using an iPad in a Sales Presentation.

Mike Moore – Sales
• The “New Economy” Requires New Intentions

# #

by L. A.  Tony Kovach
Connect with me on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Marty Lavin has weighed in on a topic that George Allen, Doug Gorman and others have graced our pages with here at MHMSM.com.  Conspiracy theories and our baker’s dozen year turn down in sales since 1998 seem to go hand in glove.  You will want to set the time aside to really read, not to skim, Marty’s Lavin’s latest thoughts.  See how the MH/Grassy Knoll crowd fits in with how we can make personal property lending – and thus our Industry – better.

Pat Curran joins us for the first time with an Industry Voices guest blog post.   This industry lender will show us his ideas on how we can protect and save Chattel Lending, and promote while protecting the manufactured housing industry.

I first met Pat back in the late 80s, when he was with Foremost, and my team and I were busy retailing manufactured homes in Purcell, OK.  Pat’s is another article that will need more than a skim!  Because he too gets into the trenches, as to what it will take to make personal property (home only or ‘chattel’ lending) truly viable, but it goes into other Industry and national issues too!

Pat’s article, like Marty’s, is for long term Industry thinkers, movers and shakers only.

Finally, I want to give everyone a heads up on what is coming here to MHProNews.com.

Yes, MHProNews.com is already an active URL (web address) for MHMSM.com and MHMarketingSalesManagement.com.  Our rebranding will be phased in over time, so people don’t wake up one day and ask, Hey! What happened to MHMSM.com?  Fear not.  We are still here, and MHMSM.com aka MHProNews.com plans to be for a long time to come.

The next stage will be our new site facelift.

We’ve listened to you our many readers.  The new format will be much more news looking.  Easier navigation.  All the same great current content.  But more features too, some that you won’t find anywhere else that I’ve seen online in manufactured housing.

We will still have those same great columns by top Industry pros.  We will still have the most content, most news, most blogs found on any single known site in the modular and manufactured (factory-built) home industries.

We are and can be your one stop shop for Industry news, tips and views you can use.

We hope to have the new site, which is already well into development, up and running by the end of summer.

Our developer, who also did a site revision for a FoxNews affiliate, says our site is already as large as that new station’s was, and we are much newer!

—As a heads up to all, when we do the site switch over, our site will be down for several hours, maybe the better part of a day.  As large as it is, there will typically be some bugs to work out.  Just be confident that with your patient input, we will make this as smooth as possible.  <—

Please be prepared for what we believe is another big step ahead for the most comprehensive place in America for manufactured and modular housing news, tips and views you can use.  As George Allen said, the Industry turn around needs a good Industry online news source!  We are glad to be that source of choice for you and 60,000 plus others MH Pros in the moon of June, 2010.

Hmmm.  MH Pros.  MH Professionals.  MHProNews.com.  Kinda sums it up, doesn’t it?

We want to thank our sponsors, writers and team members – past, present and to come – for making all this possible for you.

Oh, yes! Speaking of conspiracy theories and manufactured housing.  Please remind me to tell you the latest one that crossed my desk.  It’s a doozie.

Enjoy Marty, Pat and all our fine featured writer contributors.

Let’s catch up again next week.##

March Madness is history and UConn fans revel in their team’s win over favored Butler. Now the NBA playoffs begin April 16.

A more brilliant history has been made in Louisville… Tunica… and is coming up in York… Tulsa… the venues of this year’s great manufactured home shows. Irving Berlin said it first about the Greatest Show on Earth, but there’s no reason why it can’t apply to these Industry Shows as well: the HOMExpo 2011, billed as the Only Factory Built Housing Show in the Northeast Region, and the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show, the Biggest Indoor Home Show:

There’s no business like [MH] show business
Like no business I know
Everything about it is appealing
Everything the traffic will allow…
Let’s go on with the show
Let’s go on with the show!
The show!
The show!

Scheduling these Industry shows in the first four months invigorates and motivates, inspires and propels the vendors and attendees – professionals and public alike – to fresh enthusiasm for the remaining eight months of the year. Fresh enthusiasm for the excellent product we call factory-built homes: HUD code manufactured, modular, panelized… Fresh appreciation for the Industry pros you can meet in person, for the seminars and workshops, the products and services that surround and support these homes and the variety of locations in which they can be sited. Fresh enthusiasm for buyer-affordability and vendor-profitability in what can be an Industry Turn-around Year!

Which shows did you attend and/or will you be attending? What features were most helpful for you and your business? What didn’t happen that you would like to see included in next year’s shows? MHMSM.com would like to hear from you on these subjects. Use our Discus system to leave a public comment at the bottom of this article, or email Tony@MHMSM.com or Catherine@MHMSM.com for a private one. We respect your privacy, and share names/contact information when you give permission to do so.

Speaking of winners and Industry pros who always make their shots, let’s get to our new line-up of Featured Articles and Reports! This month we introduce our Featured Articles according to Subject Category, listed alphabetically. We hope by doing so to optimize your time with us by allowing you to more quickly identify a topic that interests you. We also welcome four new contributors this month: Mark Hunter, Tracey C. Jones, Donna Rishel and Kirk Chittick. So here are “All the Best” Top-Talent professionals!

Featured Articles and Reports

for Vol. 2, No. 7, 2011

Alphabetically by Category

COMMUNITIES

Edward ‘Eddie’ Hicks – Manufactured Home Communities
• Who the H*ll Wants to Live in a Trailer Park?

Chrissy Jackson – Land Lease Community Management
• Guidelines for Living: What Should this Guideline Achieve?

Joanne Stevens – Manufactured Home Community Value
• Top 10 List: What Community and Park Owners Think Makes Their Property Worth More

Don Westphal – Manufactured Home Community Planning
• Extreme Makeover, Community Edition – aka Ryder Park, Milford, CT – Introduction

FINANCE

Paul Bradley – Manufactured Housing Industry Financing
• IBIS Report on “Dying Industry” Misses the Mark

Dave Shanklin – Manufactured Housing Industry Financing
• Record-Low Loan Rates Attracting Buyers of Manufactured Homes in Leased Land Communities

Donna Rishel – Manufactured Housing Industry Finance Commentary
• Are Outside Investors Doomed to Fail?

Kenneth Rishel – Manufactured Housing Industry Finance Commentary
• Is Lease to Own a Safe Harbor from the SAFE Act?

GENERAL INDUSTRY/COMMENTARY

George F. Allen – Manufactured Housing Industry Commentary
• Will Euphemisms Save the Manufactured Housing Industry?

Michael Barnabas – Manufactured Housing Industry Solutions
• A look at Randy Rowe’s 5 Point Plan for Manufactured Housing Industry Recovery

Tracey C. Jones – Resources for Manufactured Housing Business Success
• 23 Ways You Can Grow Your Manufactured Housing Community Business

L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach – Manufactured Housing Industry Perspective
• The Manufactured Housing Rut

George Porter – Manufactured Housing Retail and Media Education
• Adapt, Migrate or Die – Part I: Adapt

INSPIRATION/PEOPLE SKILLS

Greg McClanahan – Soft Skills and Personal Development
• Thanks, Joe!

Zig Ziglar – Motivation & Inspiration
• ZigOn…Listening to the Coach

Zig Ziglar – Motivation & Inspiration
• ZigOn… Employment Security

LEGAL

Nadeen Green – Legal, Fair Housing
• Top Dog – or, Man’s Best Friend Is Fair Housing’s, Too!

MANAGEMENT

Tim Connor – Management
• 8 Reasons Why Employee Development (Training) Is a Waste of Money!

MARKETING

Chad Carr – Internet Marketing and Sales
• By the Numbers – Part 2

Bob Stovall – Manufactured Housing Use of Internet & Social Media
• Is Cloud Computing Just Pie-in-the-sky?

SALES

Tim Connor – Sales
• Overcoming Sales Slumps

Mark Hunter – Sales
• Your Customer’s Price Investment Ratio (PIR)

Mike Moore & Kirk Chittick – Sales
• 12 Step Program to Recover from the Effects of Traditional Sales Training

1.
March Madness

Have you seen our burgeoning Calendar of Events? ?  There are Industry Shows galore in March and April as state and national associations across the country sponsor Home Shows and Expos with Trade and Public Days.  In 2010, it would have seemed madness to think that some Shows, cancelled because of the economy, would return only a year later.  March will launch the Tunica Manufactured Housing Show and Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI)’s Winter Meeting and Legislative Conference, in Washington, DC. plus annual Association meetings and other events in at least four states (Maine, North Dakota, New York and California). Other state Association meetings and events occur in Maine, North Dakota, New York and California as well.  April will feature the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa, OK; HOMExpo 2011 in York, PA, and the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI)’s 2011 National Congress & Expo in Las Vegas, NV.

Suzanne Felber, LifeStylist® has been reporting on the various Shows, and continues with a Feature Article this month on how to apply what you learn at a Show to your own retail center or community.

This month is also the celebration of March Madness, the NCAA Tournament held at courts and sports arenas all over the country. Fans think nothing of traveling hundreds or thousands of miles to Be There and share the excitement and triumphs of their teams playing for the NCAA crystal trophy. Those who haven’t the time or means can watch wall-to-wall basketball from noon to midnight from their own TVs or phone apps. If thousands of fans can do this to support and enjoy their team, can we not do the same for our manufactured homes?

Hmmm, basketball fans… manufactured housing fans…

2.
To Associate, or Not to Associate, that is the Question… Or is it?

Doesn’t that divide the manufactured housing world of associations into the simplistic ‘black and white’ world of yesteryear, when the 21st-century world has gone from shades of gray to limitless hues of multi-spectrum color?

Maybe the real question is how to associate? Or why join an association? These MHMSM.com pages, especially The Masthead Blog and Industry Voices Blog, are customarily filled with answers to why and reasons for encouraging association membership.  In this issue, we are doing something a bit different, presenting multiple perspectives on associations for your consideration.  Are associations headstrong or member driven? Why join… or why not to? We have drawn two feature articles from the respective material of George F. Allen and Ken Rishel, who bring out both the pluses and minuses of association membership.  In addition, Michael Barnabas, Amy Bliss, Don Westphal and new voices Paul Bradley and Deanna Fields speak for association membership and address some of the concerns that Allen and Rishel have raised.

So it comes back to the fundamental question, how to associate. But the underlying principle that unifies all these perspectives is: YOU – we – (the members) are the ones to make the difference.  This isn’t about being for or against. It is about being FOR the good of the Industry. In these particularly difficult times, how can we afford not to be members of one or more associations? We’re association members. How about you?

L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach’s Feature Article is a call to recognize our need for others, and that the clasp of a helping hand up can mean all the difference in the world. This theme was preceded by his recent contribution to the Inspiration Blog, “Working Together – A Teamwork Puzzle.” He wrote, “If any piece gets minimized or isolated, the rest lose balance and suffer. If the integrity of the circle – if associations or trade media – suffers, all will pay the price. Each party – each piece of the puzzle – needs the others.”

Hmmmm, basketball teams and fans… manufactured housing associations, organizations and fans…

Let’s hear how the basketball greats put it:

“One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.” ~ Hall of Fame Player Kareem Adbul-Jabbar

“Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.” ~ Legendary basketball coach John Wooden

“Basketball doesn’t build character. It reveals it.” ~ Unknown

“Talent wins games, but team work and intelligence wins championships.” ~ Acclaimed player Michael Jordan

And what is our MHIndustry Trophy? How about classy, quality, affordable homes for millions of Americans. HUD Code homes. Modular homes. Pre-fab and panelized homes. All factory built with pride and precision right here in the U.S.A.

3.
Now the greats of the manufactured housing Industry get on the court to share their experience, insights, wisdom, creativity and challenges to help YOU “win the game,” make your sales rise, and succeed and prosper in your MH business. This month we welcome new contributors Paul Bradley, Deanna Fields and Tracy Saville. So here are “All the Best:” Top-Talent professionals from A for Allen to Z for Ziglar! Let’s get started with your big new line up…

Featured Articles and Reports
for Vol. 2, No. 6, 2011

George F. Allen – Manufactured Housing Commentary
• What MHAssociations LACK

Michael Barnabas – Manufactured Housing Industry Solutions
• To Be, or Not to Be: Die, Survive or Thrive & Manufactured Housing

Amy Bliss – Value of Association Membership
• Associations and the Value Proposition

Paul Bradley – Value of Association Membership
• Association Membership: A Member’s Perspective

Paul Bradley – Resident-owned Communities
• Defying conventional wisdom, and winning to write about it!

Chad Carr – Internet Marketing and Sales
• By the Numbers – Part 1

Tim Connor – Management
• Mixed Top-Down Messages

Tim Connor – Sales
• Getting to the Decision Makers

Suzanne Felber – Practical Application of Industry Shows
• Bringing It Home: Using What We Learn at Shows in Our Own Sales Centers

Deanna Fields – Value of Association Membership
• Why Belong to an Association?

Nadeen Green – Legal, Fair Housing
• Eeeewww, That Smells…

Edward ‘Eddie’ Hicks – Manufactured Housing Financing
• Who says there are no more profitable investments in land lease communities?

Chrissy Jackson – Land Lease Community Management
• Guidelines for Living: Will the Guidelines Be Accepted?

Susan Knowles – Manufactured Housing Community Service Options
• Make the Most of an Existing Asset

L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach – Manufactured Housing Industry Perspective
• Rodin, Art and Advancing Manufactured Housing

Greg McClanahan – Soft Skills and Personal Development
• An Amazing Person

George Porter – Manufactured Housing Retail and Media Education
• How Level Is Level?

Kenneth Rishel – Value of Association Membership
• Are Industry Associations Worthy of Active Support?

Kenneth Rishel – Manufactured Housing Industry Finance Commentary
• The Importance of a Written Loan Policy

Tracy Saville – Leader Strategy in the New Economy
• The New Economy Workforce Challenge

Joanne Stevens – Manufactured Housing Real Estate
• Top Ten Signs that You Have Stopped Thinking of Your Manufactured Home Community as an Investment

Bob Stovall – Manufactured Housing Community Resources
• What’s Around Your Community? People Want to Know

Don Westphal – Value of Association Membership
• Participation in State and National Organizations: Manufactured Housing Associations by the Number

Don Westphal – Manufactured Housing Community Planning
• Community Upgrades: Part IV: Level Four Renewal

Zig Ziglar – Motivation & Inspiration
• ZigOn…Integrity Leadership

Zig Ziglar – Motivation & Inspiration
• ZigOn…Teamwork

Ever watch a spine tingling movie?  Ever know someone with curvature of the spine? Ever glance at the catchy title on the spine of a book?

Get a spine for manufactured housing success!  The wisdom of the ages is found in the written (and spoken) Word.  Reading or listening to such wisdom and applying it is thus a sure path to manufactured housing success.

You may have thought of ‘Get a Spine’ as ‘get a backbone’…

…and we certainly need backbones to survive and thrive in the current, challenging economy and business environment.  But we also sell America’s affordable housing option!  So we have the right home product at the right time.

On a fairly routine basis, messages or calls come in saying ‘thanks,’ ‘appreciate the positive approach,’ ‘keep up the solution orientation,’ etc. Messages also come in saying, ‘quit being a rah rah cheer leader,’ or ‘quit being so MH establishment oriented,’ or ‘why don’t you share new ideas, new writers,’ etc?  What is amazing is that reader-commenters also wrote or say, ‘you have a great mix of new faces and recognized pros among your writers!’  In other words, how someone reacts has to do with the person writing and their outlook!  For the record, we have new faces along with seasoned pros on our home page Feature Articles all the time! See About Us for the many ways your voice can be heard on MHMSM.com.

Broadly speaking, there are two possibilities for our Industry: 1) there are solutions for returning to financial health or 2) there are none.

There are either ways to better serve the public and improve our image thereby, or there are none.  As one American legend put it,

Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you are right.

- Henry Ford

If you know someone who thinks it is all hopeless, tell them to figure out the best way to exit the business, OR tell them to read our pages – including our INspiration blog pages – routinely, and adjust their outlook!

Seriously, we KNOW there are challenges.  We are here because we also KNOW there are Industry success stories right now, and others are in the making.  Some plants are closing, but I spoke this week with a gent who is preparing to open a new facility!  Success? Or failure? Or as the Sage of Omaha puts it, and as we echoed in our Success, Manufactured Housing Style feature article:

“The best time to buy is when there is blood on the streets!”

- Warren Buffett

Get a spine!  Drive, wisdom and discipline get things done! Read a book (with a perfect bound ‘spine’ ) that may help you with your professional or business challenges. I am currently reading How the Mighty Fall, by Jim Collins, and plan a review for you in the days ahead.

Collins, a business author who does years of work with a team of university level researchers, has penned the cautionary volume How the Mighty Fall, and why some Companies Never Give In, which many in our Industry need to read to avoid falling into the death spiral for their business.

Speaking of spines, George F. Allen has recently penned an item he shared with me, that will likely be featured here at MHMSM.com in the days ahead.  For the thousands who have not yet seen or read this apparent broadside, it looks at first blush to be a spine-tingling body slam on some association executives.  GFA and I exchanged some discussion on the topic, as our experiences are different on the topic of association executive directors.  Stay tuned for that exchange coming up here on our pages in the days ahead.

For the moment, what I believe George, I and thousands of industry pros like yourself would say is that no two association executives are alike, and not all associations are created equal.  Some are performing amazing efforts to get and keep their members informed, involved and included in the process of navigating these challenging times, SUCCESSFULLY.  No association exec is an island; we all need others to pitch in and lend a hand.  It is that positive collective effort that can make the difference between survival, success or the long slide into professional oblivion.  Association Membership means involvement, if you want to benefit the most and get the most bang for your buck.

Please check out our events calendar, as there are lots of great events coming up in various parts of the country.  Some have a fee; others are free; like the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show In Tulsa, OK – with Industry Trade Days this April 28-29.  Public Days for the Tulsa Show run through May 1st.  Click on the link above for information on that show and click here for their latest updates on the fine food, folks, fun and fabulous networking, business building, great show homes and more you can see.

FYI, If you missed their new trade days video, please go back to my previous blog and view it now.  We will be there presenting our “Dominate your Local Market“ seminar – free – and we hope to see you there.

Readers are leaders, in potency or right now.  In this podcast era, listeners can be leaders, too.  If you – or your team members! – are not signed up for our weekly emailed news updates or daily news podcasts, click on those links to sign up free in seconds.  Does your office administrator read our pages?  Do you want your staff – her or him -  influenced by the main stream media that just doesn’t get our Industry?  Or do you want them to be Influenced by the MH!SM.com pro-Industry media resource?

You don’t need to spend tons of cash to have a research department; just visit here for our Daily Business News and Market Report or listen on your PC, iPhone or net book.

The discipline – the spine – of reading good business books, or of reading news and views you can use found here daily is priceless. If you saw the names of the people who have already signed up, they read like a Who’s Who in this Industry!  If they are here, and when thousands of ‘mom and pop’ independents are here, when 37,000 pros visited in January, 2011, you know you are in good company.

Thanks for spending some time with me; now please read the news or some article on the home page you haven’t read yet! # #

“What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

This is a famous line from the movie, Cool Hand Luke:

The failure to communicate can have serious consequences, including getting knocked down, kicked around and otherwise beaten up.  Does any of that sound familiar?

We routinely get messages, calls or comments from industry pros, many of whom understandably lament the state of our great Industry.  The state of our MH Industry is directly and indirectly tied to the ‘failure to communicate:’

• First, to enough new home consumers, especially those who are more credit worthy or can pay cash.
• Next, to enough current and prior manufactured home owners, to get and keep them as a powerful pool of potential allies, for mutually beneficial political and economic purposes.
• The 19-20 million or so owners of mobile and manufactured homes should be a high priority for any sound strategy to lift the manufactured housing industry from its sub-50,000 shipment levels to those far higher.
• We have powerful messages of quality, appeal, energy efficiency, green construction, affordability and durability.
• If we are honest with each other, many who work in our companies do not grasp the full value of what our Industry offers.
• We have to get our own troops on board, which will help line up more support among consumers and thus to others in the broader public.

You know how I love a good quotation.  Please consider these quotes:

“Sometimes it is not good enough to do your best; you have to do what is required.”

Winston Churchill

“Almost any idea is good if a man has the ability and is willing to work hard.

The best idea is worthless if the creator is a loafer and ineffective.”

William Feather

“It takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Only in growth, reform and change, paradoxically enough, is true security found.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

New ideas pass through three periods:
- It can’t be done.
- It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing.
- I knew it was a good idea all along!

Arthur C. Clarke

There will always be naysayers to any good idea, to any worthwhile cause.  That includes the cause of manufactured housing and our industry’s success!

During England’s darkest day following the Nazi military conquest of France and much of Western Europe, Winston Churchill never publicly waivered.  Churchill was firm in his stated belief that despite the odds, that somehow, England would not just survive, but prevail over the German forces under Adolf Hitler’s control.  We need that same type of resolve, that same type of understanding and commitment to our Industry and the unmatched value we can offer the home buying public!

You don’t have to be Cool Hand Luke to prevail in the end.  We need to communicate our value to our circles of influence: to our immediate team, to our customers, to prospective customers and the country at large.

Former House Speaker Tip O’Neill once said, “All politics is local.” In a real sense, this is true of influence, image making and marketing, too.  If we are a positive influence in our local market, if we light our candle and protect that flame and its light, we can and will prevail.  The more who do so, the more rapidly we do it, the faster our Industry’s turn-around will come.

Don’t wait on your neighbor!  Take action yourself.  It doesn’t have to be heroic; it is the little things daily that often make for great results over time.

Part of the many events, networking and other professional opportunities found at the upcoming 2011 Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa will be our Dominate Your Local Market seminar.  George F. Allen had this to say on his blog about the seminar Bob Stovall and I did:

“Tony Kovach and his team of marketing specialists, introduced the day’s largest audience, of more than 60 LLCommunity owners/operators, to the exciting new world of online marketing, of new and resale homes, via web site design, blogging, social networks, and much much more.”

George very graciously introduced us with these words:

‘These guys (referring to the MHMSM.com team) are the future of Manufactured Housing!’

While the seminar was attended by Manufactured Housing Industry pros as well as retailers, the information shared has equal value to manufacturers, lenders, insurance firms or anyone associated with Manufactured Housing.

While we appreciate and thank George for these kind words, let me turn this around.  YOU and others like YOU are the future of Manufactured Housing! Associations or MHMSM.com may be able to support YOUR efforts, but YOU and people like YOU are what will make or break this great Industry!

We are in this boat together.

Yes, we had an enthusiastic turn out and reception for the Dominate your Local Market seminar, which will be available free for all who come to the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa, OK, midmorning on April 29^th.  Do plan to come, do look at the homes and services others will be providing.  Go to this link for more information, which is open to all Industry Pros on Trade Days.

We will also be doing a seminar at the Manufactured Housing Institute’s (MHI) annual Congress in Las Vegas, with our Industry In Focus reporter Eric Miller, Bob Stovall, Mark Bowersox of the IMHARVIC fame and myself.  That panel discussion topic will be held on Thursday, April 28 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on the topic of:

Engaging the Media Successfully – How to Get Good PR for the Industry

Between now and then, please set aside some time daily to increase your ability and desire to communicate the value of manufactured housing! The failure to communicate is too costly, and the rewards of good communications are going to be felt on your bottom line. # #

For those who read this blog closely, you recall the recent book review of Jim Collins’ bestselling book, Good to Great. The book was the result of five years of university-level study by some 21 researchers, drilled down into one volume.  Good to Great was a scientific approach, not a collection of opinions.  The book has potentially strong implications for our industry.  Let me pick one of the ideas from it, compare it to one from Charlie “Tremendous” Jones and show you how a manufactured housing company can use these ideas to grow their business and steadily rise to the level where they will “Dominate your Local Market.“

The Dominate Your Local Market topic was the hit seminar at the Louisville Manufactured Housing Show.  Says who?  Attendees like you, and industry notable George F Allen, who had this to say on his recent blog:

“Tony Kovach and his team of marketing specialists, introduced the day’s largest audience, of more than 60 LLCommunity owners/operators, to the exciting new world of online marketing, of new and resale homes, via web site design, blogging, social networks, and much much more.”

The truth is that everything we do at MHMSM.com is team work, drawn from real world experiences.  These experiences often dovetail with the work of authors like Collins, Zig Ziglar, Tim Connor and Charlie “Tremendous” Jones.

For those of you who are not reading Bob Stovall’s incredible blog every week, you are cheating yourself!  Bob quietly wowed the audience in Louisville.  No fire works that go off in your hand, blowing it off; rather, just practical wisdom that works.

But the point is that thinker/authors such as Dr Stephen Covey – with his perennial powerhouse book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People - these thinkers point the way to our success, no matter what the economy is doing!  You can and will learn – if you wish – how to dominate your local market by applying ideas that will drive business for you and your business, while others around you wonder, ‘what the heck did those guys do that suddenly made them the leader in this market?’

By the way, MHAO’s Deanna Fields and MHMSM are tentatively planning to do the Louisville hit, Dominate your Local Market Seminar in Tulsa!  Please mark your calendars and plan to come, April 29th, to the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show in Tulsa.

Against this backdrop, what is a BHAG?  What is SIB-KIS?

These are proven concepts, the first from Jim Collins’s book, the second from Charlie “Tremendous” Jones’s classic book.

BHAG is short for a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.

SIB-KIS is an acronym for See It Big – Keep it Simple.

A BHAG or a SIB-KIS is an idea so powerful that it motivates your whole team.  Please do not think that having a BHAG or a SIB-KIS concept by itself will revolutionize your business; that is like smoking a pipe with wacky weed inside it and believing whatever you dream up.  A day dream is as different from a BHAG as imagining a building is from the actual building!  A building takes planning, work, effort, resources and expenditures of all types.  A dream is only a dream, until you put the planning, work, effort, resources and expenditures into it.

The classic example of a BHAG is President John F. Kennedy’s stated goal in the early 1960s to put a man on the moon before the end of that decade.  At the time, it was almost a wildly amazing idea, the stuff of H.G. Wells and sci-fi writers!  But it fired the imagination, and ‘We the People’ did, in fact, put a man on the moon before the close of that decade.

Your BHAG might be to dominate your state or local market in sales, to have the most respected housing center, to make manufactured homes respected and accepted in your market, to set a sales record 3x higher than your location has ever done.  Goals like that have consequential impacts:  it will put more people in homes, more sales people earning more commissions; it might  pay off your home mortgage in a year, allow you to buy a Mercedes for cash.

SIB-KIS is similar to a BHAG.  You envision a simple process that allows you to accomplish your goal.  See it Big, Keep It Simple. Sound systems are what set winners and also-rans apart!  A good marketing and sales training program may be the ticket for you to accomplish your BHAG.

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that

likes to make easy things difficult.

-        Warren Buffett

What are the simple things we should remember?

• In our industry, we sell affordable housing!
• In every industry, customer satisfaction should be a key driver!
• Manufactured homes today represent quality, safety, durability and appeal.

When we provide a positive, customer-friendly experience, we can attract more buyers, sell more homes and the cycle of referrals can begin in earnest.

We can’t cover in depth all the secrets of success in a single article or blog post, but we can certainly suggest enough ideas that will get the forward-thinking Manufactured Housing professional thirsting and hungering for more.

Please come and see all the great homes, attend all the informative seminars, try your hand at winning prizes, networking at the great industry mixer and see the many SOLUTIONS that are to be found at the 2011 Great Southwest Home Show! We hope to see you in Tulsa, at the World’s Largest Indoor Manufactured Housing Show at the Quik-Trip Center!   # #