The Masthead

Part 1. Technology delivers “Real-Results Testimonials!”

Most of us just love technology. I certainly enjoy its many benefits. One fun little item I am toying with for my INR presentation in Phoenix next week is letting some people speak – via technology – to those attending. These candid “in their own words” statements about our marketing process of generating more traffic than they ever dreamed possible could say more in 3 minutes than most of the rest of the hour! You can hear their surprise, feel and sense their excitement. Pros like you, happy about “Getting Results!”

Still not sure, but might do these techy testimonials as part of my “How to Get 150 Inbound Sales Calls a Week at your Location!” presentation in Phoenix! If you can, please come; there will be some eye-opening, mind-expanding insights on how to grow YOUR business, and thereby grow the Industry!

Plus tons of other super presentations; see my last weekend blog post for more details and also how to book your seat(s).

Part 2. An upcoming treat!

Can’t say more just yet, but thousands have already enjoyed it, and I think many of you will, too. Please stay tuned…

Part 3. Industry News you can use!

In sales, you or your best people already know the power of third party witnesses, especially with a doubting prospect. We pros know the sorts of negative things the media plants.

Well, we are continuing our “Influence the media as media, with the FACTS” campaign! More than a dozen newspapers from coast to coast have picked up on stories our INdustry in Focus Reporter Eric Miller has documented! From the truth about tornadoes, to hurricanes, to calls to action to passing pro-Industry legislation, we are writing and they are picking it up and sharing it with their readers! Dallas Morning News, Chicago SunTimes, Nashville’s The Tennessean and many more, coast to coast!

Yes, manufactured housing is good news! Over time, this could be big for the industry.

That said, a reader wrote in to say we need to deliver a great retail customer experience. I couldn’t agree more! If we again get ahead as an Industry, if we set new records, we must give customers a great experience! Not sometimes, but every time humanly possible. We must work with lenders, and not bleed them with repos and losses. Vendors, factories, customers, communities, retailers – it has to be about mutual victories, about Everyone-Wins scenarios!

If most of us do that, if enough pros use new marketing and image-building systems (that we know works) to attract customers, we will have many key elements to long-term sustained growth and success!

My family and I are excited about traveling west before we go southwest to Phoenix! We are looking forward to seeing friends and new faces alike. To Colorado for a mix of business and fun, then Vegas (nope, no gambling, my better half wants to see the sights). Then on to Phoenix for the International Networking Roundtable! 200 maximum attendance; see why this event is growing strong in 2010 for its 19th time!

Hope to see you there. I enjoy hearing your views of industry in your own words in person, by email or by your posted comments.

Odds are, you want more favorable media for manufactured housing. Chances are good you want to learn how to grow and expand your business through favorable marketing, selling more homes and/or positive change management or maybe you want access to financing. Perhaps you are looking for a new manufacturer or supplier.

These are some of the business-building elements found in this three-part blog post!

Part I.

Let’s start with the latest on the International Networking Roundtable (INR), which is coming up fast (September 15-17, 2010)…

Joe Adams, Dick Ernst, Dr David Funk, Thayer Long, Ken Rishel, Randy Rowe, INR+ 12… in short: Marketing Magic, Media and Manufactured Housing!

Paul Bradley, Evelyn Bryant, L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, Susan McCarty, Jeff Mishkin, Fred Rice, Spencer Roane, Don Westphal. These are just some of the names who will inform, inspire and help guide you to better marketing, financing, deal making and more.

I’ve had the privilege of previewing Joe Adam’s upcoming presentation on Marketing for the International Networking Roundtable (INR) to be held in Phoenix Sept 15-17th at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort. Let me just say, you’ll want to BE THERE! If you love his feature articles here, you will enjoy hearing the great material delivered live by Joe Adams! I will be there and I hope to see you IN PERSON at this session and others.

In fact, there is plenty of star power bringing you great information at the 19th Annual INR. If you are interested in growing your business, all who are attending this seminal event say it is a great place to be for networking and learning what’s hot and what’s not; on-site deal making, financing opportunities, model homes on display and much more are all here. From the Gala Reception, show homes on display, to the prayer meeting for Our Nation and Leaders and more!

You can check with George Allen at 877-MFD-HSNG (877-633-4764) or 317-346-7156 for a brochure, actual order of appearance of the speakers and topics and related details. George tells me the list below is the latest update – in alphabetical order by last name, with their respective topics:

1. Keynote: ‘Effective Marketing in Tough Times!’ – Joe Adams, The Housing Market Place, Inc.

2. Panel: Open Forum Discussion of MHIndustry Issues & LLCommunity Concerns – George Allen, Moderator

3. Shared Equity, Reality or Fad? – Paul Bradley, ROC-USA

4. Keynote: ‘S.A.F.E. Act &You! UNSAFE or OK?’ – Dick Ernst, FINMARK

5. Keynote: ‘Loss Control in Era of Rentals & Contract Sales’ – Evelyn Bryant

6. Keynote: ‘MH Demographics & You!’ – Dr. David Funk, Cornell University Program in Real Estate

7. How to Get 150 Sales Calls a Week On-Site! – L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management, www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com (Since I know the speaker, there is MORE on this topic below.)

8. National Communities Council Update – Thayer Long, MHI

9. Registration & Special Gifts – Susan McCarty, Community-Investor.com

10. Landlease Community Investors’ Forum – Jeff Mishkin, Marcus & Millichap

11. Utility Sub-Metering in 2010 & Beyond – Fred Rice, Spectrum Utilities Solutions

12. Is ‘Captive Finance’ For You? – Ken Rishel, Precision Capital Funding

13. Symposiums, Spinoffs & More… – Spencer Roane, Pentagon Properties, Inc.

14. Keynote: ‘State of the Manufactured Housing Industry’ – Randy Rowe, Green Courte Partners

15. Community Series Homes, One Year Later – Don Westphal, Donald C. Westphal Assoc.

16. Panel: Home Manufacturers & Business Development Managers!

17. NSAC Update: Why You Should Support the RV/MH Heritage Foundation!

18. Panel: Real Estate Lenders!

19. Wells Fargo, Manage America & Origen LLC will be among the other firms represented.

20. Welcome Reception, Introductions, Informal Prayer Meeting for Nation and Leaders, Breakfasts, Lunches, Toasts, Visit Home Shows, the Gala Reception and more!

21. Wrap-up Session & Open Discussion Topics for Next Year?

I had planned to attend this event even prior to my being invited to speak on Marketing Magic, Industry Image Makeovers and share a reflection at the Informal Prayer Meeting.

Part II.

In my INR presentation, I am going to talk about how to generate 150 in-bound sales calls a week to your location.

Marketing. Every business, every Industry that wants to survive and grow needs good marketing. Marketing that doesn’t cost, marketing that pays.

Good, solid ROI (Return On Investment) Marketing.

A key part of what we do at MHMSM.com is marketing. Yes, we have become the premier news source in the Factory-built housing Industry. Part of that was achieved through marketing, as well as having great content and, of course, the most news and feature articles found on any single site online.

I was asked by George Allen to give a presentation in Phoenix on Marketing, Media and Manufactured Housing. The title GFA suggested for the talk is How to Get 150 Calls a Week on Site!

• Those 150 calls a week refer to inbound sales calls FROM CUSTOMERS LOOKING FOR YOU!
• Those 150 calls a week refer to prospects in the market LOOKING FOR WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER!
• Those 150 calls a week could TRANSFORM any Manufactured Housing Land Lease Community location struggling with vacancies INTO A FULL LOCATION with a waiting list!
• Those 150 calls inbound sales calls a week could be a modular or HUD Code Manufactured Housing RETAILER’S DREAM!
• Those 150 calls are not theory. THEY ARE TAKING PLACE RIGHT NOW, TODAY for one of our clients. Not in boom time, but during this low ebb of the Industry.

It has long been my belief that Manufactured Housing – or most any aspect of factory home building – should never suffer due to the general ups and downs of the economy. We should be – and can be – the preeminent form of housing. The first choice instead of the last choice.

If you are looking for marketing solutions, sales solutions, a turn-around for one or more community or retail locations, business expansions or other Industry related business challenges, please give me a call. If you are looking for good PR for your company, please call.

Why should you? Please check out my LinkedIn Profile, for some of the currently 29 recommendations among my 469 connections: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

Just two words.

GET RESULTS.

I should hasten to add, that all ‘results’ are a team effort. We are not alone. We work as a team, and that is how we would approach working with any firm or organization in the manufactured housing field. Team work that Gets Results. Specialists for many different needs. Solutions for your real world problems. Great ROI, good work doesn’t ‘cost;’ it pays.

Part III.

Getting Positive PR: Media Relations and Manufactured Housing

What do the Chicago Sun-Times, the Dallas Morning News, Nashville’s The Tennessean and about a dozen other publications from coast to coast have in common?

Answer: They have all featured news stories on their sites this year that have a favorable message for manufactured housing.

Answer: These favorable messages were all generated by MHMSM.com staff, notably our INdustry in Focus Reporter Eric Miller – or myself.

http://topics.dallasnews.com/article/0aaJfyqbtfgnQ

http://envirolib.org/news/support-urged-for-bill-aimed-at-replacing-of-older-manufactured-homes-24-7-pressrelease/

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/industryvoices/study-suggests-cities-and-towns-should-accept-new-manufactured-housing-communities/

Research Finds Manufactured Home Community Residents Under No Greater Threat of Crime

As you know, Manufactured Housing has all too often taken it on the chin from the mainstream media publications. Part of our goal at MHMSM.com is to share favorable news about Manufactured Housing and related issues.

As a media outlet ourselves, we can influence media.

Over time, this can have a favorable benefit for you and your business.

Should you desire favorable PR or marketing for your organization, please give me a call:
847-730-3692 or cell 832-689-1729.

Should you want to see what others say, please go to my LinkedIn Profile

Where you can see 29 recommendations of my work.

Some inter-related topics today…

1

“Elephant in the room” is an English idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. The idiomatic expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_in_the_room

If you have any connection professionally with Manufactured Housing, these Elephants in the Room impact your business and your firm’s bottom line.

A number of public comments have already been posted on the subject of Elephants in the Room, here at my previous Masthead blog post – see link below – and at the MHC Group on LinkedIn. Even more comments have come in privately, via phone or messaging. The original Elephants in the Room post is linked here.

The response has been strongly in favor of the importance of the topic.

That said, for accuracy and balance, I need to mention that one executive I respect cautioned me not to appear to be ‘stirring the pot’ on this issue. I assured him that is not our goal, that the original post stated quite the opposite: I am not criticizing anyone, simply raising a topic of general interest and concern.

What I failed to mention then, but will hasten to add now, is that we at MHMSM.com have declined stories that I felt would serve no purpose to the Industry or would simply embarrass someone. We are not muckrakers or a tabloid.

Our mission at MHMSM.com is to be pro-industry, period.

Being pro-industry means we want to see the Industry move ahead and grow. So at times, that means we will look at what may be seen by some as tough or sensitive subjects. We will invite feedback on ways we can deal with those challenges.

Financing is critical for our future, and so we all need to be objective about this subject.

Public comments can be seen on LinkedIn or posted on the blog above. A sampling of the private-to-me, and no-names-mentioned comments include:

• One manufactured housing lender who said that this very issue has been a trouble spot for their operation and kept it from growing. He thanked me for bringing it up for discussion.
• A chattel lender who suggested this is a key topic, one that needs to be addressed for the benefit of the industry and its customers. This gent was keen on hearing about the repo resale experiences discussed in my first post on the topic, linked above.
• I was also told that VMF and 21st would very much like to see this successfully addressed. No one ‘wants’ to wholesale so long as they have a better option. They have a significant stake in the game, and performance for them helps everyone in MH lending, directly or indirectly.
• A chattel finance exec shared an example of a specific repo reseller he knew that he asserts had 85%-90% recovery rates on repo’d manufactured home loan balances. Compared to the losses on homes being wholesaled, that was interesting and positive news!
• That person also noted that a savvy LLC operator who does self-financing should be able to recover 100% of their money on the outstanding loan balance at the time of repossession.
• More than one lender expressed interest in my prior experiences reselling/re-marketing manufactured home repossessions, which was mentioned in the post above. Time will tell where such discussions may go.
• Other comments have come from retailers (including a multi-location retail operator), some from community pros, and others involved in the Industry at various levels.

Based on this sampling, one may surmise the importance of this subject to the manufactured housing Industry, its lenders and customers.

Please read or re-read the post linked above; understand, discuss and share your views, concerns, comments and most important, your thoughts on solutions. The future of our Industry grows brighter once the pachyderms in the parlor are shown their way out.

Teeing up on INR

2.

George F. Allen has suggested that he will use the time previously slotted for the now scrubbed MHARR and MHI discussion at Phoenix during the upcoming International Networking Roundtable Sept 15-17, 2010 for an open forum on industry issues instead. Based on the initial feedback noted above in the need to improve the exit strategies for lenders and customers, this may be considered as a topic worthy of discussion at INR.

3.

Topic three, all inter-related: Enhanced Marketing, industry image building and increased sales.

Do you want to achieve record results for your operation? Do you want to grow you sales through increased marketing? Do you believe that there ‘ought to be a way’ for the industry to enhance the image and acceptance of manufactured housing?

Then come to INR in Phoenix. Listen to what Joe Adams has to say on this subject, I know I plan to hear his thoughts! Then, toss a coin and decide if you will sit in on my friend, Don Westphal’s important topic of the community series homes, or if you will sit in on my talk on how to generate 150 new calls a week at a single location. I wish I could hear Don’s presentation, but I can’t do two different things in two different rooms at the same time.

There is plenty of star power lined up for Phoenix, starting with Randy Rowe – of Greene Courte Partners fame, State of the Asset Class address, other top presenters, round table discussions and networking/deal making opportunities. Contact George F. Allen at Phone (317) 346-7156; FAX: 346-7158 or email: gfa7156@aol.com to reserve your spot. 200 max attendance. GFA tells me he is nearing the mark! # #

L.A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, MHM – publisher, editor and The Masthead blogger at
Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management trade journal at
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com aka www.MHMSM.com
tony@mhmsm.com
847-730-3692

And remember! Tony also does contract marketing and coaching for industry clients. Marketing that doesn’t ‘cost;’ it pays off on your bottom line. Enough said! # #