The Masthead

post by

L. A. “Tony” Kovach, MHM

www.MHProNews.com
www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com
Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals

Office – 815-270-0500

latonyk@gmail.com or tony@mhmsm.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach

There are reasons why 125 million people attend trade shows and marketing events annually, and why over 100 billion dollars are invested by those who market using such shows.* Many business-to-business marketers believe that trade shows are one of the most cost effective ways of reaching their audience. The Small Business Administration (SBA) states that closing a sale or lead generated at an event can be about 50% less expensive than using other marketing or advertising methods.

44% of all companies who do event or trade show marketing have under 50 employees. According to the SBA, among the advantages to event marketing is the fact that large, medium and small companies have a more level playing field. So don’t think that trade shows are only for ‘the big boys.’ Smaller firms with a good strategy and execution can grab market share via event marketing.

But these pluses and advantage statements also come with caveats.

Proper preparation pays! Poor or no planning for a trade show can cost you. So part of the secret is having a good pre-show, at-show and post-show strategy. Some studies indicate that some 75% of attendees you attract will have planned to see you before the show. This means you have to be well organized and reach out to the maximum number of your target audience, as cost effectively as possible. 

The SBA further suggests that mailers, emails and telephone contact strategies are among the proven ways to generate pre-show contacts who become your clients or who continue to be your clients. Besides your own personal contacts and your firm’s lists, using others to contact for you can be a dynamic way to grow your outreach and success. An analogy can be the seasonal help a retailer hires to handle heavier crowds, or the added advertising a retailer uses to boost traffic to their mall location on Black Friday.

Having personally done successful trade show and event marketing for myself and/or for others going back to the 1980s, I would add many thoughts to these tips from the SBA and Answers.com sources noted. Among those tips and bullet points:

1) While 75% of clients who visit your booth, seminar or display at a trade show come from pre-show outreaches, don’t ignore the value of the 25% who you can attract at the show.

2) You have 7-10 seconds to attract the attention of someone walking past at a trade show. Think about a billboard on an Interstate Highway. You have to grab the passers’ by attention in seconds, or you will miss out on prospective clients.

3) Have a booth strategy, promotions, layout and staffing levels that make sense. It is as bad to have too many people in your booth as it is too few.

4) Get qualified leads, not just names.

5) Learn to ID the serious and more immediate prospect, while not ignoring the client you can develop long term.

6) You have two big reasons to do business-to-business outreach via a trade show. There is an offensive show strategy and a defensive strategy, too. On the one hand, you want to grow your own customer or client base via show attendance. But you also want to defend the clients you already have now! To rephrase the point, NOT going as an exhibitor to an event like the 2011 Louisville Manufactured Housing Show is an invitation for someone else to lure away YOUR customers!

For a manufacturer, going to a show and displaying one or more model homes is a sizable investment. But when you think about the cost of not going, the possible lost business or the possible loss of a client to other firms, the best strategy would be to a) go and b) ensure the maximum turn-out at your show home(s).

We will be providing a webinar on trade show marketing tips and strategies on Thursday 12/16/2010. You can sign up in seconds, and in about 45 minutes of “lunch and learn” time at your desk or smart phone, find out how to make YOUR event marketing experience a very profitable one!

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* Source: answers.com

We have a lot of topics to cover, but please let me start with something positive and fun:

1.
“OMG your site is unbelievably informative! Just listened to your pod cast while sitting in the doctors office! Loved it! I’ll be sure to spread the news to our members to get on board if they are not already! Appreciate all you do!” Deanna Fields, Executive Director, MHAO 

It is always, always a pleasure to hear from industry leaders, business owners and executives, middle managers and the rank and file. Comments like this make our work load seem lighter, and I always share these with our team here at MHMSM.com that makes this work on the Industry’s behalf possible! By the way, we get other comments, but we use ones like the above only with permission. Thank you, Deanna, for spreading the word, and to all like you who are working for the advancement of our great industry!

If you want to see what other leaders and readers say, please click on this link:

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/what-our-readers-say

I take a few moments to mention this because Deanna and others have it right! If you and your team are reading and listening daily to what we offer, you and your team will have an edge in business that those who don’t plug in won’t have. Sports teams train and they ‘watch tape,’ video and replays of what they and their competitors do. That makes them BETTER in the big game. You and your team WILL DO BETTER because if you learn more, you will earn more.

2.
It seems that the November elections are among the reasons why Chief Executives around the country are more confident than before.

CEO Confidence Index, chart courtesy of CEO Magazine

When executives see a reason to invest in the future, maybe it is wise for us to think the same, too.

3
Friday brought us a tip on a recent development that will do more than raise an eyebrow or two in the Industry. Our Industry in Focus Reporter Eric Miller is on the trail of that story and others that will get the water cooler, phone and email conversations humming. Check in to our Daily Business News blog and please watch for more in-depth reports to follow.

4.
The Louisville Manufactured Housing Show is – according to our research – THE single hottest topic in the Industry, period. Not only is this reflected in our Google Analytics report, but another key indicator is that the early sign-ups for attendance is strong. Joe Kelly, the Executive Director of Iowa’s fine state association has given us a thoughtful message on the subject for the Industry Voices Guest Blog. Please read it. Then book yourself and your key team members to go if you haven’t already. Why?

4a.
There are already more people signed up for attending than went to MHI’s annual meeting and the International Networking Roundtable in Phoenix combined!  Dozens are signing up daily; at this rate, the show will do VERY well. 

4b.
There is great info along with many seminars and services available at the show to help you grow your business, PLUS you can see dozens of new homes that would be great for your MH Community or Retail Center. Well-known Industry author, speaker and communities and development expert Eddie Hicks will be among those sharing insights in and near the Kentucky Exposition Center (KEC). Where else can you go and rub shoulders and shake hands with some of the biggest names in the Industry? “Go, Louisville!”

4c.
Are you an exhibitor or planning to exhibit? Then please click on this link.

4d.
More on Louisville later, including the fact that more industry leaders have emailed me to say that they will share their reasons why YOU SHOULD BE THERE. “Those who KNOW will Go Louisville!” If some of the brightest lights in the Industry say you should go, then take a page from Nike’s ad, and just do it.

4e.
Our MHMSM.com team members will be in Louisville, including your wordy blogger, me. I hope to meet you in person. If you have one of our Manufactured Housing REVOLUTION books, bring it by for an autograph. If you don’t have a book, come by, pick one up and it will be autographed! Many of those who helped pen the Manufactured Housing REVOLUTION will be there – you should get their autographs, too!  

5.
We have word that a well-known Industry personality will be sharing their A Cup of Coffee with Interview with us, likely in time for the new issue that comes out next week. We all want to know more about this person, and YOU can ‘read all about it!’ right here, exclusively. Click here to see other personalities who have done A Cup of Coffee with… exclusive interviews.

6.
Manufactured and modular housing Industry growth won’t happen by magic. There are reasons why Cavco and Clayton still find it wise to buy up chunks of this industry. They see a bright future, or they wouldn’t be doing it. There are reasons why people are still investing in MH Communities, why people are making deals to acquire more. There are reasons why some are making a profit – yes, in this economy – why, as one leader told me a few days ago, they are making more money than they ever have. They are working SMARTER, and see ‘challenges’ as opportunities in disguise. We at MHMSM.com are realistic; we know there are problems, but we see the opportunities, too.  

7.
Circling back to Deanna’s comment, if you are not already signed up to access our FREE podcasts of feature articles and daily Factory Built Housing News at Noon and Manufactured Housing Marketing Reports, please click here. It is worth sharing that one of our top 1% of all our pages accessed is the registration page! If you aren’t registered, if you don’t get our twice weekly email updates, you are missing out on key information, much of which you will find ONLY here at MHMSM.com.

When we talk about learning, I want you to know, that we invest in our own learning, we practice what we preach. For example, our fine IT and Production Manager, Bob Stovall, is attending a weekend seminar to keep up-to-date with the latest in his online world skills. To his credit, Bob is routinely researching, routinely going to meetings and seminars. This is why you or your marketing manager needs to be reading his “Cutting Edge” blog, or using his part of our MHMSM.com online services if you don’t want to mess with the work yourself. Be sure to attend the presentation we will do in Louisville, “How to Dominate Your Local Market!“

Last week, in our daily news, you read – or could have! – news stories on our Industry you didn’t find anywhere else but right here at www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com (aka MHMSM.com). So, please check in tomorrow and every week day to the daily news blog or do what Deanna Fields and so many others are doing every day, downloading podcasts of industry news and great feature articles. I want to take a moment to say thank you for coming, and thank you to all the Featured Writers who make us the most-read trade journal and news resource in the Industry today.

Thank you for reading, and thanks for passing the word on to your friends and associates to listen to our podcasts and/or read the News and Views You Can Use right here at MHMSM.com.

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I recently have had a number of email exchanges with some well-known industry personalities about the subject of training and other business related investments. There are certainly companies that have good training and personnel development programs in the manufactured housing community field. We have some managers and owners who have taken and passed ACM type classes or even more who have passed George Allen’s MHM classes (myself included). But for the most part, let’s be honest with each other and admit that compared to many companies outside of our industry, training and investing in information and education could be better.

To make the point, consider these facts that were sent to me as part of the discussion:

• At Holiday Inn, front desk clerks receive one full week of on-the-job training before they are permitted to register their first guest. 
• The telephone operators/booking agents at Disney Cruise Lines must complete three weeks of intense classroom training and testing before taking their first phone call. 
• PIE Trucking Company requires new drivers to complete an intensive driving school, tests, peer review and a comprehensive final exam before taking the wheel. 
• At Google, all employees at every level are encouraged – and paid – to attend seminars, workshops, trade fairs and conferences throughout the year.

As part of my reply to one industry veteran this week, I echoed the above and said, ’Think about McDonalds, Best Buy or many other companies we encounter routinely. People get more initial and ongoing staff and product training to do cell phones or serve hamburgers than many do to provide manufactured housing, one of the major investments in a person’s life time.’

I recall a message from a well-known industry sales trainer, one who writes very fine feature articles for us here at MHMSM.com. That pro expressed this thought: ‘Our industry would already be doing better if we simply had sales people doing a better job of qualifying and selling to the people who are already calling and coming for information.’ 

One of the most expensive parts of any business operation is personnel and related costs. So why don’t we invest more in people? Why don’t we invest in proven ways to solve the issues that our industry collectively faces? And then why don’t we spend more time in research and education that can grow a business like a manufactured housing community that has an occupancy challenge? A little education, a little leg work, and Voila! You’ve got financing that makes sense!

Let me make a case in point. People in the MHC world today WANT more chattel financing options so they can fill vacant home sites! Many smart operators have decided that the way to get homes sold is to have an in-house sales and financing operation. It makes sense, because properly done, it is profitable AND it generates more site fees.

What if you don’t know how to do your own in-house financing that is legally compliant? Well, educational resources are available, but you have to set aside a couple of days for a key staff member to get the ball rolling. Then, you need to learn how to fund your captive or in-house (sister or affiliated company) financing program. How do you start that process? Well, many state associations have teamed up with service suppliers to teach a class, or you can go straight to those who do the training. Those trainers will teach you how to raise the capital to fund an in-house (read sister or affiliated company) aka captive finance program.

Those managing captive finance operations can earn significant profits for their related finance company, and conversely can set that same company up for big losses through untrained and undisciplined underwriting and compliance efforts. So as with anything else in life, if you are going to do it, please do it correctly. 

I had an interesting exchange some weeks back with a company that ‘wants more financing.’ I asked, have you spoken to the people at Precision? The short answer was ‘no.’ Why not? The reply was something like this: ‘That takes training, it takes time to attend their seminar, etc.’ Hmm…interesting; they are not selling as many homes as they want to sell, but they won’t do what it takes to move from where they are, to where they want to be? Even a very modest community is a 6-figure investment, many are more in the 7-8-figure range. I look at reports on occupancy. So, why would a community operator not want to be at 100% occupancy, when he or she is currently at 70%-80% occupancy, and in many cases far less? 

Over the years, I invested significant sums in buying books, tapes, later CDs and going to seminars, so I could advance my skills and thus my career. Sure, it may be ‘easier’ if someone would simply just do it all for you, when it comes to financing. But that is not our reality today in the manufactured housing world. When someone has say, a 7-figure investment in a single property, why would they not invest a pair of days and do some leg work that can generate hundreds of thousands of additional revenue?

Manufacturers –if I were in your role, I would be nudging my clients into captive finance programs if they are not already doing it. If in-house (better known as captive finance) lending is good enough for Hometown America and other like firms, then surely it is good enough for other smart community operators! If I were in manufacturing, I’d be offering to sponsor programs that help my clients who are in the communities business get into the captive financing business. Why? Because it would create more orders for new homes!

I am a big believer in win-win relationships. Community operators need to be doing captive finance if they are not already doing so. I was looking at two different community operations, very similar in many respects; they were geographically about 15 miles apart. One was doing a captive finance program, and I was told they just closed 8 homes (read, filled 8 sites and made the profits on those home sales, too) the previous month. How? Captive finance. The other operation is stagnant. They have fairly tough lending that they can get, and no captive lending. The second community was considerably newer than the first. Yet the first community with its captive finance program is blowing the second one away in filling their vacant sites.

It would be wonderful if Washington, DC would ride in on a white horse and suddenly lay out for us a new financing program that would make our industry peaches-and-cream days again. But while we wait…

And wait…

And wait…

…for financing to return, doesn’t it make sense to investigate the relative ease of doing your own in-house – and legally compliant! – financing program?

There is a reason why some of the larger firms have already done this type of captive lending program for themselves. If your firm has not, isn’t it time to check into a captive or in-house finance program? Oh, yes, perhaps the last point is the important one to you. A compliant program can earn you more money. Think about the true story of community one and community two above. One is filling up, the other is not. Invest in a couple of days of training in a class and some leg work, you say? For a community owner, this is a no-brainer decision.

As a manufacturer, I’d be telling my MHC clients to take a page from the Nike handbook, and ‘Just Do It!’ As an association leader or other supplier to the industry, I would be talking about captive financing until everyone is just doing it.

Once that happens, factories will hum, suppliers will sell more, sales people will earn more, community operators will profit, and associations will not have the same struggles we are dealing with so often today. If we treat our customers the way we want to be treated, we will have happy residents and full communities again. Associations won’t be trying to figure out how to cover the next bill, because members will have more money to spend in what matters, education and the other benefits of association membership.

Before leaving this topic, I want to inject the fact that captive finance will be one of the free subjects in the upcoming Louisville Manufactured Housing Show. Ken Rishel will be providing that presentation on the first day of the show (Jan 12) at the Kentucky Exhibit Center (KEC). Also at the KEC will be George Allen presenting on his ‘Ah Ha! Oh No!’ formula for community sold home pricing success; Don Westphal presenting on Community Series Homes; Eddie Hicks presenting on how to get new financing or refinancing for your community, even if others have given you a hard time. Finally, there will be our own Bob Stovall and myself presenting on ‘How to Dominate Your Local Market!’ through web, email and social networking marketing. These intros at the KEC are one of literally dozens of good reasons why so many are already signing up to go to the Louisville Show in 2011. There is a reason why the Louisville Show is the #1 topic today, according to our online research – and there are lots of reasons for YOU to be THERE!

Returning to our theme…

Captive or in-house financing isn’t a panacea, but it is potentially such a huge step ahead that it should be top of mind as part of the Industry’s turn-around and growth strategy. As I am personally thinking about doing an MHC in the future, let me say, make the time to learn and apply legally compliant captive finance, so you can earn more.

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