The Masthead

On of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes is this:

“When life hands you lemons, make Lemonade.”

If every time a business encountered a problem or situation, it approached that challenge with a solution orientation, how much further ahead would that business be? If we personally took those sour lemon situations and made them into lemonade, how much further ahead would you be or I be?

Since an industry is made up of people and businesses, given the scenarios above, how much further ahead would our Industry be?

Almost regardless of the scenario, the factory-built housing industry is better positioned than conventional building to meet the challenges of this ‘new economy.’ Where HUD Code home building – for whatever reason – doesn’t work as well on a practical level, we can typically use a modular home as a solution instead. We have advantages in cost and time.

Some years ago, Niel Rackham wrote the book, SPIN SELLING. It explained a sales system that AT&T and other major firms used. The word SPIN in Rackham’s context is an acronym; with S.P.I.N. meaning Situation Position Implication Needs/benefit. I’ve found this as a useful tool in analyzing how to market a location.

• S for Situation: What is the Situation or circumstances that face the home retailer, developer or community? What are the market conditions, comparable sized housing costs, etc.?
• P for Position. Once you know the Situation, you can Position your marketing and sales approach to address the implications of the situation and the types of clients you are encountering.
• I for Implication. Every fact finds its meaning in a context. If – for example – I say that my HUD Code manufactured home cost $179,900 at retail in one area that I market for, you might think – “that’s crazy!” But if I tell you that conventional real estate is going for $350,000 for 40+ year old condos in that area, now the facts of the situation carry a different implication. In a sense, it doesn’t matter that other MHCs in the area are ‘lower in cost’ on their site fees or HUD Code homes, because the Situation tells me we need to Position our target market to the prospective buyers of conventional housing or condos.
• N for Needs/benefit. People buy in part when they see that that their needs are met, when they see the benefit, value and appeal to them. When the parties have reached a ‘win-win’ point of view, when the needs of the prospect and the benefit of doing business has reached a mutually acceptable point, then a deal can ‘close.’

Look at your market with new eyes. Use the SPIN approach outlined above. Look at all the Situation: the challenges and the opportunities objectively. See the implications and potential benefits you can offer your target market and then position your message accordingly. These are proven way how you take lemons and turn them into lemonade. That’s how you profit in even in seemingly adverse situations.##

The Big 6.0! We are now 6 months old with this issue. Our www.MHMSM.com Issue #7 brings you a wonderful new face to our pages but one that thousands in the industry will remember, know and respect. We’ve also completed yet another record month in visits and traffic – thousands of pageviews daily! – now some 531% growth since our October 2009 launch! Far and away the largest trade journal in the Industry.

The Key to Industry Growth is YOUR growth and the growth of firms and teams like your own. That happens by taking the Silver Bullet Challenge! Invest at least 15 minutes a day reading feature article(s), our 24/7 news, press releases, Inspiration Blog, Industry Voices, Tim Connor’s Words of Wisdom, Bob Stovall’s The Cutting Edge in Online Marketing or your editor Tony Kovach’s The Masthead blog.

Featured Writers for April, 2010.

Once again, we bring you All The Best. Top Talent, professionals from A to Z. Let’s get started with your big April line up…

Joe Adams – Marketing
• A Journey in Successful Marketing

Rachael Biermann – Marketing, Internet
• Web site tips that work

Chad Carr – Management
• The Four Pillars – The Management Workshop

Tim Connor – Sales
• Time is Money – In sales more than any other profession

Tim Connor – Management
• Do you delegate it or do it?

Susan Frost – Financing & Marketing
• Federal Homebuyer Tax Credit deadline is approaching

Nadeen Green & Scot Haislip – Legal, Fair Housing
• Senior Housing

L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach – Growing your Business in 2010
• Do or Do Not

Chrissy Jackson – Land Lease Community Management
• Upgrading Your Community – Introduction

Greg McClanahan – People Skills & Personal Development
• The Portrait

Shawn P. Mullins – Management
• Process Analysis and Design: Operational Effectiveness

George Porter – Installation
• What is the HUD Code?

Dave Shanklin – Chattel Financing
• Bidding Wars Erupt Over “Mobile Homes” in CA Parks

Bob Stovall – Online Marketing
• Free traffic sources can generate leads, Part 2 – Article Marketing

John Underwood – Sales
• Selling 101: Introduction

Donald Westphal, ASLA – Community Corner
• The Follow Through

Zig Ziglar – Motivation
• Zig… On Employment

Think about the 80-20 rule. They say that the top 20% of performers produce 80% of the business. No surprise that those who are lifelong learners are also top earners. Feed and inspire your mind and that in turn will feed your results! Feed your team’s mind, inspire them and feed their results. If enough firms do that in 2010, we’ll see the Industry grow again. Because…

Readers are leaders!

Learners are Earners!

Thanks for making us #1. Thanks for reading with us weekly, or daily as so many do now. The industry has a long way to go, as you know. Help us help you by encouraging others to read here, by forwarding emails, signing up for free weekly email updates, by sharing your positive ideas and solutions, by sponsoring and placing your jobs and classified ads. Get involved in positive initiatives and with associations working to boost the Industry.

Finally, if you, your firm or your association needs a speaker or trainer for an upcoming event, please check out our upcoming Speaker’s Bureau. You won’t find a better one for the Factory Built Housing Industry in North America. Enjoy and benefit from the April 2010 issue of Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management Magazine. ##

Do you have family? Do you see eye to eye on all points in Politics, Religion, Morality and Business? If you don’t have perfect accord, do you still love them? In my case, the answers to these questions would be “Yes, No and Yes.” The reasons these questions are pertinent are many. It is pertinent at this time due in part to the fact that we are in an important election year – aren’t they ALL important? – and because we as an industry need to look ahead in practical ways to determine who to support in our districts, state and why.

Let me segue to a particular candidate in a particular race to make a broader point about elections in 2010 and on the importance and value of looking not for perfection but for as much common ground as possible. Kindly hang with me on this, we will return to a national perspective after a survey of a particular state house race outlined below.

My younger brother – Tom Kovach – is running for a term-limited caused vacancy in the Oklahoma House District 44 seat. It’s a district that was gerrymandered some years ago to favor Democratic candidates. Tom joined of a field of two other candidates in the race at this time, all of them Democrats.
Months before he set up the campaign information website – which just launched this weekend – linked below…

http://www.tomkovach.com

…Tom had already gained a level of notoriety in the factory-built housing world by being the first elected official to answer the TRENDS 2010 questionnaire for our www.MHMSM.com Industry trade journal. Please find the link to that survey below.

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/trends-2010/271-trends-2010-questionnaire-tom-kovach

Now let’s state the obvious.

I’m sure many of your would LOVE to have someone in your district who is open to and supportive of manufactured housing running in YOUR local or state election! Having discussed factory-built home options with my brother on many occasions, and having personally exposed him to our homes product over the years, I know that Tom:

• 1. Has first hand experience with modern factory built homes. Tom knows about the older models and their image stigma. Tom also knows that today’s factory built homes are federally required to rival conventional construction and are often more energy efficient and ‘greener’ than their comparably sized site-built counterparts.

• 2. has a number of residents in his Norman City Council Ward who are residents living in factory built homes. Tom isn’t thinking NIMBY (Not in my Back Yard) as so many politicos today blindly do.

• 3. Sees opportunities to expand the use of factory built homes, to shed their stigma and would like to see more jobs created in the U.S. by using American factory built homes.

• 4. Seems open to initiatives such as the State of New York launched to ‘retire’ older, outdated pre-HUD Code ‘mobile homes’ giving credits to residents who purchase a new energy efficient manufactured home. While Tom wisely wanted to study the topic in more depth, he sees the potential for job creation, energy savings and general quality of life improvements that such a program can create for all involved.

• 5. Surprising to me, he mentioned the Solitaire Homes manufacturing facility in Oklahoma, pointing to it as a potential beneficiary of such a program, protecting or creating jobs in the State of Oklahoma while offering ‘quality affordable housing’ for residents in Oklahoma and neighboring states as well.  I’m sure all of this would please some people at the Manufactured Housing Association of Oklahoma, who like so many associations want all the supporters they can get.

It has been about 15 years since I lived in Oklahoma. While I don’t claim to know all the ins and outs of Oklahoma politics, I know that if I were living in that district this would be an easy selection for me. I’d vote for my brother Tom, not because we agree on everything in politics, religion, morality or business, because we don’t. I would not vote for him because he is my brother, although that certainly would be a factor because family bonds should be strong ones. Rather, I would vote for Tom because he is the best person for the job AND he is the one candidate who has taken a positive, prudent public position on factory built housing in his district (he is).

I should note that the two opponents in the race, both of whom announced well before Tom did, are students at the University of Oklahoma. I studied at O.U. myself; it is a fine university and it is where my father taught for many years before finally retiring. My brother Tom obtained his degree from the same school.  O.U. certainly carries a lot of ‘weight’ in politics in that area. That said, I recall my own college days and remember the demands of study to keep good grades plus work to pay the bills. I don’t see how a student – no matter how gifted or well meaning – can balance all of that and do full justice to a campaign or the office they seek to represent.  In short, I think would be an easy voting decision.

Besides all that, Tom Kovach has represented his Ward on City Council in Norman – and was just re-elected to that post without opposition. He has made local and state wide news a number of times. He has opposed the ‘powers that be’ if the situation seemed to warrant it, including opposing members of his own party if it was ‘the right thing to do.’

I share this to demonstrate that he truly is the best candidate, because that should be the litmus test for any elective office.

Finally, while he would not say so publicly, I’d also observe that my brother has tested at 156 on an IQ test; if memory serves, the genius level is around 135. Tom is a bright guy who cares about people, is politically engaged and has the business and personal life experiences that can make for a good public servant. So I told my brother he should test this out as a slogan for the House District 44 race…

Tom isn’t just for you, Tom Kovach is 44 you.

Okay, he passed on that one, which proves the genius part I referred to previously.

I use this opportunity as the first in periodic series of articles and blogs on the 2010 election and factory built housing. I want to make a far broader point than my brother’s campaign!

We in the modular and manufactured housing industry need to organize our voices better in this 2010 election cycle! You can bet that Realtors and NAHB members are well organized!

We had better become better organized, stronger PR voices too.  How often do we tell the local media that of the 1600 modern manufactured homes struck by the four hurricanes in 2004, that all of them survived!  How often do we tell the media that today’s factory built homes are more energy saving, are safer against fires and the litany of benefits – including quality and affordability! – that our homes represent to the home buying public?!

We have potentially some 500,000 votes working in various aspects of factory built housing coast to coast. That is a potentially influential pool of voters. That can be enough to swing elections in many areas!

If we as an industry organized and took that 500,000 voter potential a step further, we have over 20,000,000 residents of factory built housing that we could reach out to and encourage them to vote for the most pro-Manufactured Home Industry candidates we can find.

We as industry members need to get to know the local candidates. We need to invite them to see modern factory built homes, properly landscaped and displayed. I’ve personally held ‘picnics’ and ‘cookouts’ with candidates and local officials, inviting community residents and staff to meet the candidates or officials and vice-versa.

No doubt many of you are already way past me in that process. I’d love to hear from the politically seasoned Industry members, from association leaders and others experienced in this process. Please read this is an invitation for you to do an Industry Voices Guest Blog on the topic. Perhaps share some examples, or propose some organizational principles and ideas based on your experience.

If we as an Industry organize well and exert some influence early in the election process – perhaps by inviting them to a pot luck and giving them a first hand tour at your retail center, factory, development or land lease community – we can rapidly get a feel for who these candidates are and find out one on one how they will treat our industry if elected.

Perhaps you can get candidates in your area to take a public position on factory built housing, as Tom Kovach did some months ago in the survey above. That can lead to news stories that have a favorable slant to our product. Over time, positive news stories will naturally influence people’s impression of manufactured and modular homes.

Don’t hesitate to refer local media to us for comments, besides using MHI or your state association as resources for them. You’ll find my email and phone in the About Us page.

Finally, I’d love to see emails from you on suggested questions you’d like to see for candidates to public office. They can be general questions, or specific ones about manufactured housing and modular homes. Please get involved in 2010. Encourage your team to get involved too. Learn your candidates, engage them and you will be planting the seeds for a brighter future for our Industry.##

As a result of last week’s article referenced in last week’s blog, linked below

http://www.mhmarketingsalesmanagement.com/blogs/tonykovach/positive-no-cost-public-relations/

a mover and shaker in the real estate development world gave me a call. We met on Thursday for breakfast. We met again Saturday for lunch, a ground level tour of his model homes in Chicago. The vision this gent has unveiled is inspiring and he is keen on making this vision happen using factory built homes.

I won’t give away all the details at this moment as it wouldn’t be appropriate. What you are seeing here – this exclusive sneak preview – has been vetted and ok’d by the person in question. Sufficient to say, that this seasoned, well connected and successful pro has 400 home lots awaiting development. That and more are planned for this year, in 2010. When I say – and more – there is a metro pilot project, then a regional, then a national plan on his radar screen.

Phase one would use modular construction. Other phases and opportunities he is reviewing are open to a combination of factory built housing options; such as Modular, HUD Code and other factory building technologies.

Architecturally plans are ready.

The financing is lined up.

The legal/political/zoning elements are in place.

While an initial manufacturer stands ready, there are opportunities for more factories because as this plan develops, one production facility will not be capable of meeting the demand.

Suppliers – with national and global reach – are standing at the ready, but no doubt in my mind; others will be chomping at the bit to get a piece of this action.

The potential that this gent sees – again, using factory building! – is breathtaking. A “pilot project” of 400 homes – not floors, not modules, but 400 homes – could rapidly become the launching pad for other projects for 5500 homes. As many as 1500-2000 of those could take place in 2010.

The Future is Calling Today.

Please stay tuned to reports on future developments on this. We anticipate having an exclusive report for you, perhaps in a matter of days. We will plan on an interview with this successful visionary, who seems to understand our industry and its capabilities so well, that he is thinking with a vocabulary that too many today lack:

• Healthy Green
• Volume sales
• Customer Satisfaction
• Positive Media/PR
• “Win-Win” and Synergy.

Refreshing! I love it! This INSPIRES me and I hope it INSPIRES thousand of others in our industry – good Industry pros from coast to coast – like you!

The Future is Calling Today. We know the capabilities of our Industry. We know we have a great product. What we need are more people – like this articulate, soft spoken gent – who will step up to the plate and fill the vacuum that exists in orders, in housing needed, making the economic opportunities, the politics, legal, media and other pieces of the puzzle all come together.

Stay tuned, we will keep you posted. But in the mean time, don’t just ‘read the news,’ make your own news. While we have thousands of page views daily, what we know is that hundreds of industry pros are logging on daily, reading, studying, staying informed. 45% of those ‘thousands’ of page views are from pros like you, who don’t just check in once or twice a week, but they do so every day.

Those forward thinking who invest in themselves and their teams by reading daily have the odds for a brighter future standing in their favor. Readers are leaders! Learners are earners!

Those who dig into exclusive new series by pros such as

• Chrissy Jackson
• Joe Adams
• John Underwood
• Don Westphal

and performing stalwarts for us like

• Tim Connor
• Bob Stovall
• Greg McClanahan
• your editor/writer Tony Kovach
• and so many more bright thinkers and writers!

are all reasons why you need to be here daily. Not to mention the best 24/7/365 housing news department available on any one Industry resource. You get it all, right here, right now.

The Future is Calling Today. Are you ready? Stay tuned, stay inspired, stay informed and plugged in at www.MHMSM.com. This is your exclusive home to so much that is good in the factory built housing industry!See you again…as we go back to the Future! ##

www.MHMSM.com did an exclusive interview yesterday with Industry Guru, Eddie Hicks, noted consultant and multi-decade veteran of retailing, development, project financing, and more.

The discussion was far ranging, here are some of the highlights.

Q by Tony Kovach:
You came out recently with an article in The Journal that called for an Ad Hoc Committee to tackle the issue of image building for the industry.

A by Eddie Hicks:

Our industry’s (public) image hasn’t kept up with substantial improvements in our products. This has impacted our industry’s efforts in Washington, with HUD and others to move regulatory issues ahead. For example, the implementation of Title I lending was passed in 2008 by Congress and signed into law by then President George Bush. For regulators, Title 1 implementation isn’t a priority. They don’t consider our industry’s influence that strong. They think spending the majority of their time on the more preferred FHA Title II financing programs for so called conventional housing is more important.

Now if we changed our image with the public, if we created a positive new public image similar to what the RV industry did with its “GO RVing” campaign, these sorts of delays wouldn’t be happening.

Q. So what do you see as a way of changing that image?

A. I think we should get to the source of the information which most people use which is TV. Let’s get creative. Let’s influence TV shows to project a good image of manufactured homes.

Q. How do you think that could be done cost effectively?

A. By using Product Placement and/or producing creative new shows which feature m/h in a positive light eg: a new sitcom, or a reality based series.

Q. You mean like planting the product into the story line, like having a Chevy in a movie?

A. Precisely. Make the product part of the background for the TV show. It could be a sit com or other show. Why not have the settings for a TV show as some clean, upscale manufactured home community? Why not have the characters living and loving their homes as part of the background to the story? This could be a way with minimum dollars to influence the public in a profound way.

Q. Interesting concept! I’ve watched this done with products before, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen this done or proposed for manufactured housing. Great idea, Eddie. That said, how could we (as an industry) advance a product placement approach for use on TV?

A. I have connections with the entertainment industry. Some of them include a cousin who produced TV shows like Magnum PI, Battlestar Galactica and others. A nephew of mine produces 2 minutes to 30 minute spots for casinos. Potentially through connections like these or others we could advance a story line for a TV series that could use the product placement of clean, appealing upscale manufactured home living in a positive light.

I know others with TV production connections, clients or people I’ve met, like the producer of Cheaters. Do you know that show? We could get together with people like those who know how this is done and think it all out.

Q. Actually, Eddie, I don’t watch TV, I’ve heard of the show, but I have never seen it.

A. Wow, how do you get your information (he says with tongue in cheek)? (Eddie’s question; Tony’s answer:) I’m one of those guys who reads and likes to talk to people who know. Internet, magazines, books, etc. I’ll watch a DVD or video on line at times too.

Q. So in your view, Eddie, how would we move something like this forward?

A. Well, I don’t think we need to wait and get a group like MHI involved. In some ways, they’ve failed to move this sort of thinking ahead on the image building issue. I think we can hire a consultant for modest dollars, someone who knows the entertainment industry and how to get things like this product placement for image building done. I know a guy in Central Florida who had a nice boat. A film producer paid him handsomely to shoot scenes using that vessel in a boat yard. What we would want to do is shoot something like this in a clean, new manufactured home community, showing intelligent, active, people living normally.

You can tell your readers that if they are coming to Congress in Vegas, to contact me directly and get involved in this Ad Hoc Committee effort, we’ll have some interesting people for them to meet and get involved with. By the way, I don’t want to be in charge of an effort like this, I would like to help get this or other good ways to build image going. We have a lot of smart people out there who are involved in our industry, and I think we can “glean” some creative and resourceful ideas from them. Far be it for me to be the only one with ideas.

Q. It seems to me like some community owner or other owners would be willing to fund a concept like this.

A. Not necessarily so. Many of my clients are in the communities business. Most of the all age community owners are hurting. Many people in our industry today are just too focused on surviving instead of planning ahead. Back in the late 90s, or early 2000s, when people were still selling like crazy and making money compared to today, that is when we should have started something like this. But too many people were too busy thinking ‘today,’ instead of planning ahead. Look at where we are now!

I think we need to turn to manufacturers or maybe lenders to get something like this done. They have the incentive and the means. It would be nice to get someone like Warren Buffett and his organizations at Clayton, Vanderbilt, and 21st Mortgage behind it too.

It seems to me that too many people in our industry don’t realize the importance of getting financing going. That is the lifeblood of our industry. Implementing FHA Title I would be a big step ahead to getting lending going, and thus driving more retail sales again. I can’t understand why there isn’t a more forceful push to do that in Washington.

Q. That sounds like something like Danny Ghorbani at MHARR might say.

A. Danny Ghorbani is brilliant. Danny is a master of understanding the importance of financing to moving (MH) product. I’d say that maybe 1% of new homes sales today are cash sales, so the other 99% are financed. We as an industry need financing!

Ken Rishel is another one of those industry pros who are working hard on the captive finance side of this picture. Ken and Precision are doing good work too.

Nothing happens until a sale is made! Sales are made 99% of the time through financing. So why aren’t we as an industry spending more focus on getting financing going again? Without financing, without a sale, manufacturers don’t build, transporters don’t move homes, set up and installations crews don’t work, suppliers don’t sell parts, lenders don’t lend, insurance companies don’t insure and so on.

If we can fix financing and fix our image issue, if we can get good things like FHA Title I lending going again, we’ll see sales rise in our industry.

—————————– end of interview —————————–

You can contact Eddie Hicks at: www.mobilehomepark.com, 813-661-5901 or via email at easteddie@aol.com

www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com plans to do more interviews with industry pros – such as Eddie Hicks and others – in the days ahead. You’ll see more feature articles from top names too. These are scheduled to star with the new March issue, that will go live circa the middle of the month.  Stay tuned!##

When you are here, you are not alone.

Whether this is your 1st visit here or your 31st, you are not alone.

Whether you are a one person operation, mid sized organization or part of one of the largest firms in the factory built housing Industry, you are not alone.

Whether you are an owner, executive, association leader, manager, sales, staffer or support; when you are here, you are not alone.

Others like you are here too: writing, reading, commenting, learning and positioning themselves for a brighter future! Seeking to enhance your PR, biz to biz marketing within the industry? You are not alone.

So no matter whom you are or what you do with or for the Industry, when you are here you are not alone! Before you finish this blog post, you are going to see one or more reasons why you should come here often and why you should invite and bring your associates along for this encouraging ride too.

Original goal = 10,000

This website was launched some 105 days ago. When we unveiled the Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management trade journal in mid-October 2009, we had a short term goal. We wanted to attract enough visitors to attain 10,000 page views (PV) in a month and we hoped we could achieve that goal sometime in the first quarter of 2010. If, IF we were really, really successful at attracting Industry Professional’s interest – we wanted to achieve that 10,000 PV goal by February 2010.

Instead…

(see footnote 1)

…as the chart above demonstrates, we blew past that goal in November 2009, our first full month of operation, because you are not alone!

Some said, our traffic would go down in December…after all, it was ‘the holiday season’ and people would be too busy with Christmas parties, gift buying, travel plans, plus all their work and other worries to logon to and read a new Industry trade magazine. Well those who said that were wrong…

…because here, you are Not Alone!

In December 2009, as the chart above shows, we exceeded 30,000 PV! We grew almost 150% during the busy holiday season. Why? Thanks to our writers, thanks to our readers, thanks to new names, faces and new ideas to move the industry ahead, thanks to those who forward our emails…because here at www.MHMSM.com, you are not alone!

Almost giddy with the excitement of such a positive response from Industry Professionals like you, we set a new goal: to attain 50,000 page views by April 2010. After all, how could we keep up with nearly a 50% growth rate pace? Well, you proved US wrong, because…

You are not alone!

187.2% Growth

Let’s put this in context: How would YOU like to have 149.56% growth and then follow it up with 187.2% growth?! If you were a factory, how would you like to go from building 30 units in December 2009, to 55 before January 2010 was even done? Sure – you’d want to do more, but you’d be MOTIVATED by the growth.

Industry leaders, managers to rank and file are logging on and letting us know that they like what they get with www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com – or www.MHMSM.com for short. If you are new here, take 10 and tour our feature articles, our robust Industry News, the Photo Gallery and much, much more.

Online, people vote with their browsers, and Industry member browsers have helped make us the largest Industry Trade Journal less than 4 months after we’ve launched!

You’ll see below reasons why this IS – or can be – Important to YOU and YOUR organization.

The Hits Just keep on Coming…

So we are clear with those less web savvy, sometimes you hear about a ‘hit count’ on a website – a hit count can be a misleading figure, because a single page view often yields multiple hits on that one page view. In other words, we don’t use hits as a measure of traffic because hits ‘inflate’ the numbers. For an example, the hit count from January 1 to January 30 at 9:30 PM was 358,885 while the page views (shown above) for the same period was 55,160. See the chart below compared to the one above.

FYI – we also know that we’ve had a growing number of ‘unique visitors’ a week, so that each visitor sees an average of about 4.5 pages per visit before logging off. In the most recent week, we are averaging over 3,500 unique visitors per week, that’s over 15,000 monthly and growing. So we not only have the most content – we are far and away the largest INdustry trade journal – we also have more traffic from INdustry pros too…and are growing rapidly! Now all the factory built housing Industry trade journals – us included – could potentially reach thousands more than what we already do. There are those who still don’t know us, so this is just the start, but as the charts reveal, it is a FAST start with solid results!

Okay, impressive! But what does this mean for me and my enterprise?

Glad you asked…

We are going to address later items like retail lead generation for our registered users and other advances that www.MHMSM.com will provide exclusively to our readers/users.

But initially, we will take a few moments to explain in some detail why this rapid growth is important and potentially very good for you. There are many reasons, some or all may apply to you. Those that don’t apply to your may still apply to a friend or colleague of yours, so let’s start with an analogy.

If you are hungry, want to go out to eat and are looking for a good restaurant, one ‘clue’ that it is ‘good’ can be word of mouth. But another one is a simple test…is it busy? If the restaurant is open and is busy, that’s usually a pretty good clue that the food and service are good, or people wouldn’t be there in great numbers!

Similarly, if you are hungry for news and views, if you are hungry and looking for new ideas, proven concepts by successful pros, industry news reports, a way to get your message out to others in the industry – do you want to go where things are dead or dying, or where things are BUSY, and growing BUSIER!

INdustry News and Views You can Use
24/7/365

Don’t be an Industry outsider – be an INdustry INsider!

Here, YOU are Not Alone!

In the INternet age, people vote with their web browsers. Some experts say people who surf into a website decide in an average of 7 seconds if they’ll surf it or move on. Imagine, just 7 seconds to make a good impression, or you’ve blown it! So when people come by the THOUSANDs every week to www.MHMSM.com – Industry Pros like YOU – it means there is something worth coming for here…

• • MH Industry News – the most you’ll find anywhere, and it is updated daily 24/7/365.
  • National Associations News & Events – MHI and MHARR, updated shortly after they send it out, you’ll see it live on our website.
  • State Association News and Events. A growing number of states are sharing their news with your biggest and best source for Industry News, www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com or www.MHMSM.com for short. All states – all North American Industry Factory Built Housing Associations! – are invited. If your state isn’t shown – yet – please contact/remind them and ask them to send their news and events here to reach that wider audience. It is a fine way to let non-association members see the value of the meetings, training and education a good association offers! In other words, use www.MHMSM.com as your free Association-friendly marketing tool.
  • MH Finance and Housing Industry News.

‘Do it Yourselfer’ vs. ‘Hiring it Done’

Some of us are do-it-yourselfers. Give a do-it-yourselfer a ‘how to’ book or article, and they are off to the races to see if they can make it happen on their own.

Others want to hire a job done by someone that’s done it before – they have the resources and are willing to invest them to accelerate their growth process and/or to provide coaching for their team. At www.MHMSM.com, you’ll have the opportunity to hire many of the pros you are reading tips and ideas from, or you can take the do-it-yourself route. Either way, you and your associates are the winner.

Positive Team Input vs. Negative Team Input

It is a proven fact that people are surfing the web at work. Studies have suggested, for example, that people search online more for a new place to live during their work hours than during their off duty time. Be it during a coffee break, lunch break down time – or whatever time – you and your people are doing many things online from your office. Why not encourage your team to surf and read www.MHMSM.com articles or blog posts? If you read Tim Connor, Bob Stovall, Greg McClanahan, Zig Ziglar (Zig is joining our ranks for writers – starting in February!) Sue Frost, Tim Saville, Mike DuPure Suzanne Felber, Dave Reynolds, Beth Monicatti Blank, Rachael Biermann or any of our regular or periodic writers, you’ll see diversity of topics, but one very common thread… a ‘can do,’ positive, solution orientation! Positive in, positive out! That’s a whole lot better than GIGO – garbage in and garbage out.

Free Training, Motivation and Discussion Starters

Okay. You can formulate your policies about internet use. But how about attracting those team members to an INdustry website that teaches or reinforces sound basics, and/or shares with them new skills, and has a positive INdustry goal orientation! It is common sense that you want your team members surfing a site like this, and that is why some owners and managers have emailed us saying:

• • ‘I forward your messages out to our entire team’ or

• • ‘I print your articles, copy and pass them out to our office to read and discuss.’

Those are good ideas from our readers.

Why not use articles or blog posts as periodic meeting tools, and discussion starters! Encourage your team to read in advance, letting them know there will be a discussion. Over time, they’ll get ‘hooked’ on this themselves. Who is the winner? They are, for getting stronger in their jobs. Your company is, for having team members who are reading so they will be leading in their area and market!

Who is the winner? Everyone involved! “You are not Alone!”

The only ‘losers’ are those who don’t plug in and logon. They can fix that too, and it is free.

Writers, Advertisers, Sponsors and Marketers

Do you have a message or an idea that you want to share with the Industry at large, or with segments of the Industry? What is the faster, more powerful medium – print or online? We want to present this idea with some caution…because we have tremendous respect for the remaining print journals in our Industry. The two print leaders have been around for 30 or 40+ years. We believe they deserve your support!

At the same time, there is the old saying about:

“Don’t Put ALL your eggs into one basket.”

Print has certain fundamental limitations that the Internet doesn’t have. www.MHMSM.com has more than double the content then the largest industry print publication. There are reasons why newspapers and magazines have ‘gone digital’ over the years, even if they may not have quite figured out how to make both print and digital work together profitably. If you need facts, we’ll provide some below and then finish up with a roaring bang!

The chart above – courtesy of the Pew Center for People & the Press – tells us what we already know: more people get their news online than from print media. Many once powerful print media publications are in bankruptcy, and some will doubtlessly fail and cease to exist. In a phrase, print media is dying. In an even more recent study, in December of 2009, according to techcrunch.com

But Yahoo has been in the news business since 1996, Google since December 2008. So Google has roared ahead FAST. The moral of the story, or the message is that focused online publications and news sources can rapidly grab center stage. That is what has happened at www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com

In the Manufactured Housing Industry, Modern Homes and the Manufactured Home Merchandiser Magazines have sadly fallen by the wayside, along with a smaller industry publisher. Digital media is the wave of the future, so are you still placing all or the bulk of your industry professional focused advertising, PR and such with print media?

The solution?

It just make sense to go with the largest and fastest growing INdustry publication www.MHMSM.com If you want to write, advertise, promote a discussion or event, bring it here AND to your other outlets. You’ll find a warm reception here and if you need ideas on how to get your message out, you can’t come to a better place within the INdustry. Here YOU are Not Alone!

For advertisers and marketers, you’ll find many advantages here, lower rates (by a country mile) and much higher click through rates than even very tech savvy performers than Yahoo-the Chicago SunTimes Newsgroups offers! If you want to advertise or market, please contact one of our Zone Marketing Managers for more details, or go to our advertising page. If you want to write an article, please submit your articles via email to me at latonyk@gmail.com

• Growth Strategies

• Business Building Tools and Resources

• “How To”

• Training

• Motivation

• News & Views

• Instant Feedback available from Industry professionals via posted comments.

• Image building via Publication and/or via our Contests (photo gallery submissions, writing, etc.): Ever walk into a restaurant or store and seen an article about them posted? Ever seen an award framed? What does this do for that business? Create interest and add to their credibility! In some world, ‘publish or perish’ is the rule. Yes, being published or winning an award can over time yield business for you too!

Tools to boost your Retail Business.

Through the “How To” articles and resources already available here, readers can begin the process of using success strategies that have proven their worth ‘in the trenches’ of the INdustry. Those are here now, one big reason, You are Not Alone!

In the coming weeks, we will roll out a pair of NEW programs – NEW Initiatives! – that will have the power to increase sales for registered users. Yes, BOTTOM LINE PROFITS or added REVENUE for YOUR business or organization! These will be available only to registered users. Registration here is free. A real common sense reason why, you are not alone…

Frankly, the faster our growth, the sooner we can roll those programs out. We already share a sincere ‘thank you’ to all who are passing along our web address, printing out articles, forwarding our emails to others. But if we have more growth – faster – you’ll see strategies that we know can sell more new homes and other products, thus boosting
the sale of everything that goes along with home sales and services!

We will provide a new vehicle, a new set of resources – exclusively to those who are signed up – that will enhance our Industry’s Image with the home buying public. It will generate retail leads. You don’t want to open your doors to a quiet office; you want to have that busy restaurant effect – where retail client emails are coming in with phone calls and customers arriving at YOUR place of business or organization! Want more profits and revenues for your enterprise? You are not alone.

Want to work together to increase sales and industry growth?

You are not alone!

Thank you for being a part of the story for the rebirth of our Great INdustry. Thank you for sharing our web address, or forwarding our blog posts, articles or emails. If you haven’t already signed up, please do so, it is free and just takes a few moments. Your emails are not shared or sold to others. Thank you for helping us, help you. Together, we are not alone!

The investment is so basic, a little time well spent! Working together – INdustry readers, writers and sponsors – we can grow as an INdustry once again! Learning the lessons from the past, using new tools, resources and proven ideas, we can build a brighter future where…

…you are not Alone!##

Footnote 1. Website statistic charts above were generated by Urchin Report. Highlights and comments on charts have been added by www.MHMarketingSalesManagement.com team members.

“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.” ~ Louis L’Amour

“An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.” ~ Winston Churchill

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” ~ Dale Carnegie

“Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them.” ~ William James

• Positive thoughts are not enough. There have to be positive feelings and positive actions.

• The difference between can and cannot are only three letters. Three letters that determine your life’s direction.

• Reading inspiring quotes uplifts the mind.

• Positive and negative are directions. Which direction do you choose?…

…Remez Sasson Quotes

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” ~ Helen Keller

“The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

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As INdividuals and as an INdustry, we face many very real challenges. We also face unprecedented opportunities. Here at Manufactured Home Marketing Sales Management Magazine, we seek to make Innovation – Information – Inspiration for Industry Professionals more than a tag line, we work to make it a reality.

It is by working together, by sharing SOLUTIONS and PROVEN ideas that we can being the turn around process for one and all. Please resolve TODAY to reach out to at least one industry pro with a positive message: one of your own team members, someone you know down the road or across the country by email. Reach out to at least one public or elected official at least once each week. Reach out to your local media and people of influence at least every other week.  If you do this, it won’t take long for you and the industry to see the difference.

“Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.” ~ Louis L’Amour##