For Individual Consideration or Group Discussion - Becoming a Manufactured Home Evangelist - The Cutting Edge of Manufactured Home Marketing & Sales

Analogies are a useful way to share a new, misunderstood, unique, or different concept. We’ll use a powerful insight based upon a widely understood analogy today to illustrate a professional point.

The common concept of ‘evangelization’ is a spiritual or religious one. Indeed, we will briefly examine that use of the term ‘evangelization,’ to see how – by analogy – lessons may apply to the manufactured housing profession.

But let’s not forget that Apple is an example of a super-successful operation that applied the evangelization concept in their business.

We’ve made the point before that one should not be bound to only FAB (Feature Advantage Benefit) forms of selling a manufactured homes. Yes, you need to know FAB for about 1 out of 4 types of customers. Please don’t conflate or confuse FAB with what what is being illustrated.

Example of Spiritual Evangelization

(In Corinth, Paul) “…for three months he debated boldly with persuasive arguments about the kingdom of God.” – Acts 19:8.

“Be ready to give an explanation for the reason for your hope.” – 1 Peter 3:15.

Let’s key in on some of those words in bold typeface, beginning with “Be ready,” which implies routine training, study and practice.

Because preparation – training, study, practice – are how anyone becomes “ready” to ‘explain to’ or ‘debate with’ others.

“Debated,” “boldly” (confidently), “persuasive arguments,” “Be ready to give an explanation,” “reason for hope.”

There are many more examples in God’s Word of encouraging followers to be able to give a proper explanation or ‘witness’ to their beliefs.

Applying the Analogy to MH

But think! How many tens of millions are looking for hope in housing! How many wish to ‘be saved’ from renting, or higher costs of housing?

We’ve said publicly several times that if pretty pictures or even great looking home videos were enough, manufactured homes would be selling several hundred thousand new homes annually. The proof is found in the big numbers on MHVillage (for a fuller analysis, linked here).

What follows isn’t FAB, but it has a similarity.

We have to be able to give witness to the kinds of concerns that millions of prospects have about manufactured homes.

Listen to Tom Fath, an HVAC engineer by education and training. Keep in mind that engineers are not always known for high levels or emotional enthusiasm.

Yet listen to the evident zeal in Tom’s voice!

Also, for the purposes of this post, pay particular attention to what he has to say when realtors are peppering him with questions.

Then, if you are using this article for a group discussion, ask the group this question.

What other examples of evangelical zeal can be found besides Tom’s (or mine) in this video explanation by Tom?

"It's amazing what you don't know about something you've been aware of or involved with much of your life." That quote is my paraphrase of what a baseball legend said about his profession. That quote applies to everyone, in every profession – but it is truer for manufactured housing than most realize. Here’s another pensée to ponder. “Learn the basics, do the basics, and teach others the basics. Doing the basics honestly, well, and consistently will put you ahead of most of your competitors.” Among the communication basics we believe in is that stating the obvious can bring amazing clarity and insights to an issue. Here’s the obvious clarity. What matters to a business is reaching their target market. There are lots of ways to do that, please let me share an example we know well. Example In marketing, a big chunk of success is a result of repetition – how many touches – which means you want to be where your target audience is. We looked at our industry with fresh eyes - approaching 8 years ago – before we launched what we now call MHProNews. We continue to step back from time-to-time and take a fresh look, and we adjust or recreate ourselves in the light of those discoveries. Be Honest With Yourself, Then Be Compelling with Your Market We all have strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). Almost 8 years ago, we saw that there was no consistent or easy way to get and stay in front of the manufactured housing professional audience. There were only 2 ‘full’ trade shows, and one partial one, and then smaller events. These – while useful – are not routine enough or profitable enough on their own for a year-round B2B marketing campaigns. That problem was an opportunity in disguise. It motivated us to create MHProNews.com. Seeing the big gap, we began to fill it by launching MHProNews.com. By creating “Daily Business News” – stories that no one else in the industry was doing – plus numerous other features – and later MHLivingNews - we’d feed the needs of thousands of professionals. That also is an obvious way of giving businesses trying to reach other MH Professionals a way to engage them every time they logged on. We rapidly became and remain number 1 as a result of doing the basics. In April 2017, in the tiny manufactured housing industry, we averaged over 7400 visits a day. Think about it! Thousands of professionals, logging on daily! That’s more than many other platforms touch in one or more months. Are Emails Enough? “But Tony, our business has a great email list.” If so, Terrific! • But what are you doing to reach those not on your list? • What are you doing to get those who may receive your email – but rarely if ever open it – to discover who it is sending them that message? "It's amazing what you don't know about something you've been aware of or involved with much of your life." People you know, and who you think know you, may not realize something you want them to. So, your operation has to “step in front of them.” Often! Daily, if possible! That means, you have to be where they are already looking, because they want to look there. B2B, that best place is MHProNews – thousands of readers just like you, from the industry’s billionaires and billion-dollar operations, to the mid-sized companies or the mom-and-pop businesses. This same principle applies to those businesses selling products and services to consumers (B2C). So back to the top. Marketing and Sales 101. Get and stay in front of your target audience. Do so in ways that your target audience will a) want to find you and b) will keep coming back, because they want to come back. Why are we more successful than others that have come and – mostly – gone? Because we KNOW the retailing, production, communities, lending and other services that go along with manufactured housing. We know the professional audience and the public too. We have the tee shirts, because we’ve sold the homes, knocked on the doors, walked the lines, been under the homes, know the firnancial services and what makes them tick, etc. etc. Everything else are details and commentary. Check back next week for more Marketing and Sales basics. And if you need specialized products or services - call or email us, first or last - but call us. Odds are we can do more for your budget than anyone else. Because we know, live and love the manufactured home business! We know and have your target audiences! ## L. A. 'Tony' Kovach MHLivingNews.com | MHProNews.com | Office 863-213-4090 | Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach +++ Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right. - Henry Ford — *To see Marketing 101, Be Where Your Target Audience is, click the image above. Image credit, MHProNews.com All Rights Reserved.*

Tom explains the power of what we teach and do with clients. It has transformed their MH business. It has made positive impacts on others too.

If you want to learn more about how this process can be applied to your operations, call or email for a free initial consultation. In the meantime, are you doing group discussions in your sales meetings? A number of MH operations are using articles and videos we do precisely for discussion group purposes. Try it. ##

(Images above created by MHProNews.com.)

LATonyKovachPresentingIndustryMembers-MHProNews — Think beyond Feature Advantage and Benefit – FAB – which only positively impacts maybe 10% of all MH shoppers! FAB should only be used when needed. **Learn what 21st century customers today really want.** Tony is the most widely known and respected MH marketing services and consultant and MH sales trainer in the U.S.. He and his team publish MHLivingNews.com and MHProNews.com.

By L. A. “Tony” Kovach.

For Individual Consideration or Group Discussion – Becoming a Manufactured Home Evangelist

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