Wow!

A drowning MH retail lot has been turned into a viable business, in just 90 days. Okay, now that I have your attention let me explain. Several of the businesses that I own currently and in the past, have been profitable. I have been in the manufactured home business for only 2 years as of October 2014. Our retail center is positioned between Dallas and Houston, in a town with a population of less than 4,000.

After struggling for 2 years doing it “my way,” I hired a professional marketing and sales coach. WOW!!! What a difference this guy has made. You may be thinking that “he,” the sales coach, just pointed out the obvious and had us do what we knew deep down we should be doing . . . and you would be correct.

However, as Paul Harvey said, “here is the rest of the story” (or part of it ;-).

I met our coach two years ago in Tunica at the manufactured housing show. I even purchased a book he was selling. So why did it take 2 years to call him for professional help?

Being a hard-headed Texan may be part of it; however, I thought I could just do what I had been doing and the business would grow. My retail lot looked good enough and surely people would want to buy their new home from me.

Flags were flying and the doors were open 6 day a week. Hundreds of cars drove past our lot every day, and that was the problem, they just drove on by.

There were days when not one customer called or came in to our dealership. I had been floating the business for 20 of the past 24 months. My way was not working, and I only had enough capital to last about 6 more months.

After many sleepless nights, and much praying, I picked up the book I had purchased in Tunica and began reading. A few days later, I made the call.

Hiring a marketing and sales coach to rescue my struggling MH Retail business was put into play. After all, professional sports teams have coaches. The coaches train the team during the week and on game day.

I wanted our team to become a professional Manufactured Housing sales team that was successful. Bi-weekly virtual sales training began immediately. After the first session with our sales coach, we all began to see MH in a completely new light. Phrases like, "affordable luxury," "systems-built" and "custom homes," were phrases that had previously never come to my mind about MH.

To say our sales coach opened our eyes is an understatement. He not only educated us on marketing and sales, but he began to systematically motivate us in ways that are hard to express.

He began with a process. Yes, a precise process that even ebbs and flows with real life situations.

The excitement has become obvious to all of our employees. One recently commented that he has seen more homes sold in the past 60 days than the previous 6 months, and another commented on how the attitude is undeniably so positive that it is exciting to be at work.

Breaking old habits is hard and yes, sometimes painful; however, the proof is in the results.

Sales have exploded, and with so much growth we are recruiting two more sales agents for our sales team. With the right training, attitude and practice, success is very much attainable.

I will begin to share our real life sales experiences in my next column, “WOW”! ##

Dwayne Somerville

Fairfield Homes & Land