by Fred Seely
Editor
The Gospel according to Bill Webb hit home with an appropriate audience last month: the many Realtors, marketers and site agents who make up the Sales and Marketing Council.
Hit home and, for sure, hit hard to a few as Webb let everyone know how they should stand . . . and how they should behave themselves in trying to sell a home.
“Sales and marketing too often places the emphasis on sales,” said the Amelia Island resident, a motivational speaker on the national circuit. “Sales people need to understand their product and do their best for the customer; marketing people need to understand that the whole idea is to create a preference.
“The builder does the best he can to produce a good home with good amenities and still get a little bit of profit margin. Do you think the customer can tell what’s in a $5,000 price difference? Marketing is creating the desire to pay that premium.”
Webb gave basically the same speech in March to the Northeast Florida Builders Association board and the group was so impressed that they embarked on a year-long quest to come up with what they call a “Realtor Builder Accord,” a code of conduct they hope will be posted by participating builders and agents.
Veteran site agent Rose Bock heads a committee of veteran SMC members with a goal to have an “Accord” in print and ready for distribution by year’s end.
“If a person has this certificate on his or her wall, then the customer will know that they can deal with the agent,” said Bock.
Webb lauded the idea, saying “Ethics is something you can’t have too much of” and his presentation gave the 100 so at the UNF University Center last month plenty of ideas to improve the interactions of Realtors and site agents.
“I call them ‘Deadly sins,’” he said, and then listed “Deadly sins of a builder site agent” and “Deadly sins of a general agent.”
“In between the site agent and the general agent is the customer,” he said, “and we can never, ever forget the customer. Without that person, the other two are nothing.”
Webb is a past president of the Institute of Residential Marketing of the National Association of Home Builders. He teaches several of the institute’s qualification courses and wrote the book “Sweet Success in New Home Sales: Selling Strong in Changing Markets.”