How to transform your design collections or design studio experience into a robust marketing tool

As builders, we are often overly pragmatic when selling, especially today.

It’s obvious that potential homebuying customers are looking for the right floorplan on the right homesite in the right neighborhood at the right initial investment (i.e., base price), so it’s often easy to forget that they are pulled toward all that by their vision of life in that brand new home. And that vision includes the finishes and features that they want to surround themselves with, that represent who they are or who they want to become in their new life. Remember that people “buy on emotion and justify on facts,” so there’s no downside to adding one more pillar to your list of Unique Reasons to Buy From Us, one that taps into that emotion that can fuel a sale.

Here are a few ways to leverage your company’s home design experience and the uniquely personalized home that results from it.

• Promote why your home personalization EXPERIENCE is better: easier, faster, quicker, more options, fewer options, the most updated on-trend options, professional design guidance, one-stop shopping, buyer-focused tech resources, …whatever it is, don’t make your potential customers figure out why it is BETTER. them specifically HOW it is better and why that is a compelling reason to buy from you.
• Promote your professional DESIGN CONSULTANTS as the best design experts and explain exactly how the homebuyer benefits. Provide proof of expertise, skill, and customer focus the prospective buyer can expect to benefit from.
• Promote the result of the uniquely designed HOMES that your current customers are already living in…explicitly paint the dream and detail the benefits of living in a professionally designed home that supports a customer’s lifestyle needs and design preferences. Showcase a wide variety of design styles and investment levels. Promote the high quality of the brands you partner with, summarize the high-performing, quality products the customer chooses from, and how you stay up to date on the latest design trends and performance benefits.
• If you offer curated DESIGN COLLECTIONS—assuming that you provide controlled homebuyer decisions (choosing from among pre-designed options that are embedded into collections from among coordinated packages)—promote the benefits of having baked-in design expertise versus starting from scratch. Let customers know still control the finished outcome but get there quicker and get a professionally designed home. And explain why this is better than settling for someone else’s choices and giving up all control when buying a used home or an already spec-ed or finished home.

It's been said that emotions drive nearly 90% of our decisions. Set your brand apart and attract more customers aligned and promise by leveraging an underutilized, untapped asset: you!