Surf's Up!

Once you've gotten intrigued clients to your Web site, what do you do with the resulting leads? Barbara Stowers, Southern California marketing manager for Florida-based Taylor Woodrow Communities, has perfected some unconventional Web site operations to help the upscale builder manage robust sales in high-demand communities.

"It's a great problem to have," she admits, "but we've struggled in the past with how to manage the sales process to be fair to everyone. The Web site proved to be a great tool for us at Botanica, a 74-home community of detached homes priced in the $800,000 range, and centering on 2500 square feet. The site at Irvine Ranch was in huge demand, with pent-up demand bordering on hysteria.

"We opened models in October 2003," Stowers recalls, "but we started marketing on the Web site and cross-selling from other communities several months before the models opened. We drove everyone to the Web site for more information, and 6,000 people signed up on our interest list."

The solution to this challenge? Taylor Woodrow worried the Web site was not secure enough to use for transmission of private financial and contractual data, but Stowers had prospects print out pre-qualification forms, fill them out, and fax them to the Web site. "I have a friend in the entertainment business who used this technique to manage who got to audition first for parts in a film," Stowers says. "He told me we could tie the fax machine into the computer so it would record the order in which the forms were received, down to the nanosecond.

"We had 1500 people file those forms, and they came in within half-seconds of each other. We tracked it, and had the order for our waiting list — and we didn't have to worry about the fax machine running out of paper!"

Stowers has also used the TW Web site to free up cash needed for a land buy in the red-hot Southern California market. "We had 11 projects with model homes. To free up cash, we decided to sell the models to investors, and then lease them back until we no longer needed them as models. We used the Web site for an e-Bay-like auction that we advertised in the L.A. Times and Wall Street Journal," Stowers says.

Despite these exotic uses, Taylor Woodrow finds time to use its Web site for its best role, deepening a dialogue with sales prospects and moving them from casual interest to model home visitors. Like so many others, TW has discovered the wisdom of having an Internet sales specialist.

"I went on the Marriott site once, when I was looking for a vacation destination," Stowers recalls. "I was moving from one segment of the site to another when, suddenly, I got this message, 'Can I help you?' It was like a voice in the darkness, a real person in cyber-space.

"I got the message," Stowers says, "so now we have a real person who does nothing but respond to requests for information on our Web site. If she can, she gets a phone number and calls. She asks probing questions to get to exactly what they want and how they want to receive it. Then she turns the lead over to the sales people."

TW should have a leg up if the Southern California market ever cools enough to require actually selling houses again.