Online Sales Teams Contributed 51% of Home Builder Sales in 2020

Online Sales Teams Contributed 51% of Home Builder Sales in 2020

Jan 5, 2021 | By Mike Lyon

online sales contribution in 2020

 

New Online Sales Benchmark

The home building industry has hit a new benchmark. According to data from Do You Convert builder partners, 51 percent of total home builder sales in 2020 originated as an online lead. The online sales contribution rate has doubled in the last five years, and is more than 20 percent higher than the benchmark set in 2018.

Home builders who had solid online sales processes in place at the start of 2020 were able to capitalize on the unprecedented shift in traffic from walk-in to online. Even as things settle down and return to “normal,” home buyers will continue to conduct the majority of their research online. Today’s buyers prefer to get as far along the sales process as possible online before visiting a community in person. Events of 2020 have highlighted the fact that online sales specialists in home building are critical to modern selling.

 

Contributing Factors

The increase in online sales contributions can be attributed to five factors:

  1. Online traffic for home builders increased substantially year-over-year. Do You Convert builder partners saw increases of more than 70 percent in May/June 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
  2. Heading into 2020, more home builders had an online sales specialist in place to manage leads. (LassoCRM.com)
  3. Online sales processes have become more robust and refined as leads have increasingly shifted online for the past 10 years.
  4. Virtual sales tools, such as Zoom and FaceTime, allowed sales teams to accommodate buyers who were not able or willing to visit in person.
  5. The quality and volume of content – such as 3D tours, videos and photo galleries – gave prospective buyers a clear understanding of options and upgrades.

 

Going Forward

Online sales programs will continue to make significant contributions to home builders’ total sales volume for the foreseeable future. The online home shopping trend was already well-established prior to 2020 (NAR’s 2018 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellersreported that 95 percent of buyers used the internet during their home search), and this year’s circumstances accelerated it. Builders who already had systems, processes and people in place to handle online leads were able to scale up to accommodate increased volume, leaving others scrambling to find solutions. In 2021, all builders should analyze their current online sales programs and make adjustments to right-size them for the future.

Read the full news release here.

 

Related Articles:

DYC Live: Online Sales in 2020 – Where Do We Go From Here?

Keeping Online Follow-Up F.R.E.S.H.

Why (and How) to Right-Size Your Online Sales Program

The post Online Sales Teams Contributed 51% of Home Builder Sales in 2020 appeared first on Online Sales and Marketing for Home Builders - DYC.

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