Right Way to Sell

Right Way to Sell

COVER STORY by Jean Gruss | Lee/Collier Editor

If you plan to sell anything in Southwest Florida this year it pays to listen to Claudine Leger-Wetzel.

Here's why: The National Association of Homebuilders recently named her the best marketing director in the country.

The numbers alone are impressive. As the vice president of marketing and community relations for Naples-based Stock Development, Leger-Wetzel helped the company sell $1 billion worth of new homes and related services in 2005. That's up 64% from the privately held company's $608 million in sales in 2004, the figures upon which the homebuilders' association based her award. During that time, Leger-Wetzel helped launch three new Southwest Florida residential communities and six new Stock-related companies, including Pizzazz Interiors, Stock Financial, Noble Title & Trust, Stock Realty, Stock Property Management and Stock Community Services.

The NAHB awarded Leger-Wetzel the Nationals Gold Award for Marketing Director of the Year at a black-tie event attended by more than 1,000 people in Orlando in January. The awards ceremony was the highlight of the International Builders' Show, a conference with more than 90,000 building professionals. The Nationals is the nation's largest competition for new-home sales and marketing professionals, drawing over 1,400 entries.

As home sales start to slow after several boom years, Leger-Wetzel provides some insight into what it takes to market residential developments and companies today. In many cases, the lessons she offers are applicable to any business that seeking growth in Florida. Here are some of her key points:

Establish a vision and high standards

Leger-Wetzel and her team of four employees are always involved from the very beginning of any project, whether it's a new residential development or the creation of a new related company.

She explains why: "We can't market something we don't believe in."

That often begins with a vision, which she says in Stock's case is to enhance the lives of the customer in the same way you would your own family, combining the vision and the expectation of high standards.

For example, when Leger-Wetzel created the marketing plan for The Players Club & Spa at Lely Resort in Naples, she and her team spent hours pouring over plans to make sure the luxury exceeded residents' expectations. Rather than leaving the details to an interior decorator, the marketing team helped select everything from doorknobs to fabrics. Because they were so intimately involved in designing the club, Leger-Wetzel says her team had more confidence in the marketing plan they subsequently created.

Making sure everyone understands the vision is sometimes a challenge. Shortly after the club opened, Leger-Wetzel discovered that the club's general manager allowed the bartender to serve customers drinks in Styrofoam cups instead of glassware.

Leger-Wetzel, who was trained at the Ritz Carlton, credits the hotel chain for teaching her the art of superior customer service. "Treat ladies like ladies and gentlemen like gentlemen," she says, adding, "There's a right way to have a party."

Teamwork beyond the company

For Wetzel, the concept of teamwork goes beyond the Stock employees. Two of her employees are what she calls "broker liaisons," whose sole job is to keep outside residential real estate brokers happy. Stock considers these agents part of the team and she says it's essential to help them so that they'll bring business Stock's way.

When other developers were cutting commissions and bonuses when home sales were booming, Leger-Wetzel says Stock launched a program called Sweet Rewards.

In addition to giving selling agents the full 3% sales commission, Stock employees hand-delivered the commission checks along with a bouquet of flowers. A thank-you note with a $250 cash bonus for the first sale was tucked inside the bouquet. A second sale would earn the agent a $500 check.

Another essential part of the Stock team is the Miami-based Matrix2 advertising agency. Even though the agency is not part of the Stock company, "they're a key component of our team," she says.

Once a week, Leger-Wetzel, the sales managers of the Stock communities and Matrix2 officials gather to bounce ideas off each other in person. She says it's important to keep the ideas flowing, even if most of them won't ever be used. "No idea is a bad idea," she says. "Don't be afraid to take a risk."

Make marketing a fun experience

When a community needs to boost the number of prospective homebuyers through its sales center, Leger-Wetzel's team springs into action. She's found that fun events pull in more business.

One way to attract more prospective buyers to its sales centers is to encourage real estate agents to bring their customers. To do that, developers often make presentations to groups of agents in exchange for a free meal or a token gift.

But agents often find those frequent presentations tiresome. "Leger-Wetzel says, choosing instead to go for quirkier ideas.

Recently, she invited agents to a presentation about a Stock community and gave each agent chocolate bars. Under each chocolate-bar wrapper was a prize for a round of golf or a meal at a Stock community clubhouse. "It's fun and cute," says Leger-Wetzel.

But, she warns, she and her team continually have to brainstorm to come up with new ideas to attract agents. You can only use the chocolate-bar incentive a few times before it loses its appeal. "You can't be complacent," she says. "That fuels me."

Delegate and manage

Leger-Wetzel says she doesn't micro-manage her staff, but adds, "A letter doesn't go out that I don't see."

At first, she appears to contradict herself. But Leger-Wetzel says delegating doesn't mean giving up control.

"I'm very particular," she says. Whispering, she adds with a laugh: "Most people will tell you that I'm a pain in the ass."

She says she delegates work but communicates her expectations. "At the end of the day I'm still going to want it done right," she says.

For example, Leger-Wetzel had her staff write and design a 23-page magazine in summer 2005 that incorporated news from all the company's affiliates. She delegated the writing, but spent months reviewing and revising the publication before it went to press.

React quickly to market changes

The marketing department always needs to be in tune with inevitable changes in the demand for a product. Speed is critical to success. "We can have a conversation on Monday and have a new plan within a week," says Leger-Wetzel.

Typically, developers work on their marketing plans in late summer and early fall. As the housing market kept booming last year, Leger-Wetzel realized that communities were selling out faster than Stock could build them. "We pulled ads because we didn't have product to sell," she says. She slashed the advertising budget by 20%.

In the newspaper and magazine ads that ran, Stock removed all references to prices because the lower-priced homes sold out so quickly. Stock found customers were disappointed if higher-priced homes were the only ones left.

Meanwhile, Leger-Wetzel shifted some of the marketing emphasis from new-home sales to the broader Stock corporate brand and promoted Stock's affiliated companies. These companies, which range from interior decorating to pool construction, accounted for 20% of sales in 2004.

To promote Stock companies other than homebuilding, Leger-Wetzel launched a marketing campaign that included ads that showed how Stock companies could contribute to every aspect of homeownership, from pools to financing and resales. In 2005, affiliated companies grew to total 52% of sales.

Then, starting in November, investors and speculators started pulling out of the residential real estate market and Stock detected slowing sales. Sensing the shift, Leger-Wetzel immediately revised the ad budget. "Now we'll probably spend more dollars and not sell as many homes," she says. Leger-Wetzel says her marketing budget this year totals about $7 million to $8 million.

The change impacted the advertising budget and the content of the ads. For example, the advertising campaign to launch a Stock community called Paseo in Fort Myers in February 2005 included images of an old-fashioned bright red bicycle in a Tuscan-like street setting. The images conjured style, craftsmanship and lasting value, all of which appeal primarily to investors whose objective is to resell the homes later at a profit.

But as interest rates rose and investors started leaving the market, those vague images didn't draw homebuyers who wanted to live in their homes. So Leger-Wetzel changed the advertising campaign to emphasize the community's amenities, showing renderings of the clubhouse and resort-style pool.

Get involved in charitable endeavors

There's a business benefit to contributing time and money to charitable endeavors. It boosts Stock's visibility and encourages camaraderie among employees who participate.

For example, Leger-Wetzel led the marketing and sales effort to raise $178,000 for the Boys and Girls Club as part of a Lee Building Industry Association fundraiser. She also coordinated a team that delivered 32,000 meals to victims of Hurricane Charley in 2004.

Leger-Wetzel says she spends roughly 20% of her time on charitable community events. In the busier season that stretches from October to April, she says she attends as many as three events a week and they're usually in the evenings.

With three school-age children at home, Leger-Wetzel concedes she gives up a lot of personal time. Fortunately, she says her husband Craig shares child-rearing duties. What's more, Leger-Wetzel says she's a very social person. "You have to be able to walk into a room alone," she says, "and be able to talk to people."

Marketing a million-dollar house

Sell the dream.

At its essence, that's how Claudine Leger-Wetzel markets multi-million-dollar homes for Stock Development in Naples.

Take The Classics, a neighborhood at Lely Resort Golf & Country Club in Naples, where homes start at $1.2 million.

"Make sure the project has an identity," she says. The Classics is a gated community within Lely with expansive lots on a residents-only golf course designed by Gary Player.

"You've got to sell them on the lifestyle first," she explains.

For example, the promotional materials include a six-minute DVD. Instead of showing the homes at the beginning, the video starts out with stunning views of inland lakes, the beaches of Collier County and shots of elegant people strolling down Naples' tony Fifth Avenue.

"Start with the big picture," she explains. "We're selling the location. We're selling the lifestyle of the community."

After showing people the region's beautiful vistas, the DVD then zooms into Lely Development with sweeping aerial shots of the golf courses. You'll then see people playing golf, swimming in the resort-style pool and dining in a restaurant overlooking the golf course.

"You have to create an identity so that there is no place they'd rather live," Leger-Wetzel says. Only then do you show them the homes.

The first shots of the homes start about halfway into the video, almost as an aside.

Marketing the lifestyle goes beyond the DVD to print and other marketing efforts. A recent Lely brochure shows a couple splashing in the pool, a father teaching his son to putt a golf ball, two women relaxing in the spa and a couple enjoying dinner with wine glasses in their hands. The only reference to homes is on the last page where readers will find two-inch photos of six model homes.

"I'm selling the mystique," Leger-Wetzel says.