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Record turnout of franchisees in St. Louis
By Gregg Stengel  | | Gregg Stengel | | With a great view of the strength and magnificence of the St. Louis Gateway Arch, nearly 170 franchisees, associates and Buyers attended HomeVestors' 2006 Mid-Year Summit on June 23-24, at the Millennium Hotel. "Based on the evaluations, I believe this program was the most informative and interactive of any meeting sponsored by HomeVestors," said President and CEO John Hayes. "Each year the Mid-Year Summit becomes more valuable to our franchise network, and the most successful franchisees recognize the importance of attending. Not only do you learn about the latest developments at the corporate office, but you also get to network with successful franchisees, and there's considerable training that occurs." The Mid-Year Summit program covered a variety of topics, including: Markets in Transition: How You Can Make Money in Your Market; a highly-rated panel discussion about Dig Lead Success Stories; Coordinator in a Box training; updates from Hayes and Vice President of Marketing Mark Hagen; roundtable discussions about building a team, exit strategies and more; the debut of Buyer In A Box; a Texas Hold ‘Em Poker tourney that benefited the Ken D’Angelo Foundation; a Managing Your Money seminar featuring QuickBooks experts Mary Anne Devich and CPA Bill Lane; a research report on the HVA system and how franchisees are performing overall; trends among HVA franchisees from David Hicks and the Operations Department; and a franchisee panel that focused once more on Exit Strategies.  | | CEO John Hayes reviewed and previewed 2006 during MYS. | | Hagen presented the highly successful results of the new marketing creative and per-inquiry Internet lead programs. Year-to-date (YTD), leads per franchisee were up 17.4%, and the cost per lead was down 12.2%. Markets running new TV and/or Radio were up 26.1% and cost per lead was down 11.2%. Markets that are not running TV/Radio have resulted in a 7.6% increase, with cost per lead down 16.4%. Internet leads have skyrocketed 117.3% YTD, with a cost per lead down 33.4%. "We’ve further refined our game plan for this year," said Hagen. "We have started a pilot radio program called the HomeVestors Real Estate Investors Hour in Dallas/Ft. Worth that is designed to sell houses to investors who want a portfolio of rental houses. We position HomeVestors and its franchisees as the unquestioned subject matter experts on investment real estate. If it is successful, we hope to syndicate the show to other markets." Hagen also announced a promotion with NASCAR and the year-ending Race For The Cup, where the Top 10 drivers can earn 1-million dollars. "This is a high-profile event with racing fans who we feel are an excellent fit with the HomeVestors customer base," said Hagen. "We will have a four-color ad in the commemorative publication, which has a circulation of one-and-a-quarter million people, plus we will have a limited number of tickets for each race to be distributed at the discretion of the Ad Council nearest the race." Hagen presented a short clip of a recently produced 30-minute TV infomercial that features a show host and franchisees, and tells the HomeVestors story. Testing will begin in several markets in the third quarter. According to Hagen, if successful, the infomercial will be available to all markets by the first quarter of 2007.  | | There were several opportunities at MYS for panel discussions. | | To help increase the response rate on direct mail and improve return on investment, HomeVestors has teamed up with three direct mail specialty companies to test market a variety of concepts targeted at home owners, landlords/absentee owners and homeowners nearing foreclosure. "The testing of these concepts will begin in the third quarter in 18 different markets," said Hagen. "The winning concepts will be rolled out to the system nationwide starting in the fourth quarter of 2006." Hagen presented new TV/Radio creative that includes a testimonial spot featuring a rental scenario. "The commercials feature an Asian seller and a female franchise employee, as well as a younger and more upscale demographic than our first two spots. These are available now to run in rotation with our other spots, and are available for viewing on our Web site." Director of Research & Development Rena Graver led a review of an ongoing customer survey. Some key highlights included: - 1 in 22.54 leads results in a Buy contract, it takes 7.83 appointments for the average franchise to get a Buy contract, and 4.81 offers to get a Buy contract.
- The conclusion is that with more appointments, the average Buy ratio jumps significantly…meaning that face-to-face appointments are very important in sealing a Buy contract.
- Once a franchisee looked at a property, only 30% of Sellers did not sell to HomeVestors.
- 39% of Sellers did not call a competitor…indicating high brand identification and value for the HomeVestors' name.
- Franchisees looked at only 30% of the houses included in the survey!
Graver also announced that a new Property Acquisition Form is now available online and is to be submitted online -- no more faxing! There is also a new option on the form which can be used to contribute to the Ken D’Angelo Foundation. David Hicks, senior director of operations, led a panel discussion entitled, "It's a Numbers Game and a People Business." The discussion reinforced the fact that when franchisees go on more appointments, they buy more houses. "It is imperative that despite low equity or other red flags that franchisees go on as many appointments as possible," said Hicks. "Go ahead and make an offer, even if it’s low, because many times the customer has received money from insurance to offset that offer. And also make sure all the sellers, the decision makers, are there when you evaluate a house -- that’s real important." Makes plans now to attend the MYS in 2007. The dates are June 7-9 and the event will occur in Dallas, TX. …Gregg Stengel is HomeVestors' marketing publications manager. He may be reached at 972-761-0046, ext. 189.
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