Building dreams, building relationships with SpotlerCRM

Southern Comfort Homes Inc. is an award-winning custom property builder that has built over 175 homes since 2000 in coastal North Carolina, USA. Their target market is residential projects for retirees who are looking to build their dream home or “forever home.”

The business’s objective is to have a continual rolling schedule of 10 to 12 new construction projects each year. This volume lets Southern Comfort Homes focus on the detail and provide clients with personal attention. Each home is a unique, custom design to meet individual client requirements.

Home construction

To attract new projects, the business uses a mix of direct and digital marketing channels. Their primary tactic is directly mailing purchasers of new lots; however, this is supported by activity on the social media site Houzz, participation in annual events, and display advertising on active projects.

Landing a new project involves face-to-face meetings, design services, long-term project planning, and competitive bidding against other area builders.

Many projects start as prospects who were first introduced to the company years before construction begins. Marketing Manager Ann Parvin explains, “Some prospects have been in our database for 10 years. They buy their lot hoping to retire to our area in the coming years. This leads to an extremely long sales cycle. We need a CRM system to properly manage each prospect’s journey, ensuring we touch base with them regularly, so we don’t lose potential business.”

We need a CRM system to properly manage each prospect’s journey, ensuring we touch base with them regularly, so we don’t lose potential business.
Ann Parvin, Southern Comfort Homes

CRM for prospect management

Before using a CRM system, Southern Comfort Homes used a project management platform to manage their customer relationships. Though useful, the software was too expensive, and the company needed a system that enabled better prospect management over a long period of time.

After researching online, Southern Comfort Homes narrowed their CRM choices down to two systems, finally selecting SpotlerCRM as it offered more CRM features while remaining competitively priced.

SpotlerCRM has made it easier for me to follow up with prospects and polish our sales process. It’s actually fun to use!
Ann Parvin, Southern Comfort Homes

How SpotlerCRM benefits our construction business

Using SpotlerCRM has improved Southern Comfort Homes’ ability to communicate both with prospects and internally between staff and day-to-day management. Ann stated, “Every two weeks, I prepare a Task Report that lists the prospects we need to follow up with. This helps organise myself, the business owner, and the builder with critical assignments.”

Ann continued, “Using SpotlerCRM has made it easier for me to follow up with prospects and polish our sales process. It’s actually fun to use! I can easily add new prospects, and CRM Tasks and Activities build an easy-to-view customer history, which is great for our long sales cycles. I haven’t needed to contact the SpotlerCRM support team as it’s so easy to use!”

Recommendation

Ann summarised, “SpotlerCRM really is simple! I highly recommend the software for a small business with a limited marketing budget that still needs the ability to follow up with numerous prospects easily. If you’re a single marketer or a small marketing team, this is the system for you!”