1. PIVOTAL CA S E S T U D Y
Building Lifelong Customers
>> Wayne Homes implements innovative automated
marketing and lead management using Pivotal CRM
In recent years, the home building market has reached a frenzied pitch
across the United States, prompting the construction of new homes in
record numbers from coast to coast. As low mortgage rates and a hot
market have pushed more and more people to purchase new homes, the
home building industry has enjoyed unprecedented growth.
Customer Details For companies like Wayne Homes by Centex, According to Sharon Swendner, Vice President
Wayne Homes by Centex a leading builder of hand-crafted “on your lot” of Operational Marketing, Centex Destination
www.waynehomes.com
homes in the mid- and southeastern United Properties (formerly National Marketing
Country or Region States, this had meant more prospects and Director, Wayne Homes by Centex), “We had
North America
customers to track, follow, and manage. Wayne a lot of success with our marketing programs
Industry Homes has been building houses on cus- driving people to Wayne Homes through
Home Building/Construction tomer-owned lots for more than 30 years, and the Internet or model centers. The bottom
Customer Profile is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Centex, line was simply that we were not effectively
Wayne Homes by Centex is a leading one of the largest builders in the U.S., with following through with all of our leads and
builder of award-winning handcrafted
homes, providing customers in seven
operations in 25 states and over $10 billion converting them into sales.”
states in the mid- and southeast United in annual revenue. To respond to escalating
States with more than 30 years of customer data and marketing needs—and to Swendner was also interested in managing
experience. the online channel more effectively: “Our data
ensure that cost-effective automation would
Business Situation be in place should the tides turn—Wayne shows us that using Internet channels results
Wayne Homes was unable to effectively Homes chose to implement Pivotal CRM. in a more qualified prospect in the door. We
manage the large number of leads
generated from rapid industry growth
weren’t really leveraging that to make it easier
and successful marketing efforts, A burgeoning market leads to for the salespeople to make a sale.”
resulting in lost opportunities. a unique problem
Solution Wayne Homes had an enviable problem. Their Swendner recognized that in this market,
Wayne Homes implemented the Pivotal industry was growing at an extremely rapid many leads are “low-hanging fruit,” that is,
CRM marketing suite to fully leverage prospects that are close to a sale and present
pace. Potential customers were flocking to
their marketing efforts and minimize
the number of lost opportunities by them at sales offices and on the Internet, and the most promising opportunities for rapid,
automating lead management and they were collecting leads faster than they low-cost sales. But Wayne Homes was simply
improving customer communication. not able to capitalize on all of them in a timely
could effectively manage. The company policy
Benefits of following up with all leads was smart, but manner, and leads that were further down the
• Increased Internet traffic and sales as it was becoming increasingly hard to execute. scale were often missed altogether. With so
a percentage of total by 20%
Wayne Homes recognized they needed a many leads to manage, the sales and market-
• Improved sales productivity
• Lowered costs of marketing operation marketing automation system to better ing team needed a system that would help
by capitalizing on low-cost/high- manage their lead processes and improve them quickly qualify and prioritize leads so
margin marketing campaigns their customer communication. sales reps could move more rapidly through
• Improved integration of sales and the sales cycle and close more deals.
marketing team
2. Leveraging an established system lost due to human error. Beyond that, Wayne Homes is
“Wayne Homes had already implemented Pivotal CRM establishing ongoing relationships with homebuyers,
as a sales force automation system and was seeing the encouraging repeat sales and referrals. Swendner says,
benefits of improved sales processes. But we recognized “The opportunity we have using Pivotal CRM is to lever-
we needed an automated marketing system to manage age the lifetime value of buyers and prospects. I believe
this can best be achieved through automation—by
using a contact system that allows you to keep commu-
“We recognized that we needed an automated nication flowing without live human beings performing
marketing system to manage all of our leads—one that every step.”
would seamlessly integrate with our SFA. Obviously our Incoming leads are inputted daily into Pivotal, and by
analyzing their information, the leads are prioritized
first choice was Pivotal.” according to the same four-tier system to which Wayne
Homes users are accustomed. Pivotal MarketFirst
Sharon Swendner, VP, Operational Marketing applies a series of automated business rules that direct
Centex Destination Properties a consistent sequence of communications to be sent
to the prospect, depending on the qualification level
all of our leads—one that would seamlessly integrate of the lead. This ensures every lead is followed up
with our SFA,” says Swendner. “Obviously our first choice appropriately—and tracked through the process.
was Pivotal. Ease and speed of implementation were
critical for us.” Swendner explains, “We prioritize our leads by their
urgency to purchase. With Pivotal CRM, we are able to
For Wayne Homes, lead management is a two-step identify customers who are likely to move within three
process, managed from start to finish in Pivotal, using to six months and connect them with an online sales
Pivotal’s MarketFirst suite and Pivotal Homebuilder consultant for immediate, personal follow-up. We can
Front Office. Wayne Homes collects leads through identify other customers in the second tier who are still
their website and online marketing efforts, as well as likely to move, but not as quickly, and through educa-
more traditionally, through face-to-face contact at tion and consistent communication we keep them
community events and home shows or home model ‘warm’ and move them closer to sale.”
centers. Every single lead is registered in the Pivotal
CRM system, regardless of the size, origin, or timing of For the third- and fourth-tier leads, Pivotal CRM gener-
the opportunity. ates a series of bi-weekly or monthly automatic e-mail
responses that provide education on home building
Managing online leads more effectively topics such as financing, how to purchase land, and
Prior to implementing Pivotal CRM, Wayne Homes sales market trends, as well as educating them about the
reps would manually qualify web-based leads in Pivotal, steps in an “on-your-lot” building process; these com-
prioritizing and grouping them using a four-tiered munications help to move leads up a tier and result in a
system. Hot “A” leads were pursued, but often the other more informed buyer, ultimately yielding an easier sale.
leads were not followed up on, resulting in a large With every communication, Wayne Homes uses Pivotal
number of lost opportunities. CRM to gather additional information, which is inputted
back into the system to automatically update the lead’s
With Pivotal MarketFirst, Wayne Homes has automated status and notify the sales representative.
the qualification process, freeing up salespeople to
focus on closing deals and ensuring that fewer leads are
Pivotal Case Study - Wayne Homes by Centex 2
3. Despite the automated nature of this system, prospects Within months of implementing Pivotal MarketFirst,
still receive a personalized experience. As Swendner Wayne Homes saw dramatic improvements in their
notes, “Even though it is a completely automated online lead management. “We are pleased with the
process, the customer doesn’t necessarily know, initial results we have seen since we implemented
because communications are always personalized and Pivotal,” says Swendner. “We increased the percentage
have the picture, e-mail, and signature of an individual of both traffic and sales from the Internet source by
online salesperson.” Any comments or replies from approximately 20% through the first 18 months of
the prospect automatically go to the online sales use. These metrics lead us to believe that Pivotal will
consultant for review. continue to impact our revenue significantly as we
continue to expand the system and learn from how
“Pivotal CRM tools are integral to ensuring Wayne consumers interact with us through this communica-
tion process. When you compare the amount of money
Homes maintains market share and profitability in the it took to implement this against the bottom-line
results, it’s a very good return on investment.”
long term. We have established an extremely cost-
efficient automation system for our sales and marketing Using surveying to capture information at every stage
enables the company to learn more from all of their
efforts that will set us apart in a downturn when other interactions. In a recent campaign conducted at the
Centex level, a customer who had canceled his initial
companies are searching for ways to save money.” contract indicated that he had changed his mind and
was still interested in a purchase when he responded
Sharon Swendner, VP, Operational Marketing to an ensuing survey. “That was a customer we would
Centex Destination Properties have totally written off and never even considered
going back and talking to under the previous system,”
Live leads that are generated by a visit to a community says Swendner.
event, home show, or model center are considered
the highest priority, and they are initially tracked Sales productivity has also gone up. Salespeople
differently from web leads because they are assigned have been able to significantly increase the number
to a salesperson at the point of contact. However, these and frequency of customer touches. Swendner adds,
leads are then entered into the Pivotal CRM system “It helps them because the people that are coming
and prioritized according to their likeliness to purchase in are more qualified, and we’ve done a better job of
based on information obtained by the sales rep. Once in educating them, so it’s an easier sale. There’s been just a
Pivotal CRM, the lead is managed in the same manner whole ton of improvements on the qualitative side that
as those originating from the web, ensuring consistency we haven’t even considered how to measure—but we
regardless of lead origin. know that they’re there.”
Extending marketing reach Today, Wayne Homes continues to utilize Pivotal CRM
Wayne Homes deployed Pivotal MarketFirst across for segmentation and to generate low-cost, direct
the company using a phased approach that targeted e-mail campaigns to educate and inform prospects and
five specific segments within their database: leads, leads. The e-mail campaigns are completely customiz-
prospects, realtors, current customers, and lot owners. able by segment. Every e-mail has a call to action for
They prioritized the segments based on customer the recipient to respond and update their customer
information pulled from Pivotal CRM, then designed profile or fill out a prospect survey so Wayne Homes
targeted communications campaigns to reach out to can collect further customer information. This allows
these segments. By first targeting the highest-priority them to refine future marketing efforts that help drive
leads—those who visited the website and provided more prospects and leads through the process.
their contact information—Wayne Homes was able to
generate ROI quickly and move more confidently and
knowledgeably into subsequent project phases.
Pivotal Case Study - Wayne Homes by Centex 3
4. Building for the future
During the housing boom of the last few years, Five Tips for a Successful Implementation
companies like Wayne Homes have benefited from a In recognition of the vision and leadership Wayne
surplus of prospects and leads to pursue. Automating Homes has demonstrated in its use of Pivotal
their marketing and sales IT systems using Pivotal CRM, it won Pivotal’s inaugural CRM Innovator
CRM has enabled Wayne Homes to capitalize on the Award for “Innovation in Improving the Customer
Experience.” From her experiences, Sharon
“Wayne Homes’ goal is to have customers for life. Swendner shares five tips for a smooth, successful
implementation:
We want to build homes for this generation and their
1. Prioritize phases: Implement marketing
children and grandchildren. I believe if we are doing a automation and lead management in phases,
good job on our front-end marketing, and we drive the focusing on segmented audiences. Prioritize
your target market and go after the “low-
right people into the system, Pivotal CRM can help us hanging fruit” first.
convert significantly more of our leads into buyers.” 2. Invest time and resources in content: A
database without information is virtually
Sharon Swendner, VP, Operational Marketing useless. Take the time to input your content
Centex Destination Properties into your CRM system properly. It is a big
initiative, but you cannot draw on data to
design marketing campaigns or track cus-
opportunities of this dynamic market and effectively
tomers effectively if that data doesn’t exist.
pursue as many leads as possible. By removing the
human element in prospecting and lead management, 3. Ensure stakeholder buy-in: If you want
they have developed an extremely cost-effective way employees to use the system and manage-
to manage leads and develop customer communica- ment to evangelize it, engage stakeholders
tions that will foster long-term customer relationships early on, at the planning stage, and then
with their clients. As the market begins to moderate, regularly communicate the benefits. Link
Swendner believes that this will continue to be a key results to individual and company success.
differentiator, as emphasis shifts from managing lead 4. Measure your results: Establish a series
surplus to increasing the conversion rate of a smaller of metrics at the project outset and regularly
pool of leads. measure results. Track your results to an
end goal.
“Pivotal tools are integral to ensuring Wayne Homes
5. Allocate sufficient resources to the
maintains market share and profitability in the
project: Unless you have the in-house
long term,” says Swendner. “We have established an
expertise, invest in the help of a professional-
extremely cost-efficient automation system for our
services team to implement the project,
sales and marketing efforts that will set us apart in a
customize it where necessary, and train your
downturn when companies are searching for ways to
users. Leverage external expertise to smooth
save money. And because Pivotal CRM enables us to
the transition and get the system up and
drive two-way communication with consumers, we
running as fast as possible.
hear directly from them how to best satisfy their needs.
In the end, if you can keep your customer happy in
the long term, that is how you win—regardless of the
activities of the market.”
Pivotal Case Study - Wayne Homes by Centex 4
