Table of Contents

How we skyrocketed our Luxury homes sales in demonetization?

Introduction

We sold 10 Luxury homes ( Apartments) , total sales value of 15 Crores with total marketing expenses of 15 lacks, in 2 weeks.

That too during the demonetization period.

As you all know, that the demonetization move created lot of pain & panic, causing people to reduce spending, resulting to total decline in property purchase and collapse of the real estate market in the year 2016-17.

Property registrations saw declined close to 40%.

New projects were on hold and all Real estate projects were receiving a slow traction.

This led Business men to hold many projects.

So, you will be wondering while every one was not selling or selling low, How come we sold.

How on this earth we managed to Rock 10 Luxury Apartments sales valuing of 18 Crores

Company

Company is one of the leading Real estate players with a Pan India presence. Their products are known for quality and they seldom compromise on quality. They are mostly in to townships and gated communities . They concentrated mainly on Infra with a special focus to a huge residential projects with 1, 2, 3 BHK luxury homes also in major cities. The project for discussions considered here is located in Chennai.

It is a huge township project in Chennai in city suburbs, with all the variants with a top variant model of 3 BHK luxury homes * (apartments ) also.

Luxury Homes ( Apartment )- is a type of apartment that is intended to provide its occupant with higher-than-average levels of comfort, quality and convenience. However, it can also mean any apartment with extra amenities, such as a doorman, yoga studios or bowling alleys, among others.

Problem

Drastic sales drop in home sales during Demonetization

When it comes to Chennai Real estate market. It is a conservative market .

The location of this premium project is already suburbs , and exact project location is also off from main road

I was responsible for sales . Management expectation is high traction of sales per month to realize the ROI, and sell more of luxury 3 BHK , as anyhow the one and two bed rooms were moving with out much special marketing efforts

Everything was going fine with average sales which used to dip low sometimes ,blended with natural dynamics of real estate industry. We used to sell 2 or 3 no’s of 3 BHKs in a month ( Luxury homes )

The micros on sales pricing, features, construction work in progress , sales velocity was slightly was good .

Suddenly the Demonetization stepped in the 3rd quarter of 2016.

All real estate companies Pan India suffered setbacks .We were no exception to this Pan India phenomenon.

For us ,the average sale of 4 to 6 crores per month became zero. we could not sell for almost continuously for 90 days resulting in a cumulative revenue loss of close to 20 crores.

we could not sell any of the variant as the lead flow was very thin.

What we used to Clock 2 to 4 apartments in a week dwindled down to zero. We never had a Booking almost for 90 days continuously.

Like every other company ,we started struggling for cash flow and this project had maximum impact as Chennai being a conservative market .

The native sales from Chennai dwindled down to zero.

Company was under huge pressure to sell and the entire pressure was on the sales team. The pressure was so high ,that sales team members have started resigning.

A mandate was given to Team to think out of box to catch the lost sales somehow.

Management was eyeing for an Innovative idea to clear the backlog ,and was putting pressure to think differently. But the fact remained that no one was ready to Invest or buy any property during Demonetization window.

We were asked not only to bring new leads but also to asked to catch up the backlog sales of 15 Crores in the next 30 days .

When we were finding difficulty to sell the 1 and 2 BHK , 3 BHK luxury homes was just out of question.

There were brain storming sessions and war room meetings involving Top Heads .Every one came up with different ideas with a huge marketing spend , but had no consensus was reached.

We never had a clue to arrive at the right strategy and the major question was

Who is the right prospect to be targeted in Demonetization period.? and How to find a customer who is not impacted by Demonetization.

Obviously as every potential buyer was waiting for Demonetization to end , and no one knew when this impact will end.

Strategy

We already had a robust marketing strategy for the year and an annualized budget for marketing expenses and the same got tweaked as the average sales turn over was affected ( Marketing budget is always a ratio of the total sales turnover 2 to 3 % maximum )

Based on the constraint, We brainstormed and understood that we cannot spend more ,but we need to bring in leads and sell.

We also felt it is better to sell more number of Luxuary homes , so that we can gain Booking value quicker.

We finally decided to get in to the past data analytics.

After a tiresome back to back meetings , after a week we firmed up on a plan, after analyzing our historic data of Booked customers.

While we analyzed the sold customer list, and found out the ratio of domestic and NRI sales. It was approximately 65% and 35%( domestic 65% and NRI 35%)The number of 3 BHKS Luxury homes were also around 55% & from NRI segment.
We took a decision to stop all marketing expenses for Domestic and concentrate only in International market for the next quarter .
Top three countries were identified in NRI Sales, and we decided to focus on USA, Middle east and Dubai, based on the historic sales data.
We strategized for aggressive Digital marketing plan with a Geocentric focus on all media in the focused locations.

We decided on a three pronged approach and started implementing our decision with a focused geocentric campaign

To generate new leads , spend on Google ads , FB , Linked In, web banners in International Indian portals
Take powerful existing NRI customers testimonials as videos and combine this in email marketing for the new leads.
Firm up on warm leads for each location preferably in the order of historic NRI data ( USA, Middle east and Singapore )- and visit the physical location by conducting a special exhibition. Do a campaign for a fortnight before the exhibition in the local FM channels in abroad and in local NRI new papers

We received reasonable responses in the first week of campaign before we packed our bags to these locations.

We could infer the following from the nature of responses

NRI s were not so much affected by the psychological purchase resistance owing to Demonetization unlike domestic customers
They had disposable money in their back pockets to Invest in luxury homes , as their average budget was mostly 1 Cr and above which is luxury variant.
They were ready to close the deal , if there is a good price and delivery date is shorter. ( Incidentally our delivery dates were shorter like eight months from the date of booking as construction was in full swing )

This motivated us ,and leads also started warming up in three weeks time and we packed our bags for a trip to meet them directly.

We decided to handle the Singapore and Middle east enquiries from Chennai, and decided direct visit only to USA, based on the volume of responses from the initial campaign.

We went ahead and arranged a crash expo at the strategic location Bay area, USA and made short time notice and announcement with a regional announcement in all the possible touch points continuously for a week before we arrive there .

We had expected close to 100 to 200 walk ins only and it turned out close to 300 to 400.

The major reason being , it was not an exhibition month and we had an exclusive show and there were no competitor or other stalls.

The potential enquiries were close to less than 100, out of a walk in of 400 for two days . We had firmed on confirmed bookings for 12 apartments out of this 100 enquiries. Eight numbers were for luxury homes , and the balance were 2 BHKs. We closed order book of 12.5 Crs in the USA trip.,with a confirmed Booking advance.

We were able to close additional 2 more units of Luxury homes valuing to 2.5 Cr from Middle east, & Singapore

Th total booking value in this campaign was around 15 Cr from NRI sales.

It just costed us totally 8 lacks for travel and stay for 10 days ,and a special marketing campaign of 7 lacks for 15 days NRI lead generation.

Yes the results were satisfying and commendable as we could compensate for the lost sales for 3 months and sold the most challenging inventory of luxury homes ( apartments ) also.

Outcome and results

We had close to 400 serious expression of interest in the venue and had one spot Booking in the ten days . But there came to turning point , we had close to 5 Booking advances followed by the first Booking and all were for 1Cr and above.

The last two days we had a rush to again 10 confirmations from the existing bookings referrals. we were able to fill our funnel with almost 9 confirmed Bookings in advance and few more with out an advance.

Totally we had

We could not believe the change of strategy really worked for us , until we said bye to all the confirmed prospects ,while returning to India.

It became an Historical booking , taking into consideration on money spend , time taken for conversions and order value.

The most important aspect is we took closer to the lost sale value of three month in a matter of three weeks to 4 weeks time, end to end from lead generation to closing.

We felt our walk ins were less because of our urgent visit. We realized from the confirmed bookings that some were clear to return to India in the next 3 to 5 years, and hence looking for a decent bigger property now.

some were interested in buying something for their old age parents for safety reasons , the project being gated community and a premium project

some wanted to take the route as Investors were in they were looking at value appreciation as well as for rental yield in the long run .

Conclusion

We were able to achieve results , when we changed our Target market from domestic to International in this Demonetization period.
The analysis on the historical data was helpful in devising the right strategy.
We understood a focused Digital and social media strategy towards the targeted location is a must in tough market situations.
Being real-estate sales ,Were were able to perform sales conversions and collect Booking forms and advance, only because we travelled to the place at the right time despite geographical distances.Real estate sales requires both online as well as direct contact for enabling faster conversions.
More over the luxury homes requires a detailed explanation being a high value purchase , so the Decision to have a one to one meeting was helpful for the hot prospects to take immediate decision.
We diverted all our efforts only towards International sales and stopped selling to domestic market and saved considerable money on marketing expenses. This was a contextual and appropriate wise decision, during Demonitization effect.

If you are in Realty sales , I am sure you would have gone through similar experiences. How did you manage to do sales in Demonetization period ?

Please let me know in your comments. Stay tuned here ,for more interesting topics.

Premium Homes Residential township- Apartment details- 1BHK, 2BHK & 3 BHK ( Luxury homes)
Variant	Saleable area	Cost without Registration ( All inclusive )	Parking
1 BHK	550Sft	27 Lacks	Two wheeler parking slot
2BHK	950Sft	58 lacks	One Car parking slot
3BHK	2100Sft	1.20 Cr( Luxury homes)	two car parking slots