Selling Green: Engaging the Buyer

How to get your customers excited about buying green

Salespeople know that a big part of clinching a sale is creating an emotional attachment to the home. This can be a challenge when selling a green, or eco-friendly, home to a mainstream buyer. Much of the green value is behind the home's walls, and people have a hard time appreciating what they can't see.

John Keith, president of Harvard Communities in Greenwood Village, Colo., was confronted with just that problem after transforming his company into a green builder. "We had re-engineered how we build to do high performance," he says. "It changed my whole life and passion for building. We wanted to get buyers as excited as we are, but a lot of the things we do are not particularly sexy or exciting to a buyer. To them, it can be pretty dry stuff."

Like many builders, Keith tried to address the problem by using point-of-purchase displays in his model. He found them wanting. "Our salespeople would go through the displays, and the first question people would ask was, 'What color is the granite?'"

So he decided to try a little showmanship. Now, he personally leads each buyer on a guided tour, complete with wine and cheese of an actual house under construction. He times these tours to occur after the framing is done but before the drywall begins. Joined by his construction manager and his high-performance building manager, he shows them the countless details that make his homes energy-efficient and sustainable. "I show them the ugly goo that seals the ductwork and go through how we flash the windows and doors and use the most high-efficiency furnace money can buy. That impresses people."

By the end of the tour Keith can see the enthusiasm in his buyers' faces and hear it in their voices. "They can't believe so much thought goes into our homes," he says. "The result has been staggering. It turns our buyers into incredible advocates."

Asheville, N.C.-based builder Deltec Homes uses a similar hands-on approach to market its sustainable, hurricane-resistant modular homes to prospective buyers. A green building section on its Web site gives buyers a wealth of information to help them make an informed buying decision. And six times a year, the builder hosts workshops at its facilities, bringing in as many as 100 customers to show them how its houses are built and answer their questions.

"We were green builders before it was cool," says Deltec Homes sales and marketing director Joseph Schlenk. "We knew that what we were doing was good, but no one cared. Now that people care, it's been fun telling our story."

Educating buyers about the value of the green building practices and products in their homes is critical because more than anything else, today's buyers want to be smart, says Sara Lamia, author of the green building book "House Birth," and a speaker at the International Builders Show on marketing green building.

"Customers want to feel they've researched the purchase and made decisions from a place of power," says Lamia. "That's the case with green building. Consumers want to understand what it means to them, and how it fits with their values."

Other messages that need to come through when telling your green building story are that green building is:

Popular. Consumers want to know that other smart people are making the same decision.
Practical. They want to know that a green home isn't weird or eccentric. They want to know that they won't have to make sacrifices.
Healthy. Good indoor air quality is extremely important to families with young children, older loved ones or anyone with health issues.
A good investment. Many consumers look only at the upfront costs associated with green building. Tell buyers how much money they'll save on utility bills — and the insurance breaks and tax rebates for which they may qualify.

Lamia also says that while your marketing image needs to be eco-friendly, you should never lead with the idea of saving the planet. "It sounds too preachy," she says. "Instead, paint an image to show them that by building green they're smart, they're healthy and they will save money. When you show them that it's good for them and their family, they'll get excited."


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