We are repeating our highly successful Cost Control & Profit Generation Conference. This groundbreaking two-day conference was first held in November of 2007. Based upon the results of last year’s attendees, this conference should not be missed. Anyone desiring to improve their 2009 results in terms of cost control and increased profitability should be there.
Several builders reported revamping their product lines as a result of the techniques and suggestions shared during the program and credit the changes to having much improved 2008 results despite the down market conditions. We have seen builders lower their cost of construction by up to $20/square foot and increase their gross profit margins simultaneously since last year’s program.
Just today, I heard from Rob Owens a builder attendee from last years’ conference who said “Thanks Russ and Patrick for your value engineering ideas from last November, we have seen an increase of about 10% in sales and closings over 2007. We tied our record for sales in one month this past June (20), and were one away from that same number just last month. In August of 2007 we had only 5 sales, so to have 19 sales in August of 2008 was quite a difference.”
An even more dynamic program will be held this November 11 & 12 in Orlando. We are retaining our focus on value engineering your plans and systems. We will continue to show you how to bring the right product to market at the right price. We are adding sessions on selling techniques to use in today’s challenging markets, and how to work with your banks to restructure your projects to get your land costs back in line with the current market conditions. We are going to kick the program off with several case studies of how builders have made progress based using the techniques learned last year.
We are definitely retaining the most popular feature of last year’s program the personal plan review and value engineering session. For three hours on the afternoon of November 11, we will be reviewing your home plans to make recommendations for reduced job costs and improved profitability. Last year this session lasted on into the evening and was, alone, worth the trip according to most of the attendees.
Those who attended in 2007 are invited back for the special repeat rate of $499 for the first attendee and $299 for additional attendees from the same firm. We have also lowered the 2008 SMA client rates to $799/first attendee and $299 for additional attendees in an effort to encourage builders to attend despite the market conditions. The second attendee rate is low, low, low as we feel the messages taught during the conference need to be heard by as many members of your team as possible to make implementation efficient. Now is the time to take advantage of the current market to make long-term improvements in our businesses as several of the 2007 attendees did in 2008. |
