A Note to Home Builders
To home builders, we hear you. We know it’s a challenge trying to pick the right partner. Technology comes and goes, and sometimes it can feel like buying trinkets at a local market. We recognize the hard work you’ve put into building your place in your company, your role, your team, your environment, and your family. We understand that choosing the wrong partner can disrupt or even ruin the picture you’ve carefully crafted for yourself. That’s why it’s our duty to ensure you understand what you are buying and why.
Simplifying AI for Home Builders: Reflections from the Jeff Shore Summit
I recently attended the Jeff Shore Sales and Marketing Leadership Summit and had a fantastic experience. There were plenty of insightful takeaways for home builders’ sales and marketing teams. One of the highlights was listening to our co-founder Will Zhang, along with John Lee from Anewgo, and Mike Bills, the founder of Aerial.
Here’s a common sentiment I heard from home builders:
“Your CEO is great, but it’s a lot to take in!”
When the CEO and other experts speak, the power of the technology becomes clearer, yet many are left wondering how to act on it. Cutting-edge technologies, especially those we can’t see, can feel overwhelming due to their vast potential. The real challenge is knowing where to start.
Reflecting on my past experience with API technology a decade ago, we faced a similar dilemma. The excitement around real-time API tracking in logistics was palpable, with giants like Doordash, UBER, Just Eat, and Rocket Internet vying for dominance. The capability of a responsive application that pinpointed your food delivery down to the second was revolutionary. However, big-box retailers struggled to figure out how to integrate these technologies into their systems. It often seemed like the only options were to either acquire these tech companies or take a significant gamble on integration. The turning point came when we shifted our focus from discussing APIs to addressing specific operational problems they solved. This approach led to tangible results and greater adoption.
The Path Forward
From my experience, the most successful technology companies excel at demystifying complex solutions. They break down challenges into problem statements, form hypotheses, and propose solutions. This isn’t about oversimplifying—it’s about clarity and practicality. Simplifying doesn’t mean dumbing down; it means structuring information in a way that makes life easier for senior executives by clearly demonstrating how their problems are being solved.
When I joined OpenHouse.ai, we faced a messaging problem. It wasn’t clear how we were addressing home builders’ challenges or even what those challenges were. I spent the first two months immersing myself in our products, understanding the problems they solved, and refining that understanding continually. Once I grasped the problem statement and our role in solving it, I developed a simple mapping exercise for both our customers and our salespeople.
Today, if you ask us what we do, we can clearly and consistently answer:
“We help home builders in the following ways…”
Our sales, engineering, product, and marketing teams are aligned in understanding and communicating this.
Getting to the Heart of the Problem
Here are steps to effectively address and communicate the core issues:
- Connect the Expressed Problem to the Actual Problem: Home builders often articulate their pain points. It’s crucial to delve deeper and identify the root causes, which may not always align with the expressed issues.
- Impact Analysis: Understand and communicate how these problems affect the business. This context is essential for meaningful conversations.
- Build a Messaging Guide: By clearly understanding the expressed and actual problems and their impacts, you can create a robust messaging guide that resonates with both customers and internal teams.
- How? Start with: Expressed Problem
- Actual Problem
- Results in
- Hypothesis
- Solution
…if you can’t get these out…Houston…we have a problem.
Schedule a Demo Today
Encourage readers to experience OpenConnect firsthand by scheduling a live demonstration, highlighting ease of integration and immediate benefits.
By following these steps, we can help home builders navigate the complexities of new technologies, making them feel less overwhelming and more actionable. Our goal is to make your lives easier by providing clear, practical solutions to your challenges.
