Believe In What You're Selling - Even if Others Don't

The Power of Instilling a Winning Culture

Champion Hills
Hendersonville, North Carolina

By March 2000, the development sales had stalled at Champion Hills - a high-end mountain/golf second home and retirement community located in Hendersonville, North Carolina.

Founded in 1991, sales had slowed to an average of 15 properties per year by early 2000. Len Ronnie, president of International Paper Realty (which owned Champion Hills), asked ESI to conduct a sales and marketing audit to determine the financial feasibility of marketing the final 50 properties. ESI quickly concluded that the existing on-site sales team viewed the remaining inventory as undesirable and difficult to sell. Furthermore, the on-site staff's negative perception prevented them from pursuing any marketing plan to sell out its remaining inventory. The marketing efforts had failed to attract enough qualified prospects to visit the property and closing percentages had slipped to less than 5 percent.

In April 2000, International Paper Realty outsourced the sales and marketing of Champion Hills to ESI with one goal in mind: sell the remaining company inventory by December 31, 2000, which was the date that control of the community would be turned over to the property owners association. By employing its own on-site sales and marketing staff and by initiating a plan aimed at aggressively marketing to the existing database, ESI was able to quickly make progress toward achieving the goal.

The final results were impressive. More than 700 tours were generated as a result of the new marketing programs, and the sales team's closing percentage more than doubled to 12 percent. Under the direction and training of ESI, Champion Hills not only sold out all 50 of the company homes and home sites prior to turnover on December 31, but also sold an additional 30 resale properties.

"There is nothing that ESI does anymore that surprises me," says Len Ronnie. "I've come to expect great things from them and they always deliver. I wish I had discovered ESI 16 years ago when we first started developing."