If a "ground zero" zone existed for manufactured home retailing in the U.S.-where a variety of independents, chain operators and manufacturer-owned locations fight hard for sales and survival-arguably East Admiral Place, a street running east of downtown Tulsa, would be the place.

Competition has grown even more fierce in the past nine months, swelling from 12 to 18 sales centers within a 2-mile stretch on or near Admiral. Of the 18 sales centers, all but four along the "strip" are affiliated with a builder or retail chain operation. Located at the intersection of Mingo and Admiral in the southwestern corner of a four-way circular drive is the leader of the pack, Home-Mart, owned by Doug and Millie Gorman.

All of the competition on Admiral and beyond hasnít made a dent in Home-Martís sales, however. In fact, the Germans expect to have a banner year: 340 new home sales and some $16 million by yearís end, a 31 per-cent improvement over 1997!

With the competition constantly nipping at their heels, how do the Gormans maintain their edge?

Aggressive marketing techniques have been instrumental in creating a distinct identity and a customer-friendly environment for Home-Mart, apart from the rest, Doug says.

An annual marketing budget of some $300,000 that includes media buys as well as appearances in local fairs goes far in generating a constant stream of traffic.

But, the Gormans made some gutsy and ultimately astute decisions along the way about how they wanted to operate. The kind of choices-both business and philosophical--that go against the grain, and often appear less "safe" on the surface, compared to industry norms.

• Employing telemarketers to generate business.
• Using Macintosh computers for their information management needs.
• Closing on Sundays.
• Creating more "fun" for employees and customers.

"We are doing it differently than our competitors," Doug says, "but in a way that we are having more fun and feel that it helps to establish credibility with our customers."

Hand it over

The Gormanís first taste of the industry came from the other side of the transaction, as a young married couple buying a single-section home in Marietta, Ga., in 1971. "Initially, we were in an apartment, and not happy with it. Still, my wife told me not to look at a mobile home because she wouldnít live in it," Doug recalls.

Despite Millieís early objections, Doug kept shopping. Twenty retailers later, Doug found a home at Para-mount, and an impressive one at that for $4,995.

"[The home] had 2x4 sidewalls with insulation, all copper wiring, circuit breakers, a 1/2-inch shelling, upper and lower cabinets, no gaps in the doors, lighted door casing, indirect lighting in every room, and hot air supply and cold air return in every room in the house. We also had an attic fan to let the heat out and a gypsum-lined water heater cabinet. All of this [was available] in 1971, many years before the HUD Code.

"It was so well built. You could look at houses that [cost] $10.000 with 2-inch interior walls that you could just grab and shake."

The affordability and features made quite an impression on Doug, then a marketing major at Georgia State University in downtown Atlanta. "I kept bringing people back for the referral fees, and because it was a great dealership. I also thought that I was doing a good service for the people I was bringing back," Doug says.

After a number of return visits to Paramount, Doug was offered and accepted a part-time sales position that would generate extra cash until he finished college.

(The bond forged between Doug and John Moss, former owner of Paramount, runs deep to this day. Moss, now a marketing guru for Palm Harbor, serves on Home-Mart's board of directors.)

Despite having a knack for guiding friends toward manufactured homes, Doug still had great concerns. "I wasnít sure that I could sell them. The idea of being dependent on commissions scared me.

"I was making $2.35 an hour, working at Six Flags over Georgia in the operations department as a supervisor. In the winter, when they were closed, I was a security guard (at night], sold homes during the day and still went to school. I did all three for a while."

Dougís concerns were justified, but only in the beginning. "I didnít sell a home for the ilrst 30 days. I made a lot of friends and gave great tours. People were smiling and waving to me as they left, but I didnít make any money.

"Finally, one customer told me all the reasons he couldnít buy from me that day. We were sitting there and he asked, 'How do I buy the thing?' I said, 'Well, you give me money.' Then, it dawned on me that I had not been asking (customers] for the money. This was the first guy who had volunteered [to give me] the money. If he hadnít done that, I probably would not have stayed in the industry.

"After I graduated and started interviewing [with other companies], I couldnít find anything that paid even half of what I was making by selling homes through school, so stayed in the industry."

Down the road, Doug was recrulted by Redman to do marketing for one of its modular divisions in Texas. During that same period, he kept his hand on the retailing side as a partner in a Georgia sales center (which he eventually sold in 1983). Doug made the move to Oklahoma in the mid ë80s working for one of Palm Harborís retail divisions.

When the stateís economy took a nose dive along with the petroleum business in 1988, Doug left manufactured housing briefly to work for a lending Institution.

In the midst of becoming a senior vice president with the frrm and making the switch to another industry permanent, Dougës professional direction took another 180-degree turn. His inspiration for coming back to manufactured housing: Reading The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Fail and What to do About It , written by Michael Gerber.

"I had 17 years invested in retail. I would average 1,500 miles a week, typically driving in the dark. I stayed at the sales center, training the retailer and his salespeople to turn houses,î Doug recalls.

"If I turned away from retail, I would be washing out 17 years of experience, of learning how to do what I know how to do. [At the time,] could I really say that I didnít want to walk the gravel again?"

A call to action

Home-Mart has thrived in northeastern Oklahoma because Doug and Millie understand and reach their target audience very well.

"My niche is the customer who is looking for a less threatening, less intimidating atmosphere to buy a home," Doug says, "They are looking for a place where they can be treated professionally, can be made a very professional offer and cannot go anywhere else in town and [have] that happen to them.

"Our objective has been to position ourselves with the customer in [such a way] that there is Home-Mart and there are the others. Hopefully, theyíll feel that they have to visit Home-Mart before they come to a [final] decision."

That friendly focus is reflected in every aspect of Home-Martís business, from advertising, to posted prices and individual home estimates.

It starts with Home-Marts copyrighted slogan to the public--Open Doors, Posted Prices, Shop With Ease At Home-Mart-that appears in every piece of collateral material written or aired. Broadcast ads feature a friendly voiceover or an on-camera appearance by Doug, describing the featured home.

The Gormans have budgeted just under $300,000 annually for marketing and advertising. Radio ($119,000) and TV ($80,000) make up about two-thirds of the budget. The rest is divided between direct mail, newspapers, phone book listings, billboards and state and local fairs.

Radio buys skew heavily toward country stations, although Doug recently experimented with a midnight madness sale promoted via a remote broadcast from Home-Mart on an oldies station.

On the TV side, Doug uses three local network athliates to reach that prime 25-54 demographic target so many advertisers covet.

"When I buy TV, I make them bid for it and give me reach, frequency, how many (gross rating) points and the cost per point,î Doug says.

"I try to evaluate the cost per point with the reach and frequency. But TV is a real difficult area for me, because it is a hard thing to evaluate all of the same things and which one affects it [the most]."

Whether its TV or radio, Home-Mart advertising runs mostly on weekdays, Doug adds. "I have tried to avoid the weekend all together other than a remote. Being closed on Sunday, I am afraid that if I do Sunday or even Saturday advertising, people will come in the next day."

Other than avoiding weekend buys, Doug admits that thereís no logic in the timing of Home-Martís radio and TV campaigns. "I have no marketing genius. This is just what we came up with, because we canít be heavy all of the time. But we donít want to go too long of a period without having any exposure.

"We donít want to go beyond 60 days, so Iíve picked out the last two weeks of the even months and said that is heavy TV and in the light months we do it every other week.

"We coordinate any house that we are promoting to make sure that the radio ad supports the TV ad, which is supported by the display ad, which is supported by the direct mail, so that everything in the same campaign and all media is emphasizing the same house."

One of the more interesting TV ads Home-Mart has produced features the Union High School volleyball team practicing inside a 28-foot-wide, 2,000 square-foot, multi-section home, complete with a net and balls.

Generally, ads like this one provoke a "call to action," Doug says. "The commercials I do are less image-conscious. If you are trying to do an image commercial, it is harder to do a call to action.

"I have tried to do a little bit about image in an ad about the advantages of owning a manufactured home. Thatís trying to appeal to the person and enhance the image.

Then, I did others, like [one featuring a home with] 5 bedrooms and 2,000 square feet at $299 a month. Youíd better get down here because that (home] is a good deal."

Millie and Doug estimate that 75 percent of their advertising feature call to action messages.

Image building

Much of Home-Marts remaining advertising budget is spent on displays at local fairs and parades.

And for good reason. Home-Mart has participated in the annual Tulsa State Fair, which draws as many as 2 million people, for the past decade.

The payoff for the Gormans: catching the attention of an estimated 150,000 who tour the manufactured home they site and decorate at the fair near the main ticket area.

Home-Mart also sites a home during Rooster Days, a smaller fair in nearby Broken Arrow that attracts about 100,000 annually.

The cost to transport, site and provide power to a home (including employee time staffng homes during the fairs) is about $15,000 apiece, Doug says.

Home-Mart employees register some 600 people per year just at the state fair who eventually receive a packet of information about the company, home offerings and general industry information.

Much of the printed materials used by Home-Mart comes from the Manufactured Housing Association of Oklahoma, the Texas Manufactured Housing Association and MHI. And these materials arenít free. The collateral materials provided by the associations alone cost about $4 to $5 apiece.

"I couldnít produce them for that [price], and they make a good impression on the customer," Doug says. "[The customer] gets our envelope with a map on it and everything else. He is not going to get that kind of material from anywhere else in this market."

Apart from the exposure, Doug and Millie believe that participation in the fairs goes far in building Home-Martís image with people who live in northeastern Oklahoma. "I went with a $90,000 triple-wide last year. There were 150,000 people who went through that house. Probably, 130,000 of those people would never come to anyoneís sales center," Doug says.

Some of them absolutely refuse to believe that [the home] was built in a factory. We have had to take [people] behind the house and show them the axles."

How do the Gormans justify the expense? "I would probably never be able to quantify it." Doug admits. "We will normally sell a reasonable number of homes during the fair itself that we can attribute. And, we have customers during the year who say that theyíve seen our home at the fair.

There is a value you get from the credibility that has been established from physically being there for 10 years. [People] get comfortable that you are here to stay. ìUltimately, it boils down to the answer that I give a manufacturer when I ask him to help. They will ask me, ëdoes this pay? How many are we going to sell off of this?' I donít know the answer, except that I would hate to have 150,000 people going through my competitorís house."

Positive reinforcement

Up to a point, Home-Mart guides customers through the sales process in a similar fashion as other successful retailers.

Fences on both sides of the sales office prevent a customer from entering anywhere, except the front door.

The receptionist greets the customer, and asks if he or she has visited Home-Mart before. If not, the customer is given a guest card that requests general "who, what and where" information. After completing the card, the customer is paired with a salesperson who gives him or her a tour of the gravel sales lot, most of the time.

Stressing flexibility in Home-Martís sales approach, however, the customer can refuse to complete the form or to use a Salesperson.

"Unlike some of our competitors, we do not say this is the only way they can do it. If our customer is uncomfortable, and says that he just wants to look at houses, we let him go," Doug says. "Did we lose control? I donít think so because I made the decision to let him go. I donít think I am going to gain anything with that guy by saying he canít look at them unless he fills this [form] out. Is that going to make him closer to me? I donít think so."

Customers who venture alone through the large gravel lot still have plenty of help along the way. A detailed price list, complete with options, is posted on the refrigerator in each home.

Doug made the change about eight years ago, because trafEc through his sales center had outstripped Home-Martís ability to spend time with every customer.

"We have a lot of trafiic. We might have 75 to 100 on a Saturday, and I canít staff enough salespeople to wait on every one of them. So there will be a number of people out there who will not have a salesperson with them during those peak traffic periods. This way, they have a lot map, and the prices are on the refrigerator," Doug says.

"They know about what they can afford. I am not worried about a guy who can only afford $40,000, but heís walking into my $80,000 house. Heknows he cannot afford the $80,000 house, but who says he cannot dream? He can always look at that [home] as a goal.

"Letís say, I have a guy who is three years away [from buying a home] who is comfortable coming back here over and over again. [Shopping here] was not an intimidating experience for him. He can come out here every week. When he is ready to buy, he knows where he is going to come: the same place he has been coming to for the past three years."

There was little resistance from the Gormanís sales force. "When new salespeople came in," Doug recalls, "they would occasionally express that they were not sure they would be comfortable with [posted prices], but became comfortable with it very quickly. "

That also includes Home-Mart customers. "They love it," Doug adds. "I try to meet as many customers as Ican and ask them, but I already know the answer. But I will ask them [any-way], just to reinforce where they were. 'How did you like the prices being posted? Did that help?'"

Write it down

If the customer opts for the guided tour, Home-Martís support staff can key in contact information into its Macintosh database. (Sometimes, salespeople prefer to load new data themselves, so they can keep better track of their customers during the sales process, Doug says.)

At the end of the sales presentation, after likes, dislikes and changes have been determined, the customer can request a printout of their hous ing proposal, a detailed pricing sum mary of the home he or she wants, down to the options, taxes, discounts and a floorplan.

"Everybody teaches that you never give customers anything in writing, because they will use that to go shopping down the street. That is a risk, but I donít think it outweighs the risk of having a confused customer who didnít understand what the offer was," Doug points out. "A lot of business is lost because a customer did not understand the offer, so I give them a written offer.

"People have less of a tendency to dispute a computer, too. They know if a computer says what [the price] is, then thatís it.

"Letís say Sears decided to get into the manufactured housing business. I donít think they would have salespeople decide whatever they want to sell the house for. They would establish some type of controlled margin on it. People have a comfort level in knowing this."

Measuring satfsfaction

Much has been said and written about manufacturers and suppliers that track and reward vendors for satisfying their building needs, often in a crunch.

Telemarketer Janet Eastman spends her workday collecting data for Home-Martís customer satisfaction index system.

Eastman makes calls to home buyers to measure the quality and performance of Home-Mart employees who perform service calls and home installations. She also calls those who show interest in a home, but choose not to leave a deposit.

"She has a series of questions that she asks," Doug says. "Did they call in advance? Did they do what they said they were going to do? The last question asked is would you recommend Home-Mart to a friend? Each one has their own set of interviews. All of that is on the computer, too.

"If there is a problem, she copies those interviews and puts them in my tray that night. These are people I need to call to resolve certain issues with that night."

The kinds of problems about which the Gormans may call are typical. "This guy was upset because the [work crew] had been sent with the wrong parts. I will call to reassure him that we reordered the right parts, and we will take care of him," Doug continues.

Evidence of this devotion to customer satisfaction can also be found in one unusual place: Dougís business cards. "My home phone number is on the card. I donít screen my calls. If I am home, I answer the phone. My customers know that if they need to call me at home, they can.

"My position is that [the customer1 is paying for my home. I am sure that when we were trying to sell him the home, we called him at his home. Why should my home be off limits if his isnít?"

The "fun" way

As the Gormans share their thoughts about their unique style of manufactured housing retailing on the front lines, the word, fun, keeps popping up in conversation. But, whatís so much fun about all that competition constantly nipping at your heels?

Having fun is the result of being successful in a chosen profession and doing things your own way. In fact, the rewards are even sweeter when such prosperity bucks whatís considered the status quo.

"I canít tell people they are doing it wrong, because some of them are worth a whole lot more money than I am. I can say that I donít have fun doing it that way," Doug says.

"What excited me about marketing in the first place was the consumer aspect of marketing. If you are really marketing-oriented, then you are always looking to give consumers more value, and to accommodate them in ways that donít break you financially, but make it comfortable for them. You could sit here for 10 years and I really donít think you would find a customer who would say they are uncomfortable with the [home] prices being posted. That just wonít happen."

Having fun on the job is also an attitude that becomes infectious over me. "You canít be down, because all your employees rely on where you are at mentally. You have to stay up-beat, and not overreact to problems," Doug says.

"There will always be things that go wrong. I have employees who make enormous mistakes that cost me tens of thousands of dollars. I have had some $12,000 mistakes, some $6,000 mistakes, and I have had a $27,000 mistake.

"Nobody got fired because they didn't do them on purpose. Things happen. I just do not think you can take things so seriously that you cannot enjoy yourself. We just try to stay upbeat.

As a result, Home-Mart employees ten to stay around for a while, Doug says. "I have people who have been here for nine years. We donít have a lot of turnover."

A "fun" atmosphere isnít the only reason employees stay, however. For one, the Gormans offer a larger "cafeteria" range of benefits than most retailers, thanks to their agreement with an employee leasing firm.

Employees work for a larger employment firm that leases them back Home-Mart so they can be part of a bigger insurance group, thus receive better benefits. Such firms have been godsend to small and mid-size companies struggling to find ways to attract skilled workers.

"The leasing company has 3,500 employees and can offer a much better benefits package than we could as just a little 35-employee company," Doug says.

Although Home-Mart pays a percentage to offer these perks, "By the time you figure what you would have paid the state anyway, it is just not that expensive," Doug says.

"For a startup company, itís actually cheaper because the state charges you such a high rate for workmanís compensation when you have no history, that it is actually cheaper going through a leasing company."

A five-day, 40- to 45-hour work week also goes far in reducing turnover. "We give them a day off during the week, and are closed Sunday," Doug says. "A lot of our salespeople have kids, so even if we gave them two days off during the week, the kids are in school, so they really wouldnít see them. By being closed on Sunday, they have family time.

"Our sign out front says that because we enjoy our family time too, we are closed on Sunday. My position has always been that if I needed to be open seven days a week to make a living, then the Lord is trying to tell me to do something else."

Some experts would reject Home-Martís casual atmosphere and the notion of fun being present in the retail landscape at all. "I also believe that you will never find the 100 percent way to do anythmg. There is not one way that is going to get all of the business," Doug says.

"Iíve had competitors say, 'Letís all get together and agree to close on Sunday'. My response is, 'You donít run my life.í I am closed, and I donít care what they do.

"The guy across the street has told me on two different occasions that [Home-Mart being closed on Sundays] drives him nuts. He has people tell him that they are not going to do anything until they have been here, and he is trying to close [a deal] on a Sunday afternoon, and canít. Life is too short."

Information management

A crucial part of the Gormansí success stems from their knack to manage information quickly and efficiently, and present that data in an easily accessible and understandable format.

It all started when Apple 2Es were the rage in the early '80s while Doug was working for Palm Harbor, and Raxis was the software of choice for manufactured home retailers.

Even as Macintosh computers began to fall out of favor with the business mainstream down the road, the Gormans stayed with the computing platform they knew best when they opened Home-Mart, and never regretted it.

"The Mac is very user-friendly, which is one reason why we have been so successful with it," Millie says. "In fact, Windows has developed today into what Mac always was."

"When you are trying to get a sales force to immerse themselves in the use of a computer, the user friendliness of the Macintosh was very beneficial," Doug points out.

Rather than pay big bucks for industry-specific software, Millie developed forms, housing proposals, floorplans, prospecting lists and the like with the help of FileMaker Pro, a popular and inexpensive database package sold in most computer stores.

"We started out very basic with FileMaker Pro," Millie recalls. "Over the years, [the system] has evolved into something that enables you to take all the information on a saIe and create a commission voucher."

Millie became Home-Martís ad hoc information systems manager by default early on after taking some basic training in Dallas. "She did so well-she had never touched a computer before-that they came to her that first day of training and tried to hire her as an instructor," Doug recalls. "She took to it that well. She can do just about anything.

"We had one of the majors want to buy the use of the software from us. We told him. 'No, just use it.'"

The only system-related obstacle, Millie says, has been the dearth of inexpensive, over-the-counter accounting packages.

Managing information systems the way Home-Mart does has created other revenue streams as well.

A second telemarketer was hired in early spring to review and contact the 21,985 names Home-Mart has collected in its prospect database.

"It was just a hunch, a letís-try-it type of thing," Doug says. "We had some people we felt strongly about, but we did not want to disrupt the sales staff. Do you want sales staff of 15 or five telemarketers just working the phones? And doesnít that take away from the salesperson selling?"

Home-Mart has also begun to generate some interest and business via its year-old Web site on the Internet. Although Doug maintains that the Home-Mart site is still too new, the results look promising.

"It is set up so that people can e-mail us. We get the inquiries, and then respond to them. As a matter of fact, I have two I talked to from my home last night. Because they didnít respond to enough questions in their inquiry to find which floorplans would work for them, I called them at home. They were both very excited that I called them at home and it enabled me to narrow down their choices.

We had one lady who told me she bought her home because she found us on the Web and liked our mission statement."

My way

With business systems and procedures in place and happy, satisfied and talented professionals to follow them, one might assume Home-Mart and the Gormans would stand pat for a while. Not so, Doug says.

By mid-1999, the Gormans will unveil a new Home-Mart, the result of a capital expenditure project of some $400,000, revolutionizing this sales center's look and feel.

Environmental home displays will be sited along the perimeter of the property facing the Admiral-Mingo circle. The sales office will move to a larger building that once housed a clothing store.

"If we can manage it with the topography we have here, and if I can manage to have sidewalk entry to houses with a retaining wall, that is what we will do. This will create a landscape display both on Mingo and Admiral," Doug says.

Why wait so long? "The environmental display is something that I was selling to people in the early ë70s, so I have always been in favor for it," Doug recalls.

"This property is a challenge for us to do environmental displays. [The delay] has probably just been trying to get through all of the hoops. Another reason I am looking at it now is because I want to offer less inventory.î [Currently, Home-Mart displays 32 manufactured homes, including 20 multi-sections.)

One of the more interesting aspects of the redesign is the inclusion of a training center, loaded with audio-visual equipment and a big screen TV. "The other thing I want to have there is a monthly barbecue for all of the people who bought homes that month before," Doug says, "or have some type of presentation on how to winterize your home or something like that where we would mix and mingle with people."

Such creativity probably had a lot to do with Home-Martís selection as the top retailer in Region 3 at the National Manufactured Housing Congress last April in Las Vegas.

With all of his industry involvement at the state and federal levels, Doug sees a bright future for manufactured housing, as market conditions continue to evolve.

The Gormans have considered community development as an option to grow their market. "We will have to become more equally involved in the land process or improve the lease space that is out there. There are not a lot of really nice parks in this market. We donít have the kind of parks you see in other parts of the country with really high quality packages on the houses," Doug says.

"If I were involved in a park, I would want to develop it so that the guy who is living there does not want to move out, or to live there temporarily while he looks for the real place to live."

For that to happen, manufactured housing would have to be available where people wanted to live and work-in urban areas-rather than on city or county fringes. And, along the way, this push for affordable housing in urban areas will necessitate more mergers between site - and factory-builders. "In five, maybe 10 years, I see the two industries merging," Doug predicts.

"For example, you will see a house in a development in which maybe all of it, except the living room, is built in the factory. The components sur-ounding the living room, the living room itself and the roof [would be built] on site."

Where does this upheaval leave Home-Mart? "I enjoy going to work," Doug says. "I have listened to motivational and training tapes say to write down where you want to be five years from now. Where do you want your career to be?

"Maybe five years from now, I would like to be operating more efficiently. But, as far as what I am doing, I am doing what I enjoy. I donít want to change jobs."

Much thanks to Doug and Millie Gorman, Deanna Fields of the Manufactured Housing Association of Oklahoma and Alice Bultema of the MERCHANDISER staff for their help in putting together this monthís feature.