Builder Names Its 2012 America’s Best Builder Winners

Full Disclosure

Oklahoma’s Landmark Fine Homes opens itself up to associates and buyers.

Asked recently what distinguishes his company, Oklahoma’s Landmark Fine Homes, from other builders, Dan Reeves, Landmark’s president, responded as one might expect from this former police officer. “We take the ‘con’ out of contractor.”

It’s not that Reeves views all competitors with suspicion. He just places a premium on keeping promises to customers about pricing and service.

To achieve this, Landmark starts with teamwork. Its annual planning meetings are run by Troy Schrock of Advisor Catalyst of Rexford, Mich., whose “CEO Advantage” program helps companies establish goals and clear impediments to reaching those goals. Quarterly, monthly, and weekly staff and department meetings keep things on track. Landmark also holds training sessions for contractors that include experts in areas such as building sciences or information technology.

Reeves states that Landmark “is an open book company,” meaning it shares detailed information with associates via meetings and performance reports. Reeves encourages team building activities that range from fun and games with vendors to participating in a monthly book club. Transparency and camaraderie, he contends, foster happy employees who are dedicated to quality, discipline, and relationships. This ethos gets reinforced by referral-based profit sharing, and by customer satisfaction data that are presented at every staff meeting.

With permits shrinking in Greater Oklahoma City, Landmark can’t afford to lose sight of customers at any stage of the selling process. It stays in touch with out-of-state buyers through Skype. And to emphasize the advantages of its homes, Landmark has converted a garage in one of its models into an Education Center for past and potential customers.

The Center holds monthly meetings hosted by members of Landmark’s marketing and sales teams. Its third-party Energy Star partner makes presentations and answers questions. And a plasma-screen TV shows hundreds of homes and their features.

Out of necessity, Landmark is leaning more on technology to interact with buyers. “We had a meeting with a client a few weeks ago, where the Realtor, the designer, the two customers, and our people all had iPads,” he recalls. “If you say something to buyers now, they’re Googling it.”