Here’s something I’ve been turning over in my head as we head into Spring Selling 2026 – which sounds especially relevant to real estate developers and all active leaders trying to navigate a business in a tough, noisy, and highly skeptical market:
If your marketing only works when everything is going well, it’s not a strategy.
It’s luck.
For too long, we’ve treated marketing as chronological. A campaign is launched, a message goes live, a new partnership emerges, a creative idea flourishes for a few days, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief—until the next cycle begins. We measure what works, solve what doesn’t, and keep chasing the next “big thing,” as if our last effort didn’t end the lives of half the people who made it happen.
But over the past few years – especially in the type of market we’re in now – I’ve become convinced that leaders who build lasting trust and lasting growth don’t get stuck over time.
They make plans. They design machines that maintain trust even when buyers are reluctant, when stakeholders are impatient, when the market is on edge, and when your teams are working harder than ever just to protect margins and keep pace.
Campaigns can be high. Silent systems. But systems don’t end.
And perseverance – that is persistence, striving for perseverance – wins.
Campaigns are noticed. Systems that earn trust.
If you want a clear idea of why this is important, you don’t have to look at marketing theory – you have to look at how consumers behave in real life. Because the modern consumer doesn’t go through the funnel very well. They progress from “awareness” to “thinking” to “transformation” as if they were following instructions.
They bounce, pause, disappear, and reappear. They scan your website instead of filling out a lead form. They visit a model home, and introduce months. They compare floor plans in all six open tabs while texting their spouses, then show up later ready to shop as if the last three months never happened.
That is not unemployment. That’s how real life works now.
So the question for home builders cannot be, “How do we reach buyers at the right time?” because the truth is, you can’t decide when that time is. Consumers decide. Markets decide. Life decides. what you it can be determine whether you are building the kind of product ecosystem that exists – consistently, reliably, and usable – whenever they re-emerge.
That only happens when marketing, product, digital experience, measurement, and operations stop working as separate departments and start working as one system. A system designed around human behavior, not around internal organizational charts.
Experience is a product now
One of my favorite examples comes from home exterior design. I fly a lot, and have used almost every airline app out there. But the United Airlines the app stands out to me for a reason that has nothing to do with beauty or features. It stands out because it anticipates my needs before I do. If the flight is delayed, he doesn’t just let me know and wish me luck. It gives options before I even have time to blow. It removes friction from areas where anxiety tends to arise.
Aviation is primarily a commodity. Similar airports. Similar flights. Same pretzels.
But United did that flight experience they feel very different, and they’ve done it by designing a system around customer pressure — not airline comfort.
Home building has a version of that same problem, and the stakes are even higher. A home is one of the largest, most emotional, and most thoughtful purchases a person will ever make. Product is important, of course.
But increasingly, what sets builders apart isn’t just what sells – it’s how people feel as they navigate the uncertainty around them. How easy it is to find answers. How transparent is your price. How seamless it feels to go from discovery to purchase decisions steps without conflicting goals, delays, or “call this number” distractions.
Every touch point becomes a moment of truth. And if you leave those moments to chance, you don’t just lose leads — you lose trust.
Systems don’t allow that to happen.
Saying “no” is part of the system
Now, let me say something that may make some people uncomfortable: one of the biggest marketing investments I can make is not always spending money. Sometimes it’s a choice not to spend money – in particular, it’s a choice to kill ideas that are “good enough.”
Bad ideas are easy to spot. The dangerous ones are the ones that check well, balance well, and keep everyone feeling safe. Those ideas can quietly turn your product into a wallpaper – especially in home design, where we all know that the playbook of the category is incredibly flexible. Happy families. The kitchens are complete. The American dream. The same emotional notes, over and over again.
I understand why it happens. It’s playing. It sounds familiar. It puts the participants at ease.
But complacency is a bad brand strategy in a market where attention is scarce and skepticism is high. If you don’t have a plan to say no – if you don’t create space for real diversity – your brand is not going to fail.
It disappears silently.
Discipline creates clarity. Clarity creates diversity. The difference is not only striking, but also representative [your customer]. It builds trust.
The funnel is no longer a profit – it’s an ecosystem
This is also why the last click attribute drives me crazy. Not only is it wrong—it can be very dangerous. The door latch leaks and he ignores the house. It skips the finishing touches and undermines the months of brand building, knowledge building, and trust building that made it the final story in the first place.
Because buyers don’t stay in funnels. They live in ecosystems.
They pick up signals over time—content they encounter when they’re curious, experiences they recall when they’re anxious, and product ideas that can build confidence or sow doubt. When they finally decide, they don’t choose based on one click. They choose based on a cumulative feeling that you seem trustworthy, agreeable, and worth the risk.
Systems create that feeling.
Culture is the most underrated program you have
There is another layer here that is just as important as creativity or digital. And it’s an area that many companies still underestimate: employee experience and customer experience.
You can map journeys and track NPS all day, but if your team members are tired, unsupported, or disconnected from the product promise they’re expected to deliver, customers will feel it right away. We’ve all had that experience as consumers—communication where you can tell someone you’re doing something. It’s not their fault, really. But the impact is real.
On the other hand, when people feel empowered, trusted to counsel, and connected to a shared purpose, that power is felt everywhere. It shows how confidently a person answers a customer’s question. It shows how problems are solved. It comes from the fact that the customer feels taken care of or taken care of.
Culture is not an HR initiative. Culture is a brand strategy. And culture, like everything else, works best when it’s built as a program—not a slogan.
So here’s a question for the spring sales season
If you lead marketing, sales, operations, finance, or any seat where you are responsible for building performance in difficult situations, I want to give you a reframe:
Stop starting with, “What campaign should we run next?” Start with, “What plan are we building?”
A system that reduces friction instead of adding noise.
A program that respects how people really shop.
A system that enforces trust even when no one is “in the market.”
A system that integrates quietly, slowly, over time.
Times are running out. Persistence systems.
And in a market like this, resilience is a competitive advantage.
That’s what’s in the Trust Vault as we enter the 2026 era of selling truth.
