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October is here, which means we are officially entering the last quarter of the year. And I think this is a really important time to ask ourselves a question: What are we going to do with the next 90 days? There is a lot of uncertainty in our industry right now. Interest rates, affordability, consumer confidence, traffic and the economy are all creating questions about what the rest of this year will look like and what we can expect when we head into the spring selling season. We can’t control…
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The Builder Marketing Summit has wrapped up for another year, and after two fast and furious days in Dallas, I walked away energized, full of ideas and, as always, wishing there had been just a little more time to talk with everyone. This was my fourth year joining Greg Bray of Blue Tangerine and Kevin Weitzel of Outhouse for the Summit, where they once again gave me free rein to lead the Online Sales Counselor track. That opportunity means a lot to me because there simply aren’t many industry events…
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Recently, a seasoned OSC reached out to me because she knows I do mystery shops. She also knows about the Annual Mystery Shop Report we conduct every year to get a pulse on the state of the industry when it comes to customer experience and the customer journey. She had been mystery shopped. On a Saturday. Her day off. Actually, it was the beginning of a four-day weekend for her. And as a solo OSC, she needs to take time off. Gone are the days when we should expect an…
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Why an AI Tool Isn’t the Same as an AI Strategy AI is everywhere in new home sales right now. Chatbots, automated follow-up, texting, dialers, lead nurturing, appointment setting. There are some incredible tools available, and I am certainly not anti-AI. Used correctly, AI can help us respond faster, manage more opportunities and take some of the repetitive work off our plates. But buying an AI tool is not the same thing as having an AI strategy. You don’t just buy it, unbox it, plug it into your website or…
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One of the first things I ask for when I start working with a new builder has nothing to do with conversion rates, lead response times, or appointment-setting percentages. Well okay I ask for all of that stuff. But I also ask for this… I ask to see every follow-up sequence living inside their CRM. The automated emails. The texts. The videos. The call tasks. Everything. Why? Because before I can coach an Online Sales Counselor, I want to understand what the buyer is experiencing. Every email, every text message,…
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“Everyone knows something you don’t… learn from them.” It’s a simple phrase, but one that’s resonated with me for decades. I’m not even sure where I first heard it, but it’s become part of who I am and how I approach life. Long before Blue Gypsy. Long before I was speaking at conferences or teaching classes. Before I ever became an Online Sales Counselor. It’s a mindset I’ve carried with me from experience to experience…country to country. I learned it years ago while traveling the world. Every place I visited…
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In our last blog post about One Team, One Experience I talked heavily about alignment. If the move from online to onsite is done well, it should feel natural from the buyer’s perspective. Exciting, even. The OSC should be building anticipation, not creating confusion. It should sound more like: “I’d love for you to meet my good friend; they’re going to have a much better handle on those specific house questions and help you take the next step.” That is a handoff. Not: “Here’s the appointment. Good luck.…
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Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of joining an NAHB Shop Talk with a title so good I figured it deserved a blog post of its own: One Team, One Experience: Turning Spring Traffic into Sales. When a topic is this relevant, this timely, and this painfully familiar to anyone in home building, you don’t just leave it neatly tucked inside a one-hour conversation. You bring it back out, dust it off, and say, “Alright, let’s talk about what this really means.” The discussion was moderated by Kelly Fink,…
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I feel like I make a post about this almost every year… but spring cleaning isn’t just for closets, junk drawers, and that cup holder in your car full of receipts, hair ties, mystery crumbs, and old empty coffee cups from Starbucks. It’s for your follow-up too. Let’s be honest… somewhere in that CRM is a sales process you built with the best of intentions and then never looked at again. She’s out there. Collecting dust. Sending old emails. Possibly embarrassing you. This time of year, is the perfect excuse…
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Alright, friends. We’re closing out March Debunking AI Month with one more thing I need to get off my chest: I am deeply skeptical of these micro learning AI courses that keep popping up all over my social feed. You know the ones. “Learn 47 AI tools in 28 days!” “Become an AI power user by next Tuesday!” “Master the future with our daily 10-minute lessons!” Meanwhile I’m over here thinking… who has time to collect apps like they’re Pokémon? What do I need 10…or 28 different tools? And more…
Quick Tip Tuesday Video for Online Sales Programs – Understanding Metrics
In our last blog post we talked about metrics for online sales counselor programs, but it’s really important to understand that in the age of COVID things have changed, and it’s important to adjust expectations in order to maximize ROI on online leads. Right now more “walk-in” traffic is coming through the Online Sales Counselors then we’ve seen in the past. If you’d like to discuss metrics and OSC metric performance feel free to set…
Metrics Aren’t Everything…WHAT?
There, I said it. Metrics are not everything when it comes to a well-oiled Online Sales Counselor program. Especially in the Age of COVID. I just blew the minds of many people including all my perfectionist OSC’s. You know how I know this? I’m nominating several of my past OSC’s I’ve trained for National Awards through the NAHB, and that means getting all their current metrics to report for a 12 month-period. What are the…
Online Sales Counselors Need to be The CRM Expert for New Home Builders
I am a coach, a mentor, a trainer, a consultant. I am not technical support or here to set up your Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM.) Why? Because the only way to become an expert in your CRM is to dive in, learn it, break it, fix it, and as Nike used to say, Just Do It! When I work with builders, one of the most important foundational tools they will ever use with their…
Podcast: Kevin, Greg and I Chat About the Importance of Online Sales
Have you heard of The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast? Kevin Weizel at Outhouse – amazing interactive floor plans, digital renderings, and virtual tours for builders and Greg Bray at Blue Tangerine – incredible websites and marketing for new home builders, joined forces to bring you a great industry podcast chalked full of important information along with guests who can bring you insights into every aspect of the home building industry. It was a pleasure…
Roles, Responsibilities, and Expectations of the OSC and the Online Sales Counselor Program
Recently I needed to write up a detailed description for a client of the roles, responsibilities and expectation of the OSC. While this company already had an OSC program previously it wasn’t set up for optimum sales. It’s important to understand what an OSC is supposed to do – like make the appointment. And not set unrealistic expectations like – every lead will be wrapped up in a bow and ready to write so your…
Eat That Frog – Time Blocking for Online Sales Counselor Success
The other day I was in a mentoring session with one of my new trainees. She’s fantastic! She is a sponge and absorbs everything I teach her. She has been thrown into a very busy OSC program with lots of leads being generated. Already we are realizing that we are at 50 leads per week which really means we need a 2nd OSC. But I digress. One of the hardest things about an OSC’s job…
The Results Are In! Is Follow Up Your Weakest Link?
Blue Gypsy Inc. Partnered with Melinda Brody & Company and Denim marketing to shop 50 new home builders across the country. We spent 30 days tracking the follow up processes and examined speed, frequency of messaging and diversity of touch points. The results will shock you. Or maybe not. In our mystery shop we noted the follow-up behaviors of the group as a whole, as well as looking at those who did have online…
2020 Vision: It’s a Game Changer – Webinar September 11
Is your follow up your weakest link? I’m a guest this week on the 2020 Vision: It’s a Game Changer series – by Kimberly Mackey Founder and consultant at New Homes Solutions Consulting and Carol Morgan Founder of Denim Marketing. Myself, and Ben Marks – President of Melinda Brody & Company – in conjunction with Denim Marketing recently completed putting together the results from a 3o day mystery shop of 50 builders across the country!…
Quick Tip Tuesday Video – How To Optimize Live Chat
Today’s Quick Tip for Online Sales Programs in the Building Industry is about Live Chat. Watch this Quick Tip on YouTube → If you are going to have your OSC utilize Live Chat you need to make sure these 3 things are happening. I’ve always been on the fence about live chat because all too often I’ve seen this become a band-aid for a true online sales counselor program. If you only tend to your…
Don’t Burn Out Your Online Sales Counselor
Look, I’ve been doing this since 2007. Back when I began as an OSC we did not have the same kind of marketing and lead generation as we do now. I worked for a builder that sold about 350 or more homes per year, and back then we said if an OSC was doing 20-25% of overall sales for the company they were doing a great job. As a producer hitting 32% of overall sales…