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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…
The Power of Social Media: Should Jewish Organizations Jump on The Social Media Bandwagon?
So I thought I’d share this interesting debate I’m having with my sister with you. My sister, like me, has traveled the world. She’s lived in foreign countries and traveled Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and the Middle East. She’s visited small little villages in South East Asia and she’s even been stranded in a Typhoon on Mauritius, a tiny tiny island off of Africa. My sister used to be a costume designer and then…
Groupon Super Bowl Ads: #Fail? or Success! – New Media Vs. Old Media
Every year, when the Super Bowl rolls around there are some of us who tune in for the action, and some of us who tune in for the advertising. It’s the only time of the year we don’t want to fast forward through the commercials. With airtime priced at a premium, and millions of viewers expected to be attached to their TV’s in real time, this is an opportunity for products to hit their target…
Texting While Driving: Watch This Video
In this mobile world we live in sometimes we forget to turn off. Sometimes we forget that there’s not anything that’s so important it can’t wait. This is especially true while driving. With our smart phones, ipads, GPS systems, XM radios and so many other distractions it’s not just the stuff of fast food taking our attention off our driving any more. I remember when I learned how to drive 25 years ago it was…
Cutting Down On Random Facebook Friends
I know I’ve done similar posts before. But in this I’m including some tools for you. Please feel free to use. I know for some facebook is the wild wild west full of people willing to take their chances to accept anyone that will ask to be their friend because they use it for “networking.” Nothing wrong with that shot gun approach if you choose to use facebook in that way. But I guess I’m…
What Is Your Time Worth?
When is it time to hire help? It’s hard as a small business owner to make the decision to “cut into your earnings” to hire help. But that’s just what you may need to do in order to increase your revenue. It’s a huge leap of faith, but if you are organized and know what you need and what you want it can be well worth the expense to hire help. It can help you…
Outsourced: Not the Show
Blue Gypsy Inc has grown so much in it’s one year of existence. This is a wonderful thing! This time last year I sent my first proposal out into the world and was busy getting my company name Blue Gypsy, incorporated. Now I have several happy clients who keep me very busy. I’m not complaining! In this economy it’s so nice to be needed and wanted, and actually lead management should be the business of…
Thousand Crane Project: Touching The World Through Ripple Effect
Have you ever heard about the Legend of 1000 origami paper cranes? Ancient Japanese folklore promises to grant a single wish to anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes. Well yesterday I came across the fan page, Thousand Paper Crane Project. Rich Greenhagen, a resident of Virginia Beach, has a unique goal. He’s folding 1000 paper cranes to spread love around the world. It started out as a poem, then became a story and then…
Twenty Christmas Light Displays I’d Hate To Disassemble
Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, but taking down all the lights and decorations is not my favorite….I take heart in the fact that I don’t have to deal with the disassemble of the following Christmas displays. (But man I love to watch them!) Take a look at these 20 amazing works of art!1. Music Box Dancer 2. Frisco Christmas Lights – Wizards in Winter 3. Coca Cola Holiday Song 4.…
Lead Conversion Optimization: Lead a Horse To Water…And Make Them Drink
My previous blog post talked about developing a system to manage your leads. If you generate leads and then do not have a systematic way to deal with them, you might as well not have paid to generate the leads. Darin Persinger of Productivity Junkies has some great insights in the following video into the topic of Lead Conversion Optimization. The fact is you can’t convert a lead if you don’t have a system. But…
Lead Management: Having a System
When I tell people my business is Lead Management, sometimes I get weird looks. What is that? What do you mean lead management? Do you generate leads for clients? Lead generation and lead management are two different things. You can’t have one without the other. But if you only generate leads and you don’t manage them you might as well not bother. There are services out there, especially in the real estate realm, that will…