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Over the years, I’ve worked with home builders who have invested significant time, money, and resources into developing their Online Sales Counselor (OSC) programs. They’ve hired talented people, invested in CRM systems, provided training, and established performance goals. But somewhere along the way, something happens. The OSC program stops being actively managed and starts being measured. How many leads came in this month? How many appointments were set? How many sales came from online leads? What’s the conversion rate? Don’t get me wrong. Those numbers matter. I’m a big believer…
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Over the years, I’ve worked with home builders of all sizes, helping them build, train, and grow their Online Sales Counselor (OSC) programs. And one thing I’ve learned is that even the best OSCs need more than great training to be successful. They need ongoing coaching, leadership, accountability, and someone who truly understands their unique role. But here’s the challenge. Who is managing your OSC program? In many homebuilding companies, that responsibility falls on the VP of Sales, Director of Sales, or another member of the leadership team who already…
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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,…
Don’t Know If You Noticed But…..
I took about a month off of blogging, and clammed up on tweeting as well. I’m not going to lie, the bluesfest took a lot of energy out of me. Doing it all was exhausting and I’ve taken the last month to regroup. The Bluesfest went from vision to reality because I set a goal for myself to do it, and then progressed through the process of visualizing it, and creating it. While it was…
Blue Gypsy Bluesfest: Success! Planning for Next Year!
The first annual Blue Gypsy Bluesfest was a success!!! We had 350 people at the event and we were able to raise money for both charities! It was no small feat to put together an event of that magnitude all by myself, but as I’ve said before I had so much help from all the positive feedback and energy and ideas that were generated by those who participated. But only one person truly knows all…
The Energy Is Building! Can You Feel It?
It’s amazing, the positive things that can happen when people come together under the umbrella of a great cause. Blue Gypsy Bluesfest is almost here. I can’t believe this event that started with me saying, “Let’s Have A Party and give back to Habitat for Humanity” Has taken on such a life of it’s own. It’s funny. I’ve had people ask me if I’m the Promoter for the event. Well, I guess so…I mean I…
Do You Have your Ticket’s Yet? I Have Mine!
Do you have your tickets yet? I have mine! In fact I was the very first ticket purchased online for the Blue Gypsy Bluesfest, and at the rate my procrastinating boyfriend is going, he’ll be the last! Here’s the ticket site! Click here for Blue Gypsy Bluesfest Tickets. Use the discount code: habitat4blues and get 20% off tickets online. If you are a last minute shopper the code will take $15 off the prices at…
10 Days Until The Blue Gypsy Bluesfest: Giving Thanks to The BBQ Competitors
Six months of planning is coming to fruition in just 10 more days. This has been one of the steepest learning curves putting together an event of this magnitude. The thing that has kept me moving along is that it’s for such an amazing cause. Habitat for Humanity. I’ve met so many wonderful people who have put their great energy along side mine, not just for the advertising, but also because they believed in the…
Social Media Marketing: Like Herding Cats?
This just tickled my funny bone and I thought I would share it for all those social media marketing pros out there.
From The Archives: Social MeetUps and TweetUps – Are They Like Online Dating?
Attending a meet up is a great way to meet people in-person who are interested and involved with social media in the Tidewater Area. It also reminded me a bit of the time I spent internet dating… When I embarked on my social media exploration I began following people with knowledge and expertise in several fields of interest. The great thing was I was not bound by their locality. I could follow, friend, and learn…
Face Of Fox 43: Sirece Dugard and Blue Gypsy Bluesfest
I’m really excited to have Fox 43 involved with the Blue Gypsy Bluesfest. They are our newest media sponsor and they are going all out. We have the brand new Face of Fox Sirece Dugard coming out to the event, doing some giveaways and having some fun with us. And she’s going to be announcing the event on the Hampton Roads Show as well. Here’s an interview with her about her new job and her…
Gaining Momentum: Positive Energy Creates Positive Results
I’m a true believer that positive energy creates positive thoughts, positive thoughts lead to positive ideas, positive ideas produce positive actions and positive actions garner positive results. That’s the operating principal behind Blue Gypsy Bluesfest and my efforts put for this charity event taking place on September 25th at Hunt Club Farm in Virginia Beach to benefit Habitat for Humanity and the Nachel’ Blues Network. I’ve been making calls, sending email and talking about this…
From The Archives: A little Inspiration "Remember to Say I Can"
Youtube is crowded with entertaining mindless videos of cats caught on ceiling fans, manatees bumping into aquarium glass, and giant slides that will land you in a kiddie pool of water…but every once in a while you come across a gem that brings tears to your eyes and teaches you real life lessons. This is why social media can have such an amazing impact on our lives. I used to teach kids team building, leadership…