Let’s set the record straight: Your Online Sales Counselor (OSC) is not a one-person army. They’re not a magician who can wave a magic wand over lukewarm leads and produce closings. And they’re certainly not a plug-and-play solution that runs on autopilot. If your online sales program is struggling—or worse, crashing and burning—it’s not just about the OSC. It’s about the system surrounding them. Too often, home builders invest in the idea of an OSC without investing in the infrastructure and support they need to…
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20 Blind Men, An Elephant, and Your 360 Degree Evaluation
Have you heard that old parable about putting 20 blind people in a room with an elephant? Each person has a different experience with the elephant. The first leans against it feeling a sturdy wall. The second feels the tip of a tusk and believes it to be a spear. The next feels the trunk and thinks he has a snake in his hands. Yet another feels the substantial leg and mistakes it for a…
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Follow Up – How Many Times Should You Contact a Lead
Follow Up. The other day in one of the professional groups I belong to on Facebook I saw someone lamenting the fact that prospects were not returning his emails. He asked, “How long do you follow up before you just feel like you are being a pain?” I was astounded by the answers given by these professional social media people. The answers ranged from “one and done” to “You’ve done your job to follow up…
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Is Your Inbox Getting You Down?
Last week I was on a mission. I wanted to clear my personal inbox of all the useless crap, spam, and subscriptions I get on a daily basis. Do you have this problem where you can walk away from your email for a day or two and when you open it back up your eyes cross with the 272 emails you have in there waiting for you to moderate? I couldn’t look at anything anymore.…
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Balancing Business and Quality of Life: 7 Lessons
This time last year leading up to the holidays I had a client that ran me ragged. Several times I felt like dropping this client, but I didn’t. Now a year later, looking at an unpaid invoice that languishes in my quickbooks I know that the client was actually a lesson in disguise. Seven lessons in fact Lesson #1: Go with Your Gut – Don’t ignore those red flags. They almost never prove themselves to…
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Email Marketing Tips: Don’t Use Email Marketing Badly
I try to keep only relevant email coming into my work inbox. Work is too hectic to be deleting another LivingSocial or west elm blast out of my work email every 5 seconds. (Don’t get me wrong I drool over their deals and furniture all the time when I have a weak moment) My personal email can build up to 300 irrelevant emails over a long weekend and that in itself is a headache weeding…
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The Search For “Affordable” Websites
I see it all the time. The word affordable. People are often looking for services that are “affordable”. That term is so subjective it is hard to pin it down. It’s like nailing jello to the wall or herding cats. What is affordable to one company is not affordable to another. And yet…when you say affordable when you are talking about a website, or a marketing company, or a subcontractor to handle and important aspect…
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