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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,…
Embracing a Smart Phone: Removing My Head From The Sand
I’m finally stepped out of the dark ages…. I changed over to an iphone today. I’ve been waffling on this decision to move from a “dumb” phone to a “smart” phone for a while now. It’s funny, I don’t mind change when it comes to traveling. I love changing from country to country seeing new sights and experiencing new places. But I’ve never been a fan of technology. I don’t pick it up quickly so…
Facebook Friend or Spammer?
I’ve never used the unfriend button until the other day. I didn’t get into a mortal fight with a friend, I didn’t take my toys and go home…no, I was getting too much spam! That’s right spam on facebook in the form of fan page suggestions and events. But they weren’t just any fanpage and events they were “How to make millions of dollars…blah blah blah.” These are the websites and the emails that I…
Do Years Always Equal Experience?
Recently I read a tweet, “Wait, ur biz is paying 2 learn from someone w/ less than 2 years of experience. Isn’t that called an intern, at best an associate?” Interesting point, however experience comes in all kinds of forms. Life experience, people experience, job experience, and many skills cross over from industry to industry. So I guess it would depend on all the experience that a person has compiled over years of life, and…
Gone Viral: I dont care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia!!!
Have you seen the huge influx of weird fan pages popping up? People come up with the most bizarre combination of political views, vague references, passive aggressive behavior, and goofy ideas to create a fan page and see if other people will fan them. One of the things that I love about facebook is what a lot of people hate. I like to see the fan pages and groups people join because to be honest,…
Passion: For WordPress, Websites, and Water Treatment
I love enthusiasm! I’m actually pretty excited because I’ve caught some amazing energy from Valerie Cudnik, the owner of Computer Design Graphics. I’ve been waffling on my website for Blue Gypsy, Inc, and Valerie is propelling me forward toward getting it up and running. I know I need to get cracking because www.bluegypsyinc.com is my online office, but I’ve been in a quandary about the idea of paying lots of money to have someone design…
And The Winner Is….Great Design and Attentive Customer Service
And the winner is…… After 5 days and over 200 submissions from all over the world, I chose my logo. By running a contest through a crowdsourcing website called logomyway.com I found that it wasn’t only the design that won the race. It was also customer service. Something I wasn’t expecting at all when I decided to hold a contest to create my Blue Gypsy, Inc. logo. Kristen, the designer of my logo, not only…
Check Out The Contest to Design Blue Gypsy Inc.’s Logo
Right now I’m fully engrossed with the creative process happening on LogoMyWay.com! With more than 3 days to go, in a 5 day contest, designers from all over the world are submitting ideas to help brand my new company Blue Gypsy, Inc., by creating a logo. Recently I told, @socialsonya, the boss chick at Wave Marketing, and the founder of an amazing new concept, the Geekette’s Club, that I wanted to hold a contest on…
Values and Goals Go Hand-in-Hand
Since my last post was about values, I wanted touch on goals. Goal setting is always something I’ve felt passionate about. Values and goals go hand-in-hand and make up who you are. Once you define your values, the things that make you tick and how you want to operate your life, your business, and your online presence, the next step is to use those values to define your goals. Whether they are social media goals,…
Jeff Turner: "Social Media Is Value Driven"
Yesterday at Social Media @ the Beach, a local SM event in Hampton Roads, listening to the Keynote speaker, Jeff Turner, was like listening to an old friend. Actually one of my best friends…my Dad! Let me explain. My father has always been one of my mentors. I’m lucky. Not only is my father a great dad, and a successful business man, but he also was a mentor and coach to groups of CEO’s for…