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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…
Why Do You Need Executive Coaching with an Online Sales Program?
Whether you are setting up a new online sales program, or working on auditing, improving, or revamping an old OSC program, whoever is going to lead the OSC program or team, needs to be on the same page and understand how to communicate goals to the entire company. I’ve said it before, training an OSC cannot happen in a bubble. The leadership of the company, marketing, and sales teams all need to know what to…
Random Gypsy Ramblings: How to Keep an Abundant Mindset
Little known fact, one of my first blogs I ever had was called Random Gypsy Ramblings. It told many storied about my travels around the world and my inner thoughts. I long since let go of that blog, and with it a lot of published articles. I think though I need to bring it back to the Blue Gypsy Inc. Blog. Sometimes I think it’s important to know the origin of where people’s ideas come…
Upcoming Webinar: Motivation in the Market at Denver HBA
I’m excited to be a part of this educational session at the HBA of Metro Denver’s Sales & Marketing Council. It’s free to attend and you’ll gain some motivation and insights from Neneh Biffenger, Builder Business Development at Invalesco Real Estate, Troy Arnold, Branch Manager at Well Fargo Home Mortgage, and Alisa Poncher, President Strategic Business Specialists, and of course me! Join us for this power hour June 12, 2023 at 8:30am MST.
Live Training Opportunity for Online Sales Counselors
It’s rare that there are actual opportunities for OSCs to sharpen their skills and be surrounded by a group of their peers. So often OSCs work in a bubble with-in a company, and very few people truly understand what their role is and what they do. This year, Blue Gypsy Inc. is partnering with Blue Tangerine and Outhouse to present an OSC training track at the Home Builder Digital Marketing Summit. We realized that when…
What Does “When in Doubt Send It Out” Mean?
Yes, we all want to be setting appointments. Especially if your leads have slowed down, but we don’t want to set just any appointment. We want to set strong appointments that will convert, otherwise we aren’t doing what OSCs are supposed to do. You may have heard the term, “When in doubt, send it out.” But what exactly does that mean? It doesn’t mean short-cut your job as an online sales counselor and bypass the…
Five Things Leadership Should Know About Online Sales
Sometimes the people at the top don’t understand what Online Sales is, what Online Sales Counselors do, and why this role and the program are so important. 1. This is not a “Catch All” position – The online sales program isn’t a place to dump all the odds and ends in the company. An online sales counselor is not a closing coordinator, they are not the social media manager, they are not the graphic designer,…
Don’t Sacrifice Website Usability for Design
Websites are the online sales models for the new home building industry. You’ve probably heard that before. Just like models are constantly changing as we build new and better homes, close out communities, and start new models – your website too needs to grow and change, but one thing needs to remain the same. It needs to address the needs of your buyers and make the important things easy to find. Sometimes when we do…
BGI’s OSC University – Live Education and Virtual Support
There aren’t enough educational opportunities out there for Online Sales Counselors to further their career. Many times, OSCs are dependent on their companies to hire trainers and coaches like me to come in and help. (And there aren’t many of us!) Are you an OSC that wants to find your own training, coaching, and mentoring? What if you’ve had a taste of coaching and training and would like to try out other flavors? Wouldn’t it…
Turnkey Solutions Sound Great… But Are They?
I often hear builders say they want a turnkey solution for online sales. Really, they want turnkey solutions for everything. The truth is, almost anything worth while takes time to learn and master. As most builders like to remind me, they are different from their competitors. While we don’t need to re-invent the wheel every time we start up a new online sales program, there will be nuances that are different and require a more…
Blue Gypsy Inc Doesn’t do “CRM Implementation,” We Teach “CRM Strategy”
Well, you know that old story, “If you give a man a fish he eats for a day, if you teach a man to fish, he can feed his whole village.” That’s how we feel about CRM implementation. There’s no doubt about it, CRM is complex. And there are SOOOOO many of them out there. They all have different features and ways to get to the same thing. When I think of the builders I…