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:…
Online Sales Counselor Training Isn’t About the Hours or Canned Packages
I get asked all the time by builders if I have an hourly rate or an hourly package they can purchase. I also have builders that ask me if I have a recorded set of lessons. The thing is I can’t track hours, and I can’t feel good about putting together pre-canned “education.” If someone wants something that is only 30 days or 3 months… I can’t in good faith do it. That’s just not…
No One is Dying: Ways to Manage Your Time as an OSC
With the onset of COVID and the current climate in the building industry, having time as an OSC is nonexistent. Homebuyers are forced to begin their search online whether they like it or not. Even prior to the pandemic, the internet has become the top source when searching for a new home. With the amount of volume that builders are seeing across the country, OSC’s are becoming more and more spread thin. Imagine you are…
A Love Affair with CRM: An OSC’s Real World Ups and Downs with 3 Different Programs
In honor of Valentine’s Day, we give you a brief love affair with Customer Relationship Management tools (CRMs) and how one OSC describes her relationship with them. We will remove names to protect the innocent and the guilty – both the OSC’s name, and the CRMs. But let’s just call this a cautionary tale. CRMs are the foundation of everything for successful online sales counselors. We know in life just as with any romance…
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…
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.…
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…
When it Comes to Email Communications: Stop-Breathe-Think-Act
Okay everyone, deep breath. I’ve seen a lot of miss communications via email lately, not just in my business, but others seem to be having the same problems as well when we compare notes. This happens in a fast paced, stress filled environment both on personal and on professional levels. There’s a good reason for this. Black and white typed emails are only one third of the story. Communication is a fragile and tricky thing.…
Successful Email Marketing: Permisson Is The Key
Scraping emails off facebook, linkedin, or business cards for your newsletter is not cool. This is why email marketing gets a bad name. First off the key to correct and effective email marketing is to have a permission based list. Translation: a list of people who want to get your emails. Just because someone hands you a business card at a networking event or accepts your friendship on a social network does not mean that…
Slow Economy Shouldn’t Equal Slow Response Time
Just answer the phone. Just send an email! Do you ever get frustrated when you aren’t getting quick answers to your questions? Well think of how your customers feel when the same thing happens to them. Do you know why, as an online sales consultant, I have so many people thanking me for my quick response to their questions? It’s because I do just that… I RESPOND! It’s an interesting world we live in. Everything…