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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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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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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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Every year I walk into the International Builders’ Show with the same challenge. There is simply too much good content. IBS is one of the few places where you can find yourself staring at your schedule thinking, “I want to be in three different rooms at the same time.” Between sales, marketing, technology, leadership, and customer experience sessions, there is always more to learn than any one person can realistically absorb in three days. That’s honestly part of why I keep coming back. This year is no exception. I’m especially…
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It’s finally here! My new book, Attract, Engage, Convert is now available on Amazon and I couldn’t be more excited! This book is for builders, OSCs, marketing teams, sales leaders, and anyone trying to make sense of what really works and how to set up a successful OSC program. It’s built from nearly two decades in the trenches, helping builders and OSCs create meaningful, intentional online sales programs. And it was a labor of love. Even better, builders are already buying copies for their OSC teams. That’s exactly what I hoped…
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If you’re considering launching an Online Sales Counselor (OSC) program, or reviving one that’s stalled, you may be tempted by the promise of outsourcing. The idea of offloading the responsibility of nurturing your digital leads to a third-party service may sound like a time-saving solution. But here’s the hard truth: There is no easy button when it comes to creating a successful OSC program. Whether you bring your OSC in-house or contract the role out, the same requirements apply: learning your tools, your process, your product, your people, and most…
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When margins are tight, it’s tempting to look for places to cut costs. Too often, the OSC program ends up on the chopping block. On paper, removing a salary line or trimming bonuses may look like savings. In reality, it’s one of the most expensive mistakes a builder can make. An OSC isn’t just another role. They are the engine that converts costly digital traffic into real appointments and closed sales. Without them, your marketing dollars evaporate, your conversion rates sink, and the homes you thought you’d sell this year…
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When it comes to building homes, every builder knows the phrase cost of doing business. But what’s less often discussed is the cost of not doing business the right way. Especially when it comes to your Online Sales Counselor (OSC) program. Profit Margins in Homebuilding According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the average net profit margin for builders was 7.0% in 2020 and rose to 8.7% in 2023, the highest in more than three decades. Public builders (like D.R. Horton, Pulte, Toll Brothers) often report consolidated net…
The Rule of 3’s with a New Online Sales Counselor Program and Seasoned Agents
Adopting a new online sales counselor program can be like adopting a rescue dog. Not that the OSC is the rescue, the site sales agents are. Okay, okay, okay hear me out… I just recently started up a brand new full-time online sales program for a new home builder. For 8 years previously they had a part-time online sales counselor, and the program was not structured for optimum results. Tracking was off, the role was…
Debunking 5 Myths About Online Sales
As someone who started out in an online sales role for builders near the very early times (I like to call it back in the Stone Age) It’s time to debunk some myths about the online sales role. Myth #1 OSCs have only been around for about 10 years or so – While I started in the role back in 2007 which is 15 years ago, there were OSCs as far back as at least…
Bridging the Gap Between Digital Marketing and Your Online Sales Team
Online Sales can’t happen in a bubble. There are two areas where an online sales counselor does not have control of the customer journey and the sales process. The first is at the very start which is generating the leads. The last is at the very end which is closing the deal. This is why I often say online sales is the crossroads between marketing and sales. When implementing an online sales program the most…
What Does No Lead Left Behind Really Mean?
While the online sales program has evolved a lot over the past 20 years since it first started to show up as a position for new home builders, there are some things that remain the same. Though we have gotten away from some of these things over the last couple of years. It’s time for a few reminders. Remember, the online sales counselor is NOT a secretary, and their true role is to develop the…
Why Training Isn’t an Option No Matter Who You Are
Back in my college and immediate post college days I was a bartender. I actually fell back on bartending on and off for 15 years as I traveled around the world. I had the opportunity to work in a variety of settings from nightclubs to restaurants, to pubs, to bars, to comedy clubs… I even worked on the party boats out of Boston Harbor and casinos in Las Vegas. I knew how to make drinks.…
Sharpen Your Skills and Stay on Top of Changes in the Market
As the market normalizes and it takes more effort to make a sale, it’s more important than ever before to be on top of your game. For OSCs this means working on your phone skills, your follow-up skills, your database prospecting, your metrics, and your overall re-commitment to the duties of an OSC. What are we talking about when we say Phone Skills? Well, up until recently anyone and everyone was banging down the door…
How to Implement and Audit an OSC Program
In the last couple of years there has been an absolute scramble to get online sales counselor programs up and running. Some were done thoughtfully and strategically with proper goals, objectives, and training. Others were thrown together with a ball of twine and some duct tape. Now is the time the true programs will shine, and the ones that were done hastily will suffer. This is why auditing and training will become so important. The…
OSC Tools and Tech For A Changing Market – Here’s the Replay
If you missed the Anewgo webinar hosted by Anya Chrisanthon on June 14th featuring myself, Heidi Schroeder, from Lasso ECI, and Cory Masters at Beacon Homes you missed a lot of fun and insights, We covered some great tools and tech you may want to be using on your website for customer engagement. These techniques and tools are great for OSCs to implement for lead nurturing and creating a strong customer journey. Don’t let me…
I Bet You’re Kicking Yourself
As the market cools for some builders across the country, some builders are kicking themselves and upping realtor compensation. I feel like I’m having Deja Vu. I came into the new home sales industry in 2006, just as the last hot market in the early aughts began to cool. When I started to work in a builder’s office, I came to understand that the real estate agent community was very distrustful of builders, or outright…
Don’t Kill Your Unicorn
“They Are Cutting My Pay!” The worst text ever to get from a friend who is an online sales counselor. I’ve been there. I know it’s a gut punch. I remember that punch. Back in 2009 when I was an OSC, after two years of fighting the market downturn, my pay got restructured and I was expected to work just as hard, with no bonuses or incentives. Lucky for that builder I had a very…