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 most of those things, and sitting around waiting for the market to tell us what happens next isn’t much of a strategy.

What we can control is how prepared our teams are to work in whatever market shows up.

Of course we need to keep our teams positive, especially when traffic is slower or buyers are taking longer to make decisions. But positivity alone isn’t going to get us there. Our teams also need the tools, training, messaging, processes and coaching to succeed in a more challenging environment. That’s why I think these last 90 days of the year are such a great opportunity to take a hard look at what we’re doing and, more importantly, what we’re not doing.

Remember All Those Things We Were Going to Do?

Think back to the beginning of the year. What did you say you were going to change in your online sales program?

Maybe you were going to improve your follow-up. You were going to make it more personal and rely less on generic automated messaging. Your OSCs were going to start sending more videos. You were going to spend more time prospecting the database instead of constantly chasing the newest lead. Marketing, Online Sales and Onsite Sales were going to communicate better.

So…did it happen?

Are your OSCs still sending the personal videos they committed to sending, or did that last about three weeks? Maybe everyone agreed video was a great idea, but somehow you never really got it going in the first place. What about personalization? If you pulled up ten leads in your CRM today and looked at their recent follow-up, would you see communication that reflects what you actually know about those prospects, or would most of them be receiving essentially the same messages?

And when was the last time you really looked at those messages? Remember, your follow-up has an expiration date. Are you looking to see not whether an email went out on Day 3 because the CRM says it did, but what the email actually says? Does it sound like a human being? Is it relevant? Does it give the prospect a reason to respond? If you were the customer, would you respond to it?

Those are the kinds of questions we need to be asking right now.

Your Spring Selling Season Is Already Starting

We tend to think about the spring selling season as something that begins in January or February, but many of the buyers who will purchase homes next spring are already sitting in your database.

Some registered last week. Others have been there for six months, a year or even longer. They may be waiting for interest rates to change, trying to get their finances in order, working through a lease, waiting to sell a home or simply trying to figure out what they can afford. Others may have gone quiet because we stopped giving them compelling reasons to engage with us.

What are we doing with those people between now and spring?

This is where good follow-up and real personalization become so important. Long-term nurture shouldn’t mean putting someone into an automated email campaign and hoping they eventually raise their hand again. We should be using what we know about our prospects to continue the conversation. We should be giving them useful information, checking in personally, sharing relevant updates and looking for reasons to reconnect.

We should also be prospecting our databases intentionally. There is an enormous difference between following up with the leads who came in today and actively looking for opportunities among the thousands of people who have already expressed interest in buying a home from us.

Maybe Your Online Sales Program Needs a Reboot

This is exactly why I created Blue Gypsy’s 90-Day Reboot. Sometimes an online sales program doesn’t need to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch. It just needs someone to take a fresh look at what’s happening, identify where things have gotten off track and help the team get refocused.

Over 90 days, we take a hard look at the fundamentals of the program, including follow-up, messaging, personalization, database management, processes, daily habits and conversion opportunities. We look at how the OSC is spending their time, how leads are being managed and whether the systems that are supposed to support the team are actually helping them succeed.

We also look at the connection between Marketing, Online Sales and Onsite Sales, because even the strongest OSC can’t operate effectively in a silo. If the messaging isn’t aligned, leads aren’t being handed off properly, the CRM isn’t supporting the process or everyone has a different definition of what should happen next, those gaps eventually show up in conversion.

And yes, we’re going to find out what happened to those videos everyone said they were going to start sending.

The point isn’t to pile more things onto an already busy team. It’s to make sure they’re spending their time on the right things, give them the tools and coaching to do those things well, and build the consistency that is so easy to lose over the course of a year.

What Are You Going to Do With Your Next 90 Days?

We don’t know exactly what the market is going to do over the next six months. We don’t know where interest rates will be in March or what consumer confidence will look like when spring arrives. There will always be factors outside of our control.

But we don’t have to wait for those answers to get better.

We have the next 90 days to tighten our processes, improve our messaging, reconnect with our databases, strengthen personalization, coach better habits and finally implement some of those ideas that sounded so good when we talked about them earlier this year.

Spring may feel like it’s a long way off, but it isn’t. The work you do with your online sales program now will determine how prepared your team is when buyers start moving again.

So don’t spend the fourth quarter waiting to see what happens. Use it to make sure you’re ready for whatever happens next.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should builders focus on in their online sales program during Q4?

Use the last 90 days of the year to review the fundamentals: follow-up quality, personalization, database prospecting, daily habits and the alignment between Marketing, Online Sales and Onsite Sales. Revisit the changes you committed to at the beginning of the year and find out which ones actually stuck.

When does the spring selling season start for home builders?

Earlier than most teams think. Many of the buyers who will purchase a home next spring are already in your database, waiting on interest rates, a lease, the sale of a home or their finances. How you nurture those prospects in the fourth quarter shapes how ready your team is when buyers start moving again.

How can you tell if your OSC follow-up is working?

Pull up ten leads in your CRM and read their recent follow-up. Don’t just confirm that an email went out on Day 3. Read what it actually says. Does it sound like a real person, does it reflect what you know about that prospect, and does it give them a reason to respond?

What does Blue Gypsy’s 90-Day Reboot include?

Over 90 days, Blue Gypsy reviews follow-up, messaging, personalization, database management, processes, daily habits and conversion opportunities, along with how leads move between Marketing, Online Sales and Onsite Sales. The goal is to refocus the team on the right work, not pile more onto it. Learn more about the 90-Day Reboot or schedule a call.