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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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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…
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One thing I’ve learned over the past 19 years of building and rebuilding Online Sales Counselor (OSC) programs, and 14 years of consulting with builders across the country is this: Hiring a consultant doesn’t automatically change a program. It’s what happens between consulting, training, strategy, and leadership that makes the difference. I can build structure. I can train skills. I can create systems that make your OSC team run like a machine. But if leadership isn’t plugged in, reinforcing, and managing the program after I leave, even the strongest team…
Chat Girl: Ms. Marvel or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Did I catch your attention? Are you wondering more about my TV watching and how this could possibly relate to Online Sales? Today I got a call from Chat Girl, and it was eye-opening and reinforcing why online sales training is so important and why you can’t just slap a Band-Aid on it. Some builders don’t have Online Sales Programs, but they do have live chat on their website. Some builders have OSC programs and…
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…
New Home Marketing: Don’t Race to the Bottom Pricing
Recently as I was speaking with one of my online sales counselors, we were talking about community pricing and marketing. She told me the secret of creating happy buyers… Ask any OSC out there and 99% of the time they will tell you their communities are marketed based on the lowest possible price. What that means is on the website, on signs, anywhere and everywhere that we broadcast a price, it says something like, “Buy…
Agent, OSC, and Customer Communication for the Perfect Hand-Off
You know the old saying buyers are liars? Well they aren’t liars, but sometimes they get their information wrong. And at times that can cause strife between OSC’s and Agents. That’s why it’s so important to get the lead hand-off right. Often when we teach the lead hand-off between online and onsite it’s a one-time training and we just figure everyone will remember forever and always. But that’s not the case. The lead hand-off should…
8 Tips to Create a Successful OSC Program
Creating a successful online sales counselor program doesn’t happen over night, and it doesn’t happen by accident. Here are a few details to help you assess or get started thinking about how to start or improve your online sales program. There are so many more details I could share about setting up a successful OSC program, but I’m going to try to give you some of the 8 essential things you should think about when…
Collaboration in the Building Industry Raises Our Vibration
February is the month of love, and I, like many in the building industry, just got back from a lovefest in the building industry – also known as the International Builders Show (IBS). It was the first time in two years to see friends, colleagues, and clients in person. There was hugging, there was laughter, there were cheers. This year was the first year I’ve gotten to speak on a stage at IBS. And I…
Blue Gypsy Inc’s Top Pics for IBS 2022 Education
Hey all, lets face it…ALL the education is incredible at IBS. I love listening to other experts in the industry talk about the topics they are passionate about. This is by no means the list for everyone, but as I go and set up my schedule for what I want to attend these are a few standouts I hope to be able to attend. First, it’s important to be mindful of the schedule. There are…
Making Your Online Sales Plan for 2022?
If you are planning for 2022 and would like to get some feedback and ideas did you know I’m here to help? There are options to book some time with me whether you are a past, present, or future client or just want to brainstorm some ideas and get to know each other. I’ve recently made it easier than ever before to grab a quick 15-minute encounter, a 30-minute virtual cup of coffee, a complementary…