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Over the years, I’ve worked with home builders who have invested significant time, money, and resources into developing their Online Sales Counselor (OSC) programs. They’ve hired talented people, invested in CRM systems, provided training, and established performance goals. But somewhere along the way, something happens. The OSC program stops being actively managed and starts being measured. How many leads came in this month? How many appointments were set? How many sales came from online leads? What’s the conversion rate? Don’t get me wrong. Those numbers matter. I’m a big believer…
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Over the years, I’ve worked with home builders of all sizes, helping them build, train, and grow their Online Sales Counselor (OSC) programs. And one thing I’ve learned is that even the best OSCs need more than great training to be successful. They need ongoing coaching, leadership, accountability, and someone who truly understands their unique role. But here’s the challenge. Who is managing your OSC program? In many homebuilding companies, that responsibility falls on the VP of Sales, Director of Sales, or another member of the leadership team who already…
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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…
Question: Who Wears The Pants in The Home Shopping Process? Answer: The Buyer!
I’ve been shopping some builder websites for an international project I’m working on. Perhaps I’ll finally be able to combine both my love of travel and my love of selling houses, but more to come on that later. It amazes me how much money is obviously put into some of these websites, yet they aren’t getting their money back out. So far I’m on 72 hours out, and no follow up off of 3 different…
Buyer’s Market Misconception
Here is the gist of a current phone conversation I had with a potential buyer exhibiting a total lack of understanding as to what the term buyer’s market really means. The phone rings on an evening after 9:00 pm. Me: “Thank you for calling our builder today, my name is Leah, how may I help you?” Caller: “I’m looking at your community online and I want a 1 story house.”Me: “Great, we do have homes…
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…
And the Miss Understanding…OSC’s Pay Attention, That’s Their Job!
In my last post I talked about an agent who put out a public tweet on losing a sale due to perceived lack of follow-up on the part of a customer… My intention was never to slam this agent nor make her look bad. (hence I kept the name out of it) And for the record, this is an excellent agent with an amazing track record. The point of my post, and if I missed…
"I Sell Houses, I Do Not Sell Attention."
Okay did that get your attention? Recently I was reading through my twitter feed and a real estate professional had this written in their feed lamenting the fact that they lost a sale because someone said their follow-up was poor. As an Online Sales Consultant, and Lead Gypsy (CEO) of my new business, Blue Gypsy, Inc. a lead management service for builders and real estate professionals, I can tell you that attention is exactly what…
Can’t We All Get Along: I Think People Have Lost Their Minds
The current economy seems to have given people permission to lose all common sense. Especially in the realm of New Homes Sales. Apparently as long as you site “The economy” and the current state of the housing industry, you should be able to do anything you like. New rules seem to dictate that you should be able to ask new homes sales agents to show you property at all hours of the day or night…
Are Jobs in Sailing And Real Estate Both 24 Hours A Day?
Why is it so difficult at times for buyer’s agents and new home sales agents to get on the same page? We all share a common goal, to help someone find their dream home. Doesn’t that makes us on the same team? Yet at times it’s like we are in two completely different professions. As an Online Sales Consultant for a new homes builder I deal with many different people all over the world on…