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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…
Thanks & Giving: Reflections Over the Past Year
November always seems to be the month of reflections. For a couple of reasons. There’s the obvious reason that it’s the month of Thanksgiving, and often we find ourselves thinking about what we are thankful for, the good things in our lives, but if you are at all like me you also reflect forward, to the coming year. It’s the perfect time in November to think about the closing of this year and what the…
Foundational Reflections for Successful OSC Programs
There are certain things that successful OSC programs need, and as we prepare for the coming year it’s time to make sure that we are doing the best we can with this important program. The Right Person or People in the Right Seats – I’d love to say that every online sales counselor is gold… but that’s just not true. Many of them can be with the right training and coaching. But sadly, there are…
Better Together: Reflections From the Tropical Sales Training Retreat
Every day this week in Florida, I’ve woken up at 2am. And then I start reflecting on the day, the week, and really this entire year. It’s amazing how much planning goes into an event like the Tropical Sales Retreat. And I also reflect on how grateful I am on so many levels. Grateful to Roland Nairnsey for taking me up on my offer to do an OSC track at the conference. Grateful for my…
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…