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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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Recently, a seasoned OSC reached out to me because she knows I do mystery shops. She also knows about the Annual Mystery Shop Report we conduct every year to get a pulse on the state of the industry when it comes to customer experience and the customer journey. She had been mystery shopped. On a Saturday. Her day off. Actually, it was the beginning of a four-day weekend for her. And as a solo OSC, she needs to take time off. Gone are the days when we should expect an…
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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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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…
Does Facebook Rage Exist?
What are your thoughts? Do you think that with the growth and popularity of facebook there is now something called facebook rage? Yes I’ve coined this term myself…though I googled it and I found this in the Urban Dictionary: When a person getting angry at another person for interrupting their Facebook time…this isn’t what I’m talking about. Yes the bad sentence structure is in the urban dictionary. I’d have said when a person “gets” not…
The Power of Social Media: Should Jewish Organizations Jump on The Social Media Bandwagon?
So I thought I’d share this interesting debate I’m having with my sister with you. My sister, like me, has traveled the world. She’s lived in foreign countries and traveled Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and the Middle East. She’s visited small little villages in South East Asia and she’s even been stranded in a Typhoon on Mauritius, a tiny tiny island off of Africa. My sister used to be a costume designer and then…
Cutting Down On Random Facebook Friends
I know I’ve done similar posts before. But in this I’m including some tools for you. Please feel free to use. I know for some facebook is the wild wild west full of people willing to take their chances to accept anyone that will ask to be their friend because they use it for “networking.” Nothing wrong with that shot gun approach if you choose to use facebook in that way. But I guess I’m…
Twenty Christmas Light Displays I’d Hate To Disassemble
Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, but taking down all the lights and decorations is not my favorite….I take heart in the fact that I don’t have to deal with the disassemble of the following Christmas displays. (But man I love to watch them!) Take a look at these 20 amazing works of art!1. Music Box Dancer 2. Frisco Christmas Lights – Wizards in Winter 3. Coca Cola Holiday Song 4.…
Chanukah Ham…Is It A Hoax? A Little Holiday Humor
Today I opened up facebook and was greeted by this picture one of my friends posted. Hysterical—> The tag line on it read: Dear Walmart, I think you are barking up the wrong tree. Love, The Jews. This is a true case of not knowing your audience. And hopefully striking funny bones and not stepping on toes. Being the unobservant Jew that I am, (while born Jewish, I have more Christmas lights on my house…
What Do You Think Of Random Friend Requests From Random Strangers?
When I was a kid I liked to pull things apart and see how they worked. That meant that I had stuffed animals that had their little sound makers taken out of them, and ballerina music boxes that no longer played swan lake. I just like to know what makes things (And people) tick. One of the things that makes me go hmmmm the most in Social Media, is the random friend requests from complete…
Social Media Marketing: Like Herding Cats?
This just tickled my funny bone and I thought I would share it for all those social media marketing pros out there.
From The Archives: Social MeetUps and TweetUps – Are They Like Online Dating?
Attending a meet up is a great way to meet people in-person who are interested and involved with social media in the Tidewater Area. It also reminded me a bit of the time I spent internet dating… When I embarked on my social media exploration I began following people with knowledge and expertise in several fields of interest. The great thing was I was not bound by their locality. I could follow, friend, and learn…
From the Archives: 5 Twitter Duh’s and No Brainers….
Since it’s a hectic month of planning for the Blue Gypsy Bluesfest and I’m sure there’s lots that I can tell you about that and it’s connection with social media moving it forward, right now….I’m pulling some oldies but goodies from the archives. Here are just a few things to think about as you get up to speed with your twitter account. 1) If you have multiple twitter accounts (And I mean like 3,4 or…
Singing The Facebook Security Blues in Costa Rica
Facebook’s silly new security measures at work….to hinder work. I’m on a business trip in Costa Rica right now and ironically facebook shut me out of my own account…. Let me explain. As I was passing time in the Charlotte Airport on Saturday before my flight out to Costa Rica I came across a rant by a friend about facebook’s security policies and making it difficult for business owners. I really didn’t give it much…