I was fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with Jeff Shore in a recent one-on-one about some important things to consider when implementing an Online Sales Program. Check out the video below. As always, thank you for the opportunity Jeff!

View the video here: http://youtu.be/O9nqzcaN8Dg

Read the conversation below:

Jeff Shore: Hello, everybody. Jeff Shore back with you on our One-on-One
segment today joined by the guru of converting traffic into . .
. or leads into traffic, the one and only, from
doyouconvert.com, Mike Lyon. Hello, Mike, how you doing?

Mike Lyon: Hey, man, I’m doing great. I don’t accept the guru status. I
don’t do it.

Jeff Shore: I’m sorry, Mike, but guru’s something that is glossed onto you,
you don’t have any control over that. That’s the way it works. So . . .

Mike Lyon: Okay.

Jeff Shore: So, Mike, just tell everybody. I think most of the audience is
going to be familiar with what you do and with who you are, but
in a nutshell, give them the 30-second elevator speech about the
work that you do.

Mike Lyon: This is me in a nutshell. What’s that from?

Jeff Shore: I don’t know.

Mike Lyon: ‘Austin Powers.’ That’s a horrible reference.

Jeff Shore: Yeah. Yeah, there you go.

Mike Lyon: Hey, you know, how do you pitch your product in 30 seconds or
less? I’m going to try it and you can score me on this. Okay?

Jeff Shore: Fair enough.

Mike Lyon: Here’s what I do. I work with homebuilders, and I work with
real estate officers and brokers and my number one goal is to
take all these people who are looking online and turn them into
real, live humans that are walking into your door. Because we
know in our industry, it’s still about facilitating that sale,
that face-to-face, that’s what it’s all about, but more people
are spending time online. We get more of those browsers into
actual buyers. In a nutshell, that’s kind of what I do.

Jeff Shore: You know, it was interesting, Mike, this last weekend I was in
the San Francisco Bay area. I visited six different new home
communities, just sort of kicking around and gauging the
performance and everything. One of the things that was really
interesting to me was the buzz.
Now, the market’s really coming back, especially in California,
there’s really no question about that, but there was a buzz as I
was walking through the models and I was listening to potential
buyers talking amongst themselves, with the salesperson not
there and I saw something really interesting.

There’s a husband and a wife. They didn’t see me, but I’m
eavesdropping on their conversation, right. I confess, that’s
what I was doing. There was a little lull in the conversation,
then he looks at her and he says, ‘Should we?’

The thing that’s interesting to me about this is that it’s a
conversation that took place entirely outside of the
salesperson, and the salesperson has no idea that that
conversation is taking place. I’m thinking about what you do and
how many conversations are taking place about buying a home that
are completely out of the line of site of the salesperson even
before that customer walks through the door.

I think if the typical salesperson really had a glimpse of how
much is going on even before they see that customer for the
first time, it would probably blow their mind. Right?

Mike Lyon: Oh, absolutely and that example is perfect. Even in a good
scenario with a very interested customer, they might spend two
to three hours with that prospect, but how much time are they
spending beforehand researching online, gathering information,
looking at reviews, pulling up Zillow, you name it. Not only
that, but after they leave the model, they’re doing the exact
same thing. They’re going back and they’re researching, so
there’s a lot of ways, one, to insert yourself into that
conversation and do it in a normal, not weird, creepy way.

The second part is there’s a lot of technology out there that
shows you their activity. It shows you how many times they come
back to your website, what they’re doing, what pages their
looking at. That used to be separate, now we see sales and
marketing really overlapping and it’s a huge opportunity, if
sales executives are paying attention to their customers in that
way. Absolutely. That’s a perfect example.

Jeff Shore: What are some of those technologies? You’re a tech guy, a tech
geek, if you will. You’re out there talking to people like me
who are just sort of hanging on for dear life to the tech train.
What are some of the things that you’re looking at there right
now that some of the more progressive builders are using to help
with their efficiencies?

Mike Lyon: Yeah, absolutely. First of all, I think you’re very advanced.
Right? You’re an advanced user and here’s the big thing I tell
people all the time too. Sometimes we’ve got to remove that even
from our own language.

I was doing a presentation yesterday, 100 plus realtors and a
good majority of them say, ‘Look at the demographic. We are
technologically challenged.’ I just say, ‘Stop. Stop that!’ You
know, number one, you don’t have to be. And number two, we can’t
afford to be anymore.

Just like 10 years ago, you could hire a sales executive who
never used computers and didn’t send email. That was Okay as
long as they could produce sales, right? Fast forward five
years, you can’t do that. If you can’t communicate over email,
you’re can’t . . . Fast forward another 12, 18 months, if you
can utilize the CRM, you’re toast.

Jeff Shore: Right.

Mike Lyon: You’re absolutely toast because we have so many more
responsibilities. Perfect example that I was just giving you,
seeing what a customer is doing. These CRM programs that are out
there, you know, customer relationship management programs, lead
management programs. You can go in a see, we were just doing
this the other day on a call where I review these things with
some clients of mine, and you can look at your customers and you
can compare them with people who have purchased or who are on
contract or who are contingent. You can see their history on how
many times they’ve been back to your website, what pages they’re
looking at, etc. etc.

Then you can go back and compare that kind of activity to
customers who may not have responded to you at all. You go,
‘Well, wait a second. If these people have come back five times
since their first visit, they’ve looked at multiple pages,’ and
then this matches someone else, that’s a potential interested
prospect.

Sales executives too often will go, ‘Well, they’re just not
interested. I haven’t heard back from them. They didn’t
respond.’ No, no, no! Look right here. Really getting into being
a database ninja. That’s what you’ve got to do and if you don’t
know how, you’ve got to get the people around you, learn, get
the training, the support that you need. I know that’s not a
sexy topic, but understanding and utilizing your CRM, you can
communicate faster, more efficiently than ever before.

Jeff Shore: Right. It’s probably safe to say that for most CRM platforms
out there whether it’s Lasso, it’s Salesforce, you know,
whatever it is, most salespeople utilize what, 10% of the
capability of their systems?

Mike Lyon: Yeah, it’s kind of like the brain, right. We only use this
small portion of it. If anything, it’s a glorified contact
management system for some people. You’ve got to go beyond that,
you know. Give yourself permission to forget these clients and
what to do next and make it easy on yourself.

Jeff Shore: Let’s talk briefly about social media. Gallup comes out
recently with a poll and it says 50% of Americans believe that
Facebook is a fad. That was a stunning number right there.

Mike Lyon: Excuse me, sir. It’s 53%.

Jeff Shore: Fifty-three percent. All right. So 53%, what is your take on
where we are in social media, where we’re going in social media?
Even though it’s as big as it is, there’s still a lot of debate
on the home building industry. What’s the prevailing trend right
now?

Mike Lyon: You handed me a loaded gun. I’m a big fan of social media. I
wrote a book on it. I talk about it, I blog about it, I built my
business using these tools. It’s a fad. I think it’s all a fad.
I’m kidding.

Jeff Shore: I dont think so.

Mike Lyon: Here’s the deal. Honestly, I’m going to give you two different
kind of angles, answers to this question. Number one, it doesn’t
matter whether it’s a fad or not. It doesn’t matter if Facebook
goes away and something else comes along. It doesn’t matter if
Pinterest is all great now and it’s not great tomorrow. The
bottom line is, I came up with a quote. I’m so excited, it’s my
own quote, I didn’t steal it. Are you ready for this?

Jeff Shore: Go for it. Yeah.

Mike Lyon: Great content.

Jeff Shore: Yes.

Mike Lyon: Easily shared on the platforms that we all use, will always get
you the results that you want.

Jeff Shore: Okay. Great content . . .

Mike Lyon: That’s pretty good, right?

Jeff Shore: Great content, easily shared on the platform we all use, will
get you . . .

Mike Lyon: It will always get you the results that you want. Every time.
It doesn’t matter. If you take it back 10 years ago, when
blogging was brand new or even six years ago, blogging and email
marketing. If you shared good content via those methods, it
always worked. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, it doesn’t matter.
If you are focusing on creating good content, the social
networking platform does not matter.

Number one, everybody should be a media company. Everybody
should get in the content creation business because if not, they
don’t have the opportunity to get their product out there.

That’s number one, from a big picture view. For sales
executives, get the fundamentals down. Facebook isn’t going to
change your business. Managing people who are walking in the
door, using these technology tools can almost seem a little old
school now. I’m throwing up too many quotes. Sorry. That’s what
gets you sales.

These social networking tools and sites are the conversations
that happen in between the lines. You definitely should be
present and doing it the right way and connecting with the right
people. Salespeople should focus on two different markets. It’s
real easy: Realtors and current customers.

Jeff Shore: Right. Right. Okay.

Mike Lyon: No one is going to walk in the door, Jeff, and say, ‘Hey, you
seem like a nice guy. I’m going to go friend you on Facebook
because you’re a nice salesperson.

Jeff Shore: Right. Okay.

Mike Lyon: I think they’re trying too hard in the wrong direction, but I
do think it’s a very viable option and one that works very well.

Jeff Shore: Right. Last question because we’re up against the clock, here.
What do you read for inspiration? Who do you follow? Who
inspires you? When you’re looking at just the great thinkers out
there in business today, what are the names or a couple of names
that jump to the top of your list?

Mike Lyon: Okay. Jeff Shore.

Jeff Shore: Oh, stop it. Yeah. Please.

Mike Lyon: Who do . . . I mean, we’ve got everybody within our industry
and hopefully people know the folks within our industry who are
great leaders. Right. The Jeffs of the world the [Myers Barnes]
of the world, everybody who’s creating good content. Outside, I
always like to get outside. Seth Godin. Seth Godin, probably one
of the greatest business thinkers. I love Gary Vaynerchuk.
That’s Vay-ner-chuck. He’s actually going to be at [PCBC], he’s
a forward thinker and just thinks differently. I think you just
start going down the list. I love stuff by Tim [Ferriss]. I’m
trying to think of some other big names that are big. Hey! Can
you grab that please?

Jeff Shore: That’s fine. It’ll wait.

Mike Lyon: Okay. It’s like, next interview. Let’s go.

Jeff Shore: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Lyon: Golly, there are just so many different ones, even outside the
classics.

Jeff Shore: It sounded like Seth Godin really jumped to the top of your
list, though.

Mike Lyon: Oh, yeah. I mean, look, I’ve got a Seth Godin little action
figure back there in the corner. I’ve got his books on my wall.
He’s been doing this . . . ‘Permission Marketing,’ his book’s
now 12, 13 years old. That was one of the first books that
everybody should read. How to win people . . .

Jeff Shore: It’s standard.

Mike Lyon: Yeah.

Jeff Shore: Right. Okay. Mike, this is how you and I will one day know that
we made it. We will have our own action figures, right? Is that
the idea? Is that the plan?

Mike Lyon from doyouconvert.com. Get on his website, subscribe to his blog,
follow him on Facebook, the guy’s a genius. He’s got plenty to share, he’ll
make you more effective.We’ll see you next time on One-on-One. Take care
everybody.

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