Mike Lyon - Internet Marketing for Home Builders and Real Estate » Best Practices

Deep Thoughts: Customer Experience

Mike Lyon — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:42:24 +0000

I can’t remember where this quote came from… I think a podcast, or a book… forgive me whoever said it first.

“The last impression is the lasting impression”

That’s deep right. It is something to think about in the customer experience.

We just finished our new home. We designed it, we love it, but the last month was brutal. My wife had a hard time getting past all of the little things going wrong and it created a not-so-fun experience at the end.

That is the lasting impression for us and it will take a while to get that taste out of our mouth.

Attention sales pros! We talk to hundreds of prospects, we sell a lot of homes, we say the same things over and over, it can become robotic. I encourage you (and you too Mike Lyon) to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and do everything you can to make sure they have an enjoyable experience.

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5 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Online Sales Program

Mike Lyon — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:39:27 +0000

Have you made resolutions for this year? Why not add a “Create a best-in-class online sales program” to that list?

I recently had a conversation with a very large home builder about starting an online sales program and they basically said, “Mike, we like to make slow and calculated decisions. We will get there eventually, but we have to wrap our brains around this first.”

What can you say to that logic? All I know is “slow” doesn’t work when it comes to life and business on the Internet. They kinda work like dog years. Every moment counts!

I understand not wanting to make the wrong moves, but moving in some direction is better than doing nothing at all. Don’t allow yourself to succumb to “analysis paralysis”. If you want to reach more customers for less money and to sell more homes, here are five fundamental principles that will enable you to make “no-lose” decisions. (Plus bonus content to dive deeper)

Spend More Money on Your Website—Rarely have I found a builder that spends too much money on their website. This tool houses the digital hub of your universe, the virtual model home. You may need a redesign, a new feature, a mobile site, or more exciting content. The investment in your website is the best money you can spend with tremendous ROI! If you question whether putting money here is worthwhile, just compare your website’s unique visitors (using your site analytics) with your walk-in prospects and see which one gets more traffic. With a great site, you will drive more traffic through both your virtual and physical door. It might be time to Build a New Virtual Model Home >>
Move More of Your Advertising Budget Online—50% of home shoppers take their very first step by searching online. Compare that to 3% who will pick up a paper and 18% who will call a Realtor. What does this mean? You should be spending your advertising dollars where your prospects are looking. Get as close as you can to allocating 50% of your advertising dollars online. 10% of your budget to online advertising is like trying to spark a fire by rubbing two wet sticks together! If you are wondering how to measure what works, check out this post >>
Get a CRM Program That WORKS!—If you don’t have an effective Customer Relationship Management Program …get one. Don’t waste your time trying to make a tired, old clunky CRM system do more than it was designed for. Just ask yourself these questions: Does my CRM make my life easier? Does it automate the follow-up process? Do my salespeople actually use it? Does it track prospects on my website? Will it send mass emails? If the answer to any of these is “NO”, then you need a new system…immediately! Great guest post on CRM here >>
Get A Dedicated Responder—Let’s face it. Bad salespeople suck and they just won’t follow up with prospects. Good salespeople may not be able to follow up quickly or frequently enough because they are busy having valuable face time with customers. So you need a system that ensures communication with an interested prospect. Whether you choose a dedicated Online Sales Counselor or an automated responder, make sure all leads are responded to within five minutes or less and receive five to seven contacts in the first month. I guarantee that those prospects are getting better communication from your competition so you need to be on top of this step! Not getting the results you want, see this post on 10 reasons why >>
Establish an Online Sales Process—Building homes requires a process. Traditional selling follows a process. If you want sustainable results from your online selling efforts that you can replicate, you need to create and implement a process—from generating leads to follow-up to marketing, You can start by making sure that the first four tips are incorporated! Here is a quick video overview >>

There you go. Five things that you can put on your board and chase after with Ricky Bobby-like speed. I guarantee, these are good decisions you can make as a company and ones that have never yielded a negative result. Get your new year off to a winning start with these “no lose” tips.

Photo Credit: Claire Wilkerson Similar Posts:

Old School Thank You Notes, High Tech Touch

Mike Lyon — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:15:48 +0000

I have never been a huge fan of the “thank you” note in the real estate sales process. The way I always looked at this gesture, it was one of those dated sales tactics that tracked back to when snail mail was one of the best ways to communicate with your prospects.

One of the reasons I wasn’t gung ho on the idea was because it was too slow (hence, the term “snail mail”). I like fast. The faster, the better.

The other reason that I wasn’t running out to buy note cards was because I’d have to ask someone for their mailing address. That can be awkward, particularly when you’re not yet “there” in the sales relationship.

My preference for this type of follow-up has been to send a video email that included a video tour of the home or a picture of the lot they looked at. A not-so-subtle reminder of what they could have.

Lately, I’ve had a change of heart and been kicking it old school…with a twist. Several apps make it easy to blend smartphone technology with the personal touch of snail mail.

Apple just released an app called “Cards” that lets you take a photo on your iPhone or iPod Touch and turn it into a notecard, with your personal message. You then click on an address in your Contacts list and the card will be printed and mailed, all for just $2.99, including postage! Postagram offers a similar service, producing postcards for 99 cents. You can customize your design and message, and your cards are automatically saved.

It’s fast, personal, and effective!

Think about the cool things you can do:

Snap a photo of the home your prospect is considering
Take a picture of a “Sold” sign
Send a photo of the lot
Take a picture of steps in the construction process

Yes, you still have to ask them for their address, but it will be a lot easier to obtain when you say, “Hey, can I send you a super cool card with your photo on it?”

Here’s an example of a notecard I produced with the Cards app. I sent this to my wife to encourage her that our new home is almost done. Let me just say, that $2.99 was money well spent!

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15 Email Ideas to Make Your REALTORs Click

Mike Lyon — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:08:37 +0000

“Mike, how do we create emails that will get the attention of our REALTORs®?”

I have been asked this question twice in the past week so I thought I would answer it in a blog post. Ask any real estate agent about their inbox, “oh, you mean that haystack I have to sort through every day. The deep abyss of spam, new listing notifications and Ugandan prince emails ” Let’s face it, most of our inboxes are bursting at the seams. So we click through and delete as many as possible of those that don’t strike our interest. One click, and all the work you put into crafting a newsworthy email blast for your REALTOR® partners has been wasted.

The solution is not to give up on email marketing. Just do it better.

Instead of thinking about what you have to offer a real estate agent, consider the benefit to them. How will your information or advice help them sell more homes? What results can they expect? When you become a trusted advisor, your emails won’t be overlooked.

Here are some ideas to tantalize your enough recipient to open your emails:

Highlight the benefit provided to them by your Online Sales Counselor
Update them on the latest financing and interest rates and mortgage programs
Announce new and coming-soon communities (= new sales opportunities for them)
Announce the opening of additional phases (Ditto!)
Promote special offers or incentives
Highlight builder’s achievements or awards that reinforce the quality their buyers can expect
Share new floor plans to demonstrate flexibility and options—something that every buyers welcomes
Reinforce the benefits of owning a new home versus a resale home
Explain your building process, particularly those points that differentiate this builder from the competition
Tell a satisfied customer’s story that underscores the reasons a buyer should select a home by this builder
Feature an agent who just sold a home with you and include sales tips from that agent
Highlight community or neighborhood events to paint a picture of fun and involvement, not just an individual property
Review the strong points of your website—and be sure to embed links for them to get there easily
Offer news and statistics about general homebuilding and new construction—agents and buyers love to see how others are faring in their circumstance
Send holiday greetings with a personal message (mine just went out today)

Before you click “Send”, put yourself in the recipient’s place and ask yourself, “So what?” Why should they take valuable time to read your email? When your subject line gives them that incentive and your email supports it with great content, only then should you make your way into their crowded inbox.Similar Posts:

How “Thumb Friendly” Are You?

Mike Lyon — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:50:34 +0000

If you’ve invested in building a website that looks great on your desktop or laptop computer—congratulations! That’s a great start. But if you aren’t optimized for the mobile experience – consider this a warning – YOU ARE NOW OFFICIALLY BEHIND!

Yup. It’s a start, not a finish. With millions of people relying on their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) to access the Web, you need to think smaller in order to get bigger. (tweet this) According to Google, Web searches conducted via mobile devices have increased 400 percent since 2010. By 2013, Google predicts that more people will use their smartphones than their computers to go online. And, by 2015, there will be one mobile device for every five people on the planet.

Have you looked at your website to see how it looks on a smartphone? It’s a very different view on a small screen. And even if you can see it, does it accommodate the hand-held surfer? Is it “thumb-friendly”? Does your navigation work quickly and easily? How fast does it load? 71 percent of users expect a mobile site to load as fast as a desktop site, and 78 percent will retry two times or less if the site does not load quickly (Compuware). Remember the saying, “You have one chance to make a good first impression”? It was never so true as with mobile sites.

Google launched a helpful site for taking your website mobile: howtogomo.com. Test your current site here to see how mobile-friendly it is, using their mobile emulator (tweet this). Find out how to build (or rebuild) your mobile site.

Check out the case study of Ryland Homes’ site conversion. By investing in building a better website, their mobile registrations increased 300 percent, at a cost of 30 percent less than before they revamped their site. And, since launching in March 2011, Ryland Homes are now seeing home sales that began as leads generated from the mobile site.

Here are three more statistics to consider:

95 percent of mobile device users search for local information on their smartphones;
61 percent call and 59 percent visit a business after finding it on the go; and
90 percent of them act within 24 hours. (tweet this stat)

So, if they can’t find you, where are they going?Similar Posts:

Does Seeing Yourself On Video Freak You Out

Mike Lyon — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:41:08 +0000

Well, it freaked me out, too, in the beginning. And to show you, I thought I would dig up some of my first videos and compare them to recent ones.

Let’s start with some video emails. Those of you who follow my blog know I geek out over eyejot.com. Here is my very first video email, shot in 2008. I can barely watch this. Am I some kind of animatronic robot?

Ok, stop laughing.

Now, here is a video I recently shot to send as a follow-up to 200+ webinar attendees. This was done on the first take.

No, I don’t like the way I am rocking back and forth like I have to go to the bathroom, but overall, it’s much better then the first video, no?

Next up—here you can view one of my first video messages that I shot for YouTube.

I asked for feedback on this, and here were some of the responses: “Why are you so quiet? Are their kids sleeping in the office next to you?” and “Is there a reason why you are whispering?” Lesson learned.

Now, here is a more recent video.

So, pop quiz—What do you think the difference is between the first videos and the more recent ones? The first thing that comes to my mind is confidence. I was nervous in those first videos and it showed, right? Now, I consider myself to be a fairly confident guy, but seeing yourself on camera and using a different medium to communicate a message can be daunting. Watching these first videos makes me cringe, but it’s a good reminder. I’ve seen very talented public speakers collapse under the pressure of shooting a video. If you are not used to it, it just feels weird.

Do you know what helped me get over that? I just shot a boatload of videos. Practice, practice, practice! I am pushing close to a 1,000 videos via YouTube, streaming webinars, video emails, and public/private trainings. I still have a lot of room for improvement, but now I am much more relaxed and confident.

You will be, too. If you are just starting out, keep at it. If you are nervous, suck it up. If you don’t like the way you look, get over it. I still believe this is one of the biggest game changers in professional selling so get started superstar!

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Follow Up + Technology = More Sales (video)

Mike Lyon — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:00:21 +0000

Are you using old outdated methods to communicate with your prospects? Here I share a story about an encounter with a real estate agent while my wife and I were shopping for a home. She made the choice not to upgrade her process and now her 30 year old business is suffering because of it. Don’t be that agent – don’t get stuck in a rut! Similar Posts:

7 Steps to Unify Online and Onsite Sales

Mike Lyon — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:23:24 +0000

Is your sales team divided?

I encounter little hiccups every once in a while. It goes like this. “Hey Mike, I’m the online sales counselor working my butt off to get these prospects to set appointments, but I don’t think some of my onsite agents see the value.”

When I ask them what percent don’t see the value, I usually get an answer of about 20 percent. In this case, I advise, “Don’t sweat, you will always have that 20 percent who just don’t ‘get’ the value of what you do. You still have 80 percent who do.”

However, in some cases, the divide is much bigger—and that’s a problem. A unified team delivers far greater results than a bunch of individuals working on their own agendas. One of the best ways to ensure that your online and onsite team is working as a unit is to play an active role in the weekly sales meetings.

So here are some tried and true methods to building that bridge to close up the gap between what you’re currently getting and the conversion results you want:

Be Present. Play an active role in your team’s activities. Don’t sit on the outside looking in. Show up at the sales meetings, get to know the agents, watch relationships grow over time, and cultivate those that need a little intervention.
Make Some Noise. Don’t be a wallflower. Make yourself heard. Offer advice, share success stories, and spark thinking.
Talk Yourself Up. Give your team an update every week. Relay these numbers: leads per month, scheduled appointments, and sales from appointments. Focus on the appointment-to-sales ratio so they see the relationship and its value. Tell them what is on the calendar for the week so they also see the activity.
Give Some High Fives. Pick a success story of one of the appointments you set that turned into a sale. Congratulate them on an awesome job and let the agent tell the group the success story. When you put someone in a positive spotlight, the others will want to follow.
Run The Gauntlet. Do some role-playing with your team. Let them take turns playing a customer who has called in. Tell them to give you objections or ask tough questions. Most sales executives have no idea how good you are so here is a way to show that what a valuable resource you are and to give them some help with overcoming objections for setting appointments.
Review The Handoff Process. What happens when you set the appointment? How do the sales executives communicate with prospects? “But I’ve already covered this Mike!” I know, I know…but do it again. They forget. This is a key element to the success of the appointment-setting process.
Bribe the Sales Manager. What will it take to have him talk you up as well? Change starts at the top. Management usually sees the value in what you do, but forget to talk about it. Just remind them that 20 to 25 percent of sales are being generated from your position as online sales counselor, and then slip them a $50; that should do the trick.

I’ve heard before. It takes 21 repeats for something to become a habit. In most cases, getting the entire sales team on board takes about six months. Once you take the necessary steps to move toward a cohesive unit, you will see noticeable improvement and higher conversion rates from appointments to sales.Similar Posts:

(video) Lead Generation – Managing Your Outbound Activities

Mike Lyon — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:32:52 +0000

At this year’s PCBC conference, I was asked to give a 2 minute tip sharing best practices of a sales executive that I worked with. In this video clip, I discuss lead generation and managing your outbound activities. Without a specific system or process the numbers I talk about here will sound unattainable, but I assure, it is possible and produces great results!

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So You Think Email Templates Are Dirty?

Mike Lyon — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:00:13 +0000

One of the critical components to a successful follow-up program is the email template. Now, many people think that “template” is a dirty word. They might assume it will sound canned or not personal enough. Don’t get me wrong, the “form-letter-brochure-copy-800-word-email” templates are most definitely dirty. I would suggest you look at creating your email templates in a different way.

When you think about the emails you are currently sending, you will quickly realize that you use the same wordage and phrases over and over again. So in essence, you already have parts of your “templates” created. In working with many sales professionals, I have learned that with the follow-up program I recommend (5-7 contacts in the 1^st month alone) if you don’t work from templates, you will burn out quickly or dump the follow-up process completely.

Let’s go through a couple of pointers that will help make the follow-up process easier and allow you to accomplish your goals more efficiently:

The template sandwich: I do recommend that every possible email be personalized to the unique needs of the customer. That doesn’t mean the entire email has to be personalized. Think of the template like a sandwich, your pre-written opening and closing are the buns and the personalized sentence or two in the middle is the meat. The template sandwich shakes the “form letter” feel and makes it all warm and fuzzy.

Build as you go: Trying to create your entire bank of 18 unique follow-up email templates in one fail swoop is like writing a term paper the night before it is due. Borderline impossible. I recommend is starting with your next follow-up email,. Spend time creating that template and save it for future use, within 2-3 months, you’ll have everything you need for the future.

Keep it short: People don’t read emails, they scan. Keep them short, personal and to the point. 3 total paragraphs, 6-8 sentences. You start going past that and it better be a pretty darn informative email or include information that they requested. Remember, we are not trying to sell a home over email – the goal is to invoke a response, call back or visit.

Change it up: Are your template sandwiches going stale? Revisit them every once in a while, add a new one into the mix and dump the old crusty ones. You need to think of 5-7 different ways to communicate with a prospect so you will be memorable.

At the end of the day, remember that the most important part of follow-up is just showing up. Template or not, most sales professionals quit after 2 follow-up attempts. By having a bundle of email templates ready to go, you will be able to fire those off faster and more often than your competition.Similar Posts: