#15 - The Q1 2024 Benchmarks with Amanda Martin

#15 - The Q1 2024 Benchmarks with Amanda Martin

May 14, 2024 | By Online People Talking Podcast

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Welcome to Online People Talking with Jen Barkan! In this episode, Jen is joined by Jessie Suggs and our very own, Amanda Martin! The Q1 2024 Benchmarks have just dropped and the team dives into the numbers and gives their thoughts on the results! There's been a shift in the lead volume so the three give tips on how to manage the lack of leads and advise OSC's to be careful not to use the "S" word. They suggest that "When leads go low, it's your time to grow!" and ask yourself if you've done everything you can with your current leads. 

Word On The Street: Everyone's been quiet!  (04:03)

  • The bad 4 letter "S" word: Slow
  • "When leads go low, it's your time to grow!"
  • Calm down, hit the phones.
  • Are you doing everything you can with the current leads you have?
  • Pro-active communication with sales and marketing.

Topic Of Today: The Q1 Benchmarks! (12:38)

  • Everything is normal and steady.
  • The numbers are looking great!
  • Early Spring selling season this year.
  • Things are stay pretty consistent.

Skills Check! (30:38)

  • Challenge: Look at your follow-up process and figure out how to add your personalization. 
  • Tell your leads where to go, where to look!
  • Nurturing a VIP list.
  • Add a video into the very first email outreach.
  • Put your picture in your email signature.

Online People Talking · #15 - The Q1 2024 Benchmarks with Amanda Martin



Transcript:

Jen
Jessie, you and I are back from two completely different types of adventures. I was in Saint Kitts in the Caribbean, drinking rum punch, getting my daughter moved into vet school. And you, my friend. Are doing what? Tell everybody what you were doing.

Jessie
Well, you're much smarter than I am. Clearly, because I should have been doing that. But I did a Spartan race, with some of my friends in Fayetteville.

Jen
Whoa whoa whoa. Okay. It wasn't just a any Spartan race. In fact, it was like, I think the word beast in it.. And I mean, what?

Jessie
I don't know how I keep getting sucked into these things, like, I mean, doing one. I don't know, it was, supposed to be a half marathon trail obstacle course, which, by the way, is really freaking hard. Like, it took me right under five hours and. Oh, my.


Jessie
My has been who's really fast. It took him like three hours and 45 minutes, so it still took forever. but if you don't do obstacles then you have to do a penalty. And so I ended up doing like 15.5 miles, and I thought I was going to die like, you're much smarter than me. I should have been with you.


Jen
Okay, so I have to ask you, like what? What was going on and what was going through your mind in this picture? So if you're listening, what I'm looking at right now is a picture of Jessie on the. What are those called, not monkey bars, but.

Jessie
I went into this so blind, didn't look up any of the obstacles like, everybody there was so serious. It was the craziest thing. I don't know what these are called. I would call them awful. and what, you know, hanging, swinging circles. but they moved. And then there's this, like, long bar in between that you have to like, act like a monkey and go down, I don't know, and it started raining in the middle of it.

Jessie
And I wore my shoes for the first time ever. So my feet are, like, covered in blisters.

Jen
Oh my gosh.

Jessie
Fail to prepare. That's what happened.

Jen
This all.

Jessie
Sounds and I shall.

Jen
All sounds awful but amazing for you at the same time. Beast mode. Jessie.

Jessie
Thank you and same to you. And dropping your daughter off at that school. I mean, that's pretty. And you get to save on vet bills and a couple years.

Jen
Yeah. If she could just. If we could just fast forward, you know, through the next three and a half years so that we can get some, some doggy care, that would be that would be awesome.

Jessie
Yeah. I'm going to be Teladoc ING her all the time.

Jen
I know. Well welcome back. Let's get into this.

Jessie
Let's do it.

Jen
Okay. Podcast day is my favorite day of the week. It is actually Jessie episode 15 of our podcast. We get here I don't know, man. We've been we've been trying them out. We've been cranking them out. It has been London. It has been so fun. I look forward to this every month. And today we have our awesome teammate Amanda Martin joining us.

Jen
Amanda. Hello. Hello hello. Awesome. This is your first time on the official Online People Talking podcast.

Amanda
It is, it is I I've been on the Facebook one back in the day, but this is my first time on the Legit podcast.

Jen
Yes we are. Thank you.

Amanda
For having me!

Jen
Thank you. Legit to quit. So that's why we keep doing these podcast and making magic on the interwebs. Oh the magic. Yeah. So let's get into it. What are online people talking about right now? Guys, what are you hearing?

Amanda
It's quiet.

Jessie
Yeah. They're saying the bad four letter s word.

Amanda
Oh, no.

Jen
Right. Okay. What is it? Slow. Oh, young. Oh. Oh, yeah. So that is a bad four letter word. Everybody's going where is the leads? Where's the leads? What's happening? We came off a really great Q1 right. And then we've we've seen a little bit of a slowdown in the leads. online sales specialists like Jessie saying slow is a bad four letter word that you never want to say to anybody in your organization.

Jen
You can say to us, we can talk about it, but never tell your manager that you're slow, because then you'll find yourself doing lots of other busy work that does not need to be on your plate. Yep. but here's what I will. Here's what I will tell you guys. When leads go low, it's your time to grow.

Jen
And what I mean and what I mean. Like that lead low. It's your time to grow. Come on, baby, let's go. So you know what are some things that online sales can be doing. You know, when there is a little bit of a shift in the lead volume. What are your thoughts?

Amanda
friends.

Jessie
Yeah. Hit the phone. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but most there's been, you know, some turnover or new programs, but in the grand scheme of things, we experienced this before. Like we saw things start off and then they split because interest rates are rising. So interest is still high. But form submissions might be lower or hesitation might be higher.

Jessie
And so we're not new to this. So we've got to take out what we've learned before. And even if you're new it's not new to your organization because we've been through this in the last three year time frame. And I was thinking about this the other day, you know, we're sharpening our skills every time we're doing something.

Jessie
And I was talking to one online sales specialist, and I'm like, you already have the knife set. Like you've got the knife set. You just have to sharpen it. I was like, and then, you know, we go on analogies and I was like, you don't want to be like a Swiss Army knife. And they were like, what? And I was like, I don't even know where that came from.

Jessie
But I was like, you know, it serves a lot of purposes, but it doesn't do anything really well. And they were like, oh, that was a good one. And I was like, thank you. But in this time you're taking what you've learned and you're actually getting time to implement all of the things that maybe you didn't have time for before or you omitted altogether, like prospecting the bad.

Jen
Word.

Jessie
That nobody wants to hear.

Jen
Yeah, well, we're going to get into some things that we didn't do in Q1 that we definitely need to be doing in Q2 when Amanda gives us our benchmark update. but Amanda, you immediately were like, hit the phones.

Amanda
That's right. If they're not ringing inbound, you just got to get on the phone and make them right outbound. Right. Give that crazy call.

Jen
The encouragement I want to give everybody, especially if there's any leaders listening online sales specialist, whoever marketers first and foremost calm down. Like chill out because I've been on some calls recently where it's like, everybody's freaking out. Like we need more leads, we need more leads, we need more leads. And my encouragement is, are we doing everything with the current leads?

Jen
We have? Really? Well, that's the first question you need to ask yourself, like, is online sales doing everything they need to be doing? Are you adding in personalization? Are you doing your prospecting? Are you picking up the phone and making 40 outbound calls a day? If the answer's no, then you've got you've got things to do. You've got magic to make.

Jen
Right? sales also needs to be looking at their database. You know, the people that have actually come out for appointments, what's happening with them? They've they've seen your homes, you know, work the CRM. It's not all on online sales shoulders. It's not all on marketers shoulders. You know, the market is what it is, right? I think Myers barn says love the market that you have because it's the only one you've got.

Jen
Right. And so we've got to make the most out of the leads that we have. So when lead shift down, we encourage you to go do some of those things. Sharpen your what do you say, Jesse? Sharpen your your knives.

Jessie
I don't know, man. I was I was thinking about this. And you know, there are builders who just naturally have a lower number of leads, a more manageable, manageable amount of leads that they're working. And they go, I'm doing everything like I'm doing the personalized video email, I'm doing the five minute response time. I'm doing all of the things I'm prospecting.

Jessie
And so I'm like, you've got to identify the opportunity that you have that you're not identifying right now. And so we were started digging and I'm like, okay, well, you're doing prospecting, but you're sending maybe a blanket email and then calling a couple of people. Why don't you use the extra time and do community specific outreach? You know what does your company have right now?

Jessie
Sitting inventory. That's what's selling. You know, with the rise in interest rates, people want something more quick turnaround. Take what you have target the audience that you have, and really work that list to to move the needle for your company. And so they get excited about it. For the most part. It's like, you know, we think naturally everybody thinks that way.

Jessie
But it's like you just kind of have to dig in and go, okay, what what's in here for me? What can I do?

Jen
I love that it's it's intentional prospecting, right? It's like not just blanket prospecting but intentional prospecting. Side note online sales specialist, in order to be able to do intentional prospecting really well, you have to make sure that you are documenting in your CRM the community of interest. Make sure you're slowing down and marking those things in your CRM, putting in the correct notes, and checking off the boxes so that you can go pull those segmented lists that that Jesse is talking about.

Amanda
So yeah, and ratings to like keep your your ratings up today so you can pull those list.

Jessie
And no better time to bridge the gap between you and your onsite team than now. Because if you're slow, they're probably feeling it too. And so by reaching out to them and asking them, hey, what's sitting? What should I send out to the prospects to get you more appointments? You're going to you're going to start to win them over by extending them more, knowing that you have their best interest in mind to.

Jen
I love that proactive communication with sales, with marketing, with your manager. So again, these are all things when lead shift that you can be doing to that are totally in your control, right. You can't control how many leads you're getting, but you can control what you do with them. and communicate. Passion is key. if you're feeling like people are pointing the finger at you, going, what are you doing?

Jen
What are you doing? What are you doing? Combat that with being proactive on what you're doing. I can remember standing in front of my sales team at a meeting and going, hey, I just want to let you know, I know that you have inventory that you need to move out at Culpeper Landing. I got you, I'm going to go in.

Jen
I'm pulling a list. I'm going to be reaching out to them to get you some extra appointments. And they're like, oh yeah, oh my God, you're the most amazing person ever, right? And it's like, yeah, I got you. Because that says we're in it. We're I'm in it with you. I'm invested in this with you. I'm in it with you.

Jen
I want you to get more sales and what do we know, ladies? Sales are a result of what? Appointments. So, dig deep, sharpen the knives. And first and foremost, calm down. You got this right. Okay. What do we have for you today, though? Is our Q1 been the Q1 benchmarks? have been released, right. So if you released into the wild.

Jen
So if you have not, check those out, head over to Canva.com. We've got a blog on there by the amazing Amanda Martin Amanda. So first let's remind everybody how we come up with these benchmarks. We're not just pulling them out of thin air.

Amanda
No, no, no. Lots of hard work, lots of numbers behind these. So anyways, we take all of our builder partners and it's a it's a wonderful, you know, collection of them because we have them from all different sorts of markets. There's large builders, small builders establish programs, brand new programs. So it's a huge mix of people. And we put it all together and form averages to come up with our benchmarks.

Amanda
But it gives us just this really great oversight of how things are going for the industry as a whole. So, yes.

Jen
So I think it's important to note, too, that, you know, we're looking at builders who count leads the same way. Yeah. Count appointments the same way. Count sales the same way. so that we have a consistent, you know, data integrity, numbers to give you, so it's, it's not representative of every builder that we work with.

Jen
True, true. You know, we're only pulling out the ones that we have verified that they're counting things. The consistent way. Oh side note. Yeah. For any of you wondering. so Amanda what did we see for Q1.

Amanda
Oh goodness. Really good numbers. so our appointment made to Cap came in at 91%. So a slight uptick there. lead to appointment caps that came in at 39%. So slightly down by 1%. appointment to sale conversion came in at 20%. that actually went up by 2%. And we're comparing this to the same quarter from last year, by the way.

Amanda
and then last but not least, the online sales contribution came in at 46%. So that also increased by 1%.

Jen
Good stuff. Nice.

Amanda
Nice for our numbers.

Jen
did anything, surprise you?

Amanda
No. Not really. I mean, everything, you know was pretty standard. I think it's, you know, pretty in line with the beginning of the year. Like, we hit the selling season happened slightly earlier. And, you know, as an online sales consultant, we kind of go into reactive mode, right? Like we're answering the calls, taking care of the leads.

Amanda
And we forget the other piece of like the, the outbound, the prospecting. So it makes sense, you know, when it's busier. Like we're just helping helping what's there. So but overall, you know, really good steady numbers. And I think there's a little bit of hesitancy from the leads to, you know, sign up for that initial appointment. But once they do, they're really serious.

Amanda
So that's where we see that that increase in the appointment to sell. So they're really good leads. If they do actually take the step to go to an appointment. and it gives us that solid contribution.

Jen
Well I want to I want to talk about something you said because so Q1 like everybody felt like really busy, right. Yeah. That was good. And and when we looked at the increase of leads from Q4 of 2023, to Q1 of 2021, leads were up, I think it was 74% back. Checkmate with 74% up from last year to Q1 of this year.

Jen
So yeah, like we you know, selling seat spring season came early, right? We were seeing those trends right after the holidays like traffic soared. Yeah. And so everybody was like whoa, right. And this is really busy. And I mean, Jesse I think like I remember us looking at we even had some people that their appointment to sale was like 25%, 30% like, yeah.

Jen
So talk a little bit about that.

Jessie
Well, it was interesting. You know this is quarter one. And so we're halfway through quarter two at this point because it takes like I mean I said it's lots of data. and so I was cross comparing like what we saw in quarter one to what we're experiencing at the beginning portion of quarter two. And with what we're hearing from online sales specialist, I kind of expected a huge dip in all of the conversions.

Jessie
And just unofficially, what I'm seeing behind the scenes is things are still staying pretty consistent because we are seeing more of those age leads funneling in, whether it was proactively through the online sales specialist or the customers reaching back out. And it's I think we're not used to the buyer like cycle timeline being the normal length or longer.

Jessie
We were so used to just like we were used to the 3% interest rates, we were used to the quick turnarounds and contracts and closings. And so what I have seen is the appointment to sale conversion potentially being, an uptick because of the age leads funneling in. They've already had, cycle time previous to their appointment, or they've weighed out their options.

Jessie
They've gone through the fears and they've shopped, you know, other people or went in to other appointments, and now they're really ready and they're ready to move forward. And so even though the opportunity in quarter two has started off slower, the most successful online sales specialists have been ones who have been funneling in the higher interest by being able to isolate hottest converting leads in the CRM, calling the right people and making sure that they're getting a good ROI.

Jessie
So I think it's pretty neat.

Jen
Like I think it's also telling that, you know, because that appointment to sale is remaining strong at average of 20%. But again, we're even seeing, you know, upwards of that. That tells us that while you might be getting less leads, the leads that you're getting are quality leads. They're quality leads. They're converting. I was just on a coaching call, with Kendall, and she was like, yeah, like, while I, slower this again, she can say that to me.

Jen
while while we have slowed down, like, what I'm getting is really good. So like, if somebody right now is in this market looking, we better be doing everything we can to get in touch with them, have a click, response time, go for the know, get them out to appointment because they're likely if they're looking in this market, they're serious.

Jen
Would you ladies agree. Oh yeah for sure.

Jessie
Yeah. And don't let your personal feelings about the potential market like whether or not you would buy a home in this market or whatever overflow into how you communicate with your customers because it is a good time to buy a home if it's what the customer needs, and it's your job to make sure that you're telling them that it's the best next step because they're coming to you as the expert to basically get confirmation that this is the best next step.

Jessie
And it's not a commitment to buying a home, it's just the opportunity to determine if this builder is the right builder for them when the time is right. And so I've been listening to calls and I can hear some like personal influence or opinions like kind of coming out into the conversations and it's like, no, you gotta, you gotta walk them through their journey.

Jen
Oh, okay. So you mean like where the online sales specialist might have, like projecting real feelings or concerns about the market on to the buyer that they're talking to.

Jessie
Yeah. So like my competitor offers better incentives or my competitor's pricing is better or, you know, give us one of the options. There's so many things going on. And they let that fear of, oh, maybe the competitor might be a better fit for them play a role in asking for the appointment, telling them when their best next step is, or they might get that objection of interest rates and they'll go, oh, sure, just let me know when you're ready.

Jessie
And I don't know that it's a fear of a no. I think it's like, I don't know.

Jen
It's like how to navigate the pivot. Yeah, right. Embrace the path. Yeah. I don't go in there. I don't do.

Amanda
It. Please explain.

Jen
Pause. Agree. Pivot. Thank you for getting those.

Amanda
Session or go. Jen.

Jen
No, I just think it does. He's like don't say a Jen. Don't say oh buddy. Well there's an explanation. There's an explanation okay. But listen, you'll remember that right? That was when when you get that objection take a be pause. Agree with them. You know like yes. Like interest rates have gone up right there. Give them a disruptive statement back.

Jen
They're not they're not expecting you to agree, you know, and then pivot the conversation. You know, hey while you're thinking about things, one of the best ways to think about things is in our model home, right where you can see and see how we build, smell, touch, you know, and get all of your questions answered. And then when you're ready, you feel comfortable about the interest rates.

Jen
You'll be able to make that well-informed decision. Remember, we're just trying to lower any sort of fear or uncertainty about the market and get them to come look, and hopefully they'll fall in love with your homes. So embrace. Embrace the path. Okay, I'm not going to say that anymore. now, Amanda, I thought it was interesting. So you pulled out, you know, again, the averages are, you know, all of the partners that we work with knew.

Jen
Yeah. Older, established, you know, whatever. And you pulled out like top performing.

Amanda
Yes.

Jen
Teams. What were those numbers.

Amanda
Yes. So those were so good. We love to see those because, you know, you get new, programs and Oscars all the time going through there. So when you pull out those top performers and the savage programs, the numbers are so phenomenal. so Lead to Appointment came in at 50%. Wow. appointment to sell 21%. And then last but not least, online sales contribution 53%.

Amanda
So it's just so strong, you know, like those top performers, they're really great. Yeah.

Jen
Yeah. so I mean, I think like when you're one, if you're a new online sales specialist and you're just starting out, it's good to know what these numbers are. So you know, what you are growing towards. And if you're not hitting those numbers right now, that's okay. You have to know where you're at and know where you need to go.

Jen
Right? but also if you have been in this role, you know, quite some time and you have an established program, it's good to know, like where you need to push yourself, right? If you're not at a 50, 50 plus percent contribution, if you're not, you know, higher on the lead to appointment side. Okay. Like check yourself into straight like.

Jen
Yeah. Like, what do I need to do to increase that to get that I love it. Okay. Yeah. Hey guess what. We have a video mailbag that came in from our last podcast that we did with Rhonda. So I want to share this with you guys and then we will talk about it. There's Jesse again on the ropes okay.

Jen
Here we go.

Beth
Hey how's it going Jen? I listen to your podcast today, and it was so great. I was super happy to find your baby podcast. And you asked for a burning question. I don't know that I have, like, burning questions, but look at my background. I painted it and I'm so excited. So now I'm toying with other things, like I have this little lamp maybe, oh, see for some info.

Beth
Light. So I guess my burning question for you is, how, well, and for your guests there, how do you prepare for something like, a speaking event or for, even a podcast? Because I just got asked to be on a podcast, which I'm way excited about. I'm a little nervous, but I think it'll be okay.

Beth
And I'd love to share my heart with the world a little more often. So I want your tips. That's my question for you. Have a lovely day. If you want in on my other answers, I'll tell you that too. But my inspiration, by the way, is going to be my background. So the people that inspire me and ideas and stuff like you were talking about, that's what's going to go on my wall behind me to help me continue to be inspired.

Beth
So cheers. Good job on Your baby podcast is beautiful. I'm going to listen to all of it. See you. Bye.

Jen
Oh, so so nice. Yeah, I love coming in, but Beth is attending our online sales academy right now. Beth, because you sent in a video mailbag, I'm going to be sending you one of Rhonda's books. Here it is right here. I will get that out to you. Good one. The ladies. Let's answer to her question. So she's talking about first her background.

Jen
We love her background is gorgeous. Good paint the color. Love the color.

Jessie
Just take a minute to talk about the importance of investing in yourself. Like, you know, you get excited to do videos when you love your background, or you get excited when you get that new ring light or the camera and it's really fun because you can see it in the way that she's speaking and in her smile that like, she's excited to do all of this.

Jessie
So I think it's awesome.

Jen
So Olivia our producer guys is just sending me chat saying I don't know Jessie Sintomi chat saying I was sharing the wrong screen. Awesome okay. So that's fine Olivia will fix that for us okay. So we love the background. and I love what you're saying Jessie. Yes. And like make your office a warm, friendly place with things that you love that will fill your cup and that makes you work better.

Jen
You know, I love that. Okay, so she's asking about how to prepare for a presentation, how to prepare for a podcast. You know, if you're out there in online sales and you get asked to be on a podcast, oh, love that. So, Amanda, do you have any tips for preparing for a presentation or anything like that that you're doing?

Amanda
Well, yeah, of course there's the content piece. So, you know, you want to figure out all the different topics that you're going to want to talk about. Think about them before kind of brainstorm. Come up with some good ideas and things that you want to share and practice it. Practice how long it takes you to talk about it.

Amanda
but then also just be excited about what you're sharing and bring the energy, when you are sharing that. So you want to, you know, really translate that to your audience, that you're excited and passionate about what you're talking about.

Jen
passion goes a long way. You could be up there talking about, I don't know what, but if you're passionate about it, hey. I'm, Jesse, what are your thoughts?

Jessie
Well, I just think about, you know, putting in sentences for online salespeople, putting myself back in the seat of online sales when they go, hey, we need you to stand up in front of our sales team and give an update on all things online sales world. I can imagine, even a newbie or someone who's done it for quite some time but has never stood up in front of their sales team.

Jessie
How scary that could be. Or nerve wracking. And so my advice to you is, number one, and this is a piece of advice that a very smart woman gave me, quite some time ago. And she said, if you're asked to do something, it's because you know more than the person that you're telling the information to. And so if you have something that you want to share, if you've got benchmarks and numbers, whatever it is that you're standing up in front of them telling them, make sure you've got some piece of education on telling them what's in it for them.

Jessie
and then just remember that you've been asked to do it for a reason and to just be authentic and be yourself and know that we love people for being people. So just show up and do it.

Jen
I love it, I love it. I think that I agree with both of you very much, and I think that anytime you're preparing to present something, whether it's for ten minutes or for an hour, you do need to prepare. So you need to take some time to sit down and really think about it. I remember Mike telling me, for every hour that you present, you need four hours of prep time.

Jen
That's like, wow. So if you go into something willy nilly, you might get willy nilly results. So even like Jesse saying, speaking in front of your sales team for 10 or 15 minutes, you need to take a half an hour ahead of time and really think about, okay, these are the things that I want to talk about.

Jen
Write them down. make sure that you take some time to think about it and prepare for what you're going to say. And again, if you're if you're on a podcast, that's fantastic. Make sure you get the ask the podcaster to give you the notes and agenda ahead of time so that you can be prepared for what the questions are going to be for what they're going to talk about.

Jen
so that you can be ready for that and you can have thoughtful and intentional answers and questions for that.

Amanda
So I love something you said Jesse said. He said, the we kind of mindset. So whoever it is that you're talking to like make sure whatever it is you're saying relates to them so that they can, you know, really, really interact with that.

Jen
Know your audience. Yeah, right. Know your audience. Like, why would this be important to them? Why would they care about this information? So love that. Thank you, Beth, for sending that in. We will get that book out to you ASAP. okay. It's time for the skills check because what? You better check yourself before.

Amanda
You wreck yourself.

Jen
Yes, check yourself before you record dead guys. I tell you, Ice Cube is coming here to Virginia Beach. Oh, man, I wish I get I've got to get. I've got to get tickets. I've got to get tickets. Okay. so skills check is, you know, kind of going a couple things going into what we've talked about today. I challenge you guys to go back and look at your follow up process.

Jen
How are you following up with not only new leads? How are you following up with responsive leads? You know, people that you've already talked to but you didn't get them to an appointment, and even your prospecting and figure out how to incorporate an additional piece of personalization into that. So, Jesse, what are some ideas? How can they what are some things they could do to go back and incorporate something personal?

Jessie
Well, I, I my mind went to two places. So the first one being kind of just non-responsive lead management or even responded that maybe has ghosted you, is when you're doing something, don't do it for the sake of completion. Do it with a purpose. So if you are doing a voicemail and then following that up with an email, make sure you tell them like, hey, I'm going to be sending you an email right after this.

Jessie
My email address is blah, blah, blah. Go search for it. I've included some really great information specific to what you inquired about, and that drives them to go to their inbox. Not everybody looks at their personal email inbox like we do at our work email inbox. So that is telling them to do that. And then if you say, you know what, I'll also follow this up with a quick text in case that's easier for you.

Jessie
And then you immediately follow through with that. Not that it's specifically personal. It is because it's 1 to 1 communication, but you're telling them what you want to do, and you're connecting the dots for them. And then you're following through with all of those things. So the first one is just tell them where to go, tell them where to look, tell them how you can.

Jessie
And then the second thing I was thinking about that I haven't seen a lot of people do because it's been kind of second priority. As you lead interest for quick selling, things have come. Is nurturing a VIP list. So I've heard a lot of people are in that transition of not as much inventory right now, also waiting for either new communities or new phases.

Jessie
And they either don't have a good process or they haven't fleshed one out. And so when you're sending that intro email, like the confirmation that they're on the list, plug in a video, email that looks personal, that says, hey, I just wanted to pop in your inbox and let you know that you're on my interest list for the upcoming community, blah, blah, blah.

Jessie
And that's going to make a huge difference because they need to know a why wait? Because there's so many other options out there.

Jessie
Those are my two things that popped in.

Jen
Of it. Love it. Amanda, any thoughts from you?

Amanda
Yeah, well, I have recently seen a builder playing around with putting a video, email and that very first outreach to their leads and kind of showing and telling like why they can help. Like what their role as educating on that. So toying around with that and seeing how that that works out. We love video email and it's a great way to get a response.

Amanda
And then also another thought is some people will do this, but a lot of people don't. But putting your picture in your signature of the emails that you're sending, because they're going to see, you know, your face hopefully on your website. And then if they see it again, like on the email that they get from you, they're like, oh, that's that, that one person, I want to reach out to them.

Amanda
So just a little tip.

Jen
Yeah. Love it. Okay. Our phrase of the day is when leads go low, it's time for you to grow. So we encourage you to take some of these things, whether it's growing with your numbers, growing with your processes, adding more personalization, and visiting your on sites, more connecting with them, being proactive. All of these things we've talked about today, when leads go low, it's time to grow.

Jen
Thank you guys so much. Thank you Amanda. Thank you Jesse. Thank you.

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