#3 - Launching a Community on Trust with Whitney Ghere

#3 - Launching a Community on Trust with Whitney Ghere

Dec 19, 2023 | 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 special guest Whitney Ghere an Online Sales Coordinator at Level Homes. The three discuss the interest rate buzz and how everyone is trying to navigate them and offer tips for the upcoming busy season. Whitney shares her recent success in a "coming-soon" community launch and gives insight into how she made it all possible. 

Word On The Street: Interest Rates! (04:47)

  • Jessie is hearing people talk about setting, goals, cleaning up their system, and how to navigate the new market.
  • Jen is hearing all about how to navigate the interest rates.
  • Whitney shares the tip "Don't let the interest rate hold your life hostage"

Topic Of Today: Launching a "Coming-Soon" Community (14:02)

  • The entire process must be built on trust. 
  • Nurture on a monthly bases at a minimum.
  • The organization process that Whitney created to keep everything moving forward.
  • The marketing team followed "Presale Without Fail" to a T.
  • Trickling out information to keep interest and create excitement!
  • Segment your leads in your CRM.
  • Use your face! Video will be more impactful than just an email.

Skills Check! (13:14)

  • Make sure you have the right rating! And three ratings when it comes to VIP response.
  • Treat "coming-soon" leads like regular leads!
  • Call leads sooner.

Online People Talking · #3 - Launching a New Community on Trust with Whitney Ghere







Transcript:

Jen
Oh, my gosh. Fantasy football, Jessie!

Jessie 
I mean, come on. I had negative three points to start, and I ended up beating Kevin.

Jen
I had no idea that my sister was such a competitor. Never really. I knew she was competitive, but I had no idea. And you were part of this today, Jesse, on our our companies Slack channel back and forth about, "Hey, Mike is on the prowl. Don't give him any of your players." And then Mike is also slacking me going "Oh man Kim is really, you know funny! She's a she's a baby!" like all this stuff.

Jen
And I'm like, oh, my God, This is like we're like, this is like middle school. And so I'm like, should I give some of my players to Mike just to make her mad? I don't know. What do you think?

Jessie 
It was just hilarious. He sent me a slack this morning with Kim and was like, "Hey,  Jessie send me this person pretty please!" Like, he's like getting permission from Kim to, like, ask for a player.

Jen
And she said, She said what? No, no.

Jessie 
Absolutely.

Jen
Not. She said, No, Lyon, You better just figure out another way. And I quote. That's what she said. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

Jessie 
They said, Scrooge Miss fantasy says no.

Jen
So this day has just started out so fun. So, you know what? Let's have even more fun. We are actually episode three and we have some we have some fun, exciting news to share with you. First of all, I just want to introduce we do have the amazing Jessie Suggs here with us today, online sales coach extraordinaire at Do you convert!

Jen
And we also have the superstar and I can now say award winning online sales specialist Whitney Ghere. Did I say it right, Whitney? I mean, come on, guys. Come on. A round of applause. And I say this because today the Nationals National Association of Homebuilders Sales and Marketing awards were just announced and the Silver Award winners were just now in Whitney.

Jen
What did you get silver for?

Whitney
I got silver for rookie online sales counselor of the year. Yeah!

Jen
We're going to Vegas, baby.

Whitney
We're going to Vegas.

Jen
Oh, my gosh. I'm so excited. Excited. Jessie, what do you think about this? 

Jessie 
You know, every time I see faces and names that I know come out, it's just such a pleasure to see coming from. And I just want to say it on the record, on the podcast, just in case you don't win gold. It's okay. I am a two time silver proud award winner.

Jen
The buzzer does it. I know, I know. 

Whitney
You're always nominated full time.

Jen
Well, listen, listen, Jessie. If OPT wins gold, this is going to be your gold award, too. So, you know, I'm just saying, like.

Jessie 
No, but I just think it's so awesome. Congratulations.

Jen
Me too. Yeah. And what did I say to you when you won? Your gold to tell us you're still got a job. Try and get a job. Hey, good job. Try and try again next year. Now, listen, I. I encourage everybody to apply for this award. It's awesome. But let's give some additional shout outs to our online sales specialist out there in the wild.

Jen
So some other names that popped up. We've got Amber, a rookie also. That's your competition, Whitney. I know. It's like in Wimberley. Yeah, sorry, Amber Lee. Felicia, we've got online sales specialist of the year. Martha Come on, Martha. I mean, Martha, we joke around. Martha is like the Susan Lucci. And I say this with all the love of my heart.

Jen
But come on, Martha, you're I'm feeling it this year. We've got Alexa, Terrell, Kelly, Kerry, shout outs to all of you fabulous people And then online sales team of the year, Keystone tri point, new home star Cavin Cates, Emmy Holmes. Come on. So a round of applause to all of you hard working online sales specialist out there when he's given snaps, she's given him a finger snaps.

Jen
Okay, let's get into it. What are online people talking about right now? What are you hearing, Jesse?

Jessie 
I am hearing, you know, as we're nearing the end of the year, just kind of, okay, how do I set goals for next year? How do I clean up my system and then how do I continue to just navigate the market that we're in, which, as you know, I'm saying something everybody's heard over and over again, but it's just how to navigate higher interest rates and less interest right now and just how to have those conversations and not give up before we start the busy season.

Jen
Yeah, I agree. Interest rates for sure. Whitney. Well, first of all, I totally screwed up. And in true Jen Barkin fashion, we're just authentic over perfect here. I said, Whitney, I introduced her as the award winning online sales specialist, but I failed to really say anything else about her. That's all I.

Whitney
Get. I mean, I'll take all day.

Jen
I want to Whitney, tell her. Tell everybody a little bit. You know, where you're at in the world, which builder that you work for, how long you've been in the role of online sales, and a fun fact about yourself. What's something fun you want everybody to know?

Whitney
Awesome. Well, I just got nominated for Rookie of the Year, so I'm completing my first trip around the sun as an online sales counselor. I work for Lovell Homes in Baton Rouge. We're a private local homebuilder building about 250 homes a year.

Jen
And what what's.

Whitney
That fun fact about me? Gosh, I'm just there's so many. I think while I am a former NFL cheerleader, I.

Jen
Was I was hoping you were going to win that. I'm like, Yeah, what do you mean? What's a fun fact? Yes, but not super fun.

Whitney
But the even more fun fact about that. So I was actually a Houston Texans cheerleader and then I completed two seasons there, and then I tried out for the infamous Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and I made it to the show. So I got cut in training camp, so I wasn't as fun. But it's really fun to see myself about twice a year on the Oxygen cable channel on a rerun.

Jen
So and then there's like, okay, I'm going to need to see this. You know, I'm a Dallas fan. Are you?

Whitney
You're one of them boys.

Jen
I'm want to. Come on. How about them boys? Are you going to dominate or crushing it right now? Am I what?

Whitney
Are you going to dress up as Dolly Parton next year for Halloween in her Dixie uniform.

Jen
No, I don't. I don't have time to think that I will do that. But hey, I appreciate Dolly Parton. I mean, come on. Let's get let's give some shout outs to Dolly.

Whitney
She raised money for the Salvation Army. Yeah, she's a queen.

Jen
Go on, girl. Get it. That's all I got to say. Well, okay, Houston cable network. Okay. I'm going to need and I need to look this up after. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, Whitney, you're. You're just fantastic. What I love about you is your energy. You just. You just bring it. You bring it every day. So we're so excited to have you on.

Jen
And we have a special thing we want to talk to you about that you have had a lot of success in lately. But first, we want to talk about what you're experiencing. I mean, I think definitely what I'm hearing is interest rate conversations, like when I get on coaching cause I'm like, okay, what's the biggest challenge right now?

Jen
And it's like, yeah, we're still getting pushback about interest rates and people wanting to wait and see. So how are you navigating? Are you hearing that and how are you navigating it?

Whitney
Absolutely. So it is something that comes to mind more So in quarter three, I think we were hearing it a lot and over the summer and early.

Whitney
My number one favorite quote about interest rates I got from my on when someone on my on site team Linda Linda likes to say so you found your dream home you know what you need in a new home you're looking you want the house what gives? And it's normally the interest rate and she likes to tell people you are being held hostage by your 2.9% interest rate.

Whitney
Stop letting yourself.

Jen
Be held hostage.

Whitney
By this low interest rate on this home. When you truly need a new home, whether your family's growing, you want to be you want to be in a better neighborhood, better schools, better location.

Whitney
Whatever it is, they're being held hostage by that. And so I try and curb that phone call, or if I'm talking to an online lead, I'm never going to argue with the because it's there.

Jen
Bullet went right that that's what they say.

Whitney
Truly believe like they can't sign on the dotted line with that interest rate. So I like to tell tell people you know Mary the house date the rate we can refinance whatever we can get that note to whether it's with incentives or like a two on by down or a fixed incentive rate. We're so blessed at a level to be able to offer those incentives, whatever notes most comfortable for you and your family.

Whitney
That's what we're going to try and get you to with our preferred lender. But don't let an interest rate hostage for bettering your life.

Jen
I love it. Don't let the interest rate hold you hostage. I think that's an important message for online sales. You know, in online sales land, you're not trying to sell the home over the phone like but let leave that for your salesperson on site, which is an easier thing to do when you are face to face interacting with somebody versus on the phone.

Jen
Absolutely. Online sales, you know, just getting them getting the customer to understand like, hey, yeah, interest rates have gone up. It's a lot to think about. I totally understand why you would be, you know, maybe wanting to wait or wanting to see what happens. However, like, just remember you can always refinance like you're saying. You can always refinance in the future.

Jen
You know, people buy homes on interest rates. One of the best ways to do your research is in person where you can see how we build and when you're ready, when you're feeling comfortable and able to make a really well informed decision. And so our job is to just get them excited, get them thinking about the possibility, something that Rhonda Conger said one time she was speaking to a group of us and she asked everybody.

Jen
She was like, Do you remember the first home that she bought? And we were like, Oh yeah. And she's like, Do you remember what your interest rate was? And for some of us seasoned people who maybe bought a home 20 plus years ago, I was like, No, I don't remember what my interest rate was like. And she's like, But do you remember the house?

Jen
And I'm like, Of course I remember the home. I remember everything about it. I remember I had my first baby, you know, there what I painted the kitchen cabinets, how I did the garden like holidays, you know. And that's what people buy. And I think that's your message to Whitney is like, create that, that memory. Right? Like you're creating those memories in that home, not don't be held hostage by the interest rate.

Whitney
Right. I think as an LLC, I try and stay in like a high level of interest. So yeah, I'm not necessarily trying to sell them on wanting to buy a new home. I like to inform them and, you know, try and change that window if I can. But my only goal is to help them be interested in level homes.

Jen
Or helping in.

Whitney
Construction homes. So right into the day, like I'm going to give them a high level thinking of interest rates and I'm going to help go through those objections. But at the end of the day, I'm focusing on that emotional purchase. Make them feel something. And so you don't really feel anything when someone says interest rate, but you feel something whenever you walk into a house and you know it's the one.

Jen
Yeah. Oh, I got chills is that Whitney.

Jessie 
Can even you know, she's got another thing in her back pocket that she can use that she just I hope you don't mind me sharing this, but she just bought and closed on a new home herself. So she understands the buyer psyche. She understands what it's like to purchase right now. And so it's just an interesting side that you get to share with them on that too.

Whitney
I've been riding that wave the last few weeks for sure.

Jen
I know a new home or used home.

Whitney
A lot of resale.

Jen
Yes, I did.

Whitney
So I know I trusted homes. It really came down to location.

Jen
So we just.

Whitney
Have any communities in the area that I want to make.

Jen
No judgment here, sister. I use home. So it is just absolutely.

Whitney
I had the feeling I walked in and I said, Oh, crap, I need this house. I wasn't even there.

Jessie 
That's where my Christmas tree is going to go. And then you're like, okay.

Jen
I'm buying it. And saw the.

Whitney
Story of my new freshly cut Christmas tree, and it's in this perfect.

Jen
Spot. Speaking of a high level of interest that you were just referring to that you like to create. Yeah, we're let's move on to our next segment, which is the topic of the day. And you're you've had some recent success with a coming soon community launch. So I want to spend some time. This is always a challenge for online sales.

Jen
You know the the timeframes vary. The information varies that you have. There's can be delays, There can be things change at the last minute and how to best practice around nurturing those leads and getting ultimately sales. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to get sales from that coming soon. Communities. So let's talk about that. This was a recent launch and yeah, so talk a little bit about now.

Jen
How long had you been gathering this list? Let's start there for sure. So the timeline so.

Whitney
Our our company rolled out this community in December of 22, 2022. So we lathering leads for quite some time and we've had a very moving timeline on this community. So we we had to really keep interest for about ten months.

Jen
So how did you do that? Because that's the big question, right? Like, did a sign go up? Did it was it posted on your website and then you started getting calls. So talk a little bit about what happened and how did you what was your process?

Whitney
Okay. So I'm going to answer this in a different way, so bear with me. But if I had to describe this pre-sale event in one word.

Jen
It would be trust, okay.

Whitney
In all aspects. So my leads had to trust that I would communicate with them. Over the last ten months, I had to trust my marketing team to drip content to the general public to coming soon leads to on site sales, to company communication, to online sales. And then the leads had to trust me that I was giving them relevant information that would help them make that decision for them and their families.

Whitney
So the entire process is based on trust in all.

Jen
Aspects.

Whitney
From onsite to online, from marketing to online, from ownership to the sales team. Trusting we're going to get this thing done and make it successful to online communicating with leads and building trust and rapport prior to the pre-sale.

Jen
That's really. Jesse, What questions do you have around this? As I am, I'm gathering thoughts.

Jessie 
Yeah, well, you know, having worked alongside Whitney, trying to kind of perfect a sale process with even any any company, but even down to the community, it changes. And so just like our standard process changes with the market, our VIP process changes with the community. And so watching Whitney navigate what she knew about this community and how she would relay that information so that her customers would trust her was interesting.

Jessie 
And it was an it proved very fruitful. And I know you're going to talk about this soon, but it was all about the organization and of how she kept the leads with their ratings, how her cadence was a follow up, how her drip was for leading up to the launch, then who gets first dibs on appointments. And then of those appointments, what's the sales team doing with them afterwards?

Jessie 
And so I don't have a ton of questions. I just want to hear more from you.

Jen
Whitney on my hit it. Share lunch. Yeah, Sharing your knowledge.

Whitney
The first level of trust. Trust was obviously the company picking the right location on level homes picked an A-plus site for this community. So in Louisiana, we have parishes, not counties, but this parish was in dire need of a level community.

Jen
Louisiana parish, Lucindale Magnolias down here. And I don't know.

Whitney
Yes, it is a great movie. So really, I was just picking an A-plus site. It came all the way up from from the top of choosing the right location. Our marketing team followed that book pre-sell without fail to the team. And not only.

Jen
That, but Kevin Oakley met Kevin actually masterpiece. Yeah, our.

Whitney
Marketing team is highly in tune with Kevin and UIC and we decided before we launched this bad boy that we were going to follow the process diligently and sprinkle a little Whitney ism in there along the.

Jen
Way from I love it.

Whitney
So obviously we immediately got with marketing, created that landing page, got organized on Lasso, we had the project set up and we assigned the most perfect onsite salesperson for this community. It was someone seasoned with high tenure and she was ready for the job. She was born for this particular event. So I think we had the right salesperson in place for sure.

Whitney
She was involved from the very beginning, and between marketing, creating Facebook ads dripping to the entire public, just generating the right leads, hitting the right people, we were able to nurture the incoming leads. I also think a huge a huge part of nurturing these leads. We were able to segment them VIP coming soon. Some responded and then just coming soon.

Whitney
Bucket So segmenting these leads is probably the most important as far as my role went during the nurturing process. Marketing did an incredible job with signage. We were visible on every major street that led to this community. I think signage, Facebook ads. I had a VIP auto email going out. As soon as someone submitted their information on the website, they got an auto email and treated just like any other lead, which is new for me.

Whitney
I was treating coming seems a little different in the past. I'll talk about that. And I think what made the process even more fun for me was that we trickled out information slowly. We just gave them things to kind of like chew on. So we rolled out half of the floor plans. Then a month later we rolled out another half.

Whitney
And then when the time came to finally start talking about pricing, we sent.

Jen
Three it's.

Whitney
Coming emails and we really built that interest. Something I utilized a lot of was I made a bomb bomb for just about every email. So it wasn't just me sending a plain text which those work, but I added a bomb bomb in there and these people couldn't get enough. I mean, I had a 90% open rate on the email that came before pricing came out.

Jen
So they were just it sounds like you created it. You guys created excitement and that's what you did. You created excitement and we were excited.

Whitney
It wasn't just the leads. We're excited. We knew this was going to be successful. We knew this was the location of the year and so we were treating it as such. And so I'd go out on site and stand in the dirt and tell people this is where the pilots are going to be and this is where the community pools are going to be.

Whitney
And I would just make videos and just really get them excited.

Jen
So I want to pause here and talk about a few really important things that you said. Your gathering interest list since December. You're updating them on a monthly basis, since December.

Whitney
Going out monthly. Yeah.

Jen
Okay. Emails going out monthly. You're setting up specific ratings in your CRM. Instead of just having VIP, you had VIP general. And then if you talk to them and engage with them, you had a VIP responded, right. And the other ones.

Whitney
And they're.

Jen
Not.

Whitney
Coming soon. VIP So I have three.

Jen
Said.

Whitney
If they responded, it was normally just like a quick text back or an email reply.

Jen
If I.

Whitney
Had a pre qualifying conversation with a.

Jen
Lead.

Whitney
They went into the VIP bucket.

Jen
Okay, gotcha.

Whitney
I could send them out tomorrow and they were gone.

Jen
And don't you think this was so important to be able to quantify what was going on with these leads? You know, Jesse, we see this all the time, right? Where some a leader is like how many people are on the interest list? And it's like 500. Oh, my gosh, this is going to be 500. We're going to sell out.

Jen
It's going to be amazing. And it's like, well, actually, out of that 500, I've talked to 100 and out of that 100 I've talked to, there's actually 20 that are qualified or, you know, that I've gotten that far with. So that's why that segmentation is so important.

Whitney
Absolutely. So I had 372 on the interest list prior to the presale date.

Jen
The people.

Whitney
About 150 of them communicated and then 52 were pre-qualified.

Jen
Ready to rock. Okay, So see, there you go. You went from 372 to 52 that were actually ready to go. And then how many sales did you guys have?

Whitney
So this is just a fun fact. I just want to tell you guys about it because.

Jen
I saw the posters.

Whitney
But we didn't set any real rules about the pre-sale event other than first come, First Serve. It was just taken once and pre-sale event was November 9th and we told people, Do whatever you think you need to do to get the lot you want.

Jen
So it's like Hunger Games.

Whitney
Oh yeah, yeah. It was nuts. We saw 31 appointments prior to the pre-sale event and three days, three days before the pre-sale event, a sweet lady shows up to our building, puts a folding chair down and sits. So I wound up talking to her a lot. Over almost 72 hours.

Jen
I was out there the whole time.

Whitney
So that was a really fun story. She was our first sale on the pre-sale event. She was the mother in law of a buyer and these two are about to get married in March. They knew exactly what they wanted. Mother in law's house backs up to this lot in a different.

Jen
Community, and.

Whitney
She wants to be able to build a fence to walk through and meet with her grandchildren one day. So it was just the most beautiful story and I'm so excited they got it. However, three days they had a spreadsheet of eight relatives that took turns sitting in that chair.

Jen
Stuff like that. Like sign up for a time to sit in our chair and wait and they have a tent.

Whitney
They had a chair.

Jessie 
So they.

Whitney
They one of the I think it was the husband or the fiancee, he he slept in the car the first night, but he had a chair there and he had a sign on it. And so he'd go take a nap in his car and come get back in the chair. But it wasn't long before the second person showed up.

Whitney
They they spent two nights there as well. So we wound up having probably like 20 people in line that were rotating, coming in and out for other people or just someone to sit with them while they were in line. But by the time the pre-sale event came, there was a line wrapped around our building and it was so from 31 appointments total, out of the 52 VIPs we sold 11 homes on November 9th.

Jen
And that. Yeah, that's amazing. That's amazing. Hey, look me in the eyeballs. Fantastic work. That's awesome.

Whitney
It really was.

Jen
Great. Here, here's what I wrote down. So successful because of trust, Like on all everybody's got to be working together. Sales, online marketing, and all goes hand in hand. The second thing is nurture on a monthly basis, at a minimum, use your face, like use video email, because if you're putting your face right in somebody's inbox, that's going to be more impactful than just sending an email, Right?

Jen
Build excitement. Right? So drip information slowly. Again, this is going hand in hand with your marketing team, like what you guys are talking about and then segment your leads and your CRM. Like treat them like regular leads. Don't just put them on a list and forget about them. You've got to be talking to them, nurturing them, segmenting them, moving them throughout the process.

Jen
Jesse Anything else I'm forgetting? Whitney Anything else? Those are the I.

Jessie 
Was just thinking, you know, us, we're kind of weird. We like to think of, like, all the same letter. And as you were listing that out, I was like, Yeah, she she built trust. She was really thorough. She was very transparent, and there was just extreme teamwork happening. It's like all the stars aligned not only for your company but for your customer experience.

Jen
So remember, theme one.

Whitney
On one more thing was that the on site contribution and that that trust between online and all of those 11 sales, all 11 were online.

Jen
Come on.

Whitney
And that only was that only works because on site trusted marketing.

Jen
And so.

Whitney
Two leads and she let me funnel all of the leads to her because she knew that you know once this presale is over, I can do everything I can to, you know, nurture leads for this community and schedule them like any other new community. But she trusted that I was going to take care of the leads the way she would expect them to be taking care of schedule.

Jen
Which all of the sale.

Whitney
And so it was just a perfect setting of on site, trusting the process, trusting online, which.

Jen
Has.

Whitney
An online sales counselor. We all know that sometimes there can be a barrier between on site and online and so really great. Oh gosh, I can't believe I said it out loud.

Jen
Like, I have a really important question for you. Yes. What advice would you give an online sales specialist who has a sales team come to them and say, give me your interest list, I'm going to now take it over like this is before anything has happened. Like what? What do you what's the advice there?

Whitney
Absolutely. So I have had a pre-sale event before where they're on sites have actually had access to online. They were a coverage at some point within their tent at the company. And so it it does get difficult when you're working the same list sometimes. But if someone wanted my interest list, I think the first thing I would say is, well, is there anything you would do differently than what we're currently doing with our process in this pre-sale event?

Jen
Okay.

Whitney
The light bulbs going off that you have any grand ideas that you'd like to do differently with this interest list and then staying with t, I mean, the transparency part is so real, you know.

Jen
Like Whitney's on the T train.

Whitney
We've got to just be open and honest with our on site team. If it's coming from the top that we are going to follow a process. And we work with a coaching company who is telling us this is a proven method to success, it comes from the top. If, if, if your sales manager is bought into this and we are a part of this and we have adopted this process, then we've just got to hold ourselves accountable to following it.

Whitney
And so I would kind of just lean on the process and the fact that we're bought in.

Jen
We're bought of this process.

Whitney
And we work with the OIC and.

Jen
We we will prove that without fail. Not everybody can say that. Not everybody can say that. WHITNEY Right. But what you said.

Whitney
Your job was to do.

Jen
What what you said that was important. So if if you if you're listening, your only sales measures in your sales team or leadership has come to you and said, give us the leads, you need to have the confidence to say, you know, here's what I'm doing. And I like your approach of like, what is it that you are going to do differently?

Jen
You know, let me my job is to weed out suspects from prospects like there's not. Yeah, there's not. There's 100 people on this list and not all of them are leads. My job is to scrub this list and get you as close to sales ready as possible. Right. With this list, you know, and so just explaining what it is that you're going to do, and that's how you build trust, I think the communication.

Jen
So love it. Okay, Whitney, thank you so much. But moving on to our next part, which is Skills check, right? Whitney, what do we say? Do you know.

Whitney
Risk It fits like.

Jen
No, no, we didn't even talk about risk it for the biscuit, but we're talking about skills Check, Ice Cube. You got to check yourself before you say self. Okay. So for Skills check, what do we need to be doing right now? I think this is important. The whole segmentation of our CRM. So Jessie, talk a little bit about this.

Jen
What's our skills check this week?

Jessie 
Well, just making sure you have the right ratings. So, I mean, even when I was in the seat, it was just the rating is coming to it just right. Here's a lead. It's waiting for something. But long gone are those days because we have to be able to report back to leadership to create some type of cadence for a drip for our appointments and things like that.

Jessie 
So making sure that you have three ratings for your leads when it comes to VIP, VIP, no response, VIP responded and a VIP priority or qualified.

Jen
Yeah. So Skills check is, you know, I think everybody needs to be treating any coming soon leads right now treat them like regular leads. Mm hmm. Pick up the phone and call them. You know, back in the day, it was like, okay, like, I'll put them on this interest list. And then whenever I have an update, we'll update them.

Jen
Right? But be pleasantly persistent. That's what Kevin Oakley always says. Be pleasantly persistent with your communication. Pick up the phone and call him right away, you know, and just be like, hey, like, see, you're interested in Happy Acres. That's going to be coming next year. Is that time frame okay for you? Because like, hey, let's talk about what you're looking for because, you know, we have to remember that people see coming soon.

Jen
They might think that means next week understand that this might be months away and they might need something sooner. So as online sales, we can call them, we can talk to them, we can see if they're ready sooner. And then you guys decide if they need to be on that interest list. Yeah. Versus just putting them on there.

Jen
Right.

Whitney
So I think that's one thing I was reflecting on how I could have performed this process or fine tuned this process for the next time. And that's you hit the nail on the head. I mean, I called these leads about five months out. I started calling them to get them pre-qualified, but it was much easier if they were just calling, you know, because then you get that that time to pre-qualified.

Whitney
I've got to set all the tasks. And one thing I could have done better was start calling them sooner. I think especially with this market, I probably missed a few opportunities of, you know, coming soon to just call them right away. That two minute rule with a coming soon just as much as any other lead. So next resale event, I think I'm extremely quickly I'm going to call them as soon as they come in, segment them from there.

Whitney
Calls and texts are great, but.

Jen
We're online salespeople.

Whitney
We literally are like the best at the phone.

Jen
Pick up the phone, call man, sister when you won't.

Whitney
Have to call them late and figure out what segment they are when you're rushing around. Right. For the pre-sale event along with that typical drip of of emails and text. But the phone calls just it's going to happen.

Jen
It's done.

Whitney
And then just, you know, maybe we'll put a start date on on that line for next time. So we don't.

Jen
Have people standing.

Whitney
Outside of our building for three days.

Jen
Wow. That is that. What an amazing story, though. I love that. Thank you for sharing that with us. Well, guys, you can see why Whitney is an award winning then. That just sounds it sounds amazing, right? Number one.

Whitney
Before I don't know when I'll be in elementary school, I think I got like.

Jen
Four award winning, award winning online sales specialist extraordinaire. And we will see you in Vegas. Hey, last question for you, Whitney. Are you down with the OPT?

Whitney
Yeah, You know me!

Jen
Whew. All right. We'll see ya. Thanks for listening, everybody.

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