Jen
Okay, look at these beautiful faces I have with me today. Guys, I am fresh back into the seat from a three-day music festival in San Francisco. I saw The Grateful Dead in their 60th anniversary show. And I don't know about y'all, has anybody ever gone to a three-day music festival before?
Amanda Martin
No.
Molly Adams
No, you're the only one.
Amanda Martin
Man.
Melissa Fort
Hahaha
Jen
Well, listen, in my, how old am I? 49 years of life. This is my first time attending such a thing. And mom's tired. There were no seats, so we had to stand the whole time. I think I logged like 25,000 steps a day for the last three days. But it was crazy.
Molly Adams
my goodness.
Jen
So I'm coming back though full of just love, peace, San Francisco, harmony, and excited to be with you guys today.
Amanda Martin
Yay.
Jen
Yeah.
Melissa Fort
Did you at least have amazing weather out there?
Jen
No, Melissa.
Melissa Fort
I it was always beautiful in San Francisco.
Jen
So from what I understand is like the coldest time to go to San Francisco is August, which is totally messes with my brain because coming from, you know, a hundred degree weather over to the West coast and the month of August, I we had, I had like four layers on a coat scarf. There was like wind upwards of like 40 mile per hour gust. It was.
Molly Adams
What?
Melissa Fort
Wow!
Amanda Martin
Help.
Jen
Crazy. was definitely like messed with my brain. I was like, is this November? Like what's happening? But apparently the San Franciscans say that that is the coldest time to go because I guess the winds off the Bay and the Bay is so cold. And anyway, yeah, who knew? Now you know. And if you ever in your life go to a three day music festival,
Amanda Martin
Now we know.
Melissa Fort
Hahaha
Jen
Make sure you invest in some good like portable chairs and take in your own snacks. That's my sitting on the sitting on the ground on a blanket that everybody stepped on. And I was trying to channel, I was trying to channel my inner harmony and not let it bother me. But yeah, by, by day three, we were sitting by ourselves up on a
Melissa Fort
Were you sitting on the ground? I'm too old for that.
Melissa Fort
You're gonna need a spa day to recover.
Melissa Fort
haha
Amanda Martin
Alright.
Jen
So, all right, let's do this thing. Okay, welcome to episode 43 of Online People Talking. With me today, I brought the whole online sales coaching team together, Sons Mike, although Mike did hop on for a mic check, ha ha. But today we have Amanda Martin, Molly Adams, Melissa Ford. Hello guys.
Amanda Martin
Yay!
Molly Adams
You
Amanda Martin
Thank you.
Melissa Fort
haha
Molly Adams
Hi, Jen.
Amanda Martin
Hey hey!
Melissa Fort
Hello, hello.
Jen
Hello, hello. We are so excited. We've got four people on a podcast at one time. Let's hope we don't screw this up. Some housekeeping first off to talk about. We are in full like ramp up mode for the upcoming online sales and marketing summit. And we are in the process of getting our content together, which is so exciting. And, you know, some people always ask us like, how do you like, what do you decide to talk about?
Amanda Martin
haha
Jen
And the answer is simple. We work with over 200 online sales specialists collectively between the four of us. And we know what's working, what's not, what the challenges are, what the bright spots are. And so we collect all of that throughout the year to come up with what's relevant right now to talk about. if you are listening and you are not attending the biggest online sales party in the industry,
Get signed up now, it's not too late. We have some seats available. So make sure you talk to your manager, ask if you can go, it's a good time.
Melissa Fort
Only eight more weeks, I can't believe it. I know, it's so exciting.
Amanda Martin
Wow.
Jen
weeks. my gosh. I'm freaking out. I'm freaking out. Also, fun fact, the nationals have opened up. you know, what are the nationals? Melissa, what are the nationals?
Molly Adams
Eight weeks?
Amanda Martin
I'm a fool.
Melissa Fort
the biggest awards ceremony in all of home building that happens at the International Builder Show every year. It celebrates the best of the best in all of the markets across the US.
Jen
Yes.
Jen
Yes. Now what we care about the most is you, online sales specialist. So if you are thinking about applying, we'll talk more about this in the future on other episodes. But if you're thinking about applying, now's the time, go talk to your manager about it. Of course, we think you should. No better way to just highlight your success than to be awarded for it. So definitely look into that. And then our Tito shout out, top industry talented OSC.
I'll let Melissa do this one. Who's our Tito this episode?
Melissa Fort
I'm so excited about this one. So our shout out this week is a brand new, hot in the seat, OSC, Virginia Baker with Homes by Dickerson. She is in the middle of her onboarding training and going through her fast start. And she's a rock star already. We can tell she is like what unicorns are made of, crushing it, doing a good job on her calls. And we're excited to see what is in store for her.
Jen
Melissa is so excited. It's like a breath of fresh air has just breezed on through online sales land. So congrats, Virginia. We're excited to see what you're going to do. You're just getting started. So what else are online people talking about? Benchmarks. Okay. Yes. Amanda, busy bee over there crunching numbers.
Amanda Martin
I
yeah.
Jen
Getting those Q2 benchmarks out the door, and before she kind of gives her update on this, one, make sure you head over to the website, Deconvert.com. We've got the full blog, all the numbers posted there. We're going to give you some high-level numbers and insight on this. But right now, there is some pressure out there, right? Everybody's feeling it from all sides, whether you're online sales, sales marketers,
Amanda Martin
Thank
Jen
You know, it's it's a little tough out there. And so when you think about like, okay, what are the bright spots? You know, sometimes are not sometimes all the time our brain navigates to the negative or the challenges or what do we need to be doing better? But let's celebrate for a second what we're doing really well, and I think the benchmarks Celebrates that right like when I see the benchmark and I'm like, okay, man
Amanda Martin
for sure.
Jen
You guys are grinding out there, we see you. We wanna celebrate that for a minute. So, Amanda, are some key takeaways after you crunch the numbers?
Amanda Martin
After I crunched the numbers, probably the biggest takeaway is that, you there was less opportunity with leads. However, with what they were given, online sales did so well. Even though the leads were lower, they really took advantage of just optimizing every opportunity that they could. And it really showed up in the appointment or the lead to appointment conversion because that increased in quarter two, it rose by 2%.
And they're still, of course, almost contributing 50 % of sales to the company's bottom line, which is a huge deal. So, yeah.
Jen
Yeah, really awesome to see. And I just want to back up for a second and just review a couple things. Where are we getting these benchmark numbers from? It's not every partner that we work with. It is the partners that we have access to their numbers, that we have verified that their data. That way we can keep that data integrity, which is so important.
We understand how they're counting leads. We understand how they're counting appointments and sales, and it's all consistent across the board. And like Amanda was saying, everybody felt the dip, right? Everybody felt the slowdown. And when we looked at Q2 of 2024 versus Q2 of 2025, what was that decrease in lead volume, Amanda?
Amanda Martin
Yeah. Yeah.
Amanda Martin
29%.
Jen
Yeah. So almost a 30 % dip from year over year Q2. And, you know, like, okay, duh. Like we, everybody felt that, but it's like, despite that dip online sales rate was able to convert 40 % of those leads to appointments kept. What was the appointment to sale percentage?
Amanda Martin
Yeah.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Molly Adams
and
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Amanda Martin
Yeah, yeah, that stayed steady at 18%. So quarter one and quarter two, 18 % holding steady. Yeah, yeah, it is.
Jen
Okay. Which is huge, right? Because, you know, so less leads, but the leads that are coming in are good quality leads for the most part, right? They're still staying consistent. And I think that's just the message that we want to share with everybody is that you keep doing your thing. Yeah, you keep doing your thing. There's a lot of variables out there, you know, that are happening around you. And if you stay focused on your process, what is in your control,
Amanda Martin
We're gonna turn it.
Amanda Martin
Right.
Melissa Fort
Yeah.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jen
you know, it shows up right in those conversion metrics. And then online sales contribution was still steady, right?
Amanda Martin
So that came in at 48%. So only decreased by 1%, not a big change there. But still really close to that 50 % mark. But I think a really important part of that lead to appointment was the prospecting. that went up also. So 19 % of the appointments came from age leads from prospecting efforts. So that's a big contributor to the appointments as well.
Jen
Yeah. The other thing I want to talk about too is the benchmarks that we're pulling together include, you know, big builders, small builders, new programs, existing programs that have been established a long time, new OSCs, OG OSCs, right? It's a big mix. But Molly, when we pulled out the top performing,
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Amanda Martin
That's right. Big mix.
Jen
online sales specialist. What were those numbers? Because I thought that was exciting.
Molly Adams
Yeah.
Yeah. No, super exciting. Lead to appointment came in at 53%, which is huge. I know. I know. Appointment to sale came in at 22. And contribution total sales, 54. I know. Big numbers.
Jen
Whoo. OK, that's crazy.
Amanda Martin
Uh-huh.
Jen
Woo, I mean, come on. I mean, listen, establish online sales programs. Like you are getting the goods out of the woods. 53 % conversion to appointment kept. That's crazy. One thing somebody asked me the other day is, do you look at appointments set?
Amanda Martin
Superstars!
Melissa Fort
Hahaha.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Jen
Do you look at lead to appointment set or do you look at lead to appointment kept for the conversion metric? And what's the answer, Amanda?
Amanda Martin
Kept. Yes, kept.
Jen
Yes. So you definitely do want to look at what your kept rate is, meaning what's your appointment set to kept. But for our benchmarks, it is total leads, all lead sources to appointments kept. And then the sales that are coming from those appointment, appointment kept numbers. So, you know, keep, keep grinding out there. We see you.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Jen
you know, we've been taught, think if, if we had a dollar for every time we said prospecting, would be millionaires. Melissa, what are you seeing out there as far as prospecting and the teams that are doing a good job of that?
Amanda Martin
We're rolling. We're rolling in all the money.
Melissa Fort
Hahaha!
Melissa Fort
Yeah, I mean, you can definitely tell those who are going in and digging and doing the work and being intentional, having that time set aside. Those are the ones who are sticking to those behaviors and being diligent and making sure that it's getting done, that are seeing the results. know, like, as I've, this past month, all of my calls I've been on, I've been going through with the OSCs and looking at their goals that they set for themselves.
and kind of like where they've paced versus the benchmarks, but also like where their performance has improved. And everybody's been pleasantly surprised. I think maybe sometimes people get a little weighted down by all the noise of the market, but the majority of the people I've talked to are either meeting or exceeding their goals for the year for themselves for conversions. So it's been really good.
Jen
So I think too, like not everybody tracks prospecting. It's like, how do I know if, yeah, how do you know if your prospecting is working? Amanda, what was the prospecting percentage that we saw for Q2?
Melissa Fort
How do you know?
Amanda Martin
19%.
Jen
So 19%, I'll go ahead and explain.
Amanda Martin
Yeah, quarter one was 15 % and then it went up to 19%. So that increased for sure. And a lot of times we see those higher numbers towards the end of the year. So the fact that you guys are already getting into that in quarter two is a really big deal. And it really does help offset that dip in leads. So.
Jen
Yeah. And Molly, explain a little bit of like, when we're tracking this, like what constitutes an age lead appointment? What are we looking at?
Molly Adams
Yeah, so we're looking at any lead in the CRM that's over 45 days. So we're tracking on our trackers leads that are older than 45 days. And then that would constitute as a prospect, prospected lead.
Jen
Yeah. Yeah. So if you're not tracking this, you definitely should be right. You're, you're making all the calls, you know, you're, you're doing hundreds of calls a month outbound. And so you want to keep track of, of all the appointments that you set in a given month. So let's just take the month of July. When you look at all of your appointments, you want to look at how many of those appointments came from leads that are 45 days and older.
Molly Adams
or worry.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Jen
And you can do this by really tracking the lead lag time, like when the lead was created to when the appointment was set. And that's where we're getting this 19 % number from because we've been tracking it for the last year, like really looking at this with the partners that we work with. And so when you say like, okay, I've got, you know, I've set a hundred appointments this month and 20 of them were from older leads.
Amanda Martin
Yeah.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Jen
Okay, that's a 20 % conversion of older leads to appointment. And so you wanna look at that. And so we're seeing on average 19 % is what we saw for Q2.
Melissa Fort
And leads as far back as like 2022 coming back in the market. And like really it's been impressive. The people who have kind of exhausted reaching out to people from this year and are like, you know what, I'm going to go back to last year and how many of those people now, you know, are like, okay, I guess this is what the market is. I'm going to reconsider and are willing to come back out. So.
Amanda Martin
Yeah.
Jen
Yes, I just want to double down on that for a second. And we're going to talk about this in a minute because what's everybody want and is focused on right now.
Sales, we more sales. We need more sales. need more sales. right? Like everybody's looking at this. so, know, what we're going to talk about, like how can online sales impact that number, that metric? So Amanda told you it was 18 % for Q2. How do we make an impact on that number? How do we get that number up? So we're going to walk you through, there's,
Amanda Martin
More cells. More, more, more. More cells.
Melissa Fort
More more sales, and more sales.
Jen
a few things to keep in mind here that are in your control online sales specials, because the other half of this is right on site. They're the ones out there converting those appointments to sale. You know, let me let you in on a secret. Like you're not out there. Stay in your lane. Let's focus on what we can control. But the first thing that comes to my mind is that just that it starts with a mindset. It starts with your mindset.
Amanda Martin
Thank you.
Molly Adams
you
Jen
The second word in your title is sales, online sales specialist, new home sales specialist. We've got to have the mindset that if they're reaching out to us in this market right now, that they're going to sale. Like we got to be thinking that, like we got to be invested in the sale. So as you're having those conversations, get excited, get excited, like put your sales.
Molly Adams
Mmm.
Jen
competitive nature, get, get, get, feel good about that and be like, okay, this is, this is a good lead. I am going to set this up for success. They are going to sale, put it out into the universe. because that I'm telling you that works versus, okay, this is another, a different day, another lead, right? I'm just going to try to get it to an appointment. That's, that's all I'm focused on.
Melissa, what's the next thing that comes to mind when we think about impacting that appointment to sale number?
Melissa Fort
So appropriate qualification. And I feel like this is coming up more and more. People get a little desperate for the appointment, and they're asking too soon. And so when we do that and we just get surface level info, it's really only surface level quality is what we're passing on. And so most customers these days are probably calling around to two or three different builders. And so you want to be disruptive. Be the one who slows them down.
ask the questions, really invest in getting those areas of a qualification, telling them why you have the best solution, and putting that time in to getting that information to hand off to onsite.
Jen
Yeah. And I just want to say, like, let me get your thoughts on this, ladies. There is a difference between when in doubt, send them out and like just passing them through. OK, Molly, you just made a face. What what does this do to your soul when I say this?
Molly Adams
Totally. 100%.
Molly Adams
It makes my soul cringe. Like, I don't want to just say, yeah, you want to come out for an appointment? Sure. Like, when would you like to come out? No, like, let's, let's encourage the buyer or the lead to let's talk. Like, let's, let's really dive in. Let's get to know you. Let's get to know why you want to move. These are so important because it makes the person feel super heard. And especially because they're calling around to other builders.
Well, I want to call, I want to talk to that person. They were really interested in why I wanted to move. Like that's just one reason why you need to be asking these questions, let alone letting your on-site know what's up.
Jen
Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, when we've said before, like, when in doubt, send them out, like, that doesn't mean you're not asking the questions, right? Like, you're still asking the questions. You're still. And if somebody has three out of five areas of qualification that you've been able to determine, yeah, like, are you going to hold on to that? No, you're going to send them out. But it's different than, oh, yeah, I can have my on-site call you or, yeah, let's, you know, go ahead, head out there.
Amanda Martin
All right.
Molly Adams
now.
Jen
Right? No bueno. With every appointment that is set that way, you are eating away at the integrity of your online sales program, right? And we don't want that. We wanna keep this value to your company strong. Okay, Amanda, what do you think about this?
Amanda Martin
Yeah.
Amanda Martin
Yeah, so another part that I'd say is super important is setting expectations. You gotta roll out the red carpet, get them excited. So that excitement is super needed by the online sales specialist. So like where are they going? Tell them about the beautiful community. Who are they meeting with? Tell them about John at Happy Acres. Get them excited to go out there and they're gonna be more invested and more likely to show up.
Jen
You know, I've shared your story about select one so many times, like in training, like, you know, when Amanda was looking for a cat and the woman qualified her, right? Like down to the exact cat. And I think her excitement, right, made you like, now I can't stop thinking about that cat.
Amanda Martin
Yeah. I love it. Yes.
Melissa Fort
We love the cat. We all love it.
Amanda Martin
I'm
You did.
Amanda Martin
What? Yeah.
Exactly. Got a picture of that one. was, it fit all the, all the things on my list if I was going to go down that path. And so I was totally invested and put down the deposit.
Jen
Yeah. Yeah. And online sales specialist, got to channel that inner Amanda, right? And get excited. my gosh, hold the phone. I've got the perfect home for you. Right? One, two, three, happy lane. It's actually under construction. Like everything you've said matches that, like you, but you've got to know your homes inside and out. You got to know your communities in order to be able to get down to that select one.
Melissa Fort
you
Amanda Martin
Hahaha
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Molly Adams
you
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Amanda Martin
Yeah. Yeah, it's about both. You got to know the story and you got to know the product and match it together. That's why you're important. That's the work you do. Yeah.
Jen
I love that.
Jen
Yeah, yeah, I get so excited thinking about that. Okay, Molly, what else can we do?
Molly Adams
and then.
Molly Adams
Yeah, maybe it's a good time that we revisit the handoff with OnSite. Yeah, maybe we talk to them about what we need to do, know, observe and report that we're not telling our managers that we're snitching, but we're like talking, we're just talking and we're trying to get the best results out of our sales team, because we're all one sales team, even though we're in two separate.
Jen
Mmm.
Jen
Yeah.
Molly Adams
areas.
Jen
Yeah, man.
Amanda Martin
Yeah. And you know what? I've been hearing a lot of, you know, builders have new onsite agents coming on board, things like that, that maybe don't know a lot about the handoff. like totally revisit them, give them exposed to that, give them some training. Like they need to hear that too.
Jen
Yes. Yes.
Molly Adams
And going to meetings. That's so important. Like it's a good time to be connecting with your sales team, telling them like, I had a really great week. I want to share this call with you or this person did a really great job with the handoff process. They sent this video and it was really great. And it went to sale. Just encouraging the other sales people on site to do the handoff process. Anything's going to make that process better.
Jen
Yeah. Yeah. Dust off those handoff awards, tag team awards, be encouraging, be supportive. And I just want to acknowledge something that Molly said, because I know some of you listening are like, yeah, I definitely feel that. You know, you're not tattling. You are observing and reporting to leadership about, know, hey, here's what's happening with the appointments.
Melissa Fort
Yes.
Amanda Martin
huh.
Molly Adams
gift card.
Jen
You know, even here's a little pro tip for you. If we're talking about affecting that sales number or impacting that sales number, if you're tracking on a appointment tracker or even in your CRM, if you can, if you get off the phone with somebody and you're like, man, like I selected one, like they were, could, feel like I could have sold them a home over the phone. Like they were such a great prospect. Make a little note on your tracker or in your CM, like hot, like put it, you know, hot prospect and.
Amanda Martin
Well.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Jen
narrow that down to leadership and be like, these five appointments this month were zero in on those because I felt really good about it. then sales can go and follow up with sales leadership can go and follow up on those specific ones. So that's how you can kind of help, again, be invested in the sale. Okay, the last thing is prospect more. told you I was going to come back around to this.
Amanda Martin
Thank you.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm.
Molly Adams
you
Jen
Appointments means more sales. If we're digging into our database and we're getting more appointments, right, the math is that we're going to get more sales from those. And what we are seeing and hearing from everybody is that those older leads are converting quicker in some cases than the newer leads, because the older leads have been sitting there for a while and they've been thinking about it they've been watching the market and they've been waiting and researching.
And then they get that phone call from you, right? You were thinking about them. You wanted to reach out. You wanted to see how things were going. That's their signal to move forward. So you that's how you create momentum and you keep the pipeline going. So definitely do you know, take a listen to these five things and what can you do to impact the sales? Okay. All right. Now for skills check, because you better check yourself before you wreck yourself says Ice Cube.
All right, here's your skills check moving into the second half of the year It's time to one pull out your goals from the beginning of the year. Okay, you you know, sat down you created goals This is what I want to accomplish. You need to reevaluate those see again bright spots. What have you accomplished so far? What can you feel really good about and then also a lot of builders are Re-evaluating their sales goals for the second half of the year. Okay, where are we at? Do we need to readjust those?
Maybe we started out saying we were gonna have 500 sales and now the way the market has evolved, okay, we need to bring that back down realistically and we need to adjust that number. Go ask your sales leadership what that number is and then work backwards based on what your new sales goals are, work backwards and figure out based on your conversion metrics, how many appointments do you need to get the sales that you need to come from online sales?
We have a whole separate blog on how to do this, but basically you wanna take your new sales goal, you wanna times it by your contribution. So let's say your contribution is 50%, you wanna say like, okay, 50 % of these new sales need to come from me. And then you wanna divide that number by your lead to appointment kept percentage. And that'll give you the number of appointments you need to potentially get to the sales.
Jen
So go back and rework that and you can even get down to the day. Give yourself a daily goal. I need to set this many appointments a day and have fun with it, right? Anything to add to that, ladies?
Molly Adams
little tracker.
Melissa Fort
No, I mean, I think I'm sorry going ahead, Molly.
Molly Adams
I mean, coming right out of the seat, I had a little piece of paper and I had a fun pen. It had sparkles in it and I'd color in the box when I got another appointment. And that was just a way to help me like move ahead. Like this is what I need to do today and keep me motivated.
Jen
Yeah.
Melissa Fort
As I say, find an accountability partner, somebody to cheer you on. Share the good news. Share it at a sale rally. Share it with the manager.
Molly Adams
Totally. Totally.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
That's so true. Yeah. mean, definitely when you come up with those goals, share them with your leader and, and, you know, celebrate your wins. Right.
Molly Adams
Yeah, it takes a village.
Amanda Martin
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, and if you have a daily appointment goal and say out of the new people that have come in, you only have two out of the three that you're looking for, go find it. It's in your CRM. Just go after it don't stop until you get it. Hit your goals.
Jen
Yeah, remember those prospecting appointments are the gravy to your mashed potatoes. And with that, thank you so much for listening. Go get you some gravy. Have a great day. Thank you, ladies.
Amanda Martin
Hahaha
Amanda Martin
Thank you.
Molly Adams
Bye.
