Full Transcript
Jen
Megan is in the house. Welcome, welcome. OK, Megan, it is officially the holiday season. You see, I have my lights up. I got my and you've got you've got something behind you, too. You got a little got some red and some little festive looking things back there. I just love the holidays. Do you have any special holiday traditions that you do this time of year?
Meagan Baker
Yes, very festive.
Meagan Baker
red flowers.
Meagan Baker
I mean closer to Christmas we have some family traditions that we do. My sister and I kind of grew up this way. Our parents have always let us open one present on Christmas Eve. So I do that with all my step kiddos. They're all allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. I usually have like a designated gift, know, like Christmas pajamas or something like that that they get to open on Christmas Eve so then they can wear them Christmas morning.
Jen
Nice.
Meagan Baker
And then my whole family usually goes over to my parents' house for Christmas dinner. So, yeah.
Jen
fun. Fun. You know that's so funny that you said Christmas pajamas because that's exactly what I was thinking in my mind as you were talking. I was like I wonder if Megan if they do the whole like matching pajamas. We every year I get our family matching flannels and
You know, get them like monogrammed with our family initials on them and every year it's kind of a joke. Like they make fun like, is this going to this must be the flannel from mom, you know, and they make a joke about it. And this year I was like, you know what? I'm not going to do the flannels. And I instead I did pajamas. So I'm trying to throw them off. They're probably not going to listen to this. So, you know, that's no surprise there, but.
Yeah, I got everybody matching pajamas this year. Yeah.
Meagan Baker
Nice. Yeah, usually, you know, go to the Old Navy, but you gotta go early before they all sell out.
Jen
That's true. you know, should I take it a step further and get the dogs matching pajamas? What do you think? I should? Okay. Okay, I did LL Bean, I mean not LL Bean, I did Land's End because they kept blowing up my phone with, you know, 50 % off, 50 % off or whatever. So was like, okay, I'm gonna do matching pajamas, but I don't know if they had dog pajamas. I'm gonna have to go.
Meagan Baker
I think you should. I think you definitely should.
Jen
Investigate that that's a good idea All right, let's get into it Welcome to episode 51 on online people talking today with me is Megan Baker Senior marketing manager for Boise Hunter homes and this is your first podcast
Meagan Baker
This is my first podcast. I'm a podcast newbie.
Jen
That's ex... You are! It's gonna be great. Everybody listening, just send the good vibes to Megan. You know, she's a marketer, so you know, she's more on the... Would you say you're an introvert, Megan? Classic. That's kind of like the running joke, right? Our precious marketers, introverts. But you know what's interesting?
Meagan Baker
bit more introverted. Yeah, definitely.
Jen
I have found more and more online sales specialist being introverted, which I'm like, how is that possible? I don't know. think you have to be kind of an ambivert, right? You have to kind of match the vibe of who you're talking to. So before we get into talking to this amazing leader.
Have a Tito shout out to give Megan. So Tito stands for top industry talented OSI and this week's Tito shout out goes to Leah Russell of DR Horton, Louisiana so I wish I had the sound effects like Kevin has but Leah gets the Tito because she was the top producer of the year in online sales for the entire Gulf
coast region at DR Horton. So shout out Leah, kudos to you. I'm, I'm watching from the sidelines, all the cool things that you're doing and Megan, she, in her post where she was talking about this, she said something that was really cool. I just want to read it to everybody cause it, touched my, it touched my soul. as she was
Talking about her award, she took a minute to shout out her online sales team and she says, and to my fellow OSCs out there, we all know this role takes heart, patience, and a whole lot of hustle. I see you and I'm so proud to be a part of this incredible team. This award isn't just about numbers, it's about perseverance, passion, and proving to myself that no matter what life throws at me, I can rise above it.
And I was like, you go girl. So, you know, that's so true. I mean, Megan, what do you think about that? Like when I'm reading that to you.
Meagan Baker
Wow, that's awesome.
Meagan Baker
Yeah, I mean, think that's an awesome shout out to a team of online salespeople just supporting each other and they're on the front lines and they're not alone. So yeah, that was an awesome shout out.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Yeah.
Yeah, it sometimes can feel like that, especially if you're a solo online sales specialist for an organization. you know, Leah is doing a great job of putting things out there on LinkedIn, talking about what she does. And so I always encourage people to do that. You know, talk about what you're doing. Talk about how passionate you are. It's infectious. You know, just like I read that and I was like, man, I need to share that. So good job, Leah.
Okay, so what are online people talking about today? We're talking about managing an online sales program. Ooh, okay, so we don't have leaders on that often on Opt, but I wanted to have Megan on, you know, if anybody saw, listened to the last podcast or saw the Home Builder Secret Shop survey results that we released.
Meagan Baker
you.
Jen
There's a huge opportunity to continue to improve this role. There's some bright spots happening out there, but there's also some opportunity. I mean it when I say, and Megan has probably heard me say this over the years, the secret sauce starts with leadership. And a lot of times, leaders in this role are, they're so busy doing a ton of other things.
that online sales sometimes gets kind of forgotten about or kind of put off to the side or whatever. And we see that, hey, we can't just put them to the side. If 50 % of sales potentially are coming from this program, making sure that your online sales program has the support, has the training, has the management, the leadership around it is so crucial that we can't just
not pay attention to it. So I wanted to have Megan on, but before we start talking about how she's managing a team, Megan, I always like to ask, tell us your industry story. How did you get into this amazing home building space?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, so I've been in the new home building industry about 15 years. It was my second job out of college. I was hired on for a marketing and sales coordinator for a small company at the time called Ryland Homes in Southern California. we had a very small division called Ryland, but they were very much more an East Coast builder. So that was my second job out of college.
Jen
Okay, yeah.
Meagan Baker
And we were really just trying to enter the market in Southern California. No one had really heard of Ryland Homes before. And then we were building a lot different product type than they were building on the East Coast. So we were in the million dollar price point in a lot of big master plan communities and things like that. So just really trying to establish the Ryland brand in Southern California. And I just fell in love with the industry and
My boss at the time, her name was Carolus Sherriot. She's still, you she was one of my big mentors. We're still in contact today and she really, you know, got my feet wet in the industry and just took me under her wing and, you know, threw me in the deep end. I've, I've, I've loved the industry ever since. I'm actually now at my sixth new home builder. So I worked for three different home builders in Southern California.
Jen
now.
Meagan Baker
I worked for Riland Homes for a few years, Toll Brothers, and then TrueMark Homes. And I moved out to Boise, Idaho in May of 2020. And I'm now at my third builder in the Boise, Idaho area. So I was at two different home builders for a couple of years in Boise before I landed at Boise Hunter Homes. And so yeah, now I'm the senior marketing manager of Boise Hunter Homes.
Jen
Nice.
Jen
Right.
Jen
Yeah.
Meagan Baker
oversee the marketing department and the online sales team.
Jen
Yeah. So, you know, in your 15 years of experience, how many online sales programs have you been a part of or managed?
Meagan Baker
I've managed two different online sales programs. So at the last builder I was at in Boise and then at the current builder I'm at now, I overseen the online sales program at the last two builders.
Jen
Okay.
Jen
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, and this was a brand new program that you had to come in like within the first couple months, right? You identified like, hey, we need an online sales program. So why was that one of the first initiatives that you took on, you tackled right away?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, I mean, it was kind of actually something that I even spoke with leadership about during my interview process at Boise Hunter Homes. There was just really such a need for that type of role that they didn't have, they have never had before. mean, leads were falling through the cracks. The lead response time was 15 hours. know, leads were not getting followed up with. They were spending...
thousands and thousands of dollars in advertising every month and these leads, these dollars were just getting flushed down the drain, right? So they were currently doing what they called an OLP program. It was an online lead program that a previous sales leader had implemented and the onsite sales team was rotating days managing the online leads while they were in the sales offices. So you can imagine that
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Gotcha.
Meagan Baker
the leads weren't being managed very well. If someone comes in the door, obviously their job is to take care of whoever's walking in their door. yeah, the program was not working very well for them. And so they just really saw a need for this role and saw that I had experience at the last builder of kind of getting the program up and running and hiring and training and rolling out this type of program. that was actually kind of my first initiative when I started here.
Jen
Yeah. Yeah.
Meagan Baker
was to hire an OSC and launch the program. And so that was the first task I took on.
Jen
Yeah. Yeah, we're going to unpack some of those things that you said. But one thing I want to unpack right away is that you're a marketer, first and foremost. And, you know, a lot of times we get the question of, it make sense for a marketer to manage this position or a sales leader to manage this position? What are your thoughts on that?
Meagan Baker
you
Meagan Baker
I mean, at the builder I'm at now and the previous builder I was at, online sales reported to marketing. I know it's kind of a 50-50 and it's always the question that builders ask. I mean, even you and your team, like, okay, should online sales report to marketing or should online sales report to sales? And whenever I say, in our organization it reports to marketing, they're cheering. They think that it makes more sense for online sales to report to marketing.
But so yeah, at our organization, it falls under the marketing wing. I think that makes the most sense. Like they're on the front lines. They need to know what communities are upcoming. They're going to get all those calls first. So I actually have our online salespeople sit in on parts or all of our weekly marketing meetings that we have so that they are the first to know of all of those details and information. New phase releases coming soon communities.
you know, all those things, events coming up. So I just think it makes more sense, you know, for them to report to marketing than report to sales. You know, our sales managers and sales directors, they're the last two builders I was at, they had a team of 10 plus salespeople. you know, talk about online sales not getting maybe the attention that they need. They're managing a team of 10 plus salespeople on site and they're
Jen
Yeah.
Meagan Baker
spending a lot of time going out to the different communities and spending time with on-site sales. I would think sometimes that online sales might get forgotten about or whatever if they're reporting to a sales manager or sales director.
Jen
Mm-hmm.
Jen
Yeah, I mean, you hit the nail on the head on that is that, you know, our philosophy is that either one can manage, but whoever is going to have the bandwidth to be consistent with, you know, leading them, overseeing them, meeting with them on a consistent basis. And one of the great things about having a marketer manage the team, like you're saying, is that it's so
One of the jobs of online sales is to quantify what's happening and report that back to marketing. So you having that direct relationship with online sales is huge because they're reporting back to you and you're based on what their results are and what their feedback is, that helps you from a marketing standpoint make the decisions on how to spend.
you know, the budget. Like, what levers do I need to pull as a marketer? Would you agree with that?
Meagan Baker
Absolutely, yes. I have a very close relationship with our OSC and we're constantly asking her how are things going? We have reports and spreadsheets and things of all the questions she asks, how did people hear about us? Those are really important questions for marketing to see what channels, how we're bringing people in, how they're actually hearing about us. so I think that's very valuable information for my marketing team.
to have direct access. Her office is right across from mine. She works actually in office. And so we're constantly talking to each other and giving each other information and asking each other questions. And I just think it's so valuable to have her under our wing.
Jen
Yeah, how important, so you mentioned your online sales specialist is in office, but you've had experience in the past where they've been remote or in office versus remote. What is your philosophy on that?
Meagan Baker
At my last builder it was kind of a hybrid situation. There were certain days where she would work from the office, like on sales meeting days or marketing meeting days, and then certain days she would work from home. So was kind of a hybrid. I think it's really important to get face time with the sales team and just with the office staff, especially if someone's new in the role. So at the past builder I was at, she was new to the company and so...
Having the first few months in office, think, are really important to get to know the team and get to know the product and the people and how we function as an organization, stuff like that. Our current builder, she does come in five days a week. She started in May, so it's been a good number of months. But we're just more of an in-person company. They like everyone to come in every day. I think it is valuable.
Jen
Yeah.
Meagan Baker
in especially in those initial months to be able to walk and ask people questions, talk to the different departments, figure out how things work. You know, she's talking to the construction department or she's talking to warranty because she gets all kinds of questions. So being able to just walk down the hallway and access those people and talk to those people and get an answer, you know, on the spot, I think is is really valuable. So.
Jen
Yes.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Yeah, pro tip number one. If you're starting a program and you have a brand new online sales specialist that you've hired, definitely in office for the first six months at least to be really entrenched in your culture, make sure that they have the support that they need, FaceTime, FaceTime with sales, like all of those things are super important.
So I wanna talk about starting up a new program, new builder, new program, you're coming in. What are some of the challenges that you've had or that people should be aware of when they're starting a program?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, I mean, we have eight salespeople, eight onsite salespeople. So just, think the biggest challenge was getting the onsite sales team on board with a new role that they've never had before. Like leadership was definitely on board. I like I previously mentioned, that's kind of, you know, some of the reasons why they hired me is because I had experience managing this role. But that was definitely the biggest challenge was getting onsite sales on board with the role.
It's a new process, know, a lot of things that they weren't used to. It was kind of a double whammy at the same time we rolled out a new CRM. So there was a lot of changes at once for the sales team. Yeah. Yes. So yeah, it was just a lot of new processes for them that they weren't used to. then
Jen
Just rip the band-aid off right at the beginning.
Meagan Baker
Just really trying to explain, even though she was reporting to marketing that she's an extension of the sales team, you guys are on the same team. She's not stealing your leads. She's helping you. She's here to help you actually save you time and set appointments for you so that you can do what you're supposed to be doing is selling and not answering phone calls of what are your model hours or where are you located or.
Jen
Right.
Jen
Right.
Meagan Baker
you know, what's the price of this, that, you know. So I would say that that was definitely the biggest hurdle over the first couple months of rolling out the program. And then, you know, with the CRM, the new CRM and all the challenges that comes with switching CRM systems too.
Jen
Yeah. Whew, that's a lot. How did you, okay, so what I heard you say too is that you didn't just roll this out. You took time to explain the role, the benefits, how this was going to help them to get more sales versus a lot of times builders just go, we have this
person now who's gonna set appointments for you and they don't take the time to really explain. Like did you guys do anything, was there anything specific that you did like when you rolled this out that you could share?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, I mean, we have a weekly sales meeting every Monday. The whole sales team comes into the main office and we all meet in person as a team. So I just, you know, kind of took over one of those sales meetings to explain the role, introduce Lisa, our OSC, and just explain what are her key areas of responsibility? What is she supposed to be doing, you know, that might have been in their lane that will no longer be in their lane?
Jen
Mm-hmm.
Meagan Baker
So just really trying to clarify what she was doing, how she was doing it. We all sat together and made sure they all shared their calendars in the CRM and had their email linked up to the CRM and made sure everyone was on the same page at the same time so that we could launch successfully so that when Lisa was setting appointments, she has the tools that she needs.
and the buy-in from the sales team to be able to do what she needs to do effectively, basically.
Jen
Yeah. And so how are things going now a few months in?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, they're going really well. So well that we actually just hired a second OSC. Leadership believes so much in the role and sees how valuable and how important it is that they're on the front lines, that they're the person that's channeling every lead from every lead source that we have. And they're like, my gosh, this is all going through one person. Let's get her help so she's not working almost seven days a week.
Jen
Nice.
Jen
Okay.
Meagan Baker
But yeah, the program's going so well that we've added a second person. She's starting her training actually this week. So we're really excited about that. And yeah, onsite sales, they understand now that, you know, we're all on the same team, we all have the same goal. And now they're like, okay, give me more appointments, give me more appointments. When at first they were like, you know, leave me alone. I want to set my own schedule, set my own appointments.
Jen
Nice.
Jen
Right.
Jen
Right.
Meagan Baker
and now they're like, me more, give me more. So yeah, it's going really well.
Jen
So yeah, so that's pretty huge, like to have that quick success of, you know what? We realize this is a lot for one person. Like, let's get somebody else here. And that gives, you know, it's always better like when you have a team of two, because then they have each other's back. You know, like, hey, I have an emergency. I need to take off the afternoon.
That's okay, you've got a teammate that can back you up or you can feel better about going on vacation or it gives you some flexibility and if your company continues to grow, you've got that redundancy built in there to be able to shift or to be able to make decisions better. So that's awesome. Any other immediate success that you've seen since you started the program?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
Meagan Baker
I mean we also went through the whole handoff training process with onsite sales as well. We actually, we made it like very easy for them. We recorded all their videos. We had like our social media team come in, recorded all their evergreen welcome videos, set up all their templates in HubSpot and made sure that it was kind of just an easy button for them to, you know.
Jen
nice.
Jen
Okay.
Meagan Baker
set everything up, named everything, put them where they could find them easily so that maybe some onsite salespeople aren't as tech savvy can still go in and find things and easily grab a template, send their email out with their video. So I think really having the tools that they need along with launching the new program to make it easy, onsite sales is now...
embraced the new HubSpot, the new system and everything. you know, it's just a lot of things they didn't have to do before, but, you know, we've talked about the different stats and having a video and the importance of that and all that. So they're now kind of doing everything that's, you know, in their lane in terms of a handoff process. we're getting, we're making strides.
Jen
Yeah.
That's awesome.
Jen
Well, I love that so much because I think just recognizing that this is a huge culture shift for your organization and just being proactive, like, okay, we want to make this as frictionless as possible. Like you said, as easy as possible because it is a big change and we've got to get adoption of not only new CRM, but we've got to get adoption of
somebody else is gonna be managing the leads and managing my calendar and setting appointments for me. That is a huge, I mean, I know personally it took me like a year to get my salespeople on board. So that's really great that you just acknowledge like we know this is gonna be hard and we're gonna put things in place to make it super easy for you. I think that was really smart. I love that.
Okay, so starting up a new program, obviously you had to hire. What do you look for? You because you've hired a few people now since you've been managing this position previously and in this, what are you looking for in an online sales specialist?
Meagan Baker
one
Meagan Baker
I would say the number one thing that I'm looking for in an online sales specialist is that they are coachable, that they have industry experience, that they are team oriented. I think that is a really, really big one. And that they also have a good phone personality and then that they're like nurturing.
Jen
Yes.
Meagan Baker
Those are all the top things that I look for. think the coachability is super important in this role because a lot of, I guess everyone that I have hired for this role hasn't done this particular role before. So it's new to them. So they need to be able to be coachable in what the role is and what they're supposed to do and how they're supposed to do it and all those things. And then being a team player is huge, especially with onsite sales team and being able to.
Jen
Yeah.
Meagan Baker
work with all the different types of onsite sales personalities and different communities. then especially, you know, now we have a team of two OSCs, so they need to be able to work well together and make sure they're on the same page. And yeah.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
work as a team.
Jen
Yeah, coachability is huge. As a manager, how do you suss that out?
Jen
Yeah, how do you assess that? Yeah, like how do you measure whether they're coachable or not?
Meagan Baker
like when I'm hiring.
Meagan Baker
great question. I mean, I've really embraced actually the do you convert way of hiring people. I think it really works. You know, having the questionnaire that you have them fill out first, doing the phone interview. So just asking the right questions and, you know, reading the responses to their questionnaire. And then just asking them, I mean, I think a lot of the interviews I actually asked them point blank, like, are you
Jen
I know, putting you on the spot.
Jen
Mm-hmm.
Meagan Baker
Are you willing to learn new things? Are you willing to learn a new role? What are you looking for? And just having a conversation with them and seeing how they answer those questions and that they are interested in the role and want to sit in that seat. Because we have had a lot of people apply that are on-site sales and so explaining that...
Jen
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Meagan Baker
this is a different role, a very different role than on-site and making sure they're willing to kind of make that switch or be open to knowing a new way of selling.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Yeah, you know, all of those things you're saying are so true. know, so I just want to unpack a couple things, you like sussing out coachability is so important. I agree with you. Like that is high on the list because if you're going to be able to hold somebody accountable and give somebody feedback and say, you know, these are the requirements of the job and
we're going to hold you to those requirements. This is an any job, any, any sales role, any job out there, somebody that is humble and hungry and smart. Like that's what you're looking for. Somebody that's going to take the feedback and or versus being defensive and, I got it. And, whenever I'm interviewing somebody, Megan, I'm, I'll like make them do a role play.
And then I'll say, okay, I'm gonna give you some feedback and see how they respond to that feedback. sometimes it's like, you can kind of tell right away, like if it's a defensive response, it's like, like, okay, you say you're coachable, but that's not the vibe that I'm getting. And like Megan was saying,
Meagan Baker
Absolutely.
Meagan Baker
Yeah.
Jen
we strongly recommend doing the interview process over the phone and email, like for the first steps, right? Because that's how they're gonna be interacting with your customers. And they gotta be able to make friends over the phone, but also close the deal and get the appointment. So I love that you do that. So since you've been in the industry and you've been around online sales for quite some time,
C has been the biggest shift in this role.
Meagan Baker
I would say kind of two different things. I guess I'll touch on just the role itself. Like I worked at six different new home builders, you know, over the last 15 years and you know, 15 years ago, no one knew what an OSC was. They'd never heard of the role before. A lot of the first builders that I worked for didn't even have this role. So, I mean, it wasn't until like,
Jen
Mm-hmm.
Jen
Yeah.
Meagan Baker
2020 when I was actually leaving TrueMark, which was the last builder I worked for in California before I moved to Idaho, they were just launching their online sales program and hiring one for their NorCal division and one for their SoCal division. before that, the role didn't exist. A lot of the builders I worked for. so a big shift that I've seen is it has become more and more of a popular role.
Jen
Mm-hmm.
Meagan Baker
national home builders have this role. A lot of the local builders in Boise are now having this role. So I just, that's a really big shift of just having this role and making it, you know, a common role on your team and part of your organization. And, you know, I think people are seeing how important this role is now and they're on the front lines and, you know, asking all the qualifying questions and
Jen
Mm-hmm.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Yeah.
Meagan Baker
setting appointments and they're seeing the value in the role and that the process works. So that's one of the biggest shifts I've seen. The other shift would be just that more and more sales are originating from this role because we're in such a digital world now. People are doing more and more shopping and research than ever online before they even come into your sales office. So really the sales process is, you know,
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Mm-hmm.
Meagan Baker
website to your OSC, like you were saying, 50 % of those sales are now originating from an online salesperson, which before they walked into a sales office or a model home and that's where all the sales came from. everything is, they're looking at your floor plans online, your virtual tours online, all of your digital sales tools on your website, that's your storefront and that's where you're selling from.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Yeah.
Meagan Baker
and then they're going through the online salesperson, it's just a big shift of using those tools and selling in a different way and all of those sales are now originating from, 50 % of them are originating online, which is crazy.
Jen
Yeah, yeah, it is crazy. So I love what you said about that because about one, back in 2012, like when I was an online sales specialist, 2012, 2013 through 2017, there weren't that many of us. And you could do minimal things.
and be amazing because it was a really unique role at the time for builders. So if you had an online sales specialist, it was like a big deal and you were getting results and it was like, my gosh, this is amazing. Fast forward to today when a lot of home builders now have this position. I'll quote our coach, Melissa Fort, who said earlier this year, she said,
You know, it's not enough to just have an online sales specialist. You gotta have a good one. So you gotta be doing all the things to set yourself apart from everyone else. And I think I agree with you, like that's a big shift. It's like, it's not enough to just have one. Like, are you doing the things that you need to do to gain market share, to be the best in your market, to be the best? So like,
Meagan Baker
Mm-hmm.
Jen
that puts it's more competitive now, I guess is what I'm saying. So, you know, on that note, you you, it was awesome. Like you attended our Leadership Academy last, or this year, we're wrapping it up and you were able to be with us. We had a small group of leaders. How did that help you?
Meagan Baker
Absolutely.
Jen
and maybe even just give you the confidence, you know, or maybe even the validation, what was your experience like in that academy last year?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, I think the Academy really helped me personally because I have not sat in the seat. I've managed to the seat at different builders that I've worked at, but I personally have never been an online salesperson. So I don't know what it's like every day to sit in the seat, be an online salesperson. So it, know, number one taught about the role, what they do day in and day out, you know, their daily schedule, routine, things like that. And then
Jen
Right.
Meagan Baker
how to manage that role too. And then giving the tools that you need to manage them daily, weekly, monthly, those tools to set them up for success, set me up for success, trackability, check-ins, just all the different things of the role. Just thought about the role period since I've never done the game myself. It was just a big education about online sales.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
Yeah. Was it helpful to like have other online sales leaders that you could kind of like, Hey, what, what do you do with this or how do you handle this? Talk to me about that.
Meagan Baker
Yeah, absolutely. I think it's great to have other leaders managing the role that you can talk to, bounce questions off of. mean, especially as I was looking to, you know, we just had a team of one and now we have a team of two. So I was able to kind of bounce some of those questions off of other leaders who are managing an online sales team of, okay, how do you break up their schedule? How do you, you know, what do their shifts look like?
you know, days on, days off, how do you go from a team of one to a team of two, because I've actually only ever managed a team of one, online sales. So just, you know, those questions of going from a team of one to a team of two and scheduling and all those things was just really nice to bounce those questions off other people or see how are you leading your online sales team or, you know, does your online sales report to marketing, do they report to sales or kind of what...
Jen
Right.
Jen
Right.
Meagan Baker
seeing what the different structures of their organizations were like and how their online sales person works with their onsite sales team. Kind of how those relationships and just really great to have other people that ask those types of questions.
Jen
Yeah.
Jen
And I found that everybody in our group did things completely different. It was like everybody had a unique, you know, setup or situation or, you know, and so it was, it was great for me too, just to kind of learn how, what everybody's doing out there and to be able to share those things with each other.
Meagan Baker
Yeah.
Jen
Last question, so for the online sales specialists that are listening to this right now, as a leader, what do you want them to know?
What should they take back to their leadership after listening to this?
Meagan Baker
keep that in the figure.
Meagan Baker
Never be afraid to ask questions. I have an open door policy and like I mentioned a little earlier is my online salesperson works in office every day so she's literally right across the office from me. I just love having an open relationship with her and she can come in any time of day and ask me any question that's on her mind or learning the company or floor plan or community, anything.
Just that, you know, and even if you're working from home, like don't be afraid to call your manager and pick up the phone and ask questions. I mean, even when she's off site, she calls me from the car, going there, coming back. Like, this constant communication, I think, is really important. So just, yeah, having open communication and don't be afraid to ask questions and, I mean, that's how you learn, right?
Jen
Yeah. Do you have regularly scheduled meetings with your OSC? Like on the calendar, this is our regular meeting. What does that look like?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, I do a weekly one-on-one with actually all of my direct reports. We also meet as a team every week. So yeah, I definitely have a weekly one-on-one check-in. You know, we go through their spreadsheet that has all of their appointments in there. It has all of their numbers in there, their conversions, know, leads, all of those things. We talk about...
Jen
Okay.
Meagan Baker
Right now we kind of go through all the different onsite salespeople and say, you know, who's doing what they're supposed to be doing and who's not doing what they're supposed to be doing. And I think even at summit, they're like, well, if 80 % of your onsite salespeople are using the CRM, you're a success. yeah, I meet with her weekly one-on-one. actually also meet with our...
Jen
Right.
Jen
Exactly. Just trying to get that 80%, baby.
Meagan Baker
sales manager once a week, the three of us meet because we just want feedback from him that he's getting from the onsite sales team of how is Lisa doing, what can she do to be better, what are you hearing from onsite sales, and since our sales manager's relatively new, we set that up when he started to just meet weekly and to have that.
Jen
Okay.
Meagan Baker
break down some of those barriers between sales and marketing.
Jen
Yes, I love that. Okay, thank you for bringing that up because that was on my mind and I forgot to mention that earlier. But if you're reporting to marketing, so like if online sales is reporting to marketing, then there's gotta be that dotted line to sales to bridge, make that connection, make sure that relationship is strong and vice versa.
If online sales is reporting to sales, then there's gotta be the dotted line to where they're interfacing with marketing periodically as well. Because again, we talk about online sales as the love child between sales and marketing. So we have to, you know, and sometimes we get stuck in these silos of, don't know what's going on with marketing. They never tell me anything. Sales doesn't know what I do, you know, like, and
Meagan Baker
the
Meagan Baker
Absolutely.
Meagan Baker
Yeah.
Jen
that can be really hard, so.
Meagan Baker
Yeah, so yeah, it was a little siloed when I started here. So we're trying to break down some of those barriers and walls. And I think it was a past Do You Convert conference. It's sales and marketing, not said versus marketing. So that's, yeah, that's something we say all the time. It's sales and marketing. just, yeah, making sure that there's communication going both ways.
Jen
Yeah, exactly. And sales and marketing.
Jen
I love that. Okay, Megan, it's time for a skills check because you gotta check yourself before you wreck yourself. And I think in honor of you being a guest here on OpToday, I think the skills check needs to be one, like if you are not meeting with your manager regularly, don't wait for them.
I'm going to ask you after I say this and you tell me what you think about this. But if their manager is not, you know, putting that meeting on their calendar weekly online sales, I want you to be proactive and you go say, I would like a meeting with you every week, even if it's for 30 minutes and online sales, you come with an agenda. Here's the things that I want to go over with you because you know, our managers out there, they're, they're busy.
You know, and they're spread thin and they're managing a lot of different people. And so don't sit back and wait. That was me as an OSC. I was like, I'm cool over here. Like, you don't need to meet with me. I'm doing my thing. But that was wrong. Like hand up. I'll be the first to say that was wrong. And so make sure that you're making that a priority as an OSC. And if
You're never interfacing with sales. Create that dotted line. You go send them a update. Send them a video email. Like if they're remote and they're kinda out and about at communities, send them a video email update. Hey, pop it into your inbox. Just wanted to give you an online sales update of what's going on over here. Be proactive in your communication. Because, know, especially in a...
harder market. Everybody wonders what everybody else is doing. And so the way to combat that is with proactive communication. So that's your skills check for the day. Megan, thank you so much for joining me today. How was your first podcast?
Meagan Baker
It was awesome. It was just, yeah, it's easy communication. You make it very easy.
Jen
It's just us. Yeah, we're just we're just chillin. We're just chillin. Okay last question I have for you. Are you down with OPT?
Meagan Baker
Yeah, you know me.
Jen
Woo, all right. Awesome, happy holidays. Thank you, Megan.
Meagan Baker
Thank you so much.
