Being curious in a sales role can be a big advantage. It helps you dig beneath the surface and develop a true relationship with your prospect. The same is absolutely true in new home online marketing as well.

During coaching sessions I will often pull up Google Analytics and begin to slice the information in different ways – always asking the question “do you see anything surprising, or something that you don’t know what would have caused the results we are looking at?” The goal is to be so in touch with your key metrics and campaigns that you aren’t being surprised or caught off guard. If you are, then you need to dig in and find some answers. Then we spend time reviewing how to quickly perform a data check without getting lost in the system for hours.

However, every good rule deserves to be broken – right? If you find yourself never being surprised by metrics, results, or the feedback you are getting too comfortable. If you aren’t stretching you will miss out on more than just subtle changes, but entire shifts in the market. Right now, if you aren’t being surprised at the ability of social media to drive real measurable appointments and sales you are missing a big shift.

A little over a year ago leads from Facebook would have been way down on my list of priorities. The quantity of leads was high, and the quality of the lead was poor. A bad combination for an effective marketing funnel. Plus, inside sales teams hated seeing them come in and treated them as third tier leads. By continuing to make small bets, testing theories, and stretch a bit out of our comfort zone – we now see a true cost per lead as low as $10. By taking the same scientific approach to the sales process with these leads we have found ways to get a higher percentage of those leads to become engaged with the inside sales team than leads from a well-known industry syndication portal. Cost per appointment is nearly half.

I’m 35 now, and that means I have to add something to my daily mental checklist (even though I’m a millennial!). Am I keeping myself open enough to BE surprised at all? Or do I shut things down too soon because I’ve seen it fail before. It takes more energy to have this attitude the older you get, but it is a necessity. Remember all those people who panned email leads as junk not worthy of a response around 2005? I do too, and that’s all the motivation I need.

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