Jen
Jessie. Here we are. It's OPT Day.
Jessie
The best day.
Jen
The best day. I was thinking about. You know, we're. It's now June. We're getting into summer. People are having vacations, which is awesome. Yes. Online sales specialist. You're allowed to take a vacation. Please do. where have you gone recently? What's been fun in your world?
Jessie
I just got back from a trip. So it's trip island. it's my first time.
Jen
For frappe it.
Jen
Proper, Never heard of it. Well, I like that.
Jessie
Hey. Okay. What it's known for, number one is golf courses and the beach. Of course, they have a bunch of deer that it's. Oh, they're very regulated. So you can't, like, have a gun on the the island or anything because they preserve their deer and they will walk right up to you. So they're everywhere. We rode our bike around the entire island and I probably saw 200.
Jessie
And it's amazing because they'll just walk across the golf course while you're playing. Like they are not scared of humans. So that was really fun.
Jen
Oh, wait, wait, I'm just remembering. I have a I'm remembering the text message that I got from you over the weekend. Oh, yeah? Where you said you were trying to have a moment and take a lovely video, and I hear Chase your husband in the background saying, like, I sure would like to eat that. Well, I know.
Jessie
I'm sitting there like, you know, we're watching these people. And in the house we stayed on was on the 18th hole, which is amusing in us because after 18 holes of golf, it's funny to watch people, but then there's this deer that walks across in the middle of the day and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's so cute.
Jessie
And I get my camera out and I'm starting to record this video. And he said something like, oh, I sure would like to shoot that.
Jessie
Put that in my freezer or something. And I'm like, you ruined.
Jen
It. You ruined it. Oh my gosh. Well, speaking of the great outdoors, my husband and I and Sam ventured out to West Virginia to what I thought was going to be this lovely rustic cabin glamping situation. At least that's what drew sold me on. Yeah, that's what I thought was happening.
Jessie
He's a good salesman.
Jen
Oh, yeah. Yeah, we we get there and it's like a three level shack, with three, like, bunk beds. And it's three adults, two dogs, two little windows. No bathroom. And I was like, oh, okay. So here's what I want to ask you. And I had never thought about this. And ever. But, you know, as I get older, I've got to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night more.
Jen
Okay. So I get up 4 a.m.. Okay, stumbling, making my way to the bath house, the community bath house. All right. And the thought pops into my head, what happens if a bear cat is it shows up? What are you supposed to do? Do you run?
Jessie
I don't think there's, like, a rule.
Jen
I know, but I'm sitting here contemplating at 4 a.m. and I'm, like, making my way to the bathroom like pitch black. If a bear. If a bear shows up, what do you do? I think it's something.
Jessie
Like, if it's brown, lay down. If it's black, like, it's like attack. Like you yell back at it and it'll run away. I know it's some rule. Like with the snake.
Jen
You're listening and, you know, maybe our guest will know. But if you're listening and you know, what are you supposed to do if you see a. I think in West Virginia, it's mainly black bears. So if you see a black bear, what do you do? Do you flee? Do you make friends? I don't know, I'd.
Jessie
Probably try and pet it. I don't know.
Jen
Fortunately made it to the bath house. No issues. It was quite the adventure. So yeah.
Jessie
It looked amazing.
Jen
All right, let's get into this. Okay. Episode 17 Jesse. And you believe that? yes. We are back. We are here. And I'm so excited. to introduce our special guests, we had the guest day. We have guests today, and, you know, these two, they've been on Oppt before. I was looking back their oppt pros. They've been here with us.
Jen
And they're not only oppt pros, but they are online sales specialist pros. Yeah. please join us in welcoming Elena mora and Chelsea Glidden from Ideal Homes. Welcome, ladies. Hey. Hey, there you are. Hello. So if you have been living under a rock and you don't know who these two are, let us tell you, a little bit about Elena.
Jen
She is, a Nash. She was National online sales specialist of the year. in 2023. Yeah. Right here. Am I screwing this out? Okay. 2023 National Association of Home Builders, online sales specialist of the year. We were there. We got to see her get the award. It was amazing. she's just absolutely fantastic. And then her partner in crime is Chelsea Glidden.
Jen
They are a dynamic duo and, in fact, like, just a little side story. Fun fact, we were the last time we were on a call together, as I have the pleasure of working with them, they said to me, Jesse, they said, hey, like what? What are the latest trends? Like, what are people doing? Like, what are their online sales specials doing?
Jen
And and I gave them some examples of like some cool video emails that people are doing and you know, some different like marketing things. And I was like, hey, get out on site, do some things, whatever. And I'm like, well, what are y'all doing? And they're like, oh, well, yeah, we're doing some of that. But like, we have this new, like appointment setting process where we're classifying salespeople as red and green and we're getting some great results.
Jen
And I was like, wait, what? Tell me more. Yeah, tell me more. And I'm like, you guys are the trendsetters. I mean, you're asking me what other people are doing. Yeah. Look at Lena. Lena, what do you think? What do you think when I say that?
Chelsie
It just makes me so proud because, you know, Chelsea and I work so hard, and we really have a great group here at Ideal Homes, where marketing and sales team, we really work together to figure out how to increase our conversions. And so the green team, red team was a product of all of our work.
Jen
I'm sure everybody is just waiting patiently to hear about this, because this is definitely something that is a total like out of the box thing. and so we're going to get into that. But, Jesse, I know you've heard this. I mean, this is a this is something from that with stands the test of time. Is this, you know, my salespeople, how do I bridge the gap?
Jen
How do I get salespeople to use the CRM? What are you hearing people talk about? Well.
Jessie
I have I'm not saying anything I've never done before. So we say this, we've done everything the right way, the wrong way, the easy way, the hard way. And so I did this myself for quite some time, and I noticed a trend and other newer online sales specialist, they are kind of encouraging bad behavior, with getting on sites to use the CRM.
Jessie
And because they don't live, eat and breathe CRM if they're not in and all the time it's not like second nature. And so they're like sending notes, like detailed notes via email to the on site to make sure that they're prepared. Instead of saying, hey, here's a link to this customer's CRM profile, go take a look at the notes and let me know if you have any questions, versus here's all the notes.
Jen
You'll.
Jessie
Get back. I know right.
Jen
I did that.
Chelsie
I did that too.
Jen
Yeah. Okay. So we all that because we want to be, you know why? Why do you think we do that? Why do we set up the.
Jessie
Freaking note.
Chelsie
Once the. Yeah, we want the conversion. We want to go to hand off. We want. Yeah. Definitely.
Jen
Yeah.
Chelsie
So we're taking care of.
Jen
We want to make it easy for them. So we end up like just doing it for them. Like I think about like all the things I do for my children. And I'm like, I really should teach them to do this and not do it for them because I'm going to be like hitting myself in the. So it's the same thing with our salespeople.
Jen
We've all done it, as you can hear us talking about, is that we are enabling or we're not enabling best practices. We're enabling kind of the the quick like return. Like, I'll just do this for you. I'll make it easy for you so that I know that you've seen the information. I know that you've looked at the the notes, and I know that the appointment showed up or didn't show.
Jen
That's what we're ultimately trying to figure out, right? Eliana and Chelsea, I'll let you chime in here. you know, Alana, you've worked at Aldi Ideal Homes. For how long? 17, 18 years, something like that.
Chelsie
August will be my 20th year, and I.
Jen
Years.
Chelsie
So 18 years in this seat.
Jen
Okay.
Chelsie
And I've seen.
Jen
What you've seen, you know, what's the what's the age old challenge of getting everybody to use the CRM then what's what's it been like?
Chelsie
We've come a long way. And I say, now that I have a partner, she and I can really help coach our team and see the value in using the CRM as before. It was just kind of like an afterthought. But now, like, we create really good templates and really good processes. So it's just a set it and forget it.
Chelsie
So it's really simple for them. but they do have to get in the CRM. They do have to do the work and we will be randomly auditing them. And you know how you always say observe and report? We do. We can do exactly that. to make sure that, they have those additional coaching opportunities with their sales manager.
Chelsie
so that way, you know, we're making the most out of every single prospect that walks through our door.
Jen
Yeah. Anything to add to that? Chelsea?
Chelsie
Yes. So as far as the auditing, random further down the line. Yes. but we do track the handoff process. and the initial follow up. So that part is not random. We know, and we track it every single day. it gets down to Erin and then ultimately to our sales manager. and then also, I guess more spotting, the auditing, kind of spot audit we're noticing, you know, right now, just like everybody else, we're really digging deeper into prospecting.
Chelsie
and we were for a while, trying to stay out of the sales side of it and just doing our leads. And we've exhausted most of our. Yeah, online leads. and so we are going back into the sales bucket. And so we are noticing, you know, who was continuing the follow up and who was not yet in it.
Chelsie
I mean, it's pretty easy to know who was continuing to follow it and who was like, because they were having conversions that were older. but the proof is in the pudding right there, unless we're seeing it as we're going and checking for notes to do prospecting. So yeah, we'll actually be speaking with our sales team on Friday, at their sales circle about best practices and last seven.
Jen
So I want to I want to back up and just talk about a couple things. So one thing that you said was observe and report. Both of you use that phrase. And I think, you know, when you're when you're looking at the, you know, how well as the handoff going, how well is that, you know, introduction from sales like once you said the appointment and post appointment follow up and notifying you of did they show up did they not?
Jen
These are the things right, Jesse, that we hear online sales complain about a lot. Like, hey, I don't know, did I don't know what happened with the appointment. And I've got to quantify that. it's one thing to go, hey, how's your handoff going? Well, I mean, I feel like it's going okay versus actually tracking it. Did they do it or did they not do it that way?
Jen
You have it there in black and white. Observe and report up to sales leadership. Now I just want to caution everybody, don't get caught in the CRM accountability police patrol. Jesse, what happens? What have you seen happen when when you get get they're holding their salespeople accountable.
Jessie
Yeah. You never know. Bridging the gap. Don't go in there and go direct to them and say, hey why didn't you put the notes in there? Why didn't you do this? Because then they're going to be like, okay, stay in your lane. Like, do your thing, I'll do my thing. But if there's one thing I have seen or heard, it's that both, whether you're online or on site, you like that accountability piece.
Jessie
So you allow that to come from upper leadership, because people like to prove that they're doing what they should be doing. with also, like you said, the opportunity to grow and to be coached in areas where maybe they are lacking and they have a place to ask.
Jen
Yeah. Okay. So you guys at Ideal, felt like there was a need to do something different. So talk a little bit about what was going on that drove you to the point of coming up with a basically like a rating system for your salespeople. Right?
Chelsie
So over the past year or so, a little over a year things since things have slowed down, appointments are harder to come by. And we got to a point where we were noticing, some specific communities, within our area that we were having to send appointments to, consultants that weren't converting. and it was a high amount of appointments.
Chelsie
And how we set appointments is, communities have a specific community manager, assigned to them that they work out of every day. And if they didn't have a community manager either a roamer. So someone who was new, would cover it, be scheduled in that community on their day off or, whoever was closest. That's how we were getting comments.
Chelsie
So we were noticing that just by that default, the same new home consultants were getting the bulk of the appointments. That was just a hot spot and they weren't converting. And we felt it, you know, appointments were harder to come by. We wanted to see them convert. We wanted to give more opportunity to the new consultants that we knew had a proven track record of, yeah, doing the follow up.
Jen
You're like, man, I got this appointment. You're feeling really good. It's appropriately qualified, you're excited about it, and then you're thinking, why is this not converting? Like what's happening?
Chelsie
Yeah. And you know, we did speak to our yeah. Aaron, who is our marketing director, about this issue, and she presented it to the sales managers and they could see our frustration, but they really wanted to focus on fairness as part of you know, being fair in proximity. and so that's what the focus was on. So we just kind of let things play out, for, I would say, the course of all of last year, when you say Chelsea and then.
Chelsie
Yeah. And so we were still noticing more opportunities that were lost because just like Chelsea said, we would set up these really good, qualified appointments and we'd send them to the same new home consultant and they wouldn't convert, and we would try to sneak in an appointment with someone from another area just to try to, you know, throw some other new home consultants and bone and give, you know, an opportunity to them.
Chelsie
But then, you know, we kept getting bombarded with texts and emails and calls from new home consultants and, and sales managers saying, why are you giving the appointment to this person, you know, instead of you're supposed to be focusing on giving it to the person who's right across the street from that neighborhood. And so, you know, we had further discussions with Aaron.
Chelsie
and then from there we started they enacted like a two hour rule, which was basically, all the new home consultants have to have two hours space time gap between each appointment so they can spend quality time with that in-home consult with that prospect and then go to their office and complete their last two activities. So that went on for a little while.
Chelsie
And then, we were still noticing just terrible conversions with all of the customers we were required to send, to start a new home consultant. So Aaron created, a formula in our, new home consultant dashboard to show the total distribution of appointments. And then from there, we noticed that several of the new home consultants who had the majority of the appointments had the lowest conversions.
Chelsie
And so.
Jen
Chelsie
With that data, she took it to the sales managers and the VP of sales, and they came up with this idea for the green team, red team, which basically their goal is if you want to be on the green team and you have to have a 30% appointment to sell conversion. So for online, for online appointments, that's a rolling six month.
Jen
Yes. Okay. So just pause for a second if you want to be if you want to get on the green team and the green team gets priority appointments right is when I'm understanding.
Chelsie
Okay, like overflow appointments to the neighborhoods that don't have an assigned.
Jen
Meeting. So yeah, let's for everybody listening, let's clarify something. So if there is a designated community that has an assigned salesperson at that community, they're getting the appointment because that's their community. They take ownership. That's their they own that community for all intents and purposes, okay. But if there's overflow situations, there's a float or there's, where there's not a designated sales person and they that's kind of cross like cross selling, right?
Jen
Yeah. There's the green team. And in order the green team gets the priority appointments. And in order to be on the green team, you have to show a conversion of appointment to sale of 30%. Oh. How many how many people do you have on the green team.
Chelsie
It varies monthly to monthly.
Jen
It's revival.
Chelsie
Right. And it's on a rolling six months. But I would say it averages about for a new home consultant every month. so far we've had two that have since we rolled this out in December of last year. We've had two new home consultants have been since the very beginning.
Jen
Oh nice. Okay. I was going to ask you, how long have you been doing this? So since December?
Chelsie
Yes.
Jen
when you first did you have any, did you have any fears at first when everybody decided to roll this out?
Chelsie
A little bit, yeah. So the first day when they told us we were like so excited. Yeah, this is awesome. And then the first couple times I went to do it, I was like.
Jen
Oh.
Chelsie
This is there was a little bit of a gut check like, oh, I asked for this, but it feels a little, you know, like.
Jen
Are you going to piss people.
Chelsie
Off? Yes, yes. You know, and as much as we asked for it, it, it still kind of was in the back of your mind like, oh, but luckily we have a phenomenal relationship with our sales managers and with the VP of sales and with Aaron, our marketing director, and they were told from the get go, this is how we're doing things.
Chelsie
Do not question it. these are the roles. And don't call them and ask.
Jen
Them.
Chelsie
Why they set those appointments. They don't because those people have this conversion. Right? Okay. End of story.
Jen
Yeah. Leadership buy in is crucial. If it's something like this right. okay. So fear of like, oh gosh, am I going to piss people off? Like, what does this mean? And then so how okay, six months in basically what are the results? Is it working like.
Chelsie
It is definitely working. Yes. So at the end of last year, our appointment to sell conversion was about 24%.
Jen
Okay.
Chelsie
And so far this year our appointment to sell is at 29.2%.
Jen
Okay.
Chelsie
And in April we had one of our highest conversion rates, for appointment to sale at around 36.5.
Jen
Wow.
Chelsie
So yes, it has made a huge difference. And yeah, we're very, very excited about this program.
Jen
Okay. And how are your sales teams adjusting?
Chelsie
you can definitely see the line in the sand for the ones that it highly motivated. And for the ones who are wallowing in this maybe it doesn't seem fair.
Jen
yeah.
Chelsie
Yes. And you can kind of tell who is on the green team and who is not just by auditing their last. So because the ones that have the most buy in with the follow up process, they're consistent with their follow up activities, doing their hand off all of that. Whereas the members who are consistently on the red team, they typically don't add good notes.
Chelsie
They typically don't.
Jen
That's what I was going to ask. Yeah, I was going to ask like, so obviously you're appointments, the sale numbers have increased, which is amazing. But have you seen the behaviors in CRM improve or kind of stay the same? Or what are you seeing there?
Chelsie
Well, like it's mainly the people on the green team who have been consistent through the out the entire process. I would say that when a new home consultant gets one of our our appointments, they take them a lot more seriously than they did in the past. Green team, red team. You know, they they actually take more time with them rather than, you know, oh, and kind of pre-qualifying them in their minds like they're not ready to go in a year.
Chelsie
So I guess I'm not going to give it my all or whatever. You know, I feel like they're, a lot more serious with the customers.
Jen
Jesse, what do you think about this?
Jessie
I'm so intrigued. I mean, I'm over here racking my brain. So for people like me who aren't the best at math, you know, when you think about, conversion change from the industry standard of 20%, even jumping just up to what their lower one was last 20.
Jen
Four.
Jessie
Percent, 25%, that changes one out of every 5 to 1 out of every four. And then when you jump from 25% to 30 or percent, 3%, that's one out of every three. And that's a big difference when you compare that to the average walk in conversion of one out of 12. So your insights, I think over time will see the value of getting that conversion rate where it needs to be so that they can get the opportunity of the.
Jessie
I only have to see 3 or 4 prospects to get one sale versus 12 to get one sale. And so it's going to motivate in the best way. It's just going to maybe eliminate those who can't keep up or can't get with it. And it's going to accelerate those who are putting the customer first, who are making the sales for the company now I'm going in my brain and I'm going back in time.
Jessie
When I was in the seat. And I'm thinking, you know, when we did the same thing in regards to onsite being on site, unless they're off and it's a floater or, somebody who's training up to be an onsite. And in that case, I would do everything that I could. When a customer called in to schedule that appointment on the day that the designated on site was there.
Jessie
But in this case, you know, maybe you would lean more towards getting them in when the person's off, you know, when you're when your regular life doesn't.
Chelsie
Convert and.
Jen
See, we don't.
Chelsie
Have.
Jessie
That bandwidth.
Chelsie
that's, that's funny that you would think about it that way. I don't ever, you know, I, I guess we have a large sales team, and locally, like, I know, just a you come what, from a national builder when you're in the state. So, like, you guys had communities. What, different states or vastly in different cities, things like that look like we're pretty local and have a large sales team.
Chelsie
So I've never really thought that, you know, that way. I'm like, I don't even suggest a time. Usually I'm like, when do you want to come? When, like whatever your best time is, I will have someone there. So but that's an interesting.
Jessie
yeah. But you just go, well, what about right Thursday when our primaries, they're kind of like, yep. You want to come on me?
Jen
I would be. I would be lying if I didn't when I was in the seat. You know, there were certain salespeople that did a better job than others. Oh yeah. That's right. You're like, okay, I'm going to book the appointment with Jessie because, you know, she does a good job. I mean, this is kind of the same thing, but just in with with rules or with with guidelines around it really like if you think about it.
Jen
Listen we there's one thing, there's one thing, you know those of you listening this only works if you track the results with anything. Right. You have to. We encourage you to go try different things but have the data to support it. So you'll notice Elena, you said we we you did your research first. You got the dashboards in place.
Jen
You were tracking results per community, per salesperson, you know, per appointment, looking at what was happening. you didn't just go, well, I think they get more sales, so I'm going to make them green, like, you know, you you had the data to support it, and then you're tracking the results. You know, that is so important in anything that you do so that you know what is truly working and what is not.
Chelsie
Elena is huge on not I will at a time say I think or I feel and now I see myself because I know that she has trained me to be like, well, is that a feeling or is it a actually, like trend versus something you saw highly for 2 or 3 days, or is it actually happening a lot?
Chelsie
so luckily she's good at checking us on that. And Aaron is obsessed with Excel spreadsheets. So we track. Yeah.
Jen
Shout out to you. Shout out to your manager, Aaron. she is freaking amazing. And the other thing I will say to anybody listening is anything like this has to come from leadership. It cannot come from the OSC saying, I have created, now it what it has been. Okay, Johnny and Scott are on the green team and I have determined that Jesse, rest of you suck.
Jen
The rest of you are on the red team and you're not getting any appointments, you know, because again, that will just what create friction, right? So it's got to come from leadership and leadership's got to be one to hold them hold them accountable. And it can't be online sales like letting them know like you're on your off like congratulations this month you're on our team and you suck.
Jen
You're on the red team now. Sorry. okay. Well let's let's kind of move into we've got a video email in our video mailbag that came in from, one of our dear online sales specialist, Stephanie Moffitt from Chesapeake Homes. And I'm going to share this, and then we'll talk about it.
Elena
Hey, everyone. I have a quick question for the masses. What is the importance of keeping the relationship positive between the on site sales representatives and the online sales team? And one more question on top of that, as well as how do you do it? I can't wait to hear back from you guys.
Jen
Thank Boy, I love this question so much. So guys, first of all, what's the importance of having a good relationship versus a bad relationship?
Chelsie
I mean, is, you know, the market isn't the easiest at the moment.
Jen
Yeah.
Chelsie
And you need your energy, your positivity, your bandwidth to be focused on making the best of that versus wrangling. You know, the relationships are ups and downs with your on site, so I feel like it's very important to reserve that for candle today.
Jen
So basically what you're saying for your sanity.
Chelsie
Yes.
Jen
Amen. Let's have a, let's have a good positive working relationship to preserve our sanity, create, you know, have a better work environment. Yeah. Because it's hard.
Chelsie
Enjoy each other. Yes. Yeah. We're all in it together. We're not.
Jen
In this.
Chelsie
Yeah. Just to kind of piggyback off that, I mean, when you have a good relationship, your conversions improve significantly. And, what we really noticed from what we were tracking was, you know, all of those opportunities that were lost, when we didn't really have appointments going to the right people and not being able to really communicate that to some of the salespeople, like, hey, you need to step up your game because we're sending you all of these appointments.
Chelsie
but it's just really necessary to have that good relationship to get them, you know, motivated.
Jen
Yeah. So sanity increased conversions for sure. Like if you're doing this all the time you're not going to have and you don't have good communication. that's going to cause a problem. What what do you think Jesse. Anything else. I mean in the positive.
Jessie
It naturally it creates a better customer experience. which is what we all care about, because happy customers equal sales, and and we're all employed because there are sales happening. And so we have to remember it's customer first. But it all starts with internal relationships. Because your customers from the online perspective, can tell if you aren't smiling when you're on the phone.
Jessie
And it's hard to smile on the phone when you're always feeling like there's like combativeness or, miscommunication happening. And miscommunication normally happens from lack of knowledge or lack of transparency or understanding of going. This person has all of my opportunity for my future income, and I'm supposed to trust them. And if you're not communicating with them on, here's all that I'm doing with them, here's what I'm making sure that I'm getting rid of so that you don't have to, you know, take that part of your day for that wasted time.
Jessie
And we're in it together. That communication and that takes time to get there. But then the other piece that I think might be a good reminder for somebody who may be struggling with this is that 80% buy in is 100% success. So, like, you're never going to win over 100% of your sales team. But if you can identify that it's lower than that, there's some work to be done.
Jessie
And that's a good thing because the rest will be a byproduct of that hard work.
Jen
I love that 80% is 100% success. No truer words have been spoken. I have chills. So let's talk about now. Okay, if you're having that issue or if you're having an issue with connecting, what are some things that we can do as online sales to create a more positive, connection? And I just want to start out by saying online sales specialist, I'm looking you in the eyeballs.
Jen
It is absolutely on like up to you to proactively try to make this better. I see online sales sometimes go, wow, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing and sales isn't doing their part. Okay. However, what are you doing to insert yourself into their world to make the connection. So I just want to preface that by all of these things are in your some of these things are in your control that you need to be doing on your end.
Jen
Okay. So who has an idea or something that you guys have done that's, that's helped.
Chelsie
I think if you're noticing an area that they're lacking in or you're calling them for some type of check in, you know, start by asking how is it going? How do you think it's going? Do you feel like you anything is amiss or doesn't make sense, to you? Check in with them. There may be a reason something is going awry.
Chelsie
Don't just call. You didn't do this. You know, make sure you're checking in with them. Yeah. and explain your why on the processes and your position. not a whole lot of things unless you come from home sales, them car sales, things like that have an online sales program. so explain your job and the value that the company sees that it brings, and how you're there to help.
Jen
So what I, what I hear you're saying, you saying what translates to me is, one be humble. Like be humble when you are, working with your on site team. Like, don't be afraid to ask, how am I doing? How was that appointment? How are things going? Is there anything I can help you with? Like how was that appointment?
Jen
How were the bargains when they came out? Like, keep the lines of communication open and be humble. And, you know, he he or she is essentially like your customer as well. Nothing happens in our world unless sales happen. So we have to figure out a way to, to make that connection. And then the other thing you said, Chelsea, is having an under standing for what each other does, unless you have done the role of online sales like you don't know.
Jen
So like take some time to educate them, he said. The why like here's, here's our process, here's why we do what we do. Here's how this is going to help you. because otherwise they don't know, you know. So understanding. Yeah.
Jessie
And vice versa. If you've never been on site, go shadow them. Because if you're not setting expectations that align with what the on site is doing when they come out, they're going to have that friction every time. Like, what is she saying to these people? They don't seem to have the right understanding. So just as much as you're telling them what you do, you need to know what they do.
Jessie
And so staying in front of them, just being present, attending sales meetings and also getting to know them personally, I think we can all agree, you know, you've got work relationships, but there's a different level when you can ask them about their vacation or their children or their spouse, and that just takes it to a new level.
Jen
Like, hey, what do you do when you got a P in the middle of the night and you got and there's a bear coming at you, what do you suggest?
Chelsie
Oh, by the way, you guys were right with your bear. So it's, brown lay down, black fight back. White. Good night.
Jessie
White. Good night.
Jen
Like they're going to die.
Chelsie
Like that's going to kill you anyways. You're over. Okay.
Jen
oh.
Chelsie
I was, like, dying, listening. I was like, they're right there on it.
Jen
We're back full circle. Okay, I go so, so black bear. I should have been, like, ready to defend myself in my pajamas. Yes. Let's go.
Jessie
Yeah, I can just I can just make sure.
Jen
That that's okay. Seriously, though, I love what Jesse's saying, because. Yeah, like, get to know them, take them coffee, like, you know, especially listen, if you are new coming into an organization, you're in street cred building mode with your salespeople. one of the best, easiest ways to build street cred with your salespeople is set really good appointments and communicate like set appropriately qualified appointments and communicate about the appointment.
Jen
Post appointment. How's it going? What's happening? Elena, any additional thoughts from you?
Chelsie
I would recommend taking a disc personality assessment because, yes, it seems a little off, you know, why would I check my personality? I'm fabulous. Why would I want to look at that? Then when I, when I, we brought Chelsea on board, I didn't realize that my personality was driving her away and it was intimidating her. and then because I didn't know certain parts about myself because I learned I am a De, which is a driver.
Chelsie
And if you look at like the four different animal types, which is I'm a bull and I will bulldoze people to get my way. And I didn't really realize that about myself. So having that understanding of your personality and being self-aware kind of helps you be a little bit more compassionate whenever you're speaking to someone that you might recognize, maybe they're a little bit more passive and and I need to word things differently.
Chelsie
and, you know, so that way they're a little bit definitely more receptive to my very, just sharp, concise, utterly blunt responses. So I.
Jen
Love.
Chelsie
That us and also with the sales team, because, you know, every sales team has a variety of different personality types. So this just is like a quick shortcut to help, to communicate with their team better.
Jen
That's amazing. And you know what else is amazing? That's an awesome segue too. You got to check yourself. So what you're saying is, like, you got to check yourself, like be self-aware. we also need to do a skills check because you got to check yourself before you wreck yourself. So this week, skills check is observe and report.
Jen
So if you are not currently tracking, the handoff, you need to be so that you don't have the feels like Chelsea was saying and that you have the more concrete data. here's what's working, here's what's not. Here's people who are actively doing the handoff consistently like they're doing it. They're doing great. And then here's the repeat offenders.
Jen
The repeat offenders. Then get the additional coaching for management and training. Like, hey, you're continuing to not do what you need to do versus making it everybody's issue. so track, you know, like if you guys are keeping up with like an appointment tracker where you're logging it, just put it on there, have a column we recommend you have a column for, the appointment the handoff intro occurred.
Jen
So sales is reaching out introducing themselves at the time of the appointment. Yes or no? They did it or they didn't. And then post appointment verification, they did it or they did it. Yes or no. And you just keep track of that observing report. The other thing, thinking about what Alana said as far as like, how do you know which communities or salespeople are converting the best?
Jen
You guys should absolutely be tracking appointment to sale conversion at the community level and at the, salesperson level. Like if you're cross-selling, you know, you're not just one per community. So that's your homework. That's your skills. Check. Make sure you're tracking Jesse. Anything to add to that?
Jessie
No, not really. I think, the only thing is, is when you're looking at data, don't take the data at face value. Understand the story behind it. So if there's something that consistently off, you know, let's figure out where that's coming from. Or hey, maybe it's lower here because we have less inventory. Or hey, maybe the quality of lead from the marketing department is capturing the wrong target audience, or where is the break in the chain and then figure out how to resolve that issue so that they do have the opportunity to be team Green if they have those qualities as a salesperson.
Jessie
If not, get them there.
Jen
You know a good point, right? You they can't be held, you know, to, what am I trying to say? They can't be dismissed if they're everybody's on a waitlist. So their appointment to say all right, wouldn't they wouldn't be able to meet that standard because they can't convert right now. So that's the story behind that community's data.
Jen
Makes total sense. Yeah. well, guys, thanks for listening. You can see why we wanted Elena and Chelsea to be on with us. One there just a wealth of wisdom and information. thank you guys so much. You are constantly thinking of new ways to do things in your role. So we appreciate that very much and just want to highlight you, and so that you can share this with everybody else.
Jen
Great job. And thank you for joining us.
Chelsie
Thank you for having us.
Jen
Oh, awesome. The last question I have for you is are you down with Opt?
Chelsie
Yeah, you have.
Jen
Me I love it. Okay. We'll see you next time.
Chelsie
Thank you. Bye.
