Disclaimer: This transcript was auto-generated using AI-powered software. Please excuse any typos or grammatical errors.

To listen to this podcast episode, visit Ep 52: Design Studios with Jane Meagher.

Kevin Oakley 00:10

Welcome to market proof marketing, the weekly podcast from the marketing minds at DoYouConvert.com. Where we talk about the current state of all things digital and how they impact Home Builders and developers around the globe. We’re not here to sell you, we’re here to help you and to try and elevate the conversation. I’m Kevin Oakley and with me today, as always, is the ad Dr. Andrew Peek. We’re here at number 52.

Andrew Peek 00:28

And Becca is here on this good Good Friday. Hi, so how’s everybody’s week been? Good. Yeah,

Kevin Oakley 00:34

no, it’s been very good. Busy but but good. We’ve got to count them to open positions Do you convert right now we did just hire we can’t tell you who yet but she has officially accepted the content manager position here do you convert so she’ll be working to help us expand the content that we’re putting out including this podcast, upgrading it both amount and quality and tight. And so I’m super excited to be able to have her on the podcast let you all meet her cuz you You know her and you like her? what we have? Yeah, we have two open positions. And if you’re listening to this podcast right now, you are probably an ideal candidate for these two positions. So like, we always struggle with titles here. This, this process has always happened like Becca, what do you want to be called? Andrew? What do you know? That’s my title. So it’s a benefit of being a small, small team. So we’re calling them an SEM slash paid social specialist, but you’re going to be an integral part of the team working on paid search campaigns, paid social campaigns, Facebook, Instagram, interacting with the builder partners you work with, it’s you know, we are we are leveling up not just how we do things, but also who we’re doing them with. And so you’ve got two awesome opportunities. So Becca, yeah, you used to work for builder. I sure did. And now you work with us.

Andrew Peek 01:50

Yes, I do. It’s been a year. It’s right out of here, right.

Becca Thomas 01:54

Yeah. I think a couple weeks from now. It’ll be a year. I really enjoy it.

Kevin Oakley 01:59

And we’re only paying her a little bit to say that what would you say Becca from working with a builder to to join our team has been the most, I guess fun is the right word. Right. But like this is the exposure to multiple people, the structure of the day kind of just sell sell everyone listening on exactly why you apply for these positions, please.

Becca Thomas 02:21

So it’s kind of both it’s a little more technical, which I enjoy. And it makes me think harder. And you get to work with a variety of people doing a variety of things. So while a lot of it is ads, and landing pages and things like that, it’s always a little bit different. And the schedule is, I mean, it’s amazing.

Kevin Oakley 02:41

Yeah, the commute in particular is amazing. Oh yeah, the commute is awesome, remote positions,

Becca Thomas 02:46

getting an accident with my cat on the way to work. screwed

Andrew Peek 02:51

me, it’s a pile up.

Kevin Oakley 02:54

And when you said technical, I’m sure a lot of people got scared and they were about to hit hit, apply and submit the resume but actually There Feel free to correct me or Yeah, I feel like we’re very collaborative as well, though. So while you are free to get your work done in the manner that is most efficient for you, you are just one slack message away from Andrew, Kevin, Jackie, Mike, Jen help.

Becca Thomas 03:15

Oh, for sure. It’s definitely an awesome positive team environment.

Kevin Oakley 03:21

I have a fun question that I’d selfishly just want to know, but also might be helpful for people considering if this is worth

Andrew Peek 03:27

on the spot. Yeah.

Kevin Oakley 03:29

So from a from a technical perspective, yes. After spending the last year with us on a scale of one to 10 where would you say you were prior to coming on board and have you has that needle moved at all? Do you feel more technically proficient?

Becca Thomas 03:43

Oh, definitely. Much more technically proficient, I would say was probably at a two but I knew that there was going to be a lot of things I had to learn and then I had to learn quickly. It was all manageable and Andrew did a great job of teaching me how to do the things I didn’t know how to do.

Andrew Peek 04:02

Yes, we need to record that. Play it every day. Andrew you’re a great trainer

Kevin Oakley 04:08

follow up because I always have new questions after I get an answer to a question. How did you think you were too before you came on board? Yeah, did you realize you did okay? So you weren’t you weren’t imagining that you were a six then you’re like holy crap I’m in trouble I’m a to know kind of

Becca Thomas 04:21

I knew it was a big jump from you know, we had 20 communities so I was doing probably three different markets in 20 communities where the AdWords and Facebook just a totally different ballgame but at the same time, it’s also manageable

Kevin Oakley 04:37

and you don’t have weekly staff meetings or daily update reports are correct.

Becca Thomas 04:42

I don’t have sales agents walking in my office asking for print ads because they don’t understand digital good,

Kevin Oakley 04:50

right. So you get you get to focus a little bit more which which definitely helps. Yeah, as well. Awesome. So yeah, you heard it from Becca apply now and also Sarah The most important thing is the ability to have empathy for the builders that we partner with because they all have challenges and that’s the like the unteachable part. And that’s why we sent Andrew to spend time embedded with the home builder that he spent time with the summer is because we are certainly prioritizing that experience. So even if we have other candidates that are technically perhaps better than then someone may be listening now if you have that homebuilder experience we will teach you and get you to where you need to be quickly and we have plenty of resources to do that so for sure

Andrew Peek 05:29

I think that the first side Becca I think you are being mean on yourself too for sure I think you’re higher than that but i think it’s it’s scales quickly the knowledge of shared as you get to spend and love Google ads and Facebook ads without for the most part without like lots of distractions people walk in your door so you you quickly go Oh wow. Like I’m learning this very quickly because I’m not yeah 10 minutes and Google and then someone walks over this way and then an hour then oh, everyone’s lunch and it’s like so I think you’ve quickly learned but the builder side like Kevin just said like that’s that’s unteachable.

Becca Thomas 06:02

And the other bonus is that the people you work with understand the value of digital marketing, right? That’s Yeah,

Andrew Peek 06:08

that’s an assumption. I forget sometimes. Like we don’t have that like convinced. Yeah, for the most part. No, there’s no convincing of it’s like, oh, we gotta do this Facebook, Google. Let’s go.

Kevin Oakley 06:17

Yeah, yeah, they’ve they’ve come and chosen to work with you convert because they understand that’s, that’s our that’s our jam. That’s that’s where we spend time in our jam. Oh, we do. Yeah, no, I completely, completely agree when you have the ability to stay focused on a small number of things, but go very deep in it. You know, I’ve had a couple calls this past week where someone has mentioned that Facebook updated the the way that the business manager looks for them, and they’re all confused and annoyed. And while it is annoying to have to learn something new when it’s what you’re doing every day, you’re kinda like, Okay, well, I got to figure this out now, but you don’t have that stress of I only have 10 minutes today to figure this out, because I have to go run out to this grand opening walkthrough at the model or, you know, it’s just this is what you’re doing now. And so not that there aren’t periods of small periods of stress here and there. When When bigger projects need to be done and timelines hit, but generally speaking is a much better even hourly pace of life. Not just Oh, sure, definitely. Yeah. Okay, so in order to apply we have made a very easy URL for everyone listening now do you convert or slash grow forward slash grow sign in today will probably be making the first of these two hires I would think in the next week to week and a half. So don’t delay again, if you’re working at a builder Now you don’t have to overly polish your resume. We probably know who you are. And we probably can easily figure out if what you’re doing right now is good or not do we can reverse engineer once we know you’re working for so don’t overthink the resume part of it because man, this process has taught me If nothing else, that people really screw up the resumes now do you convert comm forward slash grow? You’re going to grow with the team. It’ll be a blast. Let’s jump into storytime. And I’m just going to kick off with one of the top five most common questions that I get asked and I was asked this question probably another four times over the last week and a half That is, hey, when do I need to update my creative specifically talking about Facebook ads, Instagram ads, display ads, all kinds of anything with visual elements to the creative? When is it time to change? Because the impulse is always what new is better? New is better. I’m bored of this. Everyone in my company keeps walking in saying, I’ve seen this ad same ad for the last 30 days. Isn’t everyone else sick of this already? Hey, we build more than just this house. Why are we on this show in this house? All these different things make us feel and also sometimes guilt on the half on behalf of the marketer of Hmm, I haven’t had to update that in a while. Maybe I’m not doing something that I should be doing or I’m not doing my job strip and actually, Becca, you’re going to be talking about what else they could be doing that will still be adding value with your story. But as I’ve tried to explain this as simply as possible, it kind of hit me with a call. I was on this past week where I just said Look, when you’re trying to determine do I update the imagery? The main question need to ask yourself is am I doing this to make it different or Make it better. And specifically this is with the social campaigns because anytime you change the creative, you’re going to reset the count on all the social proof that’s going along with that ad. So all the comments, the shares, the likes hearts, smiley faces, while faces all that stuff is gone. And it does have an impact on both the brand perception that that ad is giving out of being extremely popular and interesting, as well as the pure numbers and the cost at times too. You don’t want to just change it just because but if you do get a better photo, something that better describes who you are now again, back as simple as I can say it if it’s a better image, if it’s clearly better. It’s a current countertop on trend, or current kitchen on trend, new elevation that’s more popular than Yeah, absolutely make make the change. But if you’re doing it just to make a difference, not always a good reason at all. In fact, it can be more harmful because especially if you don’t have tons of good creative and now you’re swapping stuff out that’s just not as compelling.

Andrew Peek 09:57

I agree. I had that. We just got a bunch of people pictures from box brownie from a builder. And this is the perfect time to change it because they were better than it was we made quite a few variations. But with that builder and the way they do, they’re on that they’re on your life, we just have a few ads more than one ad running at the same time. But the same, essentially the same area. Yeah, that’s perfect. Yeah,

Kevin Oakley 10:15

and because remember, the ads job is to get the attention and then get them to click go on to the site, learn more become a lead become an appointment become a sale. So if you do have a good performing ad, and either it’s dropping off in effectiveness, and you’re going to notice that through the amount of traffic, click through rate quality score a whole bunch of different ways, then you can turn it off, just switch to your creative for a month or two and then go back to that one because the people who are going to see it especially for using the targeting are going to be in constant rotation as people come in and out of the market to look for a home. So you don’t even have to say that ads gone. I’m never going to use it again. You can resurrect it in 246 months or even if it’s seasonal any like myths about if it’s got images of snow in it or turning leaves or whatever you can Wait till the next season and as long as the pricing and other important details are are so correct just bring it back and use it again good idea yeah smart all right Andrew, what do you got? Yeah,

Andrew Peek 11:08

I have a fun one This one will all have to jump in on I’ll just do the audit to the setup so it was I don’t know 9pm in the evening I get this email ad disapproved which is never good sign especially like maybe this you know, Google will crawl certain accounts more often than other ones based on how many ads there are and how many clicks they get. So I’m like well this is weird like I hope this is from like it’s an old weird ad and Google just happen to stumble upon it as they get goofy sometimes we pause the ads and if they’re actually active and what they disapprove it retroactive. It’s really strange. So this one I looked at it and it said test was the campaign name. The ad group was test I’m like, That’s weird. Like, do that Becca doesn’t do that. Kevin doesn’t know that. Like that’s super bizarre. My Okay, I’ll look at it in the morning. Let’s see. Let’s see what this thing is. I get up look at it. First thing like oh, that’s really weird. That’s like a $10,000 budget lifetime budget. like okay, weird because typically Google ads are daily budgets. So this was like a Lifetime budget

Kevin Oakley 12:01

and this particular builder that would have equated to like a lot three months of their digital spend

Andrew Peek 12:06

yeah like on Super bizarre super bizarre and was a YouTube ad so scheduled ad $10,000 budget not a daily budget for this builder would make no sense and it’s on YouTube I’m like they have some YouTube running because I have a really cool like brand video and that’s on Facebook as well. It looks awesome but I’m like this makes no sense. And then the video in there was what’s the guy? psi psi,

Kevin Oakley 12:26

yeah, style GM style

Andrew Peek 12:28

guide. Yeah, like I’ve tried to block that song out of my head. Like all everything about it. I’m like, What is this? I’m like, did they get hacked or something like what is this? So I looked at the change history and it was a previous partner of theirs that still had access to the council and they created it like two weeks before but I think it was paused. I didn’t see it. I don’t know why last that night, Google decided to disapprove it but so it was a good thing was disapproved. It would not have run but it still could have like if it would have approved 10,000 over the course of like I think it’s three months the budget was

Becca Thomas 12:57

you would have seen it but maybe somebody else wouldn’t have

Kevin Oakley 12:59

yeah Yeah, so well, this goes back to why we don’t want to let Google just run at all. And even though we’re big on using artificial intelligence, when it’s working, you still have to check on it. We’ll probably talk a little bit more about that in the future. Sometimes we found you have to take the AI out back and give it a little kick in the pants and then send it back off to work. So you if you’re one of those people who says I just don’t have the time. And Google’s now saying, Hey, don’t worry about it, we’ll take care of it. We’ll just get you some good clicks, and someone else still has access and makes those changes. You’re probably not paying attention until 30 days after it’s already started spending money and you get your new credit card statement. And you’re like, Whoa, where’d that extra three grand go? And the moral of the story here and we always, we don’t like to kick people out, right? Because we don’t own the accounts typically. And so it’s a conversation that we’ll have and we started as, hey, you still want this person to have access. Here’s the pros. Here’s the cons. And generally speaking, there are no great pros to keeping it unless they’re going to continue to be doing work or you in some other capacity. But just you do need to audit you need to do need to go check in We also ran into a situation about six months ago where someone did have an employee who was no longer working for the agency still still had access and some some goofiness happens. So it’s one of those things, make sure you’re you’re checking on it, make sure you’re keeping yourself safe. Right, but and I guess it does happen. I think sometimes people just think we’re crazy barking or crying wolf for No, no reason like that stuff doesn’t really happen. Or it would never happen with the company I’m partnering with, you just never know. And so

Andrew Peek 14:27

to kick them out, you need to own the account as well. So like going back a step, make sure you own it, and you could be the gatekeeper on who has access or not. You got to pick up you have a fun story this week. You sent this one to me, I think it was two days ago. I’m like, Oh my gosh, like I read every comment. It was it was not amazing. But yeah, tell this story.

Becca Thomas 14:44

Basically, just don’t let the trolls take over. So make sure you’re responding to the comments on your ads. So this week, I did a lot of checking all of our partners ads and I found one where one person expressed something displeasure about the pricing in a rather snarky manner well then a few other you know, Facebook land snarky individuals jumped on the bandwagon and because so many had already already snowballed there was no way to fix it. Whereas if somebody had jumped in on the first comment and said, Hey, you know, these are features This is why the homes are worth this and really prove the worth then I can kind of stop this snowballing from happening but we just had to start over put a new ad up you

Andrew Peek 15:32

move on Do you remember how many comments there were that were not so nice?

Becca Thomas 15:36

It was a lot I had to keep scrolling like

Andrew Peek 15:38

a lot 20 maybe are easily Oh, geez, okay, yeah, yeah, that’s that’s a few Yeah.

Becca Thomas 15:44

And I knew snarky because they were funny but they were also not accurate.

Andrew Peek 15:49

not accurate. Yeah, that’s

Kevin Oakley 15:51

why he do want to comment back and that’s again, my my main rule of thumb always has been if it if the comment is neutral to Positive always comment for sure. Without a doubt, once it goes from neutral to kind of negative, that’s a gray area if it’s just outright hostile, yeah, so let’s say don’t be afraid to to hide slash delete the comment again, your this is a paid ad, you don’t have to let that hang out there. That doesn’t mean you ignore them completely, you may still reach out individually or try to get the conversation going offline somehow but in this case, that snarkiness like you said, you could come back at it give them some basic information. I’ve seen the folks that ideal homes do this wonderfully, where they kind of they don’t they don’t smack the person back but they’re very direct and snarky in a fun light hearted way and that response and people are kinda like okay makes sense. Or even once people know the temperature of the conversation they get other homeowners or customers or or fans of the company to kind of support their cause me like these are totally worth the money and yeah, so I just don’t be afraid to hide slash delete when things go wrong, but I mean drastically wrong. down the wrong path. But in this case, like you said, it was just there was so much it’s just as easy to start fresh. Yeah. But the other thing back to my story time is so the marketer might feel bad about not creating a new ad every day, let’s say, what else could they be doing with that time instead, if they’re if you’re not having to create a new ad every day, then you have the time to monitor this because we don’t do convert. We do not offer reputation management, we do not comment or talk as the builder ever. And yet, we are oftentimes the ones finding this stuff first, simply because we’re in there so often working on the ad creative will see something and so we’ve passed that along when we do to people, but it’s not an actual service that we provide, but someone should be watching it in that in that way.

Andrew Peek 17:40

Yeah, I’d be like obsessed with it. A Gora pulse would be an easy way to help you do that. I think that’s one that is I think the most like that we’ve recommended

Kevin Oakley 17:49

especially for larger builders. I mean, if it’s small, you probably don’t need anything but if you’re if you got a team or a couple different people who can help respond. A Gora pulse is definitely the way to go. I mean, I just even think you know Back when I was when I was a boy your your main ad every week was a newspaper ad right which you may run that same ad for two weeks in a row sometimes you do like I mean it would it would last a long time. I don’t know where this came from where we have to from an ad standpoint not a content standpoint but but actual ads I think you’re putting more money behind why there’s a compelling need to change it out like every other day or once a week or maybe just the assumed ease of clicking the buttons like yeah, it’s so easy just click the button Yeah, just put up your house this button Okay, I think stopping printed like that’s so easy like it’s right there. They’re good

Andrew Peek 18:36

let them marinate Right. Yeah. marinate make me hungry. Yeah,

Kevin Oakley 18:40

just I know I’m fixated on this. But just consider let’s let’s use some quick math. If you’ve got an ad with a really nice picture, good comments, good engagement. The activity on the website is good. You’re getting leads from it and it’s costing you 20 cents a clip and it’s continuing to work. Why do you want to force a change just for something visually different? That’s going to go cost you 82 cents to $1 doesn’t make any sense doesn’t make sense to put money behind it. That’s where I go like it’s okay to get more content and post it out there as on your feeds is just another image as long as it’s good enough, but why put 2000 3000 4000 $6,000 behind that as a vehicle to generate leads for you if it’s just not as good. Now there’s branding considerations. I give you that, but that’s not usually how most people come across. It’s like, I want to throw out the same kind of ad, same message, same general everything just change that elevation. When you’re losing all of that social proof, it can be harmful. Alright, enough of that. Moving on to the news. From our friends at agora pulse, and their social media lab where they like to do experiments the headline is do Instagram users like graphics or photos? Hmm, what what do they mean by graphics are photos,

Andrew Peek 19:52

photos being real photos, graphics being vector based images, like not real, if that makes sense

Kevin Oakley 19:58

like renderings for home? builders. And I would also dare to say all of this not scientifically proven by this by this research. I don’t think this relates just to Instagram users. Now, I guess I think you could just say Do people prefer graphics or photos, but let’s, uh, sorry, what so the hypothesis that they had was that photos would achieve more engagement than graphics on Instagram, they posted two graphic pieces, one looks kind of like what you would typically associate with some stock clipart type stuff. And the other one is graphic, but it’s customized to the like the style that this company tends to use when they do post graphics. So it’s much more personalized than the first one but both are graphics based. And the other ones that they posted were just a picture of three people from the company and a picture of a picture hanging on the wall like that picture of the final piece of context here is that this they were doing this to see other people who follow this company on Instagram which one would get more interaction so people who are already kind of part of the tribe are part of it. of the company not too similar by the way to sane people who have chosen to come to the homebuilders website and look at homes I would say so the results Andrew

Andrew Peek 21:09

doo doo doo doo doo doo doo where’s our graphics here likes so this is Instagram so there’s always lots of likes likes were 156% higher on the photos on the real photos. It’s pretty cool times. Yeah comments were 300% higher on the photos. Wow, that’s awesome, which seems so sad I allowed you like duh. But I used to look at like I saw some today and there was a oh geez there’s some big Home Sales Event whatever that means I don’t even know sounds like a car and I’m like this is the worst thing ever. Like it was just a yellow graphic and it had the text on it. That’s all it was turned off. It was not very much engagement. But then the picture before that word like during construction photos, lots of stuff happening in there. So we see it all the time. But I think people get in this trap of like, Oh, I need something different back to when should we update great and so they feel like hey, maybe I need to put some graphics up this we need to download it I could change like the in this example it looks like they Photoshop this. It’s a doctor It’s an ad doctor with a beaker and a computer and they photoshopped the Instagram graphic icon onto the desktop computer it looks like so like, Oh, this fits our our brand, but it only had and theirs was 11 likes. And then the photo of staff had I think was 3027 likes simple photo that took five seconds to take. And I

Kevin Oakley 22:18

think you know, graphics get used for a lot of reasons. But like you said, for home builders, and this is just another way of saying the same thing that we say a lot, I don’t have a picture of that floorplan or the one that I’m building is not going to be just like the one I have a picture of. So I’m going to just go to a rendering and we’re not anti rendering at all. But that does not solve the problem of content. Having a rendering does not solve a problem. And it is not as emotionally exciting. Even if it’s personalized or specific, more specific than a photo is this test to me is showing us that a photo that is similar but not exact, would get higher engagement and more people more emotionally excited than a rendering that was this is the exact house is going to be built but it’s clearly not not a real photo.

Becca Thomas 23:00

It’s more exciting. It’s more it’s closer to real life than a rendering or a graphic.

Kevin Oakley 23:06

Yep. And, and the results again, were statistically significant, which means in their opinion and what how science works. When you hear that word that means you do this test over and over and over again, you’re going to get the same result because the variation or the results were so impactful, so clear. So renderings are great. Just featured images are featured featured. Yeah, featured images for your house whenever possible. Start with a photo not a rendering and same thing. And Becca had a

Andrew Peek 23:30

super awesome blog post out on how to say yes, which Oh, yeah. So don’t be scared. Go and read that real quick. You’ll have like your checklist of photos to do. So I think that should hopefully take the intimidation factor of like, Oh, we have this one. Let’s say it’s a floorplan elevation that you really need. photographed. You forgot about it. It closes on, say this afternoon at four o’clock. You’re like, Can I get there an hour and get to get some pictures really quick? Yes, you can. You can go get it. Hurry. Stop. Are you doing? Yeah. Hopefully that reduces the intimidation and it doesn’t I think I mean, obviously we want professional photos that are public. Perfect but I think taking that that blog post you’ll be like 95% there on your own versus plus a blog

Kevin Oakley 24:05

post is is all graphics. So I’m just kidding it’s full of pictures of pictures is only pictures and

Andrew Peek 24:13

sure enough ahead awesome engagement everything yeah, people love me good job I got bombed.

Kevin Oakley 24:17

The next article here is from builder magazine published on the on the web on April 16. And it’s called the homebuilding innovators dilemma, beyond demand for what home building businesses do toward need for what they could do. There’s new opportunity here, and this definitely caught my eye, I thought I’m gonna be talking about the need to change product based upon what you’re looking for today. And the challenge that voters have with that it was not it was actually more of just an example of saying that Oklahoma and Colorado has a service called Shazam. And it is basically for the first year a maintenance program that goes a little bit above and beyond probably not even a little bit it does go above and beyond what most builders would do. And let me pull up a quick example of that. So every every season of the year that come out, and do different things like inspecting and touching up the tile grout as needed in wet areas service sliding glass doors and tracks for smooth operation, clean faucet aerators test water heater pressure relief valve, manually balance HVC and change your filter, irrigation system check etc. That’s all in the spring service. And then so typical homebuilder scenario, you get like a 30 or 60 day punch out, you know, they come in and they patch up nail pops sometime in the first year very basic maintenance and the rest is all you call us when something’s not working or breaks and we’ll come check it out. And this is more of a proactive service that they’re offering to the homeowners for year round care. And then after your first year if you like it, Hey, you know what you can pay us and we’ll continue to do that sounds amazing. What do you guys think? Yeah,

Becca Thomas 25:43

I think it’s great. Did they say how

Andrew Peek 25:45

much service was after

Kevin Oakley 25:47

I don’t see it in here. But when you so I think we’ve touched on this before. There is a service here called Green x. And I think we pay like $89 a quarter and they come out to this neighborhood Anyone who lives in this area and they will treat for it. Or pests, they’ll knock off these nests and hoard it nests and treat for but but everything that they’re treating the house with comes from Home Depot, like there’s nothing proprietary at all to what they’re doing. And their total expense, including labor for our house is probably somewhere around 24 bucks. So, okay, 24 bucks is their cost, we’re paying 89 because we don’t want to deal with it. And we live a little bit outside the city. So there is more wildlife and insects and all the rest here. So it’s just it’s a basic service that’s really convenient for us. So I’m sure they’re going to be making money but doesn’t have to be crazy either. Because none of these services are over the top. Like when I say over the top, they’re not a cleaning service. They’re not a lawn mowing service, which I think is an opportunity. And I think you’re going to see builders go that route too. Yeah, we’ve been talking with our builder partners about this concept for the past year, year and a half and it’s it’s really exciting to see somebody taking it on, in fact, beyond the year round care maintenance packages that they have. You can also get regular handyman services. You know, they say do you need blinds installed thinking about painting an accent wall? Do your kids need a new swing set put together, we can help. So they

Andrew Peek 27:06

take that away from.

Kevin Oakley 27:08

Yeah. And the concept here that’s really important is this idea of bundling. And I feel like we talked about this before with someone like Nike, where, you know, Apple wants you to be part of their ecosystem, right? Everyone wants you to be part of the ecosystem. They want to have regular reoccurring revenue of you pay us X amount per month, and we will take care of you and someone like Nike has such a strong brand, if there’s if they’re speaking to athletes, could they not charge 10 bucks a month and say, Hey, we’re gonna have special hotels we partner with and we’re going to like their workout centers will always be Nike approved, and that means it’s going to be able to do everything that the doctor wants to do for power lift and the restaurants in there are going to have special Nike approved healthy meal options and yummy will have pre drawn running paths around for different lengths if you want to run outside around the hotel, but this idea of what’s kind of that core brand as well. Since and how can we bundle that service on a monthly fee and offer so much more for it and I think that’s what that’s what Oakwood is doing here and it’s super super smart something that again it’s been out there it’s always fun though when you when you speak something out and I’m not saying they got it from us but but when you talk about something and then you see it start to come to life super, super interesting. And I think and I hope a lot more people start doing the same thing. It’s it also just keeps them closer to their customers and instead of just selling the house once making money from the customer once you get to make it every in this case every quarter or every season. Yeah. And also whenever they have another project I think

Andrew Peek 28:30

it’s things to its center. It’s really I’m glad we built new down here because it’s like my brain is expanding so much on people’s perceptions of new especially down this way. We’re I’m in Pinellis County right now the beaches, there’s not much new so people’s experiences never firsthand experience. It’s what they hear and what they hear is never good. Yeah, like there’s never really unless it’s someone that has tons of money. They built something on the beach and it’s fully custom ridiculous. Like that’s totally different. But everyone’s experience and perception whether I’m wrong or not wrong is always negative. If on the new home or building a home Oh no that sounds awful You guys better get counseling like this isn’t gonna work and we’ve definitely had like our our speed bumps along the way but the outcome is gonna be you know what we want and what we bought but there’s definitely like ups and downs that’s fine but I think things like this that really separates existing versus new and going with me just adding on to make new even better than it is just to combat you know this perception which down here we have I’m sure Denver I know what I was out there a while back all the Uber drivers like oh there’s so much development is terrible that no there maybe it’s just Uber drivers are crazy have no idea but just to make it a positive thing like oh you buy new oh that’s awesome you get this they come out to your house like you just said and what am the services all these things you wouldn’t even think about like oh the ground like that’s not difficult at least to me like that’s not really a heart but do I really want to deal with it but I do want that like you say Lissa those things in my office I want these things but I don’t want to do them yeah, like let

Kevin Oakley 29:50

this person most people never change the air filter and further HVAC system like every or every couple years or whenever it stops working. Like oh, my power should change. Oh shoot. Yeah.

Becca Thomas 29:59

But yeah, that will do it. Well, it’s just an added value to increase your overall buyer experience. And it kind of extends it along past the purchase and the warranty phase. So that you really, I mean, you’ve been living in your house a year, two years. And all you can think about is how wonderful it is. Now, even if they were a couple of hiccups along the way while it was getting done,

Kevin Oakley 30:22

and it’s easy to live in now. And things work, you’re less likely to have the story of something else going wrong because they can identify it and take care of it before it becomes an issue back to the ground. Like hey, it’s just a small quick touch now versus something seriously wrong later. Now we’re we pre recorded the episode that will come after this one because the holidays and some travel schedule stuff but we talked about Zillow and they’re moving into into buying, hopefully on their end, what they want to get to is 5000 homes a month and and essentially part of that is this concept. They’re going to be making a lot of money off mortgage and title and other parts of the transaction, not just the sale itself. So let me ask you guys this. Do you see a time where prices of homes continued to rise? affordability is is a big issue? Do you see a time where builders say, Hey, I’m willing to accept a 8% 5% lower margin than I have right now to sell the home, if I can get these bundled services where I can make money off of this customer for the next five or 10 years, I’m willing to not sell it for a loss, but sell it at a more affordable more attractive upfront price.

Becca Thomas 31:27

Absolutely. Because then you have your monthly income, which is more predictable than the real estate market. I’m saying no,

Kevin Oakley 31:34

I agree. I think it’s definitely happen not not everywhere, not for all product types, but I can definitely see builders looking at it that way. All right, we’re gonna take a quick break and we come back we’re gonna be joined by Jane Meagher, the president of success strategies to talk about design studios, the customer experience and a whole lot more. Unfortunately, the internet failed us and we had to revert to the good old telephone for this interview, so we apologize in advance for the condition. Have some of the audio quality, but the content is top notch. You’re not gonna want to miss it. We’ll be right back.

Jane Meagher 32:23

Welcome back in this week, Andrew, I talked with us for a long time, but we finally got her with us is Jane Meagher did the President of success strategies. Jane, thanks so much for joining us this week. Thank you for having me. It’s truly an honor and a privilege to be with the esteemed well known world renowned Kevin Oakley and Andrew as well. So thanks for the opportunity. Absolutely. And we’re gonna talk about all kinds of different things because Jane has insight on so many different parts of the customer experience and how to make processes better and smoother. And we’re going to talk about interzone experience. With his home new home process and good James perspective on some of those things, so we’re going to be bouncing all around here and you’re going to get to know Jane really well changes kind of lead us in by telling us briefly what is what does your company do with Home Builders? Well, we actually are experts in the areas of home personalization. It’s a unique niche in the homebuilding industry. My background is sales and marketing and some design in home building. But as a company now, specializing in design studios, we create design studio environment we’ve created over 160 and we’ve been honored with 27 national awards for Best Design Center in the country. But we also do yeah, crazy even to hear me say that out loud. But we also do a significant and robust business in best operational practices, looking at policies and procedures and customer experience through sales and design and leading into construction and sometimes beyond. We also have work in training. So we will train the sales and design teams to leverage the design studio or personalization as a unique differentiator and train them in observing the customers by increasing program revenue and improving the customer experience. And we also do a lot of strategic consulting in areas of product, what are we selling in the store? So that’s really around? are we offering the right trending products? are we offering the right category of product? How does quantity of choice affect decision making? How do we employ strategic pricing? So we work in all those realms of the design studio World Wildlife Fund that’s like everything, unfortunately, have time to cover ground on everything and I want to actually have time to dig into even just selfishly because I had my own experience with you that was awesome in the design studio specific realm, but before we even dive into the design studios themselves, I just want to get your perspective on today’s homebuyer and if you how you feel like obviously they have changed, but how do you feel like home buyers next bye. patien in personalization, selection and customer experience have changed over the last 10 years. From your perspective, I love that question because part of what we do at the foundation of everything we do is we study consumer purchase psychology. And we also study retail trends. How are leading retailers outside our industry serving the changing needs of today’s consumer? So that is a perfect question. And I think there’s all kinds of themes going on. This could be an hour presentation in and of itself. But certainly there’s transparency as a theme, and how that relates to the design studio world is, you know, customers wanting more information prior to making a purchase decision and how does that affect the kind of archaic linear pathway that used to exist where you don’t go into the design studio until after you signed the contract? So transparency is one of them. You know, I think people over the last few years are in heightened design environments all the time. And so that puts a lot of pressure on the physical environment of the store. To live up to the type of retail environments that people are in all the time. So I think there’s a higher level expectation for that people don’t say, Oh, well, you know, it’s a home builders design studio. So that’s why things look kind of subpar, they have an expectation for it to be the same as any retailer in the mall. And then I think from the shopping perspective, obviously, we’re used to shopping a lot more online, and our industry has a lot of untapped opportunity to figure out how to bring that into the design studio world. You know, there’s also the concept of how we shop today where there’s a lot of these curated collections kind of that happen, whether it’s Stitch Fix, or hellofresh, or something like that, where the customer wants, as we say, a quicker solution, you know, how do we get quicker, better, faster and easier and with more expertise to our desired result, and I think there’s a lot of different ways that homebuilders can capitalize on that. So I mean, those are just a few that come to mind. exactly what I wanted to kind of draw from your unique perspective and I honestly Those are similar answers to what we would ask a lot of people but just with your own unique spin on it, so that was awesome. Jane, it feels like design studios of one type or another, you know, whether it’s a full blown experience or just a really nice finished basement, like when we first met each other, you’re helping my daughter, that that that idea is definitely becoming more common. Is that true? Or just my perceptions is just the builders that we’re working with? You know, I would say it’s true, certainly from the level of interest that we get, you know, I think in the old days, really long time ago, you know, the concept was people would buy the house and then you know, maybe the builder could make some money and you know, do some quote unquote extra is the word we would never use. You know, I think today there is a very top of mind awareness that the design tool is not really an you know, something that occurs afterward, but it should be integrated into the entire sales experience that the design studio can and should be the forefront of the builders brand. And it should be the high point of the experience. as well. So most mentors now look at it not only as a significant profit opportunity, but really as kind of the central point of the customer experience and the ability for the builder to connect the customer emotionally, not just to the products that will create a unique home, but through that to the builders brand. I love what you said there about the core of the brand. And I think we’re leading there is that experiential nature of being in that base. It’s not just the stuff on the walls, but the process of doing it all visually. And as home builders, we often think retail kind of naturally because we feel like model homes or retail spaces and they are but they also have very defined base spaces and layout that may or may not resonate with the Home Shopper and this is a demo of a different base that has I think Andrew the way you talked about it when we’re going through this just this is like the fun experience of being able to see all of your options collectively on one face and really get to clinical play around and I know that that’s not from a process standpoint Jane, but who wants people to necessarily experience maybe feel but not experience that kind of like play like you, you have a purpose and you’re focused, you’re trying to accomplish something in a in a good look we’re looking for, we want you to feel good about it. But we also don’t want to feel haphazard or like you’re just playing around in the sandbox necessarily either. Like Is that what you’re trying to like, kind of like pop up stores or big trends, and it’s the stuck in life of retail now is create this opportunity to have an in person experience with a brand in a different way. And I kind of heard that a little bit what you’re saying, is that there? Yeah, I think I think it’s fair. Sure. And I think it goes back to, you know, something that maybe seems so obvious to me that I forgot to answer it in your earlier question. And that was, you know, really about consumer trends and how customers interact with their brands. And, you know, no surprise to anybody that we increasingly as consumers are unwilling to settle and we want more and more personalization in every product and every service that we that we buy into, and so when you when you think About that way that carries through into the design studio. It’s not just about, you know, the options that can help you have a house that more closely aligned with your personality and your design style. It’s deeply about the lifestyle experience, how can the products that you choose to invest into in the design studio create a lifestyle that you and your family want to have in the home, and to your point about the model, you know, models are amazing. And of course, you know, we’re big believers in merchandise models and all of that. But it’s not necessarily the floor plan or the style that is for an individual customer. So the model has one purpose that design studio obviously has another. And one of the contrast points I guess they are is that when the customer gets into the design studio, it can and should be all about what is unique and special for them. So they’re not, you know, really in a floor plan or a design style that that isn’t about them. So I think that the design studio is the one place in the entire builder experience that can really be focused on the customer who have Once everything focus on them, I don’t know if that answered the question, but no, that’s exactly right. And like you said, it’s just that’s when they’re making it. There’s everything that every decision they’re making is their decision and personalizing the whole even before it’s built in their mind. They’re taking ownership of those decisions. And it’s getting to a really deep emotional place there and talking about customers and their experiences. I’m going to shift it over to Andrew and Andrew just kind of briefly go through the the interactions with the homebuilder after the point of purchase through that selection process as much as he can just some of your highlights and lowlights from that experience or things that surprised you. And what I love Jane for you to do is just provide some context on how normal is what Andrew is expressing or just odd. I’m excited to meet you. Okay, so our first interaction at the design studio was a preview night was really really nice. We got an hour of time it was a bit of a drive from us is actually an hour and a half to get there from where we actually are our current living currently out there and they gave us a tour as if we are doing that. The selection process like were started in the kitchen and then when it’s done and pick our floors and then work in the bathroom lighting, and then other structural changes and then finishing all up, here’s what it would look like on their pretty table all all put together like our I don’t know what the word would be like the collage of everything that we thought we’d pick. And then we we went ahead and made the appointment because we were signing the contract the next day, made our election appointment or like about two weeks later, that was that was my semester if that’s normal to have a preview night or not, but it was definitely for us. Like we’re like we have no idea what we want to get. We don’t even know the options like at all. There’s nothing with this builder. It was I think I’ve mentioned on the podcast is KB very, very limited information on their website. As far as even pictures like we were on Instagram searching hashtags, they’ll find like different options that we assumed for available. That was our first experience that preview night is like hey, here’s the other granted the other courts options. I think first of all, congratulations. That sounds exciting that you’re going to be brand new homeowners that Thank you. So In terms of is that typical, it’s hard to say what’s typical, but I can share with you how it relates to what we would consider best practices. So first of all, we are very big believers in a preview night, which we do think should be a educational and celebrate story experience that is designed, especially if it is as it was before, before contract in your case, it should be designed to give the customer the potential buyer confidence that the builder has the products that they’re looking for the investment amount because we don’t use the word prices. So we would say the investment amounts are reasonable and that they have a general confidence that you know, the builder operates in a professional manner and that the process or experience of personalization will be an easy one just enough to get them to the point where they say Okay, that was our last hurdle prior to signing a contract. We may not know what the cabinet hardware is going to be in the hall bath but you know, we’re definitely we know this is going to work out amazing. We’re pumped, we’re now starting to get emotionally connected to the unique personalized, personalized home. That we started creating. And we’re ready to take that home site off the market and move forward. So I think that that is working as it is intended, a lot of builders do not do preview night prior to contract signing. And I love that your builders doing that because we do believe it would be a shame to have this amazing state of the art facility that is tied to the builder brand. And you know, really shows the quality of the entire home buying a great site builder is going to provide it be a bummer to not have anyone see that till after they sign a contract. So that part of it I don’t know if it’s typical, but I would say seems like a best in class practice. The fact that you went through a tour and got an introduction to all the products, I think is great. That’s that’s what we recommend as well so that it’s very educational. It’s usually a big eye opener for the customer in terms of the type of attributes they might be looking for in different products. Hopefully they learn a little bit about trends, they certainly get to see the included features and as you mentioned what other time Things are available in each product category and they hopefully are very much looking forward to coming back and actually making their personal selection though. Awesome that makes sense. I’ll just jump straight to I guess high points and low points I think that will that’ll be fun though I’ll be low points Get out of the way. It was interesting the talking to like when we went through the model as a community you’re like hey, how much is this for option because obviously the model has been more on trend and probably options they want you to pick I’m assuming but is everything like we want to be like hey, how much is the course and the kitchen about these cabinets all this stuff? comparing like what the what they’ll estimated you know, they were never like, hey, it is XYZ price investment for this type of flooring, but just having it was a definite low point because we were kind of budget before and maybe the discrepancies weren’t always negative and sometimes they were giving higher amounts than you actually thought it was just not it’s just the inaccuracy more than it being too high or too low. paver patios only like a salty number. So that On currently It was like $600 for the paver driveway and then patio in the backyard in my mind like that’s crazy that’s literally inexpensive because like I did that on our existing home and then like the flooring was way like the tile hardwood looked way over over cost what they said at the sales and then like the the vinyl Plank Floor that was in the opposite direction. So it’s like how do we find something that was really without threat, obviously, but this has been good going through it, it’s been like the best research for me is having the empathy. see another side of it or you know, I would say certainly having discrepancies and expectations that about anything whether it you know, availability of different products, as in your case, the investment levels on different products or even policies and procedures, you know, there should not obviously be discrepancies between what sales is describing and what occurs once you get into the design phase. The great thing in your case is you did have the opportunity to get some transparency and get some information prior to making a purchase decision. So at least you sound Like you’re not feeling that you were, you know, misled in any way, because you did have that opportunity prior to purchase. But sounds like that builder does have an improvement opportunity to look at the way that the sales team is sharing information and get it more closely aligned. So there’s a number of things they can do. But hopefully they got that feedback from you. You are so positive, I love it. It is awesome. And going on to positive things, I would say perfect. He was saying that baby per patient was insane. Like we were there for six hours, and we had, you know, tons of choices to make. And we were like, Okay, I think that the countertops and the flooring took like an hour and a half in itself, just maybe this one, maybe this one, maybe not this one, this one and just back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. That was that was really nice. We didn’t feel like we were ever rush, even though it still took us like six hours in a single day to make that is that common to usually have a single day or is it multi day I’m sure depending on the price point. It is based on a number of different factors. Theoretically, I would say that one six hours appointment would not be my preferred method. And these are really for some non pragmatic reasons. So could could you get everything done in one six hour appointment? Sure, I’m happy that you had the preview yet. You know, when we look at consumer decision making, we know that it slows down after a few hours it’s a lot of information to absorb. Sometimes customers in a world class design studio and a best in class experience need a little bit of time to adjust to perhaps investing more than they might have originally thought they might want to? Often they find that there’s tremendous value and when they learn about the technical and functional benefits of products and what it can do to their lifestyle, they may decide to invest some additional dollars into some higher level products and and emotionally that may need a little bit of time between a first and a second appointment so that it doesn’t become very overwhelming. You know, we study all the reasons why People said they were felt overwhelmed and rushed. And I’m glad you didn’t feel rushed. And you know, sometimes one six hour appointment is not not the best way to do it, sometimes to two or three hour appointments, you know, theoretically would be a better way to go through it. But that would have to be supported by a bunch of other different types of processes to make it work. And so it sounds like in your case, it worked out great. But the amount of hours that someone would need would be based on factors like how much choice does the builder offer, certainly, as you indicated, the price point of the home and the amount of discretionary dollars the customer has to invest the level of included features but both the breadth and the depth I would say of different product categories. So there’s a lot of other and quality of the environment, the quality of the team, so a lot of things would go into the total amount of hours. Six doesn’t sound uncommon at all. Whether or not it’s best in one one or more than one meeting as different point Andrew says you had to drop About an hour and a half with traffic and bridges and all those other things do you have down there do you feel like looking back you would have rather made that drive and additional time or I think there were some choices that could have been made not in person like definitely the flooring and person colored like the countertops cabinets like there’s those core choices were present now necessary over there but like we in some of this like we didn’t know until we like how much is this like okay it’s this much more okay how much is that? And then you have the the quote credit of what was already based for that for plan that community they get against the the cost of the next upgrade per se like the lighting and the in the bathrooms but somewhat like a picky mic that light or like the mic on like we could have done that like online or something like it wasn’t necessarily there wasn’t that many choices in life, but there’s probably like two or three hours of Yeah, like stuff that was your checklist. I don’t think any buyer and I would put myself in this group because I’m so protective of my time. I don’t think any buyer is going to say I would prefer to come for two appointments an hour and a half away than one, I just don’t think that anybody you know, thinks that’s best. But sometimes, and it’s different for different builders, and especially, you know, if you’re going to be investing many 10s of thousands of dollars, and it depends, you know, if you’re going to be investing 3000, it’s a different experience. But sometimes, we can give the customer a better experience and reduce their desire to make late changes if we have a better chance of anchoring it in earlier, but they’re not going to know that. So typically, nobody’s going to say yes, I think I would make less lead changes. If I had more time to sit with items, do some research in between appointments and come back fully prepared for my you know, final appointment, where I’m going to authorize and finalize my selections. And it also depends on the quality of the experience, when we create a really elevated premium experience. It will be worth somebody coming back more than once for a builder that maybe doesn’t do that. It might not be worth it. So These are all interesting points that hopefully your listeners can play around with and decide what’s best for them probably segue into our next question B, I’ve visited a few of our builders, their design studios, and I was blown away like I’m like, these are amazing. And then I went to our builder, maybe down here, Tampa, and I was like, like, this wasn’t it wasn’t Instagram worthy for the lack of a better word. Like it was nice. It was newer. But like Lowe’s or Home Depot did a better job of showing off their kitchen well that summer because then I sign your image of the brand which dirty you’re like, Oh, no. Transaction transaction. Yes, people are great people. Yeah. And, and you know what we do hear that all the time, that the quality of the builder team, the human interaction with somebody that even if they were not as skilled or knowledgeable as they could be that they were compassionate and they were caring and they didn’t rush the customer, and all of that a lot of times the quality that human interaction can transcend or make up for a sub optimal experience. Having said that, though, a design consultant who is super sweet and compassionate gets great survey scores is not the end of what the builder wants. In the experience. The builder should also want a customer who true design consultant who truly observes the customer and give them every opportunity to see the benefits of higher level products and to maximize per home revenue without in any way diminishing the quality of the customer experience. So you know, there’s a lot to be considered in that whole part of it as well. That leads me into kind of a last series of thoughts or ideas that I want to get your feedback on is no lack of pre work that he was able to do online or with materials that he could take from preview night and continue to work through that I know common and typical is a strange word to use for What you do and how you work with builders, but because because we’re all so different happy, but is that still a common or typical juggling, I think it is more common than we’d want it to be. And that really has to do with elevating the entire customer experience. Starting off with managing expectations, front loading information in a digestible, consumer friendly way to set the customer up for success in their series of visits or appointments, whether it’s a preview and one appointment, or a preview into appointments or if there’s an open house and they are always those touch points, if properly managed, will create a really fluid customer focused experience where the customer shows up every day with clarity on what the goals are for that interaction. They’ve been coached to be well prepared, you know, just like we’d manage any other business transaction that you know, we’re part of a business. This whole personalization experience can be managed that same way. And often it’s not, to the extent that we believe it could be for a lot of builders so that, you know, that’s an opportunity for growth for some companies in terms of technology and other tools that the builder can provide to better prepare the customers to make confident, quick, easy, comfortable decisions, because they’ve had the chance to think about things. There are many tools technology should play a bigger part in our industry, but doesn’t. There are many tools that the builder can use toward that goal. You know, I think we have such a tremendous opportunity in our industry to get the types of technology that are available in other industries and to weave them into the remote and in person parts of the personalization experience. But they’re also non technology tools that can be used to guide someone and prepare them for a successful you know, enjoyable and productive experience as well because it seems to me like there are certainly selections that no matter How you approached it would be more transactional to to some people, right? And that’s gonna be different. Like there were things that my wife will always want to have an opinion on and touch and feel and put together and that kind of collaging that Andrew was talking about. And then there’s other things that by individual would be really nice if technology allowed us today is, is this part transactional to you, the specific consumer great, and you can make some of those initial selections online, but the space itself or the time with the experts can be focused on the parts that need to be more experiential, help you feel confident about it and excited about your decision. I think that’s really well said and it’s, it’s really dissecting that experience, and looking at what are the points that are emotionally important to the customer? How do we best support that? What are the points that are not emotionally important to the customer but important to get answers on to the builder? How do we best support that, you know, where are there opportunities to, to move people into higher level products and have them feel amazing about that decision and not risk? Fall of having to quote unquote spend, we would say invest more money to get there. And that’s really about the educational piece. And it’s about the sales or presentation style and making sure that we are taking very seriously the responsibility to educate the customer on the benefits of higher level products in a way that they feel that they can make good value judgments. This is an additional investment of x, but here are the benefits, you know, y&z that I get for that? Is that worth it for me and and that is, you know, that whole part of that opportunity for builders is sometimes not fully seized? Because we think that people just make decisions visually. Oh, do I like this tile better than that tile? Well, what what about why it’s worth more dollars. Yeah, I loved when you were with our team. Gosh, this was a while ago, but I still remember you were doing a training for the two or three folks that we had running our design space at the time and we had just introduced a new type of flooring and they were a little bit like I don’t mean It’s not that accurate was some type of vinyl application that look like wood or something and you’re like, hold on a minute, there is a type of customer with a specific need that this will absolutely, like if you have a large dog, this stuff is indestructible, and it looks the most like wood at the time, seven years, eight years ago, but that that always remember that interaction of you just saying, Wait, hold on a minute, this still hasn’t now, there’s still other things that you’re calculating, like, do we have enough space in the current designer to showcase this? And is there another need for it to occupy that shelf space, but this is actually ideal, and it comes at a value price? Yeah, and and whether it’s the pet friendly nature of a product or many other different types of examples of things, it comes back to, you know, understanding the lifestyle that the customer wants to have in the home and helping them select products and features and finishes that will support that lifestyle. So you know, it’s it’s a lot of important discovery that has to get done on the part of the design consultant. And then it’s a matter of how we present options. To our customers so that they do feel like they can find the right product at the right value with the right benefits. Because if we’re not talking about the benefit enough, it becomes a decision solely based on dollars. And that’s not really going to serve the customer long term. And it’s certainly not going to serve the builder either. So thanks so much for joining us this week and taking the time. I know you are a busy, busy person, and we appreciate, oh, we’re all busy in this wonderful industry that we have right now. Everybody, everybody’s focusing on all the amazing opportunities in front of us. So I’m happy to spend the time with you guys today. Thank you for having me.

Kevin Oakley 59:52

And we’re back. So apologies again, hopefully, we’re able to edit the you know, we had skipped Phone calls for our time with Jane because of the internet as I always say technology only breaks but Jane is awesome. She is without a doubt my favorite design studio and process expert and I mean there’s a big difference between a builder putting up a design studio on their own and just kind of building some kitchens and throwing stuff here and there the amount of time and effort that she and her team put into this stuff. I mean, we spent probably six months or over six months between a lighting designer not in terms of what lighting do we sell to customers but how to make sure the space is well lit in a retail way architects engineers making sure all the samples can be cut to the right size or ordered and the right size means it is a massive, massive undertaking. And when you walk through a space that Jane and her team have worked up to design, it’s just something that you can feel okay this is it’s like when you close a car door and it just that satisfying thud of well built you know small tolerance design and then you walk into another design space and you’re like this wall like goes halfway into this Kitchen vignette that’s that’s weird or it’s filled can’t open the door here is Yeah, exactly. Exactly don’t don’t build a Kmart design studio

Andrew Peek 61:08

no those even around they closed them down here but yeah don’t be keyboard it’s I will Sears is bankrupt, so I imagined Kmart is all takeout. Yeah, I don’t know. Who knows. I don’t know.

Kevin Oakley 61:19

All right, let’s uh let’s get to this week’s new question of the week Andrew, what do we got?

Andrew Peek 61:24

This is a fun one it’ll be two parts. So first part, what does your regular interaction with sales leadership look like? And then there will be a poll in the Facebook group how often in a month Do you meet with sales leadership and I think there’ll be a price right Kevin where that

Kevin Oakley 61:38

was one of the polls easy just click on the vote but if you give that extra context in the comments about what that regular interaction looks like, then you will be eligible for not just a prize but a major major prize. So

Andrew Peek 61:51

yes, the movie a major award. It’s gonna be a likely exactly Christmas story.

Kevin Oakley 61:55

Yes, this will not be a leg lamp. You Cuz I don’t want to start any marital fights about whether you display the lamp in the window or no good. It’d be something different than that. So make sure you answer that one. Hey, that’ll do it for this week for publish articles, blog posts, videos and more, check out g convert.com. It’s also the best way to find out how to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, anywhere else we are on social media. Have a great week. We’ll see you next time.

Andrew Peek 62:23

See you Bye.

The post Ep 52: Design Studios with Jane Meagher [Transcript] appeared first on Online Sales and Marketing for Home Builders - DYC.