[00:00:00] Matt: If you’re in the red, you know, meaning you’re not selling, you’re selling tons of houses more than you can handle. some of the things you have to look at guys, if your website’s older than two years old, You reappropriate some funds it’s time. Like this is the time to do it. A lot of people think, what am I going to have time to do it?

Or it’s not, I didn’t think about it. It’s not in the budget. Well, when you’ve sold more than you can handle, now’s the time to go back and get more budget and invest in yourself, invest in your company and get that up to speed. it’s a promise it’s easier to do now than it is when you’re, when you’re not selling as much.

Right. If you don’t have an online sales program, get one. If you didn’t have that person properly trained, refine it, right? Like if you don’t have a CRM, get one, if it hasn’t been a part of your daily life and everyone lives in, dies by the CRM, refine the process like this is, these are the chances and opportunities to do that.

And those [00:01:00] are in my humble opinion. Absolute. Non-negotiables you have to do it. otherwise you’re going to come out the other side of this and everybody else is going to be ahead of you even after you just had the most incredible six months or year or whatever it may be, right? Like think forward.

Don’t think where we’re at right now.

Hi, and welcome to building perspective with Matt Riley and Mollie Elkman.

Mollie: We’re here to bring value to you and your team by exploring all things, sales and marketing related

Matt: all from different perspectives. All right, and welcome to another episode. This is season two. Episode two [00:02:00] of building perspective. We are back with all new content, all new things.

And, I have my partner in crime with me today. Mollie say, hi

Mollie: everyone. We’re happy to be back for season two. I can’t believe it’s already our second year doing

Matt: this. It’s crazy. Year two. And we’re really excited. Like, so what does season two actually mean? Well, For us season two means all new voices, all new opinions, all new strategy all year long.

So not only are you going to be hearing from Mollie and I you’ll be hearing from other people on our team, the people that get in there and are doing it on a day-to-day basis, like boots on the ground and are talking with our builder partners every single day. and bringing, just bringing a different perspective to building perspective, right?

Cause that’s, that’s what we’re all about. And, [00:03:00] and speaking of, of new voices, I think this is a great opportunity. We’re really excited to share that we have, not only just a new voice to building perspective, but a new voice to group too. So I want to bring in there’s no, let’s see. There’s a ballpark.

Oh wrong one. I didn’t,

yeah, that didn’t work either. Okay. Here we go. So, sound effects were a fail that’s okay. We’re just going to let this go. So anyway, we’re super excited to have Amanda Druschel with us. Amanda, welcome to the show. Welcome to group two and Welcome.

Amanda: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Matt: Well, we’re excited to have you here, so why don’t we start? I could talk, for the entire episode about you and everything that you’ve been doing and have done in the past and how excited we are, what you’re going to be bringing to group two and all of our builders, but [00:04:00] I’ll let you talk a little bit about you since, that’s what your, you know, you’ll probably know that a little bit better than me.

Well, let’s start all the way back and let’s, let’s bring it forward. Okay. So let’s, let’s, let’s tell everybody about,

Amanda: yeah. So I have been in the home building industry for a little over 12 years. So I started my journey with, A semi custom home builder in Pittsburgh, kind of started on the ground floor as a, as an assistant.

And then kind of quickly worked my way up into sales, which I really enjoyed and thrived in. and then when our company was bought out, Our, our CFO started a company and he brought me on board. And so I have been with him for the last seven years. And, just recently came on board with group two. So I have a little over 12 years of experience working with home builders from sales.

[00:05:00] To OSC to, to, marketing. and so I really kind of, you know, as, as you said, you know, kind of been there on the floor doing pretty much everything other than production. I never did anything in the production side of it. but you know, I, I, I definitely am excited to, to bring to the table, here at group.

To my experience, and really utilizing that to, to help other builders, and, and kind of speak their language, and really kind of understand what they’re thinking and how they’re feeling. so yeah, just, really excited.

Matt: Yeah, and we are allowed to say builder names. So your two builder names, what year the two builders you worked for were,

Amanda: Heartland homes, was the first builder I worked for.

And then infinity

Matt: both in Pittsburgh. Yes. Yep. That’s right. And so go ahead. And

while

Mollie: you’re in Facebook, what’s so exciting for me is, you know, I’m actually sitting here looking at both of you and at one point, both of you were. [00:06:00] Builders that worked with group two. And now both of you are with group two.

And to me, that’s, I love it just because it’s reflective of our industry. You know, you get to work with people that you really love and respect. And so Amanda, I’m so happy to have you here and I’m excited for you to share your voice with our listeners. Yeah, definitely.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, yeah.

All of that. Let’s dive into what really is our topic of the day. and this is fresh off of, IBS last week. This is February the 16th. on a Tuesday, this’ll be your PR. You’re listening to this. This will be Thursday or Friday that this is out. but so last week was the builder show and yes, it was a little tumultuous at times.

but we got through it and it turned out to be, there was some really, really great content out there. And we may be maybe bringing some of those, presentations and speakers on the show to get, have them give them the [00:07:00] opportunity to kind of talk through and give more. In detail about what, what they were speaking about and help bring their message to you a little bit as well.

But one of the things that really came up at the builder show, frequently, and it’s been coming up obviously is really what our topic of the day is selling and traffic. What is the pulse? And so what’s the pulse of the market. And so, I’m going to get on my soap box for just a second. Just I promise just a second and then I’ll step right back off.

but there. There are these sweeping comments that are being made, right? And, and we have to be really, really careful about sweeping generalized comments because every single market is different. Every single builder is different. Now you should be selling, right? Like there is no doubt you should be selling.

and you should be selling at a good pace. If you are way behind. Something is wrong. Right. So I’m not just saying like, everything is like, you know, it’s all okay. But if you’re way behind something is wrong, it could be your [00:08:00] processes. it could be that you haven’t spent the time investing in the infrastructure, whether it be sales and marketing infrastructure, whether it be, CRM, infrastructure back, DRP infrastructure, The just the overall structure of the organization, that, that could be, that could be effecting it.

Your product could be off as well. Right? I mean, so it’s one of those things we’re in a market where the further out you go, you can still sell. and if you’re in one of those spots, like you might have to, this is the opportunity to. Look at investigate, like look and just kind of tear things apart and see what needs to be fixed.

So you should be selling, but if you’re not experiencing the mass quantity and these super generalized statements that you may have heard, over the, over the past couple of months, it doesn’t mean that everything is broken, right? Like there are definitely some tweaks that can happen, but every builder is a little different.

every market’s a little different and that’s kinda [00:09:00] what we want to talk through today and kind of taking that apart piece by piece. so now I’m going to step off my soap box. Mollie, what do you do? Do you have anything to add

Mollie: there? First of all, our friends at any HB. we love you coming off of the builder show.

I think everyone should send some love to Ann and Joe and Monica and all the people who work at the builders, work at NHB. like Matt was saying, you know, some of this overarching message was just when we left. Some of the talks. We kind of took a look at what our builders are seeing and because we work with so many builders, we wanted to kind of evaluate where the position that everyone is in.

And it was very eyeopening to see that, how, how different it is in different markets, especially coming off of the builder show when we do tend to get those generalized statements. So, Yeah. And that’s really what brought up our topic for today and, and really talking about what that means [00:10:00] and how you adjust.

So yes, it does not mean that everything is broken, but it sometimes does mean that something is broken, that is beyond marketing. And we have seen that in a few cases, you know, whether it’s price or product or location, whatever it is, The good news is when it’s marketing, that’s really easy to fix. So that’s, we can fix that.

but you know, we do have a lot of builders looking in at their operations and their processes and seeing that they’re very, definitely can step up their

Matt: game. Yeah. Amanda, how about

Mollie: you? Yeah, I mean,

Amanda: I can tell, I really appreciate, you know, this podcast because as a, as a previous marketer, and, previous lesson, our wall, I’ll continue to listen to the podcast, but, you know, just a different mindset, but, but anyways, as, as, as you, as you would hear, I would hear these comments, and sort of, Get worried that, that I’m not necessarily falling in line with what’s being said.

it’s [00:11:00] important to, to understand that, you know, not everybody falls into the exact same category. And I think that’s what we’re going to dive into here is, is to sort of figure out what category you do fall in and then, you know, game plan from there.

Matt: Yeah, absolutely. So for instance, we were just internally, so kind of give you guys some, some behind the scenes, like internally, we were looking at all of our builder partners and we were, we were labeling like where people are, right.

Kind of that red, yellow, green is really what we were saying and saying, all right, from a red, yellow, green perspective, what. If any strategies need to change based on where those builders are. Right. And so meaning where they’re at in their own level of success. And so really like red, yellow, green is almost a little bit of opposite.

So red is, they are. Way beyond, like they’re just blowing sales out the wall out the out of the water. And they’re [00:12:00] almost starting to shut things down from a, I’m not allowing sales and insert communities anymore. you know, so we, you know, our, our delivery date is way, way, way out. And then yellow is we’re we’re above plan.

but, but we can handle the volume. So we want to be. Understanding of what you know, and focus on what we’re spending and where we’re spending it. but we can still handle the volume. We have the capacity in place. And then green is. Everything’s normal. Right? Like, just keep it coming. Let’s not take our foot off the gas.

let’s, let’s keep rolling. And sometimes that’s, you know, that’s either they’re right on track. they’re trying to launch some new initiatives, or sometimes it’s, they’re a little behind, right? Depending on the, some of the things that we were talking about. At first. Yeah.

Mollie: And part of why it is set up that way is because all of us are looking at it at it from a sales and marketing standpoint.

So if you’re in red right now from a sales and marketing standpoint, you are going, Oh my [00:13:00] gosh, we can’t handle any more. We need to stop like red means stop. there are some of our listeners who are at that point, based on the builder’s show, it felt like. Everyone was at that point, it is not, I mean, hopefully you are not all feeling so overwhelmed that, you know, things, you feel like you just can’t perform your job and can’t do a good job.

and then as far as green goes, cause those are really the two extremes that are, would have a, revised strategy. As far as green goes. That’s really go as in like. We need to continue to drive traffic, go, go, go. so I, I definitely want to encourage our listeners to self identify. So right now, think about where are you as a company?

Are you red or are you kind of in. The danger zone of, of hurting your customer service, because you aren’t able to keep up, are you yellow business as usual? You know, doing what you’re doing you’re right on track or are you green where [00:14:00] you’re like, okay, we need more traffic. We need more sales. And yes, there are a lot of builders in that position as well right now.

So think about where.

Matt: Yeah. And that I think that strategy and the, and so the reason we were looking at it that way is because the strategy is different, right. I mean, it’s a different strategy for kind of each, each level. and so I want to take a second. If you guys are okay with it, I want to take a second and kind of unpack what that strategy may look like, for each level.

So. Let’s start with, let’s start with red. Red is like Mollie said, I mean, like stop we’re selling too much. Stop it all. we accidentally sold too many houses last week. Like, you know, like you literally. You’re falling into sales. and you can’t turn it off. Yeah.

Mollie: And as a business owner, I have to say, it’s easy to think this is a good thing.

Oh yeah, we’re killing it. We’re killing it. Right. This is not a good thing. [00:15:00] When you are in a position where you can’t keep your customer service and you CA you’re losing what makes you special? That that is a dangerous place to be. And that leads into. Why your strategy from a marketing standpoint, you do not stop marketing.

You have to keep marketing, but your strategy is no longer about driving traffic. Your strategy is now going to shift. So sorry, Matt, I cut you off.

Matt: No, I cut you off. Cause I was like, I was like right there and, but, and that’s, and really, this is where we get into the difference of advertising and marketing.

Right. So advertising to me, and this is like advertising is a verb. It is active in front of people, driving traffic, driving engagements, converting to leads, converting to sale. Right. That’s advertising to me, marketing is softer, right? Obviously advertising. Falls under the marketing umbrella, but marketing is softer.

It is your brand, your brand promise. It is the, it is the customer [00:16:00] experience, right? The customer experience is marketing. And so that’s where you, you know, if you’re red. And this is where you can actually start to do. If you’re not prepared, this is where you can start to do real damage to your brand and your brand promise.

I think I heard Chad Sanchez and say this in the sales rally. I think it was the sales rally. If it wasn’t the sales rally, it was his and I’s session. It was our session together. I can’t remember which one, but he said it, he was like, yeah. I don’t want to shut say, I don’t want to turn off sales, not allow sales.

What I want to do is make sure that we protect the customer experience. And if protecting the customer experience means we need to take fewer sales per month. That’s what we do, but we’re doing it for a reason. We’re not doing it like, Hey, Mr. Mrs. Customer, literally, you just can’t buy it. We got too many people.

Sorry about your luck. It’s a reframe of. We’re really protective of our customer experience. And because of that, we have few [00:17:00] opportunities each month because we only have so much bandwidth and capacity to, to be able to continue to deliver on that promise. So that’s one part. And then the other part is how does the strategy shift.

Two, if you’re in red, how does the strategy shift away from advertising into marketing? I’ll turn, let you guys,

Mollie: yeah, and I, I just want to say this is really why, one of the reasons why we are really happy to have Amanda on today, because Amanda has an attention to detail and I, in her role with, with her previous builder, you know, those different buyer touchpoints were.

I could always tell that that that is the thing that really, you know, got you excited to make that connection with buyers and to make it a meaningful process with them. So one of the things that we’ve done here internally is talk about how, from a marketing standpoint, we can support some of those touch points.

So do you want to talk a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. So,

Amanda: you know, buying a home is, is it’s an [00:18:00] emotional. Right. And, and it is an experience. So I think we need to be cognizant of making sure that we have appropriate touch points for our buyers throughout the entire process. From the time that they make first point of contact through all the way post closing and.

You know, that’s going to look different for every builder based on, you know, your process and timeframes and different things like that. But I think it’s really important to really kind of sit down and think through that customer process. And what opportunities do you have as a builder to, to maybe create, intentional touch points, that.

Maybe are not there right now, but, but you have the opportunity to create them and making sure that they, like I said are intentional. So you’re not just creating something to create it, but you’re doing so in a way that is appropriate from like a time. [00:19:00] Time stand where, maybe there was a loaf in construction and we know that, you know, customers get a little antsy during that timeframe so that, you know, that’s a great opportunity to, you know, have a touch point where you’re sending them something personalized in the mail that they’re not expecting.

And when they get it. You know, it’s really exciting for them because you took the time to think about them. and it came at a time that maybe they were thinking that you might’ve forgotten about them. but you know, I think just those, those touch points, are, are really important, to, to make sure that you’re doing throughout the entire process, just to keep engaged, engaged with, with clients so that they don’t feel like they’re being, forgotten about.

Mollie: Yeah, I have to say I’m sure everyone in sales right now, who’s listening, who is overwhelmed, is probably thinking. How, how do I do that? How do I slow down? How do I, you [00:20:00] know, on top of everything I’m already doing, like, I, I don’t have the ability to now do 10 extra things added to, to, the buyer process.

Like it can seem overwhelming. And quite frankly, that is the marketing opportunity is what are these things that we can do and implement the don’t take so much time and effort, but are. That extra little something that makes the buyer feel special and seen, and that your celebrate with them along the way.

Exactly. I mean, they

Amanda: don’t have to be over the top things, right? Like it’s not meant to create extra work for anybody, but the little things, we’ll go a really far away. and I think the other thing that you can do too, Sort of automate this a little bit is definitely use your CRM system. So, you know, if you are putting these in specific timeframes throughout the process, you know, insert those into your CRM system.

So, you know, you don’t forget about [00:21:00] them and their reminders to, to make those happen.

Matt: So, what are some, what are some touch points like let’s run through and some, give some good ideas for, for people? Like what are some of those important touch points where you may want to trigger a series of automated things to happen?

Amanda: Yeah. So I think, right after contract is, is, is a good one. just to like kind of congratulations and you know, whether you’re sending them a handwritten note or you’re sending them a bottle of wine or something, just so you know, it’s not okay. I signed a contract and then I’m moving on to the next sale.

You actually took some time to, to do something. I would send, a custom stamp that would have their new address on it to them, right at their pre-construction meeting. so it was really exciting because it was like, okay, we’re, you know, we’re getting ready to do actually, like physically see this house on paper.

and, [00:22:00] and here’s, you know, this, this stamp that kind of goes along with that address that goes along with the house and then, you know, Like I said during construction, summit, some of those touch points, you’ll have to find during those LOLs. but you know, depending on the, every, builder’s going to be a little bit different and also your budgets too, you know, your budgets are, are, are going to.

Allow for, for what, what you can can afford. but you know, something is as simple as, you know, we used to send birthday cards to all of our clients, so we would survey them. and that was a touch point that obviously it came at various times throughout. but we would put just a little. $10 Starbucks gift card.

And with that, and that was something that was really over the top was not expected. any time that somebody would have any anniversary, a wedding, a baby, we would definitely always send them, something in the mail as, you know, kind of sharing the congratulations with them. post-closing another [00:23:00] easy idea is, I would have my marketing coordinator.

Create a, a takeout menu for their specific community. So we would, list out all of the different restaurants that they could get takeout from. and then we would buy a gift card to one of those restaurants and we would send it to them a week after they closed. And so it was. Just another, like you’ve moved into your beautiful home.

we still haven’t forgotten about you. and we know you’re super busy moving in, so, you know, have dinner out on us. So those are just a few, a few ideas.

Matt: I love it.

Mollie: One of the things. So I am sure that our listeners can all relate and you’re all thinking of things that you’ve done to celebrate and Mark those touchpoints.

I am a huge believer in process and being able to. Have consistent customer service. So where does that live right now? Where did these ideas [00:24:00] live? If they only live in your head, everyone has different things that they’re doing. This is a great marketing and sales opportunity. So put it on paper and have the, these ideas that you’re doing at different touch points.

Knowing that right now, this is about customer service. This is about future word of mouth. And that, this is something that, that isn’t just an extra little touch. It actually is a huge part of your culture. And what sets you apart from a customer service standpoint? So I would recommend, putting this on paper and even having, an outline or a calendar of which, Which times you would send what or give some examples.

Definitely. Yeah. In

Amanda: there for sure needs to be coordination between marketing and sales on that, because, you know, marketing is the one that’s kind of doing it and sending it out, but it it’s, it’s essentially coming from sales, like, you know, they’re, they have that relationship with the [00:25:00] sales team. but you know, marketing marketing’s handling.

On the backend. So there definitely needs to be communication as to, you know, when are the appropriate times to be sending things out, making sure that, you know, if, if somebody does mention that they just got something that they know that that actually happened and they don’t sound surprised that that occurred.

and you know, taking those, planned processes and, and putting them into. To action. and, and making sure that everyone knows whose responsibility is what so that it actually happens every single

Mollie: time. So one of the things that, one of the things that we’re doing here, as you guys know for our builders is.

Most builders have a path to ownership, which is a customer facing. It’s something that kind of sets up what the path to home ownership looks like and all the different stages of their specific process. And yes, a lot are similar, but builders do. [00:26:00] Have some differences in what their, their process looks like to ownership.

So what we’re doing is we are doing an internal version of that, where we are able to, put down what we are doing to celebrate those different. Points in the path to ownership. So think about your customer facing marketing material and how you can use that internally to enhance the experience along that same exact path.

So that’s been fun for us and we’ll definitely share some of those with you as we create

Matt: them. And, and it’s a good mixture of what you were saying. It’s that external communication and internal communication between, you know, these are the internally, these are the touch points where we need to do something special.

These are the touch points where we’ve got to do something. and then there’s the buyer communication of here’s what you can expect along the way. Right. And so a lot of, I mean, a lot of the things that you were just talking about, I think I loved the, here’s a takeout [00:27:00] op you know, here’s a takeout list and here’s a gift card.

I think those are great things. Yeah. And if you’re in the red zone, it’s like stop, we’re selling too many houses. You’re probably thinking. When on earth, am I going to have time to do that? You know? And, and so yes, you should, you gotta make some time to do it, but, but also number two, option B wherever I was at doing some of it via email and at least automating some of that process is, is also going to be effective because like Amanda was saying in construction, there are, there are already built in LOLs along the way.

Right. And we know that we know in normal conditions that we have to go, all right, they’ve, they’ve written, their contract had gone to the design center or they’ve picked up their selections. If you don’t have a design center. And now, like there’s all this work that has to happen on the back end, but the customer is not seeing any progress.

And so there’s this, we know that we have to, we have to touch the customer more frequently in that period. And then we know what we have to do when we get into the construction [00:28:00] phases, but. All that is expanded up and been compounded upon now. and it’s even longer, right? I mean, someone writes a contract.

We have builders that are their delivery dates for a contract written in February of 2021 delivery dates are April of 2022. Right. So, and that doesn’t mean that the house starts construction right away. Like nothing’s going to happen for months on end. And so we’ve got to have things in place at a bare minimum, the unhuman.

Automation of it, at least alleviate some of that. you should all, don’t take the human element out, but if you need some help along the way, that is a great opportunity to go. And you can trigger that through your CRM. as Amanda was alluding to. I

Amanda: know if you’re in the red right now, you’re thinking like, like you said, Matt, like, I’m just crazy busy.

How do I find the time? and, and I think Myers, my parents had said like, you don’t need a social life right now in this market. Like, it’s a biggest market. You don’t need a social life right now. [00:29:00] but I think just taking just a little bit of time to sit down, brainstorm some ideas and, and, and take some action items out of that idea.

or out of that meeting. And the alternative to that is. Continue doing what you’re doing and having frustrated customers down the road, but, but try to get a little bit ahead of that and just take a little bit of time to figure out some of those action items that you can put in place to, to try to avoid some of those frustrations that the customers are going to feel, when they have delays.

because you know, we’re just so busy right now.

Matt: Yeah. And, and if you’re in the red. You know, meaning you’re not selling, you’re selling tons of houses more than you can handle. some of the things you have to look at guys, if your website’s older than two years old, You reappropriate some funds it’s time.

Like this is the time to do it. A lot of people think, what am I going to have time to do it? Or it’s not, I didn’t think about it. It’s not in the [00:30:00] budget. Well, when you sold more than you can handle, now’s the time to go back and get more budget and invest in yourself, invest in your company and get that up to speed.

it’s a promise it’s easier to do now than it is when you’re, when you’re not selling as much. Right. If you don’t have an online sales program, get one. If you didn’t have that person properly trained, refine it, right? Like if you don’t have a CRM, get one, if it hasn’t been a part of your daily life and everyone lives and dies by the CRM, refine the process like this is, these are the chances and opportunities to do that.

And those are in my humble opinion. Absolute. Non-negotiables you have to do it. otherwise you’re going to come out the other side of this and everybody else is going to be ahead of you even after you just had the most incredible six months or year or whatever it may be, right? Like think forward.

Don’t think where we’re at right now.

Mollie: I think that [00:31:00] is key because that’s what terrifies me is the damage that people could potentially be doing to their brand while they’re in it right now, just thinking we’re killing it. And then those, those negative experiences they live on forever with social media.

so just, you know, definitely I love that comment.

Matt: Okay. All right. So, we’ve, we’ve gone on and on about red. So let’s talk about yellow and green. so yellow, yellow is, you know, we’re selling we’re things are well we’re at or above goal. but we’re not at a point where we want to shut it down. You know, we’re not saying shut her down.

We’re saying let’s be smart about what we’re doing. but. Let’s let’s keep moving. Right. So what do you guys think? What are some of the, what are the, some of the strategies? How, if anything, shifts, what are those strategies look like in yellow? Yeah,

Mollie: for me, yellow is like the happy place. This is where, this is where we want to be.

Okay. [00:32:00] We’re we are doing well. We’re driving traffic. We’re, we’re selling in a way where we can deliver, we’ve got it under control. So I would like for people to aim for yellow and consider that the happy color that’s right.

Matt: Amanda. How about you?

Amanda: Yeah, I mean, like Mollie said, like, that’s, that’s what we’re aiming for.

and, and, you know, it’s, nothing’s really broken if you’re in yellow, right. So you don’t have anything that you necessarily need to fix. so, you know, just keep, keep going as is, and, yeah.

Mollie: Yeah. From a strategy standpoint, I would say for the people who are doing fine, put on your blinders, don’t look at the people in red.

Don’t look at the people in green and keep doing your thing. don’t mess with what isn’t broken. So like don’t, you know, keep your marketing going. Don’t make those kind of like any crazy adjustments other than improving your processes and, continuing to, to try new and exciting things.

Matt: That’s what I was getting ready to say is.

[00:33:00] If you’re yellow, this is the perfect opportunity to try new things. you know, maybe it’s all right, we’re going to spend a little less money over here, but I’m going to try this. I’m reappropriating that money. If it’s an ad spend or these are, these are perfect. This is the perfect opportunity to try new things, to see if it works because you’re still, and I do want to have a caveat in the market in that market or in this market.

A lot of the things that you’re going to try are going to work that necessarily won’t work in a, in a, in a bad market and a down market, but we’re going to have, so we’re going to start generating some of that experience and documenting and tracking it along the way. if you’ve listened to. One podcast.

You’ve heard me talk about reporting and tracking and how, how important it is. but this is the opportunity to try those new things and continue to refine your process that you don’t just stick it on cruise control and let it roll. But, you also don’t get carried away with on either side of it, right?

You’re [00:34:00] not. All in on one thing, and you’re not saying shut it down. We don’t need anything. This is the perfect opportunity to try new things. So strategy-wise not changing cause you’re doing great. but kind of add her to the strategy is try some new stuff. I love

Mollie: how I love how you’re the analytical one.

Cause I’m, I’m the total opposite and this is what I’m going to say. This is so important. Are you ready?

Matt: Let’s header. Tick tock.

Mollie: So what are the things, you know, Chad Sanchez Ergon said at the builder show is the one thing you need to do is get younger. So if you’re in the yellow stage and you’re happy you’re in this smiley face.

You know, you want to try something new. This is a chance to try some new things like Tik TOK. So everyone in the yellow phase, we want to see you dancing. We want to see whatever you youngsters do. but really this is a great chance to, to try those things and to have [00:35:00] some fun and, and

Matt: experiment. Yeah, and it’s free.

Right? And it’s the same thing with like Instagram and Facebook stories and reels. I’ve seen, I’ve seen some, some builders taking advantage of reels. and they’re cool. Little to me, they’re nothing like dancing and switching clothes, whatever that was called, the, where you, the two people would like change clothes like that.

Yeah. Yeah, but I’m just saying like the builders, weren’t like all of a sudden, I’m not in an address. Cause the lights turned off and on. Right. But they were doing some like Instagram reels through like quick tours of a kitchen or a living room or a cool feature, a wine rack, a wine room or whatever it is and they’ve caught my attention.

And so those are, those are really good opportunities as well. But yes, Mollie, I will say, Trying new things, tick tock, who knows. Right. You can get it out there. And just like you said, have some fun with it. If it doesn’t work that’s okay. Just don’t do it anymore. Right. It didn’t, it didn’t cost anything.

[00:36:00] but try it. Why, why not try it?

Mollie: Okay. And wait, one more thing we do often also have to recognize when we’re talking about getting younger. This is, we need to all start thinking about gen Z. gen Z is they’re coming. They have big personalities. They’re hating on millennials. I learned this week that skinny jeans and, and, middle part of our I’m sorry, side hair parts are out like ladies, if you have a side hair part, apparently gen Z gen Z thinks you’re a loser.

So, you know, just seeing what’s trending on social media, as far as. viewpoints and this next generation that’s coming up, that is going to be the next new thing. So that’s why we brought up tic-tac is just always staying ahead of the next new thing.

Matt: Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Okay. Even though tick talks

Mollie: bins.

Oh, I, I was thinking also about clubhouse and different things that are happening in reels and all that stuff.

Matt: Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean like clubhouse, for instance, I think, you know, try it. Right. Who [00:37:00] knows, in your local market, if you’ve got some connections and you think that you can host an, an audio only chat and it’s going to benefit buyers, or maybe it’s going to benefit, maybe it’s something that is a B2B from like, as a builder to realtors.

you know, I, I. My assumption is that clubhouse, isn’t going to be this traffic buyer, traffic magnet, and converting to sales, but maybe it helps enhance your relationship with realtors, or maybe you’ve, maybe it’s just your market and you can do something really, really cool with it. and, and come out.

The other side is, is an industry leader in your local market, right? That, that kind of voice, that, that. The expert, voice, or expertise with the, with your buyers or, or even with your realtor partners. You’re not in your head, Mollie. Yeah. I’m just

Mollie: thinking, you know, with clubhouse, I think it’s timely because I am so sick of seeing myself on zoom.

I I’m serious. Like I don’t want to be in another meeting where I’m looking at my own face. I actually [00:38:00] have it covered, so I don’t have to see, But what’s nice about clubhouse is you can be in your pajamas, lying in bed and be in a real conversation with industry influencers and, and people that you respect and admire.

And you’re having this intellectual conversation from your bed in your pajamas. And to me, that’s very timely just because of all the zoom overload. So where it may not be a, an outlet that directly results. I’m in sales or something that is customer facing. It could be a way to have sales meetings. It could be a way to talk about what’s going on in the industry, similar to a podcast, except you’re also in the room, engaging in the conversation.

And so far, I mean, there are some really interesting people that are hosting these gatherings and you have an opportunity, you know, to be. In an actual meeting where you can talk and engage with some, some very, very smart and interesting people. So definitely I would say check it out and [00:39:00] I am not convinced that it’s not going to be a thing.

Matt: It could, I’m not convinced it’s not going to be a thing either. I think it could be. I think it’s my, my prediction is it’s more of a B2B thing, but that’s a builder can still use it because you’re B2B with real estate agents. You could be B2B. I mean, think about how. If I’m a, if I’m a salesperson in a, in a community, really what I’ve got to have is strong relationships with the local businesses and restaurants and shops and all that kind of stuff about, and I’ve got to be the, the expert in my area, not just my community, but my area, because that’s what you have to sell.

First of why you want to live in this general area, then your neighborhood. and so why not host and have conversations with. Local business owners and, and restaurants and shops and all that. And talk about all the town council, city, mayors, they will talk. Right. And those are just really cool opportunities, to put yourself out there as an influencer.

Mollie: Speaking of the [00:40:00] most influential people. I would love to know from our listeners, do you want to have a clubhouse with us? Because yeah, so, so send me an email, send Matt an email, go to our Facebook page. I mean, we. We really can do a building perspective episode from clubhouse, where you have an opportunity to engage and give your comments and your feedback and make it more of an open platform.

So who knows? Maybe season three, we’ll be building perspective clubhouse group.

Matt: I love it. I love it. Okay. All right. green, let’s moving on green. If you’re green. green is what Mollie green

Mollie: is. You need traffic, you need sales, go, go, Oh, go,

Matt: something’s wrong here. Folks is broken green. Something’s wrong.

Mollie: So this is where you need to be doing all the things. And you need to have a deep self evaluation of what is, what is wrong. And is it. At this point, it’s [00:41:00] probably not marketing. It’s probably, you know, related to product or location or some other aspect. But if you haven’t identified it, let’s identify it.

Matt: Yeah. And this goes in, I mean, this is really where you get into some real troubleshooting, like. I I say that I’ve said this to multiple builders that we work with before, especially when we first start working together. Or if I go make my, like, when my first visit their onsite visit there. And I’ll say you’re really hard to do business with.

And they look stunned, like, because you’re not making it easy for the customer to make a decision today. You’ve got all of these things in place that is slowing the process down. It’s slowing getting information down to the customer. Hell your salespeople can’t even get them. The like your salespeople are confused, right?

This is a real thing. And this is happening [00:42:00] and these are, these are conversations. And so sometimes you have to ask yourself, am I easy to do business with. Both internally and externally are my internal customers, salespeople in the field. Are they, are they equipped with the tools that they need? My, my sub-base are they equipped with the tools that they need in order to get done?

What I expect them to get done? and the only way to know is go ask them or go look at the results, right? Because if there’s this long convoluted process, unless you’re a full blown custom home builder or you’re drawing everything upfront, you got to have, and maybe even then you still got to have some standardized pricing.

You gotta be able to give somebody an idea of where they’re starting from before, so they can make the next logical decision to move forward in the process. So sometimes it starts there with am I easy to do business with. Then get, get into your CRM lane. Is it being used? What’s happening? I’ve got there.

I’ve got we, we have a builder partner, or [00:43:00] builders. This isn’t just one per one builder, but where, You know, sales people are out outsourced, like they’re outside agents and they were taken buyers to other places. Right. So it’s like, it makes you have a panic attack. but the good news is as we found out.

Right? And so these are the things that we identify. These are the things that when we talk about something’s broken, something’s really broken if you’re behind. And I mean behind not off by a sale or two, I’m talking way behind. Something really is broken. And that’s where you have to look at each individual piece, you know, your, your organizational structure, your CRM, your backend system.

Are you easy to do business with? Do you have the right people on the bus? And if the right people are on the bus, do you have them in the right seat on the bus? That’s kind of a Jim Collins, good to great right out of the book, you know, get the right people on the bus and then make sure those those same right.

People are in the right seats because that can also be a problem. So [00:44:00] w what do you guys think? What do you

Amanda: think coming out of, you know, that sort of builder mindset, you, you sort of live in your little bubble, right. And you never take the time to, to really dive in and look at what is potentially broken.

So I think for anybody that is in that. green, phase right now that it’s, it’s definitely worth kind of that internal audit and diving into, to what is broken and all the, you know, all the potential things that that matches mentioned. but, but really taking the time to do that and figure out what that is so that you can stop and fix it.

Mollie: Yeah. And for me, it really goes back to what I said earlier about. Aiming for consistent customer service and consistent customer experience. So if you have one person who is having an awful time and you have another person who is just, you know, the process is going [00:45:00] great, and it’s perfect, what, what’s the difference what’s happening here and try to fix those processes so that your customer service and your customer experience is consistent.

And, and really a lot of that. Ends up being, just getting these processes down on paper. Yeah. And

Amanda: making sure that everyone in the organization knows what that process is. you know, we talked earlier about the, the internal kind of process. I think even for small builders, communication can sometimes be a struggle and production.

Doesn’t always know what sales is doing and sales doesn’t always know what. Marketing is doing and, and just making sure that that, that full process is fully explained, you know, throughout the, the entire organization.

Matt: I think that’s a really great point. Does everybody else, you know, that, I think that’s a really, really great point.

Does everyone else know what that is? Yeah. And

Amanda: oftentimes I would, you know, just make assumptions that [00:46:00] we’ll, we’ll obviously they know this. Right. And, and the answer was no, they didn’t. and you know, I would get myself in trouble sometimes just because I just assumed that people understood or knew. and, and that communication, you know, communication is key, not just internally, but you know, with our customers as well.

but you know, just overall, I think communication is really important to make sure that everyone is on the same page that is knows what’s going on. and feels like they are a part

Mollie: of, you know, what what’s happening.

Yeah. Just thinking about group two, some of our best processes have come from different people from different perspectives that they were looking at, how things were operating here. So whoever is listening, whatever your role is at your company, you can be a part of getting that process on paper, starting the conversation where you.

See those gaps and putting it on paper and [00:47:00] making sure that the rest of the team is all in this, on the same. That’s why I say getting on the same page, even though, you know, I’m being literal, putting it on paper. so I agree with everything you guys are putting out there.

Matt: Yeah. Awesome. All right. Well, we have gone through sales and traffic.

We’ve talked about, what we’re seeing, we’ve talked about. if. Don’t get caught up, especially coming out of the IBS. don’t get caught up in some of the generalized statements that are out there and really look inward and evaluate where you are. Use. Use our analogy, use the red, yellow, green, where are you within those?

And. Do your strategies line up with what we were just kind of going through. And if you guys want to talk through that, and have a better understanding of, of cause again, and we’ve w we’re 45 ish minutes into this. and so obviously we [00:48:00] can’t cover everything in a, an hour or less talking about what these look like, but if you want to talk about it, Let’s reach out, let us know we can have a clubhouse about it.

and, we can talk more about this. Maybe, maybe we do. Maybe we just create this as also a clubhouse. Maybe I’m just saying, this is what we’re going to do. We’re just going to make a clubhouse and it’s going to be, episode two, version two. Clubhouse addition, and that’s what, that’s what we’re going to do.

And we’re going to talk about, we’re going to talk about sales and traffic and what the pulse is, red, yellow, green. What the heck does that mean? Really evaluate where you’re at. and are the strategies that you have appropriate for where you are and are you reinvesting in yourself and your company and in your people?

Because this is this. If you’re yellow or red, this is the time to do it. Right. This is an, if you’re green early, it’s still the time to do it. It’s still the time to do it. Anyway. It doesn’t matter what stage you’re in, reinvest in yourself, your company and your people, and it will always pay dividends. So what else?

Closing comments, [00:49:00] remarks.

Mollie: I just want our listeners to all join us again in welcoming Amanda to group two, we want to hear from you on our. Facebook group. definitely come say hi, share with us. Ask any questions and Amanda, we’re so happy. You’re here. I

Amanda: am so happy to be here. I, I’ve only been here for two weeks now and it’s yeah, I’ve, I’ve already learned so much already.

Matt: Awesome. All right, guys. Well, thank you so much for listening to another episode of billing perspective, and it sounds like we’re going to be creating a clubhouse episode next. So, talk to you soon. Have a great week. We’ll chat soon. Bye. Bye. .