[00:00:00] Mollie: Buyers expect choice and the choice starts not just when it comes to product and what you’re building. It comes to how they engage with you, how they interact with you, how they consume information. And part of. Having that choice in, in where they get information is really this underlying feeling that every single one of us has, and that is that we want to be smart in the decisions that we make.

If you can make. Your buyers feel confident that you are the smart choice. By educating them and giving them the information that they need and answering questions before they even ask them, that’s going to build that trust and make that relationship so much stronger. So a lot of this has to do with.

Just understanding human behavior and, and what is going to resonate most importantly with them at this point in the journey to make it to the short [00:01:00] list, you need to be able to do this. Otherwise they’re just crossing you off 

Matt: and moving onto the next one. Hi and

welcome to building perspective with Matt Riley and Molly open. 

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. Today, our first. Focus discussion of the week this week is the buyer journey and we are wrapping up a multi-part series that we did a a blog series that we did over the past several weeks.

We have one previous podcast episode several weeks back that we talked where we talked about the buyer journey, but today we’re going to put. A big red bow on the buyer [00:02:00] journey and a, well, maybe, maybe it’s the last installment, at least for now at least. Cause we know that the buyer journey changes all the time.

So. 

Mollie: But first, let’s dive into our top topics of the week and my topic this week actually does relate to the buyer journey because I want to talk a little bit about some of the industry terms that we use. One being the buyer journey and one also being the sales funnel. So. For years when I’ve given talks at the builder show or which one in clubs, I’ve really, um, emphasize the fact that I don’t really think there is this pretty sales funnel anymore.

And I do think that we continue to use the term, but the term has really shifted its meaning. So this sales funnel used to be this idea of a perfect funnel that you. You lead your buyers through. And I think with what we’re talking about on our, in [00:03:00] our topic today and as well as how we use the term funnel now, is really about all the different pieces that happen throughout the buying cycles.

So I do want to clarify that because I think there are so many ways to get in front of audiences now and to get in front of people that. If you are expecting it to be this pretty funnel that goes step one to three. It isn’t that pretty. And of course we’re, you know, we’re talking about it in different stages, but each stage has so many different touch points.

So it really looks unique to every single buyer of what the journey looks like for them. So I really wanted to clarify that. And, um. You know, these are industry standard terms, but it’s, it’s interesting to see how these terms do shift and evolve and change over time. 

Matt: Yeah, I agree. It’s really, really important that we take the thought process from this funnel mentality where they’ve got [00:04:00] to hit certain very specific steps in order to get to the end result and think more, uh, think more about the actual customer and meeting them where they are in their.

Quote, unquote journey. Instead of it being more of a funnel, it should be something like a flywheel kind of ecosystem where they can enter in at multiple points, multiple points in their journey, and along our, our buying path that we’re there, we’re kind of laying out there for them and our messaging.

So we can dive into that in much more detail here in just a bit. Um, I, I made a post on Facebook, I think it was, yeah. Facebook the other day. And there was an article, cause I think this has the, the ability to be the biggest disruptor in our industry for quite some time. Um, it was a CNN article.

It was, and this is in multiple places. It’s been in multiple places. So you’ll find it. More than just the CNN article. We’ll link to it in the show notes as well, but [00:05:00] you know, this is talking, there’s like, there’s several class action lawsuits that are being formed against a NAR NASA national association of realtors and some other organizations as well.

And the whole, the, the lawsuit is really based around. Co like price fixing, right? Like commission fixing with the 6% or 7% or whatever. The commission levels are being paid out and it’s arguing that it’s, it’s kind of an a monopoly in the PR, you know, it’s price fixing. I think that this has, this really has some legs to it.

Not because I think that the real estate commission is. Price fixing because I, I don’t think that, I think it’s actually a little bit deeper for conversation and from solely a builder’s perspective and a seller’s perspective. My thought is this, when it comes to the commission that’s paid out, no where in any other industry can you go get someone to represent you in anything [00:06:00] and then get.

Someone else to pay for it, right? So I look at it this way. As the seller, I’m going to pay 6% total commission. I’m going to list my home. Let’s just use a singular example in this, not necessarily built or skewed, but a singular example. I’m going to list my home. I’m going to hire you, the realtor to do it.

Molly and. You’re going to say, all right, it’s 6% commission. I get 3% commission for my marketing services, and you know, to be able to, you know, Mark the home properly and do my job to help sell your home, that’s great. But what we’re also gonna do is we’re also going to put a 3% bounty out there.

To get the buyers realtors to bring them to the table, and we’re going to pay that buyer’s commission. We’re going to pay the buyer’s realtor the other 3% commission. So what you’re telling me is. As the seller, I have to pay the person who is going to negotiate against me. 

[00:07:00] Mollie: Yeah. It really does sound odd when you say it like that, and when you think about it, I mean, it really is strange.

The whole setup. 

Matt: It’s, it’s really archaic. And I was talking to a, I was actually talking to my friend, Steve Shoemaker yesterday. We were, we were chatting on the phone a little bit, cause he called me, he read that article that I posted and he was like, that was really interesting. Um, and obviously builders, 99% of the builders, if not 100%, are all in on that.

They’re like, yeah, why? I hate paying the buyer’s realtor. Not because it doesn’t mean you’re not realtor friendly. That just means that why should I pay? Why should I have to pay the person that’s literally going, their job is to work against me and I think that the buyer should be able to get representation, but you should pay for that, right?

I is. If I’m the buyer, I should pay for that myself, just like the seller is paying. For the realtor services to [00:08:00] list their home. They’re not paying for it, writing a check, but they’re paying for it out of the proceeds of the home. Why can’t, why shouldn’t the buyer’s agent be compensated in the same way?

Why? Why wouldn’t it be a fee that the buyer pays for representation? 

Mollie: Yes. So do you think this is going to really evoke some change in the industry? Do you think, um, these conversations and this is gonna um, generate some action and 

Matt: change. I think it could. I mean, NAR is very powerful. They’ve got, they’ve got tons of lobbyists, you know, I mean, there’s a lot of money there to kind of keep that down, but I think that.

Technology hasn’t really hit our industry yet, you know, not really disrupted our industry like it has in so many other industries. I mean, we’ve had to change the way we market homes, obviously like beyond line. That’s not a, that’s not an industry disruptor. That’s just getting in front of more [00:09:00] buyers and kind of changing what the times that way we’re still at freaking decade behind as a whole.

As an industry, but technology hasn’t disrupted our industry. We have yet to be really transparent. You think about. When you’re going to buy a car today, like housing and cars. I mean, that’s kind of the next step down. I can get online. I can see exactly what the dealer paid for. I know exactly everything that’s in it.

I know how it’s made. I know where it’s made. I know everything and technology is completely disrupted. The car industry, the auto industry as well. Think about places like Carvana where it’s a giant vending machine if you don’t have any of these in your market, but it’s like a giant vending machine where I can buy my car and it literally comes down the freaking machine and 

Mollie: they’ll, we have one here in Philly.

It’s so cool looking. It’s awesome, 

Matt: but they’ll drive it to your house like. One of my neighbors bought their Mercedes from Carvana and the big [00:10:00] Carvana truck like pulls out in front of their house and unloads it, and like, 

Mollie: they didn’t even test drive 

Matt: it because they knew what they wanted and they just bought it online and they brought it to their house.

That was it. And you think about places like Uber, complete technology disruption. Completely turned that industry upside down. Think about the article, the CNN article repre uh, actually talks about Netflix and blockbuster, you know, and it was talking about how people wanted Netflix, but blockbuster said, was saying.

Well, no, this is the way you have to watch movies, right? And the what happened? Blockbusters. No longer they’re gone. So technology hasn’t disrupted our industry yet. This, in my opinion, could be the first big disruption. And this particular piece isn’t a technology disruptor, but it’s going to lead into it.

Like with the eye, the eye buyer stuff. This is going to be technology that’s going to completely disrupt our [00:11:00] industry as a whole, and I am actually for it. I think that we need to be disrupted. We’re not transparent. 

Mollie: I would think that most of our listeners are for it. And really most builders in general, I mean this is an ongoing conversation of the, the role of realtors.

And it doesn’t mean that we don’t love them and want to work with them, but it doesn’t always seem like it works out in everyone’s best interest. And one of the things that Matt, the two of us always talk about is it has to work on both sides. And when it doesn’t, something is going to shift at some point.

And it seems like we are really at that shift point. So, um, let’s continue to follow this and we’ll make sure to update, you know, all of our listeners on, on any progress. 

Matt: Yep, absolutely. All right. I always love those debates. Um, it’s fun. It’s exciting. I like to see the change and the progress.

Let’s keep an eye on it and see where we go. So. All right guys, we are going to take a [00:12:00] quick break, but when we come back, we’re going to kind of finish off and dive into the buyer journey a little more in a fun, fun city. So, all right, we’ll see. Just a few. Alright.

And we are back and we’re going to dive into our Focus discussion of the week this week, the buyer journey, and this is really kind of pulling off of our blog series. We did a three part blog series, and today we’re going to tackle really parts two and three of the blog series, which really represents the middle and bottom of the funnel.

And I would say, I want to make a disclaimer that Molly, Molly, and I were just talking about this before we jumped on, is this disclaimer, really the parts two and three where we were talking about it ending. [00:13:00] We’re talking more about the marketing process of like from an online journey perspective.

And we’re stopping, but it does really continue to on site and we’ll tackle that another time. But this is specifically talking about really the online buyer journey and getting them to convert to a lead. And the whole part from lead to sale is really a different. A different piece of the puzzle.

It’s a little different conversation 

Mollie: and we’re definitely going to have that cause we love that piece as well. One of the things, Matt, that I find so fascinating is, and I hope that our listeners will read the part two and part three of the blog because there are some very specific deliverables and action items in there.

But one of the things that I find most fascinating is that the journey now. is quicker than ever before. So, you know, we’ve broken it out to part one, part two, part three. But the truth is it happens in the blink of an eye, and especially when it’s done [00:14:00] correctly. So, you know, some of the elements and pieces that we talked about for the top of the funnel are really continued in the middle and at the bottom of the funnel.

And choose specific parts of that in particular. Are. Building trust and educating, and I think those get carried through at every, at every stage. Don’t you agree? 

Matt: Absolutely. The minute they lose trust or they find a reason to not trust you because they’re looking, they’re very much the naysayer and skeptic of the pro of the companies.

They don’t, they just don’t trust us as companies. So they’re, they’re looking for that. So to kind of break apart, in my opinion at least. 

Mollie: Yeah. And then the education side of it is, this is where we really get deep into the education side of it. When you really get to the middle of the funnel, this is where you start to really talk about what differentiates you.

Compared to other options. What is different between new [00:15:00] versus used? This is where the education side of it gets really deep. And what a lot of builders do incorrectly is they, they think that the top of the funnel is where they need to really get into the education. And it’s actually the middle of the funnel where it’s, you know, really making that buyer an educated.

Consumer and, and being their partner in the process. And that actually really helps to generate trust. 

Matt: Several of the different blogs that we’ve posted recently, in my opinion, kind of tie together, because there’s one blog that I wrote, it’s all about differentiation, kind of in the sea of competition, right?

Like how do you differentiate yourself between everything out there? And I think that really plays into that middle. In the middle of the funnel a lot. Um, it does, it does kind of crossover into bottom of funnel and a lot of, in the reason we’re tackling middle and bottom at the same time is just like what Molly was saying.

It’s like before our break, it. These [00:16:00] crossover so much and it’s much less the funnel and much more the buyer entering at different stages of where they are and really the biggest lessons to be taking away from this conversation, from the blogs, from everything that you read. Is really making sure that you have stuff out there that meets the buyers where they are in their process, because that’s what’s really gonna happen because it’s so talking about the sea of competition and differentiation, how this plays a part into the middle.

Middle of the funnel, specifically when you’re talking about education is what makes you different. What makes you stand out? Because at this point, they’re in learning mode and they’re really trying to understand a narrow you down and cross you off their list. Because people can typically only work in the kind of the rule of three, which you know they’re, they’re going to keep the, the, the top three of their lists.

Now, that doesn’t mean that. [00:17:00] That top three doesn’t completely go away in a new top three comes into play, but it’s still a top three and that’s where they’re working. And that’s how they’re trying to keep their focus onto that rule of three and all. It’s all about being able to quickly and clearly identify and communicate to them why you’re different.

You know? That’s where the health and the green building and energy and quality of construction. All of those things in that messaging has to be written and presented in a way that is easily scannable and they can quickly identify it as valuable and then that way they can drill down later and actually look into it more to help choose between you a used home, another builder, whatever it is.

Yeah. 

Mollie: I think differentiation is the key part of this. Um, part of the, of the buyer journey. And what happens is it’s not just about showing up where the buyer is, it’s [00:18:00] showing up with the right message. And what happens with home building companies is there are only so many you USP, unique selling propositions.

And what happens is we all have something to say about each of them, right? We have. Something to say about price. We have something to say about product. We have something to say about location and lifestyle and experience and all these different things. But what is the one thing that everyone else in your market can’t say and we’re builders go wrong, is where they try to compete on a message where they cannot win.

So for example, when we are working with a builder who is potentially has a huge national in their market, you’re never going to be able to. To compete on price when they can sell at much lower margins and they are able to do that. So what do you do? You have to differentiate in what you are great at instead of making price the key aspect of your marketing.

So I think for the messaging side [00:19:00] of it, this is the key place in the buyer journey where that differentiation is so, so important. And that will make or break whether they get to the closing 

Matt: table. Yeah, I agree. And you said something earlier too about the buyer journey, like the buyers cycle, the buying path, the, the timeline is shrinking down.

It’s fast. It’s happening faster. I would agree with that. I would add on to that, that it’s also more fragmented than ever before. It’s, it’s to use a. Cliche or you know, a, a term, it’s, you know, Omni, Omni channel presence. Uh, a buzz, a buzz word. 

Mollie: I was going to say this, not a cliche, 

Matt: it’s a buzz word, sorry, buzzword.

A omnichannel presence. You gotta be in, in so many different places. And I was just having this conversation yesterday, uh, with a builder partner, and we were talking about the effectiveness of the, in this, [00:20:00] in this question, it was specifically about. Facebook and he’s like, you know where I see more leads coming from direct traffic or more leads coming from Google ads.

I’m seeing a ton of traffic leads and I’m seeing tons of traffic coming in from social, but like, where do we start to say, look at the leads themselves and, and measure what the effectiveness of those campaigns are. And this is where we get into the. Buyers and consumers are on more channels and more devices than ever, ever, ever, ever before.

And they can shorten the buying cycle because there’s so much more information that’s out there than there was in the past. Molly, you’ve got like a fire truck going by. You’re going by your window. 

Mollie: Welcome to the city of Philadelphia. That is the sound. And I was looking for the mute button, but I’m just going to let you all enjoy it, but I get to here.

Matt: That’s okay. Let’s just go with it. It’s all good. It’s the ambience. [00:21:00] Uh, yeah. So, you know, we ha, so the conversation about social media, Facebook comes into letting pee, entering, let people entering into your ecosystem at different points of the process. And so, and we have to get away. We can’t talk about the buyer journey, about talking about something about attribution.

Because we have to get away from that last click or mentality of art. They clicked on a Google ad, then they converted, they clicked on a social ad, then they converted to a lead. We have to stop looking at it that way and I think I’m going to turn the eye. Everybody at the office makes fun of me cause I have kind of funny, weird sayings all the time.

Mollie: Oh boy, here comes. 

Matt: And so the explanation, I was like, listen, all of these things are really. They’re all different ingredients in the chili recipe, right? Like you can take one of the ingredients out and the chili still edible, right? You can still eat it, but it [00:22:00] may not taste the same. And.

Kind of the same way here. When you say you start going, all right, we’re going to unplug and take social out of there. You might still, you sound like you’re, all your marketing efforts are going to come halting and crashing to a stop, but you, you’ll see a traffic decline. You’ll see, you will see leads drop off, but you may not be able to go back and say, well, they can’t.

This is where we. It is directly correlated to Facebook specifically. You can do the same thing with Google ads. You, it’s all part of the chili recipe and those, all those ingredients go into it to make it taste great and everybody makes fun of me. 

Mollie: I love that. I love that analogy. And I was going to share my own and it’s totally different, but tell me if this works for you.

Okay. Cause I’m very visual, so I, that’s why I liked the idea of the chili, because you can visualize it, you can visualize the ingredients and how they all work together. Would I like to think of when I think of what used [00:23:00] to be the funnel on the path and the buyer journey is if you take a pen just like a kid would do and put it on paper and just literally don’t pick the pen up and start scribbling.

Okay. So what ends up happening is you have, and I’m showing that on the screen, you have this scribble that looks like your two year old did it, but you can’t pick your pen up off the paper because every buyer could pick. You could find you at some different point in this crazy scribble that is today’s buyer.

Journey. So if you pick up the pen, you’re breaking the path that someone would have to get to you. Does that make sense? 

Matt: Yeah, totally. 

Mollie: I mean, it may not be as fun as chili, but it’s like just a different way to visualize it. And I think, you know, understanding that it isn’t this pretty little funnel that, you know, just stacks up perfectly.

Matt: No, it’s not. And it’s not this always this super clean path of like, okay, well first we direct the buyers. To your branding message [00:24:00] that you’re always going to see here. And then once they see the branding message, we’re going to bring them in and we’re going to talk to them about us and our process and how it’s different and how we build quality homes.

And then we’re gonna let them see our blog. And you know, like it doesn’t work that way. Um, and so we just have to be prepared to be able to do it. And we have to be prepared to understand that all the ingredients are part of the chili recipe. 

Mollie: Are you gonna make some chili soon? 

Matt: It’s, yeah, once it cools off here.

Mollie: Well, it’s freezing here, so come make some killer. Um, we should do a chili cook off. Okay. I’m going on a tangent. What I want to circle back to though is something that you just said that’s really important. Um, buyers expect choice and the choice starts not just when it comes to product and, and what you’re building, it comes to how they.

Engage with you, how they interact with you, how they consume information, and that’s a really big part of the middle of the buyer [00:25:00] journey. And part of having that choice in, in where they get information is really this underlying feeling that. Every single one of us has, and that is that we want to be smart in the decisions that we make.

So that’s another key part of messaging that is such an important part of the middle of the journey. Because if you can make your buyers feel confident. That you are the smart choice. By educating them and giving them the information that they need and answering questions before they even ask them, that’s going to build that trust and make that relationship so much stronger.

So a lot of this has to do with just understanding human behavior and what is going to resonate most importantly with them at this point in the journey. To be, as Matt said, in the top three, I call that the short list to make it to the short list. You need to be able to do this. Otherwise they’re just [00:26:00] crossing your off and moving onto the next one.

Matt: Absolutely. Well, I think you said it great when you said understanding basic human behavior, because it’s like sometimes I feel like when we are the ones selling something, we completely lose our minds on how we as human beings actually shop, right? All of a sudden, the things that you could care less about as a consumer, all of a sudden become the most important thing that you want your customer to know.

Perfect example. About us people, bill, I see builders all the time that want to put the about us section like front and center on their website and they want their, their prospects to understand all about them and their company and all the great things that they do in their team and how they care.

Cause all we talk about is, Oh well we build a quality home. Well nobody says I build a crappy home. Would you like to pay for it? Everybody says we build a quality home. We have a [00:27:00] warranty. Well, 

Mollie: so does everyone, right? 

Matt: You’re buying a brand new home. You should have a warranty. Our team cares.

Well, you know what? I’m sure no one’s putting up there. Our team hates you and doesn’t care. We just are after your money, right? Like no one, actually S everyone says all the same things. So think about when we’re shopping for something. If you’re going to make a high value decision and. A lot of times on online and e-commerce specifically have value.

Decision is anything over have over value of $300 so you think about that and you put that in perspective of buying a home. It’s a whole different level, but it really breaks itself down into. We think that we want the prospect or the customer to look at things that we deem important and then we completely lose our mind when we’re the ones selling it versus when we’re shopping middle of the funnel.

Middle of the process, I [00:28:00] should say a better word and stop saying the word funnel. The middle of their process when they’re trying to narrow down to your shortlist or your top three, they don’t care about the about us section yet. They may care right before they decide to make a purchase because they do want to see who they’re doing business with and if they’re a reputable company, and.

Do they stand for things that I stand for? You know, like Chick-fil-A is a perfect example of that, you know? Or there’s a million other organizations, but that’s just the first one that came to my mind. But. Letting them know 

Mollie: I’m talking about Chick-fil-A. 

Matt: No, Disney is another, right? Like just places.

This companies that actually put out, put out there what they stand for, but that’s a perfect example. The about us is not a middle of the funnel, not put it in front of your face. It’s a right before they make a buying decision and we have to stop putting those things in front of the customer because that’s what we want them to see at that particular point.

Mollie: I totally agree [00:29:00] with that. that is a great example. And then to continue that thought. The other thing that I think we tend to do is to underestimate our own. Knowledge. And I know that sounds absolutely crazy, but what happens is we’re doing this all day, every day, and then we get in front of a buyer who, this is totally brand new for them, or an audience with your marketing, and this is new for them.

So we can not assume that they speak the language that we speak in our day to day interactions. So when it comes to your marketing, we have to really make sure that. The consumer understands it. And when it comes to the sales process, we have to do that as well. And I think what we tend to do is you don’t want to talk to the buyer as if they are uneducated because they’re not.

But you know so much more than them. And part of this is really holding their hand and explaining to them in an easy to understand way [00:30:00] what you know, because this is what you live and breathe every day. So don’t underestimate. How much you know, and also don’t overestimate how much the buyer knows and yes, they have information from going to your website, but really those conversations, you want to make sure that you are making sure that they’re following you and that they understand and that you’re really nurturing that relationship in, in giving them that information.

Matt: Yeah, totally. I agree. All right. What else do you have, Molly? 

Mollie: Yeah, so another, another part that I want to focus on is this is really your opportunity to not just focus on what makes you unique. We talked earlier about different USP is, but it’s also an opportunity to go beyond your product.

So what happens is we tend to love to talk about product because we are selling a product and. Everyone who’s listening here knows it’s, it’s more than just a [00:31:00] product, but it’s also. You’re all thinking, I know what you’re thinking right now in your head, you’re thinking, right, it’s a lifestyle.

I’m actually going in a different direction. It is more than than a product. It is more than a lifestyle. It is also the process of working with you and your company that makes buying with you unique. And I think we under evaluate how important. That process of working with you is, and the fact that you have a process, because guess what?

They use home down the street. There’s no process. And when we’re able to set a tone and show that you have this thought through, you are organized, your marketing materials represent who you are and tell your story and the process of working with you. He’s going to be a positive experience and is not just going to represent your product and your lifestyle, which is unique, but also what it means to work with you and your team.

So I think that that’s something, if there’s one takeaway that I would love our listeners [00:32:00] to take back to their company, it’s really to remember that it’s not just about the product and the lifestyle, but it is the process of working with you from start to finish that really differentiates you.

Matt: Yeah, totally. This was a, this is a perfect example, and as you were talking, I was debating on whether or not I was going to actually share this story because it can maybe alienated a couple of people that are listening, right? But I’m just going to do it. Molly’s, I’m looking at Molly through the screen and her eyes just got really, really big because this is all about building perspective.

So. One of my family members in a different, they’re in a different market than I am where I live. Some, I’m not going to name builder names and I’m not going to name city names. You couldn’t figure it out anyway because it’s a massive market. Um, so he is, I’m looking to, he and his family are looking to enter the The purchasing realm.

They’ve been renting for a little while and they owned a home before they sold it. Now they’ve been renting for several years now they’re in there getting ready to [00:33:00] reengage and, and their market like pricing is all crazy. It’s going up like crazy and they’re having a really go further and further out to stay in their budget to get a decent.

House. And so they will, he’s, and I was messaging with him yesterday and I’m like, he, cause he told me he was looking at buying a house. I said, Hey, you hell let me help you. Don’t, you know, like, Hey, by the way, this is what I do for a living. I was a builder for 15 years, you know, Le leverage me, let me help you if you want me to.

So we were messaging back and forth and he gave me. Couple of builders that he was looking at, and this is like as we’re going down, like towards the bottom of the funnel, he had his, he had his list of two, and one of them I’d never heard of before if they were a local builder. I’ve never heard of them.

The other one was a regional builder, not public, but just regional. And so the local one I’m looking in both up, but the local one. I was diving in and uh, he was getting caught up in [00:34:00] the pricing, so the pricing, and they kept everybody around them as raising the price. So if he’s in this like buyer frenzy of, I’ve got to, I’ve got to buy this home, I’ve got to buy a home before prices keep going up, keep going up.

And that’s what we want as builders and as marketers. But as a patient. Purchaser that is not the situation you want to put it. You want to put yourself into personally from an investment perspective. So I start diving in and I’m looking at this small builder and I go straight into trying to fund stuff, how they build their homes, like really construction type stuff.

Can’t find it. And also this, and I start diving into the warranty side of it. So now I’m like, I’m at the bottom of the funnel health, try to help him do some research. And I found that, that that builder didn’t warranty their own product. So they did a two 10 warranty. But essentially there was no one year bumper to bumper, like call the builder.

It was [00:35:00] all subbed out to a warranty company that was backed by Liberty mutual. An insurance company. And so the builder themselves didn’t warranty their own work. So I was like, Hey, don’t, don’t buy from them. That was my advice. And he said, well, if I, and his point was, if I buy a resale.

Like, I’m going to get the same thing. Like I’m not going to get a warranty year one either. And like, well technically you can get a one year warranty. It would be through through a third party company like that, but I didn’t like the fact this is me personally. I didn’t like the fact that if the builder messed something up during the process.

Not that anybody ever would, but let’s just say that they did. Um, there’s really no repercussions or not many repercussions to the builder because they don’t have to come back out, warranty it themselves. They turn it over to an insurance company. 

Mollie: Was this this small builder? 

Matt: Yeah, the smaller the local builder.

Mollie: I am wondering if that, I mean, is that standard for a small builder? 

Matt: What’s mainly standard from what, uh, in my [00:36:00] experience is you get some type of inhouse warranty, whether it’s 30 days, six months, or 12 months. They may not provide a to 10 but they’ll at least warranty it. But you don’t really see that until it’s a, I mean, when I say small builder, they had a bunch of, they had a decent amount of neighborhoods.

It wasn’t like they were building 12 homes a year. Right. But they were just local. They were, and they had actually only, and then I found that they’d only been in business for since like 2016 and then they had a bunch of bad reviews on BBB and Google and Facebook, all the places that we hate when people leave reviews.

But I was trying to dig and do bottom of the funnel research for him, just using that as an example of, he hadn’t even gotten to that point yet because he was, you know, working his way down through his process. And then I expedited that a little bit just to help kind of clear as list off. It was just an interesting thing, and I think that that’s an a perfect example of like what you’re [00:37:00] going to look at or what you’re going to dive into right before you feel like you’ve made your decision.

That can sway it one way or another. So the about us, the warranty, the quality of construct, all of those things are really, really important, but they’re really, really specific at a point in the journey. 

Mollie: Yeah. It really is fascinating how many different touch points or places someone can rule you out.

And I say this all the time. Buyers are not looking for a reason to buy from you. They’re looking for a reason not to buy from you. They are looking for what’s wrong, because when you’re comparing two different options side by side, you’re looking for what’s going to rule out one of those options and leave that short list with one.

Winner. So really from a marketing perspective and a sales perspective, our objective is to not get ruled out. And that really brings me to what I wanted to make sure we talk about, which is the importance [00:38:00] of. A call to action and really generating that call to action throughout the entire process and really communicating clearly what it is you want someone to do.

And I think that’s everything that we’re talking about today as we go through the buyer journey is in order to have the right call to action, you have to know. Really what the call to action should be at that point in the buyer’s journey. And Matt and I were laughing because we have our blog, which of course everyone who’s listening has either read or will read.

And at one point in the blog we, we say. Kind of in a funny way, this is your chance to give your potential buyer a gentle push to purchase. And that, and I were laughing and saying how we would actually say that if we were talking to you guys face to face, it would be more like, give your buyer a nice kick in the, you know, what?

Matt: Just grab them and throw them off the cliff. 

Mollie: Yeah. There’s, there’s really no gentle pushing involved at this point. It’s, um, it’s, [00:39:00] it’s kind of aggressive at this point and it’s, you know, we all know it. It’s asking for the sale. You have to ask. For the sale. And, and that really is where we are with, you know, the bottom of the funnel is bringing it all home, literally.

Matt: That’s right. Absolutely. And this is something too we talk about is you’re essentially going from bottom of the funnel to marketing to lead, and then it transitions over from working the lead into actually getting the sale itself, like asking for the order. And. When you actually do this. I think that this is where things kind of get mismatched when it comes to your messaging.

So you’ve got your marketing message and then you’ve got your sales message, and your marketing message is going to use different words and verbiage than what your sales message is because the marketing message starts a story, but it has to be really clear and concise. And like you said, using the right words from a call to action perspective.

So clear, concise, right, calls to [00:40:00] action. And that starts the conversation and the messaging. But when, once they enter in through your eco, into your sales ecosystem and they go, we go from a lead into working them as a sale. That’s where. The sales messaging starts to take place, and it’s really a continuation of the conversation, right?

So it’s like marketing picture, marketing messages, broad, big picture, clear and concise. And then the sales message should actually be a continuation of that, which is for me, why when I go visit a builder, I want to go with, one of the first things I do, I want to do is actually go talk to the sales team.

And I’d love to do role play exercises with the sales team because I want to hear what the sales and the sales team loves that, by the way. But I want to hear what the, how the sales team is explaining what the value prop is of the company, what it is for the community, and why I should buy new and why I should buy from you compared [00:41:00] to used and, and the other builders down the street.

Because the messaging has got to line up, not in the exact same words. But it’s a continuation of the story and that’s something that’s really, really important to me. 

Mollie: And that really starts from who we are and who we are, not. And getting that on paper at the very beginning of all of this. So in order to get through, you know, part one, part two, part three, all the way to onsite in the closing table is really.

Putting it down on paper of who you are and who you’re not, so that you can make sure that that is the message that’s being communicated at every single part of the buyer journey. And as we’re talking here, I can’t help but go back to thinking about dating. You know. It really does go back to that because you know, there are different strategies when it comes to sales and marketing of, you know, are you [00:42:00] playing hard to get, or are you super easy to work with?

Matt: Oh geez. 

Mollie: I said work with. Um, but it is kind of funny because that actually is a decision that needs to come from senior management and how you follow up and follow through and all of that. It comes back to dating, stop black. Matt’s face turned bright red teasing to work 

Matt: with. And you said the decision has to come from upper management, like the ownership.

Like, okay, are we going to be floozies. Or are we going to 

Mollie: be hard to get her? We going to be easy. Okay. We’re having way too much fun. 

Matt: It’s funny. 

Mollie: All right. You know what I’m saying? 

Matt: I know. I know all good stuff and I think that we should not, what we should, we will at some point in the next few weeks as we get closer and closer to IBS, we will dedicate a an entire episode to essentially picking up where this leaves off going from the.

Marketing to the [00:43:00] sales side of things and actually closing the loop altogether. Going from getting the person physically in the model home all the way down to press hard. There’s three copies. Not that we use carbon copy anymore, but you know, so I think we’ll dedicate an entire episode to that. I don’t know what we’ll call it yet, but it’ll, it’ll be fun.

It’ll be a continuation of the buyer journey 

Mollie: on site down right. 

Matt: Oh look at that. Honestly, like, 

Mollie: well, you know, we’re talking about getting everyone in the door and then for them to rule you out when you’re finally face to face. Wow. That is just like a dagger to the heart. 

Matt: It really is. Oh, that’s funny.

Okay guys. Well, thank you so much for joining us on another episode of building perspective. That is going to do it for us this week. Make sure you guys join in on the conversation on our Facebook group building perspective. You can ask questions, chat with other people in our industry from all over the country.

Don’t be. Timid, and don’t be scared to drop questions in there. I get texts, [00:44:00] I get phone calls all the time from people that are listening and they have a question or they just want to chat about something. That’s interesting that that may, you know, from a conversation that we’re having on here and it’s made, it’s sparked an idea on something else.

Drop those comments in the Facebook group because there are tons of incredibly smart people that are connected to, and it’s just a really great networking opportunity, good way to get to know all the other folks, brilliant people in our industry. So make sure you utilize that as a resource. That whole page is really for you guys.

It’s not for us. So, and 

Mollie: it’s a great place to put a chili recipe if you want to share that with That with the rest of the group. 

Matt: Yeah. You know, we should do is we should get people to put their chili recipes in and then then we should cook them 

Mollie: and do a cook off. That would be fine. All right.

Tell us if you’re in 

Matt: with everybody else’s chili recipe. So, yeah, let’s tell us if you’re in, it’ll be fun. All 

Mollie: right. It’s been fun building perspective together, and we’ll talk with you soon. 

Matt: Have

[00:45:00] a great 

week.