Why Salespeople Hate Internet Leads – And What To Do About It

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BuilderRadio interviews online sales counselor Mike Lyon, author of Browsers to Buyers – Proven Strategies for Selling New Homes Online.

There’s a new breed of salesperson in our industry, one that seems completely at odds with the way sales have always taken place.  This salesperson doesn’t rely on a face-to-face visit.  In fact, he or she may never personally meet the folks that they work with and sell to.  They are called Online Sales Counselors, and their focus is on working with leads from online sources, something most salespeople hate to do; qualifying them, and finally converting them to an onsite appointment where one of the more ‘normal’ salespeople takes over.

Most of us applaud them, seeing as how they are performing a task that we hate to do.  The fact that they fulfill a function of growing importance, though, illustrates that the shopping habits of new home buyer’s are changing and that an effective web presence and response system is more vital now than ever before.

Mike Lyon was a pioneer of online sales.  In his new book, Browsers to Buyers – Proven Strategies for Selling New Homes Online, Mike outlines how to implement an effective online marketing and sales strategy.  Listen to the podcast to hear Mike discuss these points in person, or read on to get my notes from the interview.

Your Website – The new model? How important is having a website for a builder, anyway?  As it turns out, in today’s market it is vital.  “Statistics show that over 84% of new home shoppers start their search online.  if you don’t have everything that they’re looking for online for their research, you’re going to be missing buyers before they even set foot into the model.

People have limited time; gas prices are at $4/gal – Nobody’s out there meandering along driving around to model homes gathering brochures.  With the power of technology they’re able to shop multiple builders all online and be much more effective and do it when they wish.  So, builders absolutely have to be online to make sure they aren’t being disqualified from the beginning.

The old brochure-style websites just don’t work anymore.  Now, you have to have more information, more detailed floor plans, more photos – everything that these customers are looking for to make sure that you’re enticing them enough to take the next step and come in to your model home.”

So, what does an Online Sales Executive do?  “The online sales counselor is a dedicated position that is specifically set up to make sure that no lead goes unmanaged.  We’re answering leads in a matter of hours – sometimes in a matter of minutes – and making sure everything is taken care of.  What we’re finding is that [on-site] sales executives, even in a challenging market, are still not following up the best that they can because of all of their other duties, responsibilities and lack of education [regarding online sales systems.]  So, sometimes it’s much easier to train one person to manage these leads through the research and discovery phase, focusing on nothing but qualifying and converting these prospects into walk-in traffic.

In his book, Lyon not only openly discusses the trials and errors he went through to develop an online response system that works, he shares specific scripts that have been tested over time and proven effective.  His reasoning, “Sometime the largest barrier to followup is not knowing what to say, or having to go through each time and create a new email or a whole new set of scripts.  Spend the time up front to develop those templates and scripts.”

He likens scripts to a sandwich- the beginning and end are always the same, but what goes between the bread can vary according to the prospect.  “In the middle you putting those unique calls to action or something based on your conversation, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel with every customer.  You’ve got to keep it simple and you’ve got to keep it easy to use quickly and effectively.”

They call it High-Speed for a reason.  Internet shoppers don’t have time to waste.  They expect to be able to find what they’re looking for quickly; instantly.  What do they expect as to response time from salespeople?  “  The California Association of Realtors did a great study in which they determined that 94% of all internet shoppers as a whole are expecting a response within 4 hours.  So, if you’re shopping online, you’re studying information, and you ask a question, you want somebody to get back with you almost immediately.

What industry averages show us is that almost half of all agents don’t respond in the first place, and if they do it’s a day or two later.  They’re busy, they’re on appointments, they’ve got their phone turned off, they’re not checking their email, so customer’s expectations aren’t being met.”

Therein lies the benefits of taking the responsibility for courting and qualifying online shoppers off the shoulders of busy onsite agents – those whose skills and responsibilities are focused on face to face selling – and create a strong online customer response team that can nurture online shoppers, meet their instant expectations, build relationships and get them into a model.

It’s still a numbers game, it’s just a new set of numbers we need to watch.  A common complaint from onsite salespeople is that “Internet leads aren’t qualified.”  Mike’s evidently heard it, too, but he has the numbers to prove his point.  “When you look at leads from your website, basically 80% of them won’t ever get in touch with you right away.  Only 20% are going to respond and set that appointment.  So, that’s a critical thing to look at.

What you have to do is drill down [through the 80%] to get to the 20% that are going to want to come out and schedule an appointment.  Now, the great thing about that is that once they come on an appointment, these leads are better qualified than any other leads you can find.  On the whole, we see about a 30% closing ration from these appointments.  If you manage the program correctly you should see 20 -25% of your overall sales volume coming from website and Internet leads.”  Lyon also points out that once they make an onsite appointment, Internet leads buy much more quickly than leads from other sources, often on the first visit.

The converse of that is that if you don’t have a system dedicated to online lead response, you may be missing up to 25% of your potential sales.

Start with a good footing – your website.  After all, that’s where online shoppers will first see you.  First impressions online are just as important as offline, maybe more so.  Your website, then, needs to be found by buyers, capture their interest, and include a strong call to action so people will give you their contact information and permission to use it.

“Seth Godin says, ‘Your website should be 100% focused on signing up strangers to give you permission to market to them.’ That’s all you’re trying to do with our website.  You’re trying to get them excited enough to reach out and call you, email you, save your floor plans, register for a news letter – anything you can do to get a little ‘micro-conversion;’ something that’s just going to get them to get in touch.  Your call to action has to be on every page – sometimes multiple calls to action.”

New Math for Builders.  Before you assume that you don’t have the manpower or capital to hire and train an Online Sales Counselor, stop and do the math:  “Basically, you’ve got 84% of your buyers online; you’ve got a research period that doubled from 2006 to 2007, from 6 weeks to 12 weeks.  So, your buyers are online, and their online longer than ever before.  The onsite appointment is now the last  phase in the process.  Builders need to realize that people are still shopping, and their doing it online, so how do you take care of these people so that they will shop and buy from you?”

Lyon recommends that, if you can’t commit a full-time person to follow up on Internet and website leads, that you designate only one person to handle that task, and that you provide them with the proper training to be effective.  However, again, do the math: “If you have 30 – 40 leads coming in per month [from online sources,] you can have someone who is dedicated to getting them the information they need quickly, and work on qualifying and setting those appointments and nothing else.”

Geeks need not apply.  If you’ve decided that an Online Sales Counselor is the hottest thing since electronic bank transfers, the big question is, who should you hire?  Lyon is very clear on this subject:  Even though this person will spend most of his or her time in front of a computer screen, this is definitely a sales position; it requires closing skills.

“The close for the online sales counselor is to get an appointment.  It’s using the same techniques you use for closing the sale.  You have the same type of objections as closing the sale, so you need a good closer, and you need to pay them well and give them incentives based on appointments and closings.  When you do that you’re going to get someone who is really focused on getting them to the site because they know that 30% of the time they’re going to write.”

To learn more about how start and maintain an Online Sales Counselor program, along with scripts, pay scales, and incentive ideas, order a copy of Mike Lyon’s book, Browsers to buyers – Proven Strategies for Selling New Homes Online.  Click here to order from BuilderRadio’s secure server.

What did you think about this weeks interview?  Do you have a similar program in your office?  If so, tell us about it by leaving a comment below.  We love hearing from our listeners and readers!

Thanks for listening.