Dennis O'Neil - Speaker & Author on Internet Sales, Marketing, and Social Media for Home Builders » Customer Experience

There’s a Difference between “Packaged” and “Canned”

dennisoneil — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:58:57 +0000

Packaged offerings benefit the buyer. Canned offerings benefit the seller.

When an offering is packaged, it’s done so with the buyer in mind. The package is a combination of products or services that affords the buyer additional value, often trading a little bit of decision making freedom for simplicity and that increased value. The buyer gets a little more of what they want, and foregoes a little of what’s less important to them.

When a product, service, or sales pitch is canned, its done so for the benefit of the seller. A canned sales pitch is a convenience for the seller. The salesperson is no longer required to put any thought into the presentation, pay any attention to the recipient of the presentation, or do anything different than the previous presentation. Any consumer benefit of canning is dumb luck, and not by design.

No relationship is built or maintained with canning.

Next time you’re streamlining your product, presentation, offering, whatever… ask yourself who will be benefiting from the change. You or your buyer? Ask yourself, “Am I packaging it, or canning it?”

Why You Might be Wasting Your Time with Email Marketing.

dennisoneil — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:37:28 +0000

Its no secret I’m a big fan of what opportunities the mobile web presents for home builders. What I didn’t quite expect was a recent wake-up call on how closely email marketing is linked to mobile.

We recently sent out an email promotion for an apartment management client. The day after the email went out to a couple thousand leads, I eagerly visited the client’s Google Analytics dashboard. I was anxious to see the fruits of our labor – a big ‘ol mountain peak in the traffic chart as of the flood of leads came running back to the website for more. Only, this time I was more than disappointed. No mountain. There was barely a blip on the total traffic chart.

I was a little more than disappointed. This was the first email the client had sent in a long time, and the list was a prime database of leads who had contacted them. They should’ve been hungry for this email. They should’ve responded en masse and blitzed the website for more details. The creative came from a third party. It was good. It should’ve resonated, but it didn’t look like it did. So, a little dumbfounded, I moved on.

Perhaps it was my disappointment that caused me not to look in the client’s MailChimp account that day, but whatever the reason, I didn’t do it right then. Today, however, I did go there. And I struck gold. The kind of “a-ha” that makes you wonder how you’ve passed over the conclusion so many times. I had all the pieces of the puzzle, but never completely put them together. There it was now. In the MailChimp stats was the data detailing the most popular email software used by the list of leads. Take a look at the screen shot below.

27.3% from iPhones!

That’s right . TWENTY-SEVEN PERCENT of the opens were on iPhones! Second only to Outlook 2007, and well above GMail and Yahoo. Shortly after I finished smacking my forehead I continued to wonder why I hadn’t put the pieces together before.

Of course, the number of people who read email on their phones is growing tremendously. Of course we think about what emails look like on phones. Only now, did it click. The immediate goal of many email promotions is to drive traffic back to your website.

If you don’t have a mobile friendly website or landing page, you’re providing a poor experience for a large percentage of your email marketing list.

For this particular client, we track the mobile website traffic inside a dedicated Google Analytics account; and that’s where I found the other part of the mountain.

Clearly, the impact of this will vary a little for every email database, but its changed the way I think about email marketing and mobile websites – and how inseparable they are. There is no way we’ll send another email blast for a client without first researching how their list reads email. I can’t imagine trying to drive traffic to a landing page without a mobile friendly option.

As if we needed another reason to make the case for mobile websites. The mobile web continues to impact everything we do… now including email marketing.

Ignore the Mobile Internet at Your Own Peril

dennisoneil — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:45:09 +0000

I’m not normally one for drama, but I’m not sure the message is really reaching the industry. In the past I’ve written about home builder mobile marketing and how to use Foursquare for real estate. Thankfully, a group called Mobile Future has put together a great “Did You Know?” type video with some sobering stats on mobile Internet usage.

This type of shift in consumer behavior does not disappear when its time to search for a new home. This new standard of information and convenience ubiquity will be applied to every consumer experience; including shopping for a home. Are you prepared for this?

If you can’t see the video, click here.

Why Do Your Listings Look Like Everyone Else’s? Try a Social Listing

dennisoneil — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:04:11 +0000

Identical

Generally speaking, most builders, salespeople, and real estate brokers I speak with agree that the last thing the Internet needs is another home search directory. Each time a new directory is introduced, it creates a new burden for the builder (focus, monitoring, plus a new SEO competitor).

Ask a consumer if the Internet needs another directory. I’d wager some coin that most of them say they don’t care – because they all have the same data anyway. You may think that your website does the best job of showing the photos, square footage, bedrooms, baths, and all the other typical data points. It doesn’t really matter. Its all the same data.

Why not go farther than the data? Why not try to answer the obvious question a homebuyer is asking themselves when they look at a listing – “What’s it like to live here?”

What if an new home salesperson or an agent chose to create a “social listing” – A day in the life of 123 Main Street to answer the question on the mind of the shopper. What kind of things would this social listing include?

A Photo Gallery (with more than photos of rooms):
- What’s the sunrise look like from the front porch
- What’s the sunrise look like from the Owners’ suite
- What’s the local grocery store look like
- Pool (community or private)
- Photo of the smoking grille cooking up lunch

A Video Gallery:
- Video the walk to the mailbox
- Walkable environment? Video the walk to the coffee shop
- Local nightlife
- Video the activity outside from the front porch
- What’s it like after dark? Video the evening air to show peace and quiet

YOUR (not just others’) Yelp.com reviews:
- Your honest review of a local restaurant or two
- Your honest review of a local nightlife spot
- Your honest review of a local grocery store
- Your honest review of the closest coffee shop

Foursquare:
- Link to any local businesses (or businesses’ specials) of Foursquare.

Google Street View:
- Embed the Google Street view of the home

While I think the data is important (bedrooms, baths, square footage, etc) its not a differentiator to your listing or to your website. Everyone has those details. If you want to be different, be different in a helpful way.

“90% of Home Shoppers, Blah, Blah, Blah…” Moving On.

dennisoneil — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 14:42:20 +0000

“More home shoppers start their search online than ever before.”
“Over 90% of buyers use the Internet.”

This is not news. This is not new information.

The number of home shoppers who start their home search online has been above 80% for years. This is not news. Even early numbers in 2000 showed that 40% of home buyers were using the web. The only way a headline about home shoppers using the Internet will EVER be newsworthy in the future is if the percentage goes DOWN.

Those people who have failed to act on this shift in consumer behavior have not failed to act because they were trying to “time” their entry just right. No builder has been sitting back and saying “Its not time. As soon as usage gets to 92%, we’re full steam ahead.” No one needs more statistics.

A favorite book, titled Fierce Conversations, encourages business owners, executives, and managers to question their viewpoint and address the proverbial ‘elephant in the room.’ It invites everyone to ask themselves the question, “What are you pretending not to know?” Builders who have not been focusing their marketing efforts online are pretending not to know this shift in buyer behavior should have caused a change in strategy a long time ago. Its time to acknowledge it, and then do something.

The only reasonable explanation for inaction is uncertainty and/or lack of knowledge. Not a lack of knowledge that the Internet is where the marketing should be focused, but a lack of knowledge about where to start.

This means what the industry needs is more specific substance and direction, not statistics… Moving past the generic “non-bombs” and delivering actionable information of real value so builders can act with confidence. There is no longer a real need to address the issue of why a builder’s marketing efforts should be focused online. In fact, there hasn’t been for some time now. If someone still needs convincing, I can’t help. Its time to move and dedicate effort to answering the how, where, and what. I’m looking forward to publishing more of just that.

What Makes Start-up’s Different from Traditional Business and Why You Should Think Like One.

dennisoneil — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:18:00 +0000

I am regularly amazed at how difficult some companies make it to business with them, or simply get a taste of their product or service. Traditional businesses are terrified a potential customer/client will find a way to take advantage of them; a way to skirt their beloved system and get something for free. They setup rules and policies to prevent any circumvention – making sure no one uses their product or service in a way they didn’t intend. This is a problem.

Who operates differently?

While no longer a start-up, consider how Google operates. Is Google afraid you’re going to get something for free or take advantage of their work without paying anything? Of course not. They want you to take it for free. Outside of advertising, most of the products they sell are upgraded versions of a free product – after millions of users have provided them with feedback about what they’d be willing to pay for.

Does Facebook care that I’ve never clicked on an ad? Maybe they want me to click, but they’re not going to kick me out if I don’t. They’re not going make it harder for me to use their platform until I start clicking. They recognize that they need to fit their revenue model to my behavior, not attempt to twist my behavior to fit their revenue model.

Does Twitter try and stop people from using their service in unconventional ways? The founders of Twitter admit that they never realized the service would end up supporting so many uses. When these new users took advantage of the Twitter system and benefited for free, did Twitter try and squash this use? Absolutely not. It watched and learned how people were using what they built. They didn’t care how, but they wanted people to use their service.

Start-up’s are about identifying new revenue models. Traditional businesses are about clinging to the ones they already have.

Start-up’s don’t care how customers use their product, they just want them to use it. Those users help define the value of the service and identify the revenue model.

What can you do?

Clearly a currently operating business cannot start giving away its product just to learn about its users, but it can let down its guard a bit. Instead of directing is customers and stifling creative uses with regulation, it can see what happens with less system. You could learn a lot. Enough to see new opportunities.

There are businesses clinging to old models that are simply unsustainable in the long term – too rigid, too closed, too cold. Take the risk and let people take advantage of you. Let those people help you determine what your next revenue stream should be.

Instead of an environment of defensiveness, create an atmosphere of welcome. Otherwise, some start-up may do it for you.

Effective Communication with Social Media

dennisoneil — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:30:29 +0000

On March 9th, I had the pleasure of speaking to over 200 new home sales and real estate professionals at SMC SalesCamp. My assigned topic was “Effective Communication with Social Media.”

The videos below contain my full presentation.

In this presentation, I was able to introduce the concept of Lead Curation – Creating an environment conducive to growing connections into prospects. I’m looking forward to digging deeper into this in the coming days/months.

I’ve also included my presentation, and the handouts made available to the attendees below. Please feel free to share this with anyone you think may benefit.

Part One Video:

Click here if you can’t see the videos, presentation, or handout

Part Two Video:

Effective Communication with Social Media on Prezi

SMC SalesCamp Spring 2010 Handout

Want More Facebook Fans? Don’t Buy Them. Earn Them.

dennisoneil — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:30:24 +0000

I do not become your fan by clicking a button. The click merely affirms the work you’ve already done.

If I’m a true fan of a business (not just in the Facebook sense), I am rooting for that business’s success. I’m an advocate for the product or service. I feel a sense of pride when I see people using the product or I hear of the business’s growth. I’m invested. The business’s success is my success. That connection does not get created with the click of a button.

The volume of real Facebook fans you have is a trailing indicator of how your customers feel about you. You will not earn more real fans with giveaways and coupons. You’ll just build a list as impersonal and generally ineffective as the average non-customer email database. They will ‘hide’ you from their stream quicker than an ‘unsubscribe’ request.

Having a lot of Facebook fans alone doesn’t make you a popular company, just like having stacks of business cards doesn’t make you a good networker.

The businesses I’m a fan of have worked for that type of respect and investment from me. They didn’t give me a coupon in exchange for my allegiance or fandom. They built that respect before I was willing to click the button.

If you’re unhappy with your volume of fans, consider doing more to earn the allegiance of your customers before you ask for it.

Social Marketing is Providing Customer Service BEFORE Someone is a Customer

dennisoneil — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:45:00 +0000

While I’m far from a major real estate investor, with a partner I own a vacation rental property that is about 3 hours from my home. For many reasons, including the shear distance and weekly activity, we pay a management company to run the day-to-day for us. Overall, I’m happy with the job the management company does for us.

Despite this general satisfaction, I really dread phone calls and emails from them… all of them. Why you ask? I only hear from my management company when they want us to spend money… something broke, they want something upgraded, they’re suggesting carpet shampooing, etc. I’m not debating the need for the work, but their approach to communicating with me is flawed. The ONLY time I hear from them is when they need to send me a bill or suggest I spend additional money.

Stick with me. I’ll get to the part where this is related to being a trust agent.

As I thought about the feedback I could give to my management company, I was reminded of customer management trainings – those that preach multiple positive contacts throughout a relationship to minimize or negate the impact of a negative contact. If all I ever hear from my property manager is bad news and bad feedback, then I associate them with bad things. Paying for things, despite their necessity, FEELS bad. Most people don’t like to part with money unless the experience surrounding the purchase feels good.

It takes a big effort to offset a negative. Many will tell you it takes five or more positive touches to offset one negative touch. If I got a monthly phone call, or maybe even a monthly email from my management company sharing a positive review from a recent renter, I wouldn’t hate hearing from them so much. My severe dread of their communication would almost certainly switch to indifference at a minimum… At least I’d take the call when it came in instead of sending it to voice mail. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the bad news I associate with their communications, I’d be really happy. They may even get some evangelism out of me.

So as I thought about this relationship between positive contact and customer service, the correlation between it and the teachings of the social web became clear. The general tenet of the social web is that you must give before, and a lot more than, you receive. Chris Brogan suggests that you promote others 12 times more than you promote yourself. As is with most successful offline relationships, its not a good idea to walk up to someone you’ve never met and ask them to do anything, let alone give you money. A warm relationship, one where a connection already exists – a connection that is not solely dependent on the transfer of money – will be much more likely to develop into a long and beneficial professional one.

So back to tying all this up.

The example reminds us that an abundance of positive associations with a product or company make the impact of the occasional negative associations less or non-existent. We know that generally people associate parting with their money as a bad thing, and that this feeling is amplified when doing so in a unfavorable business relationship.

So what if I was the recipient of these positive associations before I was even a customer? What if instead of always asking for money (asking for the sale), a business also built a valued relationship where a friend or prospective client associated said business with positive insight and experiences. Wouldn’t that make it easier to ask for the sale at the appropriate time? Isn’t this really what we talk about when describing online etiquette… helping people buy a lot more often than asking them to buy?

What I really want from a company is customer service when I’m still a prospect. I want good things from them before they ask for my money. I want to know that my relationship with them is not solely dependent on a financial transaction. If there’s enough positive connection, I’ll feel good about parting with my money when the time comes.

Who are You Changing For? You, or Your Customer?

dennisoneil — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:33:06 +0000

If we agree that happy customers are a necessity for long-term business success, shouldn’t long term planning be based around that directive?

I recently attended REBarCamp in Philadelphia. Okay, so it wasn’t really that recent, but I’ve had some thoughts stirring since I’ve left. I attended a session there titled “The Future Brokerage.” The topic centered on old vs. new vs. newer real estate brokerage models. The discussion was well facilitated by moderators Joseph Ferrara of the Sellsius Real Estate Blog, and another gentleman I, unfortunately, cannot recall.

The audience was mostly real estate agents, all with different opinions about what was the better model… the traditional in-house agent with commission splits or the no-office-monthly-fee-100%-commission version. The moderators and the audience discussed each of these arrangements in detail and hybrids of the programs.

Never having worked in a general brokerage environment, the conversation dynamic was interesting, but one noticeable component stood out to me. All of the conversation centered around what the agents and brokers preferred. I listened to agents describe why they were uncomfortable with desk fees. I listened to brokers complain about how none of the agents took advantage of their office support. ALL of the conversation about the better model revolved around how it affected agents and brokers.

I was a complete spectator for the session – just sitting back and taking in the conversation. Afterwards, as I was reflecting on the topic, I wondered why no one discussed which model produced a better experience for buyers and sellers. It seems the largest complaint from the real estate community today has been that fact that they’re just not enough buyers and sellers. Wouldn’t an agency model that produced a better buying or selling experience attract a larger market share of buyers and sellers? Wouldn’t an agency that attracted more buyers and sellers attract more/better agents?

The session offered some valuable insights into the relationship between agents and brokers, and employee atmosphere is certainly a big component of a successful business. However, I think the primary focus of the group was misplaced. I don’t think you can make any business decision without considering that decision’s impact on the customer. I certainly don’t think you can design a new business model without it either. What say you?