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

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 Are People Ignoring Your Emails?

dennisoneil — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 03:13:33 +0000

In case you missed it, I had the opportunity to guest post for Jeff Shore’s newsletter a couple weeks ago. If you’re not already subscribed to Jeff’s weekly newsletter, you should be.

Click to read my thoughts on Why People are Ignoring Your Emails.

Thanks.

Salespeople – The Original Social Media

dennisoneil — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:30:02 +0000

Consider the phrase, “social media.” The “media” part refers to the content, the social content – the conversation.

Sales is conversation with a purpose.

I recently had the pleasure of spending some time with Matthew Shadbolt of The Corcoran Group after coaxing him to Baltimore to speak at SMC SalesCamp. Those of you that know, or know of, Matthew will know that he’s an amazing smart guy. He’s a talented marketer and the voice of The Corcoran Group’s social media efforts online.

With so much to learn from Matthew, I was eager to chat with him for as long as his patience could withstand. And being the true gentlemen that Matthew is, he graciously accommodated me.

I learned a lot about how he sees the role of social media in the buying process. This means I got to ask him about some of Corcoran’s salespeople. The story that I remember most is his description of one of the agency’s most popular salespeople. She’s wildly successful (hundreds of millions in dollar volume each year), and is regularly seen holding 2 cell phones at a time, one up to each ear… negotiating. Hard core, no?

The phones that she’s holding to her ears aren’t just any phone, either. They’re dumb phones. Yes, [insert gasp here] they’re flip phones.

You see, this agent doesn’t use social media, or the Internet (at least not directly). As I asked more about how this agent conducts business, I learned that she’s very active with international investments and buyers. She’s been in Manhattan real estate for decades, and everyone in Manhattan real estate knows who she is. She networks. She gets deals done. And she has a reputation that precedes her.

I’m a proponent of social media in many cases, but I’ve never believed it to be a magic potion, and it’s certainly not for everyone. But how exactly is it ignored by one of Manhattan’s most successful agents?

Social media tools (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, etc) do not create dialogue. They only facilitate it. They give us a place to have the conversation or a means in which the conversation travels. Perhaps we should start calling them social mediums. Mediums do not create conversation. People do.

A quick Google search on the benefits of social media returns roughly a bajillion results. Overall though, most agree that main deliverable, not the scalability, or the amplification, but the jewel at the end of the effort; the feature at the end of the benefit…. is conversation. The ability to connect with another person or persons and speak with them on a direct one-to-one level.

You see, that Corcoran Group agent with two phones to her ears doesn’t need the social mediums to amplify her efforts. She built her network the old fashioned way. She’s connected one-to-one with thousands of people.

Salespeople. The original social media.

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.

A Classic Moment at the International Builder Show

dennisoneil — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:49:34 +0000

If you were unable to make it to the Super Sales Rally at the International Builders Show, you missed an instantly classic performance by new home sales trainer Jeff Shore of Shore Forrest Sales Strategies and Jim Suth of D.R. Horton.

I captured all but the first few seconds using my cell phone. The audio/video doesn’t line-up perfect, but this video is well worth the watch nonetheless. Have fun, and thanks to Jeff and Jim for the laughs.

Can’t see the video? Click Here.

Yes. A Camp for Us.

dennisoneil — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:30:42 +0000

BarCamp, RE BarCamp, PodCamp, WordCamp… any of these ring a bell? What about Ignite events, or TED talks? The last few years have brought on sweeping changes in how people gather to support a topic, idea, or purpose. Instead of days of grueling lectures and courses defined by the ‘hours’ for which they qualify, “Camps” are something completely different. Something much, much better.

While the rules vary a little for each event, a few consistent things remain:

Interaction and conversation is key. This is not an event where attendees go to spoken to, but rather to be spoken with.
Presentations are brief, but impactful. Sometimes as long as 45 minutes, but many as short as 10. Good news for the A.D.D. crowd.
Presentations are designed for inspiration. While a 6 hour course may also be inspiring, these short presentations dive right into the heart of a topic and are designed to ignite new ideas in attendees.
The attendees come voluntarily because of their passion for the foundation of the event. They are there to connect with like minded people.
They’re generally awesome.

I am fourtunate enough to be a part of the Sales & Marketing Council (SMC) of the Home Builders Association of Maryland. The council has organized a spectacular event in the spirit of the new conference trend, and has aptly chosen the name of SMC SalesCamp. I am also privileged to be speaking at this first SMC SalesCamp, and while yes, I may be a bit biased, I must say that the event is truly one worth attending. The speakers lined up by the board include the current President of the Maryland Association of Realtors, the head of home builder relationships for Trulia.com, two power-brokers, and many more. If you’re anywhere near the Baltimore area, you really need to be there. Its March 9th at the Sheraton BWI, 8:30a – Noon.

Did I mention its free?

Yep, thanks to awesome sponsors like MetLife Home Loans, Cindy Plackmeyer Marketing, and Forty West Builders (with more coming), the event costs absolutely zero to attend. However, space is limited (no joking here), so registration is required. Head over to SMC SalesCamp for more details.

Hopefully I get to see you there.

What NOT to Say When Being Interviewed for a Sales Job

dennisoneil — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:51:23 +0000

Until recently, I had not been a part of a salesperson job interview for some time. I always enjoyed interviewing salespeople, and I jumped at the opportunity when a client asked me to sit in on his meeting with a prospective employee. He was seeking my opinion of the interviewee and even asked me to offer up a few questions of my own.

A favorite question of mine, one a colleague used to ask a lot, was “What books have you read lately?” I always found that knowing what books a person reads can tell you a good bit about that person. Reading takes time, and most people will not spend that time reading a book on a topic they don’t care much about. Knowing what some reads helps me understand, at least a little, about what’s important to them.

So we’re five minutes into the interview, and I’ve heard a lot about the prospective employee’s experience. I’ve heard a lot about where he’s worked, who he has worked for, and how much he has sold in his 30 years in real estate. Feeling I was getting a bit of a history lesson as opposed to a current capabilities report, I asked a slight variation of my favorite question. I asked “What was the last sales book you read?”

“Uh. Well to be honest, I don’t remember.”

I appreciated the honesty, but really? You don’t remember? I asked a few follow-up questions to be sure that the interviewee wasn’t just a little nervous and giving me his answer too hastily. But alas, he really couldn’t name the last sales book he read, or any sales book he read for that matter. I asked him if there was a sales trainer he looked to for guidance, and I got nothing. That indicated to me that there was no other shorter form sources, like a blog, he turned to either. It may sound like I’m beating up on this guy a little bit, but I’m trying to make an important point.

Depending on your location within the country, most people would tell you we’ve been in a tough market for about three years or more. What I was really being told by the applicant was not only could he not remember the last sales book he read, but in the last three years of a challenging market, he wasn’t doing anything to get better. The market, by most standards, had gotten phenomenally worse, but he hadn’t gotten one percent better. I wondered at what point in his career had he decided that he knew enough.

I do believe that if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. Professional athletes do not stop improving and practicing after they get the job. Attorneys do not stop keeping up with the law after they graduate. Professionals are students of their craft and recognize the need for continued study to maintain their value and relevance to both their employer and their client.

If you don’t have the attention span or the time for books, get your inspiration where you can – blogs, tweets, e-books, YouTube, wherever. Just. Keep. Getting. Better.