202 Building an Effective Online Sales Team - Reyna Estrada Jan 31 2024

Greg Bray: [00:00:00] Hello everybody, and welcome to today's episode of The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse.

Greg Bray: And we are excited today to have joining us on the show, Reyna Estrada. Reyna is the National Internet Sales Manager at M/I Homes.

Welcome, Reyna. Thanks for being with us.

Reyna Estrada: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate this space and time.

Greg Bray: Well, let's start off with just helping folks get to know you a little bit. Give us that quick introduction and overview, and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Reyna Estrada: Quick introduction. You got my name, Reyna Estrada. I live in Raleigh, North [00:01:00] Carolina. I have two college students. I attended UNC of Charlotte. We have been here since 2000 as a national internet sales manager at M/I Homes for the last few years and celebrating 16 years with the company. I lead and support about 30 online sales professionals across 17 markets. And recently, one of the reasons I know you reached out is definitely recognized as one of the Pro Builder's Forty Under 40 class of 2023, has been an honor.

Greg Bray: And congratulations on that for sure.

Reyna Estrada: Thank you.

Kevin Weitzel: Alright. So, before we dive into all that, we need you to, number one, tell us any dirt you have on Will Duderstadt. Number two, tell us, no, I'm just kidding on number one. You can skip number one. And number two, tell us something interesting about yourself that is personal, has nothing to do with the home building industry whatsoever.

Reyna Estrada: Okay. I like to always go back to my roots. So, I was born and raised in Honduras. Been here since I was in middle school, high school age. As a hobby. I love to do world travel. So, [00:02:00] I have a big goal to visit 50 countries and I'm halfway there.

Kevin Weitzel: Nice.

Greg Bray: Well, Reyna, tell us how you ended up from that journey into the home building industry. What got you started working with home sales?

Reyna Estrada: Yes, it always started straight from a high school. I was attending community college at night, and I came into this opportunity with KB Home just to do a full-time receptionist and quickly transitioned into marketing with them. I don't know if you remember KB Home working with Michael Stewart work back in the 2002's and 2003's, had a great opportunity there.

And I was introduced into online sales at Beezer, and that was kind of like the platform to enter into the online sales world. Joined M/I Homes in 2008 and did online sales for the Raleigh-Durham/Cary area, the triangle area that we know here in North Carolina. All my career for 20 years has been home building within marketing. Definitely have done closings and contracts, the majority have been in the online [00:03:00] sales evolution over the last 15 years.

Greg Bray: So, for those who aren't familiar with M/I Homes, let's just put that background on record here. Where does M/I Homes build? What type of buyers are you guys working with? So that everybody has that context.

Reyna Estrada: Yes, we are a national leading home building. Our corporate office is in Columbus, Ohio, and we build in 17 of the top markets. If I can go by states, it's probably easier to name those. Texas, Florida, North Carolina. We go from Michigan, Ohio, all the way to Illinois, in the big cities, Tampa, Dallas, Charlotte, Raleigh area. I have to name home base here. And all the way in Chicago too. So, we build in the East, Midwest, and also South in Texas.

Kevin Weitzel: How much of an advantage do you find, especially when you're on the OSC side of things, being multilingual?

Reyna Estrada: That's a great question because I think that depends on the market. From stats, three states where probably that largest population might be needed is in the California, Texas, and Florida. I [00:04:00] definitely was able to use some of that in North Carolina because of the migration that we see happening.

But it's definitely a way to connect with more customers because you make them feel more comfortable, you're able to relate with them and build trust with them as well. So, it's definitely an advantage and definitely needed in some markets. And it's not necessarily just because I speak Spanish, but also the other languages, right, based on your buyer profile in those top cities. So, it's a great advantage.

Kevin Weitzel: Don't you find that there's not just the language, but almost a cultural understanding? Because as an example, my niece Sophia Siddiqui, she actually is a real estate agent in Texas. She's Pakistani and she speaks Urdu and Arabic and honestly, they have a very large Arabic and Hindu population there. She understands not only the language because she can speak their language, but also just culturally what they need when they're buying a home or what they're seeking when they're buying a home.

Reyna Estrada: Absolutely. I think there's two different cultures. We talked about it at IBS during one of the presentations. The I-culture, the more and the [00:05:00] bigger, the better sometimes the culture that we lived in, but also that we-culture that comes from definitely those different areas.

Like Latin Americans, I'm going to talk about firsthand experience here, but it's definitely very family-oriented, very family support. Everybody in the family is going to come and go through that home buying process with you. You respect that opinion. There's also a lot of multigenerational living. So, where either the grandparents are coming in to visit or stay for a long period of time or where the kids that went off to college are coming back and staying with the family. This is a very traditional.

So, like, you're right. That connection of cultural empathy is an advantage when you know what they're looking for in a home. I definitely embrace and embody the American dream of opportunities, but also of home ownership. I love to relate with customers that way, too. So, it's very important.

Greg Bray: Reyna, I think one of the things that I'm really interested in learning more about is this idea of 30 people on an OSC team. Because when we talk [00:06:00] to a lot of builders, it's like a yes, no question. Do you have an OSC or not? It's like a singular concept, right? But the reality is, is that online sales is becoming a team sport and has been at certain sizes for a while.

So, talk us through a little bit about how you've seen that structure grow. Where does it fit kind of in sales or marketing? Because there's kind of this bridge spot, right, for OSCs between those and especially as it becomes a team, how does that kind of evolve? And that was a really long question, so we might have to break that down into a couple of different parts. Sorry about that.

Reyna Estrada: Thanks, Greg. That was like three questions in one, but I love it. Everything that you're saying, right? How have I seen that evolution and being that I started in 2008, we used to be one OSC, right, and we were wearing different hats between sales and marketing? I think that's probably where the confusion came is like, where does this belong?

We were doing from onsite to marketing to online, depending on the volume. And also because [00:07:00] it was seen as this administrative role, where now has grown into a team sport. Like you said, we're better together because we're now have grown into a team because one person cannot do it 24/7. You have to be available 7 days a week, and you can only do it if you have the people in the team to do that.

So, I've seen it grown from, like, one person to a team to now managers. So, it's a whole department now within definitely bigger national builders. Larger builders have that team of two where there's also a manager, whether it's a regional and now a national level, on the importance of the online sales journey for the customer, for the conversions as well, and have work in between sales and marketing.

So, a little bit controversial for me, it's very sales. It has to be under that sales umbrella. And the reason I say that is because we are connecting with a customer. We are serving the customer. We're making that connection just like the onsite team is doing it, we're doing it in the online through a phone conversation, through a connection. We still have to go through all the steps of the journey of building [00:08:00] trust. So, I think it's very sales-oriented, but we still have to be connected and working together with marketing.

Greg Bray: So, with this team concept, I've had conversations with others about this handoff between online sales and onsite sales, but it feels like in your scenario, you've actually got this because the team is supporting the customer that they're not always going to talk to the same OSC every time they have some type of question or contact. How do you guys kind of deal with that back and forth where the customer is talking with different team members through their journey?

Reyna Estrada: That could happen. We always talk about online to onsite, but the handoff happened from department to department to team, from onsite to construction, from construction to maybe the design team, or financial team to customer care. There's always has to be a handoff. We always talked about saying we, when we are referring to the company, we're referring to everything we do together, so we are the same page leveraging CRM to add all the notes possible on every [00:09:00] interaction and connection.

So, everybody can come back and say, the last conversation you had with this particular team member where we left it. So, it can be transparent. So, it can be unified on everything that we did together from online all the way to the customer care after closing. So, part of the handoff, to answer the question, is when there is a team of two and three, the main thing is treat the customer right, serve the customer.

I don't think you have to be in the back of your mind is like, who this customer belongs to because we all are there to serve the customer. That's the one main goal, that is the one purpose. Just keeping that in mind when you're serving and then going back to the notes and adding to keep that process going, that journey going, so the customer doesn't feel like, oh, I have to talk to a specific person. I can talk to anybody in M/I Homes and I know I'm going to be served the same way.

Kevin Weitzel: I just read a paper written by a very, very, very influential and highly important sideburned adorned man, and he said something along the lines of, who owns the sales process? Is it sales? Is it [00:10:00] marketing? The answer of this genius man was everybody. Everybody from your first touch all the way through to the final person, all the way past that into warranty. That whole sales process is from tip to tail.

Reyna Estrada: I agree. 100%. I think we all are invested on the ultimate goal of serving the customer through the process. Right? It is a very emotional process, and how do we gain trust and being transparent and everybody setting the same expectations throughout, so we can meet what the customer is looking for? I'm not saying that we are perfect because we're not, but we're definitely, you know, making progress on that. Making sure that whoever they contact any state in any market, anybody at M/I Home is that M/I Home brand that the customer comes first.

Greg Bray: And Kevin, does your LinkedIn profile say genius guy?

Kevin Weitzel: It doesn't. It should.

Reyna Estrada: You need to add it. You need to add it.

Greg Bray: Now Kevin, I'm going to make an assumption here, but I'm going to assume that on Reyna's team, if you don't put your stuff in the CRM, bad [00:11:00] things happen to you.

Kevin Weitzel: I'm a CRM Nazi. So, what do we got there, Reyna? What's the answer there?

Reyna Estrada: It has to be accountability, right? Ownership. We definitely work on that team effort. There's definitely different sales processes that have changed over the last two years where there is that competitive floor or cross-selling. So, if there's no notes, there's no follow-up action item so anybody can't serve that customer and take it to the sales process. So, in order for it to count, to give you credit for that appointment, to give you credit for that sale, you have to utilize the CRM, you have to add your notes, you have to add your activities that you are connecting with that customer and taking them to the next action step.

Greg Bray: Amen.

Kevin Weitzel: I agree. You know, it's funny you say it's emotional because when I helped establish the BDC, the BDC is like an OSC call center for auto dealers. When I helped establish that for Harley Davidson, we had a trainer that came in and his philosophy was, is you need to match the emotion of the person calling you. This is back when most of it was on the phone more so than email.

He used to do this exercise where he would have you call up and role [00:12:00] play and you'd be angry and he'd be angry with you. He'd be like, what? Are you serious? We need to get to bottom of this. And he would literally deescalate whatever you were angry about and he would give you like a script of what you had to be angry about and then turn it into happy before the end of the call. That was his goal, was just to convert anger into happiness.

Reyna Estrada: I love that. I love it. I can say that the experience might be a little bit different in the industry because I think our customers are calling very excited, just wanting to build that certainty of making the next step, but also excited about the process. Because it's a fun process to shop online for your new home. So, I think they're still excited about that, that they want it to be guided.

But I agree. I think our online sales team has to create an experience. You have to be genuinely enthusiastic about the process in caring for a customer that you were not even meeting face to face. That is all from that experience on the phone. And I'm a little bit old school just because I started back in 2008 in online sales, and I believe that you have to answer the phone and pick up the phone to make those calls because it's hard to [00:13:00] feel those emotions on that text and email, the black print. So, kind of create and bring that energy of why we do, what we do.

Greg Bray: It's interesting that you say that, Reyna, because we think about online sales as online interactions, but you're pushing your team to say, Hey, we still need to talk to people. Do you find that sometimes people on your team aren't as ready to go to the phone, they want to stay with email and digital interactions? Or is that something you weed out for in part of your hiring process, you know, make sure they're okay with the phone?

Reyna Estrada: Yes, I think we started that in the hiring process and recruiting process, right? It started with a phone call, even a video call as well and creating a video before we get to an interview. You have to be very comfortable to create that connection from the beginning with the customer and you have to hear that on the conversation. Are they smiling? Are they excited about it? They want to hear more. You have to be an active listener and sometimes with an email you have to go back and forth so many times before you get to discover their [00:14:00] story. And you can do that all on a conversation, not just a transactional call, but a conversation with the customer of being curious.

Kevin Weitzel: What's your philosophy on personality in emails? Is it strictly business or can you throw in a little bit of euphemisms or just a pinch of slang or a little dash mark to contract words, to drop the G, you know, like what's happenin'?

Reyna Estrada: I am all in on being authentic. So, you have to be yourself. So, you had to definitely carry the M/I brand with your personality in it, because that's where the personalization comes from. It has to be you and not anything scripted per se. You can add to it as a framework, but I'm all in adding the personality and being authentic.

Greg Bray: So, where at in M/I Homes is the line with the OSC from a connection standpoint? Is the goal simply make an appointment, make an appointment, make an appointment, like has kind of been some of the traditional? Or is there a lot more involvement throughout that buying journey with the online team as people [00:15:00] maybe visit onsite and then come back to the website and ask another question and kind of loop around through there? How do you guys deal with some of that customer journey?

Reyna Estrada: I am just so proud of the online sales team that we have because they're so passionate, but they're so caring and they want to take it all the way through. They want to do that sales process too. But there's definitely where we want to focus is doing the discovery, doing the qualifying areas of timeframes, what's important. Getting the story, so they can come and do the see and feel with the onsite team.

So, we want to do discovery, the qualifying, and get as much of the why, or finding that connection with the customer of the why before they come in, but not necessarily sell the home. We want them to do that in person with tour new home consultants. So, an appointment, it is an ultimate goal, but you have to nurture that trust and that experience for the customer before we get to the appointment.

Greg Bray: I'm sure that the M/I [00:16:00] Home's website is perfect. I haven't done an audit myself of that, but over the years, since you've seen a lot from an OSC perspective, what are some of the things you've seen builders get wrong that the OSCs are like, why don't we just get this right on the website? We're just causing confusion or we're not helping our customers move forward and we're spending time with the wrong kinds of conversations. What are some of those things that builders should be thinking about from a website perspective that could help the OSCs do a better job?

Reyna Estrada: That's a great question. One thing that comes to mind after being definitely on that seat for like 12 years, it was like transparency, content, have all the information. The customers want to do their own search. They want to already have the answers. They just want reaffirmation when they come to the OSC for guidance. So, as much information as we can put out on the website.

Don't be the gatekeeper that you have to provide an email in order to see the floor plan. Just provide as much as you can because they're going to find it. If they don't find [00:17:00] it, they're going to go to the next builder website. So, be transparent and create all that experience from the journey of what the steps are and have all that available on their fingertips.

It is a store. It is a 24/7 store for the online sales team. And that's where we go to provide and guide the customer where to find the next floor plan or the next home sign. So, I would say transparency and as much content as possible with the tools to create that virtual experience of furniture placing or wherever the virtual sitemap is that I can see more than just a colorful sitemap, that where does that land in that street? What is behind it? Seeing everything from the virtual perspective. So, when they come to that visit in the model it's a second visit and not the first.

Greg Bray: I love that idea that it's a second visit and not a first. That's a great way to look at it. When they finally show up, it might even be their third visit at that point. Why do you think other builders are scared of the transparency? Maybe they're [00:18:00] not scared, maybe that's too strong of a word, but they struggle to be comfortable putting all of that out there. Any thoughts on what stops builders from giving all the information?

Reyna Estrada: From my experience, I've worked with M/I for a long time and I think we always want to provide more because we want the customer to make an informed decision. We're not saying that we're the builder for everybody. We have diverse buyers, right? From young professionals to growing families to empty nesters to multigenerational.

I think you have to be very open to meet everybody where they need to be, and everybody's looking at a different way on our website, right? The millennials might be buying a little bit different than the empty nester or what they have on our website. So, as the builder you had to be very open to address all those what the buyers looking for.

My daughter shop online. I try not to. I like to come, feel, and see it at the store. I'm one of those.

Kevin Weitzel: That makes my soul feel so good to hear that because I am a brick-and-mortar guy only. I have boycotted Amazon since day one.

Reyna Estrada: [00:19:00] Everything they buy is online. So, as a builder, just like you do it in your floor plans, just like you do it in your community, you have to take that online and meet where the customer is. So, I don't know necessarily the answer why builders try to gatekeep that information when they might be hurting themselves. They're going to skip over and go to the next builder where they can find it.

Greg Bray: So, as you are trying to create that transparency and make that connection, is there a particular tool that you just love that you feel really connects with buyers? Is it a sum of a lot of small things, or is there this one thing on the list the buyers really love when they can do X or see Y? What comes to mind for you, Reyna?

Reyna Estrada: What comes to mind, from experience, the interactive floor plans was one of them, the virtual tour of the homes that you build and have one for each of the floor plans that you offer because it can be overwhelming. It might be something that caught their attention either on the layout. Not everybody can read a layout, so they want to see a virtual floor plan, right? So, the virtual floor plan.

I think the interactive site [00:20:00] maps, seeing what's around the community. Do I want to live there? Do I want to see what's behind that home site? So, everything interactive that it will take me and transport me there. Right now, from the M/I Home perspective, I know we are building the buyer portal where we stay with a customer from contract all the way to closing, and updating them with who's going to be your contact, what are the steps, what are the documents? And I think that has become a tool for our customers to be engaged in the journey.

Kevin Weitzel: Let me ask you a question. With all that front-facing tech, do you guys also offer, and if you don't know the answer, it's totally fine. But do you guys also offer like self-guided tours? And we don't have to mention any companies or anything, but do you offer any of that?

Reyna Estrada: We did during the COVID years. Because we did have at one point maybe finished inventories. Maybe we didn't have homes to show and we were shown other homes under contract. Not at this time. But we did it during the COVID years of the demand. We might be looking into it [00:21:00] again. We focus a lot on the human interaction from beginning to end with M/I Homes, and I think that's what makes the difference.

And we want to make sure that they meet with a new consultant, that they talk to someone online. We focus a lot on our answer rate on the phone, just as we focus on being open seven days a week at the model. So, the human interaction is very important. And we did it when there was definitely a need, and there might be a need in different markets.

Greg Bray: So, Reyna, let's talk a little bit more about building that team and if a builder is trying to say, okay, I need to add maybe my first OSC. There are a lot of builders out there that still don't have one, believe it or not. I'm trying to maybe level up. I've got one, but we're not really getting what we think we should be getting. What are some tips for those builders who are trying to create that OSC team and help them improve?

Reyna Estrada: Yes. I think definitely one of the things that I found very helpful, to align expectations between the marketing and sales. Because you have to create that demand there, the calls that [00:22:00] wet leads that increase the quality of that in order to create the online sales role for elite conversions. They're generating the leads, but there has to be that role on aligning the expectations or where that role is going to fit for conversions, for support. We are serving the customers. We're supporting the sales teams. It's a ripple effect, but you're also impacting the community where you're building.

So, I think an audit of what platform you're using, what systems you're using, what people do you want to bring in that can connect to customers, but it can also have a relationship with your new consultants in marketing, and also what is that process that you want to implement for releasing communities, for opening new phases? Who is your number one contact, and having the OSC being the front door to that process?

And then track performance, accountability. So, I think you have to do kind of an audit or build that purpose or build that end goal and start the end goal and backwards to bridge the gap, to see where the change is needed to either build it or revamp the [00:23:00] online sales performance there. So, there's a lot in that from training skills, from being flexible, accountability, and just having that big picture or the ripple effect that it starts online. There's no sales without that appointment. There's no sales without bringing that customer from online to onsite.

Greg Bray: If someone's trying to hire an OSC, other than going out after someone who's already worked for a builder, is there another place that you find the right type of people for OSC positions that are outside the home building industry?

Kevin Weitzel: Home builders, listen, you're about to get an insider secret here. Listen up. Insider secret.

Reyna Estrada: It is. The experience that we have had with M/I Homes is education. So, teachers have made a great OSC. They bring everything to that 3rd, 5th grade level and explain the customer, the process and have the patience to ask more questions, to be curious, to learn more, and connect with the customer and [00:24:00] have an empathy way to do it. So, teachers, we have had that online and onsite, by the way, not just for online.

Definitely, the medical industry is the same way. They're asking the questions to know the why, to know your pain and they are trained to do that, not just to answer the questions and just give you the information. When you come into the urgent care or any medical facility, you have to answer a lot of questions in order for them to guide you what the next step is, and have the patience to do it too. So, the medical will be the second one.

We have also seen a lot in property management, so leasing, very similar versus that home ownership journey too. So, those are the three that we have seen, and the automobile industry has an online sales counselors too. We have seen that very easy, smooth transition. And like I said, it's fun because customers are just excited about that process. With the automobile industry, I think they're just overwhelmed, right? There's just a lot of supply.

Kevin Weitzel: Yes. I didn't think of medical as a place to go poach [00:25:00] people. I know that when I was hunting people, when I was on the management side, hunting salespeople, I would go after servers, waiters, waitresses, because they're very personable, they know how to sell the items, they know how to upsell, yada, yada, yada.

But the other one I'd go after were comedians, believe it or not. Because they're extremely personable and they understand the human condition and they could relate. That's the two fields I'd go after.

Greg Bray: And they need a real job.

Kevin Weitzel: And they need a real, they need that job that actually pays them instead of just gigging. Yes.

Reyna Estrada: Yes.

Kevin Weitzel: Unless you're Kevin Hart or somebody like that.

Reyna Estrada: Yeah, no, you know, those are the things that you're talking about. You're right, educational, right? They see that big change in financial stability. With medical, it might be the schedule, that schedule that you work in the medical field a little bit different. With property management, I think they already bring the skill sets into the role, and the same with the automobile industry. And with the automobile industry, I hear they also work long hours, and it's a different also financial stability there too.

Kevin Weitzel: And it's also a different type of customer you're dealing with. You know, when you say that you're dealing with happy clients that are coming to you. On the automobile side, they field [00:26:00] a lot of angry calls. A lot of them.

Reyna Estrada: That's what I hear. I haven't experienced that myself, but that's exactly what I hear. And I think this makes a difference. It makes you happy, it makes you excited to pick up the phone or just answer that call or make a call because you know somebody in the other line is waiting for you to help them in the process.

Greg Bray: Well, Reyna, do you have any recommended resources for people who want to learn about how to be a better OSC, or places to go for them to kind of improve their craft, so to speak?

Reyna Estrada: Yes, there are two that I look after and have been, in my experience, in online sales. Do You Convert? M/I Homes has partnered with them over the years. I have worked with Mike Lyon and Jen Barkin. So, they have definitely been one of the resources for us and personally as well. Your podcast, to know what tools are out there to utilize. Yeah. You need to put that on the list if you're listening.

But also Builder Town Hall with Meredith, Angela, and Kerry Mulcrone. Those are two [00:27:00] that I listened or have it probably a lot in the past year or two, just because a lot has changed over the COVID years.

Greg Bray: Awesome. No, those are great, great resources. We love all those folks. They're all very generous with their time and knowledge and information as well. Well, Reyna, we appreciate you being generous with your time and information today as well. It's been great conversation. Any last words of advice that you wanted to share with our audience today before we wrap up?

Reyna Estrada: Yes, I think one of the things that I mentioned earlier on that human connection. I think that's where I come in. That's why I have enjoyed this role so much. I love it because I think home is where the heart is. You got to love what you do and do what you love.

We have to remember that every customer has a story. Become an active listener in your role, whatever that might be, online, onsite, marketing, and become a solution provider in the industry. Homeownership is a dream, and I think we have to be very invested in it on the difference that we make in our market [00:28:00] or in our city, and nationwide as well. Customers want to be seen, heard, and appreciated. So, be thankful for the market we have.

Greg Bray: That's awesome. It's great to remember that we're helping people make an incredibly important decision. We have to acknowledge that maybe the home we have available is not the right one for them, and we need to help them find the right one that will fit for them and make them achieve that dream that they're after because it is a big deal buying a home. It's a big deal.

Reyna Estrada: Yeah. We're making a difference. So, definitely be prideful of that moment and that opportunity that you're given. There's a quote from Maya Angelou and I always kind of talk about it. It's like, people forget what you said and people forget what you do, but they'll never forget how you make them feel. And I go through that every day with the team, but also with our customers and anybody that I come in contact with.

Greg Bray: Well, Renya, if somebody wants to connect with you and reach out, what's the best way for them to get in touch?

Reyna Estrada: On LinkedIn, probably that's the best way. But like I said, I'm old school. So, my mobile number is available. You can connect with me [00:29:00] anytime. I am always down to have a conversation on the phone. Whatever topic you want to throw in there, I am happy to make a connection.

Greg Bray: Awesome. Well, thank you again for being with us today, and thank you everybody for listening to The Home Builder Digital Marketing Podcast. I'm Greg Bray with Blue Tangerine.

Kevin Weitzel: And I'm Kevin Weitzel with OutHouse. Thank you.