93 Shake Up Your Digital Marketing Team - Lindsay Haltom Dec 29 2021

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

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

Greg Bray: We are excited today to welcome to the show Lindsay Haltom, the Director of Marketing and Online Sales at Homes by Taber. Welcome, Lindsay. Thanks for joining us.

Lindsay Haltom: Thank you so much for having me. This is so fun.

Well, Lindsay, for those who haven't had a chance to meet you yet, why don't we start off with that a quick introduction, help us get to know you better.

Sure. Yeah. So, I'm Lindsay Haltom. I'm, like you said, Director of Marketing for Homes by Taber. We are in [00:01:00] Oklahoma City. So, that's where our main office is and we build homes for home buyers all around the Oklahoma City metro area. Soon to be launching our next division in the Tulsa area, very, very soon.

Greg Bray: Ooh, growing. Nice.

Lindsay Haltom: Yes. Very excited about it.

Kevin Weitzel: All right. So, what is one thing that we can learn about you, that our listeners can learn about you, that they're not going to find out anywhere else, other than this podcast? Something interesting, personal, something about you.

Lindsay Haltom: Personal. Everyone loves sharing personal information on a podcast. I would say like things that probably aren't just broadcasted or things that, you know, I don't just like advertise about myself. Most people don't know that I was a single mom for several years. Kevin, I know you're very vocal about single moms.

Kevin Weitzel: Yep.

Lindsay Haltom: I was a single mom, actually had a baby in college. So, that was interesting times in my life and worked several jobs to be able to support that baby and put us through school, and kind of became my driving force [00:02:00] for that decision in your life of am I going to be successful or not, and so that kind of became my driving force to, I mean, really just succeed in life. So, I would say that was probably the biggest thing people probably don't know about me.

Kevin Weitzel: It's pretty big one.

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah.

Kevin Weitzel: What about a Homes by Taber? Can you give us a little bit more background about what kind of homes you build? How many homes you build a year?

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah, so we are single-family. Primarily, we really started off as more of a move-up buyer home, but we've really seen a lot of our statistics shimmy over into seeing a lot of first-time home buyers buying our homes too, which I think really speaks to a lot of millennials and the ability that they have to purchase homes these days.

We have an average price point, we're around $300,000 for the Oklahoma City area. Obviously, that's going to vary if you're in California. That's going to be like, wow, that's the cheapest house I've ever heard of. It all varies depending upon where you're from, but we say we are proudly overbuilt, and so our homes come with more included features than any other home that you're going to find in this region.

We really truly [00:03:00] have a home that can be turnkey ready, to where you go to the design center if you're building, but we truly are just expecting you to pick out your colors. We call it a color selections meeting instead of these upgrade after upgrade meetings. People leave those meetings, a lot of times without spending a penny. Some people are going to have those certain preferences, that they want to add and do upgrades or whatever, but we don't anticipate them doing so. If they don't, we're happy with that also. We really provide that turnkey home that people can purchase, with the base price that is their price and nothing more.

Greg Bray: I want to come back to some of that, Lindsay, cause there was a little bit in there that is interesting, but before we do that, let's just get one more personal question. Help us understand your journey into home building and how you decided to get into this particular industry.

Lindsay Haltom: Sure. Yeah. So, I've been in sales/marketing community outreach since about 2004, but my career really took me down a path of medical marketing. So, I was working for hospitals or chain dental, medical clinics, [00:04:00] stuff like that, you know, where the big corporate offices that were in multiple states. So, I think I lucked upon this industry and I got to this place where I was just not super happy, right? You've all kind of been there, I'm sure, where you're just hitting that wall where you're just looking for something different. So, I saw a job posting and I obviously knew it was for a home builder, but I didn't really know what it was for.

So, I went to this interview, and very upfront, I realized it was for an onsite sales agent, and I just told her, I was like, look, I don't think this is for me right now in my career. I'm really looking for more of a marketing leadership role. This was all new. They were just now taking sales and marketing in-house, like, they hadn't even started doing it yet, and so she said, well, maybe you can come back and talk to me because we might have a position opening up. So, I come back and talk to her and they needed someone for marketing also, even though they were just hiring for sales at the time. That's what started that whole path.

It was really funny because she sort of impromptu [00:05:00] invites Taber into this interview and he has no idea that it's even an interview, and he comes in and he's like, what's going on? Okay. Who am I talking to? So, it was like this very stop-and-go interview for me, but he's like, obviously, like she seems like she knows what she's talking about. She could probably do the job, but he has no idea he's even coming in to interview me. So, it was a very interesting process, but I'm super glad it worked out because I just feel like this is the coolest industry in the world, and I'm very lucky to have found my path in it.

Greg Bray: That's a great story, and I bet that's a whole different thing when the person interviewing you doesn't know they're interviewing you.

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah. It was very fun, but it was cool because he was like, you know, hey, well we need somebody to do X, Y, Z. Is this person that person, which it was just great because it really allowed us to have this genuine conversation of him truly asking these questions in a sort of informal way, and me being able to tell him what I'm capable of. It turned out pretty cool.

Greg Bray: So, to go back a little bit, then, to what you were talking about [00:06:00] in some of the differentiation points for your products. You talked about this idea, I think you used the word overbuilt. It sounds like Kevin.

Kevin Weitzel: I'm overbuilt, baby.

Lindsay Haltom: When you say it like that, it's a positive, you know.

Kevin Weitzel: It is.

Greg Bray: So, how do you get that kind of a message though out into the marketplace when so much is about price per square foot and just kind of this straight-up comparisons where you really can't see some of those differences just in a quick glance like that.

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah, I think it's several different faucets to that because for one thing, let's just say people just come in. Let's pretend like people don't visit our website or anything else, cause no one does that and they just pop in a model home. One of the things that we're super proud of is whenever we build a model home, we may put two upgrades in there. So, we can truly walk through home and say this home is priced at [00:07:00] X. Whereas, most of the time, that's not the case whenever you're walking through a builder model home. They can tell you what the base price is for that home, for the floor plan, but then whenever you say, well, how much is this home? You know, and they're like doing the math in their head because you kind of have to go through and add up all the upgrades.

So, we really truly try to market ourselves and like paint that picture that this is all included except for that thing and that thing, and typically, whenever those things start being upgraded over and over, then we'll just decide probably should just include that too. That's one of the things that we do.

Then on our website, we have even changed a lot of our wording to say the proudly overbuilt price, so that it's not just starting from. I mean, there are certain things where we have ranges on floor plans at different communities and stuff where we've had to say those things, but we try to say proudly overbuilt from X, so that they really know that's all-encompassing. We really try to just make sure that people know, comparing us to other builders. We really try to get that messaging out there what proudly overbuilt means so that they understand that. [00:08:00]

Kevin Weitzel: I don't want to name drop, but that's very Bob Whitten. That's extremely Bob Whitten. Bob Whitten actually has this formula. He calls it his 10% formula, that it is insulting to a client, a potential buyer, that if you have a home, let's call it 200,000, starting at 200,000, and then your model home is 390 grand, so double the price. He says that your model homes should be within 10% of your asking price of the home.

Lindsay Haltom: Well, I would 100% agree with that.

Kevin Weitzel: Bob Whitten. He's the man.

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah. He's been at the business for a long time. He knows what he's talking about. I think that whenever you're walking through a model home and this could mean anything, this could be like the upgrades, this could be like, you see something is damaged, whatever it is, people are looking for reasons to exclude you, as we all know. That's how we help people shop. So, I think as people are going through your model home, if they see something damaged, they're automatically looking for something else wrong with the home. If they're seeing a bunch of upgrades, they're already on the defensive side. Yeah, Bob's onto something.

Kevin Weitzel: So, can I follow up on the [00:09:00] whole idea of, because you did say that your marketing a lot to first-time buyers, start up home buyers. Are you able to still, granted you're overbuilding in homes, but are you still able to create a community when you're building a home or a neighborhood? Is it a community? Do you have amenities? Are you building all that into your plans?

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah, definitely. So, we only build in our neighborhoods. You know, we're not an on your lot builder. Some of our neighborhoods have more amenities than others, we actually call them Taborhoods, instead of neighborhoods. Like to have fun with our T's, but some are more than others, but they all have something. Whether it's the stock fishing ponds and the playgrounds. Splash pads are pretty popular right now. Pools are obviously always popular. We have neighborhoods that are gated. So, they definitely do have amenities and it's just all packaged in it.

Kevin Weitzel: A follow-up to that from a marketing standpoint, how much emphasis do you put on those community standards versus just the overbuilt factor of the home?

Lindsay Haltom: I would say it's equal because it all matters. Sometimes what matters to me, it might [00:10:00] be different than what matters to you and I don't ever want exclude whatever that is. I think we try to pay attention to both of those things. We might have several home sites available in a neighborhood, and so we're really pushing the neighborhood and we're really pushing the amenities in there, but sometimes it might be that we just have a showcase home in there, a spec home that's ready to go, so we need to make sure that we're pushing those features too. So, I think it's a balance between the two.

Greg Bray: So, Lindsay, let's go back to your interview experience. They were just deciding that they needed a marketing person, so it sounds like you got in at the beginning of building something from a marketing standpoint. So, as you were starting there, you go, okay, hey, great, I got this job, and then it's like, wait a minute, I'm all by myself here. Where did you even kind of begin with that in putting together the team and the plan and moving forward in that direction?

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah, I could tell you a million different stories about so many funny things that happened just in those early days of like, this is wow, you know. [00:11:00] First day, you show up, you're a marketing professional that is ready to take on the world and you don't have any real consistency in the branding. What happens whenever people don't have in-house sales and marketing, they really outsource all of that stuff, and for home builders, a lot of times, that means that they might have one realtor over here that's listing some homes and they're also doing a little marketing on the side. They've got this other realtor over here that's doing that, or maybe they have a small agency that might be doing some things, or maybe it's a family member, that's taking on some of those roles. So, I mean, it can be a little bit of everything when you're talking about these small businesses.

Like, our main colors red. What is our red? Is that this burgundy that I just saw over here? Is that this like bright cherry red that I just saw over here? So, I mean, really trying to, at the very beginning, trying to figure out what does even our brand and what does it even mean? Trying to find a logo that was actually not a PDF scanned and copy of a scanned and copy that was emailed to me, you know. I mean, it really was like starting everything from the beginning, and it's just cool to see how [00:12:00] this very large visionary who is Taber LeBlanc took this company and got it to a certain point, and then brought in marketing and sales and really just grew it from there, and it really is a attribute to him.

Yeah. Figuring out what we need for supplies, figuring out what it means to be the support for sales. Because if anybody in marketing thinks that your role is not to support the sales team, come talk to me. We'll talk about that, but it definitely is first and foremost, but figuring out just like what that means.

We had a website that would crash all the time, and so this dramatic moment, feeling like I was building houses with a broken hammer. It was a very dramatic moment. Trying to figure out like, okay, well, what are next steps? Obviously, someone who has a website company knowing how important that is for people to have a really great website. Then, Taber told me, well, if you can fix this website and at least get it to work, then I'll let you buy whatever website you want, and I'm like, oh my God, deal. So, it was like motivation just to get from one step to [00:13:00] the next and kind of build up those puzzle pieces.

Greg Bray: I'm just running in my head my next tagline, "Does your website feel like you're building a house with a broken hammer?"

Lindsay Haltom: Yes.

Greg Bray: I'm just playing with it, right?

Lindsay Haltom: I've gotta call our attorney and get that trademarked right now.

Greg Bray: No, that's great. So, Lindsay, where did you decide what you wanted to have in-house versus where you did want to have partners and agencies to work with?

Lindsay Haltom: I think that starting out, we probably outsourced a lot, and some of it was a little bit piecemealed here and there. Hey, we need this one little project done and I don't have time to do it all, and so we'd outsource things here and there. I think that as I've gotten just more ingrained and knowledgeable in the industry and really like knowledgeable about what services are out there for home builders and home builder marketing, specifically, that's definitely helped us with choosing, hey, these people can do it better than we can, [00:14:00] right? Like, it's worth spending the money every month to pay them, to really make sure that these things are monitored and make sure that these pieces of the puzzle are being taken care of, but I also think there's definitely something to be said for whenever you can bring a process in-house.

I know, like for us, we've brought graphic design in-house a hundred percent, because that was something that, I say a hundred percent, that's not a hundred percent accurate. There is a little bit of some things that we partner with people to help with, but like on our day to day graphic design and stuff, we try to do all that stuff in-house because it allows us to create more content, allows us to put more out there, and it allows us to just have more of a hands-on approach, the more people that we have in-house.

There are certain things, like with building websites, we don't want to take that on ourselves. There's professionals that do that every single day that are extremely knowledgeable. Renderings are another thing, you know, when you try to piecemeal them together, like, you have to have a professional company that knows what they're doing. I think it just depends on how much control you need in the process, on a day-to-day basis.[00:15:00]

Greg Bray: So, Lindsay, when I looked at your title, I was a little surprised when it said Director of Marketing and Online Sales. Surprised, not because you're not perfectly capable of having that title, that's not what I mean. Not because of you, but because of the uniqueness in those two things being connected in the marketing side, as opposed to under the sales side. Tell us a little bit about how that came to be and the reasoning behind that structure?

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah. For us, it made sense, and I know, I mean, there's definitely lots of people that have chosen to go that route. For us, it's really made sense because marketing was really the department that really set up our CRM system and kind of put in that legwork, put in the research, really just went through that whole process of establishing that. As we were getting our sales team up and running, and that's hard, getting a sales team up and running for people that are all in different areas at any given time, in different neighborhoods. That's really hard.

I think for [00:16:00] us, it just made more sense with me being in the office and having this other position. Our online sales team is in the office mostly, and so it really made sense for me to be able to be there, to just work, you know, alongside them, and kind of be more hands-on with them and then allow our sales team to really get that whole team up and running. So, I think it's worked out super well because for one, marketing is driving online leads, and so for me to be able to have my sort of finger on that pulse and then be able to help them and feed them what they need, just on a more hands on basis has really worked out well for us.

Greg Bray: So, then, from that standpoint, if I understand correctly, then, there was also a transition that went from more of a realtor supported sales process to more of your own sales team that was going on at the same time. Is that a fair understanding then?

Lindsay Haltom: It is. So, you know, every state is so different, but in Oklahoma, for homebuilders, if you are in sales for a home builder, and actually an employee of a home [00:17:00] builder, then you can't have a real estate license. Yeah. We definitely made that transition. Just as we got better and got more trained and were able to train our onsite sales team more and just grow with all of that, then it just became natural to take that on. So, we list all of our own homes ourselves and all that good stuff. So, it's really worked out.

Greg Bray: So, what type of bridge is there then between the online sales team and the onsite sales team? How do you deal with that coordination?

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah. So, luckily we work all very well together. You hear horror stories sometimes. We work really well together and we're in constant communication with making sure that our online sales team is setting our onsite sales team up for success because as part of the marketing team, they're also there to support the sales team. So, just making sure that they're keeping in constant communication, making sure that their notes are always amazing in our CRM, making sure that they're being conscious of when they're setting appointments and making sure that it fits within their scheduled times, making [00:18:00] sure that they're really qualifying those appointments before they come out. Doing all those things, like, you focusing on your job and making sure that you're doing your job well, I think makes other people respect those positions and then allows everybody to work together.

Greg Bray: So, as you then, are now, seeing the whole process from start to finish, so to speak, from your view of the buyer journey, what types of changes from buyer expectations have you been seeing over the last couple of years? We know COVID changed everything, but even before that, what kinds of things were you adapting to and working on based on buyer expectations and desires?

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah. So, luckily, because obviously, none of us saw COVID coming. I mean, we just did not see our world changing as rapidly as it did in that way and everything going online, but we know the world's going that way. We just didn't know it was going to happen so quickly and sort of be forced into it. Luckily, we've had our eye on that prize for awhile and just making sure [00:19:00] that our user experience online, seeing our website as our model home, before you ever get to a model home, and making sure that you have as much information as possible, just at their fingertips at all times has been our goal. Making sure that we're transparent as much as possible, giving them all the answers to the questions that they have. I think that has aided us before the pandemic, but certainly aided us through the pandemic, for sure.

If you're a customer and you're coming to any website, no matter what it is, and you have even a small thought in your mind that you're going to buy something, it's our job, as marketing, to make sure that we're giving them all the answers that they possibly need to be able to make that decision. I think it's just having that mindset always, no matter if we're in a pandemic or not.

Greg Bray: What role does your online sales team have in helping you figure out which questions you're not answering well with the website and how to continue to evolve that and [00:20:00] improve it?

Yeah, definitely. They know firsthand, if they're starting to get strange questions or questions that they know that the buyer should be able to have the answer to, then they're quick to either shoot me an email or just pop in and maybe ask a question, like, do you know what, I know they're trying to nicely tell me, Hey, this is isn't on website or something like that. I think that them just constantly being able to have that communication because they really are, I mean, they are the first line of these sort of questions, and when we start getting random questions that we know that we should have the answers to, then we dive in to see where all we need to plug it in, and probably have it in multiple spots on the site.

That's right. It's right over here. How did they miss it?

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah. How did you not click here, click here, and then click here?.

Greg Bray: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, through all of that growth and creation of new teams and process, something didn't go right somewhere. Just law of averages, right? What was one of the challenges that you kind of had to work through and you really didn't expect, as you were trying to implement all these new [00:21:00] processes and programs and technologies?

Lindsay Haltom: Gosh, I think whenever it comes to implementing new technologies, you obviously, are spending probably a lot of money. You always have really great intentions, and you always see this eye on the prize because you've probably sat through 30 demos and you're like, oh my God, this is so cool, right? The whole implementation of it can be a different story. The whole buy-in from the rest of the team can be a different story, the whole getting your team to use something, and that can be anything. I know we talk about CRMs a lot, but it can be anything. Really, kind of get people wrapping around the why is a challenge.

I mean, there's not just necessarily one time that we've failed forward and tried to figure it out from there. Every single time we've tried to integrate a new technology, because we're obviously, big on that, trying to find the next thing to help, whether it's us or our customers. There's always that that goes into it, some people that just don't want to learn a new program, like, we've already made them learn three programs, why are we making a lot of fourth? Or there's people [00:22:00] that just don't think we need it, or maybe they just don't see the full picture yet. So, I think for us, it really is important that we make sure that it really is a tool, like, if it's for our in-house teams, it really needs to be a tool that truly is gonna add benefit to their lives and not just add more tasks for them.

Kevin Weitzel: When you struggle with the buy-in, do you ever use the shake method?

Lindsay Haltom: The shake method?

Kevin Weitzel: Yeah. You just walk up to the employee that is questioning and you just shake them. You just shake them. You just shake the snot out of them, and you say you will use a CRM because you know what the guy's name that's on this building right here, the person signs your check, says that we're going to use it and you're going to use it. You've never tried the shake method?

Lindsay Haltom: I mean, I can't believe it doesn't work. It always works, right? Just people are like, oh my God. Yes. Okay. Now I get it. Yeah.

Kevin Weitzel: Yeah. It works in the Marine Corps. I'll tell you that.

Lindsay Haltom: Every time. In the Marine Corps?

Kevin Weitzel: Every time.

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah.

Kevin Weitzel: Somebody shakes the snot out of you.

Lindsay Haltom: Someone with a gun.

Kevin Weitzel: I'm using the right language because Greg's here, but [00:23:00] they'll shake the snot ot out of you. You will learn to utilize that tool.

Lindsay Haltom: No, and believe me, I'm sure I've been there before where you're like, what do you mean you don't get it? This is good for you.

Kevin Weitzel: To be more serious on that, a lot of times they just don't see the vision. They don't see the end result benefit they're going to see. You know their salespeople that are like, well, if you put all the options on an interactive floor plan then I don't get to do my job. No. They're coming to you further along in the process, so now it's just shortened your window of a sales opportunity. They just made your job easier. So, learn to love that. If you put an online sales counselor in place, then they're going to answer all the questions before they get me. Great. They're going to answer some key questions that are wasting your time, so you can concentrate on signing the contract with them.

Lindsay Haltom: To that point too, everybody, when they implement online sales, there's a huge adjustment period just for, why do we need this position? I can answer my phone just fine, you know.

Kevin Weitzel: But they don't.

Lindsay Haltom: I mean, I get it.

Kevin Weitzel: Show them the stats, they don't.

Lindsay Haltom: Well, Yeah. I mean, and that goes into like the shake it, but it just, I [00:24:00] think now, and especially talking about how crazy everything has been over the past couple of years and how busy and how many people they have under contract in their backlog, having those people for them to like answer the phone for new leads and set up appointments for their day that they're back in the model home. I don't know how we would have done it without them. We might've just all fallen apart and just maybe all called it quits.

Greg Bray: So, as you are looking ahead, Lindsay, is there anything that you're planning or working on now, that's kind of next without giving away any of the deep dark secrets, what are you kind of looking forward to saying, oh gosh, I can't wait until we get to implement this or try that, what's on your radar?

Lindsay Haltom: We're definitely looking at some different technologies right now just to make sure that we're not just utilizing a CRM, but we're truly utilizing some tools that are going to help us better with some marketing tracking without going into too much detail on that. Those are some things that we're like deep into right now.

[00:25:00] I know so many people are talking about buy it now. We're not there yet as a company. We might be there soon. We might not be. We're still trying to make sure that we have all of the puzzle pieces in place for customers to even get to that route, and I think that's so important to make sure that we actually have processes and all of our puzzle pieces in place to make sure that we're able to take care of a customer in that platform.

I think, for us, just making sure that we just are finding the best tools we can at this moment, and then also looking forward to the future. What are our customers kind of missing out on that they might want to see online and how they can interact with that.

Kevin Weitzel: So, long question.

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah.

Kevin Weitzel: Being that you have that life experience of being a single mother while going to college and know the challenges that that puts on to you, the Lindsay of today, what advice would you give to the Lindsay in college to help ease your transition into the role that you're in [00:26:00] today and the success that you've had today? You know, because everybody has lumps. Everybody's taken a punch here or there to figure out, Ooh, that was a bad move. What lessons would you give to that time machine Lindsay?

Lindsay Haltom: Oh, man. It's always good to know that it's going to work out. I think that no matter what it is, whether you're the single mom in college, or your talking about implementing all these technologies, it's hard. There's so many things that you're going to go through or do that are challenging or difficult, and I think that knowing that the harder you work towards the goal and the more that you put behind it, and that's time, effort, energy, emotion, all of those things, is what's going to get you to the other side. So, whether it's college Lindsay, like how are we going to pay for tuition Lindsay, or how are we going to implement this new technology Lindsay, just always having that mindset of it can be done. You just have to find how do you get from A to [00:27:00] B? Sometimes that's A to B to C to D, but just having the mindset that it can be done. I think that's what I would tell that Lindsay, the mindset to have the mindset that it can be done. It'll work out.

Greg Bray: That's great advice. Any other last pieces of more marketing related advice that you wanted to leave with our listeners today before we kind of wrap up?

Lindsay Haltom: I would just say make sure that you're putting yourself in your customer's shoes. Make sure that you're seeing what, they're going through, and are you providing a great path for them to get to where they need to go?

Greg Bray: Terrific. Well, Lindsay, thank you so much for spending time with us today. If someone wants to get in touch and reach out and connect, what's the best way for them to get in contact with you?

Lindsay Haltom: Yeah. They can shoot me an email anytime at lindsay@homesbytaber.com.

Greg Bray: All right. Thank you again, and thank you, everybody, for listening today 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.