Dennis O'Neil

"Thanks for the additional clarification Jay! Congratulations on the buzz. It seems your team has really put together a product with many applications and tons of potential. I look forward to your updates." - Dennis O'Neil

"Thanks for your comment Rob. I'm with you. It would take the online experience one step closer to actually being there. And, of course, provide a completely unique experience for the shopper. What I think I like most though is that it would provide a new opportunity for salespeople to speak with website shoppers that would otherwise go uncontacted. The shoppers get to interact with the model from the convenience of their own chair and builders get more feedback than they ever would measuring anonymous website traffic." - Dennis O'Neil

"Hi Myers, and thanks for your comment. I’m not suggesting we leave the virtual model home unstaffed at all. The question is who should be the primary staff of that virtual model. I’m suggesting that salespeople are the long term answer and should be learning to communicate with the digital buyer. The OSC role should be secondary." - Dennis O'Neil

"For those commenters who subscribed, looking for part two, it is posted here: http://dennisoneil.com/2012/10..." - Dennis O'Neil

"Hi Martha, and thank you for your comments. I appreciate your feedback and insight very much. We agree on a lot of things. However, I don’t believe I said the OSC role was “dumb.” Others said I described the role as unnecessary. I didn’t say that either. I do believe there is a very real role for you and your job. My key point of this post was that we’ve taken so much responsibility from the salespeople, that we’ve created a skillset-crutch that is a disservice to them; robbing them of the skills they need to perform and robbing the customer of a consistent experience. I’ll be publishing part two early next week. I look forward to your feedback." - Dennis O'Neil

"I’m not so sure we’re saying different things. If an onsite sales person is effective at in-person sales and demonstration, I believe any deficiencies in phone and email communication can be taught. I’m not suggesting the reverse; that someone good with email can be an effective face-to-face salesperson. I agree - onsite sales people are nimble and can handle many tasks at once. I believe they have the aptitude to handle web leads." - Dennis O'Neil

"Thanks for your comments Jeff. I think the job and skills only look different because builders have felt the need to make it that way. Both roles are all about communication and influence. The tools may be different, but the skills are the same. The use of technology is learnable. I can’t argue that the job description is different, but builders created the job, and description, as a reaction. We require and coach (hopefully) our onsite sales people to self-prospect and nurture referrals. Is that not farming?" - Dennis O'Neil

"If I'm buying a home, or anything else, I'd much rather get emails from 2 or 3 salespeople that can answer my questions than one email from one person who can rarely share more information than was available to me on the website. I truly don't think over-communication is a problem the home shopper experiences. Quality communication is a problem. Busy happens. There is a place for “roll over” support in a secondary, not primary, lead handling role." - Dennis O'Neil

"Hi Bethany, Thanks for your comment. I think you’re spot on with a key benefit to your role -- helping an undecided prospect choose between many of your communities. I’m disappointed to hear that you don’t think one of your onsite sales people would refer a buyer to another one of your communities. That’s honestly kind of shocking. Of course they’d do everything they could to sell that prospect first, but if there was no chance of a fit, I can’t imagine a salesperson not referring the buyer to another one of your company’s communities. It sounds like you’ve got a great follow-up routine in place. It’s one I hope more salespeople of all types will adopt." - Dennis O'Neil

"Hi Mike, Thanks for your comments. I love a good debate. I’ll actually be addressing a lot of the counterpoints you’ve outlined in part two of this blog, so I’ll try to speed up my editing :) I won’t argue with you that the easy solution to the logistics problem is the role of the Online Sales Counselor, but easy does not equal right. And easy does not mean permanent either. In short, I don’t believe the online and offline shopping process are “two distinct processes” as you’ve stated. We, i.e. builders, make them two different things. To the consumer, it’s once purchase, one experience. They do not, and should not, care about our processes. If an onsite sales executive does not know how to handle a New Home Source lead, they should be trained, or de-hired. I had about 20 of them on my team in 2007. Some were better than others, but they all learned to respect the lead and treat it like any other lead source. Looking forward to continuing the discussion." - Dennis O'Neil