Jen Barkan welcomed a very special guest to OPT this week, Ryan Taft, the Founder and CIO of Impact Eighty-Eight! They kicked things off sharing key takeaways from the 2025 International Builders' Show, recapping DYC's upcoming Online Sales Academy, and giving a shout out to Lena Burgin with Level Homes, who recently won OSC Rookie of the Year for 2025!
Topic of Today: People Over Process (19:00):
- There is a lot of conversation happening right now surrounding "We need more sales!"
- The 2025 spring selling season feels a bit different this year, hence the importance of the saying, "Don't get prepared, stay prepared."
- In every sales team, often the #1 closer is the online sales professional.
- There is a difference between getting a customer to agree to an appointment, and wanting to go to an appointment.
- There's a transfer of emotion when setting appointments, and it's important to promote the experience. Avoid making it feel transactional!
- People don't buy with logic, they buy with emotion, and it's important not to go too far information-wise on initial calls.
- The goal of the handoff is to excite the imagination of meeting the sales person, and to reduce anxiety by humanizing them.
- Addressing friction between online and onsite sales, and understanding that the relationship is a give-get model.
- Anytime there is friction, you can complain about it, or you can do something about it!
- Ryan shares the story of Impact Eighty-Eight, and how the question of "What do you want to do?" changed everything.
- He shares his perspective that when the process becomes priority, the people can get lost, and his goal is to put people first in his training.
Skills Check: Are You Tracking the Handoff? (45:30):
- It's important to be proactive if you feel like your team could be doing a better job with the handoff process.
- Jen suggests tracking the handoff in your CRM or appointment tracker.
- This will allow you to have more concrete information to base next steps off of.
