May 30, 2023 • 46 mins
A home is one of the most significant, important purchases people make. But that doesn’t mean the process is easy. And unfortunately, it’s not always the most enjoyable. Building and buying a new home can be an extremely stressful experience. But it doesn’t have to be!
Today we speak with Danielle Lipari-Mareth, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Lennar in Austin, Texas. Lennar’s mission is to pair the right home to every buyer and provide a top-of-the-line experience throughout the entire process. Danielle’s expertise and insight transcend real estate and translate across industries.
Listen in to learn:
More information about Danielle Lipari-Mareth and today’s topics:
Today we speak with Danielle Lipari-Mareth, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Lennar in Austin, Texas. Lennar’s mission is to pair the right home to every buyer and provide a top-of-the-line experience throughout the entire process. Danielle’s expertise and insight transcend real estate and translate across industries.
Listen in to learn:
- How shifting to perspective to the buyer’s side of the customer journey makes better sales and marketing
- How to make sure you’re treating your customer as an individual, not a sale
- Why a healthy marriage between sales and marketing is essential for customer experience
- What it means to make legendary customer experience your North Star
- What the role of humans are in new home sales
More information about Danielle Lipari-Mareth and today’s topics:
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-lipari-mareth-87714336/
- Company Website: https://www.lennar.com/
- Other Relevant Links: Lennar Mortgage
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
The single most important thing you cando today is to create and deliver a
better experience for your customers. Learnhow sales, marketing and customer success experts
create internal alignment, achieved desired outcomes, and exceed customer expectations in a personal
and human way. This is theCustomer Experience Podcast. Here's your host,
(00:24):
Ethan Butte, a person who leadsmarketing whose heart is in sales, a
tech company that happens to build homes. That's just a little context for today's
conversation with a VP of sales andmarketing from Lenar, a leading homebuilder in
real estate markets across America. Sheserved as a salesperson, a sales leader,
(00:45):
and a mentor in admissions and staffingbefore turning her passion and talents toward
new home sales a decade ago.Danielle Laperry Merith, Welcome to the Customer
Experience Podcast. Thank you so muchfor having me. I'm excited to be
here. Yeah, need to.I'm looking forward to the conversation and we're
going to cover a lot of ground. I feel like I really want to
get into with you. In particular, really sales leadership and mentorship will get
(01:10):
probably into maybe philosophy of what salesand marketing are, how you hire to
that, some of the philosophies oftraining, how important humans are in a
decreasingly human process. But before weget into all of that, to start
with customer experience, as we alwaysdo, Danielle. When I say that,
what does it mean? So whenI think a customer experience, I
(01:32):
think primarily how the customer is madeto feel, and that can be everything
from their first interaction with a marketingpiece and what that inspires in them.
When a customer walks into one ofour welcome home centers, right, they're
interested in buying a home, theyhave to leave their home, get in
their car, drive to the modelhome, be prepared to interact with a
(01:55):
salesperson. And let's be honest,that is non experience. Most people wake
up in the morning listening too right, something is going on in their life,
like they must need to buy ahome to go through all that effort,
usually on a Saturday or Sunday.Right. So when I think of
the customer experience, I think,is that first moment that inspired them to
imagine that next phase of their lifeto make it worth it for them to
(02:16):
go through all that, and thenwhen they enter into that welcome home center,
all the way through the data,they move into their home. How
do they feel, what are theups and downs? How are they taking
care of Do they get the experienceof being catered to and cared for like
an individual or they treated like abusiness transaction. That's the critical part is
how they feel so much to peelinto there, and we are going to
(02:39):
get it into new home centers insimilar for folks like I've never gone through
that process, and I would lovefor you to break that down for people.
The way that you're approaching it iswonderful. And the thing I want
to highlight about what you shared therethat we don't talk about enough is this
idea of imagining what this person wasgoing through leading up to the moment that
(03:00):
you actually meet them. Right.We talk a lot about customer journey,
but it's primarily oriented around us,you know, I mean, and we
usually start where you started here.Something you included in your in your response,
which was you know, that firstmarketing piece, and that is part
of the journey. But there's areason they sought it out or picked it
up or you know, whatever theydid, and so that just this idea
(03:23):
of imagining, you know, wherethey are in that morning, the effort
they go through just to be thereon site, I think is something that's
overlooked and because it's outside the boundsof the journey with us, I guess
to ask a question instead of monologueat you, when did customer experience come
onto your radar? Like as aterm and as a concept. I mean,
I think the fundamentals have always beenthere. I think you My guess
(03:44):
is that you've always been focused onhow am I treating this person? Or
do they feel like they're being treatedas an individual or they feel like they're
being treated as a transaction, thoseelements, But this language in particular in
the concept of customer experience or CX, like, when did that kind of
come onto your radar? I feellike it's always been in the ether,
but maybe not explicitly until the lastcouple of years. And I think it
(04:05):
was, you know, customer experience. We normally just think of like are
they happy with the transaction? Right? Like are they satisfied with their purchase?
Would they recommend or refer? It'svery binary, right, was it
positive? Was it negative? Arethey a net promoter or are they not?
And I think the customer experience,I think it's really a couple of
(04:26):
years ago, I started hearing peopletalk about it as a much more inclusive
part of a customer's journey. It'sthat, like I said that, from
that very first marketing piece all theway to the day that they move into
the home, it's much more holisticand it's much less about did we check
this box? Knew it? Lanarm our goal. We have two different
things around customer experience. We wantto create a legendary customer experience and we
(04:49):
use that word, and we alsowant our customers to walk out feeling tickle,
delighted and happy. That's a farcry from customer satisfaction. And so
I think that overall, especially inthe pandemic, we started to realize that
I think a lot of customers gottaken for granted. You know, the
areas that had high demand had reallyhigh demand, and I think it was
(05:13):
really easy to go, oh mygosh, like we have all this business.
I think really lately the focus hascome back onto customer experience because we've
realized that if your customers, customersare smart, and I think we forget
that and I think if your customer, if you're treating your customer like you're
taking them for granted, they cansmell it a mile away. So I
think there's been a really healthy andnecessary and I don't even mean in home
(05:36):
building, I just mean in likeour entire economy in the last couple of
years, where we realized that customersreally felt beat up by the companies that
they were trying to give their moneyto, and it was time to not
just sell them a good but makethem feel good while we were doing it.
Yeah, it's so interesting. We'veused the term lead drunk a lot
to talk about those those days wherethere's so many opportunities in front of you,
(06:00):
cherry pick which ones you're even goingto spend any time on whatsoever.
And then in the pandemic, somany things we're moving and changing, and
I even think that customer experience tooka hit in a lot of businesses that
didn't even intend to mistreat or undertreatpeople. It is like staffing flows,
like we can't do it like weused to do it. They struggled,
they couldn't figure out, And Ifeel like so many experiences people are still
(06:24):
struggling to get a handle on andothers have been forced to do it kind
of as you describe, like afundamental change in the market. You're like,
okay, quick reset, what arewe doing here? Why is it
this working like I used to?Maybe we should reevaluate how we're treating people.
So you've mentioned Lenar a couple oftimes. I included in the introduction
before we get too much further,so context for people. Who is Lenar?
(06:46):
Who's your ideal customer? What aresome of the problems that you're solving
for them? Yeah, so LTARa home builder ideal customer. This is
going to sound like a real pappyanswer, but I swearised the truth.
Everyone. You know, we area large company, and so we build
homes that can serve first time homebuyers that maybe need to make sure that
(07:08):
affordability is there for them as they'retransitioning from renting or living with their family.
We cater to move up buyers.So maybe man, you made that
first investment and now you're ready togrow, maybe your family's expanded a little
bit. We have homes that aremore on the luxury side of things,
so you want to drop a milliondollars. Plus we've got a beautiful home
for you. And we even havesome more age targeted type communities for our
(07:30):
fifty five and better crowds. Sowe really want ourselves to be set up
as the builder of choice for customersin all stages of their life. So
in terms of solving problems, youknow, every customer's home buying journey is
a little bit different. The problemthat we're solving for somebody could be a
very happy problem, like, ohmy gosh, we're going to have our
first kiddo and that two bedroom isnot going to work anymore, all the
(07:54):
way up to I don't want totake care of this big home. It's
time to downside so I can travelmore because I'm about to retire. So
I really feel confident that with thediversity of home offerings that we can provide,
we're really able to solve a reallya wide variety of problems for customers.
Very good and perfectly faired. Ilike that you qualified it, but
unapologetically because it doesn't need to bequalified, So for my own clarity,
(08:18):
and again kind of for the contextof listeners, because we talk to people
in a wide variety of businesses andindustries, and listeners mirror that talk a
little bit about the basics of marketingand sales of new homes, like,
how is it different? Then?You know, I think most people have
talked with or worked with a realestate agent generally. But you know,
(08:39):
there's some nuances to new homes thatI think you're worth walking out and talking
out a little bit, and Ithink they have implications for customer experience.
Just walk out a little bit,just the absolute basics of marketing and sales
in the work that you do.Yeah, I mean, I think when
most people think this is changing alittle bit lately, but I think when
(09:00):
most people traditionally have thought about buyinga home, they picture exactly what you're
talking about. Right. I geta real estate agent, I go look
at some used homes, I pickthe one, I make an offer.
It's a little bit different of aprocess with a new home. So what
the customer is going to do firstof all in terms of the marketing,
right is we have to get onpeople's radar and show them that we have
an offering. A very common misconception, especially for first time homebuyers, is
(09:24):
that new homes are intimidating. There'sa lot that goes into it. You
have to be able to put aton of money down. You know,
with Lenar, we have what wecall our Everything's Included promise to really simplify
that's a lot of what we tryand do is smooth over the fryption points
that would normally keep somebody from consideringnew homes as their option. So our
customers can walk into one of ourmodel homes and know exactly what that home
(09:46):
would cost when they walk out thedoor, because we haven't put thousands and
thousands of dollars into upgrades that theycouldn't possibly afford. Right We're trying to
show people where they can actually livein when they walk on the door.
So that process is going to bean customer coming in, sitting down with
a new home consultant that's going toget to know them. It's going to
guide them through the experience, helpsthem identify the home and the community that's
(10:09):
going to work best for them,and then really connect them with that solution.
You know, we are a bigcompany with a lot of different divisions
in Austin. We're really able tooffer a lot of our folks quick movement
opportunities. So that's the other thingthat's the common misconception is you have to
pack your floor plan and take yourhome side and then wait for your home
to be built and all that kindof stuff. We're actually able to start
(10:31):
homes and get customers moving to themquickly. You're not having to go through
that brain drain of picking all thedifferent options and waiting for the building.
That's a lot for people. Soit's all about creating that legendary experience and
simplifying things for folks so they canbenefit from a brand new home rather than
have to go to more traditional route, which can have its downside. Yeah.
(10:52):
Absolutely. One sub question in there, this new verses used, how
much of your effort is oriented towarda kind of getting into the mental space
of people that it's an equally validoption. I think it's an overlooked option
for a lot of people unless yousee, you know, like I'm just
thinking about my own experience here inColorado Springs. You know, you see,
(11:16):
Oh, this whole area is gettinglike you know, chewed up to
the ground. Oh, it lookslike there's some foundations or lines being run.
You know, this is a placewhere a bunch of new homes are
going to be built, and youknow, people that are looking on that.
So, for example, on thewest side of town, very old
side of town, closest to themountains, very established, and there's only
one neighborhood that's new, and soit's very obvious if you want a new
(11:39):
home, that's and you want tolive on the west side, that's the
place to do it. And soit's like, I'm trying to think of
where in the mix you could insertyourselves to be on the radar and legit
in the consideration set with more people, because you can serve everyone. And
he walks through that very nicely,and just a quick another point of praise.
I really appreciate your thoughtful language.You're very specific in your language.
(12:03):
For example, fifty five and better. I see what you're doing. And
then the other one is, well, no, let's just start there.
How do you create that education orhow do you get yourself into the consideration
set for more buy you know,the people want to move or they want
a home. How do you breakin with the new home message and or
how much education is required there?It's a great question, and education is
(12:26):
the right word, right. There'sa lot of folks that it's just not
what they're used to. It's nottheir paradigm for when they're going to go
buy home. So there's a coupleof different things. We have to be
present in the same spaces where acustomer would normally be searching for a use
tome, and we have to havea real concise value proposition or for that
customer to talk about the benefits.You know, a home builder in a
(12:48):
tough market will very often be ableto maybe help with a financing in a
way that a use help wouldn't beable to. There's going to be warranties
associated with it. So you haveto have a real clear sense of your
identity and where you compete against thoseused homes and be able to get into
those spaces. So that could beas simple as you know. It feels
like every market has their own place, their MLS there, whatever. This
(13:11):
is where people go to find homeshere. You have to have that presence
and you have to show up well, you have to have I mean this
is so goofy like for new homes. This is one on one but like
you have to have nice photography.You can't, you know, you have
to you have been to show upand put your best foot forward so people
can really see the other parts though, is being eye catching. For example,
(13:33):
when I first came to Lenar andwe were looking at communities, I
had it pointed out to me thatwe didn't have one of our signs that
said new homes. It just saidLenar. Well, I know Lenar,
but no, Like it was like, well, are you sure your customer
does you have to make sure thatyou put new homes now selling it's available,
Like give that person a reason toturn and go, oh my gosh.
(13:54):
I saw that new neighborhood being developed. I saw those threats getting put
in. I didn't know what wasgoing on, and oh my gosh,
now there's a brand new welcome homecenter that I can go visit. So
it's really about capturing people's attention andshowing up where they're going to notice you
so they can start considering you asan option. Yeah, really good.
And yeah that's an interesting catch toothat you kind of walk through a little
(14:15):
bit there. I'm thinking about likethe inventory itself and how that shows up
online. It's like, I guessyou're putting models up last thing here.
This kind of in the weeds ofthe business a little bit before we get
into legendary like that wasn't on myradar before we started talking about We're going
to spend some time on legendary.It's an interesting You already alluded to the
idea that you have things you cando with financing. You know, you
(14:35):
have an integrated mortgage entitle arm insideLenar along with home sales. It's an
interesting ecosystem in general, and soto the degree that it affects you and
your teams and the work that youall are doing. Talk a little bit
about the broader ecosystem, like wheredo you fit in with some of these
other pieces again more, I'm sureyou're doing work with mortgage loan officers,
(15:00):
other companies in addition to the onesinternal. You're doing work with title reps.
You're probably doing work with other realestate agents, like perhaps buyer's agents.
Just talk about the ecosystem a littlebit and how that impacts the experience
that you Dan Yelle are thinking aboutfor yourself and your team members that you
want to create for others. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean one of the
things that I love about being apart of Lenar is having the affiliated mortgage
(15:24):
company and the affiliated titled company.We also have an affiliated home insurance provider
So the idea behind that is wecan create Again. I talked about standing
down those those rough edges, right, getting through those friction point. So
a very common friction point in anyreal estate transaction is just communication. The
(15:45):
number of entities that have to cometogether to just get one poor customer into
their home is so much more.You just name them, right, You've
got your loan officer. A lotof times in the loan officer, there's
a processor, there's an underwriter,there might be a real estate agent.
I could go on, and onefailed piece of communication is enough to derail
things for that poor customer, right. I mean, the worst thing in
(16:07):
the world would be somebody makes amistake and the customer has to notice it.
Well, there goes all your faithand credibility. Talk about the lack
of a legendary customer experience, right, and so having those affiliates and partnering
them with them very closely ensures thatwe can provide that seamless experience. That
we can hand the club customer offto a loan officer that we know and
trust and is accountable, that theypartner with a title scrow officer who also
(16:32):
is in constant communication. Everyone's growingin the same direction to help keep that
customer from having to be the oneto ping pong back and forth. That's
our job. So it really doestime much more into customer experience than you
would thank yousuly. Oh yeah,business affiliates, But really it helps that
customer be able to just relax,let us handle the heavy lift, and
they can just look forward to movinginto their homes. Yeah. I can
(16:53):
imagine a tight network of and Ithink that's how a lot of this works
out. Whether they're directly affiliated ornot, there are tight networks of people
who get together because any failure inthe process is a reflection in this scenario
on Lenar right, like you haveto eat the good, bad, and
ugly of your own kind of supplychain or little mini ecosystem on every transaction.
(17:15):
Talk about legendary. When did thisinitiative emerge, How did it emerge
to the depth of your knowledge,and how did you within the teams and
the markets that you're responsible for,How do you carry that forward? Did
that release come with a like curriculum, like just this feels like an initiative
to me, like a like acorporate initiative, And I love the language
(17:37):
like Legendary is just a really powerfulword choice here. Share as much about
that as you want to. Yeah, So the providing creating a customer who's
tickled, delighted, and happy hasbeen part of our ethos for I doin
the organization. And I think legendaryGosh, I can't, I couldn't say
exactly what it came in my radarthe last couple of years, but it
(18:00):
really is the center point around whichwe It's kind of our north start.
We'll put it that way, right. What I love about our use of
technology and innovation, you know,we're always trying new things in an industry
where a lot of it feels likeit's still in the stone ages, right,
But we're not going to do technologyfor technology's sake. We're not going
(18:21):
to do bells and whistles just becauseunet isn't it cool, doesn't help us
get to that goal of a legendarycustomer experience. And so that that could
be something as small as well.I guess it's not small, but you're
you know, you walk into awelcome home center, what is that first
thirty seconds with a new home consultant? How do they make you feel?
You know, we have you knowwe all wear name badges. People that
(18:44):
I work with make jokes because wealways show up with our name badges.
But that's part of culture. Itmakes it easy for your customer. They
know who you are. It's justyour first name. It's not a title,
it's not something intimidating. Just hey, i'm being out. I'm here
to take care of you and provideyou a great experience. So that could
be you know, are we easyto find and get to? It's not
a legendary experience if you struggle tofind the welcome home center. It's not
(19:06):
a legendary experience, if you aren'tgreeted warmly, if the communication on the
back end that we were just talkingabout doesn't happen. So it really is
about making things as easy on thecustomer, and in my mind, a
lot of it is about anticipating theirneeds. No, there's nothing better than
somebody providing you a solution before theproblem even showed up. So can we
set expectations at the beginning about whatyou're about to experience, good, bad,
(19:32):
and us leak because there might thosethings could go sideways. Here's how
it might go sideways, And hereis how I'm going to have your back
if it does. I think it'sjust really about putting yourself in the customer
shoes. It's so easy in thisbusiness. I think for folks to get
cynical. You know, you dothis enough, you could see how for
some folks that might stop being special. And if you keep that legendary customer
(19:56):
experience as your north star, youtreat it like is it your mother buying
a home? Is it your bestfriend buying a home? And you do
those special little things to anticipate theirneeds, to smooth out the rough spots,
to make it easy on them sothey can just focus on what they
need to which is it's not closinga sale, it's getting a family in
a home where they're gonna create memories, where they're going to live out their
(20:18):
lives. I mean, that's thebest part about being a new home sales
spoiler alert, Like for somebody who'sselling in a community, not only do
you get to help them with thisincredibly stressful process, but then you get
to go to work every day andwatch them live in that home and watch
their family grow and watch them havethat birthday party. Like that's a really
(20:40):
unique thing. And man, I'lltell you what, if you provide a
legendary customer experience, you're probably gonnaget invited to that householding party, right.
You don't want to create the kindof experience where when you drive past
your customer you're like, like,you know, you know the duck,
right, And so it really isjust going back to how we started this
conversation, how did you make thatperson feel? So much good stuff in
(21:02):
there, And I want to highlighttwo of them in particular. One is
this idea of the first thirty seconds. You know, it's like it's a
little thing, but it's a hugething. Also, the simplicity of Danielle
Lenar, that's it. The thingthat I like about that the most is
it's this shared responsibility like titles aside, roll aside, there's no such thing
as that's that's not my job.When it's Danielle Lear, whatever you need.
(21:27):
If I'm in front of you,I'm responsible for whatever you need.
Absolutely. I also had not thoughtabout the idea that, of course these
communities are taking months or years tokind of open up and flow, and
that you aren't going to see thesepeople over dead. For people who are
listening and not watching, we doput up video highlights at bombob dot com
slash podcast and she did duck andyou can see her name tech. One
(21:52):
are the phrases that you offered thefirst time we met was the idea of
you know, a tech company thathappens to build homes, and I think
it's an interesting thing. And youuse legendary as a filter for how you
make tech decisions. You've used thatvery visual description of standing down the rough
edges as a means of reducing friction. Is there anything else you want to
(22:14):
share or any examples maybe around atech focus to improve customer experience? Morton,
Sorry, I could have asked thatquestion to anyone choosing and implementing tech
in order to enhance a legendary experience. Yeah. Absolutely so two examples come
to mind, but I think thebest one is our use of self guided
tours. So during the pandemic,home building was deemed as a necessary industry,
(22:40):
so we were able to keep buildinghomes for people so they would have
shelter. But when you start tothink about, I mean, how do
you how do you tour a welcomehome center? How do you show someone
what you have to offer? Becausethe pandemic did not stop people from meeting.
Home life went on right, andso we were actually able to use
technology to allow customers to I meanthis is pre vaccines everything. To be
(23:03):
able to get into our homes viaa self guided tour and enter the home.
It was very cool. There's aspecial lock, there's technology I don't
even understand, but it would knowwhen they were there and they would identify
and check in and they could goin and walk through the home. And
it allowed people to be comfortable.Even once our new home consultants came back
and we were able to more safelyinteract with people. You know, customers
(23:26):
have different levels of comfort and wewant to meet them where they are,
so being able to offer them thatand then have a new home consultant that
was able to follow up via phoneor video whatever we needed to do in
order to make sure that they gotthe experience that they needed and they weren't
given a worse experience because they neededthat space. Was a real way of
(23:48):
using technology. Now we can takeit forward and find ways to make sure
that we can still deliver for ourcustomers and be flexible for them. So
that was a big one. Theother one I will share is we do
partner with open Door. I don'tknow if you know who they are,
but they're an eye buyer. Sobasically, if you have a home to
self, open door buys your home. Like you don't got to put it
on the market, you don't haveto clean every Friday because people need to
(24:11):
come in and take a tour lastminute. They give you a quick offer
and it's such an easy process.And so when we've had customers that hey,
I have to sell my current homein order to buy yours, we've
been able to partner with them asa really forward thinking solution in order to
free that up and let customers moveforward. So those are just two examples
that I could probably do a dozenmore. But that merrying of technology in
(24:34):
order to help solve problems for customersto allow them to get into their new
home. It's just a consistent thingthat we do really good and I want
to highlight for folks listening again thisidea of having a filter for how you
select what you're going to do whatyou're not going to do, in this
idea of does this make this morelegendary? It's a really good one.
(24:57):
You mentioned open door and and it'skind of the eye buying actually just describe
for folks who are listening iebuying.It's a term that everyone in related industries
knows, but I don't think thatthe mainstream does. Yes, and please
like pull me out of the pitof jargon. If I end up going
down that route. No, you'regood. Essentially the eyebuyer is rather than
(25:19):
so. Traditionally, if I havea home this cell, I would get
a listing agent. They would lista home me mt last, maybe do
open houses. You know, onthe weekend. You got to keep your
home spotless if you're still living init, because you never know when you
might have a showing. Maybe youget a couple offers, you decide which
one you want, and then yougotta hang on and hopefully that person's financing
(25:40):
comes through so they can close onyour home, so you could do whatever
you need to do. An iebuy an open door in particular, is
able to come in. They havea really quick and easy process for getting
an offer on your home. Theyhave a ton of data and analytics to
help informat so they can be reallycompetitive and it's a fairly simple process where
they also leveraged technology in order tokind of get through the process of closing.
(26:04):
They offer flexibility as far as theclosing time frames. It's just it's
so much more convenient for someone thanhaving to upend your entire life right before
you're about to upend your entire lifeand move. So it really provides that
simplicity and solved for that problem whenwhen I think about my schedule, if
I'd have had my home on themarket right now, I might have a
(26:26):
mental breakdown. So the simplicity ofjust being able to shortcut that and go
right to I know what I'm goingto get, I know what my net
proceeds are, I know what mybudget's going to be for my next home,
and I don't have to worry aboutkeeping my home spotless. Man,
that's that's priceless. Yeah, itis. It's more control, and it's
because there are a fewer moving pieces, there are fewer mysteries, there are
fewer contingencies, etc. Ye toyour use of simple there was really good.
(26:49):
You know what some folks look onthere. You know they feel threatened
by these types of things because youknow it doesn't involve people as many people
or it's not as people focus.Of course, you're welcome home. Centers,
and I'm sorry that I call ita new home center earlier. Again,
choice of language, and I getit. It's much better to call
it a welcome home center just forthe implications of it. It's staffed with
(27:11):
real human beings, real human beingswith name tags and smiles. You talked
about you moving some mortgages to peoplethat you already know and trust, and
you know that they share the samevalues and that they're going to treat the
customer with the same level of thoughtand care that you are, and all
of these other things talk about therole of people in this space, because
(27:33):
whether it's eye buying or another element, there are all kinds of business models
and structures that are trying to maybereduce because humans are also expensive. We
have to pay them commissions, orthey get sick, or they need vacations
and all these other things. Butthere's something unique about a lot of these
that are all kind of trust inrelationship based just from your perspective as you're
(27:57):
thinking about from the customer perspective,and then we'll get to your perspective as
someone who's probably recruiting and hiring andtraining and developing and giving feedback and all
these other things too to help peoplebe better. When you think about it
from a customer perspective, what's therole of a human being in new home
sales and or in adjacent industries tothe degree you want to broad in it,
(28:18):
yeah, I think the human connectionis the most important part. The
technology is what strips away all thenoise so that you can have a higher
quality human connection. In terms ofnew home sales, it's about you know,
our customers have never been more informance, right. This is where technology
comes in. It is not rarefor a customer to walk in and know
(28:41):
the name of the floor plant thatthey're already interested in seeing. So it's
the job of the new home consultantto sit down with them to really connect
with their mission, to learn whatis motivating them to want to make a
move, to learn what isn't workingin their current home, and then to
help them connect with the right homeand look, that customer is smart.
You've got to have that respect foryour customer. They might be exactly right
(29:03):
about that poor plan, but theyalso may not know that you have another
home right down the streets that,oh my gosh, based on what you
told me, I have this homeI'm so excited to show you, let
me get you in there, andthen being that guiding and helping hands means
we forget that our customers. Forus, we do this all day,
every day. Right. My wholelife is new home sales is all I
think about my customer. If theyhave a job, they probably have families,
(29:26):
they've got a dog, they've gotother stuff going on. They do
not need to spend their whole daythinking about this, and so my job
is to guide them through that processand to be that go to sometimes to
maybe talk them off the ledge whenthings get stressful, as there want to
do, but really to form thatconnection and be that trusted advisor not only
(29:47):
to make the purchase decision, butto hang in. I mean, think
about folks, even if we havea home that's nearly complete, if you
sign a new home contract or anyhome contract unless you're paying cash, they're
not even going to move in forthirty or forty five days. That's long
enough for life to happen, forthings to get stressful and to get scary.
And if you don't have that relationship, that's not going to be the
(30:10):
person that you pick up the phoneand go man I'm really worried. Maybe
I shouldn't. Maybe now it's notthat new home consultant is there to go.
Hey, we talked about how thattwo bedroom wasn't working. Now that
you guys have a baby on theway, I know that this is stressful.
Let me help you through it becauseI want you to achieve the goal
that we talked about the first timeI visited. So it's just all about
that customers story and helping them toget over the hurdles to accomplish their mission.
(30:34):
It's about them. It's not aboutyou closing the deal. It's about
getting them to that goal. Andif you don't sit down as a human
and learn what that goal is,you can't possibly get there. Yeah,
really good. You spoke a lotof I mean, trusted advisor is the
language. I think both of themare in. Education, is in their
emotion is in there, human connectionis in there. I think that captures
(30:57):
so much of it. In yourright and things are fluid, we already
talked about that in terms of simplifyingperhaps the sale of your home as you're
moving into a new one, howdo you find people? What are you
looking for in people? I assumeyou've probably hired people from inside the industry,
but I assume you've probably maybe alsohired from outside the industry. Talk
(31:18):
a little bit about what you're seekingfrom the get go, becas I imagine
you're also probably trying to keep apipeline of people in consideration. Maybe you
don't have an opportunity for them yet, but you're probably scanning the environment when
you're outside the welcome home set,or perhaps sometimes when you're in there too,
like what are you looking for?Like what are a couple key things,
or like what are a couple ofkey behaviors? Where like, well,
(31:41):
maybe I will bring up this opportunityto that person. You know,
what are you looking for as thefoundations, Like let's just set aside the
details and the nuances of new homesales in particular, what are some of
the characteristics you're looking for in peopleas you scan the environment as potential good
hires in order to fulfill kind ofthat role that you just described. Yeah,
(32:02):
so I would say the first thingI'm looking for is a people centric
approach. And I know that soundslike a real buzzword, but it's very
simple. Is if somebody is projectingto you that they are if you're at
a cell phone store, if I'myou know, at the bakery, I
don't care what it is, butyou are trying to connect with me as
a person and help me solve myproblem, because that's all sales is,
(32:25):
It's just problem solving. So Ithink having that focus on people. You
know, if I'm talking to asalesperson and the first thing out of their
mouth is a discussion about commission prosling, that pupil centric, so really looking
for that. I also think thoughdiligence in the face of adversity is really
important. I think a great salespersonis unafraid to be uncomfortable. And that
(32:50):
can mean in the moment when you'reasking for the sale and you don't know
what they're going to say. Itcould be following up right. A real
common excuse from salespeople is, oh, well, I don't want to bother
that, Like, okay, youthat's your discomforts. They're probably expecting you
to call get uncomfortable. But italso means coaching and practicing and getting better
in training like that is uncomfortable.And I have met folks who are brand
(33:14):
new to sales, and I've metfolks who twenty five years of experience that
share those qualities, because that's whatit's about. It's about being people centric.
It's about being unafraid to get alittle bit uncomfortable and never feeling like
you haven't completely figured out. Ithink also, just how I want a
phrase this being able to be positivein the face of that same adversity,
right to see it as an opportunity. You don't have to be pollyannish about
(33:36):
it. If it's a little it'sreally challenging time, but you've got to
be able to see through that andlook towards the end goal and stay positive
that you're going to get there reallygood. What are some of the things
that you're coaching. I mean,so let's just assume that you're finding and
attracting people, selecting people, hiringpeople who have a lot of positivity,
(33:57):
human centricity, ability to withstand,persevere in the face of adversity, all
of the skills that are required tobe effective connecting with other people. What
are some of the things that youfind yourself coaching on quite a bit,
maybe some overlooked things that sorry,things that people maybe tend to overlook that
they don't realize they maybe need towork on. So I'm very lucky that
(34:19):
I have a super talented sales team. I've never worked with a more talented
rope of individuals in my whole life, so the bar is already really high.
I am not coaching these people onthe basics. By the way,
this can cover your whole career.We can cover your whole career with this
too. Okay, I'll talk aboutthe ones that we're worse than the past,
That's what I'll talk about. Butit's a very common thing. We're
(34:42):
all creatures of habit, right,It's very common for salespeople to get in
ruts where they're kind of saying thesame thing. And let's be honest,
every customer is unique. But maintainingcuriosity can be a challenge because you will
start to hear the same things.Right, we had a base, My
job changed, like the root ofhuman experience only has so wide of a
(35:05):
varsity, right, And so alot of times it's about shutting up,
I mean, for lack of abetter term. So I think, in
my opinion, if I could giveevery salesperson in the world, if I
could wave a magic wand and chainsone thing about their presentation, I would
say, talk less, talk less. You're talking too much because it's so
easy to already think you know,and you're already got the solution, and
(35:27):
you're already halfway down the road,and the customer has just finished introducing themselves,
and you can miss really critical piecesof information if you're already selling in
the blanks for them. So Iwould just say any time that a salesperson
is trying to make a statement,I would encourage them to stop and turn
it into a question, even ifyou already know the answer, because it's
(35:49):
not about you. It's about yourcustomer, and you've experienced this a million
times. But the benefit is forthem to experience saying it out loud,
or realizing the answer, or connectingwith that emotion. It's not about you
getting the information. It's about alegendary experience where they feel seen as an
individual. So ask more questions,use less diventitive statements. So much good
(36:10):
stuff in there. I don't evenknow what I want to peel back into.
But this idea of as human beings, we wind up on a track.
We we get like positive sign,positive sign. We think we know
this pattern, so we assume therest of the pattern and there is so
much to be learned, and thebenefit is in understanding the nuance of this
particular person or this particular situation,not in that this conforms ninety percent with
(36:36):
my pattern, because that differentiating tenpercent could be everything exactly awesome. I'm
flipping a little bit now to employeeexperience, which is something that comes up
a lot on this show. Infact, we dedicated episode two hundred to
it completely where I pulled in twelvedifferent voices all to define and talk about
ways to improve employee experience. Someof this is already baked into what you've
(36:58):
already shared, just in terms ofhow you select and coach people, the
guiding philosophy, etc. So I'dlove to hear a little bit about the
mid Level Leaders program. I noticedthat you were in a program at LENAR.
A. How does this come ontoyour radar? B Just talk about
I think I know what that saysabout Lenar that the program exists. So
(37:19):
share a little bit about what's goingon internally at LENAR to reinvest in their
team and to engage people and makepeople better and keep people around the good
people anyway, the best people issues. And then also maybe then talk specifically
about that program for you personally.Yeah, So at LNAR, we're so
great at recruiting and hiring associates thatare top performers. It's just it's in
(37:42):
our blood, right. I alwaysdescribe people when they're talking about joining my
team, You're going to be ona team full of rock stars that want
to work with other rock stars.That is our ethos, and so a
lot of that type of individual isgoing to be someone who craves improvement and
development. And so we actually havea partner with Harvard Business Publishing to have
this full Not only do we haveaccess to individual courses that I can just
(38:06):
log in. I learned about accountinga couple of weeks ago. I'm a
sales guy and now I know someaccounting stuff like that's just cool. So
there's all kinds of individual development.But there's a mid level leaders program that
I was able to get into.I think it was prior to me actually
being in this role, and itwas just not only was it did it
help me develop in all different kindslike change management and all just kind of
(38:29):
really critical elements of being a goodleader, but it also connected me with
other associates that were at my samelevel throughout the entire organization, and I
walked out of that with all ofthese partners and peers that I could reach
out to. I still talk to, So it was a huge growth opportunity
for me. We continue to haveprograms like that. That's another real innovation
(38:49):
piece that I think it's lost inthe mix of internal innovation is just providing
these programs for associates. I thinkthere's a senior level program now and there's
more coming out every day. It'sjust these creative ways to make sure that
people are getting those cup refills becausethey do give a lot at work,
and it's important to help them accomplishtheir goals too. Yeah, you do
give a lot. We're talking alittle bit because most of your work happens
(39:13):
on the weekends. I was like, when's your weekend? You're like sometimes,
Yeah. I love this idea ofpeer to peer, this idea of
I remember how lonely I was inmy career in So. I ran marketing
inside local TV stations for a dozenyears before joining bomb Bomb, and you
know, it was two jobs inand it was just all really kind of
insular. Like the product itself isvery very local. You're focused on a
(39:37):
very local market, and you thinkevery single problem is unique to you or
your unique to your market. Justall feels like harder than it really is
and less common than it really is. And I'll never forget. I joined
a company that would always send marketingdirectors off to this annual conference and we
would do a sub meeting. Ithink there were fifteen of us in the
(39:57):
station group overall. So I metpeople coast to coast who are doing the
same thing. And just like you, it's this idea like, now I
have someone to call. I don'tfeel as alone. These problems are not
unique. I know that there arepeople I can lean on. You probably
know this network of people well enoughto say, if I have this type
of question, I'm going to him. If I have this type of question,
I'm going to her. Kind ofa scenario. Do you'all ever like
(40:20):
do you probably don't have time todo meetups. I mean, the nice
thing is, you know when Italk about us doing all these initiatives a
lot of times, what what Iwill do is they will have some pilot
groups and they will pick a coupleof divisions across the nation and would come
together. I mean, it's remoteit's not. We don't fly to a
city or anything. But I havehad the opportunity to work on a couple
(40:42):
of initiatives where those folks from theMid Level Leaders program showed back up and
we were able to work together.So nothing very formal, but some of
that. But I will tell youI've got them in my phone. I
text them. You know, mycounterparts here in Texas. The vps in
Dallas and Houston and San Antonio areon my speed die. Also, there's
definitely a lot of collaboration in ourorganization. It's one of my favorite things.
(41:04):
I don't know what I would dowithout these people. I'm not the
smartest person in the room. Noone is. We all have our strengths
and we all have our weaknesses.It depends what room you're in. You're
the smartest person in the room sometimes, but we all do need other people.
It depends what room you're in andwhat the topic is. Yeahm room.
Yeah that's awesome. If you're enjoyingthis conversation with Danielle, I would
(41:25):
love to point you to two otherepisodes with kind of similar themes and topics.
One is episode two O one withRobin Lavassar We titled that one neural
coupling and better listening. She talksabout connecting with other people in conversation and
of course better listening. That's inthe titles. That's two A one with
Robin and episode two forty two withAmer Sayed. We called that one the
(41:47):
heartbeat behind the spreadsheet. And what'sshared there between you, Dan, Yelle
and Amron episode two forty two isthis idea of getting to the real human
beings, you know, this ideathat it's very easy to look at,
like we had fifteen people do this, we had thirty two people do that.
The conversion rate on this is xand it's really easy to get caught
up in all of that. Butultimately, long term success and legendary experience
(42:13):
is really in getting to the heartbeatto the human being behind the numbers.
And so that's episode two oh onewith Robin, two o two with Amor
Danielle. Before I let you go, I'd love for you to do a
couple of things for us. Thefirst is to thank or mention someone who's
had a positive impact on your lifeor your career. So if you will
indulge me, I will be fastthat I have a group. I have
a thank you group, so awesome. Please. I am incredibly lucky.
(42:37):
When I started my career in newhome sales, I was on a sales
team and I developed a group offriends who to this day I refer to
as my squad. I know that'sa little cringey at this point, but
I'm millennial. I'm allowed to bea little cringey. And so one of
them was my sales partner. Onewas a good someone who became a good
friend of mine and her sales partnerwe have now been close friends for a
(43:00):
decade. We have gone through careerups and downs. Now none of us
do the same thing. One ofthe VP of sales and marketing at another
builder. One works where's about athousand hats doing real estate consulting, and
the other one is an incredibly successfulreal estate agent. There might go to
if I have a bad day andI need to events, if I need
some wisdom, it's them. Sothat would be Kelsey Timmins, Lindsay as
(43:22):
Farza, and Malory Morris. They'remy squad and my heart, and they're
the ones that keep me afloat whenthings are taped. So big thank you
to them. Wonderful, love itwell done. How about a company or
a brand that delivers a great experiencefor you, perhaps even a legendary one,
And it could be anything who givesyou a great experience. I'm going
to be a real homer here.I know this is the easy way out,
(43:44):
but I mean it. Our partnersat Lennar Mortgage, I've worked so
closely with them day in and dayout. They're like an extension of my
arm at this point, and soto have it's a really big deal to
hand a customer off, you know, from that salesperson to that mortgage professional.
And if that handoff falters, likeyou said, it's a reflection back
(44:05):
on you. And so this kindof a close affiliate relationship I hadn't experienced
before Lenar, and it really isincredible to have the same values, we
speak the same language, we're inconstant communication. So it's a great experience
for me because it's a great experiencefor our customers and that helps everybody.
But it's a partnership that I reallyvalue. I've learned a lot from and
(44:27):
I don't think I could be nearlyas successful without it. So I'm gonna
have to give a shout out tomy Lenar mortgage people. Cool, totally
fair. How would someone followup withyou if they wanted to connect with you,
if they want to learn more aboutLenar? Where are some places you
would send people who have made ithere to the very end of this conversation.
Yes, you can find me onLinkedIn, Daniella Perry Merith. If
you need the spelling, I'm sureEthan'll have it for you because it's not
(44:49):
easy. And then of course checkout Lenar Lenar dot com. We're easy
to find. We'd love to helpyou get your next home super. We
dropped those links into the writeups atbombomb dot com slash podcast as ellas into
the podcast episode descriptions. She isDanielle Laperi Merith. I am Ethan Butte.
We appreciate you listening, and Danielle, I appreciate you for spending this
time with us. Thank you somuch for having me. A marketing futurists
(45:13):
from Salesforce, the first salesperson atHubSpot, an emotional intelligence expert with seven
US patents in the analysis of facialcoding data. These are just three of
more than a dozen experts featured inThe Wall Street Journal bestseller Human Centered Communication,
a business case against Digital Pollution.The purpose of the book to give
(45:36):
you frameworks, strategies, and specifictactics to create human connection across the digital
divide. Learn to break through thenoise, build trust, and enhance your
reputation and revenue despite the ever increasingdigital noise and pollution that separates us all.
Get your copy of Human Centered Communicationabsolutely free at bombomb dot com slash
(46:01):
Freebook. That's bomb bomb dot comslash freebook. Thanks for listening to the
Customer Experience Podcast. Remember the singlemost important thing you can do today is
to create and deliver a better experiencefor your customers. Continue learning the latest
strategies and tactics by subscribing right nowin your favorite podcast player, or visit
(46:24):
bombomb dot com slash podcast
The single most important thing you cando today is to create and deliver a
better experience for your customers. Learnhow sales, marketing and customer success experts
create internal alignment, achieved desired outcomes, and exceed customer expectations in a personal
and human way. This is theCustomer Experience Podcast. Here's your host,
(00:24):
Ethan Butte, a person who leadsmarketing whose heart is in sales, a
tech company that happens to build homes. That's just a little context for today's
conversation with a VP of sales andmarketing from Lenar, a leading homebuilder in
real estate markets across America. Sheserved as a salesperson, a sales leader,
(00:45):
and a mentor in admissions and staffingbefore turning her passion and talents toward
new home sales a decade ago.Danielle Laperry Merith, Welcome to the Customer
Experience Podcast. Thank you so muchfor having me. I'm excited to be
here. Yeah, need to.I'm looking forward to the conversation and we're
going to cover a lot of ground. I feel like I really want to
get into with you. In particular, really sales leadership and mentorship will get
(01:10):
probably into maybe philosophy of what salesand marketing are, how you hire to
that, some of the philosophies oftraining, how important humans are in a
decreasingly human process. But before weget into all of that, to start
with customer experience, as we alwaysdo, Danielle. When I say that,
what does it mean? So whenI think a customer experience, I
(01:32):
think primarily how the customer is madeto feel, and that can be everything
from their first interaction with a marketingpiece and what that inspires in them.
When a customer walks into one ofour welcome home centers, right, they're
interested in buying a home, theyhave to leave their home, get in
their car, drive to the modelhome, be prepared to interact with a
(01:55):
salesperson. And let's be honest,that is non experience. Most people wake
up in the morning listening too right, something is going on in their life,
like they must need to buy ahome to go through all that effort,
usually on a Saturday or Sunday.Right. So when I think of
the customer experience, I think,is that first moment that inspired them to
imagine that next phase of their lifeto make it worth it for them to
(02:16):
go through all that, and thenwhen they enter into that welcome home center,
all the way through the data,they move into their home. How
do they feel, what are theups and downs? How are they taking
care of Do they get the experienceof being catered to and cared for like
an individual or they treated like abusiness transaction. That's the critical part is
how they feel so much to peelinto there, and we are going to
(02:39):
get it into new home centers insimilar for folks like I've never gone through
that process, and I would lovefor you to break that down for people.
The way that you're approaching it iswonderful. And the thing I want
to highlight about what you shared therethat we don't talk about enough is this
idea of imagining what this person wasgoing through leading up to the moment that
(03:00):
you actually meet them. Right.We talk a lot about customer journey,
but it's primarily oriented around us,you know, I mean, and we
usually start where you started here.Something you included in your in your response,
which was you know, that firstmarketing piece, and that is part
of the journey. But there's areason they sought it out or picked it
up or you know, whatever theydid, and so that just this idea
(03:23):
of imagining, you know, wherethey are in that morning, the effort
they go through just to be thereon site, I think is something that's
overlooked and because it's outside the boundsof the journey with us, I guess
to ask a question instead of monologueat you, when did customer experience come
onto your radar? Like as aterm and as a concept. I mean,
I think the fundamentals have always beenthere. I think you My guess
(03:44):
is that you've always been focused onhow am I treating this person? Or
do they feel like they're being treatedas an individual or they feel like they're
being treated as a transaction, thoseelements, But this language in particular in
the concept of customer experience or CX, like, when did that kind of
come onto your radar? I feellike it's always been in the ether,
but maybe not explicitly until the lastcouple of years. And I think it
(04:05):
was, you know, customer experience. We normally just think of like are
they happy with the transaction? Right? Like are they satisfied with their purchase?
Would they recommend or refer? It'svery binary, right, was it
positive? Was it negative? Arethey a net promoter or are they not?
And I think the customer experience,I think it's really a couple of
(04:26):
years ago, I started hearing peopletalk about it as a much more inclusive
part of a customer's journey. It'sthat, like I said that, from
that very first marketing piece all theway to the day that they move into
the home, it's much more holisticand it's much less about did we check
this box? Knew it? Lanarm our goal. We have two different
things around customer experience. We wantto create a legendary customer experience and we
(04:49):
use that word, and we alsowant our customers to walk out feeling tickle,
delighted and happy. That's a farcry from customer satisfaction. And so
I think that overall, especially inthe pandemic, we started to realize that
I think a lot of customers gottaken for granted. You know, the
areas that had high demand had reallyhigh demand, and I think it was
(05:13):
really easy to go, oh mygosh, like we have all this business.
I think really lately the focus hascome back onto customer experience because we've
realized that if your customers, customersare smart, and I think we forget
that and I think if your customer, if you're treating your customer like you're
taking them for granted, they cansmell it a mile away. So I
think there's been a really healthy andnecessary and I don't even mean in home
(05:36):
building, I just mean in likeour entire economy in the last couple of
years, where we realized that customersreally felt beat up by the companies that
they were trying to give their moneyto, and it was time to not
just sell them a good but makethem feel good while we were doing it.
Yeah, it's so interesting. We'veused the term lead drunk a lot
to talk about those those days wherethere's so many opportunities in front of you,
(06:00):
cherry pick which ones you're even goingto spend any time on whatsoever.
And then in the pandemic, somany things we're moving and changing, and
I even think that customer experience tooka hit in a lot of businesses that
didn't even intend to mistreat or undertreatpeople. It is like staffing flows,
like we can't do it like weused to do it. They struggled,
they couldn't figure out, And Ifeel like so many experiences people are still
(06:24):
struggling to get a handle on andothers have been forced to do it kind
of as you describe, like afundamental change in the market. You're like,
okay, quick reset, what arewe doing here? Why is it
this working like I used to?Maybe we should reevaluate how we're treating people.
So you've mentioned Lenar a couple oftimes. I included in the introduction
before we get too much further,so context for people. Who is Lenar?
(06:46):
Who's your ideal customer? What aresome of the problems that you're solving
for them? Yeah, so LTARa home builder ideal customer. This is
going to sound like a real pappyanswer, but I swearised the truth.
Everyone. You know, we area large company, and so we build
homes that can serve first time homebuyers that maybe need to make sure that
(07:08):
affordability is there for them as they'retransitioning from renting or living with their family.
We cater to move up buyers.So maybe man, you made that
first investment and now you're ready togrow, maybe your family's expanded a little
bit. We have homes that aremore on the luxury side of things,
so you want to drop a milliondollars. Plus we've got a beautiful home
for you. And we even havesome more age targeted type communities for our
(07:30):
fifty five and better crowds. Sowe really want ourselves to be set up
as the builder of choice for customersin all stages of their life. So
in terms of solving problems, youknow, every customer's home buying journey is
a little bit different. The problemthat we're solving for somebody could be a
very happy problem, like, ohmy gosh, we're going to have our
first kiddo and that two bedroom isnot going to work anymore, all the
(07:54):
way up to I don't want totake care of this big home. It's
time to downside so I can travelmore because I'm about to retire. So
I really feel confident that with thediversity of home offerings that we can provide,
we're really able to solve a reallya wide variety of problems for customers.
Very good and perfectly faired. Ilike that you qualified it, but
unapologetically because it doesn't need to bequalified, So for my own clarity,
(08:18):
and again kind of for the contextof listeners, because we talk to people
in a wide variety of businesses andindustries, and listeners mirror that talk a
little bit about the basics of marketingand sales of new homes, like,
how is it different? Then?You know, I think most people have
talked with or worked with a realestate agent generally. But you know,
(08:39):
there's some nuances to new homes thatI think you're worth walking out and talking
out a little bit, and Ithink they have implications for customer experience.
Just walk out a little bit,just the absolute basics of marketing and sales
in the work that you do.Yeah, I mean, I think when
most people think this is changing alittle bit lately, but I think when
(09:00):
most people traditionally have thought about buyinga home, they picture exactly what you're
talking about. Right. I geta real estate agent, I go look
at some used homes, I pickthe one, I make an offer.
It's a little bit different of aprocess with a new home. So what
the customer is going to do firstof all in terms of the marketing,
right is we have to get onpeople's radar and show them that we have
an offering. A very common misconception, especially for first time homebuyers, is
(09:24):
that new homes are intimidating. There'sa lot that goes into it. You
have to be able to put aton of money down. You know,
with Lenar, we have what wecall our Everything's Included promise to really simplify
that's a lot of what we tryand do is smooth over the fryption points
that would normally keep somebody from consideringnew homes as their option. So our
customers can walk into one of ourmodel homes and know exactly what that home
(09:46):
would cost when they walk out thedoor, because we haven't put thousands and
thousands of dollars into upgrades that theycouldn't possibly afford. Right We're trying to
show people where they can actually livein when they walk on the door.
So that process is going to bean customer coming in, sitting down with
a new home consultant that's going toget to know them. It's going to
guide them through the experience, helpsthem identify the home and the community that's
(10:09):
going to work best for them,and then really connect them with that solution.
You know, we are a bigcompany with a lot of different divisions
in Austin. We're really able tooffer a lot of our folks quick movement
opportunities. So that's the other thingthat's the common misconception is you have to
pack your floor plan and take yourhome side and then wait for your home
to be built and all that kindof stuff. We're actually able to start
(10:31):
homes and get customers moving to themquickly. You're not having to go through
that brain drain of picking all thedifferent options and waiting for the building.
That's a lot for people. Soit's all about creating that legendary experience and
simplifying things for folks so they canbenefit from a brand new home rather than
have to go to more traditional route, which can have its downside. Yeah.
(10:52):
Absolutely. One sub question in there, this new verses used, how
much of your effort is oriented towarda kind of getting into the mental space
of people that it's an equally validoption. I think it's an overlooked option
for a lot of people unless yousee, you know, like I'm just
thinking about my own experience here inColorado Springs. You know, you see,
(11:16):
Oh, this whole area is gettinglike you know, chewed up to
the ground. Oh, it lookslike there's some foundations or lines being run.
You know, this is a placewhere a bunch of new homes are
going to be built, and youknow, people that are looking on that.
So, for example, on thewest side of town, very old
side of town, closest to themountains, very established, and there's only
one neighborhood that's new, and soit's very obvious if you want a new
(11:39):
home, that's and you want tolive on the west side, that's the
place to do it. And soit's like, I'm trying to think of
where in the mix you could insertyourselves to be on the radar and legit
in the consideration set with more people, because you can serve everyone. And
he walks through that very nicely,and just a quick another point of praise.
I really appreciate your thoughtful language.You're very specific in your language.
(12:03):
For example, fifty five and better. I see what you're doing. And
then the other one is, well, no, let's just start there.
How do you create that education orhow do you get yourself into the consideration
set for more buy you know,the people want to move or they want
a home. How do you breakin with the new home message and or
how much education is required there?It's a great question, and education is
(12:26):
the right word, right. There'sa lot of folks that it's just not
what they're used to. It's nottheir paradigm for when they're going to go
buy home. So there's a coupleof different things. We have to be
present in the same spaces where acustomer would normally be searching for a use
tome, and we have to havea real concise value proposition or for that
customer to talk about the benefits.You know, a home builder in a
(12:48):
tough market will very often be ableto maybe help with a financing in a
way that a use help wouldn't beable to. There's going to be warranties
associated with it. So you haveto have a real clear sense of your
identity and where you compete against thoseused homes and be able to get into
those spaces. So that could beas simple as you know. It feels
like every market has their own place, their MLS there, whatever. This
(13:11):
is where people go to find homeshere. You have to have that presence
and you have to show up well, you have to have I mean this
is so goofy like for new homes. This is one on one but like
you have to have nice photography.You can't, you know, you have
to you have been to show upand put your best foot forward so people
can really see the other parts though, is being eye catching. For example,
(13:33):
when I first came to Lenar andwe were looking at communities, I
had it pointed out to me thatwe didn't have one of our signs that
said new homes. It just saidLenar. Well, I know Lenar,
but no, Like it was like, well, are you sure your customer
does you have to make sure thatyou put new homes now selling it's available,
Like give that person a reason toturn and go, oh my gosh.
(13:54):
I saw that new neighborhood being developed. I saw those threats getting put
in. I didn't know what wasgoing on, and oh my gosh,
now there's a brand new welcome homecenter that I can go visit. So
it's really about capturing people's attention andshowing up where they're going to notice you
so they can start considering you asan option. Yeah, really good.
And yeah that's an interesting catch toothat you kind of walk through a little
(14:15):
bit there. I'm thinking about likethe inventory itself and how that shows up
online. It's like, I guessyou're putting models up last thing here.
This kind of in the weeds ofthe business a little bit before we get
into legendary like that wasn't on myradar before we started talking about We're going
to spend some time on legendary.It's an interesting You already alluded to the
idea that you have things you cando with financing. You know, you
(14:35):
have an integrated mortgage entitle arm insideLenar along with home sales. It's an
interesting ecosystem in general, and soto the degree that it affects you and
your teams and the work that youall are doing. Talk a little bit
about the broader ecosystem, like wheredo you fit in with some of these
other pieces again more, I'm sureyou're doing work with mortgage loan officers,
(15:00):
other companies in addition to the onesinternal. You're doing work with title reps.
You're probably doing work with other realestate agents, like perhaps buyer's agents.
Just talk about the ecosystem a littlebit and how that impacts the experience
that you Dan Yelle are thinking aboutfor yourself and your team members that you
want to create for others. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean one of the
things that I love about being apart of Lenar is having the affiliated mortgage
(15:24):
company and the affiliated titled company.We also have an affiliated home insurance provider
So the idea behind that is wecan create Again. I talked about standing
down those those rough edges, right, getting through those friction point. So
a very common friction point in anyreal estate transaction is just communication. The
(15:45):
number of entities that have to cometogether to just get one poor customer into
their home is so much more.You just name them, right, You've
got your loan officer. A lotof times in the loan officer, there's
a processor, there's an underwriter,there might be a real estate agent.
I could go on, and onefailed piece of communication is enough to derail
things for that poor customer, right. I mean, the worst thing in
(16:07):
the world would be somebody makes amistake and the customer has to notice it.
Well, there goes all your faithand credibility. Talk about the lack
of a legendary customer experience, right, and so having those affiliates and partnering
them with them very closely ensures thatwe can provide that seamless experience. That
we can hand the club customer offto a loan officer that we know and
trust and is accountable, that theypartner with a title scrow officer who also
(16:32):
is in constant communication. Everyone's growingin the same direction to help keep that
customer from having to be the oneto ping pong back and forth. That's
our job. So it really doestime much more into customer experience than you
would thank yousuly. Oh yeah,business affiliates, But really it helps that
customer be able to just relax,let us handle the heavy lift, and
they can just look forward to movinginto their homes. Yeah. I can
(16:53):
imagine a tight network of and Ithink that's how a lot of this works
out. Whether they're directly affiliated ornot, there are tight networks of people
who get together because any failure inthe process is a reflection in this scenario
on Lenar right, like you haveto eat the good, bad, and
ugly of your own kind of supplychain or little mini ecosystem on every transaction.
(17:15):
Talk about legendary. When did thisinitiative emerge, How did it emerge
to the depth of your knowledge,and how did you within the teams and
the markets that you're responsible for,How do you carry that forward? Did
that release come with a like curriculum, like just this feels like an initiative
to me, like a like acorporate initiative, And I love the language
(17:37):
like Legendary is just a really powerfulword choice here. Share as much about
that as you want to. Yeah, So the providing creating a customer who's
tickled, delighted, and happy hasbeen part of our ethos for I doin
the organization. And I think legendaryGosh, I can't, I couldn't say
exactly what it came in my radarthe last couple of years, but it
(18:00):
really is the center point around whichwe It's kind of our north start.
We'll put it that way, right. What I love about our use of
technology and innovation, you know,we're always trying new things in an industry
where a lot of it feels likeit's still in the stone ages, right,
But we're not going to do technologyfor technology's sake. We're not going
(18:21):
to do bells and whistles just becauseunet isn't it cool, doesn't help us
get to that goal of a legendarycustomer experience. And so that that could
be something as small as well.I guess it's not small, but you're
you know, you walk into awelcome home center, what is that first
thirty seconds with a new home consultant? How do they make you feel?
You know, we have you knowwe all wear name badges. People that
(18:44):
I work with make jokes because wealways show up with our name badges.
But that's part of culture. Itmakes it easy for your customer. They
know who you are. It's justyour first name. It's not a title,
it's not something intimidating. Just hey, i'm being out. I'm here
to take care of you and provideyou a great experience. So that could
be you know, are we easyto find and get to? It's not
a legendary experience if you struggle tofind the welcome home center. It's not
(19:06):
a legendary experience, if you aren'tgreeted warmly, if the communication on the
back end that we were just talkingabout doesn't happen. So it really is
about making things as easy on thecustomer, and in my mind, a
lot of it is about anticipating theirneeds. No, there's nothing better than
somebody providing you a solution before theproblem even showed up. So can we
set expectations at the beginning about whatyou're about to experience, good, bad,
(19:32):
and us leak because there might thosethings could go sideways. Here's how
it might go sideways, And hereis how I'm going to have your back
if it does. I think it'sjust really about putting yourself in the customer
shoes. It's so easy in thisbusiness. I think for folks to get
cynical. You know, you dothis enough, you could see how for
some folks that might stop being special. And if you keep that legendary customer
(19:56):
experience as your north star, youtreat it like is it your mother buying
a home? Is it your bestfriend buying a home? And you do
those special little things to anticipate theirneeds, to smooth out the rough spots,
to make it easy on them sothey can just focus on what they
need to which is it's not closinga sale, it's getting a family in
a home where they're gonna create memories, where they're going to live out their
(20:18):
lives. I mean, that's thebest part about being a new home sales
spoiler alert, Like for somebody who'sselling in a community, not only do
you get to help them with thisincredibly stressful process, but then you get
to go to work every day andwatch them live in that home and watch
their family grow and watch them havethat birthday party. Like that's a really
(20:40):
unique thing. And man, I'lltell you what, if you provide a
legendary customer experience, you're probably gonnaget invited to that householding party, right.
You don't want to create the kindof experience where when you drive past
your customer you're like, like,you know, you know the duck,
right, And so it really isjust going back to how we started this
conversation, how did you make thatperson feel? So much good stuff in
(21:02):
there, And I want to highlighttwo of them in particular. One is
this idea of the first thirty seconds. You know, it's like it's a
little thing, but it's a hugething. Also, the simplicity of Danielle
Lenar, that's it. The thingthat I like about that the most is
it's this shared responsibility like titles aside, roll aside, there's no such thing
as that's that's not my job.When it's Danielle Lear, whatever you need.
(21:27):
If I'm in front of you,I'm responsible for whatever you need.
Absolutely. I also had not thoughtabout the idea that, of course these
communities are taking months or years tokind of open up and flow, and
that you aren't going to see thesepeople over dead. For people who are
listening and not watching, we doput up video highlights at bombob dot com
slash podcast and she did duck andyou can see her name tech. One
(21:52):
are the phrases that you offered thefirst time we met was the idea of
you know, a tech company thathappens to build homes, and I think
it's an interesting thing. And youuse legendary as a filter for how you
make tech decisions. You've used thatvery visual description of standing down the rough
edges as a means of reducing friction. Is there anything else you want to
(22:14):
share or any examples maybe around atech focus to improve customer experience? Morton,
Sorry, I could have asked thatquestion to anyone choosing and implementing tech
in order to enhance a legendary experience. Yeah. Absolutely so two examples come
to mind, but I think thebest one is our use of self guided
tours. So during the pandemic,home building was deemed as a necessary industry,
(22:40):
so we were able to keep buildinghomes for people so they would have
shelter. But when you start tothink about, I mean, how do
you how do you tour a welcomehome center? How do you show someone
what you have to offer? Becausethe pandemic did not stop people from meeting.
Home life went on right, andso we were actually able to use
technology to allow customers to I meanthis is pre vaccines everything. To be
(23:03):
able to get into our homes viaa self guided tour and enter the home.
It was very cool. There's aspecial lock, there's technology I don't
even understand, but it would knowwhen they were there and they would identify
and check in and they could goin and walk through the home. And
it allowed people to be comfortable.Even once our new home consultants came back
and we were able to more safelyinteract with people. You know, customers
(23:26):
have different levels of comfort and wewant to meet them where they are,
so being able to offer them thatand then have a new home consultant that
was able to follow up via phoneor video whatever we needed to do in
order to make sure that they gotthe experience that they needed and they weren't
given a worse experience because they neededthat space. Was a real way of
(23:48):
using technology. Now we can takeit forward and find ways to make sure
that we can still deliver for ourcustomers and be flexible for them. So
that was a big one. Theother one I will share is we do
partner with open Door. I don'tknow if you know who they are,
but they're an eye buyer. Sobasically, if you have a home to
self, open door buys your home. Like you don't got to put it
on the market, you don't haveto clean every Friday because people need to
(24:11):
come in and take a tour lastminute. They give you a quick offer
and it's such an easy process.And so when we've had customers that hey,
I have to sell my current homein order to buy yours, we've
been able to partner with them asa really forward thinking solution in order to
free that up and let customers moveforward. So those are just two examples
that I could probably do a dozenmore. But that merrying of technology in
(24:34):
order to help solve problems for customersto allow them to get into their new
home. It's just a consistent thingthat we do really good and I want
to highlight for folks listening again thisidea of having a filter for how you
select what you're going to do whatyou're not going to do, in this
idea of does this make this morelegendary? It's a really good one.
(24:57):
You mentioned open door and and it'skind of the eye buying actually just describe
for folks who are listening iebuying.It's a term that everyone in related industries
knows, but I don't think thatthe mainstream does. Yes, and please
like pull me out of the pitof jargon. If I end up going
down that route. No, you'regood. Essentially the eyebuyer is rather than
(25:19):
so. Traditionally, if I havea home this cell, I would get
a listing agent. They would lista home me mt last, maybe do
open houses. You know, onthe weekend. You got to keep your
home spotless if you're still living init, because you never know when you
might have a showing. Maybe youget a couple offers, you decide which
one you want, and then yougotta hang on and hopefully that person's financing
(25:40):
comes through so they can close onyour home, so you could do whatever
you need to do. An iebuy an open door in particular, is
able to come in. They havea really quick and easy process for getting
an offer on your home. Theyhave a ton of data and analytics to
help informat so they can be reallycompetitive and it's a fairly simple process where
they also leveraged technology in order tokind of get through the process of closing.
(26:04):
They offer flexibility as far as theclosing time frames. It's just it's
so much more convenient for someone thanhaving to upend your entire life right before
you're about to upend your entire lifeand move. So it really provides that
simplicity and solved for that problem whenwhen I think about my schedule, if
I'd have had my home on themarket right now, I might have a
(26:26):
mental breakdown. So the simplicity ofjust being able to shortcut that and go
right to I know what I'm goingto get, I know what my net
proceeds are, I know what mybudget's going to be for my next home,
and I don't have to worry aboutkeeping my home spotless. Man,
that's that's priceless. Yeah, itis. It's more control, and it's
because there are a fewer moving pieces, there are fewer mysteries, there are
fewer contingencies, etc. Ye toyour use of simple there was really good.
(26:49):
You know what some folks look onthere. You know they feel threatened
by these types of things because youknow it doesn't involve people as many people
or it's not as people focus.Of course, you're welcome home. Centers,
and I'm sorry that I call ita new home center earlier. Again,
choice of language, and I getit. It's much better to call
it a welcome home center just forthe implications of it. It's staffed with
(27:11):
real human beings, real human beingswith name tags and smiles. You talked
about you moving some mortgages to peoplethat you already know and trust, and
you know that they share the samevalues and that they're going to treat the
customer with the same level of thoughtand care that you are, and all
of these other things talk about therole of people in this space, because
(27:33):
whether it's eye buying or another element, there are all kinds of business models
and structures that are trying to maybereduce because humans are also expensive. We
have to pay them commissions, orthey get sick, or they need vacations
and all these other things. Butthere's something unique about a lot of these
that are all kind of trust inrelationship based just from your perspective as you're
(27:57):
thinking about from the customer perspective,and then we'll get to your perspective as
someone who's probably recruiting and hiring andtraining and developing and giving feedback and all
these other things too to help peoplebe better. When you think about it
from a customer perspective, what's therole of a human being in new home
sales and or in adjacent industries tothe degree you want to broad in it,
(28:18):
yeah, I think the human connectionis the most important part. The
technology is what strips away all thenoise so that you can have a higher
quality human connection. In terms ofnew home sales, it's about you know,
our customers have never been more informance, right. This is where technology
comes in. It is not rarefor a customer to walk in and know
(28:41):
the name of the floor plant thatthey're already interested in seeing. So it's
the job of the new home consultantto sit down with them to really connect
with their mission, to learn whatis motivating them to want to make a
move, to learn what isn't workingin their current home, and then to
help them connect with the right homeand look, that customer is smart.
You've got to have that respect foryour customer. They might be exactly right
(29:03):
about that poor plan, but theyalso may not know that you have another
home right down the streets that,oh my gosh, based on what you
told me, I have this homeI'm so excited to show you, let
me get you in there, andthen being that guiding and helping hands means
we forget that our customers. Forus, we do this all day,
every day. Right. My wholelife is new home sales is all I
think about my customer. If theyhave a job, they probably have families,
(29:26):
they've got a dog, they've gotother stuff going on. They do
not need to spend their whole daythinking about this, and so my job
is to guide them through that processand to be that go to sometimes to
maybe talk them off the ledge whenthings get stressful, as there want to
do, but really to form thatconnection and be that trusted advisor not only
(29:47):
to make the purchase decision, butto hang in. I mean, think
about folks, even if we havea home that's nearly complete, if you
sign a new home contract or anyhome contract unless you're paying cash, they're
not even going to move in forthirty or forty five days. That's long
enough for life to happen, forthings to get stressful and to get scary.
And if you don't have that relationship, that's not going to be the
(30:10):
person that you pick up the phoneand go man I'm really worried. Maybe
I shouldn't. Maybe now it's notthat new home consultant is there to go.
Hey, we talked about how thattwo bedroom wasn't working. Now that
you guys have a baby on theway, I know that this is stressful.
Let me help you through it becauseI want you to achieve the goal
that we talked about the first timeI visited. So it's just all about
that customers story and helping them toget over the hurdles to accomplish their mission.
(30:34):
It's about them. It's not aboutyou closing the deal. It's about
getting them to that goal. Andif you don't sit down as a human
and learn what that goal is,you can't possibly get there. Yeah,
really good. You spoke a lotof I mean, trusted advisor is the
language. I think both of themare in. Education, is in their
emotion is in there, human connectionis in there. I think that captures
(30:57):
so much of it. In yourright and things are fluid, we already
talked about that in terms of simplifyingperhaps the sale of your home as you're
moving into a new one, howdo you find people? What are you
looking for in people? I assumeyou've probably hired people from inside the industry,
but I assume you've probably maybe alsohired from outside the industry. Talk
(31:18):
a little bit about what you're seekingfrom the get go, becas I imagine
you're also probably trying to keep apipeline of people in consideration. Maybe you
don't have an opportunity for them yet, but you're probably scanning the environment when
you're outside the welcome home set,or perhaps sometimes when you're in there too,
like what are you looking for?Like what are a couple key things,
or like what are a couple ofkey behaviors? Where like, well,
(31:41):
maybe I will bring up this opportunityto that person. You know,
what are you looking for as thefoundations, Like let's just set aside the
details and the nuances of new homesales in particular, what are some of
the characteristics you're looking for in peopleas you scan the environment as potential good
hires in order to fulfill kind ofthat role that you just described. Yeah,
(32:02):
so I would say the first thingI'm looking for is a people centric
approach. And I know that soundslike a real buzzword, but it's very
simple. Is if somebody is projectingto you that they are if you're at
a cell phone store, if I'myou know, at the bakery, I
don't care what it is, butyou are trying to connect with me as
a person and help me solve myproblem, because that's all sales is,
(32:25):
It's just problem solving. So Ithink having that focus on people. You
know, if I'm talking to asalesperson and the first thing out of their
mouth is a discussion about commission prosling, that pupil centric, so really looking
for that. I also think thoughdiligence in the face of adversity is really
important. I think a great salespersonis unafraid to be uncomfortable. And that
(32:50):
can mean in the moment when you'reasking for the sale and you don't know
what they're going to say. Itcould be following up right. A real
common excuse from salespeople is, oh, well, I don't want to bother
that, Like, okay, youthat's your discomforts. They're probably expecting you
to call get uncomfortable. But italso means coaching and practicing and getting better
in training like that is uncomfortable.And I have met folks who are brand
(33:14):
new to sales, and I've metfolks who twenty five years of experience that
share those qualities, because that's whatit's about. It's about being people centric.
It's about being unafraid to get alittle bit uncomfortable and never feeling like
you haven't completely figured out. Ithink also, just how I want a
phrase this being able to be positivein the face of that same adversity,
right to see it as an opportunity. You don't have to be pollyannish about
(33:36):
it. If it's a little it'sreally challenging time, but you've got to
be able to see through that andlook towards the end goal and stay positive
that you're going to get there reallygood. What are some of the things
that you're coaching. I mean,so let's just assume that you're finding and
attracting people, selecting people, hiringpeople who have a lot of positivity,
(33:57):
human centricity, ability to withstand,persevere in the face of adversity, all
of the skills that are required tobe effective connecting with other people. What
are some of the things that youfind yourself coaching on quite a bit,
maybe some overlooked things that sorry,things that people maybe tend to overlook that
they don't realize they maybe need towork on. So I'm very lucky that
(34:19):
I have a super talented sales team. I've never worked with a more talented
rope of individuals in my whole life, so the bar is already really high.
I am not coaching these people onthe basics. By the way,
this can cover your whole career.We can cover your whole career with this
too. Okay, I'll talk aboutthe ones that we're worse than the past,
That's what I'll talk about. Butit's a very common thing. We're
(34:42):
all creatures of habit, right,It's very common for salespeople to get in
ruts where they're kind of saying thesame thing. And let's be honest,
every customer is unique. But maintainingcuriosity can be a challenge because you will
start to hear the same things.Right, we had a base, My
job changed, like the root ofhuman experience only has so wide of a
(35:05):
varsity, right, And so alot of times it's about shutting up,
I mean, for lack of abetter term. So I think, in
my opinion, if I could giveevery salesperson in the world, if I
could wave a magic wand and chainsone thing about their presentation, I would
say, talk less, talk less. You're talking too much because it's so
easy to already think you know,and you're already got the solution, and
(35:27):
you're already halfway down the road,and the customer has just finished introducing themselves,
and you can miss really critical piecesof information if you're already selling in
the blanks for them. So Iwould just say any time that a salesperson
is trying to make a statement,I would encourage them to stop and turn
it into a question, even ifyou already know the answer, because it's
(35:49):
not about you. It's about yourcustomer, and you've experienced this a million
times. But the benefit is forthem to experience saying it out loud,
or realizing the answer, or connectingwith that emotion. It's not about you
getting the information. It's about alegendary experience where they feel seen as an
individual. So ask more questions,use less diventitive statements. So much good
(36:10):
stuff in there. I don't evenknow what I want to peel back into.
But this idea of as human beings, we wind up on a track.
We we get like positive sign,positive sign. We think we know
this pattern, so we assume therest of the pattern and there is so
much to be learned, and thebenefit is in understanding the nuance of this
particular person or this particular situation,not in that this conforms ninety percent with
(36:36):
my pattern, because that differentiating tenpercent could be everything exactly awesome. I'm
flipping a little bit now to employeeexperience, which is something that comes up
a lot on this show. Infact, we dedicated episode two hundred to
it completely where I pulled in twelvedifferent voices all to define and talk about
ways to improve employee experience. Someof this is already baked into what you've
(36:58):
already shared, just in terms ofhow you select and coach people, the
guiding philosophy, etc. So I'dlove to hear a little bit about the
mid Level Leaders program. I noticedthat you were in a program at LENAR.
A. How does this come ontoyour radar? B Just talk about
I think I know what that saysabout Lenar that the program exists. So
(37:19):
share a little bit about what's goingon internally at LENAR to reinvest in their
team and to engage people and makepeople better and keep people around the good
people anyway, the best people issues. And then also maybe then talk specifically
about that program for you personally.Yeah, So at LNAR, we're so
great at recruiting and hiring associates thatare top performers. It's just it's in
(37:42):
our blood, right. I alwaysdescribe people when they're talking about joining my
team, You're going to be ona team full of rock stars that want
to work with other rock stars.That is our ethos, and so a
lot of that type of individual isgoing to be someone who craves improvement and
development. And so we actually havea partner with Harvard Business Publishing to have
this full Not only do we haveaccess to individual courses that I can just
(38:06):
log in. I learned about accountinga couple of weeks ago. I'm a
sales guy and now I know someaccounting stuff like that's just cool. So
there's all kinds of individual development.But there's a mid level leaders program that
I was able to get into.I think it was prior to me actually
being in this role, and itwas just not only was it did it
help me develop in all different kindslike change management and all just kind of
(38:29):
really critical elements of being a goodleader, but it also connected me with
other associates that were at my samelevel throughout the entire organization, and I
walked out of that with all ofthese partners and peers that I could reach
out to. I still talk to, So it was a huge growth opportunity
for me. We continue to haveprograms like that. That's another real innovation
(38:49):
piece that I think it's lost inthe mix of internal innovation is just providing
these programs for associates. I thinkthere's a senior level program now and there's
more coming out every day. It'sjust these creative ways to make sure that
people are getting those cup refills becausethey do give a lot at work,
and it's important to help them accomplishtheir goals too. Yeah, you do
give a lot. We're talking alittle bit because most of your work happens
(39:13):
on the weekends. I was like, when's your weekend? You're like sometimes,
Yeah. I love this idea ofpeer to peer, this idea of
I remember how lonely I was inmy career in So. I ran marketing
inside local TV stations for a dozenyears before joining bomb Bomb, and you
know, it was two jobs inand it was just all really kind of
insular. Like the product itself isvery very local. You're focused on a
(39:37):
very local market, and you thinkevery single problem is unique to you or
your unique to your market. Justall feels like harder than it really is
and less common than it really is. And I'll never forget. I joined
a company that would always send marketingdirectors off to this annual conference and we
would do a sub meeting. Ithink there were fifteen of us in the
(39:57):
station group overall. So I metpeople coast to coast who are doing the
same thing. And just like you, it's this idea like, now I
have someone to call. I don'tfeel as alone. These problems are not
unique. I know that there arepeople I can lean on. You probably
know this network of people well enoughto say, if I have this type
of question, I'm going to him. If I have this type of question,
I'm going to her. Kind ofa scenario. Do you'all ever like
(40:20):
do you probably don't have time todo meetups. I mean, the nice
thing is, you know when Italk about us doing all these initiatives a
lot of times, what what Iwill do is they will have some pilot
groups and they will pick a coupleof divisions across the nation and would come
together. I mean, it's remoteit's not. We don't fly to a
city or anything. But I havehad the opportunity to work on a couple
(40:42):
of initiatives where those folks from theMid Level Leaders program showed back up and
we were able to work together.So nothing very formal, but some of
that. But I will tell youI've got them in my phone. I
text them. You know, mycounterparts here in Texas. The vps in
Dallas and Houston and San Antonio areon my speed die. Also, there's
definitely a lot of collaboration in ourorganization. It's one of my favorite things.
(41:04):
I don't know what I would dowithout these people. I'm not the
smartest person in the room. Noone is. We all have our strengths
and we all have our weaknesses.It depends what room you're in. You're
the smartest person in the room sometimes, but we all do need other people.
It depends what room you're in andwhat the topic is. Yeahm room.
Yeah that's awesome. If you're enjoyingthis conversation with Danielle, I would
(41:25):
love to point you to two otherepisodes with kind of similar themes and topics.
One is episode two O one withRobin Lavassar We titled that one neural
coupling and better listening. She talksabout connecting with other people in conversation and
of course better listening. That's inthe titles. That's two A one with
Robin and episode two forty two withAmer Sayed. We called that one the
(41:47):
heartbeat behind the spreadsheet. And what'sshared there between you, Dan, Yelle
and Amron episode two forty two isthis idea of getting to the real human
beings, you know, this ideathat it's very easy to look at,
like we had fifteen people do this, we had thirty two people do that.
The conversion rate on this is xand it's really easy to get caught
up in all of that. Butultimately, long term success and legendary experience
(42:13):
is really in getting to the heartbeatto the human being behind the numbers.
And so that's episode two oh onewith Robin, two o two with Amor
Danielle. Before I let you go, I'd love for you to do a
couple of things for us. Thefirst is to thank or mention someone who's
had a positive impact on your lifeor your career. So if you will
indulge me, I will be fastthat I have a group. I have
a thank you group, so awesome. Please. I am incredibly lucky.
(42:37):
When I started my career in newhome sales, I was on a sales
team and I developed a group offriends who to this day I refer to
as my squad. I know that'sa little cringey at this point, but
I'm millennial. I'm allowed to bea little cringey. And so one of
them was my sales partner. Onewas a good someone who became a good
friend of mine and her sales partnerwe have now been close friends for a
(43:00):
decade. We have gone through careerups and downs. Now none of us
do the same thing. One ofthe VP of sales and marketing at another
builder. One works where's about athousand hats doing real estate consulting, and
the other one is an incredibly successfulreal estate agent. There might go to
if I have a bad day andI need to events, if I need
some wisdom, it's them. Sothat would be Kelsey Timmins, Lindsay as
(43:22):
Farza, and Malory Morris. They'remy squad and my heart, and they're
the ones that keep me afloat whenthings are taped. So big thank you
to them. Wonderful, love itwell done. How about a company or
a brand that delivers a great experiencefor you, perhaps even a legendary one,
And it could be anything who givesyou a great experience. I'm going
to be a real homer here.I know this is the easy way out,
(43:44):
but I mean it. Our partnersat Lennar Mortgage, I've worked so
closely with them day in and dayout. They're like an extension of my
arm at this point, and soto have it's a really big deal to
hand a customer off, you know, from that salesperson to that mortgage professional.
And if that handoff falters, likeyou said, it's a reflection back
(44:05):
on you. And so this kindof a close affiliate relationship I hadn't experienced
before Lenar, and it really isincredible to have the same values, we
speak the same language, we're inconstant communication. So it's a great experience
for me because it's a great experiencefor our customers and that helps everybody.
But it's a partnership that I reallyvalue. I've learned a lot from and
(44:27):
I don't think I could be nearlyas successful without it. So I'm gonna
have to give a shout out tomy Lenar mortgage people. Cool, totally
fair. How would someone followup withyou if they wanted to connect with you,
if they want to learn more aboutLenar? Where are some places you
would send people who have made ithere to the very end of this conversation.
Yes, you can find me onLinkedIn, Daniella Perry Merith. If
you need the spelling, I'm sureEthan'll have it for you because it's not
(44:49):
easy. And then of course checkout Lenar Lenar dot com. We're easy
to find. We'd love to helpyou get your next home super. We
dropped those links into the writeups atbombomb dot com slash podcast as ellas into
the podcast episode descriptions. She isDanielle Laperi Merith. I am Ethan Butte.
We appreciate you listening, and Danielle, I appreciate you for spending this
time with us. Thank you somuch for having me. A marketing futurists
(45:13):
from Salesforce, the first salesperson atHubSpot, an emotional intelligence expert with seven
US patents in the analysis of facialcoding data. These are just three of
more than a dozen experts featured inThe Wall Street Journal bestseller Human Centered Communication,
a business case against Digital Pollution.The purpose of the book to give
(45:36):
you frameworks, strategies, and specifictactics to create human connection across the digital
divide. Learn to break through thenoise, build trust, and enhance your
reputation and revenue despite the ever increasingdigital noise and pollution that separates us all.
Get your copy of Human Centered Communicationabsolutely free at bombomb dot com slash
(46:01):
Freebook. That's bomb bomb dot comslash freebook. Thanks for listening to the
Customer Experience Podcast. Remember the singlemost important thing you can do today is
to create and deliver a better experiencefor your customers. Continue learning the latest
strategies and tactics by subscribing right nowin your favorite podcast player, or visit
(46:24):
bombomb dot com slash podcast
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