Jen Barkan welcomed a very special guest to OPT this week, Ryan Taft, the Founder and CIO of Impact Eighty-Eight! They kicked things off sharing key takeaways from the 2025 International Builders' Show, recapping DYC's upcoming Online Sales Academy, and giving a shout out to Lena Burgin with Level Homes, who recently won OSC Rookie of the Year for 2025! 

Topic of Today: People Over Process  (19:00 ): 

• There is a lot of conversation happening right now surrounding "We need more sales!"
• The 2025 spring selling season feels a bit different this year, hence the importance of the saying, "Don't get prepared, stay prepared." 
• In every sales team, often the #1 closer is the online sales professional. 
• There is a difference between getting a customer to agree to an appointment, and wanting to go to an appointment. 
• There's a transfer of emotion when setting appointments, and it's important to promote the experience. Avoid making it feel transactional! 
• People don't buy with logic, they buy with emotion, and it's important not to go too far information-wise on initial calls. 
• The goal of the handoff is to excite the imagination of meeting the sales person, and to reduce anxiety by humanizing them. 
• Addressing friction between online and onsite sales, and understanding that the relationship is a give-get model. 
• Anytime there is friction, you can complain about it, or you can do something about it! 
• Ryan shares the story of Impact Eighty-Eight, and how the question of "What do you want to do?" changed everything. 
• He shares his perspective that when the process becomes priority, the people can get lost, and his goal is to put people first in his training. 

Skills Check: Are You Tracking the Handoff? (45:30 ):



• It's important to be proactive if you feel like your team could be doing a better job with the handoff process. 
• Jen suggests tracking the handoff in your CRM or appointment tracker.
• This will allow you to have more concrete information to base next steps off of.