The news just hit the wire. Trulia just took the term “interlopers” to a whole new level by opening a new inside sales office in the Denver Tech Center, in the same neighborhood as RE/MAX’s World Headquarters.
And they are hiring sales managers, sales reps, customer support, HR, their very own “boiler room”!
Dave Liniger, co-founder and Chairman of RE/MAX has been critical of sites like Trulia for being “the guy who shows up at a pot-luck dinner bringing only a fork.” And with a big move like this I thought it might be interesting to see what exactly Dave’s new neighbors will be doing just up the street.
Just how does Trulia’s sales team operate? Last week a post by Michael Arrington on TechCrunch blasted a new company for naming their new start-up, “SalesCrunch”. The founder of SalesCrunch is none other than the founding VP of Sales for Trulia, Sean Black. Small world.
On SaleCrunch’s site they have a section called “SalesSchool”.
Posted is a short video, named “how Trulia Scores and Process Leads” where Sean Black Interviews his former Trulia workmate Lead Generation Manager, Steve Rossi who talks about how Trulia sells products to agents.
It’s a must see for anyone in the business of selling to real estate professionals. Lots a good tips from someone in the front lines.
But then at about 1:10 in to the video Steve reveals something that I almost missed. Turns out Trulia mines the syndicated listing data, that powers their site, for valid prospects to sell their wares. Meaning agents who just sold a million dollar home get prioritized for a sales call to buy Trulia’s products.
Now I know that the listing data coming from syndicators like ListHub are stripped on many of the restrictions that a typical IDX vendor must adhere to. But this practice just seems wrong.
Typically most vendors are restricted from using MLS data to mine/contact agents. In fact many MLS providers seed their listings data with false e-mail addresses that flag when an unscrupulous vendor tries to use the data to market to their membership.
The irony here is that many agents and brokers have criticized sites like Trulia (and even Realtor.com) for using their own listing data to generate revenue (advertising) and charging the same agents to “enhance” their own listing data. Now it turns out they are also using the listing data to target who the best agents and brokers to sell to!
Something tells me that Trulia shouldn’t be heading over to RE/MAX to borrow a cup of sugar anytime soon.
UPDATE [ LOOKS LIKE SALESCRUNCH MADE THE VIDEO PRIVATE]
UPDATE 2 [LOOKS LIKE ITS BACK UP. WEIRD]
UPDATE 3 [ITS BACK TO BEING SET TO PRIVATE- What are they hiding?]
