• Building the rent roll
• Systemising Sales
• Website and SEO to bring in organic leads

• Personal stuff – can’t keep up with everyone including friends and family
• Time management in general
• Need to dedicate the time to outsource sales processes to PMVA
• Website is a problem – Eagle CRM
• Doesn’t have a free download – need to capture email addresses and use the website for lead generation
• Time to follow up leads – need to find time to train PM
• Still manages 60 properties
• Lots of staff interruptions
• Lack of focus to complete tasks
• Can’t market out of Eagle, using IRE as CRM tool – just website and portal uploading – but stuck with it on contract

• Cleaned up 5 different subscriptions, not super in love with Eagle website, but better is better than perfect
• Update the categories – Reach out to Google to add “Agency”
• Update Google My Business – this moved the needle a bit

• Feels Eagle is making some improvements, but they are not fully using the software to its full capacity – watch this space

• Uses IRE BDM for marketing and says it’s really good for monitoring and tracking leads – uploads Monday wrap (video) to IRE and sends it out to everyone in the IRE database
• There’s also an uploader in IRE
• She uses esales – C21 software for portal uploads
• Casey’s VA (Stafflink) uses Airtable where she can get a view of everything and tweak a process if it needs to be tweaked. The best thing is to do a Loom video if there is a change in the process.
• When things don’t get done you can get a slack notification

• Beau says that propertyme does uploading of properties to the portals now so the Eagle Software really only needs to be there for the website. She also likes Wix because she can nail the SEO behind it
• Sam says that people don’t realise how easy it is to create a WordPress website or landing page – there’s a video here.
• The number of tools increases complexity
• Lead magnet later on (leadpages is also a possibility here)

• Adrian says they use Homepass for all of their opens and it transfers information directly into Move, and that is where all the emails go out. 

• Claire suggests virtually recording processes via video

• Suggests an old lesson for Transform – start putting things 100 per cent in your diary – pop the action item in – if it’s important enough put it straight in the diary.

• Rebranding – building the brand
• Needs to get her website up – even if its a one page website
• The #fatbasil influencer project

• Needs to get back in touch with the contact who offered to do her website
• Tidy up the office – archiving and selling stuff

• Scanning is a big waste of time – everything is in archive boxes in the roof – (Claire has no space here! – so it needs to be scanned)

• Suggests an app called Scannable because they are just records.
• Set up a tripod with the phone pointing down and when you put a doc underneath it scans it automatically saving into Dropbox or something like that
• It does have some OCR functions now so you can search your scans

• Workspace – make it attractive – so you love being there – that’s the priority (plus one post a week for Basil)

• New into sales – so personal branding is the biggest thing
• A lot of agents and agencies in the area – so point of difference is huge

• Eliminated the biggest one by getting a fixed farm area
• Low stock environment – anything listed is sold within a week
• Being brand new – competing with lots of well established agents in Penrith

• Five years ago, she and Samuel were in the same position
• If you don’t own the market – report on it (eg Market update)
• Letterbox dropping around competitors listings – especially when the property sold

“we deal with the letterbox drops – saying this property sold for this much money, it was originally advertised for this much. It was on the market for this long. If you want to know what this means for the value of your property in touch with us …”

• If you don’t want the nasty calls, don’t report the bad results…(the ones that make someone look like a crap agent)
• People believe what agents say in the letterbox – oddly without question
• Leverage the things that are wins
• Develop some dialog around what the competitors might be saying about you to diffuse it. “Yes we know we are not as experienced as some agents, but we make up for it in ….” (How ever you will make up for it)

• Beau says what she is experiencing some of her landlords who are thinking of selling right now – and a lot of property managers refer out to sales agents and it really doesn’t matter to some of them who that sales agent is.
• So for sales, most of the leads Beau is getting is actually from other property managers because they know she will look after the tenant.
• She says the owners just go with her because they were referred by the trusted property manager (ie the Halo effect!) She says most times they accept the referral and grab you
• This is where Beau’s sales business has come from – so recommends making friends with some of the local PMs

• Claire recommends taking a look at Ray White agent Renaye huia
• Her points of difference include amazing staging including the garden – in a hands on kind of way
• Her husband is helping her in a complementary way by doing waterblasting, gardening and getting her hands dirty (not an option for Adrian because of his accident)

• Use your authenticity and your enthusiasm over somebody who’s been doing it for 30 years that might take for granted they are going to get it
• Work with buyers – do as many home opens as you can for other agents – even second opens
• You can’t beat meeting people face to face – Donna knocked on a lot of doors in her farm area
• Ask people, “I know you’re not selling, but who else have you heard about in the neighbourhood, is anyone renovating, has anyone moved out…?”
• Ask them to help you in your quest – people want to see you succeed and will help you if you ask them.

• Streamlining PM workflows, integrating two teams post rent roll acquisition – what they need to do when they need to know it. Digital checklist ecosystem.
• Rewarding team members
• License

• Personal energy
• Long deadlines
• Wants to knock them all off by the end of the year

• Insights in propertyme isn’t that great.
• Beau says ‘fires’ are the biggest problem and where most of the reactive work happens. The key is to reduce the number of days things have been open for.
• Start with older than 60 days, then older than 30 days etc (there is no report in PropertyMe at the moment)
• Beau’s VA takes a snapshot of anything that is old – and sends it to her, which she creates a report from.
• Beau says this has improved performance because her team know she is watching

• Advise PMs to ‘Eat the frog’ but also consider getting PMs to swap their frogs – especially if you find that different team members are more suited to particular tasks than others.

• Similar position to Laura – people management is a priority to maintain a positive working culture
• Where will growth come from?

• People are a bit down at the moment (it’s been a tough year)
• Others are feeling frustrated that she is not accessible enough
• Needs to replace the person – but like for like doesn’t solve the problem
• Growth has been a bit stunted – where is new growth going to come from
• Not a numbers person

• Donna feels like much of the discussion this morning might be a solution and wants to explore finding a VA 

• Take the focus off number of properties because even though the number of properties may have increased but the load may not have

• Casey uses Stafflink (Joel Davis)

https://stafflink.com.au/

• Casey does a 1:1 with every team member every month- she sends a form to fill in prior to the meeting to give them a chance to think about what they want to say.
• Some of those things are 
  • Out of 10 how happy are you at the moment
  • How do you rate your performance
  • How can your performance be improved
  • KPIs
• Casey says this is way better than walking in and saying, “How’s things?”

• Beau uses PMVA. The biggest win was in lease renewals.
• Podcast with Tiffany Bowtell. 
  • Podcast
  • Action Guide
  • Book an appt with Tiffany https://calendly.com/pmva-outsourcing/ea_discussion

• If staff feel she is not accessible enough during the group sessions to offer the option of dropping her a text if they want to talk to her 1:1

• Has created a jot form which runs through some (again) questions to see if things are tracking OK
• Key questions
  • What capacity are you at?
  • Is there anything you want to get off your chest?

• Organic Growth – particularly lead gen online
• Not working on cold leads – but warm leads – referral clients etc.
• Being the educational advisors in the PM space

• Would like to share content with the group – create content that can be shared amongst the group and tweak it to be hyperlocal
• Casey says she recently paid a copywriter $1500 to do four articles but didn’t get anything from it

• Sam recommends Frase.io – create a Loom video?
• Sam suggests a quick way to “avoid” traditional copywriting is to
  • Answer questions on a video
  • Transcribe the video in a tool like descript
  • Edit the transcription
  • Cut bits of the video that aren’t needed. In descript you can edit video like its a Word doc.
  • Use the transcript as subtitles in places like Facebook and Youtube
  • Create a blog post with the video and the transcript as the text
  • Embed the Youtube Video in a Linkedin Post and Link back to the full ‘article’ on the blog (you can automate much of the above with a tool like repurpose.io)
  • Take a snapshot of the blogpost on your phone and put it on Instagram stories.
  • Do the same with your Market updates (repurpose across several platforms) – all up that’s two pieces of content per week that is google friendly and all backlinks lead to your website.
• Don’t forget calls to action in every single piece of content (know, feel do) – people forget the ‘do bit’… 
• Have a picture in your mind of who you are writing to. Who is your prospect and write them a love letter (this is how we write The Brief. What would that person find funny, interesting, helpful.

• Your personality is it a point of difference – should it come through in your writing. 

• Really busy with properties in great demand (a common theme with most of the group this month!)

• Hired a person
• Nailed the 35k walking challenge

• Paperless handout sheet process
• Letters to Santa

• Google Chris Gilmore for letters to Santa

• Make a QR code
• (using QR Code generator eg https://www.qr-code-generator.com/ or google QR code generator)
• Could you turn it into a social media opportunity – take a photo of santa

• You need to have a URL before you can generate a QR code so:
  • Canva has a place you can publish forms and designs to get a URL
  • You can make google drive files public
  • You can upload media fies to a wordpress site, get the URL and then create a QR code from there
• Holly K’s basil seed campaign
• Check out Wiseberry Heritages Campaign – the sold stickers are really cool

• Uses the Eagle QR software – most of the CRMs have a QR code generator

• Beau uses the IRE check-in button

• Michelle Williams from @Home property does a Christmas campaign and sends kids a chocolate stocking

• Has had an amazing year – would like to clear the decks
• Thinking about what else would be remarkable!

• Good month – just a little wobble over the past 30 days but keen to get back on the horse

• Cleanup is done!! – ticked off the list – has identified other areas to clean up
• Quick videos through Facebook messenger – have received some great engagement and feedback – they stand out from everyone’s emails and standard salesy messages

• More cleanups – eg Xero, Inbox
• Listing kit, services menu, templates emails for sending prospective customers
• Rental appraisal template

• Make a QR code
• (using QR Code generator eg https://www.qr-code-generator.com/ or google QR code generator)
• Could you turn it into a social media opportunity – take a photo of santa

• Agrees the mystery shop is a good idea

• Look at the stuff you’ve sent people before and create templates from that
• Laura started with an email template a word document with the key points about the service which was adapted and personalised.
• Laura says that not having those 
• Three must-haves for developing new business in PM
  • Standard reply to an incoming enquiry
  • Appraisal template
  • Company Profile
  • Fee Document/Key Points of Difference /Guarantee
• Laura says don’t try to do everything at once do one thing at a time and add things gradually

• Don’t forget to include what is the next step! (Don’t assume people know what to do next 🙂
• Beau says include fees in the first email otherwise people sometimes get frustrated
• Set up a dummy profile and mystery shop the competition (Beau has a stripper name she uses for this purpose!!)
• Beau has a template she’s offered to share

• Once the material is created put it on your website
• Company profile is key for Casey – hers contains:
  • Points of difference
  • The team
  • Pain points for investors and how they are solved
  • Frequently asked questions
  • Testimonials
• If you are mystery shopping say you’re overseas

• Own independence and income back again
• Finish that last bit of cleanup!
• Forward-thinking plan for 2021 – marketing, clients, hit the ground running

• New office – and back from holidays

• Digital signup process with landing page – complete transparency on fees. Making it really easy to do business with the company
• https://c21novocastrian.com.au/how-to-change-managing-agents
• https://airtable.com/shrvyenJ88TA3AtOF
• Download investor guide https://c21novocastrian.com.au/property-management
• Record month – 17 new managements in October
• Has had a lot of success with looking at the bottom 20 per cent – the landlords and tenants that take a lot of work.
• Changed to inspection express
• Changed from 1form to 2apply

• Working on organic growth strategy – doing lots of little things which are making a difference
  • Continuing Monday wraps on Facebook with Nicole
  • These get sent to the IRE database on Monday morning
• Working on Tarpey the maintenance bot to realise some efficiencies (Alex does a similar thing)
• Signed up to MOZ to improve Google Rankings

• Include a transcription of the videos to improve SEO (Descript is something we use)

• Don’t download the videos manually – use repurpose.io to repurpose videos across social channels – eg Facebook Live to Youtube.
• Consistency seems to be the biggest factor in improving SEO
• Note ranking now vs ranking next time

• Had some ideas around which questions can be turned into blogs – Questions people ask all the time

• Has had an amazing year – would like to clear the decks
• Thinking about what else would be remarkable!

• Immediate goal to gain ground in his new farm area

• A boss letterbox drop around a listing in a street where Adrian happened to buy his house

• Selling has been good
• Goal is to list – still very tight in the area 90 per cent of people want to wait until after Christmas

• Has had an amazing year – would like to clear the decks
• Thinking about what else would be remarkable!

• Working on her property management systems (to end of November)

• Focusing on maintenance – reducing this over the last 60 days
• Four team members enrolled in Cert IV
• Finalists in Local Business Awards
• REINSW Awards – winner!! Event going on in the office
• Renovating an investment property

• Working on her property management systems (to end of November)
• The next one is sales systems
• LJ Hooker is closing down in Dubbo – rent roll is selling to an independent agency so Laura wants to be ready to scoop up any leakage (without it being icky)

• Create content around changing managing agents
  • Geographic campaign on facebook – eg Have you explored other options
  • How changing staff can be a pain point for investors

• Its Ok to ring someone licensee to licensee to see if there is an opportunity – to pick up any staff but Laura says these are not the type of licensees that would be amenable to that so its a case of wait and see…

• Spending a lot of time in sales – is this the right place for Beau

• Had a cost drawn up for new website $8k so Beau decided to press on with her website – rather than re-inventing the wheel. 
• Eagle have been supportive in terms of Google SEO – encouraging Beau to increase posting on her website with blog posts, images and videos
• New testimonial video has received good feedback

• Working on what makes her business different – USP – the wording on page 1
• Leaned back into PMVA for assistance with the Sales side – using Loom videos to log procedures – 50 per cent the way through
• Giving back to the team with time and guidance
• Working on her mindset – trying not to be everyone’s friend so much, stepping up the leadership skills

• Use the framework “We help x with y, without z” where x is who you help, y is the problem you solve and z is the headache the customer won’t have to deal with
• Number of customers successfully served (Buyers + Sellers + Landlords + Tenants)

“We help investors with the next step of their property journey – whatever that might be”

USP Why over x (number) decided to use our company in the last 12 months:

• Reason 1 (Market Monitor/Market share)
• Reason 2 (Days on Market)
• Reason 3 (Proactive rather than Reactive Marketing)
• Reason 4 (Off market matching or Auction… )
• Reason 5 (Pull out things from your own USP exercise)

Add testimonials – screenshot the testimonials so you are not leaking off to Facebook.

Use the DISC model to appeal to all types that might hit your website:

D: Options

I: Testimonials

S: Guarantee

C: Data

You should try to include all four on your landing page

Include a Trust Bar: ‘As seen in’ eg Elite Agent

Agency Powered by: Logo Logo Logo

Don’t overthink it 😉

Beau Miller: Current projects

• Restructuring the business: employed a trainee PM, moved current PM into senior PM role. Two juniors taking over the portfolio.
• Moving into a BDM sales role/business manager role.
• Re-did marketing prospectus
• Working on website refresh
• Restructured fees (from 10% to 8.8%)

• Finally found her ‘why’
• Picked up six new managements this month (just from knowing my why and knowing what to talk about.)

• To not get involved in the PM tasks and be more of a leader than a doer. 
• To not give answers, but instead to ask questions of her team.

• I’m all about systems. If you put the right systems in place and everything’s got a checklist, a tick box, a procedure, you’re set to go. Once I got that system, right, we were set for growth and it didn’t matter how many properties we put on, or how many property managers, everything was there and it was in place, and it was the same training for each person. 
• On delegation: Do it through an email, not verbally, so there is a clear record of it. People don’t have ‘to do’ lists on paper anymore, so this way you know it’s in writing and can be added to a calendar. 
• Use a program for tasks (Like AirTable) that, if one step along the way doesn’t get done, it gets flagged. And make all communication for the task sit in the one place, time stamped, for future clarity. 

• Delegation/ Empowerment. I find that it’s very easy to get someone to do something that they don’t expect they want to do, by just going up and cleverly asking them for help, by just asking their thoughts on something. Once they start to roll with it, say:
  
  “‘Fantastic, can I get you to do that for me? And just come back and report, let me know how you’re going with it. If something’s not going right, anything like that, we’ve got plenty of people around us that can help. But, I really think you’re the best person for the job on this. So go for it, take the ball and run and report back to me in a couple of days.”
  
  And it works really well.

•  If you’ve got an idea of who will be the right person, and you give them an opportunity to show that they are [the right person], they get a lot out of it as well. It breeds an energy, which is very good, going forward.

• Let your staff know they are going to make mistakes, and you’re there to help with them with that mistake going forward. It empowers them, and they won’t be scared of their job, either. 

• Put the ownership back on your staff. Instead of an instant ‘no’ when someone suggests a change in your system, brainstorm with your team. It gives them the power of taking control of your business as well, because they can see the bigger picture. 

• You have to make a decision not to get dragged back in, because it’s so easy to go, ‘I can do this faster.’ 
• Resist the urge to fall back into that role if someone leaves, or the office gets too busy.
• Learn to delegate, which involves training someone to feel empowered to come to you with questions, but also to be able to make decisions themselves.

Claire Weggery: Current Projects

• Finalising her logo
• Working on her unique selling proposition.

• Staying off Facebook, which has given her more time, and more space to think.
• Picked up a ‘tenant placement’ on her higher-level tier, which will be three-months of management fee in a chunk, which improves cash flow.
• Did a ‘mystery shop’ of competitors, to see how they operated.
• Joined homes.co.nz
• Sorted rental appraisal template on Canva.

• Do a generic document with the three different things you could utilise every time, rather than having to amend it for each appraisal.

• Write down the tasks she doesn’t like doing, and/or she isn’t good at, and see where she can outsource. Weigh the cost to outsourcing vs. the time. “The first step is awareness.” 

Adrian Wall: Current Projects

• To complete the rest of his class two license by Christmas.
• Doing things others may delegate, like letterbox drops, which all add to the conversations he is having, and are part of his unique selling point.

• A ‘hat trick’ – three sales in one day.
• Improving the quality of his database info, and then nurturing the relationships that really matter.
• Went from 47% complete on class two license to over 80% complete – with only a unit and a half left, with aims to complete by Christmas

• To not lose momentum with his course work. 
• To not lose momentum in lining up vendors who will list once he is qualified and can claim full commission. 
• To keep his life-work balance in check.

• Don’t stop letterbox dropping. If you’re meandering along, meaning the locals, that’s right in the unicorn quadrant – and I’d keep doing it.

Donna Gordin: Current Projects

• To build rent roll.

• Working on a trainee to start in the new year, someone to train up into PM.
• Setting up  Facebook ad campaigns and my landing page, with graphics that’s all set up. 

• Her team is all settled again, after COVID, with systems in place.
• 16 settlements between now and the start of Jan (in context, they only did ten sales in 2019.)
• Also took Facebook off her phone, and that’s working well.

• Do I go with Spoke for Facebook? Does it run through Spoke or straight to Facebook
• Never employing part-time workers
• Don’t procrastinate and avoid the unfamiliar tasks that I think are too hard.
• Not going to work seven days a week.
• Not doing ‘field mice’ tasks.

• If you have a personal hobby that is a non-negotiable in your life, make it a non-negotiable in work. Be honest and say, “I play cricket on Saturday. So, text me if there is an emergency, you’re not going to get hold of me.” Because their system had been set up, it actually became easier to keep those times off work. “People get to know you more on a personal level and they’ll have a conversation about that. “

• Facebook ads: “I’ve got eight audiences for particular things, different age groups, demographics, and all sorts of stuff. So different ads that I’m boosting are boosted to particular audiences. It reduces your reach, but your engagement is higher. 
• We sell properties through Spoke and a lot of them, and it’s not expensive.

• If you’ve got the budget, go with Spoke – it’s easy, initiative, etc. 
• Put the important stuff in your diary and make it non-negotiable.

Laura Shooter: Current Projects

• Licence came through, so she can sign up clients now.
• Partnered with local business centre to make hampers (160)

• Lined up cultural awareness training, and surveyed her team about the influx of Indian clients in Dubbo.
• Samuel hit 80 sales in rolling 12-month period.
• Partnered with local business centre to make hampers (160)
• Ran a tradie appreciation day, which resulted in more referrals from tradies.

• “I don’t want to keep telling myself the same story, which is that I accidentally ended up working in this business and I accidentally ended up in real estate-  because I might’ve started there, but that’s not the case anymore.”
• Needs to stop doing data analysis and work flow stuff, and needs to train someone to take over.
• Three days a week, she wants to stop work before 3pm.

• Don’t give them open diary. You’ve got to say, ‘I can meet here, here and here.’

• Focus on things that fall into your ‘effortless success zone’: the area where you shine and love the work and do it work as you are passionate.

Casey Healey: Current Projects

• Setting up a dashboard for Google Rankings.

• Didn’t go into meltdown when a staff member left, instead thought through the options systematically and worked out a plan.
• Got Facebook ads running

• Would like to share content with the group – create content that can be shared amongst the group and tweak it to be hyperlocal
• Casey says she recently paid a copywriter $1500 to do four articles but didn’t get anything from it

• A script she uses: We’re not competing with that person down the road to beat their fee. So, this is what you can expect from us. And this is what I can assure you we deliver.

• Use the 80/20 rule – you may find 20 per cent of your customers are willing to pay for a premium experience, and then also getting rid of the bottom 20 per cent “without cutting an artery.

• I use the line: “the cheapest agent could be the most expensive.” They don’t do their job, and when you explain it usually comes down to less than $500-$600 a year — “Are you prepared to take the risk for $500-$600 a year, tax deductible” — we often will pick them up on that basis.