DGS 183: How To Add Doors Using The Neighbor Strategy For Property Managers

As entrepreneurs, we tend to isolate ourselves from other business owners. This lack of connection can prevent you from adding as many doors as you could be. 

Join property management growth expert, Jason Hull as he shares one of DoorGrow’s best strategies for adding doors: the Neighbor Strategy. This strategy will help you form mutually beneficial relationships and alliances with neighboring property management companies that feed you doors.

You’ll Learn…

[01:44] The Issues that Come With Being an Entrepreneur

[04:29] Someone’s Garbage is Your Golden Prospect

[05:50] Finding Two Kinds of Property Management Partners

[08:47] The 3 Steps for Turning a COLD Lead into a WARM Lead

[14:12] Why a Rising Tide Raises All Ships

[16:47] Growing Your Business Without Internet Marketing

Tweetables

“The problem that exists with entrepreneurs is that we are not focused a lot of times on connecting with other entrepreneurs, so a lot of times what we experience as entrepreneurs in our journey is some sort of isolation.”

“I think entrepreneurs, after we taste freedom, we become unemployable. We're just not gonna be great employees because we want to control our destiny and once we have freedom and once we have fulfillment, we then want to contribute.”

“So by giving out some referrals, you're creating a partnership, you're creating people that are going to probably feel obligated to reciprocate and send similar referrals back to you.”

“You could be adding 5, 10, 20 doors a month just from all the referral partners that you've built using the neighbor strategy from other property managers.”

Resources

DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind

DoorGrow Academy

DoorGrow on YouTube

DoorGrowClub

DoorGrowLive

TalkRoute Referral Link

Transcript

[00:00:00] These relationships can be very strategically effective and they can, once you've built up enough of them, that alone could be enough doors coming in every month that keeps you fat and happy. You could be adding 5, 10, 20 doors a month just from all the referral partners that you've built using the neighbor strategy from other property managers. All right. Welcome, DoorGrow Hackers to the # DoorGrowShow. If you are a property management entrepreneur that wants to add doors, make a difference, increase revenue, help others, impact lives, and you are interested in growing in business and life, and you're open to doing things a bit differently. Then you are a DoorGrow Hacker. DoorGrow Hackers love the opportunities, daily variety, unique challenges, and freedom that property management brings. Many in real estate think you're crazy for doing it. You think they're crazy for not because you realize that property management is the ultimate, high-trust gateway to real estate deals, relationships, and residual income.

 

[00:00:56] At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses. We want to transform the industry. Eliminate the BS, build awareness, change the perception, expand the market, and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. I'm your host property management growth expert, Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow. Now let's get into the show. 

 

[00:01:21] So, this is a special episode because I'm gonna share with you one of our secret tools. It's so simple, you will kick yourself after hearing it, but it's one of our most effective strategies for getting clients to add doors. And what I find is very few property managers throughout the U.S. or beyond are doing this strategy, which seems crazy. So let's talk about the problem. The problem that exists with entrepreneurs is that we are not focused a lot of times on connecting with other entrepreneurs, so a lot of times what we experience as entrepreneurs in our journey is some sort of isolation. Like we get feedback, negative feedback, constantly from the world if you're an entrepreneur personality type that you should just not change things because you're making everyone uncomfortable. Entrepreneurs are people that move society forward, take risks, change things, and school is not built for that. The school system is built for people to be good employees, not business owners, so in the majority of the people out there, they primarily want safety and certainty. This is a higher priority or value for most people than freedom or fulfillment or contribution or support. I call those the four reasons for entrepreneurs. We care more about freedom and fulfillment than we do about having safety and certainty than having a stable, safe 9-5 job.

 

[00:02:46] And some of you may have just felt that pressure and eventually gave up that stable 9-5 job to take a risk to start a business, maybe it's your property management business. I remember taking that leap. It's a scary leap, but it's a leap that once you take, you never want to go back because you experience freedom and you taste freedom and then I think entrepreneurs after we taste freedom, we become unemployable. We're just not gonna be great employees because we want to control our destiny and once we have freedom and once we have fulfillment, we then want to contribute. We want to make a difference out there. We want to benefit other people. I get to experience a really awesome or decent level of freedom and fulfillment in my position at DoorGrow and what I do at DoorGrow. I love getting to coach, mentor, and support, and help business owners grow their businesses. And once we start to experience that fulfillment and freedom in our business, the next thing we want to do... it's not enough just to make money and just to feel like we can do what we want to do. We want to make a difference in the world. So it becomes outward-focused. 

 

[00:03:53] We want to contribute. So I'm going to contribute something, I think significant today that I think everyone in the industry should hear this and should know. I recommend you share this episode with every property manager that neighbors you or that you know, and the title of this episode is "The Neighbor Strategy." This is all about the neighbor strategy and how you can help grow your property management business by being a good neighbor, right? And connecting with your neighbors, so that means other property managers. So let me share with you this strategy, and it's really simple. It's really simple.

 

[00:04:29] So the idea is... here's the problem: the problem is you're not connected to these other property managers. So you get a phone call and somebody says, "Hey, do you manage in Tucson, Arizona?" for example. And you're like, "No, I only do Phoenix-- downtown," or something like that. "I only do Phoenix, Arizona." And they say, "Okay, cool. Goodbye," right? So what you just did is you took perfectly good gold, right? this great lead, and you took it and it's not something you can mine. It's not reachable by you. It's not near where you cover, so you just threw in the trash. Well, I guarantee if the table were turned and you knew that there was a property manager and you were in Phoenix and they were in Tucson and somebody called them up and said, "Hey, do you manage in Phoenix?" and they said, "Actually, no." And they said, "Okay. Alright. Oh, cool. Okay, bye," you'd be like, oh my gosh, I would love to have that, right? That's gold for me, but they just threw it in the garbage. So real simple, the strategy, the neighbor strategy as I call it is to reach out to all the property management companies that are your neighbors that get potential referral opportunities that they could give to you and be their friend and connect with them and to establish a neighbor referral relationship.

 

[00:05:50] So there's two types of neighbors that you're looking for. So the obvious would be neighbors that are outside of your market. These are property management companies that do the same thing as you, perhaps, maybe they target other niches. Maybe you do single-family residential, maybe they do as well, but they're outside of the market that you geographically cover. So it'd be reaching out to these neighbors and saying, "Hey, if you get a lead, blah, blah, blah, like send 'em our way. If it's outside your market and it's in the area we cover, send 'em to us," conversely, you doing the same for them, right? And creating these strategic alliances and these relationships... really obvious. I have clients that are getting doors every month, just handed to them. You know, one of the members of my team who has a property management business just got five units just a month or two ago, handed to her just by a neighboring property management company that was one of our clients that I say, "Hey, you two should connect. Your markets neighbor each other," and they got connected, and now they're sending business back and forth all the time. 

 

[00:06:57] Now the other category, the second group that you also can connect with also a very effective group are not people outside your market. It's actually property managers inside your market that are in your market, but they do a different niche or niche of property management than you do. They target a different niche, right? A different segment, and what I mean by that is they're focused on a different category or type of property management than you are. So say you do single-family residential and small multi, which is typical for a lot of my clients. You could reach out to commercial management companies in your market.

 

[00:07:35] You could reach out to association management companies in your market. You could reach out to storage unit and mobile home park management companies in your market because I guarantee that, especially associations, maybe commercial, they are getting requests. They're fielding requests occasionally for residential property management or the type of management that you do, and they just throw it in the garbage. They might have a referral partner, or they might say, "Well, you could talk to this company," but you want to be top of mind for them and create those relationships. And so it's real simple: you just call them up and you share this gold versus garbage analogy that I just shared with you just say, "Hey, sometimes I get this thing that comes to me, and then I just throw in the garbage and I know it's perfectly good gold that somebody else would want.

 

[00:08:27] And they'll be like, "Yeah, me." And I'm sure you have this situation happen gold versus garbage. You explain the scenario again like somebody calls you up and you're like, "Hey. I would love to have that. Like, we should totally be friends. We should totally be friends," and they're gonna laugh, and they're gonna say, "Yeah, you're right. Like we should do this," right? Really simple. Share the gold versus garbage. Now I'm gonna take this even to the next level and share one of our secrets in our program. This is a secret of how you take a cold lead-- this is a cold lead typically coming in-- and how you convert it into a warm lead before you send it to them, and it changes the close rate on the lead from 10%, which is typical on a cold lead to 90%, maybe as a warm lead. It converts it into a warm lead. The difference between a cold lead and a warm lead is trust, its nurture. And nurturing those through trust so that they're hot enough to close. So here's how you convert this lead that came to you cold asking for property management that you can't service...

 

[00:09:28] So here is the formula. It's three simple steps to ensure that there is a high percentage close rate that's gonna happen. So the first step is Capture: capture the lead. That's the first step. The second step after you capture the lead, which means get their phone number, get their name, get their property info, whatever. Capture all the information. "Hey, you know what? I don't service there, but let me get your info. I have something really cool. I'm gonna share with you." Capture the lead. That's step one. Step two is share the information of the other company like, "This other company. Here's their name. Here's their phone number. You should talk to them." now, if you really want this to be effective, here's the third step, and you want to make sure that every referral partner neighbor in the neighbor strategy you create, you wanna share with them: do these three steps. Explain it just like this or share this video with them. Just share this video or podcast episode with them and say, "I'm gonna send you something super cool. Here's what I'm thinking. This dude named Jason, he runs a company called DoorGrow and he shared this strategy and I thought it was really clever, and you should hear him explain it." 

 

[00:10:37] So the third step, this is the most important is you amplify. This is how you convert it from a cold lead to a warm lead. So amplification, the way you amplify this, or you convert it into a warm lead is you add trust. So example: I get a lead. I can't service it and I'm like, "Well, let me get your info. Let me give you a name and number of a company. And let me tell you a little bit about them. This property manager, his name is, you know, Fred Flintstone over in, Rubble America or to this city that you need. He is amazing. He is the best property manager in that market. If I had a rental property over there, that's where I would send it. I highly recommend you talk to, you know, Barney Rubble or Fred Flintstone," you get the idea, right? I'm using the Flintstones as an example, but you talk them up. Like you say "They are the go-to one that you should be working within that market. We don't cover it, but if you're gonna work with somebody and you have a property over there, that's the one you should be working with. They've got good reviews. They've got a great process. They have a great business coach. They work with DoorGrow. They're really amazing." Whatever you can say about them to talk them up and help qualify them in the prospect's mind as the best company for them to go with. 

 

[00:11:52] So then they're going to go, "Wow. That other company turned me down, won't service me, but recommended this other one, and I wasn't even sure if I was going to go with them, but they talked this company up highly. I'm gonna talk to 'em." Now because you did steps one and two capture and share there's two opportunities for this deal to happen. The owner client may reach out to the property manager. So there's that potential opportunity, or you then capture that lead, right? You capture their info and you're gonna text it to this buddy or friend, this business owner and send it over to them. And say, "Hey, I just gotta lead. Get on this." Why? Because leads are good for maybe about the first five to 10 minutes after the first 10- 15 minutes, most lead conversion rates drop like 80%. They drop significantly because they're just gonna call the next company and move on, so by giving them the phone number they can call, they can call the property manager. Hopefully, you're answering your phones. And if you're the recipient of this referral, you're gonna answer the call right away. Second, you're gonna get a text message. So hopefully you get the text message and they see that they call even before. So they're like, "Hey, I just texted over to my friend, Fred Flinstone who managed these properties over there, or Bonnie Rubble, his associate. And they'll probably reach out right away, but here's their information, so you can contact them right away. 

 

[00:13:08] Two opportunities, right? Two ways that this can get to them, this referral and this relationship can happen. That then builds goodwill with this other property manager. It creates friendship, there's an alliance there, and they're going to feel a natural need to reciprocate in the future. So by giving out some referrals, you're creating partnership, you're creating people that are going to probably feel obligated to reciprocate and send similar referrals back to you. And so this is the neighbor strategy. So I hope you like this. It is a super simple idea, but we've been sharing this with clients and it's just one little thing to add to the cool referral engines and warm lead strategies that we use at DoorGrow to help our clients grow. This is more of a long game, but you can go and reach out to-- strategically-- and we have scripts for this and we give our clients lists of property managers in their market and outside their market, they could reach out to, so we support our clients in this strategy, but you could very easily do this on your own if you want to, without DoorGrow's help, you can do this on your own, and I really believe a rising tide raises all ships. 

 

[00:14:15] Well, not necessarily some ships won't raise when the tide raises because they're just sitting on the bedrock. They're sitting on the dirt, they're sitting on the sand and that tide goes up... some are going to sink. And I'm cool with that. Like the shittiest, suckiest property management companies should sink, but if you are one of those and you wanna patch up the holes or you're an awesome company and you want to be bigger and better reach out to DoorGrow, we would love to support you in this. This is just one of several strategies that we use with our clients so that they can build this awesome referral engine and funnel of business coming to them. And the cool thing about the neighbor strategy is you can have a hundred different companies. We've got clients in Florida that are getting people in New York and, I think Michigan, there's some sort of connection between Michigan and people going to Florida or having property in Florida. I don't know, and some of these property managers might have clients right now that they're servicing in their market that are in your market that they could connect you to and say, "Hey, I've actually got a client right now that has some units in your market." and so these relationships can be very strategically effective and they can, once you've built up enough of them, that alone could be enough doors coming in every month that keeps you fat and happy. You could be adding 5, 10, 20 doors a month just from all the referral partners that you've built using the neighbor strategy from other property managers.

 

[00:15:37] Not only that, you may find a mentor, you may find a friend, you may find somebody that you can support and mentor yourself, but I really believe 'a rising tide raises all ships' is a true phrase. Or some sink, right? I mentioned that. Reach out, create these relationships, and let's grow the entire industry. There is no scarcity in property management right now. In the U.S... I was talking to an Australian, did a lot of research, one of the coaches I recently hired and he did a lot of research on property management in his own market. So he was ready to get on a call with me. And when I explained to him that in the U.S., Only about 30% of rental properties are professionally managed and single-family residential. While Australia, he's like, it's so commonplace. It's like 80%. He was blown away. He was like, "That's crazy. There's so much opportunity in the U.S. So much opportunity." There is no scarcity, but they're not looking online. So if you're trying to figure out: "How can I get more business and create more market share instead of fight over that 30% that are already using property managers and try and get them away from another company, which generally never happens. How can I grow my business faster without doing any advertising without doing internet marketing?" Come talk to DoorGrow. 

 

[00:16:53] This is what we help our clients do. One of our clients added 310 doors in the last year. That would be impossible. No matter how much advertising he did, he wouldn't have had the bandwidth. He wouldn't have the sales team that could handle that many leads, do all that follow-up, but warm leads close, easier, faster and more efficiently. And he did that with only five or six realtor referral partners, but he used our strategies and he contacted a thousand, right, just to find those. He had to kiss a few frogs, but we've got some really effective strategies. It's not what you think. It's not the typical way as people try and get referrals. You probably get some occasionally. Here's the thing, the secret there is that nobody wants property management. Nobody's actively, generally looking for it usually, unless they're at the very end of the sales cycle and they're searching online and they're the worst, the most price sensitive. How do you capture that 70% that don't think they need it, but they probably do, you can solve their problems and are not looking for it? That's what we share at DoorGrow. So, one of our top strategies, so reach out to us. We'd love to help you grow your business. And tell us in the comments, if you started doing this, if you've got some good neighbor partners, we'd love to hear about it. And if you hear about this episode and come on board as a client, let us know. We'd love to hear that this has been helpful for you. And until next time, to our mutual growth. Bye, everyone. 

 

[00:18:12] You just listened to the #DoorGrowShow. We are building a community of the savviest property management entrepreneurs on the planet in the DoorGrowClub. Join your fellow DoorGrow Hackers at doorgrowclub.com. Listen, everyone is doing the same stuff. SEO, PPC, pay-per-lead content, social direct mail, and they still struggle to grow! 

 

[00:18:39] At DoorGrow, we solve your biggest challenge: getting deals and growing your business. Find out more at doorgrow.com. Find any show notes or links from today's episode on our blog doorgrow.com, and to get notified of future events and news subscribe to our newsletter at doorgrow.com/subscribe. Until next time, take what you learn and start DoorGrow Hacking your business and your life.