Peter Lohmann's Newsletter - Issue #82

We Got 100 Valid Leads in the Last 90 Days

Growth.

It’s top of mind for nearly every property management company owner.

How can I get more leads? How can I add doors faster?

We’ve been getting a lot of leads lately and I got curious as to where they were all coming from. Maybe this information will be helpful as you work up your 2024 marketing plans.

Above is a pie chart showing where our 100 leads came from in the last 90 days. All of these are “valid” leads, meaning they are prospects who currently own a property that meets our criteria for management (in our service area, and of the type we manage). We received an additional 87 leads not counted here that are “invalid.”

I want to make a few points here before sharing how many of these leads we actually closed.

1. There is no silver bullet for property management marketing. You will need to pursue a number of different marketing channels if you want to increase your lead flow, and you will need to do so consistently and over a long period of time. You can see that no single lead source was dominant. I would not feel comfortable “turning off” or ignoring any of these marketing channels when in growth mode.

2. You need to answer the damn phone. Look how many prospects still reach out by phone. I’m currently reading “We Secret Shopped You” by Mike and Dylan O’Neil, and they absolutely hammer on the importance of this in property management. They’re not wrong, even in 2024.

3. I’ll comment on two unusual lead sources because I know folks are going to ask. “Approachment” is a website chat feature with real humans on the other end. I was skeptical but it seems that a certain percentage of prospects really like using it. And “LFD” is LeadFlowDepot, a google and facebook ads company that we’ve been using for a few months with good results. Note: both of these are affiliate links.

OK, now here’s a pie chart showing closed (won) leads for the same time period:

Out of 100 leads, so far we have closed 14 of them (14% closing rate). That number will go up, because the typical sales cycle for us is several weeks. To account for that, I normally evaluate closing rate by going back 4 months and chopping off the most recent 1 month.

Of those 14 won leads, you can see where they came from above.

How’s your closing rate, and where are you getting the most leads lately?

I wrote a longer article about marketing your property management company on my website, which you can read here.

This week’s issue is sponsored by:

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I Hired a Full-Time Salesperson for my PM Company

The leads are flowing, but who is accountable for closing them? We’ve been on the hunt for a new Business Development Manager (BDM) here at RL Property Management for the last couple months. I’m thrilled to share that Bryan Waters has accepted the position and started with us on Monday.

Bryan has extensive property management sales experience, having previously worked for RentVest (acquired by Mynd in 2019), and stuck around working for Mynd until recently. It feels great to bring someone on board who has a proven track record of PM sales achievement. Bryan will be working remotely from Florida, where he lives. Welcome, Bryan!

My thanks to Jeremy Pound & the team at RentScale for assisting us with this entire process. Bryan will be working with them to learn our sales process and joining their ScaleClub community, where he’ll continue to refine his skills and get the chance to network and compete with PM sales professionals across the country.

By the way, I’m hiring for a Marketing Manager right now. Want to team up with me as we take RL Property Management to 1,000 units and beyond? Get in touch.

Scaling to 100M with Michael Girdley

I had the honor of interviewing Michael Girdley for my podcast late last year. Michael has spent the last 30 years building an 11+ business holding company. He’s also built a 200k+ Twitter following and a newsletter with over 30k readers.

I had two big questions for Michael:

1. How do you decipher which opportunities are worth pursuing?

2. How do you spend your time effectively across a dozen companies?

Tune in below to watch the episode, now on YouTube for the first time:

Industry News and Events

• Property management business for sale in Las Vegas. 250 units, asking 1.8M.

• Property management business for sale in Lady Lake, FL. Some vacation rentals. 170 units, asking 250k.

• I’m joining ProfitCoach this coming Wednesday to discuss the future of pricing and value creation in property management! Register here.

• FCA Management has merged with Bonaventure. “As part of the agreement, Bonaventure’s Property Management Services will become part of FCAM which will manage all current and future Bonaventure market-rate communities. The combined property management platform includes more than 17,000 Class A and Class B multifamily units, and a pipeline of more than 5,000 units currently under development.”

• NARPM’s Women’s Council is hosting a webinar on March 20th featuring Kelly Ikenberry. Register here.

• Grab your tickets for the NARPM Broker/Owner Conference coming up in April. Early-bird pricing ends March 15th. Crane members can look forward to joining Wolf and I on a dinner cruise around Amelia Island on Tuesday evening. Also be sure you join the “Convention After Dark” Facebook group so you know about all the after-parties.

Closing Thought

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That’s all for this week! Have a great weekend. -Peter

P.S. Do you like Girl Scout Cookies? My niece is selling them to raise money!

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