DGS 139: You Are The Prize In Your Property Management Business with Jason Hull

Property management growth expert and founder/CEO of DoorGrow, Jason Hull, talks about being the best prize to your potential clients.

A lot of times clients have this perception that you need or want to get them on as a client. Needy is creepy. Don’t fail to see and show them that you are the prize in your property management business.

You’ll Learn…

[03:00] Who is the prize? You or your prospective client? You are!

[03:06] Why? If you have a legitimate business, you solve their problems.

[03:52] Three biggest complaints? Tenants, landlords, and rental properties.

[04:18] Why most property managers and property management businesses suck.

[04:48] If you do a good job, you make better tenants, landlords, and rental properties.

[05:10] Real Estate Investing: It’s easy until your first challenge with a tenant.

[07:17] Cycle of Suck: Crappy clients lead to crappy properties, tenants, and reputation.

[08:01] Mike’s Pumpkin Plan: Allegory of what it takes to have prize-winning pumpkins.

[08:43] Be Picky: Get clients you want to be with, enjoy working with, and value you.

[10:10] What’s for sale? People want to buy safety, certainty, and peace of mind.

[11:45] Ideal Clients: Qualify them by figuring out – what do you really want?

[12:37] Rules of Engagement: Value self, maintain confidence, realize you’re the prize.

Tweetables

“You need to realize this—you are the prize. That means they are not the prize.”

“If you aren’t able to maintain a frame of confidence, you then hurt the number one thing that people want to buy from you, which is safety and certainty.”

“The best clients are not the ones that are the cheapos.”

Resources

DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind

DoorGrow on Instagram

DoorGrow on YouTube

DoorGrowClub

DoorGrowLive

Mike Michalowicz

Transcript

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 your 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.

At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management businesses and their owners. We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change 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.

All right, this continues these episodes where it’s just me talking. I’m certainly going to be doing some interviews in the future. But this episode today, I’m going to start blocking out time each Wednesday so that I can consistently get these episodes out. I have a consistent call with clients each Wednesday and Friday currently that I enjoy doing. I’m just going to block out time every Wednesday to do a live call and talk about whatever my heart desires that day.

Something that came up on today’s call with my coaching clients is just a little passing phrase that somebody had mentioned, but they had said they were talking about the week and the wins. Everybody was sharing their wins and one client mentioned they were going to be meeting with some people that are prospective clients. They said they’re going to see if we will be a good fit.

I wanted to touch on this because I think there’s this mindset challenge that I noticed a lot of times with clients and I say this multiple times. I’ve said it multiple times on my calls with clients. But a lot of times clients have this perception that they are needing or wanting to get the client on and they fail to see that you are the prize. That is what I’m titling today’s episode, You are the prize. I would normally swear when I say this, but I want to make sure I get the widest reach possible, but you are the blankety blank prize.

You’re the prize. You’re the freaking prize. You need to realize this—you are the prize. That means they are not the prize. Your prospective client is not the prize, you’re the prize. Why is that? Because if you have a legitimate business, you are the one that solves their problem.

You’re not trying to get them on to solve your problem of making money or because you need more clients. Needy is creepy. You have to have the mindset and recognize that you are the prize, that you solve their problem, that they’re the one with the challenges. Look at this, you solve three of the biggest problems in real estate as a property manager. You are absolute super superheroes.

Nobody seems to realize this, but nobody else does this. What am I talking about? Let’s talk about what are the three most complained about things in real estate? Most likely, possibly these three things—tenants, landlords, and rental properties. Three of the most complained about things in real estate and you solve all three of those challenges as a good property manager.

I know you and I both know that most property managers suck. Most property management businesses suck. You know this. I hear this from everybody. Everybody comes to me and they’re like, well, we’re starting a property management business. Why? Because everybody else in my market sucks. I hear this all the time.

I’m sure you’re listening right now and you’re thinking, yeah, my competitors do all suck, but I’m great. Let’s just agree that most property management businesses suck and we should change that because it hurts the entire industry as a whole. But if you’re doing a good job, you make tenants better, you make landlords better, you make the rental properties better. You are improving the world. You really are the superheroes of the real estate investing industry.

A lot of real estate investors get into real estate investing. They hear everybody’s talking about this buzz of real estate investing. It’s a great place to put your money. It’s so turnkey and so easy. Until they have their first challenge with a tenant, until they realize how much time it takes to place a tenant, until they realize maintenance coordination is a part-time job, even for a small portfolio.

You take all of this off their plate. On average, you get them more rent. Even if you just get them a certain percentage more rent and you’re collecting rent a certain percentage more often, your fees are well covered. During the pandemic, the feedback I was getting from a lot of people that were self-managing is that their rent collection was down like 50%. I heard from some investors, only half of my tenants are paying rent. Property management clients though, I was asking them, they were maybe down like 2%, 3%, maybe 5% of the rent. They really didn’t see much change.

The ones that were really smart about how they dealt with it really didn’t see much change at all. It was the same people that weren’t paying rent before that weren’t paying rent, so they didn’t really see a shift.

The smart ones were the ones that didn’t proactively assume that people are going to have a hard time paying rent and put out a message to that effect. They just assumed people would keep paying rent and they didn’t put out some preemptive strike to say, hey, I know you probably have problems, here are some resources. Usually, those property managers had a harder time because then those tenants thought, well, yeah, maybe it’s tough and maybe I don’t need to pay rent because of the pandemic.

Anyway, you solve these three big challenges. You are the prize, you’re the prize. When you recognize this, you can shift your mindset in sales, in closing a property management contractor deal, and you’re going to look at them, do I want this client? Do I want this property? You’re going to be picky.

Many of you have heard me talk about the cycle of suck. If you want to know what that is, you can just google cycle of suck, and maybe even at DoorGrow, it should usually come up right at the top. The cycle of suck basically means you’re taking on crappy clients. So you have crappy properties, then you have crappy tenants, and then you’re going to have a crappy reputation. This sums up the entire industry in aggregate.

If property managers recognize that they are the prize and were pickier about the clients they take on, they would have a better business. They would have much more profit in their business. They’d be far more profitable. Their operational costs would be a lot lower. They’d be able to do a better job servicing clients. I had Mike Michalowicz come speak at a conference that we threw and he talked about The Pumpkin Plan.

He’s an entrepreneur. He’s been on the podcast multiple times. If you check out his book, The Pumpkin Plan, he talks about this allegory of prizewinning pumpkins and what it takes. You have to lay the right foundation. You have to have the right seed for this business. But you also have to get rid of all the rotting pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. Otherwise, the whole patch will go bad. That means you also need to not let certain things grow, fester, or come into the pumpkin patch that are going to cause problems. That’s these crappy clients.

When you recognize you’re the prize, another analogy I like to use with clients to really drive this home is the idea of the sexy girl at the bar or the sexy guy at the bar. Whatever you’re into or whatever you want to be, either one. If you’re the sexy girl at the bar, you have options, you have choices. Guys are hitting on you, people are coming and approaching you, but you get to be picky.

You don’t get with every guy. You don’t get with everybody. Nobody wants that person. We’ll reverse this in case anybody thinks that’s sexist. I want to be the sexy guy at the bar. Let’s say you’re the sexy guy at the bar, you’re not going to get with every girl. If women know that you’re getting with every girl, you’re not the sexy guy at the bar. You’re the garbage.

Don’t be the garbage that gets with every client. You want to make sure that you’re getting with just the clients that you really want to be with, that you really enjoy working with, that you really feel like they value you. When you do that, it puts out a different message in the marketplace and puts out a different perception about you and your business. Not just that, even if they don’t know anybody else, your air, your demeanor, how people perceive you, and how you come across during the sales process is going to be like the sexy guy or the sexy girl at the bar.

You’re going to be able to maintain a frame of confidence. If you aren’t able to maintain a frame of confidence, you then hurt the number one thing that people want to buy from you, which is safety and certainty. This is really what’s for sale. Nobody wants to buy property management. That’s not sexy. That’s not interesting. They don’t care about property management. Your clients don’t give a […] about property management. They’re not interested in property management. What they really want is safety and certainty. They want peace of mind.

For most people on the planet, safety and certainty are one of their highest priorities. For most entrepreneurs, I’ve talked about the four reasons in a previous episode, but they want fulfillment, freedom, contribution, and support. But for most of your clients, most people, and your team members, they’re going to want safety and certainty. That’s more important. If you recognize that, then that’s what you’re selling is safety and certainty.

Guess one of the easiest ways to destroy safety and certainty during your sales process. That’s to fold on your pricing, to cave in, to not maintain a masculine or dominant frame in which you are the trusted authority (whether or not you’re male or female). They’re coming to you looking for guidance, they’re looking for authority, and they’re looking for leadership. You have to maintain that frame that you are the sexy guy or girl at the bar. You are the prize.

That means you are going to have a conversation with them to see if they will be a good fit for your business. I want to see if your property and you would be a good fit for our portfolio, Mr. Owner or Mrs. Owner. That’s the idea. You have to shift the conversation that you’re qualifying. This is one of the biggest things in sales, the biggest mistakes in sales, but also the biggest factors you’ll hear sales trainers or salespeople talk about. You have to qualify the prospect, which means you don’t want every prospect. You don’t want every client.

If you start actually qualifying them, sit down and figure out, what do I really want? What is my ideal client? Look at them through that filter. Ask them some questions. Make them qualify. Have some requirements that are essential in order for them to be allowed into your portfolio. Hey, Mr. Owner, let’s have a conversation to see if you and your property would be a good fit for us to manage.

When you shift that and you turn the tables that way, it changes their perspective too. You’re setting the rules of the engagement or the game to be, I’m going to see if you’re a good fit. You’re welcome to see if you like me as well. But I get to be picky because I recognize that I’m one of the most attractive people at the bar. I’m one of the most attractive businesses that do property management. They’re going to perceive you as such because you value yourself as such.

The second you fold on your frame, which means you cave on your pricing, you come down, you use language that’s not confident, or you make concessions, you shift immediately out of being the authority and the expert in their mind, which is who they want to feel safe and certain into being basically in their mind, somebody they’re going to have to micromanage. You become an employee or a child to them in their mind. They’re like, oh, I’m going to have to tell this property manager how to do their job. Then they’re going to want custom reports, they’re going to want custom concessions, and they want you to fold in your pricing and change things. They’re going to want you to customize your contract.

When you maintain a frame that says, this is what we expect and you can take it or leave it. You can do things our way or you can go find another company. We’re good because there’s plenty of business for us out there, then you are the sexy guy or girl at the bar. You recognize you are the prize.

Help your potential clients make that decision. Make the right decision by having that safety and certainty by being certain in what you are, and that you are the best. If you lack that confidence deep down because deep down you aren’t really sure if you’re good, you aren’t really sure if you’re really providing value, then you have to start taking care of that. That’s stuff that we get into in our mastermind a bit as well is talking about how to actually be the company and know that you’re the company that does a really great job. That you get to be the sexy guy or girl at the bar. That’s going to give you a lot more confidence.

If you are having trouble or challenges with any of this, you know you’re showing up with a lack of confidence. You don’t have confidence or certainty in your language. You are not able to maintain a frame that you’re the expert, that you’re getting a lot of really price-sensitive people or cheapos in the marketplace, you’re doing something wrong. My clients are not doing these things wrong after they’ve been working with me for a while.

If you’re struggling with these things, you may be interested in joining some of the most badass entrepreneurs in property management on the planet, which are in our mastermind. We have about 70 businesses in this mastermind. It’s relatively new. We have 70 businesses in this mastermind, which is awesome.

It’s amazing to hear their wins and the results each week. In fact, the ones that are having the most wins, they’re not even able to show up to the calls because they’re so busy, which is just awesome. There is no scarcity in the industry right now. There’s plenty of business available. There’s plenty of opportunities.

The best clients are not the ones that are the cheapos, that are at the end of the sales cycle, that are searching on Google trying to price shop you. Those are the worst. We don’t want to build portfolios based on the worst and set your pricing in the industry. Throughout the industry, it’s usually based on the worst, the cheapos of the industry, the cheapo investors. We want you to capture people earlier in the sales cycle that are better, that you really enjoy working with where you can be a lot pickier.

Cool. All right, if you’re interested in that, check us out at doorgrow.com, reach out, and let’s get you on a call with my team and see if we can help you grow your business. That’s all I have to share today. A short little episode to share with you that you are the prize. Take some action and pay attention in your interactions throughout today and throughout the week recognizing that you are the prize. Establish yourself as the prize and maintain the frame that you are the prize and you will find that people will treat you very differently.

Just like that dating analogy, if we apply this to a real-life situation, it starts to become really obvious. Nobody wants to go get with the person that gets with everybody. Don’t be that person. That’s all I’m going to say for today. I am out. Until next time, everyone, to our mutual growth. Bye, everyone.

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