First Edition of The Outbound Engine

The Lead - Why?

If you’re reading this, I’m grateful for you. Over the last 6.5 years in the industry, I’ve gotten to know so many great people. The single family property management space is a fun niche to be a part of.

I feel fortunate that I stumbled into this industry by way of a little startup that shipped air filters to tenants. I was looking for a sales job with a startup company based in Raleigh, and happened to be a customer of a company called “FilterEasy”.

I had no idea they had a program for property management companies, at the time they advertised very little on that front. It was early enough that they didn’t want people stealing their secret sauce. Back then, the B2B sales org was about 15 people (200+ today I believe).

Being part of the team at FilterEasy/Second Nature was a true privilege. I learned a great deal about sales, leadership and the property management industry. I was fortunate to be in an enivronment with fantastic people, working together to build something special. You’ll get plenty of stories from “the early days” at SN here.

In 2023, I left Second Nature to go lead sales at a start-up called Rescover. What drew me there specifically was their absentee owner database. As a salesperson I thought, “This is a prospecting gold mine!”. But as I talked to more and more people, it became clear that outbound was new territory for most.

Don’t get me wrong, inbound leads are great. But what do you do when what comes to you, isn’t enough? I’ve been in roles where no leads were given to me at all, others where I was swimming in interested prospects lined up to learn more.

The reality is that regardless of your situation, you have a goal to hit. Maybe you’ve set that goal for your salesperson, or you set it for yourself. There has to be ownership over that result. Owning the number means being proactive.

I have a deeply held belief that the next frontier of property management is outbound sales and marketing. No one would deny that the competition in this space is growing by the day. As a vendor, I talk to entrepreneurs every week who are starting PM companies.

Gone are the days where investors have only a few options. Not only are there more PM companies, there are more tools, resources and information available to self-managing landlords.

I could say a lot about the value of professional property management. The work PMs do day in and day out is hard! You solve problems, you navigate difficult situations. Ultimately you’re making life easier for your clients because if you weren’t there, they would be trying to navigate these situations on their own. But in order to take advantage of your service, they need to know you exist and trust you.

Outbound is about bringing that value to an audience who doesn’t yet know you can help. Opening their eyes to a better way forward, a solution they can’t yet articulate or imagine is out there.

No one has a silver bullet for growth. If they did, that edge wouldn’t last long. My goal is to provide my insight from my experiences, and encouragement to the bold individuals who want to make outbound a key component of their strategy.

Sales isn’t for the faint of heart. Whether you’re a BDM or a business owner trying to build something, what you’re doing isn’t easy. Sales is hard. You will be rejected more times than not. The best of the best commit, and they push forward. I hope I can be an encouragement to those who want to stay in the trenches.

Thanks again for subscribing. Keep going.

The Return! We’re Back

In 2023 I had the pleasure of working alongside my friend Kristen Lopez at Rescover. We launched a podcast called “Grow Outbound” to talk about outbound business development in property management. We both loved doing it, so much so that we’re bringing it back!

Kristen is the co-founder of PM Pathbuilders, specializing in helping property management companies define and create processes to eliminate inefficiencies and scale. She has extensive experience in the industry and business development.

We’re excited to be back in the podcasting game. Here’s episode one of Outbound On-Air!