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Casago’s private podcast helping our patners with educational information that can help everyone find success.
It's the CasaCast.
We've got Orange Credo.
The CasaCast.
Our company's neato.
The CasaCast.
Created by CasaGo.
It's time for the show.
Let's go.
Hey, welcome to CasaCast.
Today with Ruth Fouts.
Ruth Fouts is the founder of Venturi.
He's a market leader and has literally
created an entire segment in our industry.
I've known Brooke now for about five
years and have learned a lot from him and
have been grateful for his friendship.
Today, we're going to be talking about
seven things he's learned in helping
700 companies grow their inventory.
Brooke, welcome to the show.
Steve.
So glad to be here, man.
Thanks for having me.
. So Brooke, we met about five years
ago, I believe at a streamline summit.
I don't even remember that if
that was where it was or not,
but it sounds about right.
Yeah.
It seems like I've known you forever now.
And in that time you've taken Venturi
from literally sort of just an idea
all the way to a market leader.
Everybody knows Venturi in our industry
and the good things you've done.
Well, yeah, I appreciate that.
It was, uh, there wasn't
a straight line for sure.
There wasn't a, you know, really
even a category called inventory
acquisition before we started.
Um, and, uh, As I heard, you know,
one of my mentors said before,
like, when you want to start a
business, start a business, it's
something that you know really well.
And it's something that you're
really passionate about.
And that's exactly what I did.
And, uh, but again, there
wasn't really a, an industry.
There wasn't a vertical, there
wasn't a company to copy.
And we really kind of created this
category of, of inventory acquisition.
Now it's got a little bit more popular
now and a couple other companies have
jumped into it because of, I guess they've
seen our success, but yeah, just, uh,
happy to do it and having fun doing it.
Brooke, when you thought about what
your future was going to be and
how you're going to create a new
company, what made you decide this
should be what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go help
people grow their business.
What was the spark?
You know, obviously I've been in this
industry for about seven, uh, 17 years.
And one of the things that I think I
did pretty well was, you know, I, when I
first kind of jumped into this industry,
I started a company called managers
or realty and grew up pretty fast,
grew up from zero to 500 properties.
You know, I thought
that was kind of normal.
And then I would go to conferences and
I would, you know, people would ask, you
know, they're kind of the modern day,
like how many head of cattle do you have?
The question that's, you know,
how many properties do you manage?
And I would always kind of tell
them that and everyone's jaws would
drop about kind of how fast we grew.
And so I got asked to like
start doing some presentations
at VRMA and events like that.
And, you know, next thing you know, I
kind of became like the inventory guy.
And, you know, when I kind of became
a free agent, I was looking for
something to do, you know, again, I
went back to, you know, when one of my
mentors said, he's like, Brooke, you
know, do something you're passionate
about, do something you really enjoy.
And Do something you really like.
And honestly, I really didn't enjoy
the, the operational part of growing a
company, but I love the growth side of it.
So I actually decided to call a
couple of friends that called like
three or four friends that were in
the industry and said, Hey, I think
I'm about starting this company
and this is what we're going to do.
And every one of them, like,
you know, 30 seconds into my
pitch said, Brooke, shut up.
I'm in, you know, I
didn't tell him the price.
I didn't tell him how much
I didn't, you know, I didn't
really have a business plan.
I didn't have a pricing sheet.
Um, so that was really the catalyst
of what kind of launched us.
And then it's, you know, and that's kind
of the beauty of starting businesses.
I think it's, it's like, start with
something, you know, so many people get
caught up in trying to, you know, build
out the entire business plan and have
every single thing answered on the other
way, I build something, get something
in the hands of your customers and see
what they think of it, and then just,
you know, iterate from, from there.
And that's kind of what we did.
And even though we weren't software out
of the gates, I think it's You know,
we were kind of followed that MVP kind
of a process, you know, that so many
software companies do, but we did it
really initially as a, as a marketing
agency out of the, out of the gates.
Yeah.
And in that time, you've grown
your company from literally zero to
how many clients do you have now?
Yeah, so I think we're, we're just
shy of 400 partners on our platform.
We've got about 50 employees.
We've got companies all over the us.
We have a couple companies outside
the us but for the majority,
they're, they're, they're US based.
Um, and yeah, we've grown that
in the last, uh, five years.
So just like I grew my vacation
rental management company from
zero to 500 properties in five
years, I've grown this, uh, to, uh,
almost 400 in, in five years too.
So That's incredible.
And you've written a couple books.
Uh, one is zero to 500
properties in five years.
And that's been a success.
, you've had got a lot of
copies out there now.
Yeah.
So I don't think I've announced this,
but we're actually just about to surpass,
uh, between the two books, uh, 10,
000 copies, either we've given away
at conferences, uh, or sold on Amazon.
Yeah, really, really proud of that fact.
And I mean, not too many people can
say they've sold or given away 10, 000
books, but it's, uh, glad to do it.
And, um, you know, all a hundred percent.
I just wrote a check every quarter.
I look at my.
My Kindle account and how much, uh, we
made and, uh, all 100 percent of the
proceeds go to, uh, advocacy efforts
for the vacation rental industry.
So just wrote a check to, uh, to
VMI, uh, a couple of weeks ago.
That's good for you.
And then you mentioned the second
book, but the second book is the
vacation rental secrets, right?
Yeah, that's this one.
I wasn't really planning on doing.
Um, and it actually went
really, really fast.
It all started from a LinkedIn post
where I just asked a couple friends.
I said, Hey, do you mind sharing some
of your mistakes and push that out?
And it went viral.
And next thing you know, I had, you
know, just tons of people were following
this and, you know, reaching out to me.
And I was like, man,
this content's too good.
Um, I actually went to a conference.
I think I was at the Northwest VRP.
And somebody came up to me and said, Hey,
Brooke, I never met this person before.
They're like, I love your post
on these, uh, the mistakes.
In fact, I print everyone out and
I put it into a three ring binder.
So I'm like, wait, you're
making like a book out of it.
And he said, exactly.
And I was like, that was kind of
like the light bulb moment for me.
I'm like, you know, this content's too
good just to having a LinkedIn post.
So we We turned all that
content into a book.
We summarized it.
And again, we, we give those away.
Um, if anybody wants a copy,
obviously they can email me
directly at brookinventory.
com.
Happy to have me to give them a
copy, either one of those books.
You've always been really generous
with knowledge and information.
And today you're going to be generous
with us with some information.
Appreciate you doing that.
So, Brooke, we're talking about the
seven lessons learned when you're helping
over 700 companies grow their inventory.
And for number one, you said they
understand the value of good data.
What do you mean by that?
If you think about it, you know,
they, they say data is the new gold.
And, um, one of, uh, our chief
revenue officer, Rob, who, you know,
really well, uh, he says, you know,
50 percent of all your marketing
just comes down to your list.
And it's true.
So true.
If you think about it, if you're going to
market, do proactive marketing, like you
have to have really, really good data.
I mean, I would much rather
have really, really good data.
And send a small amount then, you know,
just spraying it out there to everybody.
Um, so whether that's, you know, getting
that data from, you know, multiple
different sources, you can get it from,
there's many list brokers out there.
You can buy data from, there's
several companies in our space
that, you know, sell data for this.
You can, you know, uh, scrape,
you know, the, the OTAs, you can
scrape Airbnb, Vrbo, booking.
com, you know, you can get vacation
rental permit lists, which will
be one that's often overlooked.
Um, and then just compiling
that data and then, you know,
appending it to get emails, to get
phones, to get mailing addresses,
there's a whole process in that.
And I mean, that's probably where we
spend about 50 percent of our time, uh,
inventory is really just building out a
robust database of target data, because
again, that's, that's half the battle.
Because if you think about it, if,
if you can get somebody where they're
a higher propensity to make a move,
you can save, uh, some money versus,
you know, just spraying out to every
single person in a, in a zip code.
When you're thinking about how you
understand your data, like what
are some of the key pieces that
you're thinking, like, okay, this
is all a big contact list, but maybe
somebody would ask themselves, how
am I supposed to understand this?
Like, what am I looking for and
what am I trying to understand?
Well, it's understanding
what is your ideal?
What's your ICP, your
ideal customer profile?
What does it look like?
And what I usually
recommend is start there.
You know what I mean?
Get a list, get a spreadsheet of your
current customers, your current owners.
Where are they?
What buildings are they in?
Where are their addresses?
Look at it on a map.
Look at where those properties are.
Look at even where they live.
Uh, I think there's a great
story of, uh, Drew Brown.
Uh, you know, he realized in Hilton
Head that a lot of his owners,
you know, came from one little
specific, uh, town in, uh, Ohio.
So he actually went out to Ohio and
did, like, a real estate seminar and
actually got people to come out to
it, um, because he just recognized it.
And he didn't, he wouldn't have
noticed that if he didn't put it
onto a map and noticed that all these
owners lived in, like, with a zip
code in some random town in Ohio.
Um, so really understanding like
where those targets are coming from.
What is your ideal
customer profile look like?
Um, and then, you know, it's just
reaching out to them and then you can
obviously do it in multiple different
methods and we'll talk about that.
But obviously there's, you
know, direct mail still works.
We'll talk about that in a second.
Email works.
Um, you can do some
really creative things.
If you have their emails in your
phones, you can do some really
cool, creative digital marketing
where you're actually serving up
ads directly on their social feeds.
But you can only do that if you
have a really strong, robust
database and people don't understand
how difficult that actually is.
This is not like where you're just, you
know, you're not just buying a list from
a list broker and just starting there.
Um, you know, there's a lot of different
things like, you know, we, we have an
entire data science team on our, our team.
I think we have four people on our team
that that's all they do full time is
they're going through there, getting
that data, compiling it, but then there's
other really creative things you can do.
So, you know, I'll give
you a perfect example.
If you get just, let's say
if you're just leveraging.
Call it like a vacation rental permit
list, or if you're just leveraging,
uh, like a scraped OTA list, you may
be missing out on a lot of targets.
So one thing we've actually been able
to do is let's just say you realize
that a lot of your targets are in a
couple of different, you know, if you're
in a condo market or in a couple of
buildings, well, what you can do is we
have this button in our platform that
actually allows you to select and hit
every single person in that building.
So, yes, you may only have like
10 records out of a building
that has 200 people in it.
But if you hit, it's kind of like
the boost up or the power up button,
you know, on like when you play
Nintendo, you hit that button.
And then what you're now doing is
you're hitting every single one
of those targets in that building.
Cause you know, if you've got 10 targets
potentially in there, then maybe the rest
of those, uh, could be targets as well,
but you don't have their addresses, but
kind of powering up or boosting up the,
you know, you, you allows you to do that.
So, um, yeah, there's a lot of different
things you can do, but it is mission
critical to really start with that
really good solid list out the gates.
Yeah, that's really cool.
By the way, that's, you know, a
target rich environment is what we
called that in the military, right?
You know, that you've, you've
got a few targets there and
obviously you're doing well.
So target rich environment, Brooke
for number two, you said they're
consistent in their marketing.
I mean, this one, I
cannot preach this enough.
You know, the, the best companies, the
companies that have the most success.
You know, just like they very often do
on a guest marketing, they build out
their marketing calendar 12 months in
advance, they lay it all out there,
they have their direct mail outline,
you know, whether it's every month
or every other month or at once a
quarter, but they've got it laid out.
They have their emails kind
of like laid out there.
They've got their digital laid
out there, and it's, it's great.
You know, obviously they're making
some adjustments as they go, but they
stick to it because the companies that
we see that usually end up failing
are the ones that the law about one
or two postcards and they say all this
doesn't work and then they, they, they
stop and they'd never do it again.
But you have to, there's, there's
something that was developed.
I think it was developed by
the movie industry actually.
In the 1930s or 1950s, something like that
is called the marketing rule of seven.
And what it says is it takes on average
about seven touch points before somebody
actually recognizes your brand So you have
to be in front of them seven different
times before they even recognize you and
you have to be in front of them And you
know, here's another thing some people
say well brooke This is our busy season.
They're right in the middle of
summer We you know, we don't
want to you know market to them.
That's stupid.
Nobody's making a move right now and so
But you're planting those seeds and what
you're doing is you want to get in front
of them while it's top of mind, you know,
maybe they just went to their house,
you know, they just spent a week down
in their vacation home and they realized
that the cleaning was less than par.
Maybe they realize there's lots of damage.
Maybe their rentals aren't that good.
Maybe they're off a little bit this year.
You want to get in front of them be top
of mind because here's what happens.
We have tracking specific
phone number tracking on every
marketing campaign we do.
We see how long people are
holding on to these pieces.
People are holding on to these pieces
for a month, six months, even a year.
We've even had some a
year and a half later.
And the person calls are like, I've been
holding on to this postcard, just waiting
for the right time, you know, to do it.
So you have to be in front
of them and be top of mind.
Um, you know, be consistent, uh, for sure.
It reminds me of those, you ever been to
those like arcade games where You drop
a quarter in and then you just drop it.
Then there's like thousands of
quarters and just eventually
it ends up like tipping.
It's just, you got to keep dropping those
quarters in and eventually it pays off.
And, but here's the beauty of it.
You don't need a lot, like the
ROI, you don't need a huge response
rate for it actually to pencil out.
The ROI is so solid on some
of you sign up a new owner.
These contracts are so valuable.
I mean, you only need about a
half of 1 percent response rate
to a 1 percent response rate.
And just an average conversion rate and
the ROI pencils out as long as you're
in a market that, you know, that has,
you know, properties doing, you know,
north of 20, 000 in gross public revenue.
Yeah.
Brooke, that reminds me of in
2008, when the economic crash
was happening, I needed cash.
And I decided I had to sell my
airplane to make payroll and do
the things that had to get done.
And as I walked into my house, I was
like, okay, how am I going to do this?
And there'd been a gentleman sending
me postcards of really interesting,
uh, airplanes on the front and on the
back is like, if you're looking to buy
or sell your airplane, give me a call.
And he'd done that for several years.
And I walked into my
kitchen and open the drawer.
And there was five of his postcards that
I'd saved because they were cool airplanes
as a, you know, as an enthusiast, I
picked it up, turned it over, called them.
And some of those postcards
had been there for a long time.
And, uh, yeah, he got the business and
he got the broker, the sale of that
airplane, but it was all because of these
little three by five, you know, whatever,
whatever size it were small postcards
with cooler planes on the front of it.
And it's the same thing for us.
Absolutely.
I mean, I I'll tell one other story
similar to that about a year or two
after I graduated college, I wanted
to start a mortgage banking operation.
You know, when you're 23 years
old, you don't have any money.
So what do you do?
You go to dad, you know, went to
dad and dad's like, well, here's
what I'll do for you, Brooke.
He owned another small business.
He's like, I've been getting
this damn letter from Wells Fargo
saying that they have a 50, 000
line of credit for me available.
He goes, I'm not going to give you the
money, but I'll, I'll co sign for you
with this right here with this 50, 000,
but He even made the comment before
he's like, they've been sending me this
line of credit, uh, information forever.
And I've just, that's,
I'm like, what a waste.
Why are they wasting their
money and sending this to me?
But sure enough, a couple of years
later, we took advantage of it.
And that was the 50, 000.
We, we launched our mortgage
banking operation and it was just
kind of ironic, but the same kind
of thing, same, same comment.
He never called on it, never planned
on calling on it, was making fun of
them for sending it to us consistently.
And sure enough, we ended up
leveraging that to launch the business.
One last story, Spencer and Carpentry
had sent a letter out to some of the
neighbors and sure enough, a year later,
the woman called right after Christmas
and said, I'd had your letter on my
refrigerator for nearly a year now.
And I decided I was going to give myself
a Christmas present and get a new property
manager when I saw the statement I got
this last month and he got the deal.
So that's pretty cool.
We hear that.
I hear it all the time,
time and time again.
So for number three, Brooke,
you said they utilize the seven
messaging building blocks in all
the marketing to new homeowners.
What does that mean?
This one took me a while to kind of
formulate and this one definitely
didn't come out of the gates.
Um, I mean, this, this probably,
Probably took a couple of years
for us to really figure this out.
But what I realized was, you know, if
I looked at all the messaging, um, so
anytime you want to message to a new
homeowner, um, you know, it doesn't matter
what it is, it could be a direct mail
piece, it could be an email, it could be.
Uh, owner presentation, you know, whatever
it happens to be like every single
marketing piece Needs to follow the seven
key messaging building blocks And you
know again, this has morphed over time
and we've added and we take the way but we
really you know This is the way it's been
for probably about three or four years now
Um, so what it comes down to is whenever
you're going to market to them Just make
sure you have all these pieces in it.
It's almost like a checklist
And again, if anybody wants
to email me, brookeinventory.
com, we actually have a worksheet.
Happy to send it to you.
It has lots of different examples.
And what I love about this is
once you build this out, you
have this as your baseline.
And you use this in any of your marketing
efforts that you do from then on.
So you don't have to be creative.
Again, you've got it written out there.
So we'll go through them
really, really quickly.
So the first is, uh, USP.
What is your unique selling proposition?
This is like, what is the one
thing that makes you different?
What is the one thing that sets you apart?
You know, this is not like a platitude,
you know, it's like, so, you know, if
you think outside of our industry, you
know, think of Tom's shoes, you know, buy
one, give one, like that's their thing.
So, like, just what's that
one thing that sets you aside?
Number two, what are those
key features and benefits?
Like, this is like really
what's in it for the owner.
What's, what's the part of your
rental program that sets you aside?
Like, you know, whether it's, you've
got, you know, a full time revenue
manager or, You know, you've got, uh,
what, you know, triple inspections
on, you know, uh, on cleanings.
It's just like, what are the parts
that really just highlight your rental
program that you make it unique?
And, um, I'm sure you've got some good
tips on there where it's not this like
platitudinal, uh, you know, thing.
So number three is, uh,
what we call trust icons.
These are really cool.
It almost helps at like a subconscious
level, establishing trust and credibility.
So someone just glances and they see
this, they may not even notice it.
You know, but maybe they are
at the subconscious level.
So, you know, just like maybe
they're a member of the VMA, maybe
they're, , a plus rating on the, you
know, better business bureau, maybe
they're their Airbnb superhost, maybe
they're a VRBO, , premier partner.
Um, you know, those kinds of
things, you know, help kind of
build those trust and credibility.
Uh, you know, maybe you're, you
know, we, we just launched on
comparant, uh, our sister company.
Market leader.
So this is the top 1 percent of all
vacational managers are market leaders.
Um, so like put that badge
on there and celebrate that,
uh, number four social proof.
So social proof is a, it's a, it's a,
again, it's like another kind of like
psychological phenomenon where people
actually trust the actions of others.
To help them make a decision.
They actually feel that some people
have more knowledge about the situation
than they do and what's going on.
So it's also evidence that, you
know, people, uh, you know, signed
up with you and they've seen kind
of some value from your services.
So obviously a perfect, you know, the
tried and true one is social proof
of social proof is testimonials.
So, you know, if you have a testimonial,
um, and what I like to do is, and we can
talk about this later, but like, if you
do any kind of micro targeting, so if
you're targeting very specific communities
or buildings, make sure the testimonials
are for people in that building or in
that, you know, in that community, it just
resonates a little bit, you know, better.
The fifth thing, compelling offers.
So just really, you know, craft
really good, compelling offers
to make them irresistible.
I mean, not to sound cheesy, but
it's kind of like the infomercials.
I mean, there's a reason why infomercials
follow the same format because they
work, you know, so, but have some kind
of compelling offer that I would say it's
like, it knocks them off their stool.
You have to do something that kind
of gets them just out of the, just,
they're used to like seeing the
same stuff over and over again.
So.
You know, give them some
reason to reach out.
So it could be like a free smart
locks or 0 percent commission for the
first six months or a signing bonus.
I've even seen a lot of people leverage,
you know, here's my acid test for
a really good, compelling offer.
So envision your ICP or ideal
customer profile standing over the
trash can or the recycling bin.
And they're just going
through the direct mail.
And they're just dropping it in the
trash can drop it in their cycling bin.
And they come across your postcard and
they're literally dropping into the trash
can and they stop because they see like.
I'm telling you, it could be like a
signing bonus or could be something that
stops them in their tracks and all you
want to do is just put that postcard
aside and not throw it away and then
they can make that decision later.
Maybe, like you said,
they put it in the drawer.
It did something to kind of
give them the reason to act.
So that's a kind of a good acid
test for a good, compelling offer.
Here's another one that's kind
of similar to the infomercial.
It's called risk reversals.
So risk reversals like are
transferring the risk from the
buyer to the seller, like make it
really easy for them to sign up.
Like don't give them any excuses, you know
what I mean on why they should sign up.
So, you know, this is a little bit
controversial, but like, you know, I
actually recommend don't doing long
term contracts personally, um, or
maybe, you know, no startup fees, you
know, and I, when I would go around
that first year, I signed, you know,
when I first launched inventory, I went
around, you were one of them, uh, I
went to 34 onsite, you know, visits.
And I would ask about the rental program
and so many people had sign up fees and I
would say these contracts are so valuable
like you're adding another hurdle to make
them sign up, reduce friction, reduce
the, you know, the friction and signing
up, you know, make it so easy for them
to sign up that they have no excuses.
And adding startup fees is
sometimes just another excuse.
And now I've gotten pushback on that,
but I still believe in it because I
want to, you know, I want to get the,
you know, how many people did you
pretend, what's your opportunity costs?
How many people did you lose because
you didn't, uh, you know, have that
in there or, you know, say what
you will about evolve, evolve as a
great example of risk reversal, if
you're not happy, you can cancel.
And they'll send you 100 percent
refund of your management fees.
Think about that.
100 percent refund of
your management fees.
Now, if you read the fine print,
it's only between month, like six
and seven and stuff like that.
But at least it sounds really good.
You know, and it gives them kind
of like, what do you got to lose?
You know, no money out of
pocket, you know, no startup
fees, no long term contract.
You can cancel and get
a 100 percent refund.
You know what I mean?
So to me, it's a, it's a perfect, you
know, kind of what I call the, you
know, the infomercial risk reversal.
And then last but not least,
and it's funny that people
forget this one all the time.
It's so obvious, but they do.
It's called CBA, CTA call to
action, like every marketing
piece you have, it doesn't matter.
Make it so simple.
Like it's amazing when I go around
whenever we would meet new partners and
we would look at their landing page.
Like there's no easy way to sign up.
There's no easy way to inquire like
you should make it like the call
to action should be on that page so
many different times where they don't
even have to think about it later.
There should be a call to action no
matter how you're scrolling down and
every piece of that web that landing
page or, you know, You know, even
on, like, when you send a direct mail
piece, give them different options.
You know, my mom, for example, like,
she wants to call and talk to somebody.
Don't force them to just go to a website.
Give them a phone number that someone, and
we'll talk about this later, but actually,
someone actually answers the phone.
But my brother, on the other hand, like,
he doesn't want to talk to anybody.
He's an introvert.
You know, he wants to
just text the person.
You know, and he'd rather do that
thing than going to a landing page.
So give them the option to text.
Give them the option to call.
Give them the option to
go to a landing page.
Give them different options
on this call to action.
To fit kind of those
different demographics.
So again, those are the seven
key messaging, uh, you know,
building blocks that need to
be on every marketing PC there.
You said it at the beginning of
this, but I feel like after hearing
these seven people are going to
want to ask you for that worksheet.
Can you tell everybody
how to get that worksheet?
Yeah, just email me.
We've got this great worksheet.
Brooke, B R O O K E at ventori.
com and happy to send you the worksheet.
It's got all those
examples I talked about.
It's got the seven key messaging
and you know, it even gives you
blanks so you can fill them in
and then you've got your sheet.
And then next time you do a marketing
piece, just reference that, that
worksheet and you've got it ready to go.
And it's easy peasy.
I feel like that could have
been a podcast all to itself.
So that was really good stuff.
So for number four, you said
they leveraged technology to make
themselves effective and efficient.
It's kind of like Tony Stark
technology to me is like.
Giving, uh, Tony Stark, the Ironman suit.
Look, I've been in everyone's shoes.
You know what I mean?
We grew our company.
You're answering tons of calls.
You, I mean, your, your
phones are blowing up.
Like you don't have the bandwidth to sit
there and constantly do the follow up.
So make yourself more productive.
Again, these contracts are super
valuable leverage technology.
So there's a couple of
different things you can use.
The first one is, I mean, and again, this
blows my mind that most people don't do
this because it's funny if I ask them,
do you have a CRM to track guests, you
know, past guests or, you know, any
guests and the answer is always yes.
You know, absolutely 100%.
But then I asked if they have
a CRM for, you know, owners.
And I mean, luckily, more and
more people are starting to do it.
But I would say 90 percent don't.
The majority are using
either, uh, Post it notes.
They're using yellow legal pads.
Some are using, uh, Excel spreadsheet.
And maybe 1 percent is
using like a HubSpot.
But just use something because
these leads are so, so valuable.
And one of the things we found, so again,
After helping 700 different companies,
we've seen about 50 percent of the deals
that many of our partners are closing.
Most of our partners are closing.
They didn't close
initially out of the gates.
What they did is they actually put
it into our CRM and the marketing
automation did the follow up and
they closed it later many months
later and 50 percent of the deals.
So if you're not leveraging some kind of
CRM that has that marketing automation,
what you're doing is you're, you're
really losing because you do not have the
bandwidth because again, I've been in your
shoes, you don't have the bandwidth to sit
there and do the constant follow up unless
you have a full time business development
rep that is really, really good.
And even then.
Why would you, why, why wouldn't
you leverage this inexpensive
piece of technology for a
couple of hundred bucks a month?
I mean, HubSpot has a great version.
Now it's just a CRM, you know, in the
free version, if you want to start
getting the marketing automation,
you're going to have to start paying.
But Zoho has one Salesforce, obviously.
You know, shameless plug Venturi.
Obviously, we've got a CRM with
marketing automation built in.
So, so get something, you know, to
at least track those leads because
again, it's super, super valuable.
And again, 50 percent of the leads
are not closing out of the gates.
So, if you don't have out, I mean, they
don't have that kind of automation.
You're actually leaving money on the
table and you're losing deals because
you're, you're, I just trust me.
I know you're not falling off
at all those most of the time.
You know, we have so many things going
on as property managers, you know, and
even business development teammates,
you've got a thousand different people
you're talking to hundreds of things
happening day, emergencies, floods,
check ins, door codes that don't work.
And then to think that you're going
to have the mental bandwidth to go,
remember to go back two weeks to look at
a yellow pad, to call this person at a
certain day, it's just not realistic from
a point of just being a human being,
you're just not going to get to it.
Well, it's, it's kind of like
the Eisenhower matrix, right?
It's like, you know, important and
urgent, you know, like, it's like,
you're obviously going to do the things
that are just obviously really urgent,
you know, you're putting out fires and
sometimes literally, you know, and those
are the things, the screaming owner, the
screaming guests, the person that fell
off the deck, like those are the things
that are going to take your priority.
So.
Why not just leverage a piece
of technology can do that, that
drip for you automatically.
I think that one thing that I always
love to say about technology is supposed
to make you bionic, not robotic, right?
So it doesn't mean you
set it and forget it.
And then sending out messages and you
just expect a contract to sign up.
It's helping you build things out.
It's making you bionic, but
you still have to have input.
So it's not just robotic with nobody
giving real responses when it's time.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
And obviously there's tons of
different pieces of technology.
Go to a VRMA show and look at how,
how many different companies, how
many new companies are out there.
I mean, you can spend your entire
day, you know, doing nothing but
like signing up with new technology.
So you gotta be careful, you know, not to
go overboard, but at the same time, if you
can find things that really do make you
more productive, I would definitely do it.
You know, now specific to the use case of
getting new homeowners, you know, a couple
of things we've found, uh, as far as
pieces of technology that are really good.
Cold email outreach.
That is one that just, I mean, I just
got off the phone literally like an
hour ago, a new partner out of Sonoma.
And he just signed up two new first
email campaign out of the gates.
He signed up two new homeowners.
The first one was I think 140, 000,
uh, projected gross book and revenue.
And I think the other one was
150, 000 projected gross book
and revenue first email campaign.
So again, this goes back to point number
one, you have to have really good data.
That you have to have really,
really good data out of the gates.
But then secondly, like this is not
like, this is not constant contact.
This is not mail chimp type
of email, cold email outreach.
There is an art to it.
It is definitely a little
bit, be a little bit unique.
You're not writing these
beautiful, pretty letters.
This is very simple.
You're asking for a very light lift.
You just want to hit
them, hit them with small.
You want to look like you sent them
a direct message where it wasn't.
Cold crafted.
Um, and you know, what you're asking is
something as simple as like would you
like to see, you know, rental projection
on what we think we can do for your home?
We've been very successful helping
other neighbors, something like that.
Very simple, late lift.
You're not asking for them to
sign up right out of the gates.
And, um, Those little messages work,
and then it gives you the opportunity,
gives you a little bit of an inch, gets
you their foot in the door, and then
you can build out, uh, performa, then
you can kind of go over, you know, your
seven key messaging building blocks
of what makes you unique, your USPS
and, you know, features and benefits,
compelling offers and all those things.
And then hopefully you get them.
But.
I would recommend, um, there's
many different, you know, services
that do this, but use a specific
tool that's meant for this.
So like Mailshake is one, uh, Lendless
is another great cold email outreach, but
also if you don't know how to write direct
response copy, and there's definitely,
again, like I said, an art to it, find
somebody that does know how to write
direct response copy, have them write like
a three email campaign sequence for you.
We're big fans of Upwork.
You're probably going to hear
me talk about Upwork a lot.
Just hire somebody on Upwork for a couple
hundred bucks and just have them write
it for you and then just put that into
Lendlist or Mailshake and let them,
uh, you know, send that out there.
And off he goes, that brings us to number
five, they send direct mail consistently.
So direct mail is not dead.
The vacation industry, many people
think, uh, you know, they're, I've
had many partners, very successful
partners with us kind of roll
their, their eyes on direct mail.
They're like, you know, look,
we're a technology based company.
We're forward thinking like
seriously broke direct mail.
Well, guess what direct mail works in
a vacational industry is one of the
few industries where it still works,
but you gotta be consistent with it.
You also obviously, Hey, you have
to be, you got to leverage that.
We talked about before there's
seven key messaging building blocks.
USP's, features and benefits,
call to action, compelling
offer, all the other ones.
But you have to be consistent.
I would much rather send a thousand
postcards six times over the course of
a year or six months than I would have
to just drop in 6, 000 all at one time.
There's a compounding effect there.
People are not ready to make
a decision all the time.
Again, we talked about the rule of seven.
There's really a compounding effort,
you know, the R and again, the ROI
is there, the math pencils out.
I don't know how old this is, but
I had a stat that I remember I
said in one of my presentations
previously, but the CASA sends 7.
5 million mailers per year.
They wouldn't do that.
They tracking all of this, right?
They wouldn't be doing
that if it didn't work.
And I actually read, if you actually
dig into their investor deck, their
organic CAC or customer acquisition
cost is actually a third of the
cost of what their M and a was.
So they were spending on average 6,
700, I believe on an organic CAC basis
versus a 21, 000 on an M and a basis.
So a third of the cost.
So look, if the cost is doing
it, that's why they send 7.
5 million mailers per year
because it was our number one, you
know, ways to grow organically.
One of the things that Vicasa
has done well is push, push,
push for homeowner acquisition.
If they're nothing else, they're
consistent in their homeowner acquisition
marketing that has been systematic
and on point since the beginning.
Number six, they have the right person
in the business development role.
And I think this is an
incredible discussion point.
I'm looking forward to
hearing your thoughts on this.
I'll be a little candid
and vulnerable right here.
I mean, here's the thing.
I, we can do everything
right on the Venturi side.
We can get the right lists.
We can help them create the
best marketing campaigns.
We can send out those marketing campaigns.
But if they don't have the right
person in that role, closing the deals.
They're never going to be successful.
And, you know, this was kind of a
epiphany, I guess, last February for
me is I actually had two partners
cancel back to back from each other.
And when I looked into their system,
I logged into their, uh, their
CRM, the one person that 34 new
untouched leads and the other one had
like 20 something leads untouched.
And when I called him back, I
was kind of like, Oh, sweet.
It wasn't us.
Wasn't our fault.
You know, they, you know, they just
didn't do their thing, you know,
thinking that they would stay on.
And they're like, yeah,
Brooke, you know what?
We hear you, but we're still canceling.
So it's like, we did
everything in our power.
We did everything successfully.
We generated the leads, you know,
we got it at a good CAC or a CPL
cost per lead, but they didn't have
the right person to close that.
And that was like an epiphany for me.
It's like, you know, it's so
important to have that right person.
And, but if I looked
across other companies.
So one thing we do is.
We do culture index.
Uh, there's also predictive
index, which is just as good.
So we do these psychometric
personality assessments on many
of our partners and consistently,
especially in the early days, when
I was onboarding every person, I was
going on site with every new partner.
I would notice the companies
that were successful.
One of the common traits is they
had a really good, strong business
development rep in that role.
That was very responsive, which we'll talk
about in a second, but they were just a
good salesperson, but they were the right.
They were that right profile that right
psychometric personality assessment, and
they will do I would notice they would
do three X the output of what many of the
other people were doing shameless plug,
you know, then Tory actually we launched
a fractional business development team,
and we did this specifically because we
knew the exact profiles of what people
were and we did all this really not
even to make money, but just so people
would stay on the platform because if
we could plug in a fractional business
development role, we're breaking even on
that position and they're closing deals.
They're going to be more
likely to stay on the platform.
So it's kind of ironic, we're pulling
in, you know, people into a software
platform just to, you know, reduce churn.
And, you know, even if it's, like I
said, at a break, even it works, but,
but yeah, the, the, if you have the right
profiles, you know, the trailblazers,
the persuaders, sometimes even, you
know, daredevils or mavericks or,
or rainmakers, uh, even enterprisers
sometimes too, they will do three X the
output of most of those other profiles.
I see it all the time.
You can get everybody right up to
the point, but if you're not calling
it back, if you're not following up,
sometimes even just the desire to want
to talk to new people, your efforts
are diminished pretty dramatically.
Again, candidly, that's what's so
challenging about our business.
Um, I can do everything, right?
We can, we can kill it, crush it.
But if they don't have that right
BD person in there, There's a
high probability it's actually
not going to be successful.
So we've actually tossed this out
in some of our leadership meetings.
It's like, do we do culture index on all
of our prospects in advance and make sure
they have that right person in the role.
And if they don't have the right person
in the role, And if they choose and,
you know, give them the option to sign
up with our fractional BD services,
but don't literally not even take on
anybody unless they actually do that.
And, uh, there's a solid argument then of
why that is, because we know if they have
the right BD role person in that role,
there are retention is incredibly longer.
It's the success of the ROI is
incredibly better than if they
don't have that person in there.
What are some of the
metrics inside the system?
You could say on a Weekly
basis or monthly basis.
You're like, okay, I'm going to look
at these four metrics to decide if my
business dev person is the right person.
And what would you say those
four metrics are first?
And we're gonna talk about that.
That's the number seven point.
But responsiveness, they have to
be responsive and they just have
to have a good closing ratio.
You want to see at least
a 25 percent close rate.
And if you're getting below that,
it's, it's hard for the, a lot of times
the numbers to pencil out because it
does cost a lot of money to generate
new leads, uh, on a cold basis.
But if you're generating them in
there and you're getting about a 25
percent close rate or higher, there's
almost always a pretty decent ROI.
And, but again, those, a lot of things
that are flushed out through those
psychometric personality tools, you
can get that in the interview process.
Really cool.
So we've touched on this number seven.
They're incredibly responsive.
Every vacation manager we
speak to, they want to grow.
They want to add new properties
and they want to know what the
silver bullet is that that does it.
But.
The irony is they, they want
the flashy things, right?
They want the beautiful marketing,
the pretty postcards, pretty
landing pages and stuff like that.
But it comes back to like the
fundamentals, you know, blocking
and tackling, it's like pick up
the damn phone when a lead calls
or respond really, really quickly.
You know, Mark Roberge, who is a, he was
like employee number three at HubSpot.
He was the chief marketing officer
there, chief revenue officer.
And now he's actually a
Harvard professor at sales.
And he owns a couple of VC firms.
Um, but he says, if you connect with
a lead immediately or call them back
within two minutes, the likelihood of
success is 10 X and just waiting one hour.
I'll say it again, 10 X
versus waiting just one hour.
And it's about 10, 000 times
more likely if you wait a day.
So, I mean, with our fractional BD
people, a team, like I've been out
of dinner with them with clients and
they will literally answer the call.
You know, some people think it's
rude, but they'll actually answer
the call at the dinner table,
even if they're with their family.
And they'll just say, look,
you know, thanks for calling.
You know what?
I'm actually having dinner with a client.
I'm having dinner with my family.
Would it be okay if I called you
back and, you know, half hour an hour
or, you know, what's the best time?
But just picking up that phone
sometimes because here's what happens.
They're just gonna they're not gonna
leave a message and they're just gonna
go to the next one, you know, and we
actually have some data to back that up.
So we actually jade on our
team who I know you've met.
Jade is awesome.
Oh my God.
She's incredible.
She, uh, she went around, she secret
shopped a hundred, uh, professional
vacation rental managers, and she
inquired about, she just specifically
called on like their, um, you
know, property management services.
And by the way, like here's
a little data point, like.
Call your numbers, like go
to your website, pretend like
you're an owner and you want to
sign up in your rental program.
How challenging is it?
Call your number.
Do you have to go through the phone tree,
which I highly recommend you don't do.
Um, do you, you know, does it go to
a voicemail, which most of the time
it does, you know, just what is that
experience like secret shop, your own
company, you'll, if you see how difficult
it is, You will change some things
immediately, especially when you realize
just again, how valuable these leads are.
So Jay went out, she secret
shopped a hundred companies.
She inquired about property
management services.
And like the results were like
astonishing people when I picked
up the phone 34 percent of time.
And this is after her going
through like all the call trees
and everything else menus.
And then when she left the message,
which again, as I said before, who
leaves messages anymore, they only
called us back 57 percent of the time.
Which means most management
companies are missing the majority
of opportunities that come in.
So I, I'll give you a perfect example.
Like, um, I, I was looking for
some help with my property down
and I have a personal vacation
down in Bethany beach, Delaware.
I was looking for some help on it.
I was calling around
some different companies.
One, one guy's website looked awesome.
He was a young professional, was in
some kind of career, did a career
change, just looked really good.
Another one was, You know, didn't
look so great, you know what I mean?
But he called me back
on Sunday immediately.
I mean, immediately, I guess
what the other kid never
called me back ever, you know?
Um, and who am I going with?
I went with it together for the
second guy, the guy that, you
know, called me back on a Sunday.
Who's he's like a 70 year old man.
You know what I mean?
Doesn't use a computer, you know, doesn't
even he mails me physical invoices, you
know, um, but he was quick and responsive
and he got the business, you know?
So, um, again, the most successful
companies we see out there, they
have 100 percent connectivity rate.
So when Jay did that exercise again, say
what you will about some of the large,
you know, venture backed companies,
the Casa had 100 percent success rate.
Every time she secret shop them
there, they're doing something right.
They understand the value of that.
Sometimes I think about when I've
shopped for things, I'm going
to buy a large purchase or, you
know, a service I'm looking for.
And I'm at the front end of this
funnel and I'm calling people.
I'm thinking, and I'm not getting
them to call me back or like, I'm
having to work to give them money.
And I keep thinking like, if I'm
working this hard to give you
money, how hard is it going to be
when I'm trying to get my money?
Right.
And, and that psychological thing, it
has to be happening with homeowners.
Like if it's this hard to sign up,
how hard is it to rent my place?
How hard is it when I've got a problem
with a work order or I got something
going, you know, wrong with my property.
I think making their lives
easier is their idea, right?
Because you can do this yourself.
The reason why you hire a property
manager is to take friction and work
and hardship out of your life, because
you're going to go off and do the
job that Earned you the property.
So if you're going to make it
harder as a property manager, how
much value do you really have?
That's a great point.
Steve, every touch point throughout
the process is an indicator of how
well run your other, your operation is.
If you've ever gone into a restaurant
and you'd look back in the kitchen
and it is just, So spotless.
It is just and they're not screaming.
They're just running in
a nice efficient manner.
Like that's why I love open kitchens.
You know, I remember my wife and I went
for our anniversary last year at Delta
Healdsburg, you know, kind of nap on
Sonoma area and um, we actually had an
open kitchen concept and we actually got
this one table that was right in front
of the, it was actually like a bar that
was overlooking the, uh, the kitchen.
And just seeing how methodical they
were about everything, how clean
everything was, and guess what?
It was one of the best meals ever.
You know what I mean?
So it's like, when you have this well
run operation and every other touch
point, it's usually a good indicator.
Or conversely, if they're seeing,
you know, miss mishaps and missing
appointments and non responsiveness in
the early days and early phases, you know,
it's, uh, it's probably a good, uh, early
indicator that it's our canary in the
coal mine, that it's probably, there's
some, some trouble underneath there too.
Even if you're like, you can say, Oh,
well, I'm just not focused on sales.
I'm operational.
The truth of the matter is, say it
or not, but if that isn't your focus
and you think you can get a homeowner
to doing that in your homeowner's
mind, that's exactly what they're
thinking , this is a reflection of how
my relationship is going to be with them.
If I were to ever sign up with them.
Brooke, thanks so much
for coming on the show.
I got one last question for you.
What is your favorite thing about Costco?
Oh, my gosh.
You know, I am sure other people
have said this, but it's got to
be just the culture of the team.
Like, I've never seen a team
that just works so well together.
One of the greatest experiences
I've had, and I've told the story
in some of our all hands meeting.
When I went to visit you guys in Park City
on site, starting off the meeting, you
know, going over your, uh, the orange, uh,
credo, you know, and reading through that.
And the way, you know, your,
your team members would share
the stories and experience share.
Going through that, I think it was
such a cool experience and I've
never seen any company do that.
Uh, we sure appreciate that.
Yeah.
And, and, you know, it's these people
who, uh, truly believe in what they're
doing that's made it so special and
we're all really grateful for them.
Brooke, again, thanks for coming on.
We're so glad to have you.
And maybe we can come back and do another
one on how to know if you've hired
the right business development person.
I'd love that.
Let's do it.
Let's make it happen.
Thanks, bro.
Thanks, Steve.
We've got orange credo