How To Double Your Property Management Business Growth in Less Than a Year

Disclaimer: This blog was originally published in 2017, and not all of the information regarding Jock McNeill, PM Grow Summit, Alliance Property Management, and Rent Napa Valley is current. However, the advice given is still applicable today and we updated the blog with even more relevant information in June 2023. Jock McNeill was a guest speaker at the 2017 PM Grow Summit, where he gave a thought-provoking talk about Growth Through Acquisitions. He’ll be back with Michael Catalano at the 2018 PM Grow Summit to discuss the 5 Principles of Success in Growing Through Acquisitions. While we were chatting about his presentation, he said in an alarmingly off-hand manner: “By the way, after learning at the last PM Grow Summit how a Business Development Manager (BDM) can help grow a business, I decided to try it and now we’ve doubled our growth.” DOUBLED OUR GROWTH. As if it was no big deal. Jock owns Alliance Property Management and Rent Napa Valley in Northern California, and he is joining The Property Management Show to discuss his past sales process, and what happened when he changed his course of action. Jock McNeill’s Background Jock is the co-owner and broker of Alliance Property Management, Rent Napa Valley, and also True Real Estate Partners. He has been doing property management since 1999, and his role has shifted from doing everything himself to currently having a staff of 12 or 14 people full-time, and a handful of part-timers. He has three offices in the North Bay area of California.  Jock runs a tight ship, and he has a staff of people who have been with him for a long time. It’s hard to keep good people motivated, but he has found success by treating his team well and providing opportunities for them. His property management sales process has changed significantly over the last five years. The Alliance Property Management Sales Process Before 2014 Before 2014, their sales process was pretty old fashioned. When new or prospective clients called, Jock would take the call as the broker and co-owner. He set up the appointment to check out the property, and he went there to meet the property owners and evaluate the home. He’d sign them up, bring them into the Alliance Property Management portfolio, and hand the client off to a property manager. He tracked everything in a spiral notebook. Jock did his own follow up and knew he was missing opportunities. The sales funnel had leaks, but he was still able to close two or three new properties a month. He had to speak to five or six property owners in order to close those two or three, but that’s not a bad success rate. Jock’s leads were warm, and mostly referrals. His company was well-known in the community, so while he was closing enough new business to make up for the natural loss of current clients, he knew he could be doing better. Revamping the Sales Process and Going Digital: 2014 – 2017 In 2014, at the Atlanta NARPM conference, Jock made a commitment to sign up with LeadSimple and Fourandhalf to begin managing leads and investing in marketing. This created a good foundation for his company’s sales funnel. He started tracking leads. He began following up. His close ratio went up due to the new processes he had in place. If you’re wondering what made him realize he was ready for marketing, it’s simple: Numbers. Jock said it was easy to do the math and see that if they invested a little in a sales and marketing infrastructure, they’d earn it back pretty quickly. They began to do more advertising, invested in marketing, and learned that the more volume they put in the funnel, the more efficiently they were able to use their efforts and resources.