That Real Estate Tech Guy

Ep. 10 - Cold Calling Sucks (Let the VAs Warm it Up!) with Bob Lechance, CEO of REVA Global

November 09, 2022 Jordan Samuel Fleming / Bob Lachance Season 1 Episode 10
Ep. 10 - Cold Calling Sucks (Let the VAs Warm it Up!) with Bob Lechance, CEO of REVA Global
That Real Estate Tech Guy
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That Real Estate Tech Guy
Ep. 10 - Cold Calling Sucks (Let the VAs Warm it Up!) with Bob Lechance, CEO of REVA Global
Nov 09, 2022 Season 1 Episode 10
Jordan Samuel Fleming / Bob Lachance

Real Estate Investor Bob Lachance and host Jordan Fleming get into one of the most effective yet dreaded parts of real estate investment: cold calling. They discuss why it’s a necessary evil, and the ways to streamline the process of cold calling by outsourcing it to quality VAs. 


“Business owners don’t have to do the initial cold call. We want to be talking to the individual that already raised their hand to say, ‘yes, I’m willing to sell.’ That’s when it gets to your plate.” - Bob Lachance 


Investing in your team – including rigorous quality assurance of the VAs you hire – is the ticket to growing your real estate business. Jordan and Bob discuss the companies they’ve grown, including the growing pains of realizing you can’t do everything yourself, even when you want to. 


“The technology takes you there, and then the non-technology will be investing in your sales team and understanding sales strategy.” - Lachance on the intersection of technology and non-technology assets. 


The conversation turns to leads and the importance of separating a true lead from reports of potential leads. Your CRM should only have clean data and surefire leads. Bob explains how he made the mistake early in his career of overloading his CRM with thousands of records. 


“The only time you throw anything in your CRM is when someone says they want to sell. Boom! That goes in your CRM.” - Bob Lachance


Of course, the episode ends with a Fast Five that’s chock full of technology recommendations, and actionable advice on how to actually use your technology, instead of letting it sit and waste money. 


About Bob Lachance
Bob Lachance has been an active business owner and real estate investor since 2004. Bob is an entrepreneur by nature and currently owns, operates and manages many different businesses around the world. Bob helped create the top Real Estate Education and Mentor/Coaching program in existence today, FortuneBuilders, INC. Bob also created one of the premiere Real Estate Virtual Assistant Staffing companies, REVA Global, LLC (REVA). Bob is an expert in the real estate investing space and has an incredible reputation for creation, implementation and execution.


Prior to getting into the business sector, Bob had a successful 8 year professional ice hockey career which allowed him the privilege of traveling and living all over the US and Europe. Bob was also a member of the 1995 National Championship Boston University Ice Hockey Team.

Visit REVA Global 

 
About That Real Estate Tech Guy Podcast

That Real Estate Tech Guy is the only podcast focused on helping Real Estate Investors make better technology decisions to close more deals and make more money. It is your weekly chance to explore how technology can help your real estate business explode. Informed by decades of REI and technology experience, Jordan gets into the details with seasoned tech and real estate industry leaders to bring you the lessons you need to get ahead. Learn from guest successes and failures, get the inside scoop on the next big trends, and always walk away with actionable ideas to build faster, better, and more profitably.

Interested in being a guest? Head to thatrealestatetechguy.com and let us know!

For more information about smrtPhone, the only all-in-one CRM phone system check out https://www.smrtphone.io/




Show Notes Transcript

Real Estate Investor Bob Lachance and host Jordan Fleming get into one of the most effective yet dreaded parts of real estate investment: cold calling. They discuss why it’s a necessary evil, and the ways to streamline the process of cold calling by outsourcing it to quality VAs. 


“Business owners don’t have to do the initial cold call. We want to be talking to the individual that already raised their hand to say, ‘yes, I’m willing to sell.’ That’s when it gets to your plate.” - Bob Lachance 


Investing in your team – including rigorous quality assurance of the VAs you hire – is the ticket to growing your real estate business. Jordan and Bob discuss the companies they’ve grown, including the growing pains of realizing you can’t do everything yourself, even when you want to. 


“The technology takes you there, and then the non-technology will be investing in your sales team and understanding sales strategy.” - Lachance on the intersection of technology and non-technology assets. 


The conversation turns to leads and the importance of separating a true lead from reports of potential leads. Your CRM should only have clean data and surefire leads. Bob explains how he made the mistake early in his career of overloading his CRM with thousands of records. 


“The only time you throw anything in your CRM is when someone says they want to sell. Boom! That goes in your CRM.” - Bob Lachance


Of course, the episode ends with a Fast Five that’s chock full of technology recommendations, and actionable advice on how to actually use your technology, instead of letting it sit and waste money. 


About Bob Lachance
Bob Lachance has been an active business owner and real estate investor since 2004. Bob is an entrepreneur by nature and currently owns, operates and manages many different businesses around the world. Bob helped create the top Real Estate Education and Mentor/Coaching program in existence today, FortuneBuilders, INC. Bob also created one of the premiere Real Estate Virtual Assistant Staffing companies, REVA Global, LLC (REVA). Bob is an expert in the real estate investing space and has an incredible reputation for creation, implementation and execution.


Prior to getting into the business sector, Bob had a successful 8 year professional ice hockey career which allowed him the privilege of traveling and living all over the US and Europe. Bob was also a member of the 1995 National Championship Boston University Ice Hockey Team.

Visit REVA Global 

 
About That Real Estate Tech Guy Podcast

That Real Estate Tech Guy is the only podcast focused on helping Real Estate Investors make better technology decisions to close more deals and make more money. It is your weekly chance to explore how technology can help your real estate business explode. Informed by decades of REI and technology experience, Jordan gets into the details with seasoned tech and real estate industry leaders to bring you the lessons you need to get ahead. Learn from guest successes and failures, get the inside scoop on the next big trends, and always walk away with actionable ideas to build faster, better, and more profitably.

Interested in being a guest? Head to thatrealestatetechguy.com and let us know!

For more information about smrtPhone, the only all-in-one CRM phone system check out https://www.smrtphone.io/




Jordan Fleming:

I can tell you one thing. Technology is the single most important aspect of every business that has successfully scaled.

Narrator:

It's time for That Real Estate Tech Guy, it's your weekly chance to explore how technology can help your real estate business explode. Each week, you'll hear from real estate investors who have been there and done that and find out their favorite technology tips. Listen in as Jordan speaks with tech companies and learns about new technologies and new ideas that will help you scale your business. And now join your host Jordan Samuel Fleming, CEO of smrtPhone for this week's episode.

Jordan Fleming:

Hey it's Jordan with another episode of That Real Estate Tech Guy, I am delighted that today, my co pilot for the episode is Bob. Bob, come on in, introduce yourself, give us a little bit of background.

Bob Lachance:

Jordan, first of all, thanks for having me. I've known you for a bit. So this is this should be a little fun. Little bit of my background, I played professional hockey in the United States for four years, four years in Europe. After that I jumped into there it is right there. I jumped into the real estate game. This is back in 2004. So now you know how old I am. 2004 I started and that, you know turned into, you know, starting and running a couple different real estate education programs while I flip properties, wholesaling, rehabbing, buying holds, etc. Fast forward 2014, I started my first virtual assistant company out of the Philippines. So that's, you know, what is that eight years ago today, and now we're at about 1000 virtual assistants. And I also have a real estate investment company. Last year, we did 166 transactions, you know, buy, sell, fix, flip, buy, hold, etc. And now we're set to do a virtual assistant side, we're at about 1000 VAs, and on my real estate side, we're looking to do over 200 transactions. So that's just a little bit about me. And you know, that's about it.

Jordan Fleming:

Fantastic. And I'm excited, I definitely want to get another podcast organized, where we can really dive into the virtual assistant company as well, because I think there's A. it's an enormously powerful thing for investors to know more about and understand how to best work with them. But also, there's a huge technology component there as well. But for today, we're gonna dive more into your journey in real estate in general, and technology. Because I think, you know, I will, I will say that, you know, you and I have known each other for a couple years now, I know that we've talked technology in the past. So if you kind of if you think about your journey, which I'm not going to date you again, but it's a lengthy journey, in the real estate business, how, you know, how is your kind of how was technology kind of featured in that? How has it helped you? How have you kind of how has that journey been for you?

Bob Lachance:

Yeah, it's interesting. I know, you and I have known each other for a while. But back in 2005, I actually started a couple software companies, I guess you could call them software companies, CRMs, one was called Finer Solution. And it was actually really, really good. But there's so much competition, I'm not a tech dude, just to be honest with you. But I knew that, you know, it was a needed product in my business. And then 2005 '6, '7 '8 '9 plus, we're focusing on short sales. So we started another company, it was called Manage My short sale.com. And then it was all it was. So it was how we actually managed all of our transactions. Really, really good product. We changed it and rebranded it to prop stream or not proper name to Prop Tracker, and upselling it to one of my buddies, not for a lot of money, it was more on the tail end, because he was using it in his business. So we ended up selling that out. But to answer your question: technology, it's the basis of what we do. You know, I mean, you can, if I look at everything that we do, right, you have Google Sheets, you have Excel, you have all that kind of stuff. But when you when you hit a certain level in business you need in my opinion, it's just my opinion, you need technology, because you look at and I look at my real estate company, we use your service, you know, obviously, that's how you and I got together back in the day. But we had it ties to Podio, right, and the Podio system, all of our leads go into into our Podio system, obviously, we tie technology, which is your smrtPhone, and all this is technology, but we tied smrtPhone to it. And this is our acquisition guys, you know, follow up once the leads get into our CRM. So, you know, for me personally, the backing of what we do in real estate is tied to technology without technology, you're gonna be behind all your competitors. And again, that's just my opinion. I know people can run, you know, very slim, but you know, going through the years without technology or kind of, you know, you're kind of screwed.

Jordan Fleming:

Well, and also what I take from what you just said is that there's an element of scale involved where, you know, probably the switch to technology or the or the necessity of technology because, you know, becomes almost a given in that if you're really trying. And that's the premise of the show is if you're trying to scale a business, starting a business is easy. Anybody can start. But actually scaling a business is not easy. And that's when technology comes into play. So how many people do you kind of what's sort of the the makeup of your real estate business right now how many people are involved roughly.

Bob Lachance:

I mean, I've my virtual assistants, of course, that are cold calling text messaging, right following up. So they're, like eight to 10 of virtual assistants, maybe even more, I gotta get a headcount in that we have about 15 people in our office here on the real estate side, that's acquisition, you have dispo, you have transaction coordinator, office manager, etc. So those are in our office, and everything ties to all the technology that we use, right? We use all of this stuff that we do on a daily basis, it gets chaotic, if you don't have the right systems in place. And, you know, when I first started my, when I first started real estate, I didn't have anything, you know, what I would do is I would door knock, I mean, first and foremost, the world is different. Now, if you don't have technology, you're, you're screwed. Absolutely. Because back in the day, when I first started, I literally get a list of pre foreclosure properties. And I would go door to door to door knocking on doors, and I'd have a leave behind pack. And this is from 10am to 3pm, Monday through Friday, and then I would come home. And that same list, I would look online, like 401 dot com, or white pages, or whatever it was, I would try to find their phone numbers. And then I would dial till about seven 730 Every single day. Not besides the weekends, so but it's a lot different.

Jordan Fleming:

Well, and I love that as well. Because, you know, I this I know this is a technology podcast, but I one thing I've noticed is that, you know, there are a lot of people who get into the game, who are looking for the golden, easy ticket, right? The no graft, easy ticket, and I see this with systems all the time, because people are like, well, where's the CRM I can buy? That's just gonna do it for like, you know, the magic Charlie - like good luck. Well, and I love that, you know, you what you just said, because there's not a successful person in the world that I've ever met, that doesn't have an element of graft that they've had, you know, you you, you have to get your nose in and graft and grind it at some level, just to get not fit enough to be able to perform at a certain level. And, and technology's not going to change that. But when you get to that level, you can then take off. So let me ask you in terms of your systems, because I, you know, people, a lot of our conversations, my conversations recently have been focused on acquisitions. Everybody focuses on acquisitions. And I get it, you need leads, like, I understand that. But leads aren't anything unless you sell unless you close them, particularly if you're wholesaling. So how, like, does it? Did you use the are you able to better deal with the transactions and dispo side of things in your systems as well? Because everybody focused on acquisitions? Can you explain to me a bit about how it works at the dispo level or how it influenced you?

Bob Lachance:

Yeah, so we, you know, it's kind of interesting, we do you know, we wholesale on the MLS Novations, there's different kind of kind of names for a lot of the disposition that we do. So what happens when it comes in our acquisition team, it comes in, obviously, to our Podio system. And then while our acquisition team works directly with our, with our dispo, so once we get a property under contract, it goes right to our dispo team and our dispo team, then it transfers over them, then they get on the phone with the seller to then educate the seller on how they're going to be working with them hand in hand, they got to hold their hand through the process. At the same time, once they do that they build rapport with the with the seller, and then they're hammering the phones, right, we have, we use a lot of different technology. You know, InvestorLife is one of them, is one of the technologies that we actually use to help dispo, we use the MLS as well. And we also have, I mean, there's nothing better than picking up the phone, you know, for human beings actually calling person to person to person, like you said, individuals, we need the tools to be able to blast it out all over the place. But there is an element on human element that is very important in our business that a lot of people are like, Well, I'm scared to get on the phone. Well hire a virtual assistant to do it, like doesn't. My point is there's an answer for everything. Use technology to blast it out to the world. But you still have to pick up the phone and talk to human beings to be able to sell these properties. So we do a very good job once it's inside our systems to then follow up through the process.

Jordan Fleming:

And presumably then a key part of a system that goes through that whole process is the visibility of what everybody's doing at every stage because that's that's how always been my argument against using Excel. Excel is fine. If it's you on your own, trying to close a few deals, if that's where you're at, get a fucking mobile burner phone and an Excel spreadsheet. And, you know, have at it, but when you've got a team of people working through that process, visibility has got to be key, which parts? Like, what have you found are your biggest kind of key visibility points in your systems?

Bob Lachance:

You know, it's actually, a lot of it is is homework, right? Because a lot of stuff stuff that we do we have, you know, phone numbers that tie to that system, right. So then when we have our acquisition, you guys are calling, we want to know how many dials are doing today, what's their talk time, etc, etc. So if you don't have those same on dispo, it's the same exact thing. If you don't have those metrics, then as a business owner, you're catching your tail, you have no idea. Because think about this business owners, we're spending a shit ton of money, right on marketing on office space, and blah, blah, blah, whatever that is. And, you know, you've talked to many different entrepreneurs. And, you know, when you get a market that that is, you know, it's kind of you don't know, if it's gonna go, where it's gonna go, right, you have to look at every every penny that comes in your office, and every penny that goes out. So I think it's very, very important to keep those metrics right in front of you, we have a screen of a metric screen, you know, with through Podio, obviously, that's tied to smrtPhone as well, that keeps all of these statistics for us. So then we look at those every single day. So then we could review them with the team say, hey, you know, Joey, you did great today, what happened yesterday, bah, bah, bah, so and then what you do is you hold each other accountable, because as a company owner, you have to no matter what always invest, meaning driving leads, technology, people office spaces, etc. that never stops. So if you don't have the metrics, in the end, how are you going to be able to track anything?

Jordan Fleming:

And where are you going to know to spend your money? Next?

Bob Lachance:

Correct, Correct. if you have a marketing, think about that, if you have a marketing channel that you're, you know, you're just cold calling? How do you know how many leads came in? Right? If you're just text messaging, where you want to open up a new market, you don't know any of this, unless you have metrics to, you know, to back that to where you're going to spend your money? Or invest your money, where however you want to say?

Jordan Fleming:

No, I have a I have a sort of specific question, I think you'll be best placed to answer actually around, you know, because I know that you cold calling is one of the methods that you use. And I think that a lot of people get scared of cold calling. For two reasons. One, if they have to do it themselves, and they and they're terrified of making phone calls, right? And let's be honest, none of us really like cold, like they love it, I guess, but not me. But the other concern I see is, you know, they get to the point where they want to invest in a VA to do this. And they're worried about quality assurance. They're worried like, how are they going to train this VA? How are they going to make sure that things happen, et cetera? Now you're in a unique position, because not only do you have a real estate business, that is thriving and doing a lot of deals every year. But of course, you also have a VA business that has a huge focus on real estate, not only but a lot, a large one. How do you kind of how do you leverage technology to ensure that the quality of the VAs you're using in your own business and that you will have a wider point of view? How do you do that? Because I think people get scared of investing in VA, because they're worried about how these people are going to perform.

Bob Lachance:

So here's what I like, here's how I best answer that question. You know, at the beginning of day, let's call it cold. Let's give us an example of cold calling, right beginning of the day, nobody's calling right meaning they wake up, the phone's not ringing at eight in the morning, of course, you're not going to cold call eight in the morning. We start at nine in the morning. And by the time the end of the day comes they send us an end of day report, how many dials and they make how many leads do they send, etc. Right? And you made a good point. Cold calling sucks. I'll be honest with that. It's awful. So if anyone's listening to this call, when it's a necessary evil, this is why virtual assistants are fantastic. But here's a big miss that a lot of people don't understand. We as business owners don't have to do that initial cold call. What you want is that individual that raises their hand to say yes, I want more information or yes, I'm actually willing to sell blah, blah, blah, that then we'll go to you, me, our acquisition team, etc. That's already been in essence pre screened. So you could there's no reason for us to send them forth all day long and just get beat up. No, no, no, no, no, that's a great task for someone else to do. Right? You already you get through all of that other crap. It gets to your plate. It's already dusted off. It's shined up right. You already have you already have the the suntan lotion on it right,

Jordan Fleming:

It's teed up and you just have to be able to take the swing.

Bob Lachance:

Correct. So this is another thing of, of what you should do as business owners that you should invest in your acquisition team in your Sales, right and sales skills and etc, right? Because it's really, really important, the technology takes you here. But then the non technology will be investing in your sales team and understanding sales strategy, a lot of people don't put that piece in there. And it's very, very important.

Jordan Fleming:

And invest in yourself, if you're going to be the closer invest in your own training, be as you know, you can always learn better techniques, better ways of listening, active questioning, you know, there's, there's always ways you can improve your performance. And you know, if you're going to be the person who's closing, invest in your own education around that.

Bob Lachance:

And to add to that the obviously, this is a technology podcast, the technology is recording the calls, right. So now you take all the best calls in your office, even if you did think about this, when you have a killer sales call, how great is it to go back later on, put them into just use, you know, whatever your technology, your recorded call, you put it up into a folder, you go back, and you can rate them and you go back and listen to them. Because the thing about this, there's some calls that are fantastic, some calls that we do that are not as good. So it's always good to get back into that frame of mind, when you have all those recorded calls to retrain yourself or retrain your guys, you know, we have, I don't know how many salespeople we have here. But you know, they're they're all all our salespeople are different types of personalities. So you could take one great thing from one, one great from rather another another another and then make it your own.

Jordan Fleming:

And, and that's actually a good point in terms of, you know, if people are looking to make, you know, people are stepping up their technology, make sure you're getting systems that allow you to do things like record, allow you to do things like call monitoring live, you know, if you got a new agent, that you're listening in live so that you can make sure that you're coaching them properly. You know, those are those are tools that will help facilitate the development of your people and that's half of the technology game. But let me ask you a question about, you know, in terms of the sort of, I suppose, one area that I've seen people get worried about around the CRM system is, is the losing getting so much so many leads in that you're starting to lose track that you're, you know, there's only so many things you can do at once, what do you got, like what some of you guys got a methodology for ensuring that as new things drop into the top of the funnel, you're not leaving behind money on the table by just ignoring them.

Bob Lachance:

So that I mean, that is actually very good point there. Because, you know, people don't understand this, they all the leads pile up on top of each other, right, and they forget this. So they go down, down, down, down, down, the most important where you make their money is in follow up, you know, I think the average touch point to get a contract is like 7 to 12 touches, right? So that means you're screwing yourself, you're screwing your company, if you don't have the right technology to be able to follow up. So what we do is we make a call, we put a follow up status or make a call, put a follow up status. So then, you know, when you come in the next day, whatever that follow up status is, you know, you got to call those numbers. So that's what we do to be able to identify that. And it's funny because probably one of the most important things for back in the day when manage my short sale because we were talking to banks. So every time I would call a bank, right, a loss mitigator, I'd call back, I would have to know, Hey, Jim, when's the next time I follow up? Well follow up next week on you know, blah, blah, this is when I'm in the office. So if we didn't have that type of technology, I would have been screwed, I wouldn't have closed, any type of deal at all, because you're dealing with all these different banks and all different processes, etc, right? Different numbers, they get there, if I didn't update my notes and put that exact phone number in I'd be catching my tail waiting on hold for another hour. Right. So I think that's the most important part there to your point is getting that technology once you make that call, and then putting a follow up date in that in that technology. Because if you don't do that, you're gonna be screwed.

Jordan Fleming:

I also find as a business owner myself, you know, particularly, you know, I mean, we've got about 40 staff at this point. So, you know, once you scale to a certain level, there's so much going on, that if you don't have a system that is managing that, that is outside of your head, and, and giving you a view of things, you keep it in your head, and you never sleep, because you're you know, you're constantly churning over God, Oh, I forgot I didn't do that, oh, I didn't do this. I think there's really there's a hidden value of having a good system, which is to take things out of people's heads, whether it's your own or your staff, and making sure it's black and white, and transparent to everybody. Because what happens if, you know, I get hit by a bus tomorrow, and I was working on five things internally? Well, that's no good for anybody. Right? I mean, that's part of this.

Bob Lachance:

I mean, think about this add on, forget business for a second. You know, you have kids, they have sports, they have, you know, there's apps for everything. You know, I got a teamsnap app that has my three kids schedules in it, right meaning they're there. They all play ice hocky. And so I have to go there all the time. Say alright, I know I practice every Tuesday, Thursday, but what about the game schedule on the weekend? You know, I gotta run around, I gotta, I gotta sometimes I have to hit three games each, right? I got nine games I got to get to. So you have to know exactly where you know where everything is in the process. And that's just on the personal side for one sport. Your kid plays two sports, you throw in business in there, you're now to your point, if you don't have that technology behind you, you know, you're gonna be forgetting stuff, people are gonna be pissed off at you, you're gonna miss deadlines, you're gonna leave money on the table all the nine yards?

Jordan Fleming:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and I think it's, that's, again, it's probably a question. Everything comes down to a question of scale. If you if you've got enough going on, then you know, then systems are a critical part of of your life and your your business. If you don't? you may be able to get away with a pen and paper for a little

Bob Lachance:

while. Right? Yep. Yeah, you know, like you said, if you're a solopreneur, you could just put, you're not going to scale, you're not going to get bigger, you're gonna be you're gonna be stuck at what, hey, if you want to do one deal a month, guess what you could do it without technology? Right? Fantastic. Right? You can do that. But if just like to your point, if you're going to build a team, if you're going to, if you want to replace yourself. And in the end, think about this as a business owner, why do you start a business, right to replace yourself? Have it run, you know, you're helping growing, you're employing people, you're hiring people, you're giving back to the community, all that kind of stuff, but you can't do it. If you're stuck inside your business, you're only limited to so much.

Jordan Fleming:

Absolutely. Well, one final question before I get into the Fast Five questions is around data and cleansing data. So one of the things that I see, one of the problems I've I've always felt are, you know, when people sack up loads of leads, don't do anything with them and still call them leads, in which case, what you've got is great, you know, great, you've got 1000s of leads, but the truth is, you've got 20 leads and the 1800 of them are shit. So well, you know, how have you like how important or has it ever been a problem? Or do you ever think about the sort of the quality of data in your system? And how do you address it?

Bob Lachance:

Yeah, well, it's kind of funny, because, you know, leads and records are two different things. So only the only thing that you should ever put in your CRM is a true leader. I'll give you an example, right. So if you're doing, let's say you're doing cold calling text messaging, and direct mail, that list that you have, those are records, do not throw those records in your CRM, the only time you throw anything in your CRM is when as soon as someone raise your hand that says they want to sell boom, that goes into your CRM, this one, this channel, same exact thing. So there's a business? And that's a great question, because there is a misconception because everyone's like Sudha, why throw all of these records in my CRM like, nananana? No, don't do that. Because that will, you'll have all dirty data and nothing's gonna be clean, you can't track and all that kind of stuff. So a lot of people that start at the beginning do make that mistake. It's only a record, you pull a list of 50,000 names. Those are records. Those are not leads yet.

Jordan Fleming:

I 100% agree. It's been one of my bugbears for a long time. You know, if you keep your data clean in your CRM, you will have true visibility, you let it get dirty. And you might as well just, you know, because you're not actually going to know anything. All right, well, let's close this podcast out with the Fast Five, and then I'm gonna let get you to make sure you let people know how they can find you. These are five questions I ask all the investors on the podcast, I love to compare the answers over time. So question number one, what technology product has had the biggest impact on your real estate business?

Bob Lachance:

My real estate business, I will say, you know, obviously, our we have our Podio system, we have our smrtPhone. And we also have InvestorLift, I'd say those three right there. You know, we use Prop Stream as well, which is which gives us our data. So I'm just gonna give you, I'll give you four of them right there.

Jordan Fleming:

Okay, fair enough. Question Number two, what is the biggest mistake you've made with technology in your real estate business?

Bob Lachance:

Um, you know, when you actually start, it's finding the right one. I mean, we've spent so much money in literally so much money. And then we changed CRMs we changed CRM, we got sold into another one. It's really finding the right developers to actually help you with your systems, because there's shiny objects all day long. All of us could do this, it could just like you said, so you all think you can run your business by yourself. That's all bullshit, right? It's all bullshit. What you do is you work with somebody that you know, that has a system that you like, so for me, like a referral business is really important, right? And then they'll give you that's how we met you. Right? We met you through our guys, our buddies from Podio, Greg, hey, we met each other, the product is phenomenal, etc. So that's how for me it would be get a referral on that side of it and then go from there.

Jordan Fleming:

Absolutely. Question number three, what is the best that you Your best advice on how to start integrating technology into a real estate business. If I'm just starting out,

Bob Lachance:

I'm just starting out, I would actually get that referral. And then I would implement it. So whatever that technology is, you have to use it because technology is worth shit if you don't use it. I mean, that's the biggest thing. So, you know, I mean, think about this. There's a lot of technology companies that a lot of people don't use their product, and it's, they just ding them every every month Ding, ding, and but they don't use it, you don't use it, you're not going to make money with it. So that's, that's what I would say.

Jordan Fleming:

Absolutely. Question number four, what is the one thing you wish you'd known? When you first started your real estate, businesses, in terms of technology

Bob Lachance:

terms of technology. What I would have done is I would have started using and building my buyers list right away and putting it into a CRM because there's a lot of wasted money, you know, you come home from an event, you have all these business cards and back in the day, this is more back in the days is. That's exactly right. Yeah. It's putting them into a CRM and actually using the CRM to blast out deals. That's one of the things that I made a mistake on at the beginning.

Jordan Fleming:

And I think it's really, you know, I'm gonna have a couple more podcasts devoted to buyer technology and ways you because I think, you know, buyers are the critical step people miss all the time. Because if you're not closing your deals, you're not making any money.

Bob Lachance:

Yeah, you should have my buddy who owns InvestorLift on

Jordan Fleming:

I'd love to yeah, I'll find it maybe drop me an email. final question, which I think you kind of answered in question one. So I'll let you off on this one. But I'll say it anyway, if someone was just starting out, what are the three technology products you'd recommend? I'm gonna guess CRM, InvestorLift and a phone system.

Bob Lachance:

That's right. And and a way to get data, right, obviously, where to get data, wherever you're gonna get that data, PropStream is a great one to get to get data in. I'm sure you have a bunch of them as well.

Jordan Fleming:

Well, and I mean, I've always said, I think, you know, I've touched on this a couple of times, you know, everything is about a journey. If you're just starting, you know, getting one list and cold calling it is a very fair first step. Like it doesn't have to be you don't have to go from zero to 100. You can step your way up. And I think that's something that more and more people have to understand.

Bob Lachance:

Yeah. And then let me add to that, to me, one of the technologies I forgot to say that is big part of our business is a text messaging platform called Launch Control. For us. In our real estate business, I have a ton of VAs that actually use a ton of clients that actually use it works very, very well. Just Just to add that I forgot to forget that because there's so much technology that we use.

Jordan Fleming:

I'm recording with Launch Control. Today is Tuesday when we're recording this literally in two days. I'm recording a podcast with Launch Control.

Bob Lachance:

Who's doing it is Aaron?

Jordan Fleming:

I think it's Michael.

Bob Lachance:

He's good, dude. Great dude

Jordan Fleming:

For the upcoming podcast. Yeah.

Bob Lachance:

That's how that works. So it's not so much technology and, and I do a ton of work with Launch Control. And I'll definitely give them a huge shout out as well. So I would actually change one of my answers and say, that is one of the top technologies that I use a lot. I've got a lot of stuff going on here. A lot of technology so

Jordan Fleming:

Well, the good news is they're going to be on the podcast in a few episodes. So everybody's gonna if you're listening now, stay listening and subscribe. That's a good reason to subscribe to the goddamn podcast. Anyway, Bob, it's been fantastic catching up with you guys. Listen, just before we sign off, let people know how they could find you how they can find your VA business. Give a shout out to yourself.

Bob Lachance:

Yeah, absolutely. You can reach out to us and we're all over online Revaglobal, R e v a global.com. You can send me an email Bob at Reva global Revaglobal.com. We also have a medical division side of it on the virtual assistant side as well that does prior insurance verifications, prior authorizations, etc, etc. So, yeah, check us out online, you can reach me anywhere Instagram, Facebook, etc, etc.

Jordan Fleming:

And I'll make sure to pop those links into the podcast web web page as well. So that's an easy click through for everybody. All right. Thanks very much, and everybody, please make sure you subscribe, do all the things you're supposed to do and check out Bob's service at Reva Global

Narrator:

thanks for listening to another amazing episode of That Real Estate Tech Guy. Head over to that real estate tech guy.com to check out all episodes and get special discounts on tons of awesome real estate technology platforms.