The #1 Tool Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Close More Deals | Episode 23 - The Real Estate UNLOCKED Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Joseph Marohn (00:12):
What up everyone and welcome back to the Real
Estate Unlocked podcast.
I am your host, Joseph Marohn,and today we're going to be
diving into one of the mostessential tools for scaling and
staying efficient in your realestate business.
I'm talking about a gamechanging strategy to automate

(00:32):
your workflow, track every leadand keep your business firing on
all cylinders One of thesmartest ways to keep your
pipeline full and your businesson autopilot.
Today, we're going to bebreaking down one of my favorite
tools CRMs.
Crms, or Customer RelationshipManagement Systems, are the

(00:56):
backbone of any successful realestate business.
They're designed to help youmanage leads, track interactions
and stay organized so noopportunity slips through the
cracks.
Whether you're following upwith sellers, scheduling
appointments or analyzing yourteam's performance, a good CRM

(01:18):
keeps your business running likea well-oiled machine.
As the real estate market growsmore competitive, crms have
become an essential tool forinvestors looking to scale,
streamline their operations andclose more deals.
It's not just about managingdata.

(01:38):
It's about leveraging the rightsystems to work smarter, not
harder, and take your businessto a whole nother level.
Now, if CRM sounds like themissing tool in your real estate
business, then stay tuned,because we're going to be
breaking it all down, step bystep, so you can start scaling

(01:59):
your real estate empire todayestate empire today.
Now you know how we do it on theReal Estate Unlocked podcast.
If we're going to do it, we gotto do it right.
We can't just bring on anyoneto speak about CRMs, we got to
bring on one of the creators ofCRMs.

(02:20):
Today, our special guest on thepodcast is Rick Sheldon.
Rick is a real estate investorand SaaS entrepreneur, as well
as the founder of Open Dispo, aCRM designed to empower
professionals by streamliningoperations and helping close

(02:42):
more deals.
With a specialization increative finance and land
acquisitions, rick hasintegrated AI and innovative
strategies to help investorsscale their businesses a lot
more efficiently.
Rick joins us today to sharehow leveraging a powerful CRM
like OpenDISPO can transform theway you manage your real estate

(03:05):
business, making it moreefficient, organized and, most
importantly, a lot moreprofitable.
So, without further ado I'vebeen talking long enough
Everyone if you will, pleaseallow me to formally introduce
to you Rick Sheldon.
Rick, what's up, brother?

(03:27):
How are you doing today?

Rick Sheldon (03:30):
Hey, what's up, joseph, Thanks for having me on
and a good introduction there.
Appreciate that.
Just to clarify one thing landis what we're currently
developing, but our roots areback in the single family
residential world, so I'm suremost of your audience may be
more familiar with that side ofthings.
So don't worry, we're not onlyworking on the land side of

(03:51):
things.
We're actually even strongerfor those of you doing
residential buying andwholesaling.

I appreciate you clarifying that real quick.
Now, rick, welcome to the RealEstate Unlocked podcast, a place
where we bring value to new andintermediate investors by
bringing on guests who areextremely knowledgeable, such as
yourself, and covering realestate topics on a very basic
level.
Now, my CRM is an absolute,critical component to my
business.
There's absolutely no way I'dbe on top of my leads, my

(04:21):
follow-ups or my team'sperformance without it, so I
love that we're here todaytalking about this topic.
We're now hitting 2025, and Istill have friends out here
using Google Sheets or stickynotes or Google Docs, believe it
or not.
So thank you, rick, fordropping in to hang out with us,
to share what CRMs are and whatthey could do for your business

(04:44):
.
So thank you, brother.

Yeah, no problem.
I know a lot of people that whoare using those Google sheets
and things like that as well, sowe'll try to, you know, get
them out of the stone age and,heading into 2025, set them up
with something right.

Absolutely, and it's not to knock you if you are
, because I know a lot of peoplethat are getting deals done
with them.
But imagine if you're doingdeals with doing sticky notes.
Imagine what having a good CRMcan do for your business man.

Yeah, exactly.

Cool.
Well, rick, we're not going towaste any time, we're just going
to dive right in.
So what exactly is a CRM, andwhy do you feel it's a must-have
tool for not only real estateinvestors, but also business
owners as well?

not only real estate investors but also
business owners as well.
So CRM, you gave a very goodsummary.
Customer RelationshipManagement is the acronym.
So really just a way to groupyour contacts together for your
business, segment them based oncertain things maybe sellers
versus buyers versus lenders, ormaybe you want to get even more

(05:45):
niche and have your buy andhold buyers segmented away from
your flipper buyers so that, asyou're trying to go into your
contact database and send amessage to a group of people,
you can send the right messageto the right person at the right
time.
That's really what sales boilsdown to is sending the right

(06:06):
message to the right person atthe right time, and a CRM just
makes that very possible.

Makes it more simplified, if you will.
Yeah, okay, so now you know.
What, would you say, are thebiggest differences between
using a CRM like OpenDISPOversus just something like a
Google Sheets or keeping trackof leads manually?

I think automation is the key there, because, if
you really boil it down to a CRMbeing a customer relationship
management tool, a Google Sheetdoes fall under that category if
you're using it properly, butthe thing that it lacks really
comes down to the automatednature of the follow-ups and

(06:49):
some of the other importantcomponents that all good CRMs
have, which are just ways ofhelping you send the right
message to the right person atthe right time, meaning like
tasks and good follow-up systemsand follow-up due dates and
reminders to your teaminternally, as well as those
automated messages to thecontacts themselves.

Yeah, because I know firsthand man.
I used to when I do follow-upsmaybe you've done this in the
past, rick, but I used to writethem down or I'd put it on my
Google calendar to follow upwith somebody so inefficient man
.
And then when I actually use aCRM, I was like man, this is
game changing man.
Like now, it's like I get theseautomation, I get email updates
, you know, I get notificationsto my calendar.

(07:32):
It's like a constant reminder,like to follow up with this
person.
Then I can go on the notes,refer back to the notes on the
conversation I've had with themand it just makes your life just
a whole lot easier.

You know what one core feature is that has been
around in most CRMs for a while,but a lot of them have been
making advances forward recently.
When it comes to AI is the calltranscription actually so not
only can you refer back to thecall, meaning the notes that you
took on the call, but you canactually listen to the call, and

(08:05):
the call can be transcribed andsummarized using AI nowadays.
So so not only are you not ableto kind of remember what you're
talking about, but if you'reusing CRMs properly, you can
even have it help you craft yourfollow-up messaging based on
how the last call went.

Yep, absolutely.
And you, and like me, when I'mon the calls with sellers,
sometimes you're listening tothe call, right, but then you're
also thinking about your nextconversation or what you're
going to say next, and sosometimes you may miss those
gems that they drop or thosepain motivation, those pain
points on the call.
And being able to go back tothat recorded call, listen to it

(08:45):
and or even, like you said, useAI to pinpoint those things
that you missed on the call andrefer back to, is golden.
Not only that, we also use andI'm pretty sure you do the same
thing we use our calls fortraining purposes, right?
So when we're training our team, we have our weekly team
meetings, we're going over callsand we're seeing hey, you know
what can we improve on?
What did we say here that wecould have said differently?

(09:07):
You know how do we approachthis, and that's kind of been
like our bread and butter forlike improving on our calls.
So absolutely you can't do thatwith Google Sheets.

Yeah, absolutely.
We refer to those as callcalibrations and those, along
with role plays.
Those are two of the best toolsyou can have to train up your
sales staff.

Now you know.
For someone who has never useda CRM, how would you describe
what its main primary purpose isin simple terms?

Bucketing, so I think of it as a bucketing
system.
Okay, elaborate on that.

What do you mean by bucketing?
Okay, elaborate on that.
What do you mean by bucketing?

Yeah.
So it comes back to sending theright message to the right
person at the right time,meaning if I want to automate
the messaging to a degree, as Ihave a lot of leads coming into
the system and I know that Iwant to take them through this
same streamlined journey eachtime basically having a

(10:06):
discovery call or a process callwhere we collect enough
information to get them an offer.
We schedule the offer call forthe same day or next day.
If, from the process call, wedetermine that they're not
interested, we may not want toschedule that offer call, we may
want to put them into adifferent bucket.
So having a system whereeverybody comes in in an
organized, systematic way andthen having a checkpoint where

(10:27):
you decide where to put themfrom here and then, based on
where you put them, having thatrelationship nurtured through
automation if it's a colderopportunity and then through
manual outreach if it's a hotteropportunity.
Outreach if it's a hotteropportunity, that allows you to
free up all that time that youwere spending sending those
messages that you ultimately arejust sending to prospects who

(10:49):
may not even respond to themanyway.
So the bucketing system helpsyou send the right message to
the right person at the righttime, and that's really.
It lines up with this conceptthroughout CRMs that people
really rely on, which is apipeline view, or you look at

(11:11):
your opportunities in a boardview, a Kanban, if you're
familiar with that term where itshows you visually from left to
right how far away from the endgoal they are.
So they come in on the left asa new lead and over on the far
right they're an executedcontract, and then the different
buckets in between are forthose different scenarios that

(11:32):
that contact may fall within.

Right, okay, good point on that.
Now I know there's like amillion CRMs out there right now
and I'm just curious, you know,I know you CRMs out there right
now and I'm just curious, youknow, I know you.
You are the founder of OpenDispo.
What need did you feel like wasmissing from these other CRMs
that you feel like you had tocreate your own CRM to tackle
those needs?

I think, really the bucketing system itself,
because most CRMs are a bit of ablank canvas where you sign up
for it and cool.
Now you have a cool tool thatgives you the ability to go
create your own bucketing systemand create your own messaging
for each bucket that youdetermined.

(12:16):
But our system is built forreal estate investing and real
estate wholesaling specificallyto some degree.
So our clients come in knowingthat there's already proven
processes that they can rely on.
They don't have to reinvent thewheel and come up with their
bucketing system and themessaging to send to the cold
prospects, because we've alreadydone that for them and we can

(12:39):
show them how to edit them.
But now it's a complete systemthat they can step into, instead
of having to step into a blankcanvas and have to build it from
scratch.

Yeah, and you've pretty much built out all those
automations inside of theplatform, inside of the CRM.
Now you were talking aboutbucketing.
Now does other CRMs not offerthat?
Is that kind of like somethingunique to OpenDISPO?

not offer.
That Is that kind of likesomething unique to OpenDISPO.
It's unique in the sense of alot of CRMs that I've signed up
with in the past.
They have the ability to createpipelines and create your
stages, but you don't come intoit with those stages pre-built
for you and especially pre-builtfor your exact business model,
and that's what we offer.
We don't really give the blankcanvas.
We have a pre-built system thatwe try to pull people through

(13:30):
and guide them on how we, how weexpect them to use the system.
So it's just a lot lessguesswork.

Okay, got it.
Now.
Can you explain how a CRM canhelp people with follow-ups and
outreach?
How exactly does it help peopledo that?
I know we talked a little bitabout the follow-ups and how
it's kind of helped me.
But as far as outreach andstuff, how does the CRM
necessarily help you with that?

phone system integrated in.
You can send emails.
You can even send WhatsAppmessages.
You can do Facebook business,Instagram DMs there's a lot of
channels that you can connectinto the CRM and manage.
You can actually have yourconversations using the platform
.
So not only does it help youput the contacts in and segment
them, but it actually sends themessaging by tapping into Twilio
and other service providerslike that.

Yeah, and you know what I like about you know
and I'm pretty sure there'sother CRMs that do this but what
I like about OpenDISPO, becauseI use OpenDISPO firsthand man,
I've tried other CRMs and not toknock them, but they were
missing some components that wewere looking for that OpenDISPO
provided for us.
But you know reaching out toyou know sellers, you know my

(14:52):
text bot, right, it will bookappointments for me and then
when it books that appointment,it will send a reminder an hour
before the call, right, and thenit will also send an email on
top of that.
So if you miss the text message, you also get the email, and so
you can create, like these,drip campaigns right with text
messaging or email.
And it's just been great for myoutreach man.

(15:13):
It changed the game for me, soit does help out a lot.
I'm not cold calling all daylong, I'm not constantly missing
appointments, because thesystem is automatically
reminding my client hey, we gotto got a call in an hour.
So that does help out a lot.

Yeah, no, I love it because that's the main point
I was trying to make in thelast comment is, most CRMs out
there will give you the abilityto create a calendar, create
booking reminders and maybe eventap into using AI in the form
of an AI chatbot.
But what we've done is we'vetaken all those and put it

(15:47):
together so that, when you comein, our onboarding process is to
show you how to use it withoutyou having to build it, because
there were several things thattie together to allow you to be
able to use that system smoothlylike that.
We've got, you know, severaltools that come together and tie
together, and we're not goingto get into it and overwhelm

(16:09):
anybody, but, as far as you'reconcerned as a user, it just
works, which is what's importantto us.

Yes, absolutely, man, Because you know there are,
like you mentioned, you can geta you know another CRM.
That's just a blank canvas.
Now you either have to buy,like a automation package that
someone's already put togetherand they're charging arm and leg
for, or you need to findyourself a good integrator that
can understand what your, yourneeds are and they can build out

(16:36):
your their own automationsinside of your system.
So with open dispo it's kind oflike you get all the bells and
whistles already built into itand now you can just adjust it
accordingly to what you need foryour business.

Yep exactly.

Cool Now.
I know we kind of talked alittle about calendars and
emails, but talk to me a littlebit about, like the messaging
platforms you just mentionedthat you can integrate into the
CRM.
I know you mentioned WhatsApp.
Can you also integrate othermessaging platforms like Slack?

So Slack does integrate with the platform in
the sense that you can use Slackin the workflow builder.
So we didn't really talk aboutthis, but the platform has a
workflow builder, meaning ifthis happens, then I want that
to happen.
So the previous example if anappointment gets booked, then I

(17:29):
want to send these messages tothe seller and I want to send
these messages to my internalteam member.
That's a workflow that consistsof a calendar booking for the
if part and several messagingcomponents for the then part.
I don't know if that made sense, but if this, then that.

(17:49):
Yeah, that's basically how youcan summarize the Workflow
Builder, and the WorkflowBuilder is so powerful that we
can customize the messaging andwe can send messages into Slack
when something happens.
So when I add a tag, when Ifill out a form, when a client
signs up, any of these thingscan cause a notification to go

(18:12):
into our Slack channel, which iswhere my team communicates very
heavily.
Okay, perfect, oh, and if I canjust hop in.
Sorry, no, you're good.
Slack is kind of like it workswith the workflow builder to
send notifications, but some ofthe more native conversation
components are WhatsApp, likeyou mentioned, calling and

(18:35):
texting.
A big piece that some peopleforget about is the social
channels.
So you can integrate a Facebookpage and an Instagram page and
then any message that goes intothose channels can come into
your inbox.
So, moving into 2025, a lot ofbusiness and a lot of
transactions happen from socialmedia.
Personally, most of my businesscomes from social media and a

(19:01):
lot of sellers reach out toproperty buyers that they find
on social media as well, and ifyour business is on social media
and you get a message in therethat flows right into your CRM
and then you can just messagethem as if they were already a
lead in your system.
That really removes a lot offriction.

Yeah, I love that because we do do some outreach
through social media.
We work foreclosures.
Sometimes we don't have thebest look right.
Friction yeah, I love thatbecause we do do some outreach
through social media.
You know, we work foreclosures.
Sometimes we don't have thebest look right.
Skip tracing them, get them onthe phones or text message email
.
Sometimes those are hit or missand you know, for these more
difficult ones, we'll actuallyreach out on a Facebook
messenger or Instagram and reachout that way and we found
success like that.

(19:42):
And so I think it's reallyimportant for a CRM to really be
like an all-in-one right,because there's so many
different platforms andsoftwares and I don't want to go
through 20 different things toget one thing done right.
Like I want everything to belike a hub.
I want everything to be insideof my CRM where I can limit as
many softwares and subscriptionsI have to pay for, and so I

(20:04):
think that you've, guys done areally great job on that.
You know it's really helped outa lot for what we do in our
business.

Nice, you want to know.
The one I've had the most funeliminating for my clients
recently is DocuSign.

DocuSign Okay talk about it.

You have no need for any e-signature platform
outside of the CRM now, becausewe can now create templates, use
them with the contacts withinthe platform and actually get
them fully executed.
That you can replace thesubscription with DocuSign.

(20:41):
But it's even better than itwas to use DocuSign because as
soon as those contacts now viewand sign the agreement, it's
already linked into theircontact record.
So we no longer have to get aseller to agree to a verbal
offer and then go to DocuSignand send out a template, then
monitor our emails for it to besigned and then download it and

(21:03):
go handle it.
Now we send it through our CRM,we monitor it through the CRM,
it's attached to the record whenit's executed and we can send
it from there.

Man, that is gold man.
So you're saving people onDocuSign subscriptions,
absolutely.
Oh man, I love it.
Yeah, there you go.
Now let me ask you this, rick.
Now I know you mentionedOpenDISPO is kind of like a
hands-off approach.
Now, other CRMs in generallet's say you're just starting
out CRMs is brand new to you howdifficult is it to really set

(21:36):
up a CRM on your own and getgoing?

It's very easy at the beginning because you're
blissfully ignorant about howmuch it's going to take.
So you're really happy thatyou've got a system that will
let you call your leads.
So you know it can be ascomplicated or as simple as you
want it to be, but I like tothink about it with the curve
that Alex Hermosi and a lot ofothers talk about.

(21:59):
It's really easy to get startedbuilding a CRM if you don't
need it to do anythingcomplicated, if you want it to
do some advanced things and bepre-built for your industry and
have proven workflows andcalendars and all these things

(22:21):
that are already pre-built foryou.
It does take a lot of time tobuild those things.
Me, I actually just crossedover my four-year mark in the
industry.
And I started building this verysoon.
You know, almost four years agoI built it for my own business
for about two years and thenI've started selling it as a CRM

(22:45):
and I've continued using it formy own business and for that of
my clients now, and I'vedeveloped it further over the
last couple of years.
But truly we're about three anda half years into development
here, so you know it takes awhile to get it to the point
that you're ultimately going tobe able to rely on it.

Yeah, congrats on the four-year anniversary.
But, yeah, I think what youwere talking about right now and
it really hit home for me,because you don't know what you
don't know, right.
So I started off with somethingsimple called Podio.
Right, it's a freer CRM.
A lot of people know about it.
I didn't know what I needed atthe time.
All I know is, like, I'm tryingto track calls, I'm trying to

(23:23):
take notes.
It wasn't until I startedmeeting these other CRMs, like
GoHighLevel, rei, reply andstuff like that, and OpenDISPO.
When I started seeing all thebills and whistles that you can
really use.
Then I started thinking, okay,man, this is a lot more
complicated than I thought, butit also, once I figure it out,

(23:46):
like it's gonna make my businessa lot more easier, because I
didn't know I had all thesetools to my advantage.
Right, I was using outsidedialers.
Right, I was using outsideemail marketing campaigns, and
now you've integrated all thatinto one platform.
And now it's like, okay, how doI take full advantage of this
software, right?
So I think it's like, okay, howdo I take full advantage of
this software, right?
So I think it's a good point.
But I guess for me it's alittle more easier because I

(24:07):
have an integrator.
But if you don't have anintegrator, do you feel like
someone just starting out theywould need to hire someone to
manage the CRM, or is it simpleenough to pretty much handle on
your own, in your opinion?

I think most of our clients are the visionary
who need a bit of help on theintegration side my company in
particular we take more of thathand-holding approach and kind
of pull you through the processthat we've got, I hope,
well-defined, and we'll kind ofshow it to you and show you how
to use what we've got pre-builtfor you.

(24:43):
If you have an integrator, it'seven better.
But we try to cater for peoplewho don't want to build this
stuff on their own, which mostlycomes down to visionaries.
And the question really becomeswhat are you going to do to
make sure that you're successfulWithout single like, without
all the labels of integrator andvisionary, one dedicated

(25:07):
individual with time and energyto devote to their business?
If you're empowered with a goodplatform for your technology,
then you're going to succeed aslong as you, you know, have the
drive for it.
So you know it's really ifyou're, if you're going to
succeed as long as you have thedrive for it.
So you know it's really ifyou're, if you're going to kind
of get your hands dirty, get inthere, make the calls, do the

(25:30):
follow ups, then you're going tohave a lot of success.

Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, because I'm
a visionary myself, right, andI know where my time is best
spent, and it's not doingintegration work.
It's me getting on the calls,talking to sellers and closing
deals, right, and if I couldhave somebody else that can
assist me do all the integrationwork, then it just makes my job
a lot more easier, allows me toput my best foot forward on the

(25:57):
calls and not have to worryabout the other other stuff,
because in the beginning, right,you may not have all the money
to do it, but you're pretty muchwearing all the hats, and so
it's working with somebody orworking with a team that can
help grab these different tasksand stuff like that.
So I think you hit on a goodpoint on that.
Now I want to ask you soOpenDISPO, how does it help

(26:19):
investors track their numbersand analyze their team's
performance?
Does it have a section for that?

Yes.
So there is a couple ofdifferent ways that it can help
you with that.
The first that jumps out to meis the agent reporting, or the
call reporting.
So, as a single person, you canthink about it as holding
yourself accountable.
We all probably heard the storyabout the.
You know the person who thinksthat they're making a hundred
calls a day and truly believesit.

(26:46):
But if you look at the numbersand it's like you made 12 calls
before lunch and then you nevercame back to it after lunch.
So you know, like seeing themetrics for yourself on how many
calls you've been able to makethat day, that's already amazing
, but it's even more relevant asyour team is growing and you
need to hold your team membersaccountable.

(27:08):
Maybe you've got a few differentpeople calling for you and
you've got an acquisitionsperson who's supposed to follow
up on those leads that get setfor them.
Now you can have a platformthat shows you exactly how many
calls each of your dialers madeand your acquisitions person and
you can see who fed theacquisitions person more
opportunities.
So having these types ofcalling metrics and pipeline

(27:32):
stage change metrics or thebucketing system that we talked
about, so which of our coldcallers moved it from the new
lead bucket to the qualifiedlead bucket more times.
Today you know that's reallywhat it comes down to and having
a bucketing system that they'recoming into now, we can
understand how many came intothe system and how many moved

(27:54):
forward.
And now, when we layer that ontop of the calling metrics, you
have a very clear understandingof your business operations
metrics, you have a very clearunderstanding of your business
operations.

Yeah, I love that feature, man, because you know,
like you said, you bring inpeople on your team and you know
people might tell you, hey, Icould put in 100 calls a day,
rick.
But when you actually go to theagent report, you can actually
see how many calls are actuallymaking on a daily or weekly
basis and you're like, oh, rick,what happened to those 100
calls you were making?
But not even that.
Another key feature I like isthat it not only shows you how

(28:29):
many calls they made, but theaverage talk time.

Right, because, yeah, calls are important, but
would I rather have someonemaking 100 calls a day with only
30 seconds of average talk time, or would I rather have someone
doing 10, 15 calls a day, andtheir average talk time is 20,
30 minutes right, yeah, yeah,because not to give any ideas to
these professional VAs who maybe watching, but you know you

(28:52):
could all hang up right away andthat still counts as a call.
So you're spot on with theaverage.
Call duration is very importantfor a few things not only your
business, but also your phonenumber's health.
The longer duration impactsyour phone number's health, so
we don't want to get too deepinto that.
But there's a lot of reportingfeatures, and one of the ones

(29:16):
that I really like is theability to filter by calls that
lasted more than 60 seconds orthree minutes.
So now we can filter out allthe calls and see only those
ones that were likely to be goodcalls and then hone in on those
and listen to those directly.

Yep Couldn't agree more.
Now, what are the mostimportant metrics or KPIs that
investors should monitor withina CRM?

I like to track two types of metrics, the first
being what we've just spokenabout, which I refer to as
activity metrics how many calls,texts, emails those things are
activity metrics.
And then the more important one,in my opinion, is conversion
metrics, and this will help alittle bit.

(30:04):
You can use it to identify yourmore impactful team members,
but not only that, but you canalso use it to understand which
lead sources to double down into.
So what I mean by this is howmany new leads did we get, how
many of them did we complete ourprocess call with, where we
were able to collect all theinformation that we needed in

(30:24):
order to be able to make them anoffer, how many of them
actually received an offer, howmany offers led to a contract
and how many contracts gotassigned, and how many of those
were closed on.
And then, of the deals thatclosed, how much revenue was
generated.
If we understand those metrics,along with how much we spent on

(30:47):
each lead source, now we cantell the ROI per lead source.
So I spoke slowly there.
You guys can no a perfect sense.
Yeah, okay cool, because that isgetting into the advanced side
of.
If you can track the numbers tothat degree, then you can
always double down into thewinning lead sources and that's

(31:08):
how you optimize your businessin the long run.

Yeah, because you know we're always taught not to
put all of our eggs in onebasket Right.
So you want to have multipledifferent channels or pipelines
Right.
And so we do agent outreach.
We also do foreclosures.
We do a lot of differentoutreach right.
And, like you said, if you canniche down and track down

(31:32):
exactly which ones are gettingthe best conversion rates, then
you know, okay, well, maybe weshouldn't be spending all of our
time on agents.
We're having better successwith sellers on foreclosures.
Let's double down on this,Right.
And understanding your metricsand your KPIs is really going to
allow you to pivot, Right.
So if you need a pivot, you canpivot.
If you don't know your numbers,you don't know what you don't

(31:53):
know Right.

So exactly, and I think all those metrics that I
mentioned are really important,but I'll give, I'll break it
down even to a smaller degreefor those just getting started I
think if you could track thenumber of offers you're making
and how many offers it takes toget a contract and how many of
those contracts close, I thinkthose three numbers will give

(32:15):
you a really good story just bythemselves, and then you can
advance into the other metrics.

You can advance into the other metrics?
Absolutely.
Now, how can a CRM help teamswork better together?

especially when managing tasks or assigning
leads.
Well, I guess let's look at thealternative.
Going back to the Google Sheetsside, what is that going to
look like?
If we're trying to assign leadsand ask my acquisition manager
to follow up with?
You know, 50 leads a day andthese are the ones I want you to
follow up with that processwould be a nightmare.

(32:51):
Whereas if you have a CRM youknow, I know I can speak to what
ours would allow you to do,which is you can assign each
contact to a user.
Assign each contact to a user.
You could even assign differentopportunities to users, meaning
if one seller had a couple ofdifferent properties, or if
you're doing agent outreach andyou're working on a couple of
different deals with one agent,you could have each contact or

(33:14):
each property assigned tosomebody else on the team, and
each team member is able to settheir own follow-up due date.
So imagine having a list.
You just log into your CRM andyou click one button and it
shows you my follow-ups that aredue today or before.
That's it, I love that.

I love that feature, by the way.
Thank you, yeah, no, it's agreat feature, right, because I
would set tasks or I would bookan appointment and it would go
on my calendar or whatnot.
But sometimes they still kindof get slipped through the
cracks, right.
And so now that you've createdan open dispo, this follow-up
tab, where you just click onebutton follow-up that's pretty

(33:57):
much kind of the first thing Icheck now thing I check now.
When I get inside the system, Iclick on follow-up and I'm like
, oh shoot, I got to get back toMaritza, I got to call her
today, right.
So, and it, and it only pops upwhen the task is actually due.
You could set the due date whenyou want the the follow-up to
be set.
I love that feature.

That's exactly how I do my follow-ups for the for
the CRM.

Absolutely Great stuff.
So, um, now I now I think agood question would be is like
how does someone know they'regetting the most out of their
CRM and know they chose theright CM for their business
needs?
How do they know that?

Yeah, that's a tough one.
I guess the first thing is like, does it pass your baseline of
profitability?
You know it's like I don't wantit to cost me money.
If it takes time and energy tolearn and set up and it's
costing my business money, thenit's absolutely not a good
investment.
If we're getting into the realmof it takes time and energy to

(34:55):
learn and I'm feeling like it'smaking a difference, but maybe
it's not making a massivedifference yet.
But if I keep doing it I canonly improve it.
You know, I think even at thatlow of a barrier to entry it's
already going to be worth it foryou to invest that time and
energy.
But what we've tried to do isskip over all that and when

(35:18):
somebody joins they've alreadygot the bucketing system and the
follow-up tab and all thesethings calendars and phone
system and all that.
So we basically try to shortcutthat and make it so from day
one.
It's obvious that it's going tomake a great impact on their
business because they don't haveto put much time and sacrifice

(35:41):
into getting it up to speed.
There's a 30 day money backguarantee.
So if they want to try it andget out of it, you know they
only wasted a little bit of time.
But yeah, I think if it'smaking your business money, it's
.
Then it comes down to how muchenergy is it taking from you,
and if it's not taking very muchand it's making you money, then

(36:03):
it's a no-brainer.

I think that's a great response.
What are some common mistakespeople make when using CRMs and
how can they avoid them?

Well, I think the phrase is creative avoidance.
Creative avoidance means youare working on things, you're
tinkering around in the CRM,you're building processes and
funnels and workflows and thingswhen you should be calling your
leads.
So this is, unfortunately, oneof the downsides that you may

(36:38):
experience with OpenDISPO,because we've got all these
tools for you you can build yourwebsites, you can set up your
calendars, you can set up areview request system.
That would be a great example.
Why would we go and spend anhour building our review request
system if we don't have anysellers that we've helped yet?
So creative avoidance, I think,is the big one to avoid and the

(37:03):
way to avoid it.
The way to avoid the creativeavoidance is to focus on
money-making activities.
Make sure your calendar in it.
You know this is outside of CRM.
This is just entrepreneurship.
You need to have money-makingactivities in your calendar that
you're sticking to.

Yeah, man, I always make sure I got at least
five, you know, and I can liveand die by my calendar, but
that's a whole nother topic.
What I love about OpenDISPO andI can't attest for other CRMs
because I haven't seen thisfeature but Rick actually has
like a team dedicated for youknow requests if you're having

(37:42):
issues inside of the platform,so you could submit a ticket and
then somebody will set up aZoom call with you and they'll
walk you through the process orthey'll get it going for you.
And I think that's been a gamechanger, because for me,
customer service is everythingright and if I have a software,
it could be as great as it wantsto be, but if I start having an

(38:04):
issue because all softwares do,no, I don't care how good your
platform is, they all haveissues, and once you run into
that issue, if it takes me aweek to get a response, I'm
losing money.
I got downtime, and so Rick'sfound a solution for that to get
people that are very responsive.
Sometimes it's within the dayor 24 hours and you'll get
somebody on there to actuallyhelp you through the issue.
That that's been a greataddition to you yeah, thank you.

thank you and um, there's a, a tool in the
industry where a lot of othercrms.
They rely on this tool and youknow it's a third party chat
widget up in the corner.
We have this as a option forour members, but we don't rely
on that and and that's the key Alot of companies they try to
outsource their support and thenyou're only talking to this

(38:46):
third-party chat widget thatdoesn't even understand your
business model.
But, like I mentioned, we arebuilt for real estate investors
by a real estate investor andthe whole team is very technical
and they like the stuff thatmost of our clients don't when
it comes to setting up website,dns records and domain settings

(39:09):
and all these things that mostinvestors, most entrepreneurs,
have very little interest in.
The team's really great at allthose things and they understand
real estate and they understandand help build the workflows
that you use.
So when you guys have aquestion, you submit it directly
to our team.
We don't have to really guessas much or kind of you know, ask

(39:32):
you probing questions aboutwhat your goals are, because we
already know which workflowyou're talking about, what
issues have popped up for othersin the past and how we fix
those.
You know we have hands onexperience with the actual
processes, so the support thatyou get is just much more
tailored to that.
You know that understanding ofthe system.

Right, and if you do get like some type of chat,
it's like you said.
It's like an AI bot that'stalking to you that doesn't even
understand what you're lookingfor, so it's been crucial adding
that in there.
So I know that's one greatcomponent that separates you
from you know, other CRMs, butwhat would you say is your bread
and butter?
Like, what separates OpenDISPOfrom all the rest of the other

(40:16):
CRMs in the market and whyshould people choose OpenDISPO
over other competitors?

That's a good question as well.
Let's see, I think we're justwell positioned for people doing
direct-to-seller marketing,direct-to-agent marketing, jv,
direct-to-buyer or reversewholesaling.
Meaning we've seen it all,we've built it all, we've

(40:44):
implemented it all andregardless of the business model
that you're tackling in thereal estate industry, we've
almost certainly built italready and we could use
templates that we have availableto us to customize a flow for
you.
So we've just got so muchexperience like direct
experience with these businessmodels and the technical

(41:07):
understanding and the supportteam.
I just don't see any otherswith the full suite of features
like that.
They've got as much history inthe industry and the team with
as much knowledge about theexact systems that you're going
to need to kind of, you know,get the stuff rolling.
I think I kind of spiraled alittle at the end there, but the

(41:31):
real, the real, um, it reallycomes down to just having a
complete system that you cantrust.
People have already been doingdeals on that.
Somebody can show you the ropesas you get up to speed on it.

Yeah, I really think which the bread and butter
that you've done with opendispo, and what's great is that
you're actually active in thebusiness yourself and, like you
said, you created this out of anecessity for you, right?
And that's where the platformstarts.
Now there may be some otherbusiness people or whatnot that
create these CRMs, but they'renot in the business.

(42:07):
They don't know what you need.
And so, rick, he knows what heneeds in his business, he knows
what other investors are lookingfor, and all he's done is just
take that info and put it inautomations and built it out
inside of the platform.
So it's pretty much been.
I haven't really found a needfor anything outside of OpenDISC
that I actually need.
I mean, the only thing I wouldsay is maybe having more of like

(42:28):
a chat system inside of theplatform.
That way I don't have to usethese other platforms.
But who knows, maybe that'ssomething that's coming in the
future and I know you justactually integrated.
So the trouble we were havingis that we would have people
calling in and we would miss thecall, right, and then when we
miss the call, we're trying totext back or we're trying to
reach back and now the seller'sghosting us and you've pretty

(42:50):
much created an AI, and I don'tknow if I'm speaking early on
this, but I know you've createdan AI onto the platform that
actually will answer the callsfor you, almost like an
assistant or a receptionist, forwhich, like you said it really
just replaces your voicemail, soit still gives our team an

(43:24):
opportunity to answer live.

That's always going to be best, but instead of
getting a voicemail, they'regoing to get greeted by an AI
voice receptionist whoseobjectives are basically get
their name, get their contactinfo, get their address.
Get their name, get theircontact info, get their address
and see what they need help with, and then it'll prompt.
It'll tell them that a teammember will get back to them

(43:46):
soon.
What we're going to bedeveloping very soon is the
ability for it to actually booka meeting into your calendar,
which is going to be gamechanging, but for right now
it'll just kind of collect thatinfo, send them on their way and
then send you an email summarywith the transcript of the call
and the action items.

Nice.
What's one overlooked featurein OpenDISPO that you think
people should be using more?

Funnels.
I think we have the ability tobuild websites.
You can build a website.
You can set your domain up inthere as well.
You can have a funnel builtthat you run ads to.
You can do all this with anopen dispo and a lot of people
they work with PPL companies,ppc companies or Facebook ad

(44:38):
companies when they really couldstart taking that on themselves
pretty easily.
You just put together a verysimple funnel and I say simple
because you'll actually findwhen you start doing this that
the uglier the page, the betterit seems to convert, and
spending all the time on makinga very nice landing page

(44:58):
sometimes doesn't convert aswell as the quick form that just
landed on the top of a blankfunnel, having an ad that
somebody clicks on and they landon your funnel with a form on
it and when they fill out theform, the workflow builder drops
them into your pipeline or yourbucketing system.
So now if you could just createan ad and a landing page, then

(45:24):
you'll know that they're goingto land in our pre-built
pipeline and you can run yourads from the platform as well.
So just learning a couple basicthings.
You now have a whole entirelead flow system where you've
got leads coming in and thoseleads are being nurtured
properly.

Yeah, I tell you, man, something I was doing
before is like I'm every day I'mworking on building my buyers
list, Right, because I do, do?
I run a wholesale business andI'm always looking for active
buyers.
Now I was using these otherthird party you know softwares
like Typeform, you know Google,google Sheet, google Docs,
whatever.
And then one day my partner,ash, was like dude, why are you

(46:04):
using these other platforms whenyou they already have it built
inside of OpenDISPO, and I wasunaware of this.
So since then, we've built out,you know, a buyer's form inside
of OpenDISPO and, like you said,now when they fill out the form
, they drop right into ourpipeline and now it's like set
it and done.
Wow, I can, I can have anautomated email text message set

(46:25):
up.
They're in the funnel systemnow and it's it's doing its
outreach thing, and now it'sjust an easier way to keep track
of everything in one placeinstead of using out out
third-party software, right, sothat's been one of the key
features I've been loving too.
Um, now the landing page is iscrucial as well, right, because
now.
So someone buys the domain, thedomain, do they have to still

(46:46):
buy the platform, or they are,once they're in open dispo, they
don't have to pay anythingextra.

They could just create a website on in open
dispo yeah, you can create awebsite within open dispo
without having a domain at all.
The, the, the preview pages orthe pages that you're kind of
playing around with as you'rebuilding the funnel.
They are live web pages so youcan create one and share it If
you want the domain to be niceand clean, like rickopendispocom

(47:16):
or eventsopendispocom, whichare a couple of the ones that I
use.
Those are built in my domainprovider and then, pointing to
the funnel, which don't want toget into the weeds of DNS
records and that type of stuff.
But to improve it or to get themost out of it, you should have
a domain as well.
But you don't really need onefor the pages to actually

(47:39):
function.
But building a quick page, Ithink tying it back to your flow
with the buyers.
You're well-known in theindustry.
You got the podcast.
People come across you.
You don't need to run ads.
But what if you did just createa quick landing page, throw the
form on it and run 10 bucks aday towards that page?

(48:02):
Now you've got buyers coming inand you could use the
automations and the pipelines tosegment them and nurture them,
and that's what it really comesdown to is having a full flow.
That's kind of what you missout on.
Back to one of your earlierquestions if you don't have a
good CRM, you would never beable to get to the point where
you've got leads coming in,landing somewhere, filling out

(48:26):
their information, which issegmenting them into your
pipeline.
You know that whole systemcomes together if you have a
good, effective CRM.

And that's gold information right there, man,
I'd even I'd even think aboutthe ads.
You know, I got to definitelystart adding that in, so good
point on that.
Now, if someone has beenwatching all this and they're
hearing all the gems get droppedon this episode and they're
still hesitant about getting aCRM, what would you say to them?

Book a call, I'll show you how easy it could be to
give it a try.
You know we follow I love AlexHermosi, so his whole value
equation.
I've built my offer focusedaround this.
So we try to maximize the valueand decrease the risk.
So the perceived likelihood ofachievement.
We're going to show you whatyou're stepping into.

(49:15):
So you've got a contact, youdrop it in here and then you'll
see the automations kick in.
You'll see how that lead isgoing to be nurtured.
So you're going to trust thatit's going to work when you sign
up.
And then we're really trying todecrease the risk or the energy
and stress that it takes to getstarted.

(49:36):
So a couple of things.
There is we have a three callonboarding process, whereas most
people have maybe one.
We have three call where we'rereally walking you through the
system, getting you up to speedand showing you what's prebuilt
for you.
And if you still don't like itwithin 30 days then you get all
of your money back.
So we're just trying to offer alot and reduce your risk of

(50:00):
giving it a try.
So if you're unsure then I'dsay you can just try it
risk-free or hop on a call withus and we'll show you how it
works.

Yeah, I like the hand-holding approach, man,
because you can get anybody tosign up to the software, but if
they don't know how to use it orthey feel like they're not
getting the most out of it,they're just going to leave the
platform and they're going to gofind something else.
It or they feel like they'renot getting the most out of it,
they're just going to leave theplatform and they're going to go
find something else.
Now, walking them through theprocess, holding their hand and,
like you just said, so you guysactually created a school
platform, right?
So if people have questions,they can jump in there and

(50:30):
there's people helping them out.
And I believe you guys alsohave a Facebook group page as
well, right?

We do have a Facebook page.
I think the most activelearning environment would be.
The platform has a button in itcalled REI Campfire.
It's a learning environmentwhere it's got, like a forum,
some pre-recorded coursematerial as well as an events

(50:55):
calendar.
So we have office hours and acouple of other random impromptu
trainings about importanttopics.
So we do multiple trainings perweek live.
We have the forum and thepre-recorded content as well, so
that ARIA campfire is, you know, really good as far as you know
getting all your questionsanswered once you're inside.

Awesome.
Now, Rick, where can listenerslearn more about CRMs or
OpenDISP outside of thesesources, including tips and
tools for optimizing them?
Where can they learn more aboutthose?

Yep, that's really what I try to make my Instagram
page.
So if you follow me onInstagram, ricksheldon,
underscore REI, that's what youwould get.
I do reels and posts andstories and things about CRMs,
mostly so how to make sure thatyou're handling your leads
properly that come into yoursystem, how to create your

(51:52):
bucketing system.
So I approach my Instagram pageas if you're not a member and
I'm teaching people who are notmembers what they can do to set
themselves up for success.
If you do decide to work withus, you'll have a lot more
resources and access to us, butthe Instagram is a great way to

(52:12):
get just general CRM, sales,entrepreneurship type of advice.

Awesome.
Now I know we cover majority ofthe basics of what a CRM is
right, and you can go on and onabout CRMs.
There's just a lot to them.
But from a beginner standpointor intermediate standpoint, do
you feel like we covered themajority of everything?
Is there anything that you feellike we kind of left out, that
you feel is important to addresson this podcast?

I don't know about left out, but I think we should
emphasize again.
Back to the KPIs.
I mentioned the simplified KPIset that I would recommend we
start with, which is how manyoffers, how many contracts, how
many closings.
The first one is offers.
So I think this is the bestleading indicator for a

(53:02):
successful business.
If you're not making enoughoffers, it doesn't matter how
many leads you have, you're notgoing to get enough deals.
So offers are a leadingindicator for how many deals
you're going to be doing in thenext several months.
So I think, focus on the numberof offers you're making and
have a well-defined script orprocess that gets you to the

(53:24):
offer call and one that you useon the offer call.
So this is your process call,where you're collecting the
information, and your offer call, where you're giving the offer.
If you can just optimize thesecouple of things and maximize
how many you're doing on aweekly basis, then you're going
to win.

Awesome.
Now, as far as OpenDISPA goes,let's say someone's very
interested in signing up.
You have two different businessmodels, right?
You have like a pay annualapproach or you have a
subscription-based monthly cost.
Is that correct?

Yep, we do so.
The monthly is $297 or $497.
Annual is $2,970 or $4,970.
We'll talk about the options ifyou want to book a call, and
you can grab a call atjosephopendispocom and we'd love

(54:17):
to just show you what we've gotgoing on in there and show you
why it's basically no brainer toget started.

Awesome.
I appreciate the link, man.
You guys heard it there.
If you guys are interested, Ihighly recommend OpenDISPO
Something I'm I'm very true tothis platform Like I will never.
I get a lot of affiliatesreaching out all the time.
They want me to shout them onpodcast or videos and I'm a firm
believer man.
I'm not going to feed you guysanything that I don't personally
use.
I use Open Dispo in my businessand it's been an excellent

(54:47):
source for me.
So I highly recommend you guyslook more into that and get
started with it.
So I appreciate the plug.
There you go, joseph.
What is it?
Josephopendispocom?
Absolutely, yep, perfect,awesome.
Well, rick, absolute pleasureto have you on the podcast.
Brother.
You're extremely knowledgeablein this space.
You brought a ton of value tous all here today.

(55:08):
I'm a huge fan of what you'vedone with Open Dispo and I'm
truly honored to call you afriend.
So thank you, bro.

Thank you, thank you.

You as well.
Yeah, I'm looking forward tothe next time we can hang out.
Absolutely, uh, probably besquad up summit you going dallas
?
Yep, absolutely nice.
Yeah, we'll link up over there.
I'll have to get you a drinkawesome well rick, I know you
plugged in your instagram tag.
Uh, if people want to get ahold of you outside of, you know
, instagram, is there any otherplaces?
Or they want to learn moreabout open dispo, how do they

(55:37):
get a hold of you?

Yeah, I think really, instagram is the best,
followed by josephopendispocom.
That's going to take.
It's going to link you toJoseph.
You're going to get just asgreat of a deal as anybody
always would, but we're going tolink it to Joseph and give him
a little bit of a snack for it.
So make sure you use his linkand when you go there there's a

(56:17):
calendar right at the top.
So you know, it comes back tothe thing about such a low
barrier to entry, meaning moneyback guarantee.
If it doesn't, if you don'treally love it, then you don't
have to stick with it.
So you know, I'd love for youguys to hop on a call, be
willing to give it a try and,you know, just let me know of

(56:38):
any feedback if you, if itdoesn't work for you, but I'm
sure that it will because it'sgot all these great elements
that we've laid out here on thiscall.

Awesome.
Now, if you guys are findingvalue from this podcast, don't
forget to show your boys somelove.
If you like what we're bringingyou, don't forget to subscribe.
It helps us continue providingvalue to others by reaching a
broader audience.
We're out here to serve, learntogether and help as many people
as possible.
Make sure to also smash thatlike button and drop a comment

(57:09):
down below telling us what CRMyou're currently using.
Appreciate all the continuedsupport and, guys, stay tuned
because we're pumping theseepisodes out every two weeks.
I got some awesome topics andguests coming up next that will
change the entire way you dobusiness.
You definitely don't want tomiss out.
Best believe I'm going to keepbringing you that fire.

(57:31):
Thank you, Rick Peace.
Thanks for watching.

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The #1 Tool Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Close More Deals | Episode 23

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The #1 Tool Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Close More Deals | Episode 23