Successful Mailer Key Performance Indicators (LA 1539)
Successful Mailer Key Performance Indicators (LA 1539)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit broadcasting again, back in sweet Scottsdale, Arizona. You never know where we’re going to be. Right? We just keep popping up in different places.
Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about successful mailer key performance indicators.
Jill DeWit:
That’s a mouthful.
Steven Butala:
This was requested by our Land Academy staff, because people are asking about it through the customer service channels. What is it really? Did my mailer work or not?
Jill DeWit:
Why don’t we just call it that? I have to ask. If don’t you have a title [inaudible 00:00:43] and you have to explain the title. Why don’t you just use the definition?
Steven Butala:
I’ll tell you why.
Jill DeWit:
Did my mailer work?
Steven Butala:
Because you and I are very fortunate because all the people that work for us are smarter than we are.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Butala:
We’re just the actors.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. It’s getting more and more like that.
Steven Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free. And if you’re already a member, join us on Discord.
Jill DeWit:
I wasn’t done with that thought. I have one more thing to add. I have a former personal assistant that told me this is probably something that you forgot again. I’m like no kidding. That’s why I had you.
Steven Butala:
If you expect us to be smart-
Jill DeWit:
What?
Steven Butala:
… about anything.
Jill DeWit:
I just remember everything.
Steven Butala:
About anything else.
Jill DeWit:
I hired you to remember things so I don’t have to. I have a little bit going on.
Steven Butala:
Jill and I are smart about buying and selling land. That’s why you’re listening to this show. Everything else, forget it.
Jill DeWit:
The little details, I’m not going to remember that again. That’s why I hired you. Anyway. Okay.
Jill DeWit:
James wrote, Hi everyone. This is my first year as a land investor. I bought and sold half a dozen properties already. I sold all my inventory within a month of buying it. However I’m working in cold Northern states. Since this is my first year, I’m interested to hear if others find it harder to sell property up here, once snow hits the ground. Does the snow make a difference in your sales? Do folks who invest in these areas also have non snow Southern states they rely on to do deals in the winter? Trying to plan a few months in advance. Thanks for your help.
Steven Butala:
You absolutely-
Jill DeWit:
I appreciate this.
Steven Butala:
… So do I, it’s a good question. And what I really respect here is planning ahead. Yes, you absolutely can sell property in-
Jill DeWit:
Winter.
Steven Butala:
I’m from Michigan. I know this. So it’s just slower. And your red, green, yellow test will reflect that. So if you run a red, green, yellow test in February for November, December, January, you’re going to see it’s slower. It’s going to slow down.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
The days on market are going to be slower and all of that. But there’s no replacement for buying property at 20, 30% of it’s value.
Jill DeWit:
Maybe that’s the time buy it, by the way.
Steven Butala:
That’s exactly what I was going to say. So just make sure your pictures are good. Make sure you got a bright sunny day.
Jill DeWit:
Without snow on the ground.
Steven Butala:
I would really seriously consider drone shots during that time of year because everything’s a better from above. Everything looks better. And so no that shouldn’t stop you. What it should do is encourage you to buy it even cheaper.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
What’s the worst thing that can happen? You have to hold onto for six months to try and double or triple your money until it’s everything thaws out? I think that’s okay.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. And you use this as your time to pick up all those properties because you know what’s going to happen come May.
Steven Butala:
And I’ll add this. It might be a great time for you to expand your geographic area.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true.
Steven Butala:
There’s no law against buying property in different states at the same time.
Jill DeWit:
Really? What?
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Huh? What?
Steven Butala:
You can buy 50 properties right at the same day.
Jill DeWit:
What? Really?
Steven Butala:
You can’t do that with cars.
Jill DeWit:
You don’t have to be an agent? Just kidding.
Steven Butala:
I’m serious. You have to be a licensed auto dealer with the location and everything to do that with cars.
Jill DeWit:
More than however many… Yeah.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, successful mailer key performance indicators. This is the meat of the show. Jill and I talked about right before the show started, how we’re just going to make fun of this. I’m serious.
Jill DeWit:
Did my mailer work?
Steven Butala:
This is a very… And I don’t mean any anything negative by this. This is a total rookie question and a rookie topic. Oh my gosh, is my mailer going to work? Here’s how you know if your mailer works.
Jill DeWit:
Or have the yield… Like what percentage did you get? What percentages… This comes up often. I’m like, why are we… Can I say my sentence?
Steven Butala:
Yeah. I’m going to do some math here.
Jill DeWit:
Good. My comment for the whole thing is why are we comparing percentages? How about we compare bank balances? That’s how you know if your mailer worked. Go ahead.
Steven Butala:
You send out 2000 units. It’s cost you about $1000 by the time you’re done with everything. Mailing and data and all of it. If you buy a property, one property and you make 10,000 on it. You spent $1,000 to make $10,000 net. So you buy property for 30, sell it for 40 or 50 or whatever it ends up being. Does your mailer work? Do you need indicators for that? Do you need a dashboard? Do you to run all kinds of statistics?
Jill DeWit:
Do I need to know how many calls that came in?
Steven Butala:
Oh my gosh. I only did one deal?
Jill DeWit:
The missed calls.
Steven Butala:
I thought I was going to do three deals. Jack, you say you’re supposed to do three deals for it. No, it worked.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
What doesn’t work. Zero deals.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true. And the hard thing is this comes up often. And when I tell people about this, I’m like, how often are you going to run these numbers and track each individual mailer? Because even though the days past your expiration date on your mailer, and it was 90 days ago, you’re going to still get a call. Just wait for it. Six months from now, you’re going to get a call. Six years from now you might get a call. Are you really going to go back and go, oh, I need to adjust the numbers. Oh, look, that mailer yield was 9% instead of 8.76. Whatever it is. That’s overkill.
Steven Butala:
I stopped tracking mailers probably after the first mailer. I stopped tracking the yield because I was getting signed purchase agreements back and doing deals. And then that’s what did. I didn’t track the mailer anymore. Does it matter your mailer yield? No.
Jill DeWit:
I can understand the mindset because that’s just in companies. That’s big companies. That’s with this many calls translates into this many booked appointments. Translates to this many completed sales. And then we have retention numbers and all of that. I get that, but in our world, so many of us are entrepreneurs running our own businesses. And this is valuable time you should be focusing in other places.
Steven Butala:
Jill and I just held the first career path session this round.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
During the first session, we all go around and everybody says their background and their goals. And everyone had this disdain for a corporate environment.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. It’s true.
Steven Butala:
Every single person.
Jill DeWit:
It’s true.
Steven Butala:
An amazing diversified… I can’t wait till these next 10 weeks to teach this. It’s truly amazing diversified. People from other countries and all different walks of life. It’s great.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
But we all had that in common. Me included. I said the sentence, I used to own a bunch of nursing homes and I would rather work at McDonald’s-
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
… then do that ever again.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. You’re talking to the gal that’s still coming out from a hotel.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
It was great. We owned this awesome hotel and all these rooms. And she was like, I’m so sick of it. I can’t tell you. I understand.
Steven Butala:
We had a couple people taking companies public.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, that’s true.
Steven Butala:
In that group. We have a person who is a fisherman, self-proclaimed fisherman, in the South Pacific for her entire career.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
Really diverse.
Jill DeWit:
Amazing. Pro basketball, pro soccer.
Steven Butala:
Basketball and soccer.
Jill DeWit:
That’s really cool.
Steven Butala:
Amazing group.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
And performance indicators didn’t come up.
Jill DeWit:
This is true. Do you know what? That’s what I’m really excited about. It’s so interesting. The first career path was a more technical brainy engineering group. Just the way it worked out. It’s not like we screened for that. And then this group, I can’t wait to see when we get our enneagram tests back. We make everybody do an enneagram test and figure out where numbers are.
Steven Butala:
We make them.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, we do. We do make them. I want to know, because it’s so fascinating to see what kind of people are here. And I’m excited to see the results. In case you weren’t sure, Steve is an eight and I’m a seven. But I have hints of eight and I have hints of three, I think it is. I have to go back and work. I can’t remember, but it’s pretty, pretty wild.
Steven Butala:
You should take the test.
Jill DeWit:
It is cool.
Steven Butala:
If you’re listening or watching this. I was against it in the beginning. Like everything. I’m always against everything in the beginning. And I’m glad it’s happened. Jill and I are-
Jill DeWit:
We’re good at [inaudible 00:08:41]
Steven Butala:
… good at redecorating a house and I was against it.
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Steven Butala:
I said, we should just move all our stuff in and enjoy it. And all the wood floors are coming back down and it’s all perfect.
Jill DeWit:
He’s so excited.
Steven Butala:
And she said, see, I told you and I’m like, oh my God, you’re right.
Jill DeWit:
He’s so excited now.
Steven Butala:
I actually said the sentence today. This is worth the money.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, he did.
Steven Butala:
All kidding aside. Your mailer needs to yield about one acquisition, one good acquisition for every 1500 units you send out.
Jill DeWit:
For land.
Steven Butala:
For land. And I don’t mean, yeah, not for houses. For houses, it’s closer to 3,500 now. Maybe even higher because of the way this market is. So you don’t need to obsess on trying to get to deal. The last thing you want to do is try to get two deals out of 1500, because you’re probably going to talk yourself into buying property that you shouldn’t be buying.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, that’s true. Just to get that I have 3.29% yield on my mailer. How did you do? Heck I don’t know. I really don’t know. People ask me, how did you do? I’m like, I don’t know. Here’s what I bought. Here’s what I sold. And here’s how much I made. That’s really what I care about.
Steven Butala:
I can tell you right now, if I sent a mailer out to every five acre owner in Nevada for $150 an acre, we would get so many deals it’d be silly.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven Butala:
If I did the same thing in Michigan, we would get zero deals. So well, great Jack, that’s helpful. I just started, I don’t know that stuff. Yeah. You don’t.
Jill DeWit:
But you will.
Jill DeWit:
Yes.
Steven Butala:
You will. You’re going to know.
Jill DeWit:
That’s right.
Steven Butala:
Do you know what? You’re going to know-
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Butala:
… after your first mailer within 30 days. You’re going to go, wow, we’ve got to go back and buy more in this area or eh, I can let that one go. Don’t send more there, but we’re going to send more there and there.
Steven Butala:
That’s it.
Jill DeWit:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
And that’s what you should be comparing, not this yield. What you should be doing is really looking for and focusing on the red, green, yellow tests in places that are unique to send mail. Then your mailer performance is going to be amazing.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
Or spend more.
Jill DeWit:
It’s just getting hung up on this stuff. I see this stuff as people avoiding doing what they should be doing.
Steven Butala:
Me too.
Jill DeWit:
Answering the phone, not doing this math.
Steven Butala:
There’s places in certain states in the Southwest, multiple states, where I price a mailer at like 60% of what I know I can sell it for, because I know that markets are so hot that I stopped tracking mailer yield on that. The last mailer I did, I think was probably 10,000 units. I think we did… Maybe we’ll end up doing about 20 deals out of it. And we’ll make them way more than a million dollars.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven Butala:
Probably a million five. At that point, do I look at whether or not the mailer worked?
Jill DeWit:
No.
Steven Butala:
If I did one deal off that whole mailer.
Jill DeWit:
And still made like $100,000 or $80,000 even. It’s worth it.
Steven Butala:
Right.
Jill DeWit:
Think about it. My mailer costs $5,000. I made $80,000. Was it worth it? Yeah.
Steven Butala:
So this is a new theme. And Jill’s exactly right about it. The first career path, I think there were 15 people in there and 12 of them were engineers. And so all we did was talk about mailing and pricing to the point where Jill got actually angry.
Jill DeWit:
I’m like, knock it off and get the mail out.
Steven Butala:
She said get the mail out and answer your phone. Because engineers and accountants, and I know this because I’m a former account, recovering accountant. I don’t answer the phone the way Jill does. Not even close. And so this career path, we have professional salespeople, career salespeople in there. I can’t wait to see what they do.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. This group, I think talking comes naturally to them and the deal stuff. So that’s the easy part. This group is going to be very different and so fun.
Steven Butala:
We have a woman in there who took over Avon-
Jill DeWit:
Pretty much.
Steven Butala:
… and started doing her own cruises as an Avon rep. Just a regular person, just kind of doing your own Land Academy for Avon. And they shut her down.
Jill DeWit:
It’s amazing.
Steven Butala:
They didn’t want her to have that much success or control.
Jill DeWit:
Crazy.
Steven Butala:
That doesn’t happen here at Land Academy.
Jill DeWit:
No. We encourage success.
Steven Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
And we want to have a hand over control. Just kidding.
Steven Butala:
Do you want to have a Land Academy Cruise, however? Just call me because-
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. We’ll call.
Steven Butala:
… I’ll probably pay for it.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Butala:
I’ll speak at your cruise.
Jill DeWit:
That’s right. You plan it. You book it. We will come. That’s awesome. We should say that career path zero one was like trying to plan a big event. And they’re like, I don’t want to plan it, but if you plan, we’ll come. Hope you can join us today. Five days a week. You can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
So remember the episode on the Land Academy Show is called How to Complete a Land Acquisition with a mobile home on it. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
That’s a hot topic.
Steven Butala:
This is one of my favorite topics.
Jill DeWit:
Really hot topic.
Steven Butala:
We do a lot of mobile home deals.
Jill DeWit:
I saw something the other day, put something in Discord or somewhere. I don’t know, it wasn’t land investors. But they said, oh, is this a bad thing? It’s got a mobile on it. No.
Steven Butala:
That’s where this came from.
Jill DeWit:
All good. No. This is a good thing. Hold on. If you need access to any sort of ownership or property details, including owner phone numbers and FEMA flood map overlays, check out neighborscoop.com and parcelfact.com. Created by investors, that’s us, for investors like you.
Steve and Jill:
We Steve and Jill.
Steven Butala:
Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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