The Science of Flipping - Episode 155: Newest Marketing Strategy Lowers Deal Cost by 75% – An interview with Aaron Pimpis

Episode Date: November 19, 2019

document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { podlovePlayer("#player-5eb5ab2fb1ca8", "https://thescienceofflipping.com/wp-json/podlove-web-player/shortcode/post/3138", "https://thescienceofflipping.com/wp-json/podlove-web-player/shortcode/config/default/theme/default"); }); document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function () { podlovePlayer("#player-5eb5ab2fb1d36", {"title":"Episode 155: Newest Marketing Strategy Lowers Deal Cost by 75%","subtitle":null,"summary":null,"duration":"","poster":null,"chapters":"","transcripts":"","audio":[{"url":"https://cdn.simplecast.com/audio/ed9b33/ed9b33fc-e0ed-45d7-b0b3-400cc0c82a94/58c579de-bfa9-4c31-bcff-5ae5f434fd9a/tsof155_tc.mp3","mimeType":"audio/mpeg","title":"AUDIO/MPEG","size":0}]}, "https://thescienceofflipping.com/wp-json/podlove-web-player/shortcode/config/default/theme/default"); }); In this great episode of The Science of Flipping, Justin Colby talks about the Newest Marketing Strategy Lowers Deal Cost by 75% – An interview with Aaron Pimpis. Learn the hottest marketing strategy that got Justin a deal in 37 days Get a Free Coaching Call with TSOF team. CLICK HERE TO FILL THE FORM. JOIN MASTERMIND — APPLY NOW!!

Welcome to the Science of Flipping podcast. I'm your host, Justin Colby. I love we are live. Welcome to Science of Flipping. If you're in the group, you know, I'm here to give back. And this is a Science of Flipping podcast episode. If you are in Facebook, if you are in Facebook, you are also probably seeing on this video someone across from me who is very scary right this moment. And it is Halloween. So Aaron Pimpis, what's up, baby? How are you? What's going on, Justin? It is Halloween. We have to preface that. are you what's going on justin it is halloween yeah we have to preface that otherwise it's like what is he doing now that is right it is halloween today we are recording a podcast this morning it's early morning here on the west coast and so he's already in

full-blown halloween on the east coast so that is why he looks like a bank robber that is actually his outfit that's right we should have done this like mysterious guest who's the mysterious you know guest number x or whatever exactly i mean look anybody's looking at watching this on mute they're like immediately tuning in if they're seeing a lot a hundred percent that's what i should have done so welcome uh dude i really appreciate you being on um this is you know the science flipping podcast but i do record these live in our facebook group the science flipping because i just want to get back to our audience and this is something that you can engage aaron's going to drop some incredible knowledge on you he was a part of our mastermind for several years uh he's doing really big things out in tampa florida uh and so i wanted to bring

him on so he can talk about his business and what he's been able to do over the last couple years converting more deals scaling his business the whole thing. But if you are not watching this live and you happen to be listening to it on iTunes or watching it on YouTube or finding it on Stitcher, wherever you might be, make sure to go into Facebook and just simply ask to join the group. It is a closed group, but if you ask and you just fill out our very simple form, then you can actually be live with us and be engaging and ask us questions and we can reply directly back. Aaron is a part of the group. He can answer questions for you. So, again, if you're listening to it, great. Keep listening because it's all about providing you guys value.

But to be engaged, get over to the group and then you can be live with us. So I'm happy to have you, dude. And without kind of further ado, I want you to be able to tell your story. I know it well, but you'll tell it better. And then let's kind of jump into the key topic that I wanted to really dive in on. And that's marketing and being able to lower lead costs and what you've been able to find over the last year or so that has helped you so much. So give them your background and then we'll jump into it, dude. Yeah, so quick snippet. Me and my partner, Ashley, we basically exited the corporate world a year and a half ago, almost to the date right now. I took a lot away from that business side and implemented directly in this space.

As far as team structure, all the strategies we learned, I was on the sales side. So the first and foremost thing that we want to establish was sales and marketing, like systems processes. As you know, all that stuff comes later. I think people get those in a different order. So we were able to scale pretty quickly our first year. We hit over seven figures. I think we did 1.35. This year we should be at about 1.8.

So it was really more about it's not easy, right? It takes growth, trial and error. I didn't know shit about real estate. I didn't know how to read a fire bar. still don't right I have people that do it right on our team but the goal was always the emphasis was always on marketing and sales you know everything else I believe falls into place you can always get the you know the all the EOS stuff you can always get the all the SOPs that stuff so I think people just get that in reverse sometimes and they focus on the wrong thing.

And that's where, you know, you have a little bit of maybe backwards movement where people are not getting the stride. So we pretty much stride every marketing channel out there. Just got to give everybody a heads up. So from Facebook to cold calling to texting to direct mail to SEO, pay-per-click to TV, which is a TV pilot for 30K a month. Very unique, only two X return. Probably would not go back to that.

But right now we're sticking to the meat and potatoes, which is text, mail, kind of cold calling bolt on them. I don't say that's like a really big deal. And, you know, whatever drips in from SEO, we take it as well. Well, that makes, I mean, what makes sense, and I talk a lot about this in marketing as a whole, but like, I just did a video of if I was starting all over again, if I didn't really have any money, the three strategies would be door knocking, cold calling, and text messaging. And I say that because door knocking is very easy to be able to go out, pull a list of pre-foreclosures, and then go knock on their door. Simultaneously, when you're in the area, look for properties that are like maintenance deferred, right?

They look pretty worn down, knock on those doors too, and go from there. And then find the addresses, write down the addresses, skip trace them, and call them and text them. So it kind of surrounds this whole thing. So the fact that you also are doing, and I knew this, but to kind of echo it, you're doing text messaging and cold calling because you're already skip tracing the number. So why wouldn't you want to surround that person? Cold calling is great because there's a human component. I always, always am an advocate of that part, right? Like face-to-face is best, on the phone is second best, texting is third best, et cetera. Like email is the worst.

But you're already doing the work to skip trace. Get in front of them in every angle. And so are you guys able, have you tracked, and you may or may not have like the value add between surrounding just those two topics, the cold calling with the text messaging? Yeah, so I'll put it to you this way. So we do about 10 to 15 deals average a month.

I think this month about 12 or 13, depending if this deal is gonna drop today or tomorrow. We're counting tomorrow for the month as well. So texting is gonna be about six of those deals. Direct mail, we just restarted direct mail back up. So I think that's gonna be three additional deals. Then cold calling and SEL. So cold calling is not as a big of a piece.

I do think cold calling is like swimming against the stream sometimes. So people have it dialed in. But my guys, so we have four acquisition managers. One of them is Ashley. So she manages the other acquisition guys. So they text and they call. One of the biggest mistakes that people do with texting is they're just simply relying or, you know, even cold calling, they're relying too much on outsourced labor. Yeah. It produces this like huge, huge effort. And I think of it this way.

Would you put a VA on a pay-per-click inbound call, right? Or put them on a direct mail-inbound call? So it gets targeted lists, right? I sent the guys on it because they could convert. They're not getting burnt out because they're not calling the white pages, right? So they're calling dialed-in lists like pre-foreclos lists, right? I sent the guys on it because they can convert. They're not getting burnt out because they're not calling the white pages, right? So they're calling dialed in lists, like pre-foreclosures, right?

Tax delinquents, that kind of stuff. They can take the deal down right then and there. And same thing with sex. But I literally have my acquisition guys do it in a very targeted fashion. But yeah, I mean, it works out. It all adds up. It's not going to be like one magical source

after the other. But that's how we get to our, you know, 10 to 15 three I would use. Like text messaging, I use your service and we'll talk about it. But like it's 500 bucks a month, dude. And I'm knocking down. I just knocked down my first deal in 30 days, which, by the way, you think I should be doing better, which is awesome. Right. Only only room to improve. But I spent 500 bucks to make 7000. Like that's awesome.

Right. And within 30 days. Right. So I say that to say everyone, regardless of budget needs to be thinking like yourself, or like what I'm saying is you need to have a minimum of three because you need to surround these people. They need to be able to see you, hear you, touch you, feel you like the whole thing. They need all five, seven senses, however many senses there are these days. They need them all. Right. And they want to be able to see it, hear it, feel it, smell it like door knock, like get in front of them. So I think you're saying exactly the reason why I'm wanting on you. I knew you were going to say that, but like, dude, you have to regardless of your budget. And then it comes down to the conversion. I had a call this morning with a private client.

I have a handful of private clients that I work with. Like he is doing really, really well. Right. Um, he's in the seven figures as well. And one of the things he was talking about is, um, his, his, uh, the profit margin is starting to shrink. And I said, okay, well, are the leads enough leads to do what you want to be doing to hit your goal? He said, yes. And I said, well, now it's about your conversion and training your guys to get bigger profit margin, right? Because if you're knocking down $4,000 deals, that's fine. But if you could also be knocking down $15,000 deals with the same amount of leads, then you need to get better at training your guys, which is the next component that you're talking about. Like, you know, the management of your acquisition guys, like you need to train them and hone them into being able to get the best,

you know, first of all, provide as much value and you'll get there naturally, but then you need to understand how to negotiate a deal properly. Right. And then to get that profit margin as well. Yeah. So we spent a lot of time. So each day, uh, just touching that real quick, you know, for those that have a team or a team member each day, daily holler huddle, right? So half an hour with acquisitions, my partner and half around dispositions each day. So you have a feel on the pulse. Um, and then we also spin that into, um, weekly hour long training. You know, we've continued to go through John Martinez, that kind of stuff, but also anytime there's a win, we unpack that deal, like I used to do in my previous industry, and we completely dissect

it so the other team members actually learn of how do we get to the win? So if you're not exploring that, if you're not dissecting deal by deal, you're not going through a pipeline review, it's a 15-minute meeting, but everybody knows what's coming in, what's trending, what's hot, what's warm, etc.

But that cadence, they transfer over to either a follow-up game or a text message game or anything else that's the case that keeps you consistent versus like you know one month up one month down right so their roller coaster continues so we've been able to kind of smooth out that curve that equity curve through um through specifically where you're referring to which is basically having consistency and trading with the sales team once you're kind of at that particular level. Yeah. And so I want to jump in. The reason why I really wanted you on here is because you've developed the tech software that I use, right? And it's called Launch Control. The website's launchcontrol.us. If you go there, it's his company. Just let him know you heard it here on this podcast

or you saw it somewhere from me. He'll hook you guys up. It literally is a drop down when you told me that they can say science of flipping and he'll hook you guys up. So launchcontrol.us. But the reason why I love it so much is you're not just a SaaS guy.

You're not just a tech guy, dude. You're in the business. Quite frankly, right this moment, you're doing 10 to 15 deals every single month, by the way, using your own service. So I'm assuming you kind of built it for yourself initially. And then you said, Hey, you know, this, this can actually help a lot of people across the nation. Yeah. So that's exactly true. So again, my background is really, you know, sales software, private equity space used to be. And so it was easy to take an idea and kind of translate vision to code. But you're exactly right. We developed something rudimentary that we're using in-house. We're getting deals off without stop. And then I saw an opportunity to take it to market. I mean, there's like a few other softwares out there, which I'm like, all right, we clearly have a a much superior product than this it would be a disservice not to take it in market so uh that was the case but we also have done we develop a specific methodology almost a sales process the software is developed around sales process not the other way around which is the reason why we average my reps only

send 300 400 texts a day our average is two to three thousand texts to a deal and where you're at right now it's uh again you're gonna be you're probably have a lag effect it's not like you know like i send out my first month and i'm there you probably have a shit and i'm gonna connect with anthony as well from your team uh you have a ton working because it's an inverted effort it's not this masses of asses approach right like an RVM, because that you can't control. You're just going to spray and pray. Half the people on there are even wrong people. Not even the right people you're trying to reach, right?

So what we've developed is we developed something that's the exact opposite. It's making sure you don't run out of data. You don't run through lists. Most of our users are absolutely killing it with the sales training that we provide specific to our system. And then we incorporate things like, you know, like drip campaigns, specific cadence for a hot,

warm nurture follow-up, all that's there. And what we've honed in over the past year and a half in my sales team, we pass that on to our users. So they're able to be just as successful, but we completely reverse engineered the logic of how people approach texting. And we developed the platform specifically around that use. And I think that's the big reason why I wanted you to come on. I think, again, there's just so many options out there. And if anyone is listening to me, they're also probably listening to eight other people. Right. And that's fine, by the way.

Get as much education as you can. The reason why I always try to provide value with the real people such as Aaron, like he's in the business. He's not just selling some sort of tech. Like, yeah, that's a part of it. But the reality is because he sees how valuable it is, right? Like he sold me on it. I'm now doing deals off of it within 37 days. And by the way, I haven't even really honed it in in terms of an actual strategy.

Like he's talking about helping my team get even better. So I say that all to say, like, you still do direct mail. You still do cold calling. This is just a very easy, cheap strategy for you guys to get deals. Everyone out there right now is saying, how can we compete in markets like you? Like, do you guys have the iBuyers, right? The open door off of Padzilla, Redfin? You guys have Phoenix. All those guys are here. All of them. They're here, right? Like it is the most competitive I've ever seen our market.

But we're still doing deals because we're, by the way, they're not text messaging. You want to be able to win in today's market. Do what they're not doing, right? Are they starting to use TV? Yes. Are they starting to use radio? Yes. Are they starting to actually send direct mail?

Yes. We are seeing it in Phoenix right now. Zillow is sending direct mail and I believe Open Door is. So where can I go to open up the space of how to compete with them? Because they're going to offer us every time, a hundred percent of the time. There's not a chance in hell we're going to get close to their number. So this was my solution. It was Aaron's solution, right? But it doesn't mean it's the only way, right? Like you still send direct mail, right? Absolutely. You have to have those complimentary marketing channels. Otherwise you're just kidding yourself. I mean, look, our direct mail cost per deal is just over 2000. Um, cold calling, I think there's just a little bit North of that as well, just because cold calling to me is just this myth. It's good to have as complimentary, but never primary.

I mean, I know very few people that actually use primary. And then my cost per deal on text is 500 or less. I know we have it dialed in. We have a ton of users that actually, our top user at Launch Control did 11 deals last month. In Oklahoma City. Only off launch, strictly absentee list, everything else. This month, I think it's at seven.

But he's got it dialed in. He followed exactly what we told him. And he was able to completely turn around how his company operates. I mean, he actually dropped the mail. He just looked very little right now. But it does come back to you have to have all different channels, at least three, like you said, in there. And you know with a lot of sophisticated operators,

what I'm actually going to start doing is doing driving for dollars on very targeted aspects because for me it's cheap it's inexpensive labor there's actually you can get uber drivers to do it you can get there's an actual sop for that so i'm more than willing to share that with people uh but you can get people to drive you know they use like deal machine or there's like you know 15 other apps in the same thing but those convert you know i'll know a lot of people in other markets uh i have a good friend in salt lake city and there's somebody else in california they actually convert very well driving for dollars which it's funny that you mentioned that because that is one of the one of the market channels for entry level and i see a lot more sophisticated operators starting to use that on their end as well.

Totally. You can't find those on any list. Right. You know? Well, you know, it's funny because it's almost like what got us here, the shit we used to do when you were broke and busted and disgusted and like, I have to door knock. But then for some reason, we start making money doing it

and then we stop doing it because now we're making money so why yeah i'm so sophisticated now right i don't need to do it but it's all it's all the shit works oh bro and by the way i'm a victim of my own like joke right like we started making money and then okay let me go spend it all on marketing like it's crazy i made it doing the hard shit but i don't want to keep doing the hard shit. So now I'm going to try to leverage my money, which you should, but why are you stop doing what got you there? That is the craziest part. And by the way, I'm a victim of this whole joke I'm making because it just only works. And the better you get and the more sophisticated you get at negotiating and selling and persuasion and all that just means door knocking is that much easier and you'll do that much more.

I wanted to add something, you know, this probably will be the best value add for your, for, you know, for your base. But what we did is reverse engineer, the biggest deal we've done, right? 97,000 wholesale sign-in fee. And I backed into how do we get there? Right. And this is exactly where door knocking comes in. Actually they have a person that's going to be doing this. So we backed into it a ton of code violations right uh the thing like tax delinquent as well was part of the pain points but what we did is we figured out this guy just got released from jail right he has

a record etc right so texting would have worked the guy probably hasn't checked his mail it's there's literally a crack house surrounded by nice houses, right? And there's a lot of these. So you could not reach this guy by phone because we actually, we tried to skip tracing him. He had a prepaid phone, you know, some burner. It just never happened, right?

Direct mail probably never worked. But if you take lists, so pre-foreclosure, right? You put in all the pain points, for example, code violation, tax delinquents. So in Hillsborough County, where I'm at,

they almost have this joke as like a newspaper you can buy with like mugshots. So they make it very accessible. It's like a litter, like a stream of people that are arrested. But having a scraper or VA to grab anybody that's arrested homeowners, parse out DUIs, parse out, you know, any like non, like no real crimes, but more heavy hitter stuff, overlap that with homeowners, right? Or anybody that would be on your list so if you have a pre-foreclosure i'm sorry it could be one of them right uh but

those are highly sought after but something like a code violation tax delinquent and the dude just got out of jail you go door knock that shit that was a nice $7,000 deal for us yeah yeah and some people are gonna be like well i don't want to door knock a dude that just got out of jail. I mean, I get it. Uh, but they're not going to attack you. I mean,

look, you're just, you're, you're going there for like the same reason you want everything else. I don't think it's a danger thing, but I'm sure you can find somebody else to do it for you if you don't want to for a commission offer. Right.

I, you know, it's, it's a long time saying, right. Do others aren't doing to get the results others aren't getting, right. Like that's the reality is people that are going to be scared. I don't really want to, well,

then Aaron's going to go door to door shit and he's going to make 97 grand and you're not right. And so that's, so, you know, listen, you know, there's a lot of value to this. Like I'm a, I'm, I'm promoting it without trying to promote it, dude. Like the service and software really does work. And I know there's a lot of people that this. Like I'm a, I'm, I'm promoting it without trying to promote it, dude. Like the service and software really does work. Um, and I know there's a lot of people that listen to me and are going to hear this or see this on YouTube or even in the Facebook group. Again, it's launch control.us L a U N C H C O N T R O L E or O L dot U S.

Let them know you saw it here. Like he'll hook you guys up. Right. And so, um, the reason why I'm such an advocate is it works for me. So I, anytime a software or a service or a product works for me, I try to help you guys know what I'm using. That's the whole point of these podcasts, right? Is the systems, the tools, the organization that I use, I want you to also have access to. And Aaron's really doing the business. He's not just trying to sell you something like he still actively does the business. So, and then I know, but you have a ton of trainings in there. This is not just like you buy a software, like there's trainings on exactly how he's using it. What's the best, you know, standard operating procedures, the scripts, the targeted lists that you needed. Like, and I think you and I just talked about, like, you're

going to start to do weekly trainings. Is that right to the to the group exactly so we actually have a dialed in sales training it's like we developed our own john martinez version of texting for this marketing vertical and then it's all the secret sauce of how do you convert people that are unanswered how you can hurt people are saying no how you convert people like ghosting all that stuff the competition is basically leaving behind they're not not even trying to those. That's where we convert because we convert. Now, I was trying to tell you, Justin, is like you're starting now, but the true conversion happens like, you know, second, third month,

et cetera, because the pipeline is being built up now. And we close deals. We close a deal that we started in conversation last July, 2018. The software specifically built with that. Drift campaigns are inside. Nurture, all that stuff. But yes, you're right. The sales training that comes with it,

but we also will be doing bi-weekly calls to the point where it's not only just launch control and that aspect, I go through any questions you guys have for me as an operator, getting to 15 deals a month. How do we do it? What works?

What doesn't work? How does this list perform? How did you train your acquisition managers? How do you display the deals? All that stuff is part of the value that for the app because again i'm a big proponent just like you're justin it's like a lot of there's a lot of stuff out there a lot of apps a lot of you know like from people that are doing it based on theory and it may work it may not work the reason why i developed the app is because again it literally came from the inside out you know you built live and just took it from there but yeah all that stuff is uh available to our users including

our private facebook group which has a ton of value it's only like building more and more each day uh with user sharing etc yeah that's awesome dude i really appreciate it thank you for spending some time with me i know you are insanely busy dude um again, ask questions. Aaron and I are both in the Science Flipping group. Ask any questions you want. As this video goes down, we'll be able to lock in some answers, some questions. So, appreciate you, dude. Thank you so much for coming on. Absolutely.

We're going back to this. Yeah. I see it. All right, dude. Later, bro. Yeah. I see it alright dude later bro yeah