what are asset managers doing all day
I work for a real estate startup. Prospecting role. Spend all day trying to get in touch with asset managers/developers/owners to set up meetings to talk about my company's product which is a value add. Hitting performance metrics. Shocked by the rate at which people in asset management types of roles will just ignore my emails. Isn't their entire job to figure out how to maximize the value of each property that they oversee? Or do I just not understand asset management correctly? If you are an asset manager what can I do to get you to respond to my emails? Why is it easier to set up a meeting with a CEO who has 20 jobs than it is to set up a meeting with someone in a specialized role who has 1 job?
As someone who gets emails from similar companies and always ignores them...you get more responses from higher-ups for two reasons.
1. I have no authority to decide whether we use your product.
2. If I pass this along to a decision-maker that will most likely create more work for me.
Interesting. How many companies would you say are prospecting you at a given time?
When I was in IB, I got all sorts of emails about Intralinks/Merrill alternatives, print services, etc. and honestly, I threw them all in the junk mailbox.
Younger employees really don’t care about stuff like this and don’t have the power to make decisions and implement new tools/features anyway. Your best bet is to find the most senior person you can and give them a call. Emails don’t really get you far with these older guys who hate technology. Have a good pitch ready.
Since you're in a sales role, like other's have mentioned, you want to be going to a DM whenever possible. Most AM's really can't do much in regards to decision making... With that said, if its a real pain point, they can be a champion for you internally and really push for your product to at least be demo'd
Going to a Head of Asset Management, Project Manager, etc. may be more useful. The best person will depend heavily on what your "value add" product is; which I obviously have no clue but your standard Asset Manager or Asset Management Analyst won't be able to do a ton for you other than say "yes, this will help us." when they discuss it internally
I used to work in fintech sales so I feel your pain - It can be tough to be persistent when you feel strongly that your product will help and you're not getting traction. If you can find an extension or direct line, it may be helpful to try a cold call or voicemail approach with them if you haven't just to pick their brain and dig in on what their day to day actually looks like, and then segue that to see how your product can help their properties perform. For Asset Managers, my best bet is the best time to do this is middle of the month. I'm guessing month end is busier for them since they'll likely have reporting responsibilities coming due
thanks bawse. good idea on the brain picking vs pitching.
Not in a pure AM role but that’s the issue right there. Hundreds of people reaching out to me selling me something they think is a value add (it’s usually a rare opportunity to waste a half hr talking to a glorified telemarketer). Even if the product/service does add value, I can only spend X hours per week responding to cold emails/calls of people trying to sell me stuff.
I’m more likely to respond if you can clearly and quickly demonstrate that value add in the email or an attachment.
\how many people would you say are reaching out to you at a given time?
I’d say about ~50-100 emails/calls per day of people trying to sell me stuff... that being said most of that is email blasts from brokers selling properties. I usually know in about 5 seconds if it’s a pass or actually worth looking into so it’s not too labor intensive. But on top of people selling me stuff, I’m getting pulled 100 different ways all day everyday by people I’m already doing business with or chasing people down to get work done on time. Brokers, lawyers, tenants, contractors, architects, engineers, insurance people, etc. have their own interpretation of the most important aspects of the development process and all these people don’t necessarily operate using the same currency. I’ll respond to that cold email selling property management software right after I get through my architect having a panic attack over an anchor tenant pressuring us into making minor design changes.
Dealing with the shitty deals our acquisitions guys gave us with unrealistic UW.
^This is the response I would get if I asked any of our AM folks what they are doing all day.
So, I am going to give a quick rant regarding the 'real estate startup' world as I see it. This is not personal at all to OP, but the nature of the question actually is telling. I get a lot of emails/linkedin messages from various startups hoping to get a meeting/get our firm to buy-in. I think my title on LinkedIn makes me a target, but everyone may be getting these, I really can't say. So a few thoughts (OP trust me when I say I am trying to help)...
1. I am always amazed when I do read an email/message, how unpersonalized they tend to be, even if my firm's name is peppered in. If its clearly generic, then I assume its part of a 'mass email' campaign and thus likely to ignore.
2. When something interesting does come, or I am brought onto a call organized/agreed by someone else in my firm, I am always amazed by how often the sales person a. doesn't really know much about our firm. b. doesn't actually know much about how our industry is organized/operates c. how confident they are that their product is revolutionary d. Often unable to answer detailed/specific questions or give a great demo of the system. This is clearly a broad brush, but the poor actions of many startups paints a bad image on the other, just part of the real world.
3. Many products are clearly rushed to market. The whole 'Minimum Viable Product' concept has clearly done horrors to many founders/startups, who are out trying to sell half-built products, yet claim they will change the world. Hype is great for a VC/Angel pitch, not such so much in sales to a paying customer.
4. Worse, because of the 'revolutionary' claims, they sometimes want to charge a 'revolutionary' price. The VCs said you need revenue or sales orders to get the next round of funding... This is not always the case, but when I see a half-built/half-functioning product that is fairly new with lots of 'kinks' that wants to charge 3x the competitor/old system, it's hard to swallow.
5. Many products claim to "automatize" or perform some work/analysis by AI or something like this. But, that 'revolutionary' feature is still 'in development' so for now, you hit a request button and someone at the firm does the work and emails the analysis back. Clearly, this is not all that common, but I've seen twice now. This makes everything look like a joke. If your product is not doing what you say it will, please don't ask me to buy it.
I could go on and on, but think I made my point. OP, if you want to be successful selling your product, the above is what you are having to overcome. In fairness, if you are selling a product to enhance the asset mngt process, you should know it backwards and forwards, if you are asking the question as above, that does not lead me to suggest you are. But your curiosity is putting you in the right mindset, its a long process, but keep going. I am in favor of tech/innovation, but feel the startup world is its own worse enemy.
Lets back up for a second. The real question that should precede your entire post is "why should anyone respond to your cold email?". Don't say "because it will save money." I get between 20-50 emails to that effect a week, often multiple from one company, just different salesmen. Insurance adjustment, new roommate pairing service... you name it. It's extraordinarily rare they make a convincing pitch, and depressingly common that they don't know a thing about what my company does.
To paraphrase Rounders, if you're wondering why everyone else seems like such an idiot, maybe the answer is that it's you and not them.
What my company does is not a commodity like insurance. There are job titles like director of other income whose job description is to implement ways to increase other income. The point of this post is that it is surprising that I could email/call a person in this director of other income role multiple times, with a way to increase other income, and this person will ignore all of my emails/calls instead of vetting out what my company can do to determine if it would lead to an increase in other income. You could say that maybe there is a packaging problem, I still need to package my message in a way that will motivate a response. I would agree with that.
They manage assets
good call
I will never ever respond to a cold email. I get way too many real emails, let alone prospecting spam. If you want to sell me you're going to have to call me.
and people say that cold calling is dead
Nah, cold calling makes the world go 'round.
Spent my first couple years in the muck cold calling and canvasing on the tenant rep side. The best use of email blasts is to find out who opened them (maybe multiple times) and then call them.
God I hate these fucking emails.
how come... you don't like making money or something?
"WHY WONT YOU IDIOTS ANSWER MY SHITTY COLD EMAIL??!!? GOD YOU MUST SUCK AT YOUR JOB"
Please spare me your email.
thanks I will take you off my list.
Create the relationship then sell. Do cold calls than cold email. I get too many spam tech based tool emails all day so why respond to another one!! The tech tools start to literally nickel and dime you on every freaking asset, and it becomes a waste to replace or do another add on when acquisitions underwrote shit OP EX. My goal is to figure out ways to safe money, not spend money!! or call our risks so I can blame the PM for mismanagement or figure out how to grow the top line so I am in line with budget or exceed expectations. YOUR FANCY CHART WON'T DO SHIT FOR ME!
we aren't selling a fancy chart, we are selling smart locks... why would you not be opportunistic and lowball the shit out of whatever the cost is and see if it sticks. almost no one does this.
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