As someone who is just getting started with Podio let me tell you it is very simple once you get over the initial learning curve hurdle. The key to automate your lead flow is to build separate apps for each status.
An app is simply a table. So if you are using excel or google docs right now just think of each app as a sheet. I've got these Apps setup....
- Properties (All Leads)
- Marketing (all new leads that I'm sending DM too)
- Responded (any lead that has responded)
- Pursue (leads that are motivated and I want to gather more information on)
- Offers (leads I've made offers too)
- Under Contract (all leads that I have under contract)
- Deals (all leads that I've closed)
Properties App is the Top Level. This is where I store all the basic property information such as address, bedrooms, bathrooms garage type, etc...
Marketing App. All Properties that I market to get a record here. I keep track of campaign type (Direct Mail, Email, etc), start date, Finish date and more. Pretty much anything directly related to my marketing effort.
Responded App. Any lead that responds to my Direct Mail or fills out my Website contact form gets a record here. This is like my seller questionnaire form as it keeps track of asking price, reason for selling, is the house listed and more.
Pursue App. If a lead has responded and I think they are worth doing my do diligence on it gets a record here. This is where I keep track of Comps, Repair Costs and any other relevant information I need to help me make an offer.
Offers App. All properties get a record here when I submit an offer to them. i keep track of offer date, offer amount, status of offer (pending, rejected, accepted, countered) and also attach the offer letter to this App.
Under Contract App. An offer has been accepted then a record gets created here. Data I record in this app include title work info, closing dates, potential buyers and everything else I need to help me close the deal.
Deals App. All deals that have been closed get a record here. Keeps track of who the buyer was, how much I made, how much I sold the property for, how long it took me to sell it.
These are the stages to my lead flow. Like I said before, each of the Apps have a link directly back to the Properties App. For example, if 123 Main St has progressed to the Offer stage I'll see something like this when I look at 123 Main St in the Properties App....
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Address: 123 Main St
City: Anytown
State: NJ
Zip: 09871
Marketing Link: Direct Mail Campaign
Responded Link: 5/21/2015
Pursue Link: ARV = $120,000
Offer Link: $62,000
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If I talked to the seller and it wasn't worth pursuing it would look like this....
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Address: 1 Dead Lead St
City: Anytown
State: NJ
Zip: 09871
Marketing Link: Direct Mail Campaign
Responded Link: 5/21/2015
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You can click on each of the links and go directly to the App and see the expanded information for that lead. You also can create some detailed reports to get a better view of each lead.
The Problem (and a solution)
You may be thinking that there is a lot of manual tasks here. The great thing about podio is that you can Create Workflows to automated the creation of those additional app entries. You do this by keying off a Status Change.
What I mean is that I have Podio setup to auto create a responded record if I change the Property status to "Responded". If I'm ready to make an offer, I change the status of the Pursue record to "Make Offer" and an Offer Letter is automatically generated and Emailed/USPS mailed to the seller.
I use Globiflow to automated the lead movement through my App Stages. It's a must use tool if you ask me. Podio has some Workflow features but doesn't come close to what Globiflow can do (at least right now).
There is a lot more that you can do with Podio as well, but the key thing is you can customize it to your business model.
Hope this helps anyone thinking about Podio
