Investor Profiles: Tailoring Your Communication

Property managers can improve client service by identifying and labeling different investor communication preferences in their management systems. Understanding whether your clients are legacy, data-driven, DIY, or emerging investors helps deliver personalized communication even with a large portfolio.

• Legacy investors (Silent Gen/Boomers) prefer phone calls, printed reports, and relationship-building
• Data-driven investors (Gen X) focus on analytics, ROI, and performance metrics 
• DIY investors (Millennials) want real-time access, transparency, and digital communication
• Emerging investors seek education and often want a blend of personal connection and business focus
• Start by labeling just 10 investors at a time in your property management software
• Use these labels to filter communications and send appropriate content to each investor type
• For new clients, identify and label their investor type during the onboarding process

Share your experiences with investor labeling systems by sending a message through the podcast, especially if you use different platforms - I'd love to hear how you've implemented this!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Investor Communication Styles
• 2:56 Four Types of Property Investors
• 5:22 Labeling Clients in Your System
• 8:03 Implementing Labels for New Clients
• 10:26 Action Steps and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:31

Hi, welcome back to another episode of the PM Collective podcast, and we are going to talk about labeling investors on our systems to match their needs and have a little bit of a chat about it, because one thing that I've spoken about before is the multi-generational workplace and making sure that we're allowing for the millennials and the baby boomers when it comes to how we work in the office, which is all fine, but one thing we don't really talk about is and taking into account is, the investor style. So, whether the investor is a millennial or a baby boomer or anything in between, like, how are we communicating with them in their style or should we be getting them to match our processes? And I'm not here to sort of give any answers or anything like that, because I think it's just an interesting discussion, which is one that I just wanted to have with you. Because I think it's just an interesting discussion, which is one that I just wanted to have with you. So what I find is, the longer you have been in your property management role, the longer you sort of get to know your clients, know their styles and you sort of can adapt to them a little bit. But as you get bigger, or if you do manage a larger portfolio, it is a little bit harder to have that personal service. But I guess I wonder whether there is a way for a client to feel like they're having a personal service even though you maybe are still, you know, bulk emailing and all of that. So I guess that's sort of what I'm. That's what's going through my brain at the moment.

Speaker 1: 2:11

So the first thing I was going to talk about was the different types of investors and the type of investor profiles that there are. So we have the legacy investor, which is the silent gen, the boomers, the ones that have owned properties for decades. They're the real that have owned properties for decades. They're the real old school ones. They're still going to prefer a call over an email. They're going to love the printed report. They're going to want less updates and more of that relationship. I know that in my business I've still got a couple of owners that come in and they have like a lever arch file with every single statement. This is when they used to get posted them. I don't know whether we've still got any that get them posted. I think they're all on email, but I'm pretty sure they still post them out. At the other end, they hole, punch them, they stick them in their file and they've got all the paper for it. So I don't know whether you guys have got any like that, but I've definitely still got a couple. So obviously they are like one type.

Speaker 1: 3:19

The second type of investor profile we've got is the Gen X, which is the data-driven investor very analytical, performance-focused, want the return on investment. They want to know the timelines, they're very clear with their actions and the intentions, and that is also good. They probably are not that worried about being your bestie, probably, and knowing that you've got kids at home or anything like that. They probably don't enter in those types of conversations, which is totally fine, but you've got that style. Then you've got the DIY investor, which is more a client that wants that real-time access, that transparency, that flexibility. They love their portals, they love their voice notes, they probably have a WhatsApp with you. So you've got that type of client. And then the last one is the emerging investor. So these are the ones that still feel quite overwhelmed. They definitely want to be educated. They love the videos, the facts and, yeah, all of that education is definitely something that they want. But I do find that these investors also can be quite holistic as well, and they do want a bit of everything. They do want that relationship with you, but they still want to have that return and that business sense. So you've got these four types of investors.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Now my question to you is do you just know who they are from years of dealing with them, or do you have them labeled in your system so that anyone who maybe takes over your portfolio can click on that client and see exactly what type of investor they are? Now, personally, I don't have that. However, I do have a long-term team who sort of know their clients pretty well. However, this is something that I've been thinking about doing and I think it'd be so beneficial for me to eventually put in my business and it will be on my to-do list to do so. We use PropertyMe, so I guess my plan is very easily just to label my clients, because by labeling my clients, it allows me then to filter by those labels so that then, if I am doing educational videos, for example, I am sending them to the right people. Or maybe my older school landlords are going to get a different type of article, maybe they're going to get an article from the newspaper or some sort of blog or something like that. It's going to be very different for them, so I think that a lot of systems probably will allow you to label them. I think that's a really good thing to do.

Speaker 1: 6:10

The second thing, if you can't label them in your trust account software is I would hope that they are also in your CRM that you're using, and in your CRM you should be able to label them so that then, when you send out marketing material, they are getting something that's beneficial for them. However, that is good for like your marketing emails, but when it comes to your service and communication for the management of the property, there needs to be a way that you can get this into your portal, into your software. Now, me, I only know property me, so I know that they've got it. I'm sure other software will have it. Maybe there's a creative way of doing it not sure, but definitely something to look at doing.

Speaker 1: 7:02

So the the other thing that you could do with this as well is that to do it for new clients coming in, and so it might be something as simple as when you are signing up your new client, when you're signing them up, and you would know at that point what type of client they were going to be and label them when they go into your system with their new management paperwork. So, even if you just start doing it slowly, that's what I would start doing, definitely with the new business. So the action steps that you could take this week, if this is something that you are interested in and, to be honest, even if you didn't plan to utilize this like customizable label system, I still feel like it would be really good information to have in your database. So, even if you were just to do it and label it but not necessarily do anything with it, I think there's still going to be a benefit because, down the track, this is something I think that's going to be very relevant and something that you want to do, and it's a good idea just to start slowly doing as you go along. So a great action step would be to literally just take 10 of your landlords and label them, just 10 at a time. Don't go through and make it your whole database or anything like that. Just pick 10. And maybe next week you'll pick another 10. And then, after you, pick another 10 and just slowly go through it and add that note, whether it's in your CRM, but preferably in your trust account software, have them labeled in there and then over time, as you're communicating with them, just test it out and see how you can use that to really make sure you are giving that personal service. That is probably the best way to create that personal service, even though you've got that bigger portfolio, because you're delivering their communication style.

Speaker 1: 9:05

So just summarizing those investor profiles again you've got the legacy investor, which is sort of your boomers.

Speaker 1: 9:12

You've got the data-driven investor, which is your gen x. You've got the diy investor, which is generally the millennials, and then you've got the emerging investor, which sort of will be those first time time buyers or the gen z, and labeling them, I guess, as emerging, diy, data-driven legacy, something like that, something nice and simple. Just, yeah, just an interesting task to start thinking about and just as you have all your interactions with the clients, just start popping them in and then at some stage I think you're going to find that labeling information really, really helpful. So let me know your thoughts If you actually do have something set up like this. I'd love to hear how you've done it. So feel free to shoot me through a message or some fan mail through the podcast with how you did it, especially if you use a different platform just to educate me. That would be amazing. Otherwise I'll leave it with you. It's an extra little 1% to add onto your service, so give it a go if you can, and I'll see you next week.