Mark McClung is a broker and owner of Love Your Hood in Denver, Colorado and has been using Daylite for over six years as his CRM. Love Your Hood helps people buy, sell, lease, and manage both commercial and residential properties.
We interviewed Mark a while back to learn how Love Your Hood uses Daylite. Since releasing Daylite 6, we followed up with Mark to learn how his team’s use of Daylite has evolved over the years and what new features have made them more productive.
How does your team use Daylite to manage clients and properties?
Mark: Initially we put the lead in Daylite as a contact. Then we apply Keywords and an Activity Set for a structured follow up process which helps out a lot. We have four stages the lead goes through and various things that need to happen in order to escalate the lead to a client. Once the lead becomes a client we create an Opportunity to take it to the next level.Once the Opportunity is created, that’s the time when we’re actively looking for properties or showing the property if it’s a listing. Once it’s under contract, we convert the Opportunity into a Project so it pulls all the info from the Opportunity. That’s how we escalate from bringing them in from the beginning until close.
How do you keep track of what a client is looking for? For example, number of bedrooms or bathrooms.
Mark: Normally we take notes in the person’s contact. We recently created a form in Daylite which is easy to use because it leads us through the required questions we ask over the phone. Another thing we do is use notes to keep track of communication that happens over text messages. We’ve started using the Messenger App on our Macs and then copy and paste the whole conversation into a note in Daylite that’s linked to the client. I’d love to eventually see integration for texting and Daylite so I can link my text conversations right in Daylite.
How has the way you use Daylite evolved over the years?
Mark: One thing we’ve done recently is really cut down the number of Categories to as few as possible and started using Keywords more. This lets us take advantage of filtering and creating Smart Lists based on specific Keywords. We used to have about thirty Categories so we’ve cut that down to about twelve and then really beefed up the Keywords.
We use Keywords to keep track of where leads come from–the type of marketing platform– and the type of lead they are, for example a past client. Then we create Smart Lists for each of these different buckets. For example, I have one Smart List of past clients and I’ll put them into an e-news pipeline. That’s where we use the MailChimp Connector. They go into that group and then it adds them to that list in MailChimp.
We also have a Smart List of prospects where we’ve tried several times to contact them and if it doesn’t pan out we change the Keyword to inactive and put them into a different bucket.
We’ve started using Activity Sets more for different things such as automating follow ups and calls which helps out a lot. We used to first create an Opportunity and use a Pipeline, but then we changed to using Activity Sets for the person so it’s faster and less data entry. Then once we get to a certain level of interaction we create an Opportunity.
Do you use Daylite to delegate tasks to other people on your team?
Mark: We have eight people on our team using Daylite so I really love the delegation feature. It’s great to just get things off my plate and assign them to the right people. It also makes managing my email inbox easier. With over 150 emails a day, it can be overwhelming without it.
What improvements have you noticed in Daylite 6?
Mark: The overall look is a lot cleaner. It looks more fresh. It seems like the tasks are a lot more robust, which is really nice. I use the My Task list a lot more than I used to and I like that tasks are always in edit mode so I can just jump in and update what I need.
The Pipelines are a bit more streamlined now. I can see where we are and which step we’re in. I can see right from the Pipeline when things have been done for the future stage because things don’t always happen in a perfect linear way. Sometimes things for a future stage are done before the stage you’re in is finished. I really like Pipelines because I can see all the different tasks and appointments. It’s my one stop shop for everything. It’s also beneficial when we bring a new team member on, there is a structured flow for them to follow and less “hands on” training is needed.
I like the new buttons in the Activity View. When I’m in a contact I can just click “new note” or “new task” right away. I use that all the time.
I like the little Mini Calendar, too. When I’m on the phone and a client asks if I’m busy on a certain day I can jump over and check what I have planned on that day.
Any other comments?
Mark: For the most part Daylite is awesome. I love it. You guys have grown and we’ve grown with you. I’ve been using this CRM for at least six years so I’d consider myself pretty savvy and I’m still learning new things that it can do.
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