Should I separate contacts from properties in Podio?

Question

I'm on day 3 of setting up Podio. My first project is organizing the properties/contacts I've identified while driving for dollars. I feel a little stuck at the moment as I'm trying to refine the apps.

My thought is that I should manage sellers as contacts separate from properties - treating each as separate items in separate apps, but connecting them through relationships.

I set up a basic app for each and started playing with it, but it still seems clunky - If any of you actively use Podio, I'd love to get your thoughts on this kind of setup (separating properties and sellers, but connecting them through relationships)... and then setting up a workflow for mailings. What approach would you recommend? Any resources you would suggest for getting up the learning curve faster?

Any help is much appreciated! (I'm floundering a bit here!)

Drew Clements · Answer

Hi @Tanner Morrill,

I'm literally watching Youtube vids on this as this thread unfolds... what I'm seeing so far (and from looking at screen shots of others' setups) is that most people are using Contacts, but manage the flow of leads, deals, offers, etc. etc. with different apps - essentially a funnel of apps. I tried doing the same as you - custom apps for contact information using fields other than the contacts field that's native in Podio. Ran into relationships issues that prompted this thread... I'm now moving back to using Contacts and just trying to figure out how to change my perspective to fit Podio, rather than change Podio :)

Good luck to us!

Brandon Calloway · Answer

@Drew Clements just watched a great youtube video on this exact situation.  Search youtube for the following.

Podio Best Practice: Centralized Contacts

Drew Clements · Answer

Hey @Scott Costello - No worries on the confusion... Sorry if I wasn't clear enough in my previous post covering that, but that confusion actually helped me to resolve my question... just in a round-about way. In other words, thanks for the confusion! Led to a better understanding of how I can structure my work.

Cheers,

Drew

Jeff B. · Answer

Haven't got prodio so this comment is pure computer science.

We normally create an object (aka contact/client/customer/user, call it whatever you please),

and then assert (define) each object HAS A attribute, like first_name, last_name, phone, address, ....

There's lots of places a contact can be used and it's a nightmare to have this data segregated into different places according to use (say buyer vs seller).  It should be easily seen that on one deal JoeDoe may be a seller and yet on another he is your buyer.

This means that the ROLE the person is playing in a specific deal is not constant within the contact info.   So:

• every item in the CONTACT record is only related to that person
• you need a TRANSACTION record to tie two or more Contacts together and this is where the ROLES of each become visible.
• and then ACTION records (time stamped) as to who did/said what to whom

For a database, this would be three tables (Contacts,Transactions,Actions) and the reporting code would do the coupling.

Maybe I ought to create one of these???

Scott Costello · Answer

I put my tutorials out as I learned how to use Podio.  So Apps, names and processes will change as I learn and discover the best way to do things.  Sorry it confused you a little bit.  Each full tutorial (my include multiple videos) should be taken as a stand alone item and not part of the other.

Drew Clements · Answer

Hi @Julie Clark, Thanks for the FB Group idea - just joined... Looking forward to seeing what kind of content is on there. Noticed that one of the organizers is Dan Schwartz - I've seen a few of his videos... way more advanced that what I need now, but hoping to get there soon!

Drew Clements · Answer

Thanks @Scott Costello! You've really put some great content together there! This is exactly what I needed to see (though I had to read it a couple of times for it to totally sink in).

With your help, I think I've found the missing understanding of how things link together: In your tutorials, the naming conventions for the apps seemed out of sync in places (e.g. The "Leads/Prospects" App in your video is the "Properties" app on your excel sheet, and "Prospects" in the discussion of stages, etc.)... This has been confusing for me for a while, but it just clicked. Some apps ARE stages, while others are supporting/lookup tables, etc.

Before I could understand this, I had to draw it out with apps as nodes and relationships as arrows/relationships with direction. This allowed me to then "layer" on the stages as labels for the apps and helped me to realize that I had the setup for relationships backwards (e.g. Offers has a relationships field that links to Prospects, not the other way around. So I can see now that Prospect has a relationship with an Offer, but Prospect doesn't "link" to Offer through a relationship in Prospects .... sorry if that made zero sense... typing this is just helping me to solidify my learning).

Another key realization I needed (and finally arrived at) is the idea that this is a funnel, BUT there are MULTIPLE entry points (e.g. each marketing channel will "land" a lead into ONE funnel, but at a different point that's specific to the channel). For example, even though my funnel has simple property info at the widest end (and this works for channels like Driving for Dollars where you have the property info before you have a response), many channels, like Bandit Signs, will deliver prospects at a different level - at Response. In such a case, I start entering information on the Response app and create a record for Prospects (property info) in the same session.

I think I can start getting some work done now! Thanks!

For anyone looking for Scott's blog post, here's the link:

https://strugglinginvestor.com/2015/08/the-proper-...

Julie Clark · Answer

@Drew Clements A great resource to follow if you use Podio is to join the Facebook group:    Real Estate Podio Automation HQ

I may not have answered your question, but check it out.  You can ask questions or review the threads in there.  You can also buy Joe McCall's podio set up (I think).

Good luck!  Podio is the BEST.  I would not be in business without it.

Scott Costello · Answer

The contacts field is handled a little different depending on the settings.  One option creates a workspace member, another option creates just a contact.  It is very confusing where they are stored.  I still haven't figure it out 100%.  To me it always made more sense to hold contacts in a separate app.

I agree that you should create a workspace for each of your different marketing techniques.  Then when the leads progress to a point where they should get offers, you can move them to an advanced Lead Flow workspace.  I like this approach because at this stage all leads are typically handled in the same way.

You could have one master contact workspace that handles all your contacts (Property and Personal).  Then you can just use relationship fields in all your apps to link up to this table.  Then it will be accessible by all your workspaces and apps.

Take a look at my blog post about Proper lead flow in Podio.  It explains in detail how and why I set things up the way I do.  it should help you think through your setup better.

Drew Clements · Answer

I was confused by that when I started setting up my first apps because I didn't see it on any tutorials (just finished watching all of yours btw), so I've been using "Standard". The naming conventions between default fields and apps also makes it a bit confusing, so hopefully this explanation of where I'm at will make sense...

Goals:

1. Have a place where I can, at a high level, manage and organize all of my contacts (sellers, buyers, agents, vendors, etc.)

2. Leverage these contacts throughout my apps, and have my apps - in turn - update/edit/create new contacts, etc.

3. Create Processes for each of my marketing channels (e.g. Driving for Dollars, Web Leads, Referrals, Call-ins, Direct Mail, etc.). I assume these would each be workspaces with their own sets of apps (?).

Right now I'm working on a "Driving For Dollars" workspace with apps for Properties, Property Profiles (relationship with Properties, a Contact Field for Owner, and Mailing address text fields). Mailings are done manually based on an export of this Property Profiles app (I don't have the chops for Globiflow, although that's an eventuality). I'm now working on a Responses app... but I'm stuck on how to "link" it to contacts and Properties and Property Profiles.

It seems that the Contact Field creates a record, but I have no idea where to find it or how to create a relationship with it (Goal 1)... this is the issue I'm having with contacts and I'm guessing this is why Podio is moving away from the contact field?

I'm still really new to Podio, and I consider myself a capable person; but this isn't "clicking" yet - I know the potential is there, though! I'm just missing some key pieces somewhere that I need to get into place to "get" this... any idea what those pieces are?