Transcript from the Episode
Intro
[00:00:00] Mark: Alright, so Chris, first and foremost, can you just please give us a big intro, uh, where you are in the world, that lovely company that's behind you and, uh, and we'll, and we'll dig in with this today's interview. Hey, uh,
Chris Intro
[00:00:10] Chris: so I'm Chris from Dyzyn Living. We're a Cardiff based, uh, medium terms phase service department provider.
[00:00:16] Uh, we are pet-friendly as you can see outside. There we go. Um, so we cater mainly to like the film industries relocation, anyone with a pack in between homes, things like that. Um, I'm currently learning my business from out in Sweden, in the mountains, and that's it for me.
[00:00:33] Mark: Brilliant. And award-winning.
[00:00:36] Don't forget award. Oh, award-winning. Yeah, award-winning as well. So what I wanted to do, the reason why I wanted to get you on is to chat about the different type of niches when it comes to medium term rentals or business guests, because everybody assumes when you think business. But it is contractors, uh, you know, builders, tradies, et cetera.
[00:00:52] But it can delve a lot more deeper than that. And so, um, you've obviously built up a portfolio, uh, based, you know, like I say, working remotely, which is fantastic. But we don't wanna talk about that. We want to talk about the how to attract and how to appeal to these different types of companies. Because if, if anybody in here who is, um, watching this and is trying to get in front of.
[00:01:14] Uh, medium term guess, which is like, you know, staying for more than just a few days, it can actually turn into big contracts. You need to have a different way of thinking when it comes to this. You can't just, you know, sit and wait for the booking to come in on Airbnb or booking.com. You do have to be proactive.
The different types of categories and niches
[00:01:29] So what I wanted to dig into is the, the proactive ways that you are going about and. Finding these companies. So first and foremost, let's just dial back. Can you just list off in your experience with who you've worked with, the different types of categories and niches when it comes to the, the medium term guest and, and what companies there are related to?
[00:01:48] Chris: So there's obviously the contractor market, but. Along with that, you've got relocations, so you've got families coming from abroad, um, on contracts to like universities, stuff like that. You have the healthcare professionals, you have the film industry. Um, there's also like law films sending people to different cities for.
[00:02:10] Uh, trials and things like that. They last up to two, three months sometimes. So they're good to reach out to. And we also do little bits with estate agents
[00:02:18] Mark: and referrals there. So this is good. So we, we've got, uh, relocation, healthcare, film companies, law firms, estate agents, universities. Um, so the, the first sort of stage of this would be when you were going ahead and building this.
[00:02:32] How did you go about it? What were you doing? How were you reaching out to these people and, and how did you find their details? First and foremost, it's,
[00:02:41] Chris: it's quite basic really. You just think of the industry. Um, so say you get the guest through Airbnb, who's come from a healthcare, healthcare company, or they booked through Airbnb through you.
[00:02:51] Uh, what we tend to do is we tend to just find that company's detail. Straight away. We search them online, then you get the fit, the top 20 competitors in the space. And then we just reach out, reach out to them by phone, via email, try and build a relationship and go from there.
[00:03:08] Mark: When you are speaking to them and when you are reaching out to 'em, what is the general gist of the conversation?
[00:03:13] Are you going in and trying to sell 'em straight away or are you taking a different approach? How are you reaching out to, uh, these companies originally? I,
[00:03:22] Chris: I'm not a very good direct salesperson, so I'm, I just play to my strengths. I like, I just get on the phone, I'll have a chat with them, see what contracts they've got going on, not directly sell.
[00:03:34] Um, but make sure they do know who we are and that we're available. Um, and then I get one of the team now to reach out afterward to then go a bit more directors there, a bit better at that than I am. So it's more, it's more about building the relationship because you want 'em to use you repeatedly over the coming years, rather than just sell the room once and then move on to somebody else.
[00:03:56] You wanna
[00:03:57] Mark: know the long term thing. I think that's a big one. So obviously you're not comfortable at selling direct sales, like you said, uh, but what you did is you reached out and you hired somebody. But could do that on your behalf. Like you like having conversations with people and building a relationship with people.
[00:04:10] That's great. Then following up from that, you have somebody that's calling and actually doing the selling. Now the the next question is, you have that initial contract. You have that initial consultation, that initial chat. You leave your details, you show 'em the portfolio, you tell 'em who your niche is, et cetera, which is great.
[00:04:25] What is the general lead time from you hanging up the phone to the next person, getting in touch? And then the second part to that question is, How many touchpoints and how many times are you, are they reaching out to them over the course of, say, six months to a year?
[00:04:40] Chris: We, we, depending on the industry, um, we reach out regularly.
[00:04:45] So like the film industry, reach out once a week, just a sort of a newsletter emailing sort of thing. Or we ring the people booking Just a chat. Hello. How's it going? Do you need anything? Um, But I would say over, over a six month period, the average is probably once every two weeks. That can be like a, a generic email you send to all of the industries of what you've got available.
[00:05:09] Something a bit more personalized. But it is, it is about the relationship rather than the sale. Cuz once you build the relationship, the sales comes afterwards. Yeah. We have quite a few companies that just ring us directly. When they're staying in Cardiff now, so they don't, they don't bother going anywhere else.
[00:05:25] And that's, that's where you want to be.
Is the traveling healthcare market in the UK starting to pick up?
[00:05:27] Mark: This is something that I've noticed speaking to other people in America. In America, the traveling healthcare professional is much more common than what it is in the uk, so to speak. But are you now finding it that the traveling healthcare market in the UK is starting to pick up particularly in, you know, areas like Cardiff and what.
[00:05:46] Chris: We've, we've always had a trickle of it, but yeah, recently since, well it's, since we've made the better relationship with the industry, it's, it's started to benefit us more. I think. It's always been there. We just haven't been top of their mind to be able to monetize it basically. Wow.
[00:06:04] Mark: And when it comes to building relationships, apart from sending cakes, uh, what else are you.
[00:06:11] Doing in, in that retrospect to be, be in that top of mind because you're not the only accommodation provider in card. If it is potentially in their Rolodex, what are you trying to do that's stands you out from the rest that they do go, let's get in touch. We, we
[00:06:25] Chris: all, we, we take monthly payments as well, so we, rather than them paying say, 18 grand for a six month contract upfront, cuz they, they don't know if they're gonna last the 18 months, uh, the six months, or they're gonna last nine months.
[00:06:41] All three. So we let them, we let them pay a month ahead every month, uh, to stay with us. That gives them their bit of flexibility. Their budgets are easier for them to maintain. They're not paying out and trying to get money back afterwards. Um, we're very easy to book with as well. So if they, if they ask, we have something available nearly all the time.
[00:07:03] Um, we try, we try to, to schedule our calendars to look for the long stays, so we don't, we don't allow a two, a two night book in. Say a month in advance. We just don't allow it.
[00:07:16] Mark: Relocation. Healthcare, film companies, law firms, estate agents. How are you collecting this list on Google? Are you doing it yourself or are you outsourcing and a member of your team is, is is creating this sort of database for you?
[00:07:29] Uh,
[00:07:30] Chris: it depends. Like I, in the past I've outsourced outta the. Um, usually, usually for the Philippines or Bangladesh or somewhere like that and they've just gone and scraped contacts, email addresses, and then we've cold reached out from there. Yeah. Um, I tend to reach out through LinkedIn cuz it's my face.
[00:07:51] So, um, if we're doing any LinkedIn outreach, I tend to do it at the moment. But other, other than that, yeah, it's, it's mainly outsourced. We build the lists, we email, um,
[00:08:02] Mark: yeah, go from there. And what other tools that you've got in place to implement this? Have you got a crm? Yeah,
[00:08:07] Chris: we use Zendesk. So all of our calls, Facebook, WhatsApp, all sorts emails, anything comes into one
[00:08:14] Mark: place.
What are the other tech stacks?
[00:08:15] And Zendesk is Z, E N D E S K. Go check that out. Um, and what, what, what, what are the other tech stack that you have behind the scenes? What's Parin? The business, uh,
[00:08:25] Chris: we use click up. So, and Avania the PMs. So we link the two together, click ups more of our operational day-to-day. And Avantia is our booking booking engine and OTA dispersion ti.
[00:08:38] Mark: Brilliant. Anything else that's behind the scenes or have we got those main free.
[00:08:43] Chris: I, yeah, I try and limit my tech stack. Otherwise, , I go down rabbit holes and never come out. Um, so those, those are the main ones we use. Avanto, click Up, and Zendesk, they're the three.
[00:08:55] Mark: Appreciate your time Now, um, there's gonna be a lot of people watching this who are maybe at Property free Property five who want to scale and grow.
[00:09:02] But want to do it in a way where they're not totally stuck in the business and they want to do it in a way that will, uh, mean that they're not always trying to find the time to do so. We're not gonna be too busy. You've obviously a achieve this. You do it remotely and uh, it's been amazing to see from behind the scenes.
[00:09:18] And what's more exciting now is you have got your own mentorship program starting up. Can you just give us a little breakdown of what that is going to be? And if anybody wants to find out more, where's the best place to get in touch to ask you about it?
[00:09:32] Chris: Okay, so it's gonna be one-to-one mentorship with me.
[00:09:35] Um, there'll be one call and one hour call a week where I'll date deep dive into any of the problems you may be having, any of the bottlenecks help you get clarity on where you want to go with that, you'll also get access to all of, like my systems, all of like the templates. We use, ideas on where to reach out all of our contacts.
[00:09:54] If you're needing a va, we can find a VA for you and stuff like that. And this will be spread out over six to eight months, originally paying monthly. Cuz if you don't like it, I'll give you your money back. No problems there. Um, and we'll work through it. Building you and your business to get you where you want to go over the six to eight month period.
Outro
[00:10:15] Um, best place to reach out for me is there Chris@Dyzyn.co.uk. Um, drop me an email just saying mentorship and I'll give you a call
[00:10:26] Mark: and design for those who are listening and not watching the video. It's d y z Y n d y Z y n dot code uk. Make sure you go check it out and obviously if there's LinkedIn as well.
[00:10:38] How do I find you on LinkedIn? Uh, Chris Ballard design. There's not many Chris Ballard designs out there, so you'll be able to find him. Easy enough, epic. Appreciate that. Appreciate this and uh, yeah, congratulations and looking forward to, uh, checking in later on. Thank you. Nice one cheer.
[00:10:54] Chris: Having a blast.
[00:10:55] Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee led Bruce Lee. This so hard on the tee is loose leaf. Picking up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.
Before you leave
Please go and rate, review and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify Google Play or Anchor or visit Boostly Hospitality Podcast for the full list of episodes!
Welcome to Boostly Podcast Episode 569.
In this interview, Mark interviews Chris from Dyzyn Living, a Cardiff-based medium-term serviced apartment provider.
Dyzyn Living caters to a wide range of clients, including families, healthcare professionals, contractors, film companies, law firms, estate agents, and universities.
Chris explains that Design Living reaches out to companies by searching for their details online and then contacting them by phone or email to build a relationship.
Rather than selling their services straight away, Chris focuses on building long-term relationships with clients.
He tries to find out what contracts they have going on and ensures they know Design Living is available for their future needs.
Chris emphasizes the importance of being proactive and thinking outside of Airbnb and booking.com to attract medium-term guests.
He explains that it is not just about the money but the relationship-building, as clients can repeatedly use their services over the coming years.
Here's the video for this episode:
Timestamps (audio)
Whilst you’re here
Follow Boostly on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on how you can increase your direct bookings
Visual – YouTube
Audio – Boostly Podcast
Transcript from the Episode
Intro
[00:00:00] Mark: Alright, so Chris, first and foremost, can you just please give us a big intro, uh, where you are in the world, that lovely company that's behind you and, uh, and we'll, and we'll dig in with this today's interview. Hey, uh,
Chris Intro
[00:00:10] Chris: so I'm Chris from Dyzyn Living. We're a Cardiff based, uh, medium terms phase service department provider.
[00:00:16] Uh, we are pet-friendly as you can see outside. There we go. Um, so we cater mainly to like the film industries relocation, anyone with a pack in between homes, things like that. Um, I'm currently learning my business from out in Sweden, in the mountains, and that's it for me.
[00:00:33] Mark: Brilliant. And award-winning.
[00:00:36] Don't forget award. Oh, award-winning. Yeah, award-winning as well. So what I wanted to do, the reason why I wanted to get you on is to chat about the different type of niches when it comes to medium term rentals or business guests, because everybody assumes when you think business. But it is contractors, uh, you know, builders, tradies, et cetera.
[00:00:52] But it can delve a lot more deeper than that. And so, um, you've obviously built up a portfolio, uh, based, you know, like I say, working remotely, which is fantastic. But we don't wanna talk about that. We want to talk about the how to attract and how to appeal to these different types of companies. Because if, if anybody in here who is, um, watching this and is trying to get in front of.
[00:01:14] Uh, medium term guess, which is like, you know, staying for more than just a few days, it can actually turn into big contracts. You need to have a different way of thinking when it comes to this. You can't just, you know, sit and wait for the booking to come in on Airbnb or booking.com. You do have to be proactive.
The different types of categories and niches
[00:01:29] So what I wanted to dig into is the, the proactive ways that you are going about and. Finding these companies. So first and foremost, let's just dial back. Can you just list off in your experience with who you've worked with, the different types of categories and niches when it comes to the, the medium term guest and, and what companies there are related to?
[00:01:48] Chris: So there's obviously the contractor market, but. Along with that, you've got relocations, so you've got families coming from abroad, um, on contracts to like universities, stuff like that. You have the healthcare professionals, you have the film industry. Um, there's also like law films sending people to different cities for.
[00:02:10] Uh, trials and things like that. They last up to two, three months sometimes. So they're good to reach out to. And we also do little bits with estate agents
[00:02:18] Mark: and referrals there. So this is good. So we, we've got, uh, relocation, healthcare, film companies, law firms, estate agents, universities. Um, so the, the first sort of stage of this would be when you were going ahead and building this.
[00:02:32] How did you go about it? What were you doing? How were you reaching out to these people and, and how did you find their details? First and foremost, it's,
[00:02:41] Chris: it's quite basic really. You just think of the industry. Um, so say you get the guest through Airbnb, who's come from a healthcare, healthcare company, or they booked through Airbnb through you.
[00:02:51] Uh, what we tend to do is we tend to just find that company's detail. Straight away. We search them online, then you get the fit, the top 20 competitors in the space. And then we just reach out, reach out to them by phone, via email, try and build a relationship and go from there.
[00:03:08] Mark: When you are speaking to them and when you are reaching out to 'em, what is the general gist of the conversation?
[00:03:13] Are you going in and trying to sell 'em straight away or are you taking a different approach? How are you reaching out to, uh, these companies originally? I,
[00:03:22] Chris: I'm not a very good direct salesperson, so I'm, I just play to my strengths. I like, I just get on the phone, I'll have a chat with them, see what contracts they've got going on, not directly sell.
[00:03:34] Um, but make sure they do know who we are and that we're available. Um, and then I get one of the team now to reach out afterward to then go a bit more directors there, a bit better at that than I am. So it's more, it's more about building the relationship because you want 'em to use you repeatedly over the coming years, rather than just sell the room once and then move on to somebody else.
[00:03:56] You wanna
[00:03:57] Mark: know the long term thing. I think that's a big one. So obviously you're not comfortable at selling direct sales, like you said, uh, but what you did is you reached out and you hired somebody. But could do that on your behalf. Like you like having conversations with people and building a relationship with people.
[00:04:10] That's great. Then following up from that, you have somebody that's calling and actually doing the selling. Now the the next question is, you have that initial contract. You have that initial consultation, that initial chat. You leave your details, you show 'em the portfolio, you tell 'em who your niche is, et cetera, which is great.
[00:04:25] What is the general lead time from you hanging up the phone to the next person, getting in touch? And then the second part to that question is, How many touchpoints and how many times are you, are they reaching out to them over the course of, say, six months to a year?
[00:04:40] Chris: We, we, depending on the industry, um, we reach out regularly.
[00:04:45] So like the film industry, reach out once a week, just a sort of a newsletter emailing sort of thing. Or we ring the people booking Just a chat. Hello. How's it going? Do you need anything? Um, But I would say over, over a six month period, the average is probably once every two weeks. That can be like a, a generic email you send to all of the industries of what you've got available.
[00:05:09] Something a bit more personalized. But it is, it is about the relationship rather than the sale. Cuz once you build the relationship, the sales comes afterwards. Yeah. We have quite a few companies that just ring us directly. When they're staying in Cardiff now, so they don't, they don't bother going anywhere else.
[00:05:25] And that's, that's where you want to be.
Is the traveling healthcare market in the UK starting to pick up?
[00:05:27] Mark: This is something that I've noticed speaking to other people in America. In America, the traveling healthcare professional is much more common than what it is in the uk, so to speak. But are you now finding it that the traveling healthcare market in the UK is starting to pick up particularly in, you know, areas like Cardiff and what.
[00:05:46] Chris: We've, we've always had a trickle of it, but yeah, recently since, well it's, since we've made the better relationship with the industry, it's, it's started to benefit us more. I think. It's always been there. We just haven't been top of their mind to be able to monetize it basically. Wow.
[00:06:04] Mark: And when it comes to building relationships, apart from sending cakes, uh, what else are you.
[00:06:11] Doing in, in that retrospect to be, be in that top of mind because you're not the only accommodation provider in card. If it is potentially in their Rolodex, what are you trying to do that's stands you out from the rest that they do go, let's get in touch. We, we
[00:06:25] Chris: all, we, we take monthly payments as well, so we, rather than them paying say, 18 grand for a six month contract upfront, cuz they, they don't know if they're gonna last the 18 months, uh, the six months, or they're gonna last nine months.
[00:06:41] All three. So we let them, we let them pay a month ahead every month, uh, to stay with us. That gives them their bit of flexibility. Their budgets are easier for them to maintain. They're not paying out and trying to get money back afterwards. Um, we're very easy to book with as well. So if they, if they ask, we have something available nearly all the time.
[00:07:03] Um, we try, we try to, to schedule our calendars to look for the long stays, so we don't, we don't allow a two, a two night book in. Say a month in advance. We just don't allow it.
[00:07:16] Mark: Relocation. Healthcare, film companies, law firms, estate agents. How are you collecting this list on Google? Are you doing it yourself or are you outsourcing and a member of your team is, is is creating this sort of database for you?
[00:07:29] Uh,
[00:07:30] Chris: it depends. Like I, in the past I've outsourced outta the. Um, usually, usually for the Philippines or Bangladesh or somewhere like that and they've just gone and scraped contacts, email addresses, and then we've cold reached out from there. Yeah. Um, I tend to reach out through LinkedIn cuz it's my face.
[00:07:51] So, um, if we're doing any LinkedIn outreach, I tend to do it at the moment. But other, other than that, yeah, it's, it's mainly outsourced. We build the lists, we email, um,
[00:08:02] Mark: yeah, go from there. And what other tools that you've got in place to implement this? Have you got a crm? Yeah,
[00:08:07] Chris: we use Zendesk. So all of our calls, Facebook, WhatsApp, all sorts emails, anything comes into one
[00:08:14] Mark: place.
What are the other tech stacks?
[00:08:15] And Zendesk is Z, E N D E S K. Go check that out. Um, and what, what, what, what are the other tech stack that you have behind the scenes? What's Parin? The business, uh,
[00:08:25] Chris: we use click up. So, and Avania the PMs. So we link the two together, click ups more of our operational day-to-day. And Avantia is our booking booking engine and OTA dispersion ti.
[00:08:38] Mark: Brilliant. Anything else that's behind the scenes or have we got those main free.
[00:08:43] Chris: I, yeah, I try and limit my tech stack. Otherwise, , I go down rabbit holes and never come out. Um, so those, those are the main ones we use. Avanto, click Up, and Zendesk, they're the three.
[00:08:55] Mark: Appreciate your time Now, um, there's gonna be a lot of people watching this who are maybe at Property free Property five who want to scale and grow.
[00:09:02] But want to do it in a way where they're not totally stuck in the business and they want to do it in a way that will, uh, mean that they're not always trying to find the time to do so. We're not gonna be too busy. You've obviously a achieve this. You do it remotely and uh, it's been amazing to see from behind the scenes.
[00:09:18] And what's more exciting now is you have got your own mentorship program starting up. Can you just give us a little breakdown of what that is going to be? And if anybody wants to find out more, where's the best place to get in touch to ask you about it?
[00:09:32] Chris: Okay, so it's gonna be one-to-one mentorship with me.
[00:09:35] Um, there'll be one call and one hour call a week where I'll date deep dive into any of the problems you may be having, any of the bottlenecks help you get clarity on where you want to go with that, you'll also get access to all of, like my systems, all of like the templates. We use, ideas on where to reach out all of our contacts.
[00:09:54] If you're needing a va, we can find a VA for you and stuff like that. And this will be spread out over six to eight months, originally paying monthly. Cuz if you don't like it, I'll give you your money back. No problems there. Um, and we'll work through it. Building you and your business to get you where you want to go over the six to eight month period.
Outro
[00:10:15] Um, best place to reach out for me is there Chris@Dyzyn.co.uk. Um, drop me an email just saying mentorship and I'll give you a call
[00:10:26] Mark: and design for those who are listening and not watching the video. It's d y z Y n d y Z y n dot code uk. Make sure you go check it out and obviously if there's LinkedIn as well.
[00:10:38] How do I find you on LinkedIn? Uh, Chris Ballard design. There's not many Chris Ballard designs out there, so you'll be able to find him. Easy enough, epic. Appreciate that. Appreciate this and uh, yeah, congratulations and looking forward to, uh, checking in later on. Thank you. Nice one cheer.
[00:10:54] Chris: Having a blast.
[00:10:55] Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee led Bruce Lee. This so hard on the tee is loose leaf. Picking up those rhymes. Don't write it, just do it loosely.
Before you leave
Please go and rate, review and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify Google Play or Anchor or visit Boostly Hospitality Podcast for the full list of episodes!