Sales Heroes: Bubble Student

What is Bubble Student all about?

¿Recuerda cuando buscaba alojamiento en la universidad?

“Remember having to go to the Students’ Union to get a list of landlords’ numbers and their properties?

Remember having to call them all, and then having to schlep all over town, without the faintest idea of what you’d find — or who you might have to live with?

Bubble Student is changing all that — and not just for students.

The only mobile-first student accommodation app, it is built on an innovative listing platform allowing students to check out tens of thousands of housing options, sharing them instantly with their friend groups and future housemates.”

“But the real innovation is in how it serves letting agencies.

Bubble está impulsado por Zoopla, una de las mayores plataformas de anuncios inmobiliarios del Reino Unido que cuenta con una API pública, por lo que empresas como la suya pueden utilizar las propiedades que han publicado en su plataforma para publicarlas en Bubble.

Utilizando tecnologías emergentes como el aprendizaje automático y la computación en la nube, Bubble Student agrega alojamientos de agencias, propietarios de casas de ocupación múltiple (HMO), alojamientos para estudiantes construidos a propósito (PBSA) y propiedades privadas en una plataforma fácil de usar y gratuita.

Y no sólo eso.

Bubble permite a agencias y propietarios reducir los costes de venta y el tiempo necesario para alquilar un inmueble:

• ofrecer análisis de comportamiento en profundidad sobre cómo y por qué la propiedad funciona como lo hace
• comparar el precio con el de otras propiedades
• analizar las palabras clave en la descripción
• evaluar la calidad y el contenido de las fotos
• evaluar en qué momento un lead se convierte o se abandona

After a let is agreed, students can then continue to communicate with the agency or property manager through the app, flagging maintenance issues, for example.”

Founded by Felix Henderson and Solomon Wright, two 22-year-olds who met through a mutual friend in student halls, Bubble Student has just secured pre-seed investment of just over £200k, giving the company a post-money valuation of £1million.

Bubble undertook a successful proof of concept in Newcastle at the end of 2016 and will launch nationwide over the summer of this year.”

How does Bubble Student do sales?

“Bubble Student is committed to a soft yet persistent sales technique.

Aplicamos un sistema de cinco fases que se centra en establecer una relación con nuestros futuros clientes.

Empezamos utilizando LinkedIn para conectar con las personas pertinentes de nuestras empresas clientes. Esto nos permite presentarnos a nosotros mismos y a la empresa a un nivel más personal. Creemos que un enfoque más informal es lo que mejor nos funciona en este caso concreto, ya que nos ayuda a establecer las relaciones que buscamos.

We find a more informal approach works best for us in this particular case, as it really assists in helping build the relationships we strive for.

Once they have a detailed understanding of the business and the team, we then make a conscious effort to understand their business and any areas they feel need improving. This helps us understand the areas we need to tweak/improve on the platform so we can attempt to solve our clients’ problems.

In order to continue building and to maintain the relationship we always try and help our clients with issues in other areas of their business. This normally means suggesting other tools that can help them with things that the Bubble Student platform can’t.

Listening to our clients during the initial phases also helps us figure out the areas we need to focus on when trying to convert our leads later on.

Cuando finalmente presentamos el producto en sí, nos tomamos el tiempo de explicárselo personalmente para que puedan hacer todas las preguntas que quieran sobre todos los aspectos de la plataforma.

Una vez convertido un cliente potencial, el proceso de venta continúa.

We are constantly asking our clients to think of areas/features that may need improving or adding. This gives a bespoke feel to the product that makes the customer feel valued.”

Where do you get your leads from?

“We are lucky in our business because we have integrated with Zoopla, meaning we have the contact information of all the agents listed on the student app (approximately 900 agents).

Esto nos permite dirigirnos fácilmente a ellos en nuestro proceso de ventas.

Nuestro canal principal es Linkedin, para poder conectar con las personas adecuadas dentro de la empresa a un nivel más personal. Esto nos ayuda a entrar en el negocio. Sin embargo, lo utilizamos junto con otros canales, como las redes sociales, el correo electrónico, el teléfono, Skype, etc.

Once we have already had an introductory call with the client, we schedule a demo walk through Skype call (screen share) where one of our sales team will click through the platform and answer any questions they may have.”

¿Cómo se utiliza Salesflare?

“Our three sales guys use Salesflare to track leads and communicate with one another about progress on the leads in our pipeline.

Utilizamos SCRUM para todas las áreas de nuestro negocio, de modo que el equipo de ventas se limita a trabajar en el backlog, moviendo los clientes potenciales a medida que avanzan.

It’s great for seeing who’s communicated with who, how and when. It brings accountability and transparency to our sales process, avoiding confusion and potential mistakes.

We’ve integrated Salesflare with Intercom to have all the data in one place and we’ve set up a Slack integration to get realtime notifications for updates.

The Kanban-style opportunity board is our favourite feature. We customised the pipeline stages to match our 5 phase process. One glimpse gets you a complete insight of your pipeline’s state and health.”

Any sales hacks/tips you would like to share?

At Bubble they say they’re still looking for sales hacks.

At Salesflare, we think these guys are doing a great job at building their sales process around helping people out. This is not a ‘hack’ as in a shortcut but arguably more powerful when it comes to gaining an edge over your competition.

Bubble’s approach of trying to solve your prospect’s problems and pursuing that regardless of whether they’re a match for your business is an awesome approach that can be recommended to anyone doing sales.

You may not get a sale out of it right now but you’re expanding your network and influence with meaningful relations that can uplift your business’ value and reputation on the longer term.

La gente compra a personas que conoce, que le gustan y en las que confía, y estarán encantados de recomendarle a otras personas que necesiten su valor.

The same can be said of approaching post-sales as if you’re still doing sales, constantly bouncing back asking what can be improved. Being in constant conversation with your customers creates a strong connection and gives you a direct link to the greatest product idea source of all time: customer feedback.

You show that you care about solving your customer’s problems above all else while assuring yourself of an infinite influx of ideas.