Sales Heroes: Bubble Student

What is Bubble Student all about?

Lembra-se de tentar encontrar uma acomodação para estudantes na universidade?

“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.

O Bubble é alimentado pela Zoopla, uma das maiores plataformas de listagem de propriedades no Reino Unido que tem uma API pública, de modo que empresas como a deles podem usar as propriedades que listaram em sua plataforma para listar no Bubble.

Usando tecnologias emergentes, como aprendizado de máquina e computação em nuvem, o Bubble Student agrega acomodações de agências, locadores de Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMOs), Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) e propriedades privadas em uma plataforma fácil de usar e gratuita para listar.

E não é só isso.

O Bubble permite que agências e locadores reduzam o custo de venda e o tempo necessário para alugar um imóvel:

• oferecer análises comportamentais detalhadas sobre como e por que a propriedade está tendo o desempenho que tem
• comparar o preço em relação a outras propriedades
• analisar palavras-chave na descrição
• avaliação da qualidade e do conteúdo das fotos
• avaliar em que ponto um lead se converte ou é abandonado

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.

Operamos um sistema de cinco fases que se concentra na construção de um relacionamento com nossos futuros clientes.

Começamos usando o LinkedIn para nos conectarmos com as pessoas relevantes das empresas de nossos clientes. Isso nos permite apresentar a nós mesmos e a empresa em um nível mais pessoal. Achamos que uma abordagem mais informal funciona melhor para nós nesse caso específico, pois ela realmente ajuda a construir os relacionamentos 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.

Quando finalmente apresentamos o produto em si, reservamos um tempo para orientá-los pessoalmente, para que possam fazer as perguntas que desejarem sobre todos os aspectos da plataforma.

Quando um lead é convertido, o processo de vendas continua.

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).

Isso nos permite direcioná-los facilmente em nosso processo de vendas.

Nosso principal canal é o Linkedin, para que possamos nos conectar com as pessoas certas dentro da empresa em um nível mais pessoal. Isso nos coloca na porta. No entanto, usamos isso em conjunto com vários outros canais, como mídia social, e-mail, telefone, 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.”

Como você usa o Salesflare?

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

Usamos o SCRUM em todas as áreas do nosso negócio, de modo que a equipe de vendas trabalha apenas com o backlog, movendo os leads à medida que avançam.

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.

As pessoas compram de pessoas que conhecem, gostam e confiam, e elas ficarão felizes em indicá-lo a outras pessoas que precisam do seu 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.