Beth Garvey: I think we’ve had to do some adjusting in that segment. We’ve got more competition out there than we’ve had before. We’ve had to change some of the ways we look at different things along those lines. I think our property management, the territory tool that we’ve mentioned earlier, is really going to help us be able to be more targeted in our sales approach. And I think that’s going to be beneficial for us going forward. So we’re optimistic about where it’s headed, but we also understand that there’s — it’s a different environment out there now than what it was three years ago.
Operator: Our next question comes from Howard Halpern from Taglich Brothers. Please go ahead with your question.
Howard Halpern: Congratulations on the solid results and looking forward to 2024. In terms of property management, how many locations did you end the year with? And what are the prospects for increasing the number of locations or splitting locations in 2024?
Beth Garvey: Believe we are at 64% right now, Howard. And then — but the way we’re doing this territory mapping tools, I’m going to use Atlanta as an example, where we may have two sales people out there now, we may end up having six out there. And so that’s kind of how we’re expanding our growth from that perspective. So they won’t have as many one person won’t have as many properties they need to hit. So it will be more targeted. And then as always, we’ve always kind of looked at being able to be opportunistic in opening different markets out in the U.S. And so we’ve got a couple that are identified. But right now, we’re really going to focus on this territory side because we think that, that’s closest to the dollar.
Howard Halpern: And in terms of how you’re set up for 2024. What are you seeing in terms of your own internal productivity based on all the technology that you’ve put in place to grow the business?
John Barnett: Yes. I think we continue to evolve our systems. And if you look at what we did last year, in addition to — in addition to the work we did to align the organization on the professional side. We also went through the process of rightsizing the organization and becoming more efficient there. So you would see that in our cost as we went through the year and our SG&A cost as a percent of revenue as we went through the quarters. So we feel like we are in good shape today. Obviously, as we grow, we’ll continue to add on to our organization. And we still believe that there are efficiencies to be gained out of our system. And we continue to work on evolving our system to get those efficiencies out.
Beth Garvey: And I will add to that. I think that we’ve done a really good job through last year with some of the economic pressures that we had to really kind of rightsize the players on the team. So when we look at it, we’re to a position right now where we can bring on a lot more revenue and not have to bring on any more G&A expense. And so I think we feel really confident about that and how we’ve restructured and position ourselves for this year.
Howard Halpern: And one last one. You talked a little bit about the customer side and the outlook there. How are you seeing the talent side and bringing on people to fill those to fill the request of customers.
Beth Garvey: We’ve talked about in the past, we just have such a great group of consultants and field talent that are loyal to us. And so we aren’t really seeing a problem in recruiting right now because we do a very good job in making sure people once they work for us, they continue to work for us. So we’re able to redeploy people back out. So we’re not feeling a lot of pressure in that area right now, and that’s a testament to the team.
Operator: Our next question comes from Bill Donohue from Teton Capital. Please go ahead with your question.
Bill Donohue: Great. Thank you. Would you please dive into a bit more detail on that additional competition that you’re seeing on the property management side? And how it’s manifesting itself, please?
Beth Garvey: And we’ve always had competition, but there’s more and more people who’ve decided that this is an interesting niche to be in. And so we get followed around. So when we open a market, we have some of our competitors that will actually go in and follow us. And so again, it’s a testament to us being able to go in and double down on our relationships. That is a relationship business. It is deep and wide. And if you recall last year, we got Supplier of the Year with the National Apartment Association and I think those kinds of things help benefit us and move us above the pack. But still, it changes a little bit how the sales team has to sell, and we are structuring that and moving forward in those directions.
Bill Donohue: And when you first purchased Royal, there appeared to be some interesting organic growth opportunities. Could you expand on what you’re seeing now, please?
Beth Garvey: There is a lot of cross-sell opportunity with their Royal teams and many things that the capabilities that they have that we’ve uncovered, as I mentioned earlier. Just knowing what they’re capable of doing and then talking to our customers, they do a really good job listening to the pain points of where our customers are going through and figuring out if there’s a way that they can help. And we are very careful in making sure that we get Lewis and his team in front of the right people and they move things in a direction. But I think that as we continue to talk to our customers and they continue to understand what we can do, I think there’s great opportunity for us in growth in that area.
