Welcome to the Portfolio Strategist Playbook! This book has been created to help you understand why your role exists, what success looks like and teach you all the things you need to know in order to do your role really well.
We have broken each section down into modules with clear themes so you can return to the key sections you need across your time at InvestorKit.
Get stuck in, and as always, reach out to your leader if you have any questions 😊
Table of Contents
What is a Property Investment Strategist?
A Portfolio Strategist at InvestorKit is more than just a property investment advisor – they’re a trusted partner in our clients’ property journeys. At the heart of their role is conducting detailed portfolio mapping sessions that dive deep into each client’s financial goals, risk tolerance, and unique aspirations. By understanding these elements, Portfolio Strategists create personalised, strategic roadmaps that not only guide clients’ initial investments but set the stage for long-term success.
But the role doesn’t stop there.
Our Strategists remain by the client’s side throughout the investment journey, providing ongoing updates and guidance during the purchasing phase, conducting annual reviews (or potentially even more frequently), and celebrating milestones along the way. They collaborate closely with our acquisitions team, ensuring that every property aligns with the client’s strategy and life goals.
This proactive engagement keeps clients on track, informed, and prepared to make the right decisions as opportunities arise.
Portfolio Strategists balance expert analysis with exceptional relationship management, making them pivotal to InvestorKit’s commitment to helping clients achieve their aspirations and portfolio goals.
Strategists are the primary point of contact that stays with them throughout their entire journey, guiding them to construct the portfolio that gets them to their goals, while working with the supporting arms of the business such as research, acquisitions and client support to execute their plan.
Through business development, CRM management, and a focus on continuous improvement, they bring our mission to life, transforming complex investment decisions into clear, actionable steps that drive meaningful results.
Where does Strategy fit in the organisation?
The strategy team at InvestorKit plays a pivotal role in shaping and guiding the client’s investment experience from the outset, ensuring each client receives a tailored approach that aligns with their financial goals, risk tolerance, and personal aspirations.
But where do you sit in the client journey?
Now let’s dive deeper into the specific ways you will help at each stage, Click on the headers below to learn more
Client Onboarding and Initial Strategy Development
Your involvement begins as soon as a client signs an agreement with InvestorKit and schedules their initial strategy session. In this session, it’s your responsibility to conduct a portfolio mapping session to gain a comprehensive understanding of the client’s financial position, goals, and risk preferences.
This in-depth analysis lays the foundation for building a customised property investment strategy, which will guide all subsequent actions and decisions for the client. From here, you’ll create the purchasing brief that the acquisitions team will use to source and secure the right property, ensuring our recommendations are precisely aligned with the client’s objectives.
Collaboration with the Acquisitions Team
Once you’ve developed a client-specific investment plan, your next step is to hand off a detailed purchase brief to the acquisitions team. This brief should include precise criteria for properties that align with the client’s goals, guiding the acquisitions team in property selection and due diligence.
It’s essential that each acquisition is conducted with a clear purpose, ensuring a seamless link between the client’s strategy and the properties we recommend. Stay actively involved in the process by reviewing the properties identified by acquisitions to confirm they meet the client’s established criteria before giving final approval. This involvement reinforces our commitment to the client’s goals and ensures we’re delivering on the plan we’ve created.
Client management
During the purchasing journey, it’s crucial that you provide clients with regular updates on their property search to ensure they always feel informed and engaged. As new properties are presented, you may need to refine the brief to find the right balance between portfolio fit and the client’s comfort. This keeps the process aligned with their evolving needs.
As the search progresses, be mindful that a client’s urgency may shift. Managing their status effectively and prioritising communications helps avoid long delays and keeps clients confident in our process. Adjust the depth and frequency of your communication as needed to reinforce their trust in us.
You may also encounter objections during the property presentation phase, which the acquisitions team will primarily handle. Your role is to support them in addressing these objections by reinforcing how each property aligns with the initial strategy and contributes to the long-term success of the client’s portfolio.
Finally, while we strive to deliver a 5-star experience, you may need to manage conflicts that arise. Whether it’s due to wait times, missing out on properties, price disagreements, low stock, or a pace that feels too fast for them, it’s essential to reassure clients that we’re on the same team. Handle their concerns with empathy and focus on building a strong, long-term relationship.
Ongoing Client Engagement and Annual Reviews
Your role doesn’t end once a property purchase is complete. After the acquisition, it’s essential to maintain continuous involvement with the client. Start with a post-rental campaign to celebrate the full journey from purchase to rental, and continue with annual check-ins to ensure the property is fitting well within the client’s portfolio.
Each year you will conduct a comprehensive portfolio review for each client. This review is an opportunity to assess performance, celebrate growth, and strategise the next steps in their journey. The goal here is to transition from purchase-focused support to goal-based portfolio support, keeping clients engaged, informed, and motivated toward their long-term investment objectives.
As the primary relationship manager post-acquisition, you’ll also provide strategic updates, prepare clients for tax season, and adjust strategies as needed to reflect changes in the market or in the client’s personal goals.
Long-Term Strategy and Client Retention
By staying in close contact with clients and adjusting strategies as needed, it’s your job to make sure each investment aligns not only with the client’s current needs but also supports their evolving goals.
Your role is integral to InvestorKit’s mission of delivering sustained value and exceptional client experiences. You play a crucial part in client retention and satisfaction, helping clients see their long-term investments grow and identifying opportunities to expand their portfolios.
What are my responsibilities?
Your primary responsibility is to bring clarity to the often overwhelming process of building a property portfolio, and to ensure that their journey to get there is as simple, stress free and memorable. But let’s get into the specifics, click on each primary responsibility below to learn more.
Portfolio Mapping and Strategy Development
- Conduct comprehensive portfolio mapping sessions with clients, diving deep into their financial goals, risk tolerance, and investment preferences to build tailored investment strategies.
- Collaborate with brokers and the acquisitions team to create detailed buyer briefs that align with the client’s roadmap and provide strategic support throughout the investment process.
Client Relationship Management
- Act as a trusted advisor and primary point of contact for clients, guiding them through the property investment journey.
- Reconnect with clients at various stages to offer ongoing strategic support, helping them scale their portfolios and achieve financial milestones.
Continuous Strategy Support
- Provide proactive guidance throughout the client’s investment lifecycle, including conducting yearly reviews to celebrate successes and recalibrate strategies.
- Prepare clients for key financial events, such as tax season, by gathering relevant portfolio information and supporting them in planning their next steps.
Business Development and Client Growth
- Build strong client relationships by delivering exceptional service, identifying opportunities for portfolio expansion, and encouraging clients to explore additional investment (residential or commercial depending on the plan) options.
- Actively engage with clients and encourage repeat purchases when the time is right.
- Support the growth of client portfolios by introducing additional InvestorKit group services. Finance / Insurance etc..
Record Keeping and CRM Management
- Maintain up-to-date client records within the CRM system, ensuring accurate data entry, task tracking, and notes for seamless client management.
- Demonstrate organisational skills by effectively managing all client information, tracking each client’s progress, and setting reminders for key engagement points.
What does success look like in my role?
Success for a new Portfolio Strategist on our team means becoming a trusted advisor and a key player in guiding clients toward achieving their property investment goals. If you want to be the best, then here’s what we know a Portfolio Strategist should do in order to thrive and make an impact on their clients, their colleagues and our organisation.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPI’s, or Key Performance Indicators, are possibly the simplest way for you to know if you are succeeding or not. And all our coaching and development programs, including this playbook and onboarding, are designed to make it easy for you to achieve them. If at any time you are finding it hard to reach some of these measures of success you can simply refer back to this guide or reach out to your leader for help. We are here to see you win after all. But let’s break down what success looks like, starting with the KPI’s.
Quantitative KPIs:
Hold up! What is a Quantitative KPI? Quantitative means we can measure the output of these KPIs through data and numbers. They are easy to track as they are generally target, accuracy and outcome based.
Monthly Sign-Ups:
Consistently meeting individual monthly sign-up targets set by your leader. This is about bringing in repeat purchases, upselling, or adding services to help clients deepen their engagement with us.
How do I meet my sign up goals?
If you are reading this then I can already tell you’re a winner. Here’s how; By building strong rapport with your clients, establishing a high level of trust and then leveraging the results we achieve for them through their exceptional portfolio growth, you can reach out and say; ‘Hey Jimbob, your portfolio has grown by $110k in this last year alone! How amazing must you feel right now? And guess what, you have enough equity available to leverage it and purchase that next property - just as we planned.’
Portfolio Accuracy and Management:
Keeping portfolio plans for each client accurate and up-to-date. Success here means you’re organised, diligent, and proactive in managing each client’s evolving portfolio.
How do I nail this?
The concept of a "second brain" is perfect for this situation. While our minds excel at generating ideas and plans, they struggle to retain the massive amount of information we process daily. That's why creating an external, digital repository is essential. When managing hundreds of clients, you'll quickly find it impossible to remember every detail from calls, chats, and brainstorming sessions. Be diligent about storing detailed client information in their designated storage areas—it's your key to staying organized and effective.
CRM and Portal Accuracy:
Maintaining an accurate, current CRM system with all client information, tasks, and notes recorded. This is crucial for providing seamless and personalised client experiences.
How do meet this goal?
Organisation is key. Block out time after calls and meetings to reflect, document client details, and plan future tasks. This ensures you capture all important information and stay on top of follow-ups and action items.
Client Alignment & Strategic Influence
Number of clients requiring escalation or presenting repeated misalignment issues after initial portfolio presentation.
How do meet this goal?
Ensuring that briefs created are tailored and clients are clearly aligned to the brief and strategy. If a client rejects a property, a realignment is completed to minimise this going forward.
Follow-Up Completion:
Task, milestone and calendar completion.
How do meet this goal?
Completing all tasks every day. Non-negotiable.
Call Audit Quality:
Evaluation of consultation, communication quality, strategic advisory, pitch structure and objection handling.
How do meet this goal?
Constant refining of skills and combining the structure of the script with the personalisation for each client where required.
Consultations:
Maintain required volume and quality of Initial & review mapping sessions
How do meet this goal?
Ensuring calls and tasks are completed promptly, to have enough availability for required consultations per month.
Testimonials:
% of clients providing a recorded advocacy statement (Podcast, YouTube, Video Interview)
How do meet this goal?
Actively requesting and reminding clients to participate in providing testimonials.
Engagement:
Participation in training sessions, team meetings and coaching
How do meet this goal?
Pretty straightforward for this one, attend and participate in all training and development sessions! These sessions are focussed on building you up to your professional goals and making those small changes that account for huge results.
Collaboration with Acquisitions:
Quality of client service, communication and responsiveness to Settlement Support, SPAA and research divisions
How do meet this goal?
Making sure that all requests and questions from the acquisition team are completed within the day, or next day if outside of office hours.
Qualitative Performance Framework
These categories outline the core behaviours expected in this role. Your execution across these areas will be assessed monthly through your Impact Score, with ratings from Poor to Remarkable. The minimum standard is Excellent, and your ability to consistently meet or exceed this benchmark is a key measure of performance. These qualitative frameworks, and the accompanying impact score, are reviewed regularly and may change based on the needs of the business, the lifting of capability and standards within your role, or for other factors. Any changes will be clearly communicated in a timely and reasonable manner.
Setting Standards and Leading with Vision
- Guides every client with clarity, professionalism, and a deep understanding of their long-term goals.
- Leads strategy sessions with confidence and preparation, setting the tone for trust and high performance.
- Brings structure and predictability to the client journey – every client knows what comes next.
- Champions InvestorKit's values through consistent execution, proactive support, and client-first decisions.
Proactive Problem Solving and Innovation
- Anticipates obstacles in the buying journey and navigates them early – no surprises, just solutions.
- Refines briefs, touchpoints, and nurture strategies to maximise client clarity and momentum.
- Develops new ways to communicate strategy, explain risk, and encourage client confidence.
- Surfaces common friction points and proposes scalable fixes for team-wide improvement.
Delivering Consistent and Exceptional Results
- Manages a high volume of active clients without sacrificing quality, detail, or care.
- Drives repeat sign-ups by building trust and delivering genuine strategic value.
- Achieves brief sign-off, submission, and purchase milestones promptly through assertive pipeline management.
- Reviews and updates client portfolios thoroughly and on time, every time.
Building and Elevating Team Culture
- Shares winning scripts, strategies, and portfolio examples to elevate the team’s execution.
- Participates fully in coaching, training, and professional development with an eagerness to grow.
- Demonstrates humility and generosity—offering help, seeking feedback, and lifting others through knowledge-sharing.
- Recognises the wins of peers and contributes to a supportive, high-performance team culture.
Client-Centric Approach and Long-Term Thinking
- Guides clients to make informed, confident investment decisions that align with their long-term goals.
- Educates clients through every stage of the buying process—bridging knowledge gaps with patience and clarity.
- Prioritises fit over speed—never pushes a deal that isn’t aligned to the strategy.
- Communicates in a timely, tailored, and human way that builds loyalty and retention.
Ownership and Accountability
- Owns the outcome for every client—brief, purchase, review, and repeat.
- Keeps CRM, briefs, and notes updated daily without needing reminders.
- Flags blockers and takes initiative to solve problems before they escalate.
- Accepts coaching constructively and acts quickly to close gaps and embed improvements.
Strategic Thinking and Execution
- Thinks big-picture and future-focused—frames decisions in terms of scalability and long-term client value.
- Applies macro and micro market insights to shape smarter client strategies.
- Designs follow-up, brief creation, and review processes that are repeatable, time-efficient, and impactful.
- Balances diligence with pace—ensures client momentum without compromising quality or clarity.
Key Behaviours for Success
Now you are probably wondering what Key Behaviours are all about. These are the foundational qualities and skills that we need to see from our top performers in the strategy division. Think of them as the divisional values that take you from someone who simply meets their KPIs, into a superstar who exceeds them regularly and is firmly on the path for pay rises, promotions and plenty of recognition from your clients, colleagues and leaders.
- Accountability and Ownership:
Embracing responsibility for each client’s experience and outcomes, consistently working to deliver excellence.
- Client-Centric Approach: Putting the client’s goals at the heart of your work, ensuring that every recommendation and strategy is tailored to their needs.
- Proactive Engagement: Taking initiative in guiding clients, addressing concerns early, and staying one step ahead in helping them navigate their investment journey.
- Growth Mindset: Displaying a commitment to learning and self-improvement, embracing feedback, and actively seeking ways to improve both personally and professionally.
- Alignment with InvestorKit’s Values: Living by InvestorKit’s core values of Growth, Diligence, Clarity, Accountability, Results and a focus on client success.
To bring it all together, a successful Portfolio Strategist is someone who meets or exceeds these KPIs while embodying behaviours that build trust, drive client satisfaction, and contribute to a high-performance culture at InvestorKit. Success means clients view you as an indispensable part of their investment journey, and your contributions directly support our mission to be Australia’s leading buyers agency.
The impact of your role
The true value of a good strategy can be hard for many of our clients to truly grasp when they first connect with us, often they are so focused on the immediate property they are looking to buy that it’s not until they have sat down with a Strategist and learn what is truly possible through property if you take the right steps, at the right time and in the right order that they grasp the power of what we offer.
It’s this future-forward approach that has helped many of our clients grow multi-million dollar portfolios in record time, here are just some of our success stories - Have a good read as they are HUGELY valuable stories to tell when helping your clients realise what is possible when working with us.
