When shopping for the best real estate CRM software platform, consider the following:
The most important question to ask yourself is – do I want to have a sales career for 30 years or do I want to build a true business?
And the keyword is YOUR business. Even if you work for a big company who provides some form of contact manager, it’s YOUR business – what happens when you change brokerages, does this mean you’re starting from scratch? And when you make that paradigm shift there are 3 essential components to a true CRM:
Ingredient #1: Repository
Don’t confuse a real estate CRM with a Lead Manager or lead conversion tool. They serve completely different purposes. We know the numbers on lead management – we know that AT BEST you’ll convert 1-3% of leads into a transaction… and that means, that soon, your database will be filled with 99% of people who want nothing to do with you.
Your CRM is for REAL relationships.
And it is your responsibility as a business owner to keep an evolving record, not only of your contacts… but of your listings and transactions – and you want all of that data in one place. The data evolves over time and has meaning.
Ingredient #2: Automation
As agents and brokers, every time we meet a person, get a listing, begin a transaction – there are repeatable actions that need to take place. The purpose of your CRM is not only to create a list of tasks – you need depth and the ability to build robust workflows that help you automate your work. And nothing is linear…
For example… lets look at a simple listing appointment. There are three possible outcomes and my question to you…What’s your back up plan if you don’t get the listing? What if you do? What if your real estate crm helps you work smarter?
Ingredient #3: Intelligence
All of the data has meaning.
Just because you have a person’s email address doesn’t necessarily mean you have a relationship with them – but if you’ve conducted a transaction for them… if you know their kids names, have eaten with them, that data means something and has value.
Your CRM should have intelligence to surface this information and guide you on who you should be spending time with. It should guide you on what to do next?
CONCLUSION:
A CRM is the single most essential software a real estate agent needs to build a true business, (and not just have a job). We know from data we measure that if an agent continues to foster authentic relationships and stay relevant – it’s this collection of relationships that will be the foundation of their predictable business year after year.
Originally posted on May 17, 2016. Updated September 26, 2017.
