CRM’s get discussed a lot within the business context, but sometimes the extent of knowledge only extends to that acronym. A CRM, or a Customer Relationship Management platform helps you improve your existing relationship, finds new prospective customers and tracks interactions with prospects and customers. It provides a holistic view of all of your touch points with a prospect and a client including emails, phone calls, voicemails, and in-person meetings.
Even though we understand the inherent value a CRM provides, sometimes it takes a few red flags to pop up that provide a damaging effect on your bottom line in order to make the switch.
If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms – then a real estate CRM is the perfect medicine to help cure your business ailments.
- Everything is Scattered
Having a million filing cabinets, banker’s boxes and sticky notes aren’t conducive to running a profitable and sustainable business model. As a result, missed meetings, forgotten follow-ups and prospects dropping off signify major red flags that more trouble is brewing.
A CRM helps you organize everything.
How a CRM helps:
Real estate agents have robust calendars and task lists – shocking, right? What’s even more shocking is that agents still operate in 2017 having all functions of their business disconnected and running in separate siloes instead of having it all centralized. High-powered real estate CRM’s essentially function like your own digital assistant and are there with you every step of the way pushing your automated tasks and appointment reminders to keep you on track.
- Your Lead Generation Efforts Have Dried Up
When the leads are flowing and you are consistently converting, it seems like your business is firing on all cylinders – but when that pipeline dries up, it can turn to dire straights. This is a critical indicator that your sales forecasts will soon take a big hit. It might be time to take a look at the inbound marketing strategy and lead generation framework you have in place that are responsible for collecting new prospects.
How a CRM helps:
A good real estate CRM has an Automated Lead Capture so that visitors on any website or lead vendor are transferred automatically into your database allowing you to quickly jump on the opportunity to target new prospects and scale rapidly.
- Falling Behind on Your Marketing
Ask any small business owner, or entrepreneur how difficult it is to keep up with marketing your own business, and they will emphatically agree that it is. The top priority is to take care of your existing clients because that’s what will pay the bills. However, in order to attract qualified leads from new audience bases and remain consistent against your competition, you need to be actively marketing yourself. The other issue is that it can be difficult to speak about yourself within a marketing context – which further adds barriers.
How a CRM helps:
E-Newsletters are powerful beyond belief because unlike on a social media post, you have direct access to someone’s inbox where they’re much more likely to give you their undivided attention. World class real estate CRM’s now do the grunt work for you by coming up with interesting topics, writing compelling articles, and designing each newsletter to look attractive and professional, so you don’t ever have to be plagued with writer’s block. You now have more breathing room to come up with new marketing initiatives and sleep well knowing your newsletters are keeping you on top of mind with prospects and past clients.
- Relationships Start Crumbling
It’s not uncommon for people to genuinely want to have a trusted, long-term partnership with their real estate agent. Having someone that is always looking out for your best interest in a competitive real estate space is a professional relationship that most people will value. When these relationships that once led to referrals and repeat business start to disintegrate, it’s usually a deeper underlying issue.
How a CRM helps:
What is the primary reason why relationships of any kind start to fall off? Lack of communication. This is no different even within a professional setting. A way to nip this in the bud before the love is lost is to lean on your CRM to help with the communication issues. Flexible contact categorization and search functionality saves you time and helps you communicate in a professional way. A rich contact profile showcasing your full contact history including all email correspondence goes a long way in providing a holistic timeline with a client. It will also help you flag opportunities that might require additional nurturing and TLC.
- Try to Manage Everything on a Smartphone
Smartphones now have enhanced email compatibilities, social media functionality, and high-speed Internet access to make it easy for the modern businessperson to stay ahead on the go. But what happens when all of these business functions are running in different siloes? There becomes a massive disconnection where vital information and key data doesn’t get transferred properly and acted on.
The idea is to have a platform that aggregates everything to transfer from mobile to tablet to desktop to laptop seamlessly.
How a CRM helps:
Having cloud-based technology and a mobile CRM at your fingertips allows you to manage your business effectively from any device no matter where you are. Stay on top of your to-dos with one tap to make a call or send an email or text – followed by an automatic prompt to create a follow-up task.
Having a real estate CRM gives you strategic advantage in an otherwise crowded and competitive space. Leverage the tools at hand to optimize your business and see what it can do for your bottom line.
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