Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but if your real estate brokerage doesn’t provide your agents with a world-class CRM – your competition will.
This isn’t an earth-shattering statement here, but with agents traditionally viewing themselves as independent operators – they don’t like being forced to have a CRM they don’t see value from. Agents want to be in the driver’s seat with full autonomy to brand themselves and own their contact data like their core intellectual property.
So why force-feed them a CRM solution that doesn’t allow them to do this?
As a real estate brokerage, it’s all about providing the tools for your agents to be successful in a competitive space. And partnering with cornerstone technology sets you apart in the marketplace to attract and retain top-tier talent.
The Difference between a Broker Product versus a Broker Program
One of the primary challenges right now in the industry is that individual agents and teams of agents looking for a CRM are split between two kinds of brokerages. One kind of brokerage lets the agent decide on the type of CRM they want and the other kind wants to run it like a business.
The latter want to have a corporate controlled database, meaning the brokerage or the team owns everything. Which can understandably rub many agents the wrong way.
Now a common misconception and unfortunate narrative that permeates throughout the industry is that, “you can’t just let your agents run around and do whatever they want – so here’s a total solution for you.” Now what ends up happening is that the corporation owns the database and all the salespeople share from that. But when you contrast that with innovative CRM’s that provide the agent with their own database and a comprehensive toolkit to be successful – you’ve found your sweet spot for success rather than having to choose polar opposites of the spectrum. That’s where a broker program comes into play.
How IXACT Contact Serves as Your Strategic Partner
“What about the cost and complexity of running a corporate level database?”
It’s a natural concern. Brokers want their agents keeping in touch with their clientele because the more successful their agents are, the better they can recruit and the better overall business they have. With all the complexities to operating in a traditionally competitive space, real estate brokers worry about having a difficult implementation on their hands and if they have to make it mandatory company-wide.
When you really break it down, real estate agents should never be forced to commit to technology they don’t want. The choice can always be up to the individual agent. Now what a lot of successful brokerages are doing nowadays is they pick a strategic partner and put all their weight behind one arrow, and promote it to their agents and say, “when it comes to CRM – we highly recommend IXACT Contact – they are our strategic partner and have a comprehensive list of ways to help grow your business.”
Some brokerages want the control, and some are so busy that they don’t have any time – so the new breed of brokerages are really looking for that middle ground when it comes to a CRM solution – and that’s where we live.
What are the Benefits to a Real Estate CRM as a Broker?
While there’s a phenomenal cost advantage to having a CRM for your real estate brokerage, these two twin powerhouses really stand out: Retention and Recruitment.
- It’s a great recruitment tool. Brokers are always fighting to recruit the better agents, and to differentiate themselves from other brokers in town. So if you have a strong story to tell, world-class brokerages know that technology has to be a key part of their differentiation in a tight market for talent. When you have a preferred CRM partner and you’ve integrated it with your training methods and you’ve got added value content along with a great price point – this is something you should sell in your recruiting process – and your overall story.
- It’s a retention benefit. Why do agents stay at a brokerage? a) They’re successful. b) They’re making money. c) They feel they’re getting value. But there’s typically a cost to being at a brokerage, whether it be a piece of your commission, desk fees or a combination of both.
Agents stay with a brokerage because they feel they’re getting a good return on the cost that’s cut from them. So if you can help your agents become more successful – you can retain top talent from testing free agency.
At the end of the day, agents are free to go off and work with another solution, but when you present the entire list of assets they can take advantage of, coupled with having a preferred CRM partner in your corner, it goes a long way in adding value to their professional development.
Where Does the Agent Stand to Gain From All of This?
Agents are the ones living in this space, and understandably want to see what this is going to mean for helping them secure new business and making their lives a lot easier. Here’s a snapshot of the areas that agents stand to benefit.
- The database is 100% owned by the agent. Nobody else has access to your contact list except you – and it will always stay that way.
- Fresh Content is provided. You’re provided with a monthly newsletter and will include fresh content that is relevant to your district. Every month you’ll get a newsletter that is already localized for you. In addition, you’ll get a website from IXACT Contact that is pre built with specific web pages that is uniquely built for you.
- Single Sign On. If the broker has an agent portal, they can put IXACT Contact within that portal, and once you’ve signed in with your username and password – you don’t have to log in again and you’re only once click away from your database.
How a Real Estate Brokerage Can Be Successful
As a broker, you ultimately have to be driven by it. Long-term success comes from getting behind it and knitting IXACT Contact into your training process, company events and creating and internal champion (a dedicated person) that will own responsibility internally for driving the program forward.
- Integrate it into training. You can teach new agents what to do, and exactly how you do it in IXACT Contact so when they come on board, they’re equipped with the proper tools.
- The tools are there for you to be successful. With one CRM partner, you’re including value to the platform by adding entire activity plans to reflect the way your brokerage does business.
How a New Breed of Brokerage Leverages Their CRM
This new style of brokerage is set up as a big team with a team leader and a lot of members. So the team version of IXACT Contact is still applicable and all the team members have access to the database, but in a sense, it’s not viewed as a corporate CRM – because the team leader will outright own the database.
It’s a bit of a different style of real estate brokerage where they aren’t necessarily independent operators – whereas they would be in a typical brokerage. They’re more like corporate employees. And they will flow leads to one another instead of leaving it up to the agents to fill their pipeline. It’s a really unique way to using the solution and has see 100% adoption rates by revamping their business model.
What Does the Onboarding Process Look Like?
Gone are the days were it takes a painstaking onboarding process to get an agent up and running. Even nowadays, some CRM’s will upload all of your data, and then disappear. This set it and forget it approach won’t fly in a fast paced industry that demands all of an agents’ time and the need to be agile to power their business forward. While agents could be spending their time following up with leads and proactively sourcing new business, are forced to take time to teach the platform to themselves by hitting the video library and resources section to try and figure it all out.
IXACT Contact’s concierge service is very unique compared to what most CRM’s will do. IXACT Contact will not only set up your data, but go through line by line and set up everything the agent is interested in taking advantage of within the system. This includes, but isn’t limited to:
- Setting up your graphical email header
- Synchronizing all branding,
- Customize your e-Newsletter,
- Connecting with Google sync,
- Kick-starting your automatic lead capture.
How It Works:
We initiate the welcome process and within 24-hours, the set-up is done. We would schedule a 20 minute call, and in that time frame we do a screen share and walk you through the process – and at the end of 20 minutes you have a live website. The whole idea is to work together instead of redirecting the agent to a help guide. The time it takes to have a cup of coffee – and you’ve already launched a new website with professional help. The focus is on enabling your agents to be more successful; not on turning your business upside down to conform to the dictates of our software.
Interested in using IXACT Contact for your brokerage? Learn more about what our Broker Program includes – and how to make a world-class CRM and marketing system available to all your agents.