In our previous article, we discussed what CRM is and how it benefits businesses. Now it’s time to talk about how CRM can benefit you. But let’s start with the most important question.
Do I need CRM?
It all depends on what your career plans are. If you have become a real estate agent because life circumstances made it so and this is just a temporary activity, you probably don’t need CRM because you won’t last long in this business without strong motivation. You can click "close" on the article and go do something more fun.
But you’re here, looking for information and reading. So, you probably plan to work as an estate agent for at least a few more years, you have a future in this field, or you have even set yourself the goal of becoming one of the best agents in your segment or region. Then keep on reading, because CRM will help you save a lot of time, avoid missed opportunities, and open up untold possibilities.
CRM Advantages for Real Estate Agents
The CRM system can record not only basic information (contact details or transaction history), but also what the potential client has been looking for, which properties they have viewed, their financial capacity or expectations, and the current situation (e.g., they have decided to postpone their search for a property until the market situation changes). You will be able to see how objects (searched, viewed, bought) or customers (related people, companies) are connected. You can also get customer correspondence, information on calls made, and more.
CRM will help you save a lot of time, avoid missed opportunities, and open up untold possibilities.
You may already be doing this with other tools and think you don’t need CRM for that. The challenge for you then is to try to remember or quickly find the details of a transaction from a year ago and tell us everything you know about that customer. Isn't it difficult? With CRM, all customer data is not only automatically categorised and turned into useful statistics, but it’s also easier to give individual attention to your customers without having to carry all the information in your head. The system can automatically indicate not only when the right time to contact a particular customer is, but also what the content of that contact might be. You can remind people about yourself, congratulate contacts on their birthdays, announce the end of an agreement, offer to look at relevant objects, etc.
For example, you have received a new property to sell. You have a database of hundreds of potential customers, but sending an offer to all of them would be very unhelpful; your emails would go to the spam folder and your customers would quickly stop wanting to deal with you. CRM instantly helps sift out the few people who might actually be interested in the sale. Another example: you rented a property to a young family without children. CRM will help you remember to ask how they are doing, remind them about yourself or the end of their lease, and ask if they need your services (maybe they have welcomed twins and the place is now too cramped).
We believe that you can think of many examples tailored to your property segment. And even if you don’t make a sale one way or the other, you will be remembered by your customers as someone who thinks of them and knows what they need. Or you may even be on their radar before they even know their needs have changed, increasing your chances of them approaching you in the future.
Benefits of CRM for Real Estate Brokers Team
The bigger the real estate agency, the more agents it employs, the more potential it has. Once you know about the benefits of CRM for one agent, imagine dozens of real estate professionals working together, each with several hundred contacts. Of course, not every contact will be relevant to a particular case, and some of them may seem completely useless. But they may be worth their weight in gold to another agent, and the contacts they have could be valuable to you. By sharing information among themselves, brokers can grow their client base more efficiently.
For example, you work exclusively with two-room apartments in three adjacent quiet areas of the capital. Your colleague works in a neighborhood of private houses. You have a client to whom you sold an apartment a few years ago, but their family has grown, and they are looking for a house. Your colleague has an elderly couple who wants to sell their house and move closer to city amenities. By exchanging customers, you can better meet their needs and increase the chances of making a sale.
Of course, when exchanging clients, you should also transfer a large amount of accumulated information, such as correspondence relevant to the transaction. In the case of CRM, the correspondence can be stored in the same system and added to the contact history. So, when you and your colleague exchange clients, you would not only be passing on information, but also correspondence that gives a good feel for the client, what hooked them, and what they found to be important and relevant in the past.
CRM: an investment in the future
As you have probably already realized, CRM is not something that will bring benefits in a day, a week, or a month. After all, you’re in this business for the long term, and real estate is no quick purchase; a client needs a new property much less often, and it costs a lot more than most purchases, so you need patience and motivation to invest. investing, by the way, mainly your time and hard work, because CRM itself is a ridiculously cheap tool, especially considering the benefits it brings.
Have you read the first part of this article? Read it right now.