Give Your Business a Boost: Why Use Real Estate CRMs
If you’re thinking about becoming a real estate agent or broker, then you need to know what real estate CRMs are. If you’re already in the industry, then I would be surprised if you didn’t know what they are and weren’t already using one. I won’t go as far to say that the right CRM is what makes successful agents successful, but I will venture to say that all successful real estate agents use a CRM effectively.
The question is, how do you use real estate CRMs to benefit your business?
What Are Real Estate CRMs?
Before we dive into why and how to use it, what even is a CRM in the first place? Well, C-R-M stands for “customer relationship management”. As you can guess by the name, your CRM sits at the center and crossroads of your real estate business. From tracking leads and prospects, to lead nurturing, to communicating with leads and current customers, to drip campaigns, to uploading contracts, to booking and managing appointments, and everything in between, customer relationship management (CRM) is critical to your business.
Put in other words, a CRM is the software you use to assist you in running your business and seamlessly managing your leads and clients. Without this software, agents end up spending much more time than they need to on using multiple separate tools, manually updating lead information, and continuously juggling a mountain of data and information.
Benefits of Using a CRM for Real Estate Agents
There are an ample number of reasons why real estate agents use CRMs. Here are just a few of them:
- Save your time for revenue generation – According to Follow Up Boss, a leading CRM platform, 65% of a sales rep’s time is spent on non-revenue generating activities and only 36% of their time is actually spent on selling. Whether for real estate agents or other types of sales people, that translates into missed opportunities. By using a real estate CRM and keeping everything in a centralized location, you can nurture leads more effectively and boost your sales, all while saving time and effort.
- Respond to leads faster – As any successful agent knows, how fast you respond to new leads plays a large role on whether or not they’ll become clients. Most leading CRMs will have apps and/or cloud functionality, allowing you to respond to new leads fast. Plus, they’ll allow you to set up automated custom responses, so leads can hear from you immediately.
- Nurture real estate leads more effectively – According to a report completed by Hubspot, only 27% of leads (across all industries) that come into a company’s sales funnel are actually “sale ready”. Moving those leads closer to the point where you can close the sale requires consistently sending them the right messaging at the right time. Top real estate CRMs make it easy send specific messages to certain leads, based on where they are in the sales process.
- Stay in contact with leads – Closing the sale should not be the last time you talk to your existing clients. Sending reminders on special occasions and just simply keeping in contact with your past clients will help ensure you get business from them in the future, either a future sale or referral. CRMs help you to avoid losing track of past clients and let you send automated holiday and birthday messages.
How to Effectively Use a Real Estate CRM?
Different CRMs for real estate offer different types of functionality and varying levels of abilities. Most, however, will allow you to integrate it with many of the other apps and tools you’re using every day. Examples of these include your calendar, Google Apps or Outlook, Hubspot, MailChimpk RingCentral, Kixie, and many others. Integrating these should be your first step, so you can centralize activities and make your day to day operation more efficient.
Take the time to train yourself and your team in the software you’re using. Most likely, your CRM will have a lot of capabilities, and the only way you’ll make use of them effectively is if you read the owner’s manual—i.e. complete online tutorials, read guides, and watch videos online.
Be dedicated! Consistently ensure your lead information is updated and current. It’s no use having a bunch of emails and phone numbers that no one ever uses. Regularly check contacts, update and send out communications, and be open to tweaking your processes as you learn better ways of doing things. Furthermore, use your website and forms in other locations to automatically add contact info to your database.
Conclusion: Use a Real Estate CRM
This article barely even scratches the surface on everything you need to know about real estate CRMs. But it’s enough to get you started. The first step is finding one that will work for your business, like Follow Up Boss for example, then take the time and effort to ensure you’re using it effectively.