CRMs: The Most Powerful Tool in a Real Estate Agent’s Arsenal

We’ve all been there… 

It’s a Thursday afternoon, you’ve had 6 showings, a couple contracts come through, Mrs. Sanders needs an occupancy addendum added, 27 calls about the new listing over on Hollydale and a steady flow of emails from potential clients looking for an agent to list their house or at worst hit them with a barrage of questions to the like. You’re scrolling through your emails trying to find when you sent the addendum, trying to reply to the new leads and get those showings all set up, all the while wondering if you did actually get that follow up sent to the nice couple with the 4 bedroom on Market that you signed yesterday.

If you’ve ever had to shuffle through a stack of business cards in your pocket to find a listing agent’s contact details, plucked a ream’s worth of Post-It’s off of your desk to find the note you left for yourself about what the Jones’ were looking for in their next home; then utilizing a CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) may be the next step for you to take.

CRM’s have been around for quite a while and span across multiple industries. Real Estate agents are primed to take hold of these super powerful tools to be able to both stay totally up-to-date with their clients and also automate loads of those little tasks that take away more and more time agents would rather be spending on income driving tasks.

Using A CRM to Build Your Personal Touch

In the Zillow amateur agent era of real estate, we all know it’s important to set yourself above the rest. An agent’s personal connection to their client is what sets us above the rest. Utilizing a CRM will let you manage that connection without taking any more time out of your busy schedule.

• Track all of your clients details in one, easy to access spot. Their contacts, property specs, wants and needs, areas of interest and anything else you can think of to make sure you can act on the drop of a dime in this high speed market.

• Set reminders for showings, new listings, follow-ups or even dropping a quick Happy Birthday to your clients. Personal connection achieved.

• Know your clients’ wants, needs and prior interactions. Now when Mrs. Sanders calls you can lead with “Still looking for that farmhouse with the acreage?” Boom, 10 points to you.

• Streamline your communications. Send your newsletters, pop out a market update, or just a quick hello to your clients to keep them updated and informed about all that’s going on in their area and let them know that you’re always working to make sure they’re properly taken care of. Achievement unlocked: All Star Agent.

Automate, Automate, Automate

• Automate those new lead follow-ups. We all know our success is driven by our clients and we’re always looking for new ones. But it takes time, and lots of it, to reach out to new inquiries with the personal touch we want. Leverage your CRM to automate drip campaigns, converting those inquiries to active clients, so you can focus your time on your most pressing business. It’s like you have an entire team behind you!

• Stay in touch and top-of-mind will increase your incoming referrals. Everyone knows someone who’s moving right?

• Paperwork is a drag. Automate those repetitive tasks with your CRM and save your time for activities to grow your business.

• CRMs play nice with others. Most CRMs will integrate with other programs & platforms. Use it to post across all of your social media on a schedule to make sure you’re always at the top of the feed. Take one block of time during the week and get all of your social work set so you can focus on closing deals and not posting reels.

• Erase those frantic searches for that one document you KNEW you just had last week. Centralize & store them all in your CRM so everything is available with just one click.

Data Driven Success Metrics

This is where CRMs can be worth their weight in gold. Having true and reliable data about which of your marketing strategies are finding success with your clients will help you really dig in to what works and make you a more efficient agent. And we all know time is money.

Having real time analytics on market trends, the most active neighborhoods, or what the next hot spot might be is truly what can set you apart from the rest. Knowing where to focus your energy and marketing will save you time, get you not just more clients, but the most pre-vetted and qualified clients you can find. By streamlining your process will allow you to handle more clients and close more deals all without adding more time to your already packed day.

Picking the Right CRM for You

CRMs are a pay to play process, the cost can sometimes turn off agents to their use. But if that CRM creates even one extra deal for you, it more than pays for itself. Think of the CRM as an investment in your business.

Top CRMs in the market like SalesForce & HubSpot offer everything you’ll need to get rolling and be able to scale your ever growing client list. Both will deliver all of the tools you need to elevate yourself above the rest, but each has unique and different options that may work better for what your end goals are. Being clear about your goals for implementing a CRM, and what pain points you most want to relieve, will help you make the right choice when researching the different features and functions of the options available. Whatever your choice, make sure that your CRM is scalable. There’s nothing worse than building out all of your data points, then adding new agents to your team only to learn that they won’t be able to utilize this tool to grow their client lists.

So there you go, if you’re a real estate agent in this modern world a CRM platform might just be a true game changer for your business. Do your research and choose the right one for you and get out there and close those deals you house selling super hero!