Published on July 5, 2022
Today’s homebuilders and developers understand the impact online sales can have on their bottom lines. In order to successfully implement and execute an online sales program, there are several key considerations. How will you generate leads online? And when they begin to come in, how will you keep track of them all…assign ownership…identify the source…and ultimately measure success? The answer to those questions comes in the form of a real estate CRM (customer relationship management) system.
By gathering key data on your leads, a real estate CRM should give your internal sales team everything it needs to efficiently manage your sales pipeline and the customer’s homebuying journey.
A real estate CRM can keep buyers moving through each stage of your funnel and work magic for your nurture campaigns and online conversion rates.
Online shoppers discover homes and real estate through a variety of channels, with SEO-charged listing directories like Private Communities Registry (PCR) leading the way. When the lead is captured (from website forms, emails, texts, etc.) it flows into a CRM. From there, the real estate CRM will:
Carefully-nurtured online leads can become a steady engine of revenue for your sales team. A CRM will help you move from lead to appointment:
By capturing critical information into a central system, your team is poised and prepared to seal the deal. Appointment to sale becomes easier with a CRM:
If your job is in marketing or sales, here are some CRM best practices to simplify your job and keep your leads from slipping through the cracks:
Make sure all leads are being captured and that you are gathering all of the information you need to build useful reports. If the leads come from a digital source, automate the import process. Manual import by reps is time-consuming and increases the opportunity for errors. In most cases, all of the leads and data you’ve previously collected in spreadsheets can easily be imported into your CRM, so you’ll have all of your leads in one place.
Find out where your leads come from specifically. Create specific lists of sources from all marketing channels so you can measure the ROI. Avoid categories such as web lead, call-in, walk-in, advertising, social, etc. If you have a successful marketing plan the same leads may engage from different directions. Most modern CRMs allow for multiple sources.
Assign your leads to sales reps to make sure all leads are contacted as soon as possible, and so that you don’t have multiple sales reps working the same lead. From here, managers can truly measure and help develop productive pipelines for their teams while creating accountability for marketing dollars that have been spent.
One of the main causes of poor lead performance is lack of lead nurture. Not all leads are ready to “buy now.” In the current information age, buyers have the ability to research multiple options. In many cases, you need to follow up with prospects and deepen relationships over time to get the results you desire. Today’s real estate CRMs offer additional tools and automation to create drip campaigns and marketing workflows to continually engage leads until the time is right.
Don’t ask your best salesperson their opinion about a lead source. If they don’t have an actual report, the information is anecdotal at best. Rely on DATA! If you have taken the proper steps, dashboard reports will prove the value of both the sales leads and reps working them. Reports will tell a much more accurate story.
PCR works with builders, developers, communities, and real estate agencies to ensure next-level lead capture and lead tracking. Not only will you see every lead in real-time via email, PCR also works with you to create custom real estate CRM lead feeds that automatically send leads right into your sales pipeline.
Here is a list of some of the best real estate CRM platforms we currently work with (but are not limited to):