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.
The Benefits of a Real Estate CRM
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.
Capturing leads
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:
- Generate a profile for each new lead
- Assign a sales process based on pre-selected trigger criteria
- Make contact with an instant auto-reply email
- Immediately notify the sales team
Nurturing leads
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:
- Follow-ups based on unique interests and needs for personal and relevant messages
- Automated reminders of activities so no lead is left behind
- Email templates ready to be personalized and sent in a fraction of the time
- See when prospects are active on your site for timely communication
Converting leads
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:
- Link everyone involved in the transaction (multiple buyers, real estate agents, lenders)
- Seamless tracking of all email and communication history
- Upload documents to each contact including contracts, amendments, and floor plans
- Stay top of mind by nurturing prospects who don’t buy immediately
5 Real Estate CRM Best Practices
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:
1. Capture leads effectively
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.
2. Know your lead sources
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.
3. Assign leads
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.
4. Nurture your leads
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.
5. Run reports for data
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.
The Best Real Estate CRM Softwares
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):