What Is CRM?

The following is an excerpt from RE Technology's latest Success Guide:

Unless you have been a salesperson in a prior career, CRM or Customer Relationship Management may be a new concept to you. The idea behind having CRM software as a sales professional is that it organizes your contacts, tasks, and calendar for all customer activities in a single place. This allows you to plan your work and work your plan so that no customer opportunity is ever missed.

You may be thinking, Why do I need a CRM if my contacts, tasks, and calendar are all on my phone? The answer is that CRM is all about tracking activities that keep you focused on developing customer opportunities until they buy or die. A CRM is also a relational database that allows you to track additional information about your contacts. For example, you can track how you met, family members, and create a pipeline or sales funnel report that allows you to visualize where customers are in the process of buying or selling.

Most importantly, a CRM allows you to assign contacts to step-by-step activities, commonly referred to as workflows or campaigns. A common example would be a new lead campaign that may start with an introductory email, a phone call, followed by a follow-up email with a market report, followed by a weekly open house list, etc. Great CRMs have basic step-by-step activities available for all kinds of contacts that you can use, edit, or allow you to create your own from scratch.

The National Association of REALTORS® performs an annual agent survey to find out where most agents acquire their business. Although the percentage varies slightly from year to year, around 80% of all transactions come from friends, family, referrals, and repeat business. The report also indicates that the no. 1 reason why a Realtor is not used in a future transaction is because the agent did not stay in touch. If there is one piece of software that you invest in to build your real estate success, it should be CRM.

Key Benefits of CRM

• Strengthen client relationships
• Get/stay organized
• Qualify, nurture, and convert leads
• Support better client follow-up
• Close more business
• Generate more repeat and referral business
• Develop strong sales habits

Download Success Guide: CRM to learn more about CRM trends, how to evaluate a CRM, and more.