When you deal in the real estate, things are pretty complex. You spend a lot of time in finalizing deals with the clients and maintaining the details of it in conventional manner could be very taxing. You are intelligent enough to know that manually keeping track of the business activities is not at all advised. It is error-prone and time-consuming.
If you are maintaining everything on paper, then perhaps you are the only company in the niche that is using the stone-age methods. If you are using spreadsheets, then still you are better. However, there are still superior ways. Getting real-estate management software is an intelligent move. Nevertheless, it is also not a good way of running a real-estate business in the long run. The best way is; installing a state-of-the-art Real Estate CRM in the organization.
When you put sizeable money, ROI is always critically important
You are already under big pressures of managing top line and bottom line of the real estate business. Yes, to maintain high profitability it is not only important to increase sales but it is equally important to keep the operating costs under control.
Find out how much money is required for the new technology such as CRM software? How much can you spend? Is there a need of borrowing it from somewhere or you have enough deep pockets to buy it? Will you get sufficient business benefit out of it? Are you sure about the Return on Investment? Do you know the industry standards prevailing in the market? All these are important factors.
Once you are clear about all the things mentioned above, it is the time to look into five most important things that nobody pays attention into.
Research is the first step to a grand success
Before you move ahead, the first thing is to find out what should be the span of search? What features you are looking for and what are the platforms that are going to help you out? Gather the information as much as possible. You may refer ‘Top 10’ kinds of articles, or you may also refer detailed articles written by CRM experts. Don’t jump to conclusion by reading one or two articles. Deep dive into the details of it and then make a choice.
You should know about what CRM software are there from quite some time and what are the latest ones? Take your own time in deciding about it. Visit official websites and learn about the features.
Use your network to find out the most appropriate software for your company.
Always insist for demo
Wouldn’t it be an immature decision if you buy a car without a test drive? Or you buy a flat TV without checking the sharpness of the picture or fidelity of sound? You won’t do it for sure. In the same lines, would you buy CRM software without looking into the key features? You won’t!
When you arrange a demo in your organization, everyone knows what you are buying for the betterment of operations? Everybody in the company knows about the features, specialties, and key benefits. It creates positive feelings about CRM. It is a fundamental thing for successful implementation.
Before you sit in the board room along with your team to attend a detailed presentation about the features and functionalities, you should be ready with questions and queries.
- Is the CRM system going to replace manual system altogether?
- Will the CRM system integrate with existing software modules?
- What are the licensing requirements and what will be approximate licensing costs?
- How much time will it take to migrate to the new system?
- Will it take enormous efforts to learn the technology?
Make sure all these questions (and several others in the list) are answered by the technical team. Don’t decide on a CRM system unless you are pretty confident about it.
You should be a keen evaluator
See, the technical and marketing teams of the CRM software company are the cheerleaders of their brand. Hence, they will always draw a rosy picture about their products, making all other options inferior. Hence, you should take it with a pinch of salt. Don’t just believe in whatever they say. Use the rationale and arrive at a logical conclusion.
In the modern world of the Internet, you have smarter and more effective ways of looking into it. Read product reviews, testimonials, forums and feedback sites. Get customer interaction so that you have information right from horse’s mouth.
If there is a possibility of testing the product, then test it!
When you buy a real estate CRM, it is not always possible to test the product before you implement. However, you must avail the chance if it is possible. Though demo installations are just an overview of features and functionalities, you get a fairly wide idea about it. Sometimes users are reluctant to use demo software because the operating people are supposed to learn how to use the CRM system (that too when it is not sure whether you would buy it or not). However, you can mold the team about it.
Remember, it is not a wise thing to play a blind game on such a big ticket item. The massive investment incurred by you should get justified by tangible business benefits. According to Subject Matter Experts, you should be keen on understanding the goals and objectives to be achieved by implementing CRM system in your real estate business. Once you make the decision and sign the contract, there is no looking back.
Buying a real estate CRM is inevitable in today’s business world. However, you have to be skeptical about it during the selection process. When you have multiple software to choose from, your business analysts should be smart and sharp enough to discriminate between the good and the best. Not a single strength or weakness should be missed. There are massive consequences (positive or negative) of choosing an inappropriate CRM system. Right technology transforms the business and takes it to new heights.
