Home » Career Development, Productivity, Real Estate Technology

What can a CRM/Contact Manager do for me?

2 March 2010 by 17 Comments

The following is a list of functions that a good CRM enables you to do. Many people buy a CRM because they are told they need one, or because they want to get more organized. Often while evaluating a CRM or after purchasing one, they then end up saying that it cost too much for what they need, because it does so much that they do not need. The reality is that the CRM does so much because it is what you need, IF you want to grow your business significantly, while at the same time; having more of a personal life; with less stress for you and your clients; with less mistakes; with better service to your clients; with less staff; with more compliments from everyone you work with; with more referrals. If you want those things, then the CRM does not do too much. It has the features it does in order to accomplish those things.

Note that the title uses both of the terms CRM and Contact Manager. The fact is that the following bullet points can not all be accomplished with a contact manager. The reason for the title is that a significant percentage of agents have either never heard the term CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) at all, or they have heard it but do not know what it means, or they do not understand the difference between a Contact Manager and a CRM. Therefore, if the words Contact Manager are not in the title, they may never find this post!

An example of a Contact Manager is Outlook. Examples of CRM’s are Top Producer, Agent Office, AdvantageXi, Active Agent for Outlook, etc.

It comes down to recognizing what you want to accomplish with a CRM , and then purchasing according to your needs. Following is a list of what you can accomplish with a good CRM. The more of these things you do within your CRM, the more efficient you will be. If you want to do all or much of what is on the list, then you need a CRM as opposed to a Contact Manager.

  • Prospecting – Get suspects, turn them into prospects, and turn them into sales, by knowing who they are, what they want, and when they want it, all in significant detail, and by being reminded to capitalize on that information automatically.
  • Lead distribution and tracking – The ability to give out a lead to a team member, and then follow-up to see if that member is doing what you want them to do to capitalize on that lead.
  • Lead source tracking – Knowing where your business is coming from and spending your marketing time and money accordingly/wisely.
  • Referral tracking – Knowing who is referring you the most business, so you know who to do more for in return.
  • Contact management – That means everyone! Suspects; prospects; clients; vendors; friends; relatives; neighbors. Knowing how to find any information on anyone, even from many years ago, with a few clicks virtually instantly.
  • Mail merge­ - Do all print or e-mail merging from within the CRM eliminating redundant external databases.
  • E-mail management – How many e-mails are in your inbox? They should be with your contacts, or with the property, where you can find them, quickly, not in your inbox.
  • Document management – Store all documents and photographs relevant to a transaction with the transaction record and/or the contact record. Having a complete paper trail all in one location is invaluable if you are challenged.
  • Appointment management – The ability to not only track when and where you had an appointment with someone, but also the ability to note the substance of that appointment.
  • Listing coordination – The biggest complaint lodged against Real Estate agents has always been poor communication. A comprehensive, automatically executed listing plan enables you to turn those complaints into praise effortlessly, automatically.
  • Closing coordination – Too many details can fall through the cracks. The busier you get, the more details you have swimming around in your head. And each day you have to make many decisions regarding what actions you need to take for which transactions. Even the best paper list and file methods are rife with bottlenecks and inconsistencies. Having all the information you need in one place and a to-do list automatically posted on your calendar makes your job far easier and more stress free.
  • Communications documentation – Also known as History, there is a place where it all comes together. Tasks, phone calls, e-mails, letters, post cards, fliers, and appointments. A contiguous record of everything that has happened with that contact or transaction.
  • Time management – Having automated to-do lists, and organized methods of consistent follow-up. Decide what you want to do, once, and automatically follow up that way every time from then on.
  • Risk reduction – Knowledge is power. If you use a CRM properly and consistently, you will automatically gravitate towards centralizing the huge volume of detail with which you work every day. It can not be overemphasized how important it is to have a contiguous chronological accounting of any contact you have with clients and even prospects. You can be challenged at any point about a myriad of issues from Fair Housing Violations to Mortgage Fraud, Procuring Cause, and any number of other things. A CRM can easily and automatically organize you. Having complete records of; phone calls, letters, e-mails, appointments, etc., insures that you will enjoy a much better position from which to defend yourself if need be.
  • Post closing follow-up/client retention – Not staying in touch with past clients is one of the single biggest causes of loss of income in the Real Estate sales industry. Never lose another referral due to your failure to stay in touch.
  • Staff training and accountability – Personnel retention is a problem that never goes away. Having a system in place with notes built into the CRM task lists significantly diminishes the impact of a lost staff person. It enables you to have the new person step right into a tried and true system, and none of the details are lost in the transition. Additionally, it provides a clear picture of exactly who is doing what each day with regards to each individuals responsibilities.

If this list has you interested, it is likely that you are ready for a comprehensive CRM solution. Just realize that the dollar investment in the CRM is the easy part. The time investment is the tough part. But the rewards are more than you can appreciate until you get there.

Gary is the founder/owner of RE-ACT, LLC & RealEstate-AgentTools and is the world’s foremost authority on Real Estate specific Contact Management and CRM solutions. He has been using, reviewing, and teaching contact management and transaction management since 1987 when he became an agent, and has been interviewed and been a featured speaker on the topic nationwide. Author of Trans-Plans Listing & Closing Plans, he also works with agents and teams to customize their Transaction Management plans in their CRM.

Web Site: http://TheRealEstateCRMBroker.com

  • http://www.mnhome.org Ben Goheen

    It may not be the prettiest, but Heap CRM is a great solution for only $9/month for a single agent.

  • http://GaryDavidHall.com Gary David Hall

    There are a great many generic CRM’s like Heap available, but for the vast majority of the thousands of agents I’ve dealt with, non-real estate specific ones turn out to be more effort than they are worth. Having to customize them to be used for Real Estate is often doable, but most agents are either not capable of it, or it just takes time most are not willing to spend. Having all the fields and modules laid out specifcally for Real Estate usually works best for most, assuming you want to do much of what was mentioned in my original post.

  • http://www.mnhome.org Ben Goheen

    I understand your points. However, nearly all products in general that are geared strictly towards Realtors are extremely overpriced because they know most are horrible when it comes to technology. If you have the time to spend learning a CRM, take a little extra time learning one that is (usually) better and less expensive.

    I’m just glad I know my way around a computer so I don’t get ripped off like 99% of agents.

  • http://GaryDavidHall.com Gary David Hall

    Sounds like you have an axe to grind because you felt you overpaid for a Real Estate specifc product in the past. My guess would be Top Producer. Just because you never found one that worked for you at a price you liked, doesn’t mean they are not out there.

    What you are saying is not accurate for the industry. There are good Real Estate specific desktop solutions for one time fees of $99 and an outstanding one for $315. There are very good Web based products starting at $99/yr. The market of potential users for a generic CRM is hunderds of thousands if not millions, so one can make a fortune at only $9/mo. In the Real Estate industry the potential market is only tens of thousands making the products far from overpriced for providing a solution specifc to that industry. it’s extremely risky. If you only sold 3 homes a year you would have to charge a lot more than you do.

    Regarding the generic CRM’s being better, they are not better if the agent never uses it because they have to spend too much time customizing it to their needs. I literally ask the question on a regular basis; “Would you rather it all be laid out already set for use by a Real Estate agent, or would you rather tinker with it to make it the way you want?” The vast majority of agents choose the former. For the rest, we talk about both generic and Real Estate specific solutions.

    You’re certainly welcome to your opinion, but it does coincide with mine as an agent using many different generic and Real Estate specific CRM’s over the last 22 years, or with the thousands of agents with whom I have worked with for CRM needs for the last decade.

    The idea that 99% of agents are being ripped off is a comment I can’t let go by without calling it ridiculous, and will be happy to provide you with a list of hundreds of agents who would call it other things.

  • Jody Cowdrey

    Isn’t Top Producer under $50 a month for a single license? A contact management system is a MUST for any serious agent. Since this is the case, $50 is definitely worth it, even for all of it’s flaws. There are definitely some other good CMS apps out there, but none that compare with Top Producer’s ability to handle a large volume of leads, all being emailed regularly, without an outboard SMTP account. I’ve been using Top Producer for quite some time now…like 4+ years. I researched a bunch of others recently, but none were as robust. Some came close though.

    There are quite a few that are specifically geared toward real estate, and as far as I’m concerned, none of them are overpriced. Agents NEED to pay for something that’s as close to operational “out of the box” and intuitive as possible. The drawback inherent to this business is that it’s very easy for the average agent to be distracted, when they should really be out talking to people and getting business….not fiddling around trying to get some program to work.

  • Jody Cowdrey

    Ben – I just re-read my post, and wanted to point out that it was not a shot at you specifically. I’ve just seen more agents get bogged down in screwing around with technology when it’s not something they’re good at, sacrificing time that can be used for connecting with people in a way that suits them and that they enjoy.

    In my opinion, that’s what makes any real estate CMS worth it’s weight in gold.

  • http://www.mnhome.org Ben Goheen

    Jody: No offense taken. You’re absolutely right, most agents are easily distracted and are easily overwhelmed with any kind of technology. With the few of us that know how to hit ‘reply’ instead of ‘reply all’ for emails, spending a very small amount of extra time to customize a superior product is worth it.

    Gary: I’ve never used Top Producer but they’ve obviously pissed a lot of people off somehow. Regarding the 99% reference, my figures may be a bit off but you’re smart enough to know what I meant. The NAR member profile stats about technology are sad (http://bit.ly/dmzalf) for a group of professionals who should be on the cutting edge, because our clients sure are. You make money through affiliate links – I get it. What I don’t understand is how I could justify charging a client a higher commission because I don’t sell as many homes as a top producer

  • http://GaryDavidHall.com Gary David Hall

    Ben – OK selling three houses was a bad analogy, but you’re smart enough to know what I meant. Any product that has a very specialized niche market with no hope of a large quantity of sales costs more than a similar product that is not specialized that has a much larger market. If it did not, no one would bother to develop it because they would not be able to make a profit.

    The vast majority of agents who say there is no good Real Estate specific CRM (RES CRM) at a decent price, say that because they just have not found the right one for their needs. There are over 40 of them on the market.

    You make sweeping statements that are misleading, so I have to rebut them so people are not misinformed. You make it sound like it would take very little extra time to tweak a generic CRM to make it work for a Real Estate licensee. If that were the case, then I would not have very tech savvy people calling me on a regular basis who have spent a great deal of time and money customizing ACT!, Sugar CRM, Goldmine, SalesForce, Maximizer, and many more, only to eventually get tired of having to keep changing it to keep up with their needs. They end up purchasing a RES CRM from me so they can leave the ongoing development to the professionals, and do what they do best, list and sell Real Estate.

    Many RES CRM’s have hundreds of template letters, e-mails, fliers, activity plans and post cards included. They would take the average agent literally hundreds of hours to develop, assuming they were capable of writing a good letter to begin with. That is hardly “very little extra time”. If someone is not using those things, they are not growing their business like they could be. If they are using other services for those things, they are having to deal with redundant data entry. And you can’t buy them as an add-on. That would negate your point about the cost, and the add-ons do not work in the generic CRM’s.

    If you want to track details of a property transaction there are a myriad of fields necessary to track dates, deposits, and key property information. If you are not tracking that info, you are not organized, and the busier you get, the more it will hurt you. In a generic CRM, you have to create fields and tabs to accommodate that data.

    A Real Estate transaction is arguably the most complex sales transaction there is, bar none. That transaction has a flow of information that RES CRM’s are built around, and yes some do a poor job of it, but others do not. Generic CRM’s are created to facilitate the sale of widgets, in a much less complex transaction, and they just do not flow right for Real Estate.

    Many agents can get by with Outlook and other generic Contact Managers because they are not willing to, or aware enough to do what they need to do to grow their business. I will repeat my original comment. Not everyone needs Real Estate specific software, but…

    “IF you want to grow your business significantly, while at the same time; having more of a personal life; with less stress for you and your clients; with less mistakes; with better service to your clients; with less staff; with more compliments from everyone you work with; with more referrals.”

    Then you do…

    With regards to complaints about Top Producer, some are justified, and some are not. And because TP has far and away the largest market share, it only follows that you will hear more comments about it than any other product, both positive and negative. That said, people rarely go on a Blog and rave about how good a product is, compared to how often people will go on and eviscerate a product. More often than not, the biggest complaint is that the agent is no longer using the software, but still has to pay for it, so they get angry, and rant about how bad the software is instead of admitting the real cause of the anger. A large percentage of the time, it is because the agent did not spend the necessary amount of time using and evaluating it in the first 30 days when they could terminate the contract at no cost. 60 or 90 days later when they finally get around to using it, and decide they do not like it, they get furious when TP will not let them out of the contract. I will not get into whether there should even be a contract. That is another debate. The point is that the agent knows there is a contract going in. If they do not do their due diligence up front, it is on them, not TP.

    Jody – I could not agree more that one needs the right tools. An auto mechanic buys Snap-On tools because they are smaller and get into tight places easier, which saves the mechanic time and money. They recognize that they need tools specific to their business, and they have no qualms about paying for those tools.

    With regards to TP, it is good for some, and not for others, and there are other products available that are competitive in feature sets and pricing.

  • http://www.wbpsystems.com Ben Smith

    Gary -

    I’m the developer of Heap CRM; this blog poped up for me because I have Google Alerts setup to monitor such things.

    Is your primary complaint with “generic CRMs” that the custom values/fields are not pre-setup and there isn’t any pre-built e-mail templates or pre-built automation? I’ve been playing around with the notion of startup templates, some sort of basic XML file that users could build and share that would create such things as a bunch of e-mail templates and event templates (Heap’s form of sales force automation).

    Would this cover most of your issues?

    Ben -

    It’s always great to see an user talking about our product! Thanks.

  • http://www.mnhome.org Ben Goheen

    Gary: I get where you’re coming from, but at this point in my career I don’t need a robust real estate specific CRM. I’ve seen examples of the the letters, flyers, etc. offered and wouldn’t want to spam that generic junk to my clients. I’m too much of a perfectionist to let go of creative control – just look at a recent flyer: http://www.mnhome.org/flyer.pdf and tell me there’s a CRM that comes anywhere near that quality.

    I did look into Top Producer once but was turned-off by the contract. It’s funny how you mention that (nearly) nobody goes online to praise this type of product, but rather to complain. I’m going through the process of switching insurance companies and realized very quickly the exact same thing. The only reviews you’ll find are from angry customers.

    Ben: You’re welcome for the mention. I signed up for the trial and tested things out, now I’m trying to decide on which direction to go. I’m testing SalesForce right now and their interface seems way more advanced. Plus $4 less/month is slightly appealing (that just made me sound like a cheap bastard).

    Upon signing up for their trial, I received a personalized email and phone call welcoming me. Gary, this is the kind of thing I’d prefer to send out to clients rather then canned statements. With the small amount of business I currently have it’s easy to shoot off a quick message. I may have to rethink this strategy once I have several closings a month, but for now it works for my needs.

  • http://GaryDavidHall.com Gary David Hall

    Ben – I hear you. I was the same way in the beginning. Everyone feels the same way in the beginning. You feel like since you’re not busy, you can afford the time to do everything original and personal. The reality is that if you spend an hour or two a day doing personalized cards, notes, e-mails, etc., that is an hour or two you could have been doing other prospecting.

    By the way, that flier can be created in many CRM’s, albeit maybe not as quickly and easily. But it only needs to be created once, with merge fields, so you don’t have to re-key data every time you do another one. In order to grow, you have to spend every available minute prospecting, not creating a new perfect flier, e-mail or letter each time you need one. The idea is that once you create merge documents, and automate a follow-up campaign that is personalized to you and your market, it frees you up to prospect more. The more you automate the process of following up with prospects, and listings and transaction management, the more time you have to spend doing personalized prospecting. If you’re new, and you really want to grow more quickly, that includes open houses, cold calling, and door knocking. Before you start laughing at the latter two, ask anyone that is doing over a hundred transactions a year how they started. I have, and many did. They’re the hard core, driven, sales people.

    Having a Web site can generate leads too, if you do it right. It is very possible to get to the point where you are getting too many leads from a Web site. Then you have to start figuring out how to whittle down the number while increasing the quality. The ability to have new Web leads automatically populate into your CRM and then have it launch a follow-up campaign which includes phone calls, saves an inordinate amount of time.

    Planning to put these tools in place later is what stops most people from ever doing it. Once you get busy, it is very difficult for most people to force themselves to make the time to do it.

    You also do not want to start with one CRM and then move to another unless you have no choice. The dollar cost of a CRM is irrelevant compared to the investment of time to learn it, get it working the way you want, and get efficient with it. If at all possible, you want to pick the right one the first time and keep it for the rest of your career.

  • http://GaryDavidHall.com Gary David Hall

    Welcome Ben Smith! – Gotta love Google Alerts! I use it too.

    To answer your question, that’s only one of the things. Bear in mind that I am speaking about a “complete” Real Estate specific CRM solution, as opposed to a contact manager such as Outlook. My goal is to always get people to accomplish as many of their needs within one solution as possible. That includes either the mechanisms and/or the content for automated follow-up with Real Estate specific templates for e-mails, letters, fliers, post cards, etc.

    Another feature set would include the ability to track property data including dates, dollars, affiliated parties, commission tracking, pipeline tracking, and transaction management capabilities.

    There are many. To see a comprehensive list of what feature sets Real Estate specific CRM’s are including you may want to check out my Real Estate CRM Comparison Matrix at http://Matrix.GaryDavidHall.com

  • http://www.contactpaper.org contact paper

    We sincerely enjoyed your article. It looks like you have placed a lot of effort into your blog and I need more of these on the net these days. I do not really have a large amount to say in reply, I only wanted to sign up to say great work.

  • http://saltlakecityrealtor.org/ real estate agent

    Greta article and I would add simple doing something is always better than doing nothing – so pick one or two out and focus on them and get them going and result will come later but in the begginijng jsut focus on getting stuff done.
    ________________________________________
    Salt Lake City Realtor: Anya Ouchakova
    14403 South Lapis Dr. Draper Utah 84020
    801-252-6947

  • http://www.south-ogden.com/ Utahrealestateagents1

    Contact management systems are vital for anyone in a sales job. I have seen way too many agents waste valuable leads because they have zero follow up and follow through systems. The most effective agents keep in touch with EVERYONE. Since mailers are expensive, and in my opinion not very effective, email is the best touch system you can possibly have. Its worth every cent that you spend.

    You may not see it pay off right away, but 6 months from now cold leads get hot, and if you have become a familiar face through your touch system, they will be your hot lead.

  • http://www.masterdigm.com/ CRM for real estate

    Hello
    A CRM system helps you recognize customers and prospective customers,
    understand their preferences, frequently anticipate their needs and
    respond to their requests quickly and effectively. It enables you to
    track, organize, and consolidate the interactions dealership staff has
    with current and prospective customers.

  • Real Estate CRM

    Great topic you have picked  here – CRM is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company's interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects.