The term commercial real estate CRM encompasses two essential concepts:
- Customer Relationship Management within a broader real estate development framework, which should serve marketing objectives and business development strategy;
- The IT tool, the CRM software by which the real estate agency or real estate developer can collect and analyze information on its clients, centralize data on real estate programs and property details, and accelerate transactions within a collaborative workspace on the web.
Discover the advantages and compare CRM solutions to choose the one that best suits your business:
The 6 advantages of a CRM for real estate professionals
The same information may be essential for different actors. A CRM solution answers all communication problems: it is above all a collaborative workspace that allows everyone to gain in productivity by relying on many functionalities. Overview.
Advantage #1: CRM tools specific to real estate professions
Software vendors have designed modules that save time and productivity for real estate agents, builders, developers or asset managers.
An impressive set of features simplifies the daunting or error-prone tasks that real estate professionals encounter on a daily basis:
- An integrated zero interest rate loan calculator,
- A search engine,
- Product catalogs,
- The multicasting of ads on the web,
- A function to facilitate real estate matching by multi-criteria,
- The management of real estate operations,
- A transaction module,
- An OCR function capable of transcribing text onto an image (Optical Character Recognition), etc.
Advantage #2: centralization and information control
In a CRM software, you store all the information in a single place and it is accessible to your entire real estate network.
Each data subject has access to the same data: they are updated in real-time as soon as an employee updates them.
This also applies to your various contact files (sellers, buyers, etc.) and your documents.
Advantage #3: all your documents accessible and customizable online
Your entire document database is also centralized and accessible online: administrative documents, sales agreements, inventories, customizable letter templates, announcements, etc.
Salespeople and real estate agents have all the elements they need to work, even on the move.
Advantage #4: the traceability of actions and customer data history
All your contacts are grouped in a single database and can be updated by your employees. Thus, everyone has contact information, current contact position, etc.
Each real estate prospecting action is entered in the CRM. The sales representative knows what stage he is at with the prospect, and can effectively follow up with his customers.
Perfect knowledge of the customer represents the Holy Grail for any commercial activity: the more you know about his expectations, the more you personalize the real estate offer, the better you sell, the more you build loyalty.
Advantage #5: a personalized sales approach
By using the data collected on prospects in CRM, you can carry out targeted marketing actions, such as geolocated email campaigns for example.
Once prospects with business potential have been identified, their contacts are referred to the sales force so that they can focus their efforts on prospecting actions with a high probability of success, by personalizing the relationship and customer interaction.
Advantage #6: the management of the commercial activity
Everything is simplified in a CRM software: you generate your activity reports in a few clicks and you have a dashboard that allows you to make a progress report and receive customizable alerts.
Comparison of CRM software dedicated to commercial real estate
In the table below, each software is summarized by its main benefit and companies targeted:
| Software | Main benefit | Companies targeted |
|---|---|---|
| Boston Logic Platform | Automation of business operations | Companies of all sizes |
| HubSpot CRM | Sales force automation | Companies of all sizes |
| Point2 Agent | Tools to streamline marketing | VSEs, SMEs |
Boston Logic Platform: the CRM dedicated to real estate agencies and developers
Boston Logic Platform is a very powerful tool, yet intuitive and easy to use thanks to its modern interface. Boston Logic Platform is known for being able to adapt to the size and needs of any agency: from freelancers and small agencies to real estate networks and the MLS. In addition, it is a web-based CRM software. All you need is an internet connection to be able to access all of your documents and get to work!
Automate your business activity
The power of this software solution allows centralized marketing management of the sales forces in real-time. It is permanently connected to CRM, therefore users can manage the entire customer relationship themselves, saving precious time thanks to the features that automate reminders, follow-up, and sales reporting.
Main assets for productivity:
- Access to all your new real estate programs in CRM,
- Management and animation of your sales network,
- Lead scoring of prospects,
- Be up to date with market conditions due to market report tools,
- Multiposting of your ads on numerous websites,
- Email marketing automation, etc.
HubSpot CRM: the progressive generalist for real estate professionals
HubSpot CRM is one of the solid standards in the market. The solution is intended to be scalable and customizable for real estate businesses according to their size and needs. The solution is suitable for real estate developers and agencies thanks to its customization capabilities.
Automate your marketing actions
We notice interesting features integrated into the CRM to prospect: a visual dashboard to track in real-time your sales data and customer interactions such as through email, social media, or phone calls.
Campaign performance reports allow you to improve your messages, including identifying the channel through which the prospect is most receptive.
Solutions to customize your CRM software:
- Multi-channel marketing campaigns to trigger opportunities,
- Email templates,
- Shared contact book (prospects, customers, business partners),
- Commercial management (quotation, invoice, etc.),
- Reception of alerts (configurable in advance),
- Collaborative email integrations (Gmail, Outlook),
- Intuitive dashboard to track your business processes and activity, etc.
Point2 Agent: the CRM dedicated to collaborative agencies
Point2 Agent is one of the most popular real estate CRM software solutions. This program gives you access to a large number of functions to optimize your real estate management. It's an online software, so your real estate advisors can connect anytime, anywhere and from any device!
In addition to the basic options of all real estate CRM, Point2Agent gives you the ability to create personalized marketing campaigns, centrally manage your emails and have technical support.
Collaborative work at the heart of success
There is no secret to operating a multi-site network. You just need a collaborative workspace, in other words, a CRM software with rich collaborative features. Point2Agent offers you all of these tools and more. Their collaborative work module adapts to all configurations, and the collaborative real estate agenda is synchronized in real-time.
Collaborative management and transaction:
- Multiposting of ads on real estate portals,
- Electronic versions of legal documents,
- Receipt of automated alerts (customer reminders, SMS, etc.),
- Collaborative email (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft Exchange integration),
- Management of your website with built-in Wordpress blog from the software,
- Optimized field prospecting thanks to the centralization of information,
- Tools to help you engage leads (call-to-action buttons, custom forms for lead capture, Google Analytics to understand your market better), etc.
No CRM: more errors, fewer customers
The following errors express a lack of pragmatic procedures and the application of operational guidance.
The most common errors waste time for your entire organization, significantly reduce productivity and result in loss of customers.
If you have any of the following signs, you should urgently use CRM software dedicated to real estate:
- Non-centralized information: you waste time searching for information, data and contact sheets in several tools or media, and your data is often incorrect;
- No traceability: you no longer know what your customer said, when he said it, or what he was talking about, and you even lost his coordinates;
- No data available on the move: you need information during real estate visits, to note reactions from buyers or sellers, to note details of the property, and you would like to centralize all this information to find it later to be more efficient;
- No automation: you write everything down on your agenda and get tangled up when you could rely on a tool that sends you alerts to remind you of important things, appointments, and at the right time;
- Estimated matches: you spend too much time scrutinizing the criteria of buyers and sellers, so you miss out on great opportunities;
- Disorganized prospecting: you prospect without any particular organization, you don't share information with your collaborators.
What Commercial Real Estate CRM system to choose for your company?
You are the only one who knows the needs of your real estate agency, we know that the offer of CRM programs for real estate management is huge. The best way to choose the perfect software for your business is to make real estate management software comparisons, so:
- Make a list of your company's needs and objectives,
- Select the CRMs that can meet your requirements,
- Use free trial versions to see which CRM meets your expectations best.
Have you ever used a commercial real estate CRM software? Share your experience with us!