Are you ready to use a CRM to sell more homes?
Before we dive into how amazing a CRM is (and they are), let’s quickly go over what it actually is. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. And it does exactly what it sounds like – it helps you manage your customer relationships. Think of it like a digital rolodex that can also do small tasks for you…almost like a digital assistant that stores A LOT of information.
And everyone should have them. There’s no sales team in any industry that wouldn’t benefit from having some sort of CRM. In fact, this email is being sent from a CRM.
If you’d like to use one but don’t know where to start, just respond to this email and let us know you’re looking for some ideas. We can help point you in the right direction.
Now, let’s look at 5 ways a CRM can help you sell more homes.
1. Get the Sales Pipeline Organized
Wouldn’t it be nice to know when to call leads, who’s hot/cold, which prospect is ready to buy, etc., at a moments notice? A CRM can do that. You can organize all your contacts into different segments, and schedule tasks based on those segments. You can even automate reports to be sent out so that every morning you know the status of every deal, WITHOUT having to look at a whiteboard or ask the salesperson.
Getting organized saves time – time that can be used to sell more homes.
2. Transparency
How many calls/messages/texts do you get from customers asking about the status of their home? We’re guessing a lot, especially now. A CRM can fix this problem by adding transparency to your sales process via automated updates to the customer.
You can create automated texts and emails that will go out to the buyer whenever a certain point is reached. Loan’s pre approved? Text goes out to buyer immediately. Home delivered on site? Text goes out to buyer immediately. Tied down? Text goes out to buyer immediately.
The best part is that you can program this all to happen automatically on every deal. Not having to answer customer update questions saves time – time that can be used to sell more homes.
3. Keep Salespeople Engaged
Do your sales people follow up like you’d like them to? Or are you constantly reminding them to call a lead back or check and see if materials have been delivered? A CRM can remind them for you. You can set up intervals at which you want reminders texted/emailed to your salespeople, and they can act accordingly. Don’t spend all your time looking at white boards, spreadsheets, post-it notes, etc. Let the CRM do all that for you and remind your team to follow up.
4. Know what works
Do you know where your best leads are coming from? Is it a google ad? Facebook? Or maybe referrals? A good CRM can help you decide which leads are the highest quality, and which advertising avenues are the best investment of marketing budget.
For example, if a Facebook lead costs $15 per lead and Google leads cost $10, you might feel that Google is the better place to run ads. However, if you sell 1 home for every 50 Facebook leads, and 1 home for every 100 Google leads, then Facebook is actually a better investment because your total customer acquisition cost is lower. In the example above, it cost $750 in ad dollar to sell a home on Facebook, and $1000 in ad dollars to sell a home on Google. This means you’d want to increase your Facebook ad spend, not Google.
And then we have referrals…these are always money in the bank. The best advertising is word of mouth and referrals, so why not incentivize former customers to send you business? You can use your CRM to do that. For example, send an email or text to every single one of your customers and tell them you’ll give them a $400 Lowes gift card if someone they referred buys a home. Spending $400 to make a few thousand in net profit is something we’d all be able to get behind.
5. Be nice : )
Customers love a business that makes them feel good. CRMs can help with that too. You can set up reminders to reach out to previous customers and prospects just to say something nice. This will keep your business at the front of their mind, and they’ll think of you when the subject of home buying comes up.
Need an idea? Send out a happy birthday text to everyone in your CRM. You get birthdays when you close a deal, and we don’t know anyone that doesn’t like to hear ‘happy birthday’. Just set up a reminder in the CRM on each of your previous customers birthday’s, and send them something personal that they’ll appreciate. It will only take a few seconds, but it might make their day. And if they’re happy, they’ll mention your business in their daily lives.