There are no commissions without buyers and sellers, and keeping a steady stream of fresh clients coming in the door is a top priority for all real estate agents. But, real estate leads are tricky because it isn’t uncommon for months or even years to elapse before a lead is ready to sign on – especially for sellers. For an agent, keeping their name at the top of a lead’s mind over long periods of time is often the difference between a successful close and losing a deal to a more visible competitor. That’s where real estate CRMs come into play. 

 

Real estate customer resource management systems are ideal tools for both gaining more leads and ensuring each lead has the greatest possible chance of converting into an eventual sale and a lifelong source of referrals. 

 

A Hypothetical Real Estate CRM Lead Flow

CRM systems are ideal real estate lead tools because they automate not only the collection and management of leads, but long-term relationship building as well. For example, here’s a hypothetical lead lifecycle and how a good CRM can factor in.

• First Contact: A browser visits an open house and puts their contact information into a tablet set up in the main room. Upon submission, the information is automatically pulled into the CRM, and a lead profile is created instantly in the database. The real estate agent has collected a new lead passively, organically, automatically, and at zero cost.
• Initial Categorization: The CRM automatically notes that the lead came from that specific open house and assigns them a matching category to ensure the lead’s status is tracked from the first second.

• Initial Reminder: The following day, the CRM automatically reminds the agent to follow up with the leads collected from the open house. The agent can choose to follow up with a call, fire off an email or even a text message right through the CRM, or let the CRM send out an automated,  preset thank you message on its own.

• Recategorization: After following up with a call, the lead tells the agent they live in the neighborhood and were checking out open houses as research for their own potential real estate sale down the line. With new information now in play, the agent changes the lead’s category from a potential buyer to a long-term sales lead. It takes a few seconds and just a couple of clicks. This kind of recategorization can also be done automatically through lead interactions with links in emails, buttons on a realtor’s website, or other ways of determining a lead’s status or intention.

• Long-Term Relationship Building: With the lead now categorized as a long-term seller, the CRM automatically reminds the agent to reach out whenever a pre-set amount of time passes. The agent can also set the CRM to send out automatic newsletters or follow-ups, schedule calls, or even add the lead to a physical mailer list. There is no longer any need for the agent to manually review lead statuses, rely on memory, or spend time on follow-ups. The system can take care of everything on its own, leaving the agent to target their limited time to the most immediate and promising clients.

• Inbound Contact: The time comes when the lead is finally ready to sell, and thanks to the constant and automated communication through the CRM, the lead knows exactly where to go. When they call in, the agent answers the phone through the CRM, which instantly brings up the lead’s account and the months or years’ worth of interactions stored within.

• Client Acquisition: The agent instantly knows who is calling and can greet them accordingly. Thanks to the well-organized notes and lead information the CRM has automatically collected, the agent also has a firm grasp of the relationship and the new seller’s needs, including their real estate type, price goals, and any other information collected over the years. The agent is able to impress the lead and provide great service immediately, leading to a faster exclusive agreement.

• Managing the Sales Process On-the-Go: Scheduling, phone calls, emails, managing third-party vendors like staging companies, liaising with mortgage brokers – all the tasks agents have to juggle during the sales process can be run through the CRM, saving time, money, and headaches. And, because the agent can access the CRM through their smartphone, their productivity is supercharged at all hours of the day, not just when they’re at their desk.

• Post-Sale Relationship Maintenance: The agent sells the client’s home, which moves their account into a new category within the CRM that focuses on continued communication aimed at maintaining the relationship for future sales and bringing in all-important referrals.

 

This is a simplified example, and there are countless other ways a CRM can help a real estate agent in between each evolution in the relationship. But it demonstrates clearly how a CRM can automate most of the collection, management, and nurturing of leads that an agent would normally have to remember to do manually. The result is more leads entering the top of the funnel and fewer good leads slipping through the cracks unnecessarily – a game-changer in an industry as competitive as real estate.

 

CRMDialer is a leading customer resource management platform that includes all the tools real estate agents need to thrive, from advanced lead management to a built-in power dialer to scheduling and marketing tools, to billing and payments tools to help with third-party vendors, and beyond. 

 

 

For a first-hand look at everything a top CRM can do for your real estate agency, start your no-commitment free trial of CRMDialer today.