Thereโs one resource an agent can never have enough of, and thatโs time. Listings can be won or lost based on an agentโs speed โ usually interpreted by their clients as competence and enthusiasm.
In my last article, I addressed the fundamental power habits every agent needs to develop a valuable database. Once youโve got those success routines down pat, youโre ready to maximise the minutes and hours of your day.
Listings can be won or lost based on an agentโs speed โ which is often interpreted by their clients as competence and enthusiasm for the job. So the time it takes you to return a call from a prospective vendor or a hot buyer, the rush to deliver your jaw-dropping pre-list kit, can make all the difference.
Agents who leverage their time โ eliminating barriers to their ability to nurture more relationships โ are invariably those who succeed, no matter the market conditions. Inefficient, clumsy databases can actively damage your potency, relentlessly eroding your bottom line as an agent or a principal.
Not sure if youโre being slowed down by your CRM? Here are five sure-fire ways to identify whether your technology is diminishing your ability to be the leading agent in your community.
DEALING WITH DUPLICATES
Are you battling with multiple entries for clients due to misspellings and incorrect details? A basic but systematic problem across outdated CRMs, duplicates lead to staff creating prospect notes haphazardly across multiple entries, making communications inaccurate and even embarrassing. When your prospect receives their umpteenth email or letter about the same listing, theyโre likely to unsubscribe from your database โ and they will have a poor opinion of your business at the very least.
MULTIPLE SYSTEMS
Thereโs nothing quite like using a mixture of an old database, a new database, three Excel spreadsheets and an accounting package to destroy your business accuracy and chew up your time. Yet agencies across Australia are still caught up in the trap of using multiple systems โ a relic of the bad old days of real estate.
Your database should allow you to perform all your most critical functions within one coherent system. Think prospecting, pushing listings to portals, producing financial reports, team activity reports and accounting. Using multiple systems is a symptom of fragmentation within your business โ and of precious client data routinely slipping through the cracks.
GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES
Are you being caught in a โfury circleโ of pop-up screens? Other than making you frustrated, a database with an inefficient interface costs you money. The focus of your CRM should be helping you nurture relationships with vendors, purchasers and past clients in a timely fashion, using a variety of approaches from phone calls to SMS, emails and letters. If youโre being barred from appropriately accessing clients because of database complexity, youโre being slowed down.
MULTIPLE TABS
Look at the top of your screen. Do you have endless tabs open? Youโre being disadvantaged by using multiple systems which arenโt in conversation with one another. Your database should allow you to quickly access data about existing clients, prospective clients and past clients without sending you to other information sources, or making you disappear into a vortex of tabs. Think about your hourly rate and how much money youโre pouring down the drain by burning time navigating multiple databases.
STRUGGLING FOR INFORMATION
Are you stymied by โpast listingsโ disappearing from your database, making it very difficult to access client notes from prior agency transactions? Perhaps there are artificial barriers between you and relevant information which prohibit you from winning a listing, or coming up with useful data quickly enough. If the struggle is real, the speed is down.
We may all have the same amount of hours in our day as Beyoncรฉ, but that counts for little if your database is slowing you down, preventing you from being the market-leading agent you could be.
Rich, relationship-building time can be unlocked by replacing inefficient systems with a marketing machine to enhance growth and performance.