Your CRM should provide real estate professionals a way to build relationships.
I knew I had made it when I had a home with a fireplace. For me, Home is where the hearth is. Why? I grew up with very little living in social housing in Portugal. My dream, when I knew that I had made it, would be the day I owned a home with a fireplace. Because in Portugal, a fireplace is a luxury.
With tears of joy that day arrived. When I took the first step into the living room of my future home, my heart was warmed by a fireplace. Not just any fireplace. It was the exact one I imagined my whole life. And, next to me on my journey of finding the perfect home was my dear friend and real estate agent Cristina.
So, what does my story have to do with my company Pipedrive that provides a sales CRM (customer relationship management) platform? The answer is everything. The reason is that my purchase was guided by my real estate professional, who was (and still is) my trusted friend and confidant. We have a deep connection.
And, that is what a sales CRM should do in real estate—be the vehicle to better connect agents to clients and evolve a relationship from acquaintance to be trusted friends and confidants.
In my role in customer support, my team and I get to interact daily with customers. Each one is important, and each has their own challenge. So, we actually use our own Pipedrive sales CRM platform to manage and support customers through their journey to help them find success. For the time we are with them, we are their friend and guide.
As a real estate professional, you too are a guide on your client’s journey to consummating a deal that is a win-win. It is the art of matching the right client with the right buyer or seller of a property in the right place.
With that said, I am going to take issue with the vernacular in my own industry – Customer Relationship Management (CRM). I really think no matter what you are selling it is really managing the journey to Customer/Client Relationship Success, or CRS.
Why? Because real estate professionals do connect with clients and form deep relationships. You help people in significant transactions, whether it be on the commercial or the residential side of the industry. My connection with Cristina is everlasting. And even if you don’t end up being best friends with a client, you were likely there for an unforgettable transaction in their life.
You strategically manage and perform an entire sales cycle from generating and qualifying leads to driving and closing sales to managing and reselling to existing clients. While the process may be rote, the connection to people is not.
Through those steps is laughter, frustration, tears, joy and disappointments. And it’s the agent who must be the friend, confidant, pseudo-psychiatrist, and anchor through each transaction. What we hope in our industry is that we provide the technology platform that guides you to incredible human connections…and in the end light a fire.
Mara Vicente is the global head of customer support at Pipedrive, a CRM built from the salesperson’s point of view.
