24 May What’s the BEST CRM for real estate agents in 2018?!
Without a doubt, one of the most-asked questions we field is “What is your favorite CRM?”
It’s also one of the most misunderstood questions that we get asked. Because, the truth is, if you understand your business well enough, you shouldn’t be asking which CRM is right for you. When you understand the systems and workflows that most effectively bring in revenue, the question of which CRM is right for you becomes very transparent, very quickly.
To help explain this, I’m going to start this post with the three mistakes agents make when setting out to choose a CRM, then at the bottom, I will give my suggested CRM’s. But, be mindful that I only am going to suggest CRM’s that I’ve had firsthand experience in demo’ing. There are countless others that could also be good fits – that is for you to investigate yourself. 🙂
Most real estate agents don’t understand their business enough to know which CRM is right for them.
In my last post, we detailed all about systemizing your business. I went WAY into detail on the 5 steps it takes to systemize your business, and until you do that work, you can’t possibly know what CRM is right for you.
To make an effective decision on what CRM you need, you need to understand what tasks you need to offload and automate. A lot of agents fall into the routine of “flying by the seat of their pants”. They do all kinds of work with no rhyme or reason and hoping that a commission check magically finds its way into their mailbox.
It’s kind of like they let their business run THEM, instead of THEM running their business.
And this is very common and, honestly, kind of a natural occurrence. Because itemizing our daily responsibilities, tasks, and to-do’s, and organizing them into specific workflows to create repeatable outcomes, is not a natural thing. Our brains actively work against this type of behavior before it becomes natural.
So, just know that before you can make a sound financial decision in investing into a CRM, you HAVE to have clarity on what tasks you want the system to take over for you.
The other issue that agents run into is having clarity on the goal of a CRM.
If you have been in the business longer than a year, and you are STILL asking which CRM is the *best*, you’re asking the wrong question.
The question you need to be asking: How are you going to make sure that you will stick with a system to stay in front of your database, long-term prospects, and past clients?
There is no CRM that has a magic red button, that when pressed, will magically take away all the hard work of marketing yourself to your SOI and leads.
Your most important job as a real estate agent is to keep in front of your audience and generate more business from it. This is not an easy thing to do. In fact, I believe this is a big part of why 87% of real estate agents fail in the first 5 years.
The CRM isn’t important. What’s important is determining how can you be top of mind in your audience for all things real estate? How do you need to reach your audience, and what do they need to hear from you?
A CRM is only a small part of the equation here. It’s just a vehicle for one portion of your business.
So, if you are still asking yourself which CRM you *should* be using, you need to ask yourself: Are you just using that as an excuse to avoid the hard work of growing your business?
There’s no one CRM for everyone.
There are five different CRM’s that can work WITH you at this moment. But, there is no end-all-be-all system that is going to magically shuttle 10 million dollars of production your way.
The only way to make your business more productive and more profitable is by creating intentional, massive action. Then, the only effective way to create intentional action is by understanding your goals and identifying your strengths and weaknesses, to leverage against them.
Here’s an example:
If you know that you want to hit 6M in sales volume, and your most effective form of prospecting is Open Houses, you will require a different CRM from a 15 person team who relies on internet leads.
So, again, you can see that the *best* CRM is the one that is going to work WITH you. It’s a system that you will feel comfortable using, one that won’t overwhelm you with bells and whistles you don’t need. Or, it’s the system that will let you customize to your heart’s content, to accommodate your many lead sources, automations, and team members.
I don’t know which is right for you. Only you do.
But, you came here for a reason, so I’ll hold good on my end.
Here are some of my favorite recommendations for CRM’s to get you going.
If this sounds like you: You’re a solo agent. 0-3 years in the business. You have less than 250 people in your database, and you do not pay for lead services like Zillow. When it comes to software and automation, you’re a bit intimidated, but willing to learn.
Look into: LionDesk, Contactually, or Wise Agent.
If this sounds like you: You’ve been at it for a while and are proud of your growth. Maybe you already have a team member or two! Now that you’re investing in more aggressive lead generation services (like Zillow, Ylopo, Realtor.com…), you need a system that’s not going to let any of those leads fall through the cracks. Something robust that you can grow with.
Look into: Follow Up Boss, Top Producer, Shabang CRM
If this sounds like you: Your team is rockin’ and rollin’, and you’re ready to leverage those successes even further! You have done the hard work of building out the systems of your business, and it’s time to invest in your own lead generation activities to fuel your team’s growth.
Look into: Curaytor, BoomtownROI, Kunversion
Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the many CRM products available today. But one thing is for sure, if you haven’t broken down your systems to find what your business really needs, you should start there.
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