3 Myths of CRM’s Debunked
Inside the CRM
SalesForce defines Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as a technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.
CRMs have a complex technology behind him, with so many features, options and it could be targeted for different departments, from sales, customer service, business development, recruiting, marketing, or any other line of business.
Every day more and more companies use this technology in order to improve their process, track their leads and at the end, increase the profits while reducing the cost. Real Estate is one of the industries where a CRM is a really important tool. But the broad types of systems generate myths and fears, sometimes unfounded.
1. Big Brother is watching
The most common reason people hate their CRM, as noted in several reports, is some variant on the Big Brother Syndrome. Big Brother, in this case, is the fictional creation of George Orwell in his classic novel, “1984”. In the society described in that book, constant surveillance of every citizen in maintained largely by the use of telescreens. People in the book are constantly reminded that “Big Brother is watching you!”
Most real estate agents, being independent contractors, are naturally prone to resist actions taken by their team leaders or brokers that appear to be monitoring their activities. Since one of the many functions of a CRM can be to monitor real estate agents job actions, such as how quickly they respond to leads, there is a natural inclination to resist using it at all.
The thing is that if a CRM becomes a policing tool to monitor every minute action a real estate agent is making then the whole point of what a CRM is for has been lost.
2. Entering data is a time stealer
Is that how you perceive data entry? People sometimes confuse perception with reality. They mistake how they understand things for the way they really are.
Entering data into a database is time-consuming. Looking for a post-it note, a scrap of paper, or a note on the back of a business card is also time-consuming. The advantages of having one centralized database where information is stored, that can be accessed anywhere, anytime, generally, outweigh the time consumption of putting data into the database.
Source: Super Office
What do people mean when they say that, “Entering data is a time stealer’? They may mean is that they already have a way of doing things. They don’t want to change. Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher writing between 535 – 475 BCE stated, “The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change”. We could all probably benefit from remembering that.
3. They are my leads
Salespeople are in general are a very protective group. They are very protective of their information, read that as leads. The number one fear is that entering information, especially pertaining to leads, into a shared database is like giving them away, jeopardizing your commissions.
In what way has being protective of your leads helped you provide better service to those leads and given them the best service possible?
A CRM, with the proper protocols, will not take leads away from you. It will help you turn those leads into paying clients quicker and at a lower cost. Leads that have better experiences become clients and more loyal ones. If a CRM can help you give them a better experience, by you being more attentive, not missing promises, and staying on top of the client’s needs do you think you will also benefit?
