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CRMs: How to Organize and Optimize Your Real Estate Contacts

By Brian Buffini

At Buffini & Company, our focus has always been on helping our clients live the good life, and we've developed the structures to support that commitment. We believe that strong businesses are built on relationships, and that an agent's tech tools, such as CRMs should support this process—not replace it.
 
When working with a real estate CRM, agents must prioritize an infrastructure that organizes leads and contacts while also strengthening relationships. This is how agents can make more money, generate high-quality real estate leads and effectively leverage and manage a vibrant database. Here is how the ideal real estate CRM can serve as a productivity tool helps you get organized, keep in touch and create clients for life.
 
Get Organized
The best way a real estate CRM can help you get organized is by keeping all your contacts in one place, instead of leaving them scattered on your phone or a spreadsheet somewhere. You also want to make sure it provides a section for notes on each relationship so you can personalize every interaction you have. When you add a new contact to your database, you can include any personal details you have learned, such as a birthday, pets' names or kids' interests. Then, the next time you connect, you'll know if your client has a special occasion coming up or you'll be able to chat about their hobbies. When you're trying to build a relationship, remembering details like this shows you're really interested and makes a client feel valued.
 
Another helpful feature unique to Referral Maker CRM is relationship ranking. By ranking each relationship by how likely they are to refer you, you know just how much work you need to do to strengthen a bond. Remember—everything you do to generate real estate leads and referrals is connected to your relationships!
 
Know Who and When to Call 
The best real estate CRM should tell you who to reach out to and in what order so that your lead generation is always moving along. For example, Referral Maker CRM has a Priority Action Center that tells you exactly who to focus on and which action you should take each day—like whether you should call, write or visit based on the rank you gave that person. Once you know what step to take and with whom, you can set aside daily time to focus on connecting with those specific people instead of simply sending a mass, impersonal email.
 
Manage Online Leads
Until an agent can work 100% by referral, it's inevitable that they will receive online leads. Therefore, your real estate CRM should have a space specifically for organizing these folks. You should be able to label them as hot, lukewarm, warm or not interested, depending on how the communication goes. Once you know where they stand, bring them over to your database (or not). This is a great way to track how your leads are converting.
 
In this hectic and fast-paced world, your real estate CRM technology must be convenient, simple and automatic. Referral Maker CRM will help you connect with your database in a more meaningful way so you can build relationships that last. Learn more about Referral Maker CRM and how it can organize your business.
 
Brian Buffini immigrated to San Diego from Ireland in 1986 and became a top-performing REALTOR®. He then founded Buffini & Company to share his powerful lead-generation system. Buffini & Company has trained more than 3 million people in 37 countries and coaches more than 25,000 business pros. Today, Brian’s a New York Times best-selling author and reaches over 7 million listeners a year through “The Brian Buffini Show” podcast. For more, visit buffiniandcompany.com.


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