‘It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle money. It is the customer who pays the wages’:  Henry Ford

A customer is the most important part in a business. If your customer base is sound, your business will surely run smooth. How to make a sound customer base? Well, there are no short-cuts to success. You need hard work and dedication to build customer relations and it doesn’t happen overnight. However, the direction of your hard work often determines the amount of success you are going to get. Sometimes, despite being hard working, people don’t succeed just because they are working in the wrong direction.  A Real Estate CRM software might help you in stepping towards the right direction. Dealing with customershas become much easier with the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. It comes with a variety of features to help you expand your business relations. From plans for investments to meeting up with new clients, all of these things can be tracked and taken care of using this software. If you already have a CRM software and you think you are lagging behind in terms of customer base, you need to rethink your working strategies. Here are 5 tips that would help you increase your conversion ratio:

1. Addition to your sales funnel:

When it comes to managing contacts and other details, the CRM helps you put your best foot forward. You should regularly keep adding contacts to your already existing contact list. Adding new prospects to the top of your sales funnel is crucial for your business success. It will help you a lot if you have a list of people who are your ‘potential clients’. You can add contacts through regular meet-ups with people at various occasions, but without being ‘pushy’.

2. Segmentation of Leads:

Leads come from various sources. It can be either through social media campaigns, mailing, spheres of influence, etc. You must analyze which customer is comfortable in what media. Getting into the comfort zone of the customer is one of the key strategies to business success. Try to reach out to them through their preferred media in their preferred language. A CRM software helps you do this quite comfortably. The cloud-based storage allows you to access the detailed information of your customers from anywhere you want. You can strategize your next move by sorting all your customer database and segmenting your leads.

3. Pointing Out Lead Sources:

The lead sources play a key role in bringing new customers to you. Be it through social media campaigns or word of mouth, you should analyze which lead is getting you more benefit. With a CRM software, you can point out your best lead source act act according to the same. You would then have a clear idea in mind about where to invest more. For example, let’s assume your best lead source is social media and on the other hand, print advertising is not being such effective. Now that you know that social media is your best bid, you can spend more on social media campaigns and tap your investments in print advertising to have more efficiency.

4. Personalization:

A report by AgilOne suggested that 79% of customers expect a personalized buying experience. As a customer, you would also want a company to treat you as a separate customer and not as a generalized one. If you have a CRM software, you can send out automated messages to your customers including their names which would give them a personalized feeling. CRM also uses demographic information which would enable you to reach the right customers at the right time. Customer satisfaction would help you increase your conversion ratio.

5. Enhancement Of Productivity:

Planning paves the way to success. You can enhance the productivity of your firm by implementing a proper plan. A CRM software helps you plan your meetings, strategies, and investments and thus enhances your productivity. With the mobile users in effect, the need for high productivity has become higher than ever.

If you follow the above tips, you would be able to work with your full potential and it will ultimately help in increasing your conversion ratio. Remember, your customers are your biggest assets. Pleasing them today will please you tomorrow.

CRM is the abbreviated form of what is commonly known as Customer Relationship Management. Now, it is arguably the most crucial aspect in a business since customers are the soul of any corporate business. Knowing what the customers need and what they absolutely don’t is something that has to be on the fingertips of the people in charge.

Marketing is something that is far from static. It has to constantly evolve as the customers do. Monolithic tricks to manage the relationship with the customers will lead you nowhere. For real estate agents, the most important aspect is to keep abreast with the latest techniques that would keep the customers returning to the agents for helping them look for the house that they would call their ‘home’.

What Kind Of Changes In CRM Are We Looking At?

Gone are the days when CRM was tethered to the desktops and the software in them. Times are changing and so is CRM. Here’s a look at the alternatives:

1. Mobile: Mobiles have probably been one of the biggest revolutions of all times. And it has all the important qualities that are needed by the CRM industry to work with the customers efficiently: It is handy and portable making the customers accessible at all hours; it makes the exchange of information between the customer and the seeker of the information much flexible. For example, through apps with a good user interface, the real estate agents can get a lot of information about the properties their customers are interested in: the type, size, location et cetera. Likes and dislikes of each customer can be analysed separately and can be preserved for later use as well. Using mobiles for customer management is an option that has a lot of potential and is very practical because we are living in times when mobile is one of the products that has the largest consumer base. So through mobile phones we can reach a large target audience which we want..

2. Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is another revolution that eased and untwisted paths leading to a wide range of purposes. In CRM, cloud computing can be used to store customer-related information in a categorical manner that makes the stored data search-friendly. It also makes the data easily available for looking up later when required. Thus, it preserves the data as a solid resource and can prove to be the best CRM for real estate. Actually, this is an augmentation to the usage of mobile phones for CRM. The information gathered through apps can be saved in the cloud storage. This reduces the chances of getting that information lost and makes it way more accessible than containing the same information in large bulky files and folders made out of paper, since cloud storage account can be accessed from any device and from anywhere. And hey, it saves paper too!

3. Social Media: Now, this goes without saying that in the current times, social media is a platform that boasts of the kind of reach to the masses like no other form of media could. And rightly so! Be it Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. You name it, and you would find an unbelievable string of numbers representing the number of followers of these social media platforms. What could be more important for building a customer relationship than such kind of reach to the common masses which happen to be the potential customers too?

Customer Relationship Management can be testing at times. It is not a cakewalk. It requires a constant interaction with the customers and their changing needs with the changing times.

One of the most effective tools you can use in aiding your business is Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. It can help you cultivate and improve customer relationships. Firms which have already adopted CRM unceasingly spout its glory, while others quickly jump onto the bandwagon. Real Estate CRM Software is a fine example of Customer Relationship Management in the Real Estate Market.

A couple of years ago, aprediction was made by Gartner which stated that by 2017, CRM software sales would amount to a whopping $36.5 billion worldwide. The analyst firm releases CRM market reviews, critics and predictions every year. The 2017 prediction was one of its biggest, showing an increase of 5.4% in revenue forecasts. Earlier analysis postulated only 9.7% in growth rate. To a casual user, this may seem like a big leap of faith. However, there are several reasons for this astronomical jump in numbers.

• CRM is one of the fastest growing markets. It provides extensive help in data collection, data management and tracking algorithms. 61% of sales distributors use a CRM. Key access to customer information and data is vital to a business’ success.
• Surveys show that senior managing officers who have tried CRM do not hesitate to recommend it further. 75% of sales managers say that using CRM helps drive sales force and generate revenue.
• On average, for every $1 spent on it, CRM returns $5.60. That is a rate of return greater than 50%! Such statistics encapsulate just how beneficial CRM is for any company
• CRM software can create, establish and sustain leads, in both consumer and vendor markets. However, 75% companies have no process of nurturing leads. CRM use is a must for these companies.
• Reports show sales teams overall organizations showed at least a 15 % increase in productivity due to use of CRM by their organizations.
• CRM shows inspiring sales growth for firms. On average, when a company engages a customer using CRM, the customer is likely to spend 20% – 40% more. This is why more and more businesses are opting for CRM.
• Use of CRM creates a positive feeling in customers. Feedback suggests that customers who have had a positive experience are more likely to recommend a company to family and friends
• Use of CRM increased revenue per sales represented by an average of 41%. CRM also saw a 10 % increase in cash-flow in mobile apps and 24% increase in sales productivity.
• Marketing costs have been slashed by over 23% due to increased use of CRM. The software data management and data driven predictive engines allows targeted marketing aimed at specific customers.

What does this mean?
Use of CRM has been steadily increasing over the years. The vast advantage provided by the software has led to bigger and better sales opportunities that businesses all over are utilizing. World market trends show Asia/Pacific markets showing the fastest growth rate, with growth of 21.9% in 2015. China followed at a close second with rates of 18.4%. Middle East and North Africa and mature Asia/Pacific were also not far behind with all three achieving double figures in growth.

By 2015, the market had already reached $26.3 billion.

With more and more companies discovering the benefits and capabilities of CRM, it is not a far stretch for Gartner to make its lofty prediction. Companies all over the globe are making the switch to CRM, and anyone not doing so will only be left behind in the dust of its rivals’ success.