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By Tiana Baur, Content Marketing Manager
Time to stop being afraid of change and start bringing in buckets of cash. More than ever before, a brokerage’s choice in their technology can significantly impact their profits. Technology can be the one thing standing between a brokerage’s success and survival, and severe failure.
There are obviously many steps to successfully switching brokerage CRMs, but we’ve boiled it down to ten. These are the most important steps in making the decision to switch and who to switch to:
1. Interview stakeholders and agents
Who in your company is going to be in on this process? Who has the final say? Who is actually going to use it? Hint: your agents are! That’s why it’s so important to set expectations and understand proprieties before going out and looking at products.
2. Define your goals
Based on the feedback you received from stakeholders and your agents, you can now define your goals. Make sure they’re clear and concise. Are you just looking for a shiny object? Chances are you’re looking for something that will have a tangible impact on your bottom line, as well as recruiting and retention efforts.
3. Research
The fun part! Time to see what’s out there. Find out which options fit your brokerage model, what sets them apart, how their reviews are, and what industry influencers are saying about them. See if they have testimonials on their site to see what their clients have to say, watch videos, etc.
4. Assemble and analyze options
Not all CRMs are created equal. You need to identify the pros and cons because the cons tend to outweigh the pros in many scenarios. What CRM works for one brokerage, might not for yours; it’s not a one size fits all approach. Create a grid (or some way to visualize) and decide which ones you’d like to see in action.
5. Chat with vendors
Talk to the companies behind the products. Ask the right questions. Do they have data to back up their claims? What does their support look like? Will they serve as a partner to your brokerage? How often do they update their CRM? Do they integrate with your other tools? All these questions and more are essential to picking out the right diamond in the rough.
6. See it in action
Schedule demos and see what the CRM looks like and how it will work for your agents. See if it is intuitive enough for your agent audience and if they have the add-ons you’re looking for, whether that’s email marketing, just listed/just sold announcements, market data, etc. A good CRM will be more than just a CRM.
7. Do more research
Is training available? What does onboarding look like? Are they certified by any notable organizations? Think about the entire process from signing the dotted line to actually getting your agents to use it, to ensure you’ll see a solid ROI.
8. The integration factor
Chances are, you have a lot more tech tools being used at your brokerage than just a CRM. Make absolutely sure that your next CRM will integrate with your existing technology tools and share data, so it doesn’t end up making agents’ lives more complicated.
9. Get some feedback
Remember those stakeholders and users we were mentioning at the beginning? Show them what you’ve found and gauge how they feel about the options on the table. Show some agents a demo. Remember, a shiny object that agents won’t actually use is going to put you right back in the same situation you’re in now. Don’t want to have to switch brokerage CRMs again in 2019? Get some solid internal reactions.
10. Make your decision
If you’ve made it this far, you likely won’t regret this decision. Often brokerages regret their technology decisions because they didn’t ask all of the necessary questions and they didn’t clarify ambiguity. Which means if you have, when you put that pen to paper, you’ll be popping bottles rather than crossing your fingers.
Want to get some more advice on switching brokerage CRMs? Chat with someone from our extremely knowledgeable (and extremely friendly!) Business Development Team.
