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CRM Software

Where do you keep your stack of business cards? How often do you send email to that stack to remind them that you exist? Did you know that low cost, high powered CRM software is available to make all those cards worth something?

The idea behind a CRM (Customer Relations Management) tool is sales management, forecasting and lead processing to increase team effectiveness. When it comes to choices, there are many. Ask Google for "CRM software" and you get over a million references.

Back in the old days , a CRM was a database that you installed at the office, or maybe on a laptop, and needed to be on that PC to be able to enter data and produce reports. e.g., Access databases were very popular for many years. Today, most everything is SaaS (software-as-a-service) or just plain web-based. The idea of not being able to conduct business from a wireless coffee shop is absurd!

Top Producer, Sage, ACT!, Sales Force, Pivotal those are all services that you pay for monthly. They give your office the ability to manager customer leads from any internet connected PC. They're powerful, have lots of features and can be very expensive.

Products like Top Producer and Propel are "pre-customized" for the vertical markets which, for many, is ideal as it allows users to hit the ground running... or at least that's what the sales brochures say. These products are often times the best bet for offices that don't have any IT help because the monthly fee you pay usually includes that support.

The other approach for a CRM is what's called open-source . If you do that Google search again for open source CRMs , you get over 18 million references. Open source is a different business model. Instead of purchasing a service, you purchase a product that gives you full control over how it fits into your business. One example that's most common: You have a web site that collects leads from prospective clients, but these end up being sent as email. That's no good!

A lead should be inserted directly into your CRM so the sales process can begin without having to copy and paste. With an open source CRM, you can take just about any website and make this happen. SugarCRM is an excellent example of what you can do with open source. Oh, and one more nice thing about open source ... it's generally very inexpensive, often times free. (Another of our favorite open source CRMs: vTiger a simply amazing product)

In closing, don't be fooled by lofty ROI claims from CRM vendors as most techno upgrades are not big-bang improvements. They require lots of training, lots of technical support (e.g., making systems talk to each other) and lots of patience. When you are doing your ROI calculations make sure you include all the time that people will need to spend getting the new widget to become part of the daily business process.

Want to learn more.... Compare CRMs

Can generic CRMs be tweaked to fit the real estate market? Of course! Here's an example

Posted by E.Kasey Kasemodel - Dexter, Mi - Tech Advice on 09/15/2007 12:08 PM

Comments (3)

crm

3 Comments on CRM Software

I am researching this myself, I am going to watch this post for a few days. I hope a lot of people comment.

09/15/2007 12:14 PM

by Jim Little, Your Sun City Arizona Realtor (Ken Meade Realty)

You mentioned emails, and I use a service called SharperAgent. It has a contact manager system built in that's pretty hefty. The best thing about it is the mass-email and easily scheduled email system which can be assigned to groups or individuals. The pre-built templates are beautiful and rich looking. Contacts can easily be uploaded from Outlook and downloaded as well (great for backup). There is a calendar reminder system built in as well. For marketing I love it. I still wouldn't abandon my Outlook. It's a control thing in some ways, but I also don't want to be tied to being online if I need information. Plus alot of the online CRM's don't sync with my PDA too well.

Great post. One recommendation I would say with any software you look at make sure you really know the system requirements and features before making an investement. Even after memory upgrades on one I purchased, I found out you still had to have Outlook to use it and it was the slowest system I ever used. So, $500 later . . . it sits on a shelf in a box. But also watch with the free stuff because of possible incompatibility issues.

09/15/2007 12:27 PM

by Kathy West (Resident Real Estate Network) (Resident Real Estate Network)

Kathy, I fully agree! NOTHING IS FREE, especially if someone is advertising it that way. When I mention "free" with regard to open source, I mean that it can be "no charge" to obtain it. However, downloading something, unless it's an MP3 file, then requires some elbow grease. You can get a copy of SugarCRM for free, but then you need to "spend" some amount of time getting it installed on a server. After that hour (or more) of time has been spent loading it, then you need to configure it so it's specific to real estate... So "free" with open source means "free to use it any way you want" or "free to change it" but like every other product, there's a very real cost.

09/15/2007 12:47 PM

by E.Kasey Kasemodel - Dexter, Mi - Tech Advice (API Network Corp)

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