It's a shame so few people use their CRM for Transaction Management. Many agents use the CRMs activity plan/campaign/task series capability for following up with leads or for post closing follow-up. But very few understand the value of tracking your listings and closings with that same feature.
For those of you who have ever created a prioritized checklist of tasks for the day, you know what it feels like while you are burning through that list. It is so much easier and faster to complete your tasks for the day for a couple reasons. One is that you do not have to think about whether or not you need to do them. You already decided that. That’s why it’s on the list! The other is that you don’t need to decide which task you need to do first, because you already decided that as well. These two characteristics make getting through your task list much easier, faster, and stress free. And the satisfaction when you complete it is almost palpable.
Now apply that to listings and closings. The majority of what we do for each listing and closing is the same every time. Put up a sign, put on the lockbox, put it in the MLS, send out a thank you email/letter etc. Then when it sells, send a congratulations email/letter; is the second deposit in yet; is the appraisal in yet; is the home inspection scheduled; are the home inspection results in?; has the homeowners insurance been ordered, and so on. All these tasks can be put on a list and scheduled to occur X number of days after the listing date, or before the expiration date, or after the contract date, or before the closing date, etc. What you end up with is the ability to click a button and have the CRM post what task you need to on the days that you need to do them, automatically. The end result is that you start each day with an automatically generated to-do list for that day for the majority of what you need to do for all your listings and closings.
One of the reasons this business is as stressful as it is, is because we start every day and go throughout each day making the same decisions over and over and over again. Do I need to check on the appraisal for Vine Street today? No. OK – Do I need to check on the second deposit on Tower Hill Road today? No. And I go through that every day and then the next day I ask myself the same questions until the answer is yes, and then I do those tasks. Imagine what it would be like if you didn’t have to waste time and energy every day asking yourself those questions over an over again. And you wouldn’t even have to sit down and create a new to-do list each day, because it would be done for you automatically. Well that is exactly what using plans in your CRM will do for you.
The end result is that it:
· Reduces your overall stress level more than ANY other single action you can take
· Stops the details from "falling through the cracks"
· Keeps you in touch with automated letters or e-mails for your buyers and sellers throughout the listing and closing process
· Dramatically improves your level of customer service both in reality, and in the client’s perceptions of you
· Gives you a comprehensive "Action List" to present to buyers and sellers in your initial presentations with them
· Significantly reduces the time necessary to train a new assistant, or give your assistant a comprehensive list of their responsibilities. One that you can track!
· Enables you to create and maintain a detailed history of your transactions for future reference
· Provides an instant to-do list for someone helping you out while you're on vacation
· Enables you to provide automatically generated detailed "Client Reports" for your buyers and sellers
· Gets you FAR more paperless
· If you have a team, everyone is automatically assigned their individual tasks for each listing and closing, which appear on their calendar - not yours!
· If you have a team - you will stop playing "Who has the file?"
The point is that if you have a good CRM, you have this capability sitting right in front of your nose already. Maybe you already knew all this, but have not “had” the time to do it. If you wait until you have time, you may never get to it. You have to “make” the time. I have worked with many teams around the country helping them develop their transaction management plans. I have yet to see anyone who used them and honed them, eventually stop using them. Once they realized how much more efficient it made them and how many benefits there were, they all look back and say “How did I do this before without them?”
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