Real News from RealNex

Technology runs our daily lives and, in its best formulations, has made life more convenient (and more interesting). We can now deposit a check from our sofa, find precise directions to out-of-the way restaurants, order anything-under-the-sun to be delivered with record speed to our doorsteps. Plus, the information! Have you ever found yourself researching 18th century Norwegian furniture at 3 AM? Asking for a friend.

When it comes to CRE marketing we have been doing the same things for a long time, but technology is adding a new spin to three principle tasks. Unlike selling widgets, CRE marketing has three major stages, each with its own set of strategies and tactics. First, you need to win business. That means getting hired by a property owner. Then you need to promote the asset to generate leads, and finally you need to convert leads into transactions.

Sam Zell (pictured left) recently stated: “The real estate cycle is nearing its end” (Pensions & Investments, May 1, 2017).  We must admit that Sam had great timing when he sold his Equity Office REIT to Blackstone in 2007 which was the peak of the last cycle.

Working in the commercial real estate industry probably means you are constantly prospecting and looking for new leads. Whether you are prospecting through networking events, social media or other means, one prospecting tool that might get overlooked is your very own CRM. Let’s dig into how to prospect that particular goldmine:

It just might be an understatement to say that the smartphone has become indispensible in our personal lives. In fact, with 77% of Americans owning a smartphone, the odds are high that you may be reading this post from your smartphone right now.

In today’s workplace, company culture is a big factor – not only in attracting great talent, but also in retaining it. This is no different in a brokerage where culture can be a big asset in attracting and retaining top producers. Even more important, however, is the recognition that company culture can be used to develop top producers. 

Have you heard about the new, noise-canceling headphones that block all noise except for certain voices that you have “allowed”? Or, did you know there is a voice assistant on the market that can recognize individual voices and alter its activities based on who it’s talking to?  It’s a bit of an understatement to say that technology is changing the way we live, shop, and interact – our personal and professional lives are in a state of flux over the newest app, the newest phone, the next big thing. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and even augmented reality are all burgeoning technologies that promise almost unfathomable changes yet to come. What about commercial real estate? Let’s look at some big tech trends that are impacting the commercial real estate sector.

Our mission at RealNex is to provide you with solutions that can help to streamline and improve your business’s productivity. To this end, we are concerned with every step of the implementation process – from the back-end operations all the way to adoption. We’ve found that a significant factor in implementation of any CRM is to proactively plan for a successful rollout. With research showing that sales teams that use a CRM can increase customer satisfaction by 66%, it is imperative that your rollout is executed properly to ensure all users are on board.

The sales cycle is a process -- a series of steps that convince a person or a group of people to say yes on multiple occasions. In other words, this process is essentially multiple small sales that hopefully lead up to the one big sale at the end. These small steps might include getting a prospect to give you their contact information, utilizing that contact information to reach out, and then convincing them to work with you.

Data on-the-go promises improved time and transaction management