Want to audit your CRM? Ask these 5 questions

Your CRM may be full of untapped potential. If you’re using your CRM, but you aren’t optimizing the activity around it, you may not be taking full advantage of the opportunities there. 

My team audits our CRM regularly to make sure that we’re doing things the right way, and the exercise is invaluable for making sure that we’re all using it well.

Begin by opening the most recent entry into the database to evaluate the work you did with it. Consider the following questions about the information you find there.

1. Did you follow the established CRM process?

First things first: If you don’t already have a standardized CRM process, now is the time to create one. Review the entry to determine the following things:

• Did you log the communication and make detailed notes about the prospect?
• Where are they moving to and where are they moving from?
• What are the circumstances surrounding the move? Is it an estate, a marriage, a divorce or something else? Are they upsizing or seeking a specific town or neighborhood?

You’re going to forget details about the communication, because you’re human and you have lots of other prospects. Overlooking the details could cost you a sale, so make sure you’ve documented the conversations you’ve had with the prospect. 

We utilize a “Big 4” system in our Boomtown CRM. Naming systems is a way to create stickiness and buy-in from your organization.

2. Did you change the status?

You should have a system of statuses that you use to label your prospects. Our team uses Hot, Nurture, Watch, Qualify, Closed or Pending, and your process may use different labels. These are all tied to the timeline of the prospect making a real estate decision.

If your prospect is looking to buy in a certain timeframe, does the status reflect that? No lead should be new for an extended period of time, more than a few hours, ideally. Speed to lead is critical when measuring conversion. This is a major focus within our team. 

3. Did you set the follow-up?

Did you schedule the follow-up that you said you would do? For my own system, if a prospect asks me to follow up in a month, our team reaches out in two weeks instead.

Establish a process, because your team will get busy and you’ll forget to do follow-up if you don’t schedule it. Remember, these leads are not just your leads. Other people may be reaching out to them, too, so all the more reason to make sure you set the follow up time frame based on the conversation with the prospect, and then ask the right questions.

4. Have you established the right automations? 

Do you have your prospects on an email or a text drip campaign? Are you sprinkling calls in between those texts and emails? How are you engaging your prospects to follow up with you, even if you aren’t able to get them on a call? 

Your automations should include sending real estate and property updates to the people in your CRM. If it’s a buyer, are you sending homes that are similar to the ones they inquired about? If it’s a seller, are you sending pending and sold sales data for their neighborhoods so they can keep track of values?

It’s widely understood that we communicate with people at least six times before we see conversions in sales, and these automations will help us stay in contact with our prospects. 

5. Have you sent a personalized video?   

This is like a bonus tip to use after you’ve had a great conversation but haven’t been able to set the appointment. Record a personalized video to share a message with the prospect that sounds something like this: 

Hey Nick, it’s Tom. Thanks so much for taking my call about your property at 123 Banana St. I really appreciate the conversation and I wanted to give you a better feel for the results that my team and I deliver. I would love to talk more in the future, and in the meantime, I’ve included links to my resume and reviews from past clients. Thanks so much for your time. 

The goal of this audit is to confirm that you and your team are following the established process in your CRM so that you can track your communications with prospects.

Auditing your CRM will build self-awareness and help you establish personal responsibility around your processes. Most importantly, you’ll sell more houses — which ultimately is the goal of every single real estate agent. 

Tom Toole is the founder and team leader at Tom Toole Sales Group. Connect with him on Facebook or LinkedIn.