If you said yes, unfortunately you are not in the minority. Most CRM software used in the property industry today is simply not fit for purpose, making it just too hard to use.
What do we mean fit for purpose?
Most of CRM implementations we come across which fail can be grouped into two types:
- huge USA based CRM providers
- off the shelf real estate specific CRM’s made for real estate agents
We all know about the big USA based CRM providers. Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle and so on are well known household names that CEO’s and CFO’s around the world feel very comfortable implementing. After all if some of the biggest companies in the world use these systems surely they must be fantastic!
Of course they can be. There is no doubting just how powerful they can be. But more than 50% of these implementations fail. Why is that?
The main reason is the complexity of these solutions. They really are a ‘one size fits all’ approach, so when you implement a CRM like Salesforce you simply must commit yourself to a huge implementation and customisation exercise AND significant ongoing management and further customisation.
In fact we recently had a customer who moved over to our Brightfox CRM who has spent $500,000 implementing and customising Salesforce. At the end of 18 months and inordinate costs (the $500,000 does not include all of the internal costs in time and disruption so the true cost was vastly higher) they could not complete simple but essential tasks, such as producing a daily sales activity report, providing a whole of company snapshot of all sales, marketing and contract activity. For that matter they didn’t even have their website lead forms integrated. Why was this such a failure?
The reason is Salesforce (in this instance) has to be extensively customised to meet their (your) needs. And in this simple sentence we have 2 huge reasons on why these implementations fail. “Your needs” and “customisation”.
Our customers are successful property developers and project marketers. They know how to run a successful property business, not how to build software. Of course with Salesforce you need to use software developers, but they in turn must be briefed by your team. And this is a time consuming and difficult process. All of us that have worked and built CRM’s now over many years know this well.
Additionally customising a huge piece of software like Salesforce is just plain complex. All those features that they put in for the big banks, mining companies, FMC’s and so on all make customising it for a property company complex, and hence costly and risky.
With a Brightfox CRM implementation you get a proven product that is built from the ground up to meet the specific needs of a property developer and project marketer. Out of the box it will be working for you and delivering value. Of course you can still customise key aspects to meet the needs of your business, but the essential and complex components are already done. Contract administration, listings, commissions, financial analysis and more, all ready to go and industry proven. This is why Brightfox CRM implementations work. It works, is proven to work, and the demo we will give you is of a live working system, the same system you can implement in weeks, not in months or even years.
Simply lower risk, lower costs and greater rewards.
The implementation of an off-the-shelf software solution built for real estate agents are another common CRM failure we come across. There are a multitude of software solutions created specifically to meet the needs of traditional real estate agencies. They work very very well for these traditional real estate agencies, which is why you almost never find a Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics implemented in these businesses. They do not work for property developers or project marketers though as they are built for the traditional real estate model – list a home, market that home, sell that home, start again. Project marketing simply does not follow this model. The many nuances that differentiate project marketing to traditional real estate sales are too great to mention here, but rest assured they are many, and fundamental.
If you are interested in a powerful but still easy to use CRM suite that offers powerful integration across all your sales and marketing activity, then the Brightfox CRM should be on your shopping list.
Contact us today for a personal demonstration on the Brightfox CRM.
Yes, there is a complete CRM solution made specifically for property developers and project marketers that you can implement today!
Brightfox - What's hot in I.T. for the Property Industry 