Are you sure you can’t do that in your Real Estate CRM?

Maybe this is a plea to CRM users everywhere to make sure you are correct, before you do a disservice to yourself and others.

If you think there is something you cannot do in your Real Estate CRM, don’t just think you can’t – find out definitively that you can’t. No matter how well you think you know the software, call support. And remember you are not trying to confirm that you are right; you are trying to figure out how to do what you want to do. Ask them how to do something and if they say you can’t that’s fine.  But then call back and confirm it again with a different support person. Support people are human and sometimes don’t know what they don’t know, don’t like to admit that they don’t know something, or are too lazy to make sure.

I was doing a webinar the other day and someone in the audience was using a CRM and complaining that they couldn’t do some things and being negative about the CRM. In no time it was shown that it could do all of the things he wanted. It was already too late though because the negative feeling was out there in the room about that CRM. The participants perceptions of that CRM were forever damaged and in the future they will find themselves saying something along the lines of “I can’t remember specifically what it was but I think I’ve heard bad things about that CRM.” I hear it every day. That’s what prompted me to write this article.

Making uncorroborated statements can be a damaging thing in a couple ways. The obvious one is that you could be doing what you want but you aren’t, only because you think you can’t. If this happens with too many things, you end up starting to consider moving to another CRM. I get calls all the time from agents who are considering moving to another CRM because they are not happy with their current one. It’s also not uncommon to discover that their dissatisfaction is unfounded because they can do what they want after all. Almost without exception it is because they never called support to confirm it. Sometimes it even happens that support told them they could not do something but I showed them that they actually could. Hence my advice earlier about calling back again if you’re told you can’t do it.

The other problem with assuming is that when you tell other people incorrectly that your CRM can’t do a particular thing, you could be discouraging someone from getting it when it is actually the best one for them.

Another thing to consider is that even though you may not be able to do exactly what you want; is there a way that you can accomplish the same end result in a different way? Is there a work-around or maybe even a better way to do it? This is another common issue but it is most common with people who have used other CRMs before the one they are currently using. People often say “I could do ‘X’ in my old CRM but I can’t do it in this one that I’m looking at.” We often sit down and discover that the new one can not only do it, but sometimes do it better. It’s sometimes difficult to see that it is better when you are used to doing it differently.

Sometimes when I write something like this, by the time I think it is about to end, I discover that another point has evolved. I guess this is one of those times. I wrote another article about being very careful about listening to other people’s opinions. This turns out to be yet another reason why that is true. Without meaning to, this is another case where people can mislead you and you will have no idea that you are being mislead.

Let’s be careful out there :)