3 Tips for Increasing Agent Productivity Through Your CRM

Any real estate brokerage is only as profitable as its agents are productive. When agents are struggling to find inventory and close transactions, that means that brokerages are also facing revenue challenges.

The key is to help agents increase their production levels and the number of deals that they close without spending money on additional products and services that they don't need. A new WAV Group analysis of data around how agents are using their CRMs can shed some light on ways brokerages can make this happen. Here's what the analysis showed and how you can start using the learnings in your own business.

1. Provide a CRM for All Agents to Use

The majority of top-producing agents who responded to the survey are using some kind of CRM to help them communicate with their spheres of influence.

One interesting finding from the survey was that it does not seem to matter whether top-producing agents choose and pay for their own CRM, or whether they use a CRM that's provided by their brokerage or by their MLS.

In the study, a wide majority of agents who had completed between 31 and 50 transactions in the past year said they were using a CRM provided by their brokerage. More than three-quarters (87.5%) of these top-producing agents used some kind of brokerage-provided CRM.

2. Make Training Easy to Access and Complete

Providing a CRM is an important first step, but as brokers already know, agents aren't going to use tools that they don't understand. The research indicates that top-producing agents have typically been using their current CRMs for more than a year, and also that they spend a significant amount of time learning how to use the tool so that they can leverage it to its full advantage in their market.

The type of training provided matters. Top agents are more likely to say that they took in-person or live online training around their CRMs, as opposed to on-demand videos that can be watched at any time. They take the time and effort to learn about new features and options in their CRM, deploy them, and iterate to maximize their value.

If you don't already have a CRM expert or evangelist at your firm, it may be time to uncover or create one. Talk to your CRM vendor about available trainings and see if it's possible to organize some live training sessions at your brokerage. If the CRM vendor can't help you, perhaps your in-house expert can offer some regular (monthly or bimonthly) training sessions for any agent who wants them.

3. The Best CRM Is One You'll Use

It's an adage worth repeating because it's true! The agents who close the most sales are more likely to use their CRM multiple times every day. And they say that in markets when inventory is tight and qualified buyers are hard to find, they use their CRM more frequently to work their spheres, instead of less.

The ways in which top producers are using their CRM is also significant, especially compared to lower-production agents. The top producers in the survey do use CRM tools such as email newsletter management and other features, but they are more intensely focused on one-to-one communications with specific high-value potential and current clients, instead of using the CRM as a sort of "blasting" tool.

In other words, the agents closing the most deals today are prioritizing using their CRM to make direct phone calls and text messages to clients; those messages are focused on explaining where the market is, answering those client questions, and offering to help them make important real estate decisions in an uncertain environment.

It's no secret that this real estate market is a tough one. But brokers who can help their agents understand the intricacies of CRM use can help create more top producers within their brokerage, elevating the entire industry.