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How to Learn a CRM

Written by Posted On Tuesday, 01 October 2019 05:25
How to Learn a CRM

This is one of the most common questions I hear. Many CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) solutions have fairly good training materials. Some have great materials. Some have none. But what none of them really excel at, is a tutorial, to take you through the basics in a “Where do I start” format. Maybe I can propose a bit of a solution for how to learn a CRM.

One of the issues making a starter tutorial problematic is that different people consider different things to be the basics, and the CRM’s themselves can be quite varied as to what it is they are capable of doing for you in the first place. So how about teaching yourself how to get started?

The very first thing you do is actually a no-brainer.

In any of them, you get all your contact information in – names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc. Always have both a first and a last name for every contact. If all you know is Margaret, put that as both her first and last name until you get her last name. Which contacts go into it? ALL of them. I have seen some people recommend using one program for business, and one for personal, such as Top Producer for the former, and Google for the latter. My personal opinion is that I could not disagree more. I have been using, teaching, and reviewing CRMs in the real estate industry for over 20 years, and I just do not see any benefit to that line of thinking. Why have your contact information and scheduling information in two places? It makes for duplication of effort and confusion having to reference two sources for everything, not to mention that business and personal sometimes overlap anyway. I have my business contacts, my friends, my Christmas list, my neighbors, and I even have my daughter’s dog in my contacts. Why? Because I can track his birthday that way! I have a contact – First Name: Computer; Last Name: Tips. In the notes for that contact, I have various things I want to remember about little tricks I’ve learned over the years, and I even have them at my fingertips in my handheld, because the notes sync!

Remember the cardinal rule for contacts.

Always have a contact in at least one category. Otherwise, you end up years from now with contacts for whom you have no clue whatsoever what they are. If you are using a CRM, and you are using Activity Plans of some sort, I recommend the following nine categories for a start:

• Buyer – Prospect
• Buyer – Active
• Buyer – Pending
• Buyer – Past
• Seller – Prospect
• Seller – Active
• Seller – Pending
• Seller – Past
• Closed – 20xx (x’s being the year they closed escrow)

After that, a question I get a lot is, “Should I key in my past transactions?”

I would say that other than this year’s, and possibly last year’s, I would not bother. It’s time consuming and more often than not, that time could be put to better use, such as learning how to use your CRM. 

So what’s next? Create a list of what it was you wanted to accomplish with your CRM when you were originally selecting it. If you don’t have that list, create one now. It should contain things such as: Print Labels to ‘Sphere of Influence’; Export names and addresses for mailing, for calendar company; print ‘Just Listed’ postcards to geographic farm; Create activity plan to remind me to follow up with Internet leadsCRM Operations

A good CRM will have some kind of training available to learn how to do each of these basic things. 

Your issue is that you don’t know where to start. It’s a big job. It’s HUGE. It is an elephant! Get over it! How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. No one is going to tell you where to start or what is most important, so you need to figure it out yourself. This is how you will do it:

1. List what you want to accomplish, as above
2. Prioritize it
3. Use the available training to learn each of those things.

It really can be that simple! Now you have your start. Do you your list. Add things to it as you go. By that time, you’ll be getting a handle on the software and the rest will follow naturally.

Now some people will do what I just said, and that will be the end of it. That’s fine! If that’s all you want out of it, then you stop there. Others of you, though, want to see what else this CRM can do for you. The only way you’re going to get a good feel for your CRM is by playing with it. When you’re in a screen, click on the menu items and follow them. You can’t hurt it, and it can’t hurt you.

The most important thing to know about learning a CRM is that you need to use it at least daily for an hour first thing in the morning, until you are using it to run your business on a daily business. Spend the time and you’ll get where you want to go.

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Gary David Hall

Gary David Hall became a Real Estate Agent in 1987, and has been in the industry ever since. He has been in the trenches, and speaks your language.  Gary's clients often qualify him as being able to teach so that they understand, without a lot of technical jargon.  He knows exactly what it's like to sell a lot of Real Estate, and that is why his training is so relevant and insightful. Just ask his clients. His last four years in Real Estate Sales, Gary brokered 147 transactions and was on track for 60 in his last year with a team of three.  Having just come from a background as a computer technician and then a computer operations manager, he was able to put many automated systems into practice.  When it became evident that the industry needed the technological efficiency he used in his personal business, he decided to share that knowledge with other real estate professionals.  He founded RE-ACT, LLC (Real Estate Automation, Consultation and Training) in 1999.

Despite having a very successful and growing real estate career, Gary's true passion is teaching. His primary focus is helping agents and teams utilize CRM and Operations Management to improve their transaction management, lead generation, and follow-up efficiency. He is affiliated as a reseller for over 30 different products. He has traveled the country conducting technology and CRM seminars comprised of the many topics for which agents have a need for more clarity.  Most recently, Gary is sought after by associations and varying groups for his webinars on CRM.

While you can still bring Gary to your office for Real Estate Operations Management to help you organize your operations with CRM software, he has been having great success doing it online while screen sharing.  He is also available for any other kind of training or troubleshooting online as well.

GaryDavidHall.com

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