As an industry, multifamily runs one of the biggest sales teams in the country. This means that we must regularly evaluate our marketing and operations strategies to ensure that we’re investing in our leasing teams’ success in meaningful, technology- and data-driven ways. 

The key to building a strong sales team in any industry will often come down to the customer relationship management strategy you've deployed. Salesforce, the largest CRM company in the world, defines CRM as, “technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers.” 

I take that one step further to say, CRM and lead management technology need to deliver value to your bottom line. If you invest substantial time, money, and energy into front office solutions that don’t drive NOI growth, then why bother? 

Evaluating CRM (and yes, you definitely have one) for Value

Multifamily CRM solutions come in all shapes and sizes, from handwritten sticky notes and spreadsheets, to top-notch point solutions, to enterprise front office platforms. By nature of the multifamily business -- responding to and engaging with prospects and residents -- you are already executing a CRM strategy. The question is, how much real value is your current strategy creating for your business?  

Some questions you can ask yourself, your teams, and your broader organization to better understand how CRM is currently impacting your NOI (positively or negatively): 

1. How confident am I that I have fully maximized my NOI, or would I like to improve it further?
2. How happy are my leasing teams with the tools we’ve provided today? Can we do better?
3. Am I really meeting the modern buyer where they are today, and in the ways they prefer to engage with my brand, or are we missing out on a substantial audience by not offering modern engagement via Chatbot, text, etc.?
4. Are we using the tools we have today to their fullest potential, or are we leaving money on the table?
5. Do I have clean, actionable data, or do I still have questions about its fidelity?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then it’s likely time to put some additional focus into researching what your organization may be missing in your current front office technology stack. More on that in a later post!