20 Questions to Choose the Right CRM for Your Business

Choosing the right Real Estate CRM for your business can be a real challenge. You’ve got so many options and each is unique in some way. Likewise, your business is one of a kind. So how do you find the right fit? 

At BombBomb, we understand what a challenge this can be, so we created a checklist and hosted a first-of-its-kind webinar to help you through this process. Both are informed by founders, executives, and leaders at Realvolve, Contactually, Follow Up Boss, IXACT Contact and Wise Agent.

Here in this post, find 20 questions they recommend asking yourself and/or your prospective CRM company to make the right choice for yourself. 

Choosing the Right CRM for Your Business 

Before you begin your search, it’s important to sit down and identify what you need to accomplish through your CRM. Are you trying to automate your outreach? Are you more focused on acquiring new leads, or nurturing past clients for repeat and referral business? Are you working more independently, within a small team, or aligned with a larger team? 

Talking with agents and teams who work similarly to you can be extremely helpful. Forums like the Lab Coat Agents Facebook group are loaded with ideas, suggestions, and stories that can help. What do they like? What do they wish they’d done differently? How does one CRM compare to another in their experience? 

By now, you’ve likely got a short list of leading contenders – CRMs that interest you most. Just like your own prospects, buyers, and sellers do with you, check online reviews to see what others are saying. You can also review pricing models before reaching out to the companies themselves.  

From there, start a free trial. Most CRMs offer one and it gives you the chance to feel what it’s like to “live” and work in there … in a way, it’s your home away from home! Take them up on an entire demo – and add notes to the list you’re compiling. How easy was it to get setup on the software? Does it seem like company has a reliable customer support team that you can trust? How easy is it for you to navigate throughout the system? Does the software include a lead management system that automates text, email and drip campaigns to help you reach out to your leads at the perfect time? 

It’s also extremely imperative to look into the integrations that each software currently has. Think of all the platforms you currently use and see if it integrates well within them already. For example, does it work with Gmail, Dotloop, Zillow, Docusign, BombBomb, or another system that’s part of your workflow?  

We could go on and on about all the specific features that you should look for when selecting your CRM, but we feel it’s more important to give you tangible information that you can use in your business. Find some time to check out the recap of our Battle of the Real Estate CRMs webinar, which includes specific start and stop times by topic to let you know each question that’s addressed and which CRM is asked to respond to the specific question.  

We’ve also created a full checklist with 20 questions to ask yourself and/or the companies you’re considering during your Real Estate CRM search! See the list below – and even take it to go as a free PDF. 
 

20 Questions to Ask Yourself and/or Your Potential CRM 

Without further ado, here are 20 questions provided by the fine folks at Contactually, Follow Up Boss, Wise Agent, Realvolve, and IXACT Contact:

1. Can you see yourself using it every day? Is it easy to use?

2. Is it easy to see and understand the value of the product?

3. Are there automated keep in touch, birthday, home anniversary, and other reminders?

4. Does the product have a strong online reputation? 

5. Is it solving business problems that you personally need solved? How many features or functions would go unused?

6. How quickly can you start using the product? Do they offer an easy set-up process?

7. Does it include a lead management system that automates text, email, drip campaigns, and BombBomb videos to help you reach out to your leadsat the right times with the right message?

8. Does it include a transaction management system with unlimited document storage and/or integrate with DocuSign, dotloop, or another platform?

9. Does it offer consistent training options and a customer support team that you feel you can depend on when necessary?

10. Does it help you more with building new relationships with new leads or more with nurturing established relationships? Which is more important to you? Can it help you do both?

11. Does it have mobile apps for iPhone/iPad and Android?

12. Does it have built-in calling and texting options?

13. Does it allow you to create rich contact profiles? Can you create your own contact record fields beyond the standards (first, last, phone, zip, etc)?

14. Are there options that allow you to create segmented contact lists?

15. Are there deep search capabilities?

16. Can you easily access the entire communication history with any of your leads or contacts?

17. Does it integrate with the tools you currently use?

18. Does it track all potential opportunities and the statuses of each of those opportunities?

19.  Can you receive, read, and reply to your emails from inside the platform?

20. Does the CRM offer tight security and data protection? Will the platform maintain a running log of all administrative and user actions?

Want to take this list with you? We’ve turned it into a handy PDF that you can download by clicking right here (or by clicking on the image). 

We hope you find this checklist helpful in your search! Check out the Battle of the Real Estate CRMs here, and keep an eye out for more webinars like that one featuring other CRMs and Real Estate platforms.