Nowadays, a lot of brokers and agents are still using spreadsheets to track their customers, transactions, properties, commissions, and more. Well if this sounds like you, this blog is here to help. This article is going to show you some tips about capturing the business, managing the transactions and identifying your clients.

First and foremost, capturing the business is the key. It could mean marketing to your audience, generating leads and fostering those relationships all the way through closed transaction and beyond. To avoid gaps in front-end lead capturing process, consider asking the following questions. First, how are the leads distributed? Is each lead given to the first agent that responds to it? Or is it a round-robin style? Or everybody gets a chance? Or is it territory dependent; depending on your style you may be able to find a CRM that caters to the way that you prefer to distribute your leads? A second question to ask, is your front-end integrated? Approaching contacts relies on a well-integrated CRM that allows you to sync contacts with email addresses and share contacts with colleagues. It also sets the cadence of emails and follow-ups to your clients. Another point that’s specific to brokers and team leads is whether or not your lead generation system offers you visibility into your agents’ performance. If you are able to see which agent is responding the fastest and which one is closing the most business off of those leads, this may change how you distribute those leads in the future. It may also offer up training opportunities for newer agents.

The second topic is managing the transaction. Here are a couple questions and considerations when looking for the software. Firstly, is your system truly comprehensive? There are a lot of systems out there that will say they are all-in-one solution. But what does that really mean? Does it give you the ability to create transactions off readily available MLS forms? Make edits easily on-the-go? E-sign on your phone? Submit for compliance review and manage tasks? If you can’t do this all from a single ball game, you may want to re-evaluate your options. Another question to ask would be, is your system mobile-first? As an agent, if you need to change or edit a contract, are you able to do that on the spot with your smart device? Or do you have to wait to get home? Think about that two to three hours until you can get to your laptop to make that change, and have your client resign. That’s valuable time wasted for you and your client.

Our third topic in this article is identifying our ally and getting paid. A prime function of back-end software is to report on commission disbursement while keeping agents and brokers compliant for tax reporting. Here are two main factors to consider when shopping these platforms. Does it sync with your transaction platform? A good back-end system or accounting software must integrate with your transaction platform to ensure that it picks up on those vital details to ensure proper commission reporting. On the other hand, does it serve both brokers and agents? For example, you may need a system that allows agents access to their financial information, so that they can self-service their 1099s or prepare their schedule fees based their commission’s and broker fees. If you want to dig a little bit deeper into this topic, feel free to leave your comments or feedback here.