Remark is an industry-specific digital integrator. Since 2007 we have been helping companies to be as efficient as possible in the digital environment by automating the processes of marketing, sales and internal interaction between employees. Our main expertise is in real estate, but years of experience and competencies allow us to work with companies in all industries.
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How can a real estate developer optimize the sales process, save time and increase efficiency by 134%?
In this case, we will tell you how to simultaneously increase the amount of leads and free up managers' time by transforming marketing and sales processes, implementing CRM tools and an integrated approach.
About the client
Our client in this case is the PMD Group - one of the major real estate developers in a region. At the moment the company's projects portfolio consists of more than 500,000 sq.m, of which more than 120,000 sq.m are under active construction. According to the 2020 results, the company was awarded the maximum reliability rating of 5 stars in the Unified Resource of Builders (ERZ.RF).
Problems solved
In 2021 together with our partner "GMK" consulting agency we conducted a comprehensive audit of the real estate developer and identified several aspects holding the company back from scaling in the market
- 1Advertising campaigns were not effective enough, but had great potential for future growth.
- 2There was no system for record keeping and booking objects in CRM, which is why managers had to enter the same data into two different systems.
- 3A non-functional website with a weak visual component. Potential customers could not explore the object and the range of apartments properly.
- 4Working in CRM did not facilitate the work of managers as many daily processes were carried out manually.
- 5There was no unified analytics system serving as the basis for business decisions making business decisions
- 6An automated system of interaction with the client was not set up
What was our goal?
Based on the audit we developed several objectives allowing our client to increase performing indicators, automate process and attract more new customers:
- 1Advertising campaign structure reorganisation, target audience formation and development of selling offers.
- 2Implementation of booking application in CRM, real time two-way integration with 1C.
- 3A new competitive modern site increasing brand loyalty and enabling to get acquainted with the offer.
- 4Sales and marketing department routine processes automation for the commercial offer formation, template SMS sending, warming up, etc.
- 5Development of individual reports in CRM to track the dynamics of sales and management decisions.
Following the audit results, we formed a detailed plan with tasks, the solution of which allowed the client to increase performance indicators, automate processes and attract more new customers.
Implementation
For transformation projects like this we have provided a special comprehensive format of work which intersects many tasks in different areas: CRM, web, digital and analytics.
At the very beginning we formed a project team led by a personal manager and started working in accordance with an individual plan. Every month we set priorities and got visible results.
At the very beginning we formed a project team led by a personal manager and started working in accordance with an individual plan. Every month we set priorities and got visible results.
Work in all directions were carried out in parallel, which significantly accelerated the qualitative transformation of the real estate developer.
1. CRM revision
To systematize the client's sales department work, we finalized the funnels and their stages and implemented the duplicate leads control.
The lead funnel started to look like this:
The deals funnel came to be like this:
Most of the work of the client's sales department employees was carried out in CRM, and 1C was used as a system for accounting, where the information about the facilities on sale was stored. Employees had to spend a lot of the time organizing leads and transactions processing, as it was necessary to work simultaneously in two different systems that were not interconnected.
We solved this problem by combining CRM and the accounting system using the booking application we developed. The application is integrated with 1C and the data is synchronized in real time. Now, while processing a lead or a transaction, one does not need to contact 1C - all information about the objects and the apartments statuses are stored directly in CRM.
Hence, it takes manager twice less time for processing applications and booking, so he can process more leads and conduct more transactions.
We solved this problem by combining CRM and the accounting system using the booking application we developed. The application is integrated with 1C and the data is synchronized in real time. Now, while processing a lead or a transaction, one does not need to contact 1C - all information about the objects and the apartments statuses are stored directly in CRM.
Hence, it takes manager twice less time for processing applications and booking, so he can process more leads and conduct more transactions.
The integration of two systems eliminated the manager's need to duplicate actions in two systems and constantly switch between them. It can be said, that there were little work with deals before, as there was no booking functionality and managers simply did not need to use this tool. by using it, however, managers became able to control the deals funnel, the amount of meetings, bookings and contracts.
In addition, the management now understands why sales have dropped or rose.
In addition, the management now understands why sales have dropped or rose.
We divided the work with deals into 2 stages:
- 1Creating and maintaining the deal in CRM:
Sales department managers work with a client in a sales funnel from his first activity till booking an apartment. - 2Paperwork in 1С:
After booking, the active work with a deal moves to 1C, where managers complete a package of necessary documents for buying an apartment.
A queuing system became an addition to the apartments booking functions. The client can be added in line for the apartment, even if it already has active reservation. If the current reservation expires the manager receives a cancelling notification.
If the reservation has not turned into a contract, the apartment gets vacated and a notification is sent to the first participant in the queue to complete the booking process for this lot.
Telephony is involved in 99% of sales, so we paid special attention to the reliable operation of the integration. The MANGO OFFICE virtual PBX service was connected to CRM, which made it possible to quickly implement a system with correct and fast call distribution, as well as the ability to work in a remote office through the Mango Talker application.
This brought order to the work with incoming calls, the inconvenience of which the managers themselves had previously complained about. Now new calls are automatically evenly distributed among employees.
If the call is repeated, and the required manager is busy, the system will automatically transfer it to a new responsible person. After the introduction of the telephony system, it became much more convenient for managers to work, and the client no longer loses customers during calls.
“Working with the incoming requests flow has become more transparent and easy to understand - one can quickly determine whose client this is. In the event feed, one can track all the activities associated with a particular client, the efficiency of informing the clients has increased, sales tools have been added (creating an offer at the client's request, sending information by e-mail from a client card, SMS informing, notifications about canceling a reservation. The biggest joint achievement is the B24 and 1C integration!”
Svetlana Grakhova
Head of Sales at PMD
Sales managers work out the preferences of customers and form a list of suitable apartments. With the large assortment of residential complex, this is a rather time-consuming task. We have automated the process of generating a commercial offer - now just in a couple of clicks one can send a document to the client with those apartments that suit him specifically.
“Working with a real estate developer requires a specific approach and full immersion in the company's activities. The sales department's work is complex and consists of many stages. Functional CRM is an integral part of it, so one of our main tasks is to automate routine processes of the department as much as possible and bring all the actions of managers to the standard.
It is very important for us to understand the client's pain. Of course, requierments systematization and fulfilment of all the wishes is great. But before making decisions, we always need to ask ourselves: what problem of the client will we solve with this task and what result will we get? Sometimes this question is enough to change the vector completely."
It is very important for us to understand the client's pain. Of course, requierments systematization and fulfilment of all the wishes is great. But before making decisions, we always need to ask ourselves: what problem of the client will we solve with this task and what result will we get? Sometimes this question is enough to change the vector completely."
Viktoria Mikhailova
Project Manager at Remark
2. New website
Together with the client, we launched a fully functional real estate developer's website with a personal account for the client.
One of the most important tasks for the website was to place offers with the opportunity to choose the apartment a client likes and leave a request.
One of the most important tasks for the website was to place offers with the opportunity to choose the apartment a client likes and leave a request.
It can be difficult for a client to evaluate large houses with complicated designs, it is important to give full information about the residential complex and its apartments with the opportunity to consider all the nuances. So, we implemented switching between master plans of one project. Now the user can explore the house from every angle and select the suitable option
In addition, we implemented the functionality of a personal account to the website. To push the visitor to register, we introduced the following solution: without authorization, the user sees only the minimum prices of the object with a single particular layout, and the one who entered the personal account can see the offers for all apartments and calculate the mortgage cost.
3. Lead generation
To improve the efficiency of advertising campaigns, we have formed a task pool:
- 1Organize the advertising campaign structureWe recreated separate advertising cabinets for each residential complex. The semantic core was re-assembled with the selection of negative keywords and the logical division into groups. This increased the relevance of ads and their quality, and also led to an increase in CTR and a decrease in CPC.
- 2Implement an end-to-end analytics systemAdvertising cabinets were fully integrated with the Roistat end-to-end analytics service, which made it possible to correctly evaluate the results of advertising campaigns in real time due to automatic reports and also adjust budgets.
- 3Form a target advertising audienceFor each residential complex, we worked out a separate audience and formed new selling offers, after that we launched large-scaled advertising campaigns for them, thus increasing brand traffic. Since such traffic is the warmest, ads received the highest quality rating in Yandex.Direct, which made it possible to attract leads at the lowest price.
- 4Regular optimizationFor the first few weeks, search queries and advertising platforms in advertising campaigns were cleaned daily. This reduced low-quality traffic to a minimum, and we reached the "number of leads / price of a lead" ratio
The implementation of this project coincided with the February events, so we quickly prepared several scenarios in case of different scenarios.
“As soon as the news about foreign resources and services possible blocking appeared, we started to develop an action plan for three possible outcomes (positive, status quo and negative). With the beginning of the blocking, we were internally ready for them and immediately began to remake the media plan and bring it to life. In March, we actively tested several hypotheses, found effective ones, and achieved the first success in April - exceeding the plan, on average, by 10%.
As for Yandex Direct, one can't just transfer budgets from Google and increase the limits, waiting for an increase in applications. This is a delicate work, and our experts coped perfectly well with it. Despite the blocking, we managed not only to increase the number of applications, but also to maintain an acceptable cost-per-lead for the client.”
As for Yandex Direct, one can't just transfer budgets from Google and increase the limits, waiting for an increase in applications. This is a delicate work, and our experts coped perfectly well with it. Despite the blocking, we managed not only to increase the number of applications, but also to maintain an acceptable cost-per-lead for the client.”
Anastasia Koriakova
Head of Performance Marketing at Remark
4. Analytics
An analytics system is a must-have tool for tracking sales dynamics and potential company growth. The quality of the conclusions that you draw during the analysis depends on the quality of the information collected. If these conclusions are incorrect, all optimization activities are at risk. At the first stage, we implemented a basic version of reports for our client, based on the standard CRM settings. At the second stage, individual reports were implemented - the information in them was collected from an updated CRM system that interacts with 1C.
The reporting tools include the basic KPIs of the client's sales departments (incoming flow and conversions by stages of the sales funnel) and also metrics that reflect the average time it takes for transactions to pass through the stages, plus the reasons for customer refusals.
This will allow the Head of Sales to timely monitor drawdowns of specific employees and slowdowns in sales on certain projects. Cross-filtering on all dashboard pages will help the Head of Sales or Marketing Specialist to set up flexible reporting by managers, lead sources, and projects.
The reporting tools include the basic KPIs of the client's sales departments (incoming flow and conversions by stages of the sales funnel) and also metrics that reflect the average time it takes for transactions to pass through the stages, plus the reasons for customer refusals.
This will allow the Head of Sales to timely monitor drawdowns of specific employees and slowdowns in sales on certain projects. Cross-filtering on all dashboard pages will help the Head of Sales or Marketing Specialist to set up flexible reporting by managers, lead sources, and projects.
Sales Pulse start screen with all the information in charts
Summary of the conversion of Leads, Visits, Reservations and Contracts
Conversion by Sales Managers
A report on lead-loss scenarios for each manager allows you to track the shortcomings of each managers in dynamics
The results of our work in numbers
In order to evaluate the results, we compared the sales figures in December 2020, when another contractor was engaged in advertising, and the figures in December 2021, when our company, Remark, was engaged in advertising, and this is what we got:
- 1The amount of leads
Increased by 134% - 2Targeted Leads
Increased by 285% - 3Conversion
Increased by 15%
We continue to support PMD Group at the moment: we promptly resolve issues and problems with third-party services, and also support the website and CRM.
Let's summarize the problems encountererd and how they were solved during the project on items:
Let's summarize the problems encountererd and how they were solved during the project on items:
Problem
Solution
A non-functional website with a weak visual component
New competitive modern website that increases brand loyalty
No opportunities for the users to explore the object and the range of apartments
Website integration with the accounting system, assortment visualization, apartments statuses synchronization
The need to encourage website users to leave a request
Development of a personal account with the functionality of hiding exact prices and calculating mortgages
No system for accounting and booking objects in CRM
Integration of CRM and 1C, booking application development
No analytics system
Individual reports system implementation
A lot of duplicate leads in CRM
Development of duplicate lead control system, assigning new applications to existing contacts
Waste of managers' time to manually collect data on apartments according to customer preferences.
Generation of a commercial offer process automation
Manual tracking of the booked apartment status by manager
A queuing booking system implementation
If you realize that the problems described in this case are also relevant for your company, we would be glad to cooperate!
