So it’s confession time. I’ve been hiding something.

I actually prefer using paper forms to book valuations rather than my own CRM Greenhouse OS. In fact it’s true of every CRM in the market.

In fact, I will go so far as to say that you can give me a Pepsi Challenge (a taste test for my younger readers) where I guarantee I can tell from listening to a recorded call which one was which.

Why is that?

Why is it that a paper form is still better than technology than a CRM.

Well a CRM has an order, it is has boxes, to allow us to get ‘structured’ data rather than unstructued (a voice recording, a written sentance).

Structured data has been really useful for reporting and categorising people so we can see what we get back from our marketing and what different types of valuations convert best.

But this has led to one of my pet hates that comes out when I do training with agents.

Why I hate the term upsizing?

Upsizing is one my least favorite estate agent terms. It’s a bit of jargon that is about us putting someone else in a box.

The question I want you to think about is when someone is thinking about moving. What were the conversations that were going on before they decided to pick up the phone to book a valuation or send in a digital enquiry?

In an upsizing situation, there have probably been a number of disagreements. Maybe the family are working from home more? Perhaps the kids are getting older and they need their own bedroom. The parents are now sick of breaking up fights between the kids who are on top of each other? Which school catchment is hugely important and are they approaching a big year like moving from to secondary school or doing their GCSE’s.

In a CRM we take that story, that lived experience of our sellers, that led them to the nightmare of trying to move home and call it upsizing.

The agent who wins the listing

The agent who wins the listing is the agent who listens and understands the clients needs. The earlier you do that in the process, the better your chance of winning. If I only really get to grips with the story above on the day of the valuation, then I don’t have time to do something to show that I can help.

One of the best examples I ever saw was James Danbury who now trains the listers at Preston Baker. I watched him on a valuation and he won it because he had worked out what was really going to help that customer before the valuation was booked.

When he attended the appointment he had prepared the school catchment map and two off market opportunities for the customer. If his first contact had been on the valuation he would have no chance. Instead he took the information from the form and then connected with the seller before the appointment.

The CRM Solution

For the forseeable future I can see a real drive to and need for flexible forms that allow us to follow the customers flow and our agreed standards.

I was with an agent last week who created an AI solution to score their recorded calls. At Greenhouse OS we are working on AI solutions to take the information from a paper form and then put that directly into the CRM, into the correct box by taking a photo of it.

I hope that myself and others will crack building an amazing valuation booking system on a CRM, but so far I haven’t seen one.

Final Notes

As part of my Flexible Fee Mastery Program, I do weekly interviews with top listers. Below is a snippet of a video from Jess Fox where she talks about her pre-call strategy that I mentioned above.