FAQs

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.
Before you say, “but I don’t have customers, I’m a property developer” think of the word customer a little differently. Customers can be thought of as anyone you do business with, for or communicate with.

CRM is simply software to help you manage these business relationships. It’s not just about keeping track of people’s contact information – it’s about who they work for, what you need to do for them, and how to keep them happy.

It’s the one central place where all emails, phone calls, meeting notes and documents relating to a person or organisation should live.

To find out more start here.

Whether you’re just starting out or an established property developer there are many good reasons to use a CRM.

Typically, people use the tools they’re familiar with to manage their business. Email, spreadsheets and documents organised into folders, sometimes saved in the cloud, more often on the desktop.

This works fine for a while, but at a certain point, things start to break.

It becomes tough to manage and find information in a “flat” structure like a spreadsheet. Jumping between emails, folders and documents and across your phone, laptop or desktop is slowing you down.

Conversations with lots of people are scattered across multiple emails. And to find the exactly what you’re looking for you’ve got to sift through all that noise.

In short, the answer for most businesses is pretty simple. While you may be able to get by for a while without a CRM, adopting one sooner is better than waiting until you feel the pain of an ad hoc solution you’ve outgrown.

To quote an old Chinese proverb “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
If you like some free advice and a chance to ask us anything about using a CRM for property, get in touch.

You’re right, buying a CRM ‘off the shelf’ would be incredibly disruptive.

You’d have to set it up, figure out how to get all your contacts into it and learn how to use it.

Even then, an off the shelf CRM isn’t configured for property, so now you’ve got to learn how to configure it. The problem is you don’t know what configuration is required until you’ve used it for at least a few months.

We know this because we’ve been there and done it. We didn’t magically know how to configure a CRM for property, we had to learn it the hard way making plenty of mistakes along the way.

That’s why we created CRM for Property Success, to do the heavy lifting for you. As a business owner, you can’t afford to spend your precious time fiddling with software when there’s networking to be done, finance to be found and money to be made.

By setting up and configuring your CRM for you, then teaching you how to use it properly, you get up to speed in the shortest possible time.

If you’d like us to help you, just get in touch.

On its own it probably can’t but as part of CRM for Property Success it definitely can.

We teach you effective networking skills that take away that awkward feeling we’ve all experienced when networking. We give you a plan to follow so you know what to do before, during and after a networking event.

It’s this knowledge combined with a CRM that makes all the difference.

Your CRM is there to help you easily capture & remember important details, send personalised follow-ups and to qualify people quickly to generate more opportunities to do business, find finance or get help when you need it.

When networking for investment it’s important to have a simple, repeatable, step by step process to follow every time. You can’t afford to be wasting time in meetings, chasing emails or making phones calls only to find the investment never comes off and it’s back to square one.

It’s important to remember that networking is critical to your success.

To network smarter get in touch now.

Yes. It’s essential.

As a property developer, you’re always out and about, visiting sites, making viewings and networking with estate agents and financiers for example.

One of the main reasons we chose Insightly CRM was for it’s powerful but easy to use mobile CRM app.

It makes it really simple to:

• view the most current information, all the time (even without WIFI)
• easily call, email and see important relationship details
• track the progress of your opportunities
• prepare and plan for meetings on the go
• scan business cards so everyone knows who to contact

If you’d like to learn more, just get in touch.

You sure can.

Insightly CRM’s mobile app features a business card scanner. You can simply snap a photo of a business card, it will read and capture all the details and create a new contact in your CRM for you*.

If you’ve got a stack of business cards already, scanning them individually might be too slow. No problem, as part of CRM for Property Success we offer all our members the option to send their cards to us. We scan them for you and import them into your fully customised CRM, ready to go.

*Please note, there are some limitations. Business card scanning is available for paid for accounts and on Apple and Android phones only.

To send us your business cards for scanning, get in touch.

Yes it does.

A full list of apps that integrate with Insightly can be found here.

Some examples of really useful integrations we couldn’t live without:

MailChimp – for sending out weekly newsletter deals to investors
Gmail / Outlook – the Insightly Sidebar let’s you use your CRM without leaving your Inbox
Google Drive, Dropbox and Box – file storage in the cloud
Evernote – for meeting notes and online research
Xero and Quickbooks – for accounting and bookkeeping to monitor invoices and payments
PandaDoc – to send proposals, contracts to quotes and to get secure eSignatures. No more snail mail
Zapier – the easiest way to automate your work and connect to other apps

We can help you setup, configure and use any of these apps. We can even do custom integrations if there’s something specific you can’t live without.

If you’d like to learn more, just get in touch.

We use Insightly CRM.

It’s simply the best CRM for small and micro property businesses and here’s why we chose Insightly CRM.

To be perfectly clear, we’re not a reseller or affiliate partner of Insightly so we don’t benefit from encouraging you to use Insightly.

However we have developed a good relationship with the Insightly team which is why we can offer extended trial periods and get priority support when needed.

We spent a lot of time researching and trialling different CRMs like,

Hubspot
Pipedrive
Agile CRM
Less Annoying CRM
Infusionsoft
Zoho CRM

…before we finally chose Insightly CRM.

We looked for a CRM that:

– had excellent email integration (especially with Gmail & Outlook)
– would work with the apps and tools we were already using like Evernote, Google Drive, Dropbox. As well as the apps we’d need as our property business grew, like Xero and MailChimp
– was affordable for small and micro businesses like ours
– was really easy to use
– could be configured to suit the needs of any property business
– came with great support by email, phone and chat
– would work perfectly on our mobile phones

We needed a CRM that could help us with our two main activities, property networking and property deal analysis.

To help us with networking we needed:

– business card scanning
– templated emails for easier follow-ups
– to keep track of every conversation by email, phone or face-to-face
– to build strong lasting relationships
– to qualify people faster

To help us with deal analysis we needed:

– to build up a healthy pipeline of potential deals
– to see the progress of ever deal at a glance without having to dig through folder, emails or spreadsheets
– automatic reminders and tasks to follow-up deals every 6-8 weeks
– a simple, repeatable workflow of deal analysis stages to follow
– to be able to delegate work to our VA (virtual assistant) and wider team

Ultimately Insightly CRM was the best fit for our property business and we believe that it could be be for yours too.

To find out more please get in touch.

Yes.

We understand that you probably spend most of your time in your inbox where 90% of your conversations take place.

Thankfully Insightly CRM integrates seamlessly with Gmail meaning you can have easy access to your CRM without having to leave your inbox.

Knowing how to use Gmail with your CRM is critical. That’s why CRM for Property Success provides and shows you all the typical workflows and features that will help you to work more efficiently on a day-to-day basis.

If you’d like to learn more, just get in touch.

Yes.

We understand that you probably spend most of your time in your inbox where 90% of your conversations take place.

Thankfully Insightly CRM integrates seamlessly with Outlook meaning you can have easy access to your CRM without having to leave your inbox.

Knowing how to use Outlook with your CRM is critical. That’s why CRM for Property Success provides and shows you all the typical workflows and features that will help you to work more efficiently on a day-to-day basis.

If you’d like to learn more, just get in touch.

Yes.

A CRM can’t do everything your property business needs. No one piece of software can.

Think of your CRM as the brain of your business, it’s where all your business intelligence lives.

Being able to plug other software into it is essential. That’s why Insightly CRM integrates with other market leading software which specialises in accounting, HR, email marketing etc.

There’s nothing stopping you from spending your time configuring a CRM for yourself, but before you do consider this. It’s not all that easy.

Configuring a CRM is a bit like baking a cake, you’ve got to do it a few times to perfect the recipe. We starting from scratch 3 times and we consider ourselves pretty good at baking!

It took us nearly 12 months of tweaking to get to a point where our CRM was truely adding value to our own business. With hindsight, that was far too much time.

Your primary focus should always be on your property business and generating revenue, not learning how to configure software.

Even if you’re technically minded, why give yourself the pain. Most people give up or worse, end up with a half-built house.

We’ve taken away that headache by setting up and configuring your CRM for you, all we ask of you is to invest a small amount of time to learn how to get maximum value from it for your business by using it.

Save yourself the pain and get in touch now.

Yes it will.

Insightly CRM is designed for smaller companies but their platform conforms to the highest requirements of security, compliance, data retention and disaster recovery.

Read more about Insighlty CRM’s compliance and data security.

Remember though, online software is ultimately only as secure as the person using it. Always use a strong password, keep it safe and don’t share it with anyone.

While you can run a CRM for just a one user (yourself), to really get full value from it you need a minimum of 2 users. After all a CRM is all about sharing information about the people you do business with, with the people you work with.

We recommend that you start small and scale as your business grows. You can add as many as users as you need in the future.

If you’d like to learn more, just get in touch.

We understand that every property business is unique. That said, many of the core activities remain the same e.g. networking, deal analysis, finding finance etc.

From our experience we’ve found that 80-90% of configuration needs are the same.

However we appreciate that the extra 10-20% can make a real difference, that’s why we give you the knowledge to be able to personalise your CRM yourself.

We’re also here to support and guide you along the way for as long as you need it.

Whatever you’re trying to achieve, chances are we know the solution or we know a fellow property developer who does (…that’s why networking is so important!).

If you’d like us to help you, just get in touch.

Yes. If your current business software is connected to the internet, your CRM should be able to integrate with it.

Insightly CRM integrates with popular cloud apps like Office, G-Suite, Xero, Quickbooks, and Slack to name but a few.

When there isn’t a premade integration available, Zapier can usually help connect your software together.

We’re always happy to help people explore the possibilities and provide technical help when needed.

If you have any questions about specific integrations, just get in touch.

Insightly CRM’s free, no-frills plan lets you and a business partner manage contacts, sales, and projects all in one place.

However, there are some important limitations. The free plan has essential features stripped out (that’s why it’s free!).

For example, it doesn’t allow you to configure your CRM using custom fields. Custom fields are where you store the data that’s unique to your type of business ie/ property.

Without them you’ve got a vanilla, off the shelf CRM with nowhere to store and share the important information that’s actually useful for your business.

Here’s a full comparison of Insightly CRM’s plans. Feel free to take a look.

To learn more about Insightly CRM’s essential features, get in touch now.

To be clear we’re not GDPR experts, there are plenty of great resources online to find out about GDPR and places to seek advice. This GDPR summary is a good starting point, as is this article from Insightly CRM.

We can assure you that Insightly CRM is fully compliant with the GDPR.

However because you control and manage the data you enter into your CRM, you are the “controller” for that data. You decide how that data is used, how long to keep it, how often to update it, etc. Therefore it’s important for you to understand and comply with GDPR.

CRM for Property Success is the quickest way to get a fully customised CRM for your property business.

We’ll setup and configure your CRM so you don’t have to figure it out.

But that’s not enough, you and your team need to know how to really use it, adapt it and scale it along with your business.

Our 8 module program focuses on showing you how to get the most value out of your CRM for your property business.

If you’d like us to help you, just get in touch for a chat.

CRM for Property Success is delivered live via online webinars and recorded so you can watch it back as many times as you like, whenever you like.

8 modules are delivered over 4 weeks, with 2 modules a week. Each module is around 3-4 hours in length.

As we refine and enhance CRM for Property Success the way we deliver the program may well change.

To get started, get in touch.

CRM for Property Success is delivered over 4 weeks with 2 modules a week.

Each module is around 3-4 hours in length, delivered live via an online webinar and recorded so you can watch it back as many times as you like, whenever you like.

As we refine and enhance CRM for Property Success the way we deliver the program may well change.

To get started, get in touch.

Good question!

Right now CRM for Property Success is in Beta.

This means we’re trying to create the best possible programme we can by gathering as much feedback from as many people as possible.

So, in exchange for your feedback and commitment you’ll get added value at a discounted rate.

To discuss pricing and find out why now is the best possible time to join us, just get in touch.

No, not at all.

We set up and configure your CRM, so you don’t have to.
We’ve stripped away all the technical mumbo-jumbo and will show you how to use your CRM in easy to digest bite-size pieces.

We’ve experienced all the technical challenges ourselves and solved them, so you don’t need to worry.

As a business owner, you can’t afford to spend your precious time fiddling with software when there’s networking to be done, finance to be found and money to be made.

If you’d like us to help you, just get in touch.

During the CRM for Property Success programme, we host a live Q&A session before every module. This gives you the opportunity to ask any questions about the previous module before moving on.

To support you after the programme, we run a 12-month support programme. This includes email support and a monthly “ask us anything” session.

Ultimately we want to help you keep focused on your property business, not on your technology.

If you’d like to know more, just get in touch.

We’re trying to create the best possible programme we can for you by gathering as much feedback from as many people as possible. This allows us to continually improve CRM for Property Success.

BETA simply means that in exchange for your feedback we give you huge value at a discounted rate.

To join our Beta programme, get in touch now.

Ultimately we want you to succeed and will do everything in our power to help you. If you’re truly not satisfied we’ll give you your money back (terms and conditions apply).

We’ll be recording a demo video soon.

In the meantime, just get in touch and we’ll schedule a time to show you how a CRM configured for property works.

To see a live demo, get in touch now.

This is a great time to have found us…

Right now, we’re looking for motivated people like you to join our beta programme.

For a limited time, this means you’ll get huge added value at greatly discounted price.

If you want to super-charge your property business, get in touch now.

You’ll have lifetime access to the program content shared with you.

As we refine and enhance CRM for Property Success the way we deliver the program may well change.

To get started, get in touch now.

Yes, we can.

The first step to using a CRM properly is to gather all your existing contacts into a single place.

Easier said that done, when you’ve got contacts scattered across hundreds of emails, your phone, your laptop, business cards, and post-it notes on the fridge!

As part of CRM for Property Success we give you a step by step guide to follow to gather all your contacts together. Once that’s done we can help you clean them up, removing duplicates and non-business contacts before importing them into your fully customised property CRM.

We live by the motto “if you put rubbish in, you get rubbish out”. That’s why this first step is so important to your continued success.

If you’d like a free guide explaining step by step how to gather your contacts together, get in touch and we’ll send it over.

We appreciate that you want to get up and running with your property CRM as quickly as possible.

However, all too often we’ve seen people invest in software only to quickly get frustrated with it when they don’t know how to use it properly.

Giving you a CRM without showing how to get maximum value from it, is a bit like giving you keys to a shiny new car without teaching you how to drive. You’re going nowhere fast!

That’s why we created CRM for Property Success to get you up to speed as quickly as possible so you can focus on your business not your technology.

To get started, get in touch now.

No. We’re not here to teach you about being a property developer or investor.

We’re here help you combine your property knowledge with CRM to accelerate your networking and deal finding activities.

To find out more, get in touch now.