Digital transformation is the goal of businesses everywhere. How can you bring it to your commercial real estate brokerage?
As business technology booms, industries everywhere look for ways to leverage them. The phrase “digital transformation” is everywhere, promising a complete renovation of the workplace and business practices for good.
When it comes to real estate, the potential for digital transformation may not be clear at first. Much of your work happens outside of the digital sphere: selling real property to human clients. But recent advantages in technology can make part of the commercial real estate business easier, more efficient, and more profitable. The ProspectNow platform specifically has tools to find and reach sellers instantly — often before properties hit the market.
What Is Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is the process of changing your business practices according to new developments in technology. There’s no specific definition because it will vary for any business depending on business needs, technology levels, and new technological advancements. Our technology continues to advance every day, and businesses are making it a goal to keep pace with or stay ahead of these developments.
Why is digital transformation necessary? There’s more at play than fancy new tech. We’re also seeing significant changes in the way we do business because of COVID-19, changing customer demographics, and other emerging issues. Digital transformation is a broad concept that forces businesses to rethink how they’re doing business now, and whether it will still work in the near future.
But the process of transforming your business digitally can be a delicate one. Businesses have been known to rise or fall based on their strategies. In order to be successful, you need to consider not what digital “toys” you want to use, but how you can use these services to move your brokerage forward. In other words, you want to emphasize the “transformation” aspect rather than the “digital” one.
Bringing Digital Transformation to Your Brokerage
Digital transformation isn’t necessarily about adding the latest technology to your business. For a successful transformation strategy, you need to take a good look at where you want to take your brokerage and how you can get there. You also want to look at how these changes will affect workflows throughout the brokerage. New tech doesn’t mean anything if you can’t use it effectively.
Before you get started, ask yourself these questions:
- What is the brokerage’s current technology level? Where are we limited?
- What are our goals for the next year? For the next five years?
- What needs to change in our brokerage to make these goals happen? Are there different services we should implement?
- What technology exists that can help with this transformation?
- How would I incorporate this into my team’s workday? Will our business processes need to change? How much?
You’ll first want to decide on the direction you want to take your brokerage. Don’t focus on the technology you want to add, but instead on what services you want to provide. Do you want to expand your capabilities? Perhaps branch out into working with different property types? Or do you want to expand on the skills you already have and find out how you can make them better?
Once you have an idea in mind, you can then look into what technology exists to help you with these goals. Keep in mind your brokerage’s current technology level as well as the learning curve of the new tech. Adding a cutting-edge AI program may sound like fun, but it might not be what your business needs. You may need little more than a new approach to marketing.
Monitor and Improve
But you aren’t done when your transformation plan is up and running. Now is the time to monitor your team’s progress and see if it lines up with the goals you’ve set. If you’re meeting or exceeding your goals, that’s great! But often you may find your brokerage is running short. This is the time to take a look at what accounts for the discrepancy. You may find that the new workflows you’ve implemented aren’t working as well as you’d planned.
Use Prospect Now in Your Digital Transformation
Operating since 2008, ProspectNow has the most complete database for commercial and residential properties in the country. Millions of properties are already listed and waiting for you. You can also use our database to find who owns an LLC in charge of a property, giving you an instant point of contact without the hassle of searching through county records.
Once you have a property and someone to contact, you can use ProspectNow to reach them directly. We provide phone numbers, emails, and mailing addresses straight from the platform. Not sure what to say? We have email and postcard templates at your disposal so you can start an advertising campaign directly from your office. If you prefer to call, though, it’s best not to sweat the cold calling script.
To take your prospecting to the next level, ProspectNow has a “Likely seller” algorithm that will identify properties not yet on the market but predicted to be soon. These unlisted properties are a prime opportunity to strike before anyone else and close a better deal. We use predictive analytics and machine learning to make this algorithm smarter.
If you want to integrate this technology into your own systems or build further upon the ProspectNow platform, our public API is available for download.
Ready to close more deals and make more money? Take a look at how much more money you could be making with ProspectNow. We have an ROI calculator to show you just what you’re missing out on. Once you’re convinced, sign up for our 3-day risk-free trial.