In the complex and nuanced world of commercial real estate, nurturing strong relationships is vital to building a robust network and having access to as many opportunities as possible. To handle your communications and relationships like a pro, you’ll want to use a customer relationship management (CRM) tool – and you will want to find one that is tailored to the needs we have as real estate professionals. 

Here are a few things to look for when finding the right CRM for your needs as a commercial real estate investor: 

1. Customized to CRE Needs: You will want to find a CRM that’s been specifically designed to accommodate the distinctive workflows, terminology, and integrations that CRE professionals are using on a daily basis. Unlike conventional CRM systems that struggle to adapt to evolving operational changes, your chosen CRM should facilitate straightforward inputs for your models, ensuring that factors like broker commission line items are effortlessly incorporated upon receipt of the necessary communication from brokers.
   
   

2. Detailed Transaction Tracking: Opt for a CRM that is equipped with advanced features to help you maintain relations with the multifaceted stakeholders involved in CRE transactions. Your capital stack and investment cash flows involve various participants, and it's essential that these contacts not only find a place in your system but are also linked directly to the associated model. This ensures a comprehensive overview, with all line items, deals, and relationships tracked in a centralized location, leaving no missing pieces in the transaction puzzle.
   
   

3. Industry-Relevant Analytics: To really take your strategy up a notch, implement a CRM that goes beyond the basic functionalities by offering specialized insights and critical data for informed decision-making in the CRE domain. Whether it's macro data like household income and population growth or specific CRE growth indicators such as building permitting data, rental rates, and absorption rates, your CRM should streamline the collection and formatting of these datasets. This efficiency ensures that both crucial communication and analysis can be accomplished without significant time investment.
   
   

4. Higher User Adoption Rates: Look for a CRM that also has the ability to address your daily tasks and industry-specific challenges. In the realm of land and building development, where deliverables like environmental reports or entitlements are pivotal diligence items, a CRM should seamlessly align with your firm's internal and external operational factors. This ensures that the CRM understands the nuances of tasks and documents, without requiring an overhaul of your operational model to fit typical system requirements, thus contributing to project success.
   
   

5. Deep Flexibility & Customization: While there are consistencies across the needs of CRE workflows that all CRMs must accommodate, each firm executes in their own distinct way. This requires a system that can track unique data points relevant to contact relationship management. Whether it’s keeping tabs on the appetite of certain capital partners for specific types of deals or quickly understanding which professional service vendor is the right fit for a project, CRE professionals need to be able to develop a CRM that reflects their way of operating.  

As a professional in CRE, having a customer relationship management tool that is attuned to the intricacies of the industry is not just beneficial – it's crucial. A tailored CRM not only streamlines operations, but positions you for greater success in the highly competitive field of commercial real estate as well.

To discover an all-in-one investment management solution where you can manage all your deals, tasks, documents, and reports in one place — in addition to having a built-in CRM — request a demo of TermSheet today.