We are all CRM'ing wrong.

My experience with CRMs is typically focused on two areas:

1. Helping users get more business with them
2. Helping leadership measure usage and prove they work

While I am very good at this, I have been thinking a lot about going deeper.

I have this friend/mentor/old colleague that rocked my world by just being a good human. I got texts and calls asking about my kid, how we were doing with the new school year, or how the battle with the common cold was going.

Out of all the CRMs I have reviewed, I haven't seen anyone use them like the example above. Every CRM has this key/core ability to communicate this way, but the safe route is to focus on transactional statuses like buyers, sellers, and past clients.

We are not call centers.🪦

I have never seen someone use their CRM with such an intentional focus on the relationship. Maybe I haven't been inside enough end users' accounts. I know many successful Realtors that have excellent relationships with their clients. They throw client appreciation parties, and they are a lot of fun! Still, the only measurement we as an industry use is if the tool increases transactions, not the overall client relationship quality the CRM provides.

What if we carve out a little section of our CRMs to measure relationships?

Let's measure the number of client birthdates, pets' names, favorite sports teams, and favorite vacation spots. You get where I am going with this. 500,000 contacts in a CRM sounds good. 100,000 monthly emails sound fantastic, but how many good impressions, warm and fuzzy's and smiles have we achieved?

Don't string me up yet. When it comes down to brass tacts, it can be more of a battle of valuation and negotiation to seal the deal, but you have to be invited first. So find a place in your CRM, notebook, or text file to jot down some relationship details.