Rob Love is a seasoned leader in the world of PropTech with over two decades of experience empowering real estate companies and professionals with a diverse range of technological solutions to accelerate growth. He is the Co-Founder of OurMango Inc. and the current Director of Marketing Technology at Sotheby’s International Realty Canada. Before joining Sotheby’s, he worked closely with top-tier global real estate brands to implement lead-to-close solutions.

Table of Contents

• The Overlooked Challenge in Adoption Strategies
• The Slippery Slope of Tech Selection
• The Bigger Predicament
• Three Strategies to Mitigate These Challenges

The Overlooked Challenge in Adoption Strategies

One of the most overlooked aspects of building an adoption strategy is addressing the gaps where your agents are left to fend for themselves. Agents wear many hats in their line of work – from self-promotion and lead generation to lead qualification, nurturing, winning listings, marketing properties, selling homes, assisting buyers in finding their dream homes, managing showings, open houses, transactions, document handling, and everything in between. It’s a lot to handle, and as quasi-independent professionals, they must either rely on their brokerage or research their own solutions.

Now, imagine your company provides solutions covering 90% of this expansive process. It may seem like a slam dunk. After all, agents just need to pick a single tool to close the loop, right? It appears straightforward, but let me illustrate how this seemingly innocent gap can not only hamper adoption but also significantly diminish the effectiveness of your overall marketing efforts.

The Slippery Slope of Tech Selection

Consider this scenario: an agent needs a website, a component not part of your technology stack. They receive a list of recommended providers, all of which integrate seamlessly with your agency’s CRM. They make their choice and, a few days later, have a stunning website up and running. Everything is going well, except they struggle to connect it to your company-sponsored CRM. It was not as easy as expected, and they didn’t have time to reach out to support. Fortunately for them, the website’s backend offers robust lead qualification tools. These tools work so well that they start neglecting the company CRM. Months pass, and it occurs to them that they should probably transfer the contacts from the company CRM to their website’s backend. In addressing a simple gap, the agent has distanced themselves from the company-sponsored solution, which is a problem that cascades into a larger issue.

The Bigger Predicament

What’s the bigger problem? It’s the hundreds of marketing templates meticulously crafted by your talented marketing team to enhance the promotion of agents, their listings, and your brand. These templates encompass social media posts, email templates, and even marketing plans thoughtfully integrated into the CRM solution chosen for its impressive capabilities. However, these templates are now being replaced with generic marketing materials produced by a company that lacks an understanding of your brand’s unique value and how agents can leverage it to grow their business.

It’s tempting to point fingers, but the agent isn’t to blame in this all-too-real example. Building a new website with an unfamiliar company likely wasn’t their preference. They needed a solution and found one. From my experience in real estate software, I know that most companies aim for simplicity. Agents’ technical abilities can vary widely, so it’s essential to cater to the lowest common denominator. We strive to make things so easy that not using them becomes more painful. These tools are built to get users in deeper and deeper, until they become an irreplaceable part of their business.

Let’s revisit our earlier example. A company specializing in lead-generating real estate websites will make it incredibly easy for an agent to use their lead qualification and nurturing tools. They might automatically apply a high-touch follow-up plan and send notifications to your phone. A well-planned series of touches is set in motion to convert leads over the next few weeks, and the agent didn’t have to lift a finger to make it happen. While the marketing plans are generic, and not the high converting, painstakingly created marketing plans built into your CRM by talented members of your marketing team, our agent appreciates having everything mapped out for them. It’s a massive time-saver. In fact the agent is so happy that they start exploring other, overlapping services offered by this company.

Adoption is always a challenge, but every time you ask your agents to find their own solutions, it opens the door for challenging scenarios like these that will impact your adoption and in many cases the overall impact of your marketing efforts.

Three Strategies to Mitigate These Challenges

1. Regularly Review Adoption Metrics: Keep a close eye on adoption metrics and conduct interviews with both power users and those with low adoption. This will provide valuable insights into where your tech stack has its weakest link and what agents are using in place of your technology.

2. Hands-On Support: If you incorporate third-party solutions into your tech stack, don’t hesitate to provide hands-on support to your agents. Help them find the quickest path to value by offering on-the-ground assistance. It’s worth the hassle to get them online smoothly.

3. Consider Fully Integrated Solutions: The optimal choice is to implement a powerful, fully integrated solution like Rechat to close all the gaps in your tech stack, providing agents with an end-to-end solution.

By addressing these challenges and providing comprehensive solutions, you can empower your agents and enhance the effectiveness of your real estate marketing efforts.