At Metrix, we wholly believe in tactical coaching and training, and our mission is to help our clients achieve success that they can actually measure. We believe that this all starts with your database. You have likely heard that your database is your databank, and our Metrix Coaches could not agree more with this statement. 

One of our lead Metrix Coaches, Ryan Melville, has coached and trained over 100 Metrix clients on a handful of CRMs. Ryan has worked with each of his clients to fine tune their databases to help drive their businesses further faster. 

Here are four common obstacles that Ryan finds in most databases along with his four prescribed solutions:

Many agents believe that the more leads they have in their databases the more they will succeed. However, it is important to note that this is not always the case. Rather, Ryan suggests to limit your focus to a manageable number of leads that you can maintain consistent follow-up with. Keep 30-100 leads on your CRM dashboard that you are currently engaging with. If these leads are somewhere within the buying or selling process in the next 12 months, then you are set up for success!

Another common obstacle is not having a real, consistent pipeline driven system to follow and allowing your agents to exercise their own ‘strategies’ for converting leads to clients. Furthermore, many teams create their own strategies for lead follow-up. However, when recruiting new agents to the team they will sometimes come to the table with their own systems or strategies that do not work. As a team leader you should be providing a proven system for your agents to follow. Ryan suggests auditing the systems that you currently have in place to ensure that they are creating results. If you find that the systems are not being followed, then develop a plan during a weekly 1-on-1 meeting. 

This next obstacle can be overcome with a fairly simple solution. Ryan finds that a lot of databases are not set up with labels or tags. To have an effectively functioning CRM, it is vital that you are using tags or labels to better sort and search your leads. Find a happy medium of tags that your team can use when segmenting the database; there is such a thing as ‘too many tags’. To create the right tags and labels, think about what common tags/labels you would use on your list of leads. Additionally, consider creating more specific tags to help you to be more targeted with your marketing. For example, if you have state-specific leads, create individual tags for those states and apply these tags accordingly.

The last obstacle that we want to outline is not having an effective way to audit agent and team performance. Most CRMs do have the ability to track performance. However, some team leaders don’t know how to do this or, frankly, they are just not committed to it. At Metrix, we work with leaders and help them to audit team performance and then establish laws that their agents are expected to follow.