Pandemic brought in a tectonic shift in every industry including the real state. It changed the way we perceived or did business. Real estate transactions have traditionally been time-consuming, however, several new innovations in the last few years have helped advance every aspect of home-buying. In the aftermath of the pandemic, builders and other stakeholders have adopted technology and changed the way they do business. Two of the major processes that have seen significant changes are Real estate Sales and Marketing.
BeyondWalls in association with ET Realty conducted a Panel discussion moderated by Ankit Sharma, Principal Correspondent (ET Realty) to discuss how the sales and marketing strategies have changed or will change in the future and invited the industry leaders to share their valuable insights on the same. The industry leaders that were invited are:
- Mr. Anupam Verma, President & CEO, Rustomjee Urbania
- Mr. Sriram Iyer - MD & CEO, TVS Realty
- Mr. Mallanna Sasalu, COO, Provident Housing Limited, Puravankara Group
- Mr. Vikram Kotnis, MD & Executive Director, BeyondWalls
Changes That Are Seen in the Sales and Marketing of Real Estate in the Last 2 Years:
โWhat we were doing 2 years back: Traditional mediums like newspapers to advertise our project.
Built the sales and marketing office near the site of the project, gave homebuyers the tour of the project and that built the sense of connection in the homebuyers for the property
What we do now: The challenge started with how do we reach the homebuyers or homebuyers reach us. Technology came In and transformed it into another level. We started having virtual tours and gave homebuyers were given virtual tours of the various projects and homebuyers were able to book a flat virtually just like booking a hotel. โ
- Said Mallanna Sasalu, COO, Provident Housing Limited, Puravankara Group
How Easy or Difficult Was It to Train Your Own Employees and Homebuyers and Transform Your Own Business Model with Respect to the Changes?
โThe average age of the people facing customers is below 30. Their ability to adapt to any kind of changes and technology is very high and they were able to do the job from day 1 or day 2, they did not need training, they just needed guidance.
As far as the business processes are concerned, we had to go through the process of learning. We realized that with virtual experience, with proper lead management, we were trying to create a prospective base that was likely to give higher conversions.
With Regard to customers, it depends on what they do and where they belong from, as IT people were quite comfortable with the process but some were not. We assured them to trust us and motivated them to visit us. โ
- Said Anupam Verma, President & CEO, Rustomjee Urbania
Are Developers Ready to Adapt to Technology and the Way They Do Their Business?
โDuring covid, technology adoption became very high and then they turned to distribution. Distribution was the easier route as everyone has done that before Although we have been building tech for real estate for the last 10 years. We have built everything from AI to where your customer is sitting in your Real Estate Sales funnel pipeline but adoption is barely at 25%. The gap is between the tech and business sides of real estate. They need the right person to bridge the gap between these two aspects and this is where the real estate industry has been lagging. More tech people need to be employed in real estate.โ
- Said Vikram Kotnis, MD & Executive Director, BeyondWalls
How Will You Use Technology to Acquire New Customers if You Are Moving to a New City?
โIf I talk about Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, as a strategy I would go with plotted development first to establish the track record. What is important as a developer in a new city is to have a track record. How to establish that? That is where Brand building exercise becomes very important. There is always an entry cost to enter a new region and that is why real estate has been a localized business except for some brands.
To enter a new region, reach out to people about the track record, governance, quality of your product and the list of the happy customers and then after some time customers will revert back. If your pitch is fundamentally strong, then you can gain market share.โ
- Said Mr. Sriram Iyer - MD & CEO, TVS Realty
To know more about the discussion and get more insights on innovations in RE sales and marketing, watch the video of the panel discussion here: