REAL ESTATE BLOG - DOES CHANNEL PARTNERS WORK ONLY ON RELATIONSHIP BASIS? | By; Aamitesh Mukherjee

Lately, I have been asked this question by developers and that's why I felt the need to write an article on it. In my understanding we are dealing into a serious business, where a CP is expected to deliver results in form of net bookings. To answer the above question, it is important that we first understand the nature of CP Business Model.

According to me this question cannot be addressed directly, and I would like to invite developers to introspect the above question by asking a few more relevant questions.

Q1 Will a CP continue spending on marketing for your project purely on the basis of your SMs relationship even if he doesn't get any net bookings?
Q2 As a developer, should you provide continuous support to CPs with whom your sales team has good relationship with even if they are not giving any result?
Q3 Should a developer become completely dependent on the handful of CPs with whom his team has relationship with?
Q4 Suppose, your relationship CPs are not able to deliver the numbers then what should one do?
Q5 Can we guarantee that if one has very good relationship with CPs he can definitely deliver good results?
Q6 If you are known for not paying brokerage or there is a long delay, then do you think your sales team will be able to make CPs work for you?
Q7 Do you think that a CP works only because of his relationship with your sales team? Would it be true to say that if you don't have a sales team no CP will ever work with you?
Q8 What are the tools your sales team require to gain CPs confidence to make him work for your project?
Q9 If there is a CP who is doing good business with another developer but your team doesn't have a relationship with him, should we wait till we build the relationship with him?
Q10 If a relationship base CP has a bad experience working with a developer, do you think he will want to actively work with him?

This list of questions can go on and on but the key point which I am trying to highlight here is, that relationship alone can't be the sole reason for a CP to work for a developer. I am no where saying that relationship is not at all important, it is definitely useful but one can't be completely dependent on it. The relationships in CP business gets developed once you start working with your CPs and your sales team starts interacting with them on a regular basis.

The relationship can be used as a tool to start the business discussion but if you are interested in long-term sustainable business, then one will have to continue building new relationships in the market. The relationships and results won't go hand in hand, one needs to also understand the CPs potential and interest level to work with your project. Apart from the relationships, there are also other factors that play a crucial role in making a CP to actively work with you.

It's difficult to say how one would interpret this article, and I don't want to ignore the possibility that few may misinterpret this article and draw their own conclusions that relationship is not at all useful.

Definitely relationship is the backbone of our CP business, if you build good relations in the market it is always helpful but the fact of the matter is that one may have very good relationship with CPs and that's got nothing to do with an individual's performance. It is important to ensure that your sales team keep on increasing their CP reach in the market, build new relationships, identify CPs who are performing in competition projects, solve any grievances of CPs (if any), get CPs brokerage released in time, etc. As a developer if you do what needs to be done to create a positive image for your brand so as to ensure more CPs work with you, then this the best thing you could do.

I would also want to address two fundamental questions here:
1) How to build relationships with CPs?
- Anybody can answer this question and one can write a really long solution for it but that is not very useful and the more valid question has to be this;

2) Why to build relationships with CPs?
- If you understand the 'Why', it will be a much better situation to be in. 

I think if we fix our actions to one single thing then we will land up repeating only those actions that is completely irrelevant to the situation in hand. No one will never know what situations may arise tomorrow, so it is important to be flexible in our thinking and take actions that is relevant to handle the situation. So, it is better to be open minded and take those actions which are relevant to the situation, rather than being fixed with one thought that only those CPs will work best for us with whom we have good relationship with. Speak  with your sales team and discuss their challenges and provide them what support they require from you to activate more CPs in the market.

In case you have any queries regarding Channel Sales, please feel free to call me | Aamitesh A Mukherjee - 9833954332

REAL ESTATE BLOG - PROCESS THE FIRST "P" IN MARKETING MIX l By; Amitesh Mukherjee

Those who have studied even a bit of marketing are aware of the 4P's of marketing mix, but for those who have not heard about it let me write it here for them; P-Product, P-Price, P-Place, P-Promotion. After 4P's the Marketing Gurus realized that they need to add few more P's to it, so they added P-People, P-Process, P-Physical Existence then they added P-Packaging as the 8th P and P-Payment as the 9th P in the marketing mix.

I request all the readers to not get into the trap of the number of P's in the marketing mix, but essentially I would like to propose to marketers to look at P-Process as the first P in the marketing mix especially if we are dealing with an unorganized sector like Real Estate. Real Estate is one such product which can't be touched and felt before it is constructed and delivered to its customers. The general trend in the market to sell real estate property is when it is in the under-construction stage and the customer makes a buying decision basis whatever information is provided by the developer to the customer in the form of pictures, videos, graphics etc. In customer's opinion this sector required a lot of regulatory measures to be taken and the good thing that happened to us is RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority of India), who is taking actions due to which work has already started in the direction of making it an organized sector.

Well,  I am not sure how much sense this article will make to everyone but if you look at it from the perspective of thousands of developers who are having projects at smaller scale they need to also follow a particular Process. In the current market scenario there are very few developers who are process oriented and the idea of writing this article is to make marketers think, "how we can ensure that the maximum number of developers is driven by the Process?"

What is this Process we are really talking about?

If we look at the Real Estate sector then there are ample of things that are to be taken care of before a developer even reaches at the product stage. Before RERA, developers would directly start to sell their project to customers without having all legal permissions in place. Post RERA, it is mandatory for all developers to first register their project under RERA and once the developer has been issued RERA ID number then they can officially start marketing their project in the market. This is really a very productive move to start the project registration Process by the Government of India and it is not as easy to implement as it looks from the outside.

Now, let us draw our attention to what happens to the Process after developer gets his project registered under RERA. Developer does everything to get his project registered with RERA and once he receive his RERA ID he starts marketing the project in the market. Now here starts the real issue, because every developer is different so is their marketing Process. In the case of Real Estate sector a marketer’s job is not to just think about a good selling strategy to boost sales, but a marketer has to find a balance with all the other departments in the value chain.

Especially, if customer is buying a property in an under-construction stage, then at this stage the customer is getting onboard with the developer and starting a journey towards finally getting his dream home at a future promised date. During this journey a lot of things may not exactly work as it may be planned, so it is very important for marketers to understand the Process to provide better buying experience to the customers. In order to streamline the entire buying Process, marketers need to keep a complete control on the entire business cycle, right from the time the Product marketing starts, prospect customers making inquiries, field sales force going into the market, selection of inventory and its management, customer paying token amount, loan department, customer being handed over to the CRM or post sales team, customers documentation, property registration, accounts department, brokerage payouts, engineering department, purchase department to the time when the customer is finally taking the possession of his property.

Buying home is once in a lifetime decision for most of the customers and being responsible marketers it is our responsibility to ensure that we create an amazing journey for our customers and leave them with an experience where they feel safe and secure. Barring a few 100 to 200 odd names across the country there would be very few developers who are committed to provide their customers a pleasant buying experience. Please don't get me wrong here, I am not trying to blame anyone, but I think it is because of lack of awareness or may be also lack of skilled marketers who fail to understand the Process and focus only on one aspect of the business i.e. generating sales.

There are developers whose names are not known to us but they are Process oriented and have willingness to do so. One must note that in most of the cases marketers are employees and without willingness from the developers themselves nothing would change. It will require both the developer and the marketer to arrive at a common ground where both agree to become Process oriented. By being Process oriented there is a huge possibility that all the stakeholders involved in the business will be able to create better value in the market, it will also help them to build trust. One of the best examples I can think of in the unorganized sector is the fast food business. There was a time when it use to be completely unorganized and no one even considered thinking about Process, but then came Mc'Donalds who developed a Process and the same got followed by thousand more brands.

How to ensure that brokerages are released in time to Channel Partners?

As a developer let us consider you are wanting to implement timely brokerage payout as a Process, and say currently you are unable to pay brokerages in time due to cash flow issues. Now, the first thing you or your marketer needs to do is give proper instructions to all the departments involved in the entire property selling Process. Your sourcing team and closing team must be instructed clearly to mention the Brokerage amount separately in the Cost Sheet while emailing it to the CRM, accounts and team responsible for registration of properties. The accounts department must be clearly instructed that at every given point in time they must treat the Brokerage amount as a liability to be paid to the Channel Partner involved in the sale of property. Your registration and CRM team must be informed to handover a PDC cheque to your CP on the date of registration of property by the customer and the same can be cleared within 10 working days from the date of first disbursement of home loan by the bank. The Channel Partner can submit his Brokerage invoice on the date of registration itself, this will ensure that your accounts department gets time to manage the accounting Process.

The positive impact of implementing this Process could be that you are not only managing your cash flows but at the same time your Channel Partners will also have enough liquidity to spend in further marketing of your project thus ensuring more business. Channel Partners will also feel very comfortable working with you.

How to deal with customers who ask for refund against cancellation of property?

Cancellation of property can be a very painful situation for any developer as customers generally doesn't expect to incur any losses. The CRM, accounts and sales team has to undergo a lot of stress as they have to make the customer understand that they won't get 100% refund of their booking amount. Even though developers include their refund policy in their booking forms, still the CRM, accounts and sales teams have to face this issue. Firstly, as a marketer you must always know this, that a customer who is buying a property from his hard earned money may re-think about his decision even after paying the booking amount.  I really like the way Indian railways handle their refund policy (penalty for opportunity lost), similarly we can adopt the same policy in Real Estate i.e. you can make your customer to sign a one pager refund policy where the customer if chooses to cancel the booking within 7 Days (x% Deduction) , 15 Days (y% Deduction), maximum up to 30 Days (z% Deduction), and if he cancels post 30 Days from date of booking then (a% Deduction) will be done from the booking amount. It is very important that refund policy is clearly discussed with your customer at the time of booking itself to avoid future conflicts, as it affects the brand a lot and creates negativity in customers mind for no reason.

In case you have any questions related to Process please feel free to contact me - Aamitesh A Mukherjee - 9833954332

REAL ESTATE BLOG - HOW A DEVELOPER CAN BUILD A CHANNEL SALES TEAM? l By; Amitesh Mukherjee

Every developer wants to have the best CP team in the market that will sell their project in the least possible time. If you are new to the CP Business Model and want to understand how to go about it, then read this article carefully and you may find some answers. Thanks to technology and the growing presence of the internet in our country, which allows us to tie-up with CP's or business associates from anywhere in the world. Before I start addressing the question in this article I think one must try to understand the key concerns of a CP and how CP does his business and to do that any developer must answer this very basic question given below.

Who is a CP for a developer?

Being a developer, you must answer this question before you even think about stepping into the CP Business Model and if you are already having a CP team which is not performing as expected then it is time for you to restart from here. In my experience your CP is your customer and once you start treating your CP as your customer, his feedback about your company, your project, your company policy, sales process etc. everything will start mattering to you.

Let me put it across in this way, "How do you feel when someone listens to you and acknowledges you?" You may feel good about that person and by that I am not saying you will be very happy or excited but I am confident it won't hurt you. If this person does something that you have asked him to do, then I am sure you won't ignore that person or run away from him. Would you like to work with such a person or would you like to work with someone who doesn't care about what you are saying and does exactly opposite of what you were expecting.

Now, if you really consider your CP as your customer, then, "What is the simplest way to grow your customer base?"

If you're a developer, I mean to ask you this, that you are also a customer for somebody, right? Wherever you go as a customer to buy something and you are asked by the seller company to recommend their product to your contacts then, "What is it that you will look for to experience so that you will really recommend their product to your contacts?" If you can find out how you want to experience and create that kind of experience for your CP's then "What do you think? Will it be possible for your CP team to grow your CP base?"

Listen to Your CP's Concerns -

There may be more than 1 lakh CP's across India, and there are different categories in CP business like RCP (Retail CP), ICP (Institutional CP), IPC (International Property Consultant) and ACP (Alternate CP). These categories are further divided into sub-categories as per area of interest like residential, commercial, plot, land, industrial and warehousing, only rentals, home loans, insurance etc.

As a developer one must decide which category of CP's do you want to target and accordingly you must also understand, "how do they spend their daily work time?" Let us understand it with the help of an example; if we are working with a Retail CP then you must know that he is an individual CP who is carrying a huge risk on his survival and for him it is crucial to work on multiple projects at same time and also work on multiple proposals to keep his/her income rolling. The kind of support that needs to be given to a Retail CP will be very different from the kind of support required by a CP from another category.

It is very obvious that every CP has their own style of working, that means in the real sense they are freelancers and they will devote time for your project as per their own priority. Most of the Retail CP may have similar concerns specially w.r.t the customer leads they share with the developer. If a developer can assure safety and security of their leads instead of making a policy which takes away the security of the leads a CP will definitely avoid working with such a developer. Similarly, as a developer you will not want a candidate to work in your team who will tag your direct customers to CP's, so if you see, the underlying thought is the same in both the cases.

How to identify the right CP for your project? -

One of the easiest ways to do that is to prepare a list of all the competition projects in your micro market or extended markets and find out who are these CP's actively working for those projects. You can ask your team to meet the CP's who are doing good business in your micro market with other developers and create an awareness about your project with them. Once CP's are aware about your project, and if they have a customer who is looking for a property in your micro market, there is a higher chance that CP will show your project to his customers. Developers need to also know this very clearly that CP business is not a one time activity and it is an ongoing process, and your actions have to be planned accordingly.

A developer must not restrict themselves to just identifying the performing CP's in their micro market, but it is very crucial for a developer to also understand "Why those CP's are working with other developers?". Few developers may think that by offering higher brokerages they may be able to attract CP's to work with them, but more than the brokerage it is important to know that a CP will work with a developer where he can sense the safety of his customers, as one happy customer may help a CP generate quality references through him. This actually leads us to the next important question;

What do CP's expect from a developer? -

A developer must accept this fact that his project is not the only project in the market and a CP has a lot of options where he can choose to work. In general most of the CP have specific expectations from every developer i.e. customer tagging support, timely brokerage payouts, hassle free invoicing process, customer satisfaction, timely possession of project and proper communication. I am sure that these expectations may be already known to you but knowing it and actually meeting these expectations are two worlds apart.

Let us also consider that you are a developer who may be doing all this already and still CP's are not working in your project, then you will have to work out a proper marketing strategy for your project. CP's also work with those developers who market their project well and there is proper visibility of your project in the micro market and have a strong digital presence too. This will help you to build confidence in your CP's to work with you.

Being a developer you must also know that CP's in today's market are mostly dependent on digital marketing to generate leads for your project. Some developers may think of creating an in-house digital marketing team or hire an agency to generate leads as its one and the same thing, also you will not have to pay any brokerage to CP as well as you can offer a better price to your customer. This approach may work for you if you are developing a stand alone building or you are planning to make a limited number of projects. CP who is spending on digital marketing for projects in your micro market will be interested in closing deals as that's his bread and butter, and a CP recommending your project to his customer is perceived as an unbiased recommendation against a developer's team recommending a customer to buy a project. As a developer if you understand this and work with your CP's you may be able to grow your CP base and also boost your sales.

How to build strong relationships with CP's in the market? -

Relationship is the roots of your CP Business Model and this relationship is built by your sales team i.e. your sourcing managers who meet these CP's in the market on a regular basis. Some developers may take their CP team for granted but in my view your sourcing manager is the face of your company, and you must engage with your CP team and try to understand "What CP's in the market is talking about you?". This is a very crucial exercise which as a developer you must make it a practice, as this will help your team to understand your commitments and also you will be able to guide your team to tackle the objections they face in the market.

Specially, if you are not a well known brand in the market, objections will surely come from CP's and they will really need to know, "Why should a CP work in your project?" Or "Why should a CP spend on marketing for your project?" etc. You can give a lot of reasoning and guidance to your team about it, but one must really consider that your intentions really matters a lot and if you are giving commitments to your team which you are not intending to fulfill then you are actually creating a trap for yourself. If you are really committed to building strong relationships with CP's in the market, then you will have to WALK-THE-TALK and your sales team and CP's should be able to look up to you as their leader.

If you have any question related to Channel Sales please feel free to call Amitesh A Mukherjee - 9833954332

REAL ESTATE SUGGESTIONS - HOW TO HANDLE CUSTOMER TAGGING ISSUE? | By; Amitesh Mukherjee

This is a everyday problem faced by sales people working in Real Estate sector in India.

BACKGROUND - If you are working in a non Real Estate sector and planning to join a Real Estate company in Channel Sales, then this article will be useful for you. Real Estate Developers divide their sales team into two major categories i.e. closing team (team who attends customer at site office) and sourcing team (team who invites customer for site visit). Sourcing team has different verticals under it like direct sales, corporate sales, loyalty sales then comes Channel and Institutional Channel sales etc. and there are further segregation's possible. Under sourcing team developers create a specific focused team that work with Channel Partner's in the market and provide them with certain support services. In the current scenario almost 60% to 80% of sales contribution is done by the Channel Partner's and it is very crucial for any developer to maintain a healthy relationship with their Channel Partner's in the market.

The other word for Channel Partner could be Real Estate Agent, and a person who handles Channel Partner's is called a sourcing manager and his/her role is to generate business through Channel Partner's by planning and executing various marketing activities.

As the process of generating business through CP's sounds very simple, a developer must understand and know "What are the challenges that may arise for a developer, in growing their business through Channel Partner's?"

Please understand one thing here very clearly, that a CP's source of income is the brokerage that he/she will earn against a net sale of property post the customer has paid for the GST, registration and stamp duty charges. Since the CP alone cannot complete this process, thus developers hire sourcing managers who then supports their CP to convert prospect buyers into net deals.

The sourcing team may work with multiple CP's in the market at a given time, depending upon the size of the project. Now, if we talk about CP business in Real Estate sector 15 or more years ago, a CP was to mostly get a customer whom he/she would either know personally or may be a reference source of his/her relative, friend, existing customer etc. so if his customer buys a property he is rest assured of his brokerage (in this article we are not considering intent issues of the developers who do not pay brokerages).

PROBLEM - The purpose of this article is to provide a solution to handle the current challenges where a CP is not only dependent on personal resources to generate a lead, CP has to spend on digital marketing and he/she is not the only one spending on it. More the number of CP a developer activates to do digital marketing for their project, higher is the possibility that 2 or more CP/sourcing manager may get the same customer's lead for the same project. This is exactly where the challenge comes for all the parties involved in the transaction i.e. the developer, sourcing manager and CP's who have sourced the same lead. Now, once the customer has reached the developers site office and there is a clash between say 2 sourcing managers or 2 CP's it is a critical situation to deal and being a developer it is important to give a fair credit. The questions that arises here is "On whose name should we tag the customer?"

SUGGESTION - Developers must understand that the entire CP business works on relationship basis and it is important to keep your CP's happy. In order to ensure that your CP's are happy it is very important to clearly define the Customer Tagging Process and share it with your sourcing managers as well as with your CP's. Sourcing manager tagging is an internal challenge that can be handled my the senior management but CP tagging can affect the developers reputation in the market.

Developer must try to keep the customer completely out of the tagging issue as it can create more trouble for your CP and chances are there that customer might also get irritated.

It is best to have a proper customer tagging policy in place and let your entire sales team know about it. You can also use a customer tagging software which will minimize the number of customer lead clashes. It might also be possible that the customer coming through a CP has approached developers direct sales team, in such cases it is a business call that a developer needs to take keeping in mind the impact of the decision it will have on its CP market.

If you have any question related to Channel Sales please feel free to call Amitesh A Mukherjee - 9833954332