REAL ESTATES SALES & MARKETING WHAT'S NEW IN 2023
Asha Singh, Vice President, Marketing, 360 Realtors LLP started the conversation stating that the traditional channel partners contribute 60 – 80 per cent of the sales right and with the digital evolution we are seeing an aggregation in this segment. Arvind Jain, Jt. Managing Director, Pride Group concurred of the fact and shared the reason, “Traditionally, channel partners were the biggest source of leads and sales for a real estate developer. With digitization coming in the industry, the larger channel partners were able to leverage technology tools to generate better business, but smaller brokers have not been able to keep up. Thus, we are seeing a consolidation in the segment with smaller brokers joining larger broker firms.” Govind Rai, Co-Founder & CEO, Insomniacs Digital Pvt. Ltd added, “The era of collaboration is here and it is going to get bigger. Apart from direct marketing, channel partners joining hands with prop tech companies is a phenomenon that is emerging fast and will grow with time given that RERA regulations now mandates more professional sales approach and only organized licensed players will be able to operate.” Rohan Shah, Co-Founder, Realate Ventures LLP expressed that real estate sales is going completely online especially in case of NRIs where the entire transaction from property viewing to booking and sales in happening digitally. Srinath Kandala, Co-Founder, Prop agreed that with pandemic digital sales and marketing has become essential for all developers. “However, with all real estate developers sharing video content, creating a differentiator has also become important. From Interactive videos to AI now, the technology’s role in sales and marketing is increasing tremendously.” THE CHANGEOVER According to Rohan Shah, the customer communication will gradually move to AI powered platform that will not only build seamless interaction but also trust and transparency. Arvind Jain summed up that brand building remains the topmost concern for a developer irrespective of the digital or rational medium of sales. And that only comes with timely delivery and project quality that tself becomes selling point. Govind Rai- said that from the data standpoint, traditional mediums have not managed to give requisite output metric. The digital tools have succeeded in doing that but, the real estate is a very hyper local play so it will be a mix of digital and hyper local phenomenon going forward. Asha Singh pointed out the convergence of traditional and digital marketing. “Outdoor hoardings are now coming up with digital displays, 3D and AR advertisings and are integrated with Google.” Srinath Kandala stated, “FOMO is making everyone jump on the Metaverse bandwagon. AI is becoming the talk of the town. But it is the basics that company’s need to focus from training the staff in use of new tech, to having the right bandwidth and equipment to run sophisticated software and programs without glitch during a sales pitch.” TARGETING THE AUDIENCE As per Govind Rai with enhanced data assimilation, this is the best time to utilize digital tools for sales. Proptech metrics offer direct insight of where the customers are coming from, age group, their profile etc. Asha Singh agreed that customer data is very important. “Earlier developers just dumped the data but now every data collected from sites is analyzed that helps in planning sales & marketing campaigns and project design as well. So data analytics has become very important. Arvind Jain added, “Quality, service and transparency has ensured that we have 40 to 50 percent reference sale. We are less dependent on channel partners because our customers bring new customers.” Srinath Kandala said, “The next category of homebuyers are going to be 25- 30 years of e-commerce era, that will be comfortable with online property buying and that’s the clientele, we need to target.” According to Rohan Shah while building digital platform, customer experience is the key. “if you have very good content and ease of navigation, you will have customers of all age groups.” In next 5- 10 years real estate will go the e-commerce way. Srinath Kandala Project shortlisting is going digital but for Indians site visits are part of an experience. Arvind Jain Unlike first time homebuyers, investors don’t mind doing entire transaction online. Govind Rai AI and chat GPT are set to make real estate interactions deeper. Rohan Shah Real estate is a personal involvement product, and will remain so in spite of all the technology. Asha Singh
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