The real estate industry is notoriously cyclical, making it more challenging than most when it comes to preparing for the future.
Title agents are faithful in crafting their business plans at the end of the year, while keeping a weather eye on shifting realities in the general economy, employment, and – of course – real estate sales and mortgage applications.
When creating a business plan, there are a lot of advantages to staying laser-focused on available data as you craft, manage, and improve your business plan throughout the year. Here are a few things to consider.
Start with a data strategy.
Data can be a strategic asset that companies use to grow their business, but only if they have a plan in place to collect, analyze, and gather insights as a basis for taking specific actions to meet identified business objectives.
In other words, your data strategy must be intricately woven into your overarching business plan.
Data sources
A data strategy may begin with identifying all the possible sources of data within your systems and then narrowing your focus to specific types and data sources needed to accomplish a key objective in your business plan. This may also mean eliminating useless data-gathering efforts that drain employee time but fail to provide useful information for what you want to accomplish in the coming year.
As a practical matter, a business owner needs to know how data sources are managed, cleaned, and stored, and ensure a point person is assigned to these tasks.
Mining for insights
The strategy should also include a timeline or game plan for mining the data for the necessary insights to achieve a specific outcome. For instance:
- What are the emerging trends in the local real estate market, e., where should we be focusing our marketing efforts?
- From what sources are title orders flowing into the agency, e., where are we gaining ground and where might we need additional outreach?
- Where are the title processing bottlenecks, e., where is our technology effective at streamlining the process, and where do we need an upgrade or seek an additional solution?
- How are customer requirements or needs shifting, e., are current customer preferences calling for more remote online notary services, or more onsite closings, and how do we adjust for this escalation?
The data narrative
One key to success in this process is assigning responsibility for data analysis, insight, and reporting to specific individuals in the relevant departments so they can make recommendations.
One critical skill these employees will need is the ability to present the data and craft a powerful narrative about what the data reveals or is pointing to in terms of taking action.
Your choice of technology solutions, how you deploy them, and how you maintain, measure, and improve them define your profit margins. We are here to help you accomplish your objectives through strategic planning and business-enhancing technology solutions. Call us today to learn more.