How to Unlock the Power of Data | UrbanToronto
Inflation and the cost of housing are ongoing concerns that make news headlines daily. For developers, the stakes have also increased dramatically – with the cost of an error being measured in millions, and increasing construction costs making sales and pricing accuracy a make-or-break situation. Data is quickly becoming the most valuable asset to every team involved in the acquisition, marketing, selling, and construction of new homes, yet, most teams will continue to make decisions based on publicly available data, or will simply trust their gut. With either choice, they will either be right, but lucky (with numbers that are not exact) or wrong, with increasingly expensive consequences.
One of the hallmarks of next-gen sales and transaction management software like Avesdo is providing sales teams with on-demand, one-mouse-click-away access to project data intelligence to help them make smarter decisions. Groups like Avesdo work closely with sales and marketing teams, helping them unlock the power and value of their data. Having visibility into each step of the sales process – from number of leads, to unit level demand from selection requests, to real-time allocation fulfillment, and contracted sales and firm deals – decision-making throughout the planning, pricing, and selling of both current and future projects becomes more about strategic execution, and less about educated guess work – with the results measured in millions.
By providing sales teams with such deep real-time visibility into what is happening within their projects, the job of optimizing sales and revenues is dramatically clearer, and more effective.
Housing in the city, image by UT Forum contributor skycandy
In working with hundreds of Canada’s top-tier developers, Avesdo knows that most of their clients would like to be more data-driven, but their teams are already understaffed and unable to find the resources and time to pull the data trapped in their contracts and sales processes, and within a meaningful time frame to be used in active decision making. UrbanToronto spoke with Avesdo to understand the three key ways any team of any size can take control of their data to build useful insights, and help ensure their project’s success.
Real-time data visibility
The most basic first step is just being able to see the data and have it on-hand in real-time. The more that sales groups see, the better they are able to sell. These groups inherently know the market better than anyone else. They have the relationships, the experience selling, and can respond to trends before they happen – as long as they can predict it. Being able to augment that experience with accurate real-time transaction data, provides sellers with the visibility to react to what’s happening as it’s happening, providing the certainty for decision making, and avoiding the need to make multi-million dollar decisions based off of their gut alone.
Real-time dashboards and reporting mean that sales groups have the ability to track and view every detail of every transaction – from the moment the lead is captured, through selection requests, allocations and contracted sales, right through to after sales, providing unit level details from finishes, to colour choices, deposit and commission tracking, scheduling, and more. Having it all at the click of a button allows it to be used for active decision making, and not just post-project debriefing when it’s too late to have an impact.
Dashboard for developer & admin users on the Avesdo TMS
Lead and demand intake for optimized sales fulfillment
Sophisticated analytics and intelligence at every step of the sales process provided by Avesdo’s platform can provide the tools to get the right unit to the right agent or buyer. New home sales is a sophisticated and detailed process that starts with a lead, who becomes an interested buyer, who turns their interest into a unit selection, which is then turned into an allocation by the developer and ultimately into a sale. At each step in this process, there are decisions to be made about how to distribute a building to ensure the most number of homes are sold, ultimately achieving the maximum revenue for the building. Avesdo’s system now manages every step in this process providing a real-time view into the specifics at each step in the process – a process that up until now, was largely manually managed or done through distinct apps and spreadsheets.
Sales teams using Avesdo can see if they have enough leads to start their sales launch, how much demand there is at a unit type, floor plan, and even unit number detail level, which they can then use to decide who gets what and for how much,, with just a few clicks. Without this level of detail in real-time, a seller is guessing at who to give what unit to, and at how much a unit can sell for. With data and visibility for each step in this process, the sales team is equipped with the information they need to make multi-million dollar split-second decisions, and act on them before it’s too late. As a former VP Sales and Marketing for industry leading developers, Avesdo’s President Ben Smith believes this could be the most valuable new piece in the evolution of digital sales systems to date.
Submitted worksheets being managed on the Avesdo TMS
Project to project data to continually improve the sales process
In addition to the value for active project management, Avesdo’s platform also super-charges post-project analysis with quick and easy reporting of every data point across an entire project to aid in planning for future projects. With over 300 data points, each deal that is executed produces valuable insights that developers can use to plan their future projects – providing more certainty to ensure sales, and maximize profits. Sales groups who continually use Avesdo have the benefit of a growing data set, and can easily pool and analyze large amounts of data to see and respond to macro-level trends. From analyzing how unit demand prior to sales impacted the achieved sales and profitability, to realtor priorities, commissions, and performance, to options and upgrades, parking, and storage, and much more – the ability to fully see and understand the performance of a project is critical for ongoing and future success.
Reporting on reasons for collapsed or rescinded deals on the Avesdo TMS
Avesdo is playing a role in the new age of digital sales for new home real estate. Founded by new home real estate lawyers, the Avesdo platform was specifically designed to address the specific nuance, complexity, and risk associated with the new home sales and contracting process. No longer just a tool to help the efficiency of a complicated sales workflow, Avesdo TMS and systems like it are now critical solutions for strategic decision making, which can provide industry leading competitive advantage in the best case, and help prevent costly project-ending strategic errors in the worst case.
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