A Project Report

on

“LEAD GENERATION FORM ONLINE PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES”

Undertaken at

ZOLOSTAYS PROPERTY SOLUTIONS

Submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement of the Summer Internship Project for

PGDM to:

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND MEDIA

Pune

BY: SHUBHAM KUMAR (20191102)

Under the Guidance of Under the Supervision of

Miss Aakriti Kaur Prof. Surajit Saha Faculty,
Sr. Sales & Marketing manager (PAN India), ISB&M
Zolostays Property Solutions
 Declaration

I, Shubham Kumar, Student of ISB&M, Pune, hereby declare that this project
entitled “Lead Generation form online promotional activities” for
Zolostays Property Solutions, Bangalore is a bonafide record of work done by
me during the course of summer internship project work of P.G.D.M. program and all
contents and facts are prepared and presented by me without any bias.

I also declare that it has not previously formed the basis for the award to me for
any degree/diploma associate ship, fellowship or other similar title, of any
Institute/Society.

Shubham Kumar

Place: Pune

Date: 15th September’ 2020 Signature:

 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Project Report titled “Lead generation from online promotional
activities” for Zolostays Property Solutions, submitted in partial fulfilment for the award of Internship
programme of ISB&M, was carried out by Shubham Kumar under my guidance. This has not been
submitted to any other University, Organisation or Institution for the award of any
degree/diploma/certificate.

Name:

Address:

Signature
 Acknowledgement

With great pleasure I would like to present this project report for ZOLOSTAYS
PROPERTY SOLUTIONS. It has been an enriching experience for me to
complete my summer internship there, which would not have been possible
without the goodwill and support of the people around. I’m grateful to
ZOLOSTAYS PROPERTY SOLUTIONS for allowing me to undergo Summer
Project Program in their reputed organization.

I would like to thank my guide Ms. Aakriti Kaur for giving me the opportunity to
do my project in the organization and constantly guiding me.

I would like to convey my sincere thanks to, Dr. Mahesh Gadekar and my mentor
Prof. Surajit Saha for guiding and helping me throughout my academics and during
my Summer Internship.

Last but not the least, I would like to thanks to all my faculty members without
whom this project would have been a distant reality.

Regards,

Shubham Kumar

5
 Table of Contents

Sr. No Title Page No.

1 Executive Summary 7
2 Chapter 1- Introduction 8-14
3 Chapter 2- Industry Analysis 15-20
Chapter 3- Objectives and work done
4 during Internship 21-22

5 Chapter 4- Methodology 23-25

6 Chapter 5- Findings 26-27

7 Chapter 6- Learnings from Internship 28-38

8 Chapter 7- Conclusion 39-40

9 Chapter 8- References 41-42
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Objectives of the project:

 To understand the Pre- Sales process in Co-Living Industry.

 To generate leads for the company
 To conduct online promotional activities for Zolostays Property Solutions.

First two chapters cover the overview of the company and its offerings to the market and later the
work and findings are mentioned along with all the learnings and experience I gained during the
internship and the project tenure. I started my internship and the project from 1st July’2020 and it
ended on 31st Aug’2020. The first part of my project was to do competitive analysis and SWOT
analysis for the company before handling the Pre-Sales domain. For this, I used several research
papers and websites for reference and submitted the assignment to the manager which helped
them analyze the competition.

The project is mainly focused on Lead generation for Zolostays Property Solutions, which was
done by me, through several online promotional activities and how CRM is responsible for
smooth and automated functioning of all the activities.

.
 CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 About the Industry:

At 440 million, India is home to the largest millennial population globally in absolute terms, with
millennials comprising 34% of the country’s total population. Migrant bachelors have for long
been used to taking up space in rented accommodation on a sharing basis or staying as paying
guests, etc. However, the process of renting, spaces offered or options to choose from, have been
scattered and unorganized. This paved the way for a more organized and professionally managed
system termed as ‘co-living’.
Co-living is a far better managed system with extra comforts and facilities and fewer rules and
regulations, in comparison to the standard paying guest arrangement or rented houses. Such spaces
typically offer shared units pooled with common amenities such as wi-fi, common kitchens,
laundry, and housekeeping, etc which are all included as part of the monthly rental. It is a plug and
play kind of a format with more flexible terms of exit and choices when compared to the
conventional rental apartments.

The co-living market in India has been evolving at a rapid pace with newer operating models
coming into play. It has brought in opportunities, primarily catering to young working
professionals and student population, that are being serviced by a barrage of startups.
Entrepreneurs and promoters of co-living companies are being heavily backed by investments
from national and international institutional investors since they see a lot of growth and upside in
this segment. Operators have started tying up with developers in major cities, especially the IT
driven locations owing to the higher proportion of single- young professionals, for ready-to-move-
in as well as built-to-suit property options to cater to the upcoming trends in the sector. As per
recent pre-covid reports, the co-living market size in India is expected to grow more than double
in the next 5 years to close to $14 billion, translating to ~6 million beds.

The shift from unorganized PGs to the more organized segment would be more pronounced.
Though most established players follow standardised practices, however, implementation of more
stringent hygiene practices would now be required like frequent building disinfection and deep
cleaning, daily and frequent sanitization of high-touch surfaces, etc to keep up the demand. These
increased sanitization requirements would end up increasing costs for the operators, and with
pressure on rentals, margins maybe impacted in the short term.

For the ever-moving millennial population, co-living is one of the most beneficial means of
accommodation by providing an affordable, convenient and safe choice in a new city. It also
eliminates the equation of owners-vs-bachelors which is an ever-pressing issue while finding a
good apartment to stay in. However, in an unprecedented time like this, co-living will be a
challenge since most people will prefer to go back to basics and focus on single occupancies
instead of sharing. The industry will have to bear with this for the next couple of months, but once
businesses start settling in, there will be newer opportunities and the co-living market should
bounce back.

9
1.2 Market size of Co-living industry in India:
Co-living segment in India is growing at a rapid pace and its market size is estimated to double by
2025 at nearly USD 14 billion across top 30 cities, according to a global property consultant
Cushman & Wakefield.

The demand for co-living in terms of beds is slated to grow to 5.7 million by 2025 from
4.19 million this year. The co-living space in India is worth $12 billion, according to a Red Seer
analysis based on the size of the population of millennials in the urban workforce. The report says
the industry, which has an addressable market of 10 million customers, is not winner-takes-all
and has plenty of room for many players to grow and reach a sizeable scale.

At 440 million, India is home to the largest millennial population globally in absolute terms, with
millennials comprising 34% of the country’s total population. Counting the Gen Z population, the
median age of the country is 28 years, making it one of the youngest emerging economies. India is
therefore, a market with high growth potential for the co- living sector.

1.3 Co-Living in India:

India, in recent years, has witnessed large migration from the country’s rural parts to
metropolitans. Although this has led to an increased demand for rental housing, the Indian real
estate market has remained nearly stagnant in the past decade. Additionally, many students in the
age group of 20-24 years and 25-29 Years might opt for core living instead of student housing and
thus their numbers have to be included to calculate the total size of co-living market
Over 50 per cent people in the age group of 18-35 years are willing to rent co-living spaces and
pay up to Rs 15,000 a month in top Indian cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru,
according to a survey by Knight Frank in 2018. Proximity to work and social infrastructure
remained the top priority for millennials while selecting a location, while only 5 per cent gave
importance to rental costs.

According to a PropTiger report that came out in February this year, total occupancy recorded in
hostels within college campuses across India was only 3.4 million students, leading to a demand-
supply mismatch of 8.9 million students. This deficit for co-living spaces is currently being met by
the unorganized sector, which includes PG accommodation and rental houses, etc.

The migrant workforce and students have been availing such shared rental accommodation
options for the last 3 to 4 decades.
Pan India capacity of major co-living players as of fourth quarter 2019 stood at over 2 lakh beds
and, the same is estimated to reach to 6 lakh beds by 2021.
1.3 Company Profile:

Zolo is a Nexus and PE funded, series B company which provides fully managed co-living spaces.
Founded by alumni of IIM, IIT, AIIMS, ISB in 2015 and valued at more than $100 million, they
are India’s fastest moving technology startup in the co-living spaces.

Provider of fully managed co-living spaces intended to offer housing options to students and
young professionals. The company's spaces include fully furnished rooms, hygienic and healthy
food, daily housekeeping, internet facilities and security, enabling young professionals with a
flexible and dynamic fully managed setup when coming to a different city from their hometown.
These properties offer affordable rental abode to its residents. With top-notch IT companies and
colleges in their vicinity, Zolo fulfils the simple essentials of life and creates an environment of
trust and friendship.

Zolo has 220+ properties spread across 10+ cities and is home to 25 thousand happy residents.
They are present in all the major cities namely Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Coimbatore,
Kota, Pune, Gurugram, Hyderabad and Noida. Their living spaces offer all kinds of basic and
luxury living amenities. The biggest USP for a resident comes from a vibrant residential
community, omnichannel platform and top-notch services.

Serving approximately 50000 customers daily as we speak, they have aggressive growth plans of
catering to around 60000 by the year-end. Yes, that’s a growth that Zolo is poised to grow at in the
current year.

Mission statement:
We are folks on a mission to solve the long-stay accommodation problem in India, with a firm
belief that one does not need to buy a house to live comfortably. We strive to provide an excellent
alternative to paying guest accommodation in India.
History of Zolostays:

 Earlier, the team worked on a product called “AugBrain” related to educational technology
between 2014-2015. Due to a lack of a right model for developing the product the team
decided to start something unique which could impact more lives. Thus, began Zolo- a flat
aggregator, hostels, and PGs accommodator in India enabling clients to book rooms and
accommodations via online.

 ZoloStays raised a total of $35M in the latest Series B funding round. Nexus Venture
Partners, IDFC private equity, InnoVen Capital, and Mirae Asset Global Investments are
the investors to the startup. The company funding began with $1 million from Nexus
Ventures Partners. In FY 2018 stats, its revenue had immense raise to Rs 26.4 crore.

 The recent $30 Mn fundings to ZoloStays also helped in fueling up the startup with a
strategic investment from OLX, Chennai-based Olympia Developers, and Pani Computers
Family Office. The startup plans to achieve INR 100 Cr ($14.4Mn) in revenue in the next
financial year. The company has also partnered with large builders to provide fully
managed accommodations, based on the concept which is popular in cities like New
York and Hong Kong.

 Zolo has raised a total of $98M in funding over 4 rounds. Their latest funding was raised
on Jul 7, 2020 from a Series C round.

 Zolo is funded by 6 investors. Investcorp and Trifecta Capital Advisors are the most recent
investors.

1.4 Organization Structure (Top Management):

Dr. Nikhil Sikri Co-founder and CEO

Akhil Sikri Co-founder and CTO

Sneha Choudhry Co-founder

Isha Choudhry Chief People Officer

Aniketh Shetty Business Development Manager

Sameer Brij Verma Board Member and Advisor

1.5 Business Model and Product Line:

 ZoloStays works on a revenue model which has two segments for benefitting singles and
students.

 The working of Zolo is a methodical yet straightforward process. The real-startup takes
residential towers from builders on a lease, which is called as “Zolo Select”, where it
manages and provides all amenities to tenants. In this “Select” segment they provide 40%
accommodation to 40 years old and above occupants.

 Another model or segment called as “Zolo Standard” where they lease out small buildings
like G+5, G+4 in which premium amenities like club, tennis court, pool, etc., don’t exist
and these buildings consist of 50-70 rooms.

 Generally, graduates prefer to choose Standard segment which comes at an average of Rs

6,000 to Rs 8,000 per month for twin-sharing. Where in, “Select” side rooms starts from
Rs 12,000 on an average. The leased period with the builders is typically between three
and nine years, and with customers, the agreement is for 11 months. It takes a month’s
security as part of the rental agreement. It provides six amenities – food, housekeeping,
DTH, WIFI, concierge, repairs and maintenance. The food provided by the firm is a mix of
both South and North Indian, with a slight regional variation.’

 The startup claims to have 16,000 ‘live beds’ and 50,000 ‘locked-in beds under Zolo
Standard and Zolo Select offerings category. Costs are around 25 percent lower than
industry standards with a very high customer satisfaction score.

1.6 Future Plans:

 The company plans to expand to around 60,000 beds by December 2020, and also start
operations in Mumbai.

 They are also planning to venture into two/three student cities like Manipal, Davanagere,
Bokaro, Varanasi, and Coimbatore. They are already present in Kota. Student cities are
places where the student population is more than professionals.

 They also want to go the extra mile for younger professionals in the existing cities.

 In this sector, the more options they explore in a city, the more amenities they can provide
like - bike on rents, cars on rent, gym memberships, etc.”
CHAPTER-2
INDUSTRY
ANALYSIS
2.1 Business Lines of Interest

□ Investment in apartment type properties in the operating cities\

□ Family residential properties

□ Expanding to fully furnished 2BHK and 3BHK PG apartments along with single
rooms
□ Couple-friendly properties to compete in the market.

□ New residential projects in new cities in South India.

2.2 PORTER’S 5 FORCE MODEL
Competitive Rivalry:
This one seems to be quite High. There are quite a few strong players who are dominant in the
market which are NestAway, OYO Life, CoHo, Stanza Living and CoLive and they are present
in almost all the cities where Zolostays operates.

Threat of New Entrant:

This one seems to be relatively low or at best Medium. It is not easy for someone to just enter
into the market and provide quality accommodation at such large level and affordable price.
There are innumerable regulations and other obligations to be dealt with after Covid-19, plus
this industry is having cut-throat competition now even from the unorganized local PG services
which are cheaper.

Threat of Substitutes:
This one seems to be quite low. It is difficult to come up with a substitute to the services
provided by Zolostays as it is quite the substitute only for the real estate market. I would say
this threat is a low as there is not any substitute present for rental accommodation

Bargaining Power of Buyers:

This fluctuates, but right now the bargaining power of buyers seems pretty High as there seems
to be many other competitors and a lot of inventory that is not rented out due to covid-19. The
other difficulty is that you are not delivering your product to the consumer right now but in the
future when you don’t know what the bargaining power of the buyers will be, since customer
can cancel his booking in future before moving-in as per norms. To be safe, even in a time of a
shortage of inventory, you would have to assume the bargaining power of buyer is high even at
times when it isn’t. Zolostays has Flexible Price Policy, and may give certain additional offer to
a customer.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers:

This one seems to be low. There is lower switching cost in changing supply of Raw Materials or
Labour. There is negligible threat of forward integration by suppliers. There are large number of
suppliers of Raw Material and Labour for Zolostays.
 5 FORCES ANALYSIS

Oyo Life
NestAway CoHo
Rivalry among the competitor

Threat of New Entrants Local unorganized PGs

Bargaining power of supplier is always low in

Bargaining power of supplier case of real estate or Co-Living Industry.

Bargaining power of Buyer Bargaining power of buyer is very higher in

this case as the customer has a definite budget
for investment and he
Expects to get the deal within his budget. to
get the deal within his budget.
Zolostays deals with Flexi Price Policy, its
possible in this case.

Threat of Substitute Threat of substitute is low.

So to sum up with: Competitive

Rivalry: High Threat of New

Entrants: Low Threat of

Substitute: Low

Bargaining Power of Buyers: High

Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Low

2.3 STP AND SWOT ANALYSIS:

STP
Segment Cosmopolitan Cities
Target Group Students, working professionals, couples
Positioning Zolo - Your Safest Home

SWOT Analysis
First mover advantage
Strong brand image
Price competitiveness
Strengths Excellent operational efficiency
Prime Properties also available
Many prominent award holders in startups category
Manage properties with affordable amenities.
10+ cities presence and dominant market share

Unprofessional staffs
Weakness Lack of new residential buildings
Conservative marketing strategy
Limited property staffs

Expansion in other parts of India

Infrastructure development
New government policies will lead to easy clearance of projects, in turn will decrease
Opportunities the life cycle of project.
Tax incentives for investing in real estate sector
Apartment accommodation
More projects for couple and family accommodation

Lower barriers to entry

Threats Unorganized local PG services
High Cost in Metro cities
Covid-19 pandemic
 CHAPTER- 3
Objectives & Work
done during
Internship
4.1 Objectives of the project:

 To do competitive analysis

 To conduct online promotional activities for Zolostays Property Solutions.

 To understand the lead generation process in Co-Living Industry.

 To generate leads and follow up with the leads generated by online promotional
activities.

 To manage the new clients and give them the property information

4.2 Work done during Internship:

 Conducted 10 online Promotional Activities

 Generated 25 good quality leads from online Promotional Activities

 Handled all Pre-Sales activities and Helped the manager in closing the deals

 Used CRM and Leadsquared to automates tasks and workflows.

4.3 LIMITATIONS:

 Many customers didn’t want a shared accommodation due to Covid-19.

 The time was limited.

 Following up with all the leads takes time because of delay in confirmation.
 CHAPTER- 4
Methodology
Methodology:

1. To do competitive analysis-

I researched about 4 competitors of Zolostays Property Solutions as a student and

collected the required information for doing the comparative analysis with the
competitors.
Further the information collected was presented in front of the sales team and then the
data was handed over to the sales manager.

SWOT and Competitive analysis was used to present the information to the sales department,
and then data was handed over pdf format.

2. To Conduct promotional activities Zolostays Property Solutions-

To conduct promotional activities, we used many social media platforms like Facebook,
LinkedIn, Instagram and WhatsApp.

After identifying the target market where it was possible to do the promotional activity,
we started using digital posters and story-telling, creating posts about the safe and hygiene
of accommodation at Zolostays and its standard quality amenities with the price range.
Also, we used to list our properties on portals like OLX, Quikr, Facebook Marketplace,
99Acres, Magicbricks, Housing.com and Just Dial to reach the maximum target market
who is searching for accommodation in our operating cities.

Promotional Activity Place Enquiry

Story-telling LinkedIn 7
Digital Posters Instagram 2
Posts and Stories Facebook 16
Posting services Facebook Groups 25
Listings OLX 10
Listings Quikr 3
Listings 99Acres 2
Listings MagicBricks 5
Listings Housing.com 5
Listings JustDial 0
3. To generate leads and follow up with leads from online promotional activity-

After confirming a promotional activity, we had to conduct the activity and generate
leads from it. We used Google forms and mentioned the link to form on every portal and
promotional post to fill-in if interested, to collect information of prospected clients.

Link to form: https://forms.gle/UzToPZQeL1QexC3k7

The form responses were further evaluated and leads were mentioned in Leadsquared
portal of the company and then we called or connected with the leads on WhatsApp to
know their complete requirements and their needs and further shortlist properties for
them which is part of Pre-Sales activities and then we handed over those leads to the
manager for closing the deal.

4. To manage the new clients and give them the property information

Studied the project thoroughly, and understood the process majorly by attending the
client meeting with the closing managers. And then prepared similar sales pitch which
was used to explain the project to the new clients.

The complete property was shown using the brochure, property video, presenter and
show flat and if the client was in town, we book a property visit for them with the help of
property managers and staffs.
CHAPTER- 5
Findings
Lead Names Gender Contact Nos. Location
Akshay Male 9096238192 Pune
Amrutha Female 9995786146 Chennai
Archit Male 8180826339 Bangalore
Arti mourya Female 9359332672 Pune
Ashish Joseph Male 7550159338 Chennai
Chetan Kalate Male 9011851111 Hyderabad
Fazil M Male 8870558207 Chennai
Govindan Raju Male 9994052123 Chennai
Kanwaljeet Garcha Male 8802604342 Bangalore
Madhulina Female 9830498875 Pune
Manoj Bingi Male 9540078967 Pune
Mayank Male 7273871859 Chennai
Mohammad Anas Male 8669113632 Pune
Mohammed Male 8286002613 Pune
Mohan Male 9500330373 Chennai
Mohan Rathinam Male 7604838464 Chennai
Raj Male 9500427138 Chennai
Shaikh Sharif Male 8446194429 Pune
Shatabdi Wasnik Female 9986977770 Pune
Shweta Dhakate Female 7249400559 Pune
Surendra Sangare Male 7506052037 Pune
Tabish Shakeel Male 8896187410 Hyderabad
Thanuja Female 9500363505 Chennai
Vijay Couple 8792446882 Chennai
Vrutti Shetty Female 8805876356 Pune
 CHAPTER- 6
Learnings from
Internship
Professional communication

Working in a professional setting for the first time can be difficult to get used to. But it is the best
way to learn how to navigate the working world through real-life, hands-on experience.
One of the most valuable skills I gained from this internship is the ability to speak with people in a
professional setting. Discussions with bosses or coworkers are different from discussions with
lecturers or fellow students.
After this internship, I have a better idea of the appropriate way to behave as a professional. This
will help me a lot when I start interviewing for jobs because I will be more confident and will
sound more mature and experienced in a business setting.

Making Connections and Network

In addition to the people who will be my references in the future, I left my internship with new
connections: senior employees, clients, fellow interns, etc.
These people can provide guidance, advice and help me in future job searches. Keeping them in
the loop on where I am in my career, and offer to help them whenever I can.
I made an effort during the course of my internship to build relationships with people around
the office.

Leadership, confidence, and responsibility

While I was an intern, I was responsible for various areas of the business for which I worked. I
had guidance and mentors, but I did have to make decisions on my own.
Through these experiences, I developed a sense of leadership (especially with regards to
speaking for and defending my ideas and decisions, not to mention actually making
decisions!), confidence (along with taking ownership of my decisions and their outcomes), and
responsibility (my decisions would impact the business).
These traits are invaluable when it comes to a career, and an internship is the perfect place to
learn and perfect them

Sales & Marketing

Mostly sales activities are carried out on calls only. Potential customers are identified by
various sources – cold calling, digital marketing, and other online promotional activities.

 Carried out Pre-sales activities for Zolostays Property Solutions.

 Meticulously studied about the project. Understood the lead generation

process in the industry.

 Sales is not just about selling the product but identifying and fulfilling the
needs of the customer.

 To attend each and every customer effectively and efficiently, we designed a

process for sales wherein we decided there will be 3 stages for attending a customer.

 The idea is to make them feel good. And I talked to no. of people, which makes the
enquiry a bit serious and hence a better chance to convert them.

 For every customer that has been identified, a Sales Value Chain is followed.
HR Practices:

Till now HR motivational theories were something that was just reads by me in the books. It
was during my internship at Zolostays that I experienced it. The team at Zolostays helped us in
every way possible to make us feel comfortable and the whole environment was conducive of a
friendly working environment which helped us settle early in the organization.

It started with the induction which was followed by an ice breaking session with the seniors, to
make us familiar with the working of the organization and also inform us that what was expected
of us. This helped us put our energies in the right direction. The mentees tried to ease the
environment with a pinch of humour and informal talks.

It is important to socialize and therefore they took informal sessions with us and casual meetings to
guide us for future.

Employee recognition is something that was followed in the office. We as interns were asked to
participate in brain storming sessions and given assignments, our ideas being openly welcomed
and acknowledged. This provided a deep sense of association with the company as our ideas
were appreciated which motivated us to perform even better.

All the HR practices that were till now just written in text books could actually be related to by
me after being part of this organization.
Importance of follow up:

It is something that was learnt after every mail that I sent and every response that I received.
Follow up is the key word in the media and entertainment industry. This industry is all about
numbers and probabilities and a lot of effort goes behind in converting a deal. Follow up is
something that is like mandatory and should not be ignored at any cost.

Patience:

Every response that I got felt like a deal was done. But the fact being a response for a query is just
a simple query and is nowhere near of being a closed deal. I was disappointed every time it
happened that the client backed out after hearing the budgets. It felt like all the effort in finding
the client details and approaching them went waste. It was then that my mentors told me that
being patient is the key. All you need to do is sit back and follow up. Never lose patience.
OUTCOMES:

Reference Benefit Scheme: A reference benefit scheme was introduced in which monetary
benefits were rewarded to the clients who gave reference to us.

Promotional Activity:

Promotional Activity Place Enquiry

Story-telling LinkedIn 7
Digital Posters Instagram 2
Posts and Stories Facebook 16
Posting services Facebook Groups 25
Listings OLX 10
Listings Quikr 3
Listings 99Acres 2
Listings MagicBricks 5
Listings Housing.com 5
Listings JustDial 0

Competitive Analysis: Did competitive analysis for Zolostays which helped strategy
team in decision making and pricing. I researched 6 projects for competitive analysis and
got all the information required to connect the dots for our projects, where exactly we can
chase our competitors.

Comparative Analysis: Did comparative analysis to know the market position of

our projects. Tried to find out what are the positives and negatives of our projects with others and
presented the same in front of the sales team.
The Importance of CRM in industry:
CRM stands for customer relationship management, but it can mean many different things: Some
agents regard it as software designed to help manage clients, some consider CRM to be a business
philosophy and others view CRM as a process that involves strategy, software and systems to
gather, nurture and ultimately convert contacts to clients — and then keep the relationship going
after the sale.

Regardless of your definition, nearly every industry uses some form of a CRM solution in their
business. Which particular product they use isn’t as material as what they do with it.

In talking with dozens of employees who use CRM to convert contacts to clients, six benefits rise
to the top of the list.
1. A CRM organizes tons of information in one place

Most successful sales professionals have multiple lead generation streams. You probably get
contacts from sources such as your sphere of influence (SOI), website, social media platforms,
direct mail campaigns, farming, online advertising sites and others. Maintaining individual
databases for all these lead generation sources is cumbersome at best, and likely horribly
inefficient.

With a CRM, however, you can consolidate information from all your lead generation sources in
one place. Contacts are easily collected and organized, and you can access the information from
various platforms (desktop computer, laptop, tablet or mobile device).

2. A CRM allows you to make immediate responses

Responding immediately to inquiries, particularly online inquires, is a critical component of

successful conversion. Many real estate and co-living CRMs include a customizable auto-response
feature that enables you to provide an immediate response to contacts.

You might be thinking, “But auto-responders are so impersonal!” While an auto-response such as,
“Thanks for contacting us. We will get back to you ASAP” is indeed impersonal, you can (and
should) customize auto-response messages to each specific contact or group of contacts.

Try telling it like it is. “Sorry for the auto-response! I’m currently out with clients and I wanted
you to know that I received your message. Our team is already working on your inquiry. As soon
as my schedule clears, I will get back to you.”

In the field, a good mobile app, like the Premier Agent® App, can serve as your CRM, notifying
you of incoming leads so you can immediately reply to them. Being responsive
— and doing it sooner rather than later — is the key to starting the client relationship.
3. You can also use a CRM to keep in touch with past clients

Many agents seem to think the primary purpose of a CRM is to help cultivate and manage new
prospects. While that is a key benefit, don’t forget about that group of people who already know
you and your services well: your past clients.

According to the 2015 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 88 percent of buyers said they
would use their agent again or recommend him or her to others. Yet only 12 percent of repeat
buyers actually used their previous agent.

Read that again — 88 percent said they would use their past agent but only 12 percent actually
did. Why the discrepancy?

People don’t rent homes every day. For many, years go by between home renting. Over those
years, clients might forget who their agent was. The solution is simple yet is missed by many
agents: Stay in touch with your past clients so they can’t forget you.

That’s not to say you have to bombard them with newsletters and mailings. A few “touches” a
year is often enough to stay top of mind. With a real estate CRM, you can keep track of clients’
birthdays and anniversaries. One of the best ways is a short and simple “home renting
anniversary” email:

“Hey Bob and Jane! Did you realize that today is the one-year anniversary of your home renting?
Remember all those houses we traipsed through, thinking we’d never find the right one? Well, we
did! Hope you are still enjoying that lovely deck!”

No selling, no “Do you know anyone looking for accommodation?” Just a quick note to let your
past client know that you remember them, appreciate their business and value the relationship.
Other non-intrusive ways to stay in touch might include wishing a client a happy birthday.
4. CRMs let you customize and personalize your services
You should record all the “intel” you gather about a prospect in your CRM, including areas and
neighborhoods of interest, types of homes they are looking for, price range, desired number of
bedrooms and even preferences like amenities and food preferences. Every detail you capture can
be used to personalize the service you give prospects, which will help you get further down the
road in converting the prospect to a client.

How do you think it feels if a prospect gets listings from you that don’t really meet their criteria?
Compare that to a personal email like this:

“Hello, John! I was looking at houses today with a client of mine and came across one that I think
you might like. It’s got exactly the amenities you prefer and, and — knowing how much you love
nature, this property is located on the outskirts with ample amount of air and nature! Check it out
and let me know what you think.”

Even if your prospect isn’t ready to rent, your attention to detail will go a long way toward helping
them choose you as their agent when the time comes.

5. You can automate tasks and workflow

With a real estate CRM, you can combine the personal touch with the ease of automation. For
example, that “home move-in anniversary” email you want to send? You don’t need to page
though a database every morning, looking for past clients who are having said anniversary that
day. Real estate CRMs are very good at remembering dates and doing something with them.

Simply compose your email and program your CRM to send it on the anniversary date. You can
do a bunch of these at one time (how about quarterly?) and trust the CRM to remember tasks and
do the heavy lifting.
6. You get instant feedback about what works

It’s easy to just keep throwing things out there and hoping something sticks. However, if you can
track and measure what does (and doesn’t) work, you will be far more successful over time. A
good Co-living CRM can give you information about email open rates, click- through rates on
links, which listings clients are looking at and other helpful data.

Focus on the things that work. Toss the things that don’t. Experiment with different mailings,
subject lines and calls to action. If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve. With a CRM, you’ll
know what works rather than guessing and hoping that what you’re doing is effective.
CHAPTER- 7
Conclusion
 Conclusion

These two months of internship at Zolostays can be summed up

as the most enriching and experiencing two months of my life.
The Co-living industry has a lot to offer and so much potential
to be a billion dollars industry. And, every day was a new
learning experience for me at Zolostays. With this first
experience in the corporate world, I have come more
knowledgeable and confident as a person. Here, I actually
applied my knowledge of the sales and marketing domain which
I’m gaining during my post- graduation.
CHAPTER- 8
References
References:

□ Shah Kazmi : Marketing Management, Excel Books, New Delhi, 2007, pp. 290- 291

□ Marketing Management, 15th Edition, Philip Kotler, Northwestern University

□ https://zolostays.com/

□ https://seal.zolostays.com/

□ https://www.linkedin.com/company/zolostays/

□ https://www.magicbricks.com/

□ https://www.99acres.com/Home-Real-Estate.htm

□ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/competitive-analysis-zolostays-coliving-space- sugat-
nayak/

□ https://yourstory.com/2019/04/nestaway-zolostays-oyo-life-india-coliving

□ https://www.cbinsights.com/company/company/zolo-competitors

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