I have worked with some incredible real estate technology companies primarily in sales and sales management, so I was front line when we had the opportunity to work with large Enterprise clients. While they were all great companies, the one thing that frustrated me more than anything when trying to work with them was having to convince them that our technology solution was perfect for them the way it was. The truth is, it wasn’t always. It might have been great, but real Enterprise companies are always looking for that edge they can add, that special sauce, that unique service or software feature, and this wasn’t something any of the companies I worked with could handle. It was totally out of their comfort zone.
I started working with Real Estate Webmasters (REW) over four years ago, first as a consultant, and I realized early on that they were different in this regard. I learned that REW’s success was built on their ability to customize their systems to a client’s needs, rather than having to convince the client that everything was perfect out of the box. Yes, their core system had great CMS, CRM, lead management, campaigns, and more—including multilingual options—but REW’s philosophy is to provide solutions that complement your business systems, rather than try to convince you to change your business systems to work with our software. This is perfect for Enterprise clients.
Over two years ago, I joined REW full-time as VP of Business Development, helping Morgan Carey, our owner and CEO, take the company to the next level. Like any growing company, we had to put the right infrastructure in place to handle our success. With the rest of the REW team, we made this happen, and have seen continual growth and expansion throughout the company, which meant other changes were in order to pace that growth. I was promoted to VP of Enterprise to lead our sales initiatives. We opened our new flagship building in downtown Nanaimo, making five REW buildings overall. We opened a branch Enterprise office in Buffalo, N.Y. More recently, we relocated our Enterprise division to our new offices in the World Trade Center in Vancouver, BC, adding incredible world-class talent in the process, at all levels. That team, and our company, continues to grow along with our Enterprise client list, which has grown tenfold over the last two years.
Enterprise clients are a unique breed. There are reasons they’ve been so successful. In addition to their size, they also think differently. They need unique tools to service their entire organization, top to bottom, and they don’t usually want the exact same solutions their competitors use. They want to work with vendors who understand their world, that allow them to actualize what they can envision, and that don’t freak out when they ask for something “special” or “custom.”
One of the other things that makes REW different in the way we approach the Enterprise space is the fact that we build planned upgrades right into our pricing model. We know that our customers need to continually upgrade their system and that their website will need to be totally redone in two to three years. Our customers don’t have to worry because those upgrades are part of the model. New core releases from our R&D department are provided free to Enterprise clients, who only pay for implementation, and customers can request custom development work anytime. This means their technology will stay on the leading edge in their markets. At the same time, they have balance and control over their technology costs.
REW currently serves Enterprise clients in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and other international locations.
Michael Audet is vice president, Enterprise at Real Estate Webmasters. For more information, call 716-839-4628 or email audet@realestatewebmasters.com.
For more information, visit www.realestatewebmasters.com.
