Comparison
Sakneen vs a CRM
A CRM manages people: leads, contacts, pipeline and activity. Sakneen manages homes: the unit record, its price, availability, payment plans and transactions. They overlap at the reservation and diverge everywhere else, which is why most developers on Sakneen keep their CRM.
Different systems of record
| Object | CRM | Sakneen |
|---|---|---|
| Lead and contact | System of record | Referenced |
| Pipeline and activity | System of record | Referenced |
| Unit, price, payment plan | Custom fields, maintained by hand | System of record |
| Availability and holds | Not modelled natively | Enforced per unit |
| Masterplan | Not modelled | Interactive and linked |
| Offer document | Template merge | Generated from the unit record |
| Absorption and price realization | Reportable if the data is entered | Computed from transactions |
Descriptions of CRM capability refer to general-purpose CRM behaviour without a real estate implementation. A heavily customized CRM can model some of this — at the cost of maintaining that customization.
Why customizing the CRM usually disappoints
Modelling units in a CRM is possible: custom objects for units, phases and plans, and automation to enforce holds. Developers who have done it report the same outcome — it works, and then it becomes a permanent maintenance obligation on a system whose upgrades were not designed around it.
The deeper problem is that the CRM has no concept of a masterplan or a payment plan's eligibility rules, so the sales surface a client sees is still built somewhere else.
Running both
Sakneen synchronizes two-way with the CRM: units, availability, holds and reservations flow between them, and the CRM keeps owning the relationship. That is the configuration most Sakneen developers run.
Frequently asked questions
- Do we have to replace our CRM?
- No, and Sakneen does not recommend it. The intended configuration is Sakneen owning the unit record and the CRM owning leads and pipeline, synchronized.
- What if we have no CRM?
- Sakneen can run without one and integrate with one later. Developers on their first or second project commonly start this way.
Related
See it against your own inventory
Bring one project. We load its masterplan and unit list, and you see your own homes as digital records before you decide anything.