Rethink
Building the Future of CRE Dealmaking

Behind the success of every business that boasts an engaged customer base is a robust customer relationship management (CRM) system. Without a clear understanding of the history and current status of each customer relationship, the ability of a company to exceed client expectations can be severely restricted. This is where a CRM system creates a single source of truth by connecting various data sources to pick up customer interactions across every touchpoint for a coherent and complete relationship picture. However, when it comes to commercial real estate (CRE) firms, an off-the-shelf CRM system might not be their best option to track customer relationships. This is because dealmaking workflows are starkly different from a typical CRM pathway, and a traditional CRM solution can leave many of the CRE requirements unmet. To address this need of the hour, Rethink has built a customized CRM platform on Salesforce that can cater to the specific needs of CRE firms. The platform gives real-estate firms and brokers a unified tool to manage and streamline an entire deal through a single platform.

In an interaction with CIO Applications, Vijay Mehra, founder and CEO of Rethink, highlights how his company brings a world of difference to businesses with their deep expertise in the CRE arena.

What is the story behind the genesis of Rethink? How does Rethink approach its clients’ CRM needs?

My experience as a CRE-investment advisor and Salesforce implementation partner helped me realize two things. The first is the gap between how CRE firms work and what they are trying to achieve. The second is that CRM tools did not fit the needs of the CRE space.

To address these issues, Rethink was formed at the end of 2007. With a mission to improve the dealmaking process for commercial real estate brokers, Rethink leveraged the Salesforce.com platform to deliver a CRM tailored to meet the needs of CRE clients.

Today, our solution gives brokers, agents, and commercial real estate dealmakers an unprecedented access to the data and insights needed to close more deals.

As we work alongside tenants, property owners, and sellers, in addition to capital markets teams and real estate developers, we continue to gather feedback on their needs and challenges so we can improve Rethink’s capabilities. We believe that a client-focused approach is a key to offering a solution that drives high adoption rates and successful solution use.

Can you please shed some light on the RethinkCRM solution and its capabilities?

In addition to typical CRM features, Rethink offers a variety of capabilities tailored specifically for the CRE space. These include stacking plans, a map-based searching tool, and access to COMP data, commission splits, and more.

Our goal is to help our clients use the market data they are already collecting to make smarter business decisions. That is why we are investing heavily in artificial intelligence and machine learning to give our users the tools they need to quickly and easily make data-driven decisions.

Security is another focus of ours. Building our solution on the Salesforce platform allows us to offer the same level of security and trust Salesforce has to offer.

How does Rethink differentiate itself from its market competitors?

Rethink stands out for three reasons. The first is innovation. We recently updated our product roadmap to include investments that go far beyond our competitors, including a significant push for mobile capabilities.

The second is a robust partnership ecosystem. We integrate with solutions like CommissionTrac, Reonomy, Buildout, and many other tools our clients use every day. This enables Rethink to seamlessly fit with the workflows and processes CRE firms already have in place.

Finally, we prioritize client success. We have maintained a 97 percent customer satisfaction rating and a response time of less than an hour. We take proactive steps to ensure this level of customer satisfaction by assigning a dedicated client success manager to each of our clients. We also continuously collect feedback from our users and incorporate it into our product roadmap. For example, customer feedback led to the release of Property Sites, a powerful new tool that empowers brokers to quickly create unique websites to promote all of the properties and spaces in their portfolios.

How does the journey ahead look for Rethink?

CRE is becoming more competitive, and brokers need to stay ahead of the curve to win deals. To help CRE firms make the most out of this situation, Rethink will continue to improve the user experience and offer tools that help them leverage their market expertise.

A big part of that is our focus on mobile. To help our clients get the most out of Rethink, we are rolling out an integrated mobile solution powered by AI and machine learning early next year.

Finally, we are expanding our footprint to Latin America, APAC, Europe, and more.