For sales teams working in the commercial real estate space, searching for contacts using multiple search providers can be an exercise in patience. Putting together the research and creating a list of contacts is a project that can take up a good chunk of the workday. That time could be better spent setting up meetings with CRE leaders and coming up with strategies for how to close a deal.
CRE sales prospecting platform Biscred gives sales teams key details on CRE companies and decision-makers — including a person’s rank within a company, what asset class they specialize in and their market — and generates a list of contacts, all in just a few clicks. Users can also implement additional data points to further narrow down search criteria and target by industry, company contact count, the properties owned by the company and more.
Biscred Head of Product Emma Thibaudeau said that having a sales platform solely devoted to CRE that provides key industry information through an advanced data system is what makes Biscred stand out from other sales prospecting providers. While other platforms may provide a general overview of CRE, they don’t cover the specifics that sales teams need to know in order to prospect effectively and build relationships in the industry.
“Sales teams have to spend a lot of time hunting down information about companies, their portfolios and the people who work there and piece together their findings from several providers, and after all that work, there could still be holes in the information,” Thibaudeau said. “The gap we’re trying to fill is to bring together one platform that can do all three of those things for them so that salespeople don’t have to rely on those different providers.”
Bisnow sat down with Thibaudeau to discuss her experience in the data realm, the platform’s streamlined approach to connecting sales teams to the right companies and contacts and how it has evolved over the past year.
Bisnow: What challenges do salespeople typically face when prospecting CRE?
Thibaudeau: There has been no platform built for salespeople that is specific to the CRE space, until now. If you go to other platforms, they're going to lump all of real estate into one giant vertical, which includes both the residential and commercial markets. However, Biscred is intentionally keeping its focus on CRE and on what makes the industry unique, and that’s by breaking down the different entity types or the different asset classes or properties, or focusing on the differences between owners, developers and investors.
What also differentiates us is tracking those key data points at the company level but also at the person level. We ask something like, ‘What asset type is this person focused on?’ A company may have 10 different asset types but the individual who works at that company has a focus on one specific one. It’s a level of detail that other platforms aren’t focusing on.
Bisnow: How does Biscred streamline the prospecting process to help salespeople find the right companies and contacts?
Thibaudeau: Instead of logging into different systems and having a variety of data subscriptions, sales teams can just come to Biscred and easily build out a criteria search that is unique to what they need. Because Biscred is purpose-built for CRE, we have a much more advanced search system, where users can create complex queries by using filters to layer in criteria at the company level or on the person level, and then get a nuanced list with relevant company or contact information.
From there, the information can be downloaded or transferred into a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. We have invested in different workflow tools, so users can store information in a way that makes sense to them and go back to retrieve it when they need it or share it internally. The whole process takes seconds instead of someone’s entire day. Biscred aims to meet people where they are from a workflow perspective.
Bisnow: You have a background in data. How did you apply that to your background in data to your role at Biscred?
Thibaudeau: I’ve been involved in data since college, in one way or another. I started off as an auditor and then worked at a data company. At one company, I worked on the data collection side by leading research teams and then moved into the product side, thinking about data strategy and how we can expand a company’s offerings in response to what clients needed.
Through this experience, I have gained a strong foundation for how the inside of a data company works. While Biscred is a different company from the one I worked at, the fundamentals at Biscred were similar: the team wanted to collect company details and build out a product that was unique to the CRE space. I came to Biscred not knowing anything about CRE, but I knew how to manage information at a scale and build out a taxonomy. It’s been an incredible opportunity to get to learn more about the internal operations in CRE and the nuance between different industries.
Bisnow: Biscred launched in July 2022. How has the platform evolved since then and what new developments are on the horizon?
Thibaudeau: Our initial goal was to put out a very straightforward platform in front of users so they could give us a lot of feedback. We launched the platform in July, but we didn’t start selling it immediately. Instead, we launched an extended trial version of the platform and users gave us feedback on how the platform was going for them and what they still needed. We used that feedback to craft a roadmap for the next year.
For example, in the beginning, the search was very simple and people could only search in a few different ways. To address feedback, we spent a lot of time investing in our search capability. We’re now investing in new datasets and in how we collect data at scale. The platform has become more complex and offers more information and more ways to access it.
The scope of coverage has also exponentially increased, and we’re about to increase it more. We’re transitioning from a platform that only contained owners, operators and developers to a platform that is covering a wide range of industries within CRE. Our goal is to be the definitive resource for all things CRE.
I take pride in the fact that our team is committed to providing our users with what they need, whether it’s more specific data or an optimized search experience to help them make more successful sales in CRE. We take the information we learn and continually check in with users to make Biscred as comprehensive of a platform as possible.