How Biscred brought together 14 years of real estate data and expertise to enhance CRE sales prospecting
Commercial real estate is a complex industry. Selling to a CRE owner, developer or operator requires navigating technical jargon, understanding the ins-and-outs of an asset class and finding the actual decision maker — not an easy feat.
Various CRE platforms have emerged to help sales teams find contacts, but even for the most seasoned commercial real estate professional, using B2B prospecting tools effectively can be time consuming. And while some of these platforms can connect you to the top commercial real estate companies, few, if any, can offer you information about companies of all sizes and professionals at all levels in markets across the U.S.
This is where Biscred comes in.
Not Another CRE Software!
Biscred is not just another CRE software tool. It's a prospecting platform that makes CRE-specific data accessible for sales teams in industries such as proptech, insurance, architecture, design, engineering, services and material providers, and all industries looking to work with CRE. The platform merges “people-level data” — or contact information that typically has to be found using tools that offer spotty coverage of the CRE industry — with industry-specific information, such as industry classification, asset class and job function.
Biscred General Manager Benjamin Hertz said these elements are crucial for navigating CRE and gaining the knowledge needed to start building contacts, while avoiding the hassle of verifying inaccurate or outdated information from multiple outlets.
"There are a ton of B2B lead tools out there, but so few of them actually think about the salesperson, their workflow and the insane amount of time they have to spend to use a prospecting tool effectively,” Hertz said. “Biscred is designed by the salesperson, for the salesperson. We focus heavily on saving sales teams' time, energy and frustrations as well as listening to our clients’ needs to continuously improve the product and data set and ultimately to help them do more business."
A sales representative looking for CRE contacts and information can log into Biscred to search for industry professionals and information on companies both large and small to find sales targets and create lists with key contact information.
Search Beyond Top Commercial Real Estate Firms
Beyond searching for people and company names, users can enable filters that allow them to search for someone with a specific level of seniority, experience in a certain asset class or individuals located in a certain state or region of the county. All a user would need to select is “vice presidents within acquisition departments with multifamily experience in the Northeast” and they will be presented with a comprehensive list of contacts. They can also access Biscred’s guides to learn industry terms as well as details about particular asset classes.
Real Estate Research Meets Machine Intelligence
At the heart of Biscred is a combination of targeted research and machine intelligence. The team leveraged Bisnow’s vast network of CRE professionals and its extensive database, encompassing 14 years' worth of categorized, validated and organized information on one platform. Biscred is currently home to millions of data points, with approximately 10K contacts added and validated every week. The database focuses all of this information into seven key data points that sales teams need to sell their products to CRE professionals: name, contact info, title, industry, asset class, and geography.
Hertz said that a platform like Biscred is a game-changer because while many sales professionals are experts in their products, they may not have the CRE knowledge or connections they need to connect to a wide range of industry professionals.
“We wanted to build this platform to help with all manner of CRE sales and to make sales teams across every industry that touches CRE more efficient,” Hertz said. “Sales teams need to gain the knowledge needed about owners, operators and developers in their specific niche. And what we’re doing is helping them find these valuable companies and contacts.”
How Biscred Built Its CRE Prospecting Platform
Biscred Head of Product Emma Thibaudeau said that Biscred was born of a collaborative effort, with hundreds of hours spent determining the most efficient way for the CRE prospecting platform to look and function.
She said that while Hertz conducted market research and connected with clients to nail down their needs and determine Biscred's unique value proposition, Thibaudeau, along with Biscred’s team of researchers, constructed the database.
Thibaudeau first needed to determine both the tech resources that were needed to build out the platform and the information that sales teams would search for. She assessed the data that Bisnow had collected to figure out what information would be most relevant and devised a system for how to collect it.
“It’s all about precision, execution and accuracy, and being diligent day in and day out,” Thibaudeau said. “We need excellent data in order to build an operation that can support managing an exceptional database.”
Thibaudeau said that once she compiled and organized the data, the next step was to answer the question of “what problems are we trying to solve for our users?” and develop the technology around that.
To answer this question, Hertz collected feedback from sales teams and Bisnow clients about what issues they were having when it came to finding qualified leads.
Biscred launched via an invitation-only pilot program in July 2022 and is launching to the public in September.
“We have a lot of confidence going into the market because we’re not just releasing something and hope it works, we know what clients want,” Hertz said.
Hertz, Thibaudeau and the Biscred team are excited for users to check out Biscred and learn more about its game-changing impact.
“We have a roadmap of things to accomplish to continue to create a great user experience for our client base, and it will help us continue to reach more clients and give them a great educational experience,” Hertz said. “We’re so proud of what we have built so far, and we can’t wait for what’s next.”
If you're ready to ditch lead generation platforms and find out how data research and machine learning can up your business development, request a demo here.