Case Study

How Avison Young Achieved a 90% CRM Adoption Rate with a Strategic Platform Overhaul

Within just four months, Avison Young boosted CRM adoption among brokers from a mere 23% to an impressive 90%. Here’s how they did it—and what your real estate firm can learn from their digital transformation.

 

 

 

  • The Problem

  • The Solution

  • The Results

  • Key Takeaways

Disconnected Systems and Manual Forecasting

As a growing organization with more than 5,000 professionals across 120+ markets, Avison Young faced the classic symptoms of CRM sprawl:

  • Low user adoption—Most brokers didn’t actively use the platform, making it hard to manage relationships or sales forecasting.

  • Siloed client data—Multiple systems made it nearly impossible to see a full view of client activity or cross-sell effectively.

  • Manual reporting—Finance teams had to manually compile reports across spreadsheets and systems, limiting scalability.

The result? A serious drag on productivity and visibility—two things no brokerage can afford to compromise.

One Unified Platform, Built for Brokers

To address these challenges, Avison Young made a bold move: they consolidated their fragmented CRM environment and rebuilt it from the ground up using HubSpot’s full platform suite.

This wasn’t just a technology swap. It was a strategy shift.

  • Adopted HubSpot CRM across sales, marketing, service, and content management.

  • Standardized processes using Operations Hub, Sales Hub Enterprise, and CMS Hub Enterprise.

  • Empowered brokers with an interface that felt intuitive—not like another task on the to-do list.

  • Leveraged existing familiarity with HubSpot to drive immediate buy-in.

Rather than force adoption, they made the new platform worth using.

From Disengaged to Empowered

The impact was immediate and measurable:

  • 90% adoption among brokers within four months of rollout

  • 95% of North American revenue now tracked within the system

  • Cross-sell opportunities surfaced through a unified view of client data

  • Significant time savings across finance and operations

  • Improved recruitment—brokers now cite the CRM as a selling point when joining the firm

Perhaps most importantly, the CRM is no longer a standalone tool—it’s a core part of how the business runs.

  1. Adoption isn’t a feature problem—it’s a user problem. If your platform isn’t helping brokers do their job faster, it won’t get used.

  2. Centralize data to multiply value. The more unified your systems, the more strategic your insights.

  3. Treat CRM as a revenue engine. When implemented right, it boosts productivity, strengthens client relationships, and even attracts top talent.

 

Curious How HubSpot Could Work for You? Let’s Find Out

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