In Property, You Cannot Model What Nobody Recorded

A developer will ask me about AI for sales while the entire record of every buyer conversation this year exists as WhatsApp messages on four different phones. You cannot model what nobody recorded. That is not a criticism of how the business was built, because relationships genuinely are the trade in property and the people holding them are usually excellent at it. But it does mean the first project in this sector involves no technology at all. Write down what your people know. Which enquiries came from where. What each buyer asked about before they committed, and what the ones who walked away asked about instead. Which agents produce buyers rather than names. How long each estate took to sell and what changed when it moved. Six months of that, captured in something as ordinary as a shared sheet, and you have an asset. Without it, any tool you buy is guessing on your behalf. There is a second reason to do it that has nothing to do with AI. Everything I just listed currently leaves the company when a salesperson resigns. In a sector with high turnover in sales roles, that is an expensive thing to keep rebuilding. Before the next proptech demo, ask your team a plain question. If our best salesperson left tomorrow, what would we lose that is written down nowhere? Fix that first. The rest gets easier. *Stanislaus Martins advises enterprise teams across Sub Saharan Africa on practical AI adoption. [Speaking and training](/speaking).*