communications: The Two MOST Frequently Asked Questions about IXACT Contact Real Estate CRM
- 06/23/11 02:35 AM
As a real estate CRM company, we’re contacted by REALTORS® everyday asking us about how our smartphone wireless sync works. Many times on that same call or email, the conversation moves to our Activity Plan functionality and what that’s all about. In fact, we have found that these two questions are our most frequently asked ones. You might be wondering what the answers to these questions are too, so let me take the time to address them now.
Wireless Sync
As an IXACT Contact subscriber, you can easily sync your Blackberry, iPhone, android, or Windows Mobile Device with the system. It’s a constant, two-way … (2 comments)
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communications: The Ultimate Way to Reward Your Referrers
- 06/21/11 02:25 AM
The below is a great article by real estate coach and trainer, Richard Robbins. If you want an ongoing stream of referrals, it’s so important to show appreciation to the people that refer your services. As Richard writes in the below article, simply sending a thank you note is not enough. Become a strong advocate of relationship marketing, master the contact management approach (using your real estate CRM system), and build your business based on referrals and repeat marketing. To do this, you need to know how to truly recognize your referrers and transform happy clients into loyal advocates.
Most successful … (2 comments)
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communications: Get More Referrals Through Expanding Your Professional Network
- 06/14/11 02:22 AM
As a busy REALTOR®, you work so hard to attract new potential clients into your Referral & Repeat Marketing database but you shouldn't neglect another great source of referrals: Your professional network.
As you may already know, your professional network is that group of professionals in the greater home industry to whom you regularly refer clients - and who, hopefully, also refer clients to you.
Why is having a large professional network so important?
There are two reasons.
The first one is obvious. These professionals can send a lot of business your way! So, keep them in your IXACT Contact real … (6 comments)
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communications: Let Your Clients Do the Bragging!
- 06/09/11 03:05 AM
Sales leader Tom Hopkins published a great article online that I'd like to share with you here. There are many real estate sales professionals out there who could be getting more business from satisfied clients than they currently are. In the below article, Hopkins outlines various strategies salespeople can use to win more clients and future business.
Top professionals in nearly every field of selling understand the value of a good client. Each client's business not only adds to your personal bottom line, but it can lead to even more business through referrals. However, the best salespeople have learned how … (0 comments)
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communications: Putting Our Best Foot Forward
- 06/07/11 02:13 AM
"If you take action just for the sake of doing it, without expecting a reward, you will find that you enjoy every action that you do. Rewards will come but you will not be attached to the reward. You can even get more than what you would have imagined for yourself without expecting a reward. If we like what do, if we are always doing our best, then we are really enjoying life. Seek the pleasure in what you're doing, rather than in how it might benefit you."
- Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements
In The Four … (0 comments)
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communications: Top 5 Ways a Web-Based CRM Saves You Money and Hassles
- 05/31/11 04:35 AM
Today's new breed of web-based contact management systems (also known as CRMs) have many advantages over traditional PC-based purchased software, and saving money is just one them. Let's take a look at some of the top reasons why a hosted or web-based CRM is your best bet:
1. Less risk. When you purchase PC-based software, it's forever. Whether you like the system or don't like it, you've made a monetary investment that you can't get back. With hosted solutions, you pay a monthly fee to use the software, there's no long term commitment, and you can typically cancel at any time … (9 comments)
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communications: What's A Hot Prospect?
- 05/25/11 02:23 AM
Here's a typical scenario...
A Realtor® gets what she believes to be a hot prospect. Over the next several weeks she calls and visits. The prospect is friendly enough. In fact, the agent has numerous conversations with him and answers question after question. But as the weeks go by, nothing happens. Finally, the agent realizes, "This is a dead end." But she has already wasted hours of her valuable time.
Has this ever happened to you?
The way to solve this problem is to understand the difference between a HOT prospect and someone who is only casually interested in buying or … (6 comments)
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communications: Learn How to Deepen Your Relationships Through Social Media
- 05/20/11 02:53 AM
At IXACT Contact, we talk about the importance of developing deep relationships with your contact base. Through building strong relationships with past clients, you'll grow a business based on referrals and repeat business. But, in addition to maintaining relationships through using a Realtor-specific contact management system, such as IXACT Contact, it's important to utilize social media. As social media has become an increasingly popular and preferred method by which to reach and engage with people, it's imperative that you understand how you can use it to deepen the relationships with your contacts and grow your business. In this blog post, I'll … (9 comments)
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communications: IXACT Contact at the RE/MAX Professionals Spring Into Summer Office Meeting
- 05/13/11 10:31 AM
This past Monday IXACT Contact was lucky enough to sponsor and be an integral part of the RE/MAX Professionals Spring Into Summer event at the beautiful Credit Valley Golf and Country Club in Mississauga, Ontario. The theme this year was "finish strong." It was a great opportunity to meet and network with RE/MAX professionals and some of the leaders in the real estate industry. Walter Schneider, President and Co-Founder of RE/MAX Ontario Atlantic Canada, was the keynote speaker. In his speech, he provided some excellent insights that I'd like to share with you here.
On Monday, Mr. Schneider had two key … (0 comments)
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communications: Building Loyalty Through A Client Appreciation Event
- 05/10/11 09:36 AM
"What did you do this summer?" a friend asks. Chances are your answer will relate to an event you attended, such as a trip to a theme park with the kids, a family reunion BBQ, or participation in a golf tournament.
People remember events. That's why hosting a client appreciation event can be so effective. It makes clients feel special just to be invited. Even those who don't attend will rarely forget the extra effort you've made.
There are many types of events from which to choose. You can host a:
Morning at the movies BBQ get-together Family bowling tournament Bingo … (5 comments)
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communications: 8 Easy Ways To Make Your Customers Love You
- 04/28/11 07:49 AM
This is a re-blog of a post by Judith Aquino of American Express OPEN Forum. It's a great article that is highly applicable to REALTORS® and the real estate industry. It's also in perfect alignment with the IXACT Contact philosophy of relationship-building through adopting a contact management approach.
Everyone knows you can't have a business without customers. However, one of the worst mistakes any business can make is focusing its marketing efforts on attracting new clients while neglecting past and current customers. Studies have shown that the cost of acquiring a new customer is far greater than what it costs to … (13 comments)
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communications: Why Targeted, Personalized Messaging Will Pay Off for You
- 04/21/11 05:43 AM
One should never underestimate the business-building impact of well-written emails and letters that are targeted and personalized. Time and again, they'll beat out shotgun style email campaigns. According to a great book by Daniel Goleman, entitled, "Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships," Goleman uses a social neuroscience approach to explain people's differing reactions to being treated as a "You" versus an "It." In order to be effective in messaging to clients, your communication needs to be personalized and relevant.
If you're sending out email blasts that are generic, you are missing the boat. Understand your clients' interests and develop … (8 comments)
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communications: Closing Gifts: The Best of the Best
- 04/14/11 04:56 AM
Many of you may have seen some of my blogs on ActiveRain. In fact, I’m quite active in this online community. I was reading through various blog posts and came across some great ideas for closing gifts. I thought I’d share some of the ones that particularly stood out in my mind:
Dawn A Fabiszak of Denver, Colorado supervised the construction of her client’s new home and documented the process along the way, creating a beautiful photo album. You can imagine how surprised and elated the client must have been when she received this unexpected gift! Tammy Lankford of Lake … (2 comments)
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communications: Top 5 Ways Real Estate Sales Professionals Can Generate Referrals and Real Estate Leads
- 04/07/11 04:57 AM
1. Keep in touch with past clients through a combination of direct mail pieces, phone conversations, and face-to-face meetings or events. After you sell your client’s home or find their dream property, the buyer-REALTOR® relationship shouldn’t end. The average person knows 3-5 people who will move each and every year.
2. Have a contact management system so you know who to contact and when. A contact management system will also give you the means to create drip and mass emails (drip marketing) and letters and labels. With a good real estate software, keeping in touch becomes something you enjoy doing versus a chore that … (11 comments)
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communications: The Easy Way to Generate Referrals and Repeat Business
- 04/04/11 04:19 AM
As a real estate sales professional, you’re always looking for ways to bring in new business. Many REALTORS® spend a lot of time and energy hunting for new business and trying to acquire new clients. What many fail to realize is that the real value lies in investing your energy into furthering the existing relationships that you’ve already built.
It takes 5 times the amount of time, money, and energy to find and service a new customer then it does to maintain and service an existing customer. And that’s not all. 80% of people who don’t have a real estate agent will get one … (9 comments)
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communications: The Amazing Business-Building Power of a Business Directory
- 03/28/11 06:20 AM
I think we’d all agree that for long term success, one of the most important things you need to do as a Realtor is to add value to your client relationships over time. Of course, clients expect you to do a great job as their agent during an actual purchase/sale transaction. But doing a great job alone is not enough to ensure referrals and repeat business down the line. Instead, it’s just the “price of entry”.
You need to offer support and services that add value when you’re between transactions. Why would a client want to speak to you if they’re not buying or … (0 comments)
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communications: Keeping In Touch With Clients Doesn't Have To Be Hard
- 01/24/11 08:11 AM
I published a series of posts in the fall about the “HOW” of practicing effective contact management and what good real estate marketing is all about. I’d like to pick that up again, and go a little deeper now into communication strategy. Let’s take a look at some real world examples of what we refer to as keep in touch events. A keep in touch event can be anything from:
a quick phone call to say Hi a preferred client update mailer on a monthly basis to your “A List” or “Group 1″ contacts an email to a prospect asking how his daughter’s dance recital went … (3 comments)
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communications: Interview with Real Estate Trainer and Coach Richard Robbins
- 12/06/10 10:57 AM
Richard Robbins is Co-founder and CEO of Richard Robbins International, a global sales and business coaching organization. Richard is an author, business mentor and sought-after expert in the field of personal and professional performance, and has trained and coached tens of thousands of Realtors worldwide to higher levels of sales performance and personal satisfaction.
I caught up with Richard earlier today and asked him a few questions about his Achieve 2010 event that starts tomorrow, and about his thoughts on the future of real estate sales.
IXACT: I'm sure you're excited about Achieve 2010 that starts tomorrow. Can you tell … (0 comments)
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communications: But How Do I Gather Information On My Clients?
- 10/13/10 05:16 AM
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post that outlined some of things you might want to learn about your contacts over time in order to build deeper and more meaningful relationships. This post generated a lot of questions about exactly HOW one goes about gathering this information.
The key is to view this as a process that you will work at over time. It may sound daunting, but you’ll be amazed at how easily and quickly you’ll start to gather this kind of information once you start to focus on it. Once you master this process, your real estate marketing will become … (35 comments)
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