I love trying new things.  When they're familiar, that is. =)

I wasn't able to take part in the popular Growth Leader trial runs. =(  But why should that stop me from running a trial of my own on something else altogether?  This has nothing to do with a website generating leads, by the way.  I just like the way people are reporting on their experiences so I am going to do the same with this product I decided to try for my contact management, or CRM. 

I plan on providing weekly updates on how it's going.  Or maybe a little more often, since I am on a 30-day free trial.  I am going to give it 100% and give it an honest-to-goodness try.  No sense in taking my 30 free days if I'm going to goof off for 25 days.

The product is EurekaWare and it is an overlay for Outlook.  For you Outlook lovers out there without a separate CRM venue that is real estate specific, this may be good news.  I happen to adore my Outlook and am sure that I only use about 2% of what it is capable of doing.  It is truly a powerful program.  So if I already have that, use it daily and know how to use it, why not try something that will just be added to that and avoid a little of the learning curve?

I've actually been looking into Top Producer and even asked buddy Janie Coffey (who loves it) to send me an invitation if they give her a month or any sort of benefit for inviting me.  But then I did a little more research and decided to try EurekaWare before taking the TP plunge.  I promise to use your invite if I sign up eventually Janie!

Please keep in mind that I am not comparing EurekaWare to Top Producer.  I have never used Top Producer but I know a few agents who swear by it.  I will, however, point out that there is a marked difference in cost.  Top Producer costs about $40/month plus extra for other bundled features and EurekaWare costs a flat $99 for the software.  Again, not comparing apples to apples as they don't have the same functionalities, but for someone like me who wants a real estate-specific contact manager with the capability to also run action plans, keep buyer and seller needs, as well as listing information for starters, I figured I should take the path of least resistance (to my bank account) first.

EurekaWare gives a 30 day free trial.  No credit card needed.  Just download the software and start using it. I downloaded it in just a couple of minutes and started Outlook after installation.  They warned me that Outlook would be a little slow the first time after installation.  They were right.  It took about 2 minutes to finish doing whatever it is computer programs do behind the scenes after we ask them to start changing things around.

I immediately went to a contact screen so I could see the difference between the new fields and the old Outlook fields.  Ooooh, there are a ton of them!  You can add a spouse, children, etc.  And the ribbons in Outlook 2007 are different too.  The new icons include action plans and more.  See the picture below.

I am going to work on some of those action plans and report separately on that but for now it's important to note that:

1. It was easy to install.
2. It was quick.
3. It didn't crash.
4. It was FREE - to try anyway.  I will gladly pay for something that works the way I want it to.

For a complete list of features, check out the EurekaWare site.  I am impressed that it even has web lead import.  Yes, folks, you can use a bit of code on your website and any leads you get from there will automatically be converted to a contact in your Outlook.  How cool is that?!  Of course, I will test this out and report on it later. =)

If this interests you at all, feel free to download and take the journey with me.  If you prefer to wait the 30 days and see whether my laptop explodes (or maybe I do!) then read along and learn from my mistakes =)

I'm so excited that I am taking a big step to become more productive.  I can talk and talk, but when push comes to shove, you have to just do it.  I have been swamped with work and definitely need a better way of keeping up with it all.