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System for Contact Management

By Mary Benton

Real Estate Broker/Owner with TechTown Realty, Licensed in Texas 578384

December 06, 2007 12:39 PM

Today was a beautiful day in Lubbock! And day one of a class on developing a business plan for 2008. This seems to be a great class to help one establish goals and come up with an action plan to reach those goals. I had some trouble in deciding on my Big It. The big goal, tangible goal, that I want to achieve or earn or accomplish in 2008. Part of that is because I am a conservative person by nature. My natural tendency is to set a realistic or modest goal. Yet our team leader has really encouraged us to think big. So I put down three Big It goals. I will mull over which of these I really want to be IT.

During the class I realized that I really need to explore a way to manage my leads and data base. A way to track contacts and manage "touches". I know I could do this manually and develop a card file. But I have heard some agents mention Wise Agent and Top Producer. When I got home I researched a bit and several times I read that you can do all that these programs do for you through Outlook.

Question - What system do you use, do you like it, have you found some limitations? Thanks for any input. I realize that beyond just taking a poll, I have to just make a decision and move forward. But I'd really like to hear from some folks who have used Top Producer or Wise Agent or Outlook to manage their real estate business. Thanks much!

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Lisa Ryan

Callaway Henderson Sotheby's International Realty - Montgomery, NJ

Selling Princeton,West Windsor and Montgomery Town

Mary~ I just purchased REspond, an Outllook add-on specific for real estate. This was recommended by Pat Zaby at the Realtors convention I just got back from today. I'm looking forward to getting it up and running.

Dec 06, 2007 01:35 PM

Donna Grady

Keller Williams Realty - Wilmington, NC

Bringing Home Results

Hi Mary -- My business plan unfortunately is in my head and not on paper but I have had the same class. Some agents find top producer to be very helpful especially the ones that have assistants but the biggest concensus in our KW office of the single agents is that you pay big bucks for the system and get very little training. You have to pay for the training that you would think would come with the original payments. My problem with top producer is that it is too confusing on how to get the system to do what you want it to do. Right now I am using it as a super dooper address book. It has nice email cards with pre-written messages/letters but the messages/letters are straight out of the 4-4-3 manual. But they do have the graphics that look nice. I never send out cookie cutter messages without personalizing it. Otherwise, one of my clients may get the same letter with another agent's name on it. It is time for me to renew my top producer but I think I am going to drop it. The Rep that we have in our district is more interested in signing new users up than assisting existing ones to keep us. He holds classes for our Association at $50.00 per Realtor for 3 hours. Three hours is not enough training so you have to take more and more classes. They make a fortune off of training sessions. One of our agents spearheaded a jam session where we all got together and shared with each other at least one AHA that we had figured out. That was the most helpful training I have received. In our area the Rep will not talk to you if you sign up online for the program instead of purchasing it through him so be aware of that. Ask questions before you buy it. It could be different in your area.

Basically, what I am saying is that if you plan to buy Top Producer you need to allot time and money for the training of this complex system. In the year that I have had it, it has not been productive for me and my business has not depended on it. My first year in real estate w/o top producer total volume sales was 1.5MIL my second year with top producer was 2.4MIL and I am one month into my third year with $264,000 volume sales. When I reach the level of hiring an assistant, I will go back to it so my assistant can feed it daily and attend to its schedule. One of our top producers could not run his business without his assistant and her extensive knowledge of top producer. So it works for those with leverage but until you get there be aware that it will take a lot of your lead generation time. Oh, I have used the card system with Mary Kay, Inc. and used it my first year at KW. It works.

Also, I use the county's tax list mostly as my database for mailouts. Fortunately, our county has a great address index online. I can pull up streets and get everyone's address right there. It has worked better than paying a mail order company because with them I get more returned postcards than when I use the county's database. This was a guarded secret of mine. Hope no one from my area reads this. ;-)

Dec 06, 2007 02:05 PM

Mary Ann Grafft

Keller Williams Realty - Lubbock, TX

Mary, I see you are blogging. Good for you! Are you posting your blog to Localism? Let me know if you need assistance.

Dec 08, 2007 04:09 AM

Mary Benton

TechTown Realty, Licensed in Texas - Lubbock, TX

TechTown Realty in Lubbock

Mary Ann, thanks for the offer of assistance. I'll take you up on that since I don't know about Localism yet.

Dec 08, 2007 12:26 PM

Donna and Lisa - thanks for the input. I know several agents in our office use Top Producer. BUt from all I have heard I think it would not be a good fit for me now. I'll definitely check into REspond. Thanks again.

Dec 08, 2007 12:28 PM

System for Contact Management

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