Now that Top Producer 7i users are getting free upgrades to the new Top Producer 8i a lot of people are re-evaluating their situations.

8i is a complete rewrite of the system.  While most of the functionality is the same, its look and feel are completely different.  Consequently, there will be a learning curve for users making the transition from 7i; and the intimidation of that has got a lot of people thinking about whether they really want to go there, or not.

The best news for those deciding to make the transition is that your 7i and 8i systems work in tandem; i.e. any additions or changes you make in 7i will immediately appear in 8i, and vice-versa.  This will let you experiment in 8i at your leisure and fall back to 7i if you get stuck, or are pressed for time.  So, as long as you don't wait till the last minute, your learning curve doesn't have to be very steep, or pressured.

While there are no huge functional differences between 7i and 8i, there are many improvements and fixes that will ultimately make the pain of the transition worth it. 

The biggest improvement comes in the speed of working with 8i.  First, part of the speed improvement came from getting away from Java and implementing the program on standard Web browsers.  The second part of the speed improvement comes from being able to use multiple browser tabs. 

This enables you to keep many parts of the program open simultaneously; so you can jump back and forth at will.

Both Top Producer 7i and 8i are very good real estate agent programs.  The real trouble is that very few agents are benefiting from much more than 10-15% of the system's many powerful capabilities; simply because they haven't set them up and learned to use them properly.

If you really want to get your money's worth out of your Top Producer 8i system, take a look at the following list of very common user mistakes, and RESOLVE NOT TO MAKE ANY OF THEM.  Then download my free Guide for some direction on how to take real control of your system.

The 16 Biggest Top Producer Implementation Mistakes To Avoid

1.  Database Not Fully Loaded

You gotta have it all in one place if you want to be able to market to it effectively.  Typically agents have some:

• On their MLS
• In their Phone
• In their PDA
• In their Day-Timer
• In a box full of business cards
• In the Outlook program
• In their Yahoo or AOL email account

Also, very few Agents seem to have assembled a database of other Agents; which is a huge mistake.  After all, 85% of all buyers are working with Agents.  That means if you can put your listings in front of other Agents faster and more effectively, you'll be reaching 85% of your Buyer market directly.

2.  Database Not Optimally Segmented

Target marketing means you can send Buyer oriented stuff to Buyers, Seller oriented stuff to Sellers and Homeowner oriented stuff to people who aren't currently in the market to either buy or sell (which, by the way, is about 99% of your total "Met" database at any given point in time).

Optimal segmentation means that you can easily send the right communications, to the right segments, at all times.

3.  Not Using Email Integration

Email is important and its becoming more important all the time.  It's a huge advantage to send and receive email from your business database.

Still, most agents do not appear to be using the email sending, receiving and storing capabilities within Top Producer.

4.  Not Using Marketing Links

Top Producer has a Library space for maintaining custom links to any and all Web pages that you could want to use in your Marketing Campaigns.

Once the links are setup in the Library they can be easily imported into individual emails and email templates for mass mailings.

These links are the very foundation for truly powerful, custom marketing campaigns; yet, I rarely find an Agent who even knows that the Marketing Links feature exists.

5.  Not Using Email Template Library

Top Producer comes pre-loaded with about 500 email templates; that virtually nobody seems to like (most think they're too old, impersonal and generic). 

In writing these default email templates off, Agents overlook the fact that the Email Template Library can be fully customized to contain truly fabulous marketing and administrative pieces.

Sure, it's some work to setup; but WOW, once you've got them all in place you're ready to do some fantastic, high-volume, high-quality, free marketing.

6.  Not Using Action Plans to Start, Build and Maintain Relationships

Once you've got your Marketing Links and Email Templates in place you're ready to build Action Plans for your various Automated and Free Marketing Campaigns:

• Newly Mets
• Mets
• Past Clients
• Hot Buyers
• Warm Buyers
• Hot Sellers
• Warm Sellers
• And more...

These Action Plans are what actually schedule and drive your fully automated, virtually free, relationship marketing campaigns.

Not having their custom Action Plans in action is the biggest single mistake that Top Producer users make.

7.  Not Using Scheduling Capabilities

There are so many details to keep track of "On-the-fly" in the real estate business it can make your head spin:

• Marketing
• Calls
• Appointments
• General To-dos
• Listing To-dos
• Closing To-dos

It takes a lot of time and mental energy to stay on top of everything if you're not using Top Producer's powerful scheduling features to help you; time and energy that you could otherwise being using in much more creative and productive ways to advance your business.

8.  Not Using Flyer Publication & Distribution Capabilities

Top Producer enables you to:

• Create virtually any flyer design template you like
• Import property data and photos directly into the flyer template
• Automatically publish the flyer to the Web as its own Web site
• Then automatically email the link to the flyer to anyone or group in your database; for FREE!

Amazingly enough, very few Agents are using this capability to communicate with their own Buyer Prospects, much less their Agent Colleagues who are directly representing 85% of all the other Buyers currently in the market.

9.  Not Using Presentation Customization and Publication Capabilities

Similar to the flyer capability, Top Producer enables you to:

• Create virtually any kind of Presentation template you like
• Import Contact information, property data and photos directly into the Presentation template
• Automatically publish the Presentation to the Web as its own Web site
• Then automatically email the link to the flyer to anyone or group in your database; for FREE!

Agents can use this feature to impress clients by very quickly putting together extensive presentations, emailing links, then calling them on the phone to review the information.

Not only are clients impressed by such demonstrations of information, technology and marketing prowess; they appreciate the responsiveness and time savings too.

10.Not Using Listing and Closing Plans

Setup these plans right once and you can use them over and over again to keep you on track and in control, no matter how many concurrent listings and closings you have.

Sadly, very few Agents have even attempted to personalize these Plan setups, and even fewer are benefiting from the control and peace of mind that these Plans can provide.

11.Not Fully Using Contact Record Features

Top Producer Contact Records are the home base for everything to do with people in the Agents database:

• Contact Information
• Property Information
• Scheduled Activities
• Activity History
• Correspondence History (with copies and attachments)
• Reports
• Referrals
• Notes

Very few agents are taking anywhere near full advantage of all the Contact Record features in Top Producer.

12.Not Reporting to Clients

Top Producer creates very comprehensive printed reports; it publishes them to the Web and provides clients their own username and passwords so they can securely view them.

Not only that, but it also publishes on-the-fly status reports that update your activities on the Web for Client Viewing within 10 minutes of you marking an item "Done".

Very few Agents seem to even be aware that these powerful Reporting features even exist.

13.Not Synchronizing with PDA/Phone

Given how much of the time Agents are out of their offices, it's a huge advantage to have your database, calendar, to-do list and notes in your pocket or purse.

If you work in a team, it's great to be able to enter things in your PDA while your out, then automatically transfer that information to the main system when you get back; at the same time you'll receive all the input your team did while you were out.

And now Top Producer synchronizes with all Palm, Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices.  Still, few agents are picking up on this great advantage.

14.Not Integrating with WINforms/Zip Form

Ultimately you're going to do a lot of paperwork.  How cool is it to automatically transfer all that contact and property information you used in your marketing effort directly into the documents you're creating for the transactions?  This is another great, but little used, feature that saves a lot of time and reduces errors.

15.Not Integrating with Relay Transaction Management

You can also automatically import Contact and Property information into your online Relay Transaction Management System.  Another little used feature.

16.Not Coordinating With the Team

With Top Producer being online and accessible from virtually anywhere at any time, it is more than feasible to work tightly as a team no matter who is in or out of the office.

When teams use the system to its fullest extent, it becomes super easy for the managing agent to know at a glance where everybody is with everything.

The management vision and team coordination capabilities of Top Producer are truly awesome; yet, very few teams I've encountered have come anywhere even close to tapping this power on their own.

Now is a great time to improve your marketing and business systems.

Business is getting tougher all over.  Clearly, you need to market more, and market more effectively; yet still keep your costs down. The custom, automated Web/Email relationship marketing features in Top Producer can help you massively in this regard; you just need to set them up.

If things are a little slow right now, then you have more time to implement better systems.

Here's an information offer to help you take better advantage of this opportunity. 

This Guide includes a very detailed checklist that outlines the most important Top Producer implementation issues for you to address.

You can download this Guide for free from my Web site.