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CRM or PDA? - Chicken or Egg?

Someone recently asked:

I'm getting a 1st gen iPhone as a gift from my brother and am very excited to get going with it. Before I jump in I'm looking for suggestions, tips & ideas from the iPhone users out there:

1) What CRM solution are you using & how does it work with your iPhone?

This person may have no choice. She's getting the iPhone as a gift. What I've been running into a LOT lately, is people going out and getting an iPhone, and THEN asking me what CRM to get, that works with an iPhone. That's backwards. OK - I get it that the iPhone is the great new toy, but when it comes to which phone/PDA you should get, THAT choice SHOULD come AFTER you get your CRM solution. Your CRM solution is a far more important, complex, and long term choice than your PDA.

If all you're using is Outlook, go for it. iPhone will do just fine with it. If all you're using is Outlook however, you're going to have a much harder time doing well in this market, because you're not doing the kind of consistent follow-up, in volume, that you need to do in this market. Doing well in my mind is not doing 15 or 20 sides. You can do that kind of volume by simply working a lot of hours and doing a lot of manual follow-up - the hard way. I feel comfortable making that statement, because I not only survived, but prospered doing 40 - 50 sides, in the same kind of market, from 1988 through 1993. I know for a fact with myself, that the reason I prospered was because I had a program called "Real Estate Specialist" which allowed me to launch follow-up campaigns, which kept me on track with a large volume of "suspects".

There are 25 different CRM solutions out there. Frankly, many of them are too new, or have too many holes (usually a function of being too new) to be the best choice, but out of 17 of them that I have interviewed and/or used, 5 of them will work with an iPhone, all of which require extra software to do it. Top Producer doesn't. Agent Office doesn't. Mark-It Advantage Xi only does if you first synch it with Outlook. Active Agent for Outlook does with additional software, as will All Clients. Many Web based solutions will be quick to jump and say they will work with it by going online with it. Sure, but you may as well open your laptop and do it that way. It's not truly practical.

My point - if you see both a new PDA and a new CRM solution decision in your near future, pick your CRM FIRST, and make what it will synch with part of your choice. Not a big part; just a part.

Posted by Gary David Hall, Real Estate CRM Broker,e-PRO,RECS on 07/23/2008 08:51 AM

Comments (9)

crm, contact management, top producer, pda, real estate, all clients, active agent for outlook, markit advanatge xi

Post is included in group: Top Producer 7i & 8i Users
Post is included in group: Technology - Contact Management / CRM for Real Estate Agents

9 Comments on CRM or PDA? - Chicken or Egg?

You sound like me, and when you tell people their new toy doesn't play with their contact management you ruin their day!

07/23/2008 09:11 AM

by Dick Betts (Dick Betts National Speaker)

LOL - How 'twoo' :-)

07/23/2008 09:22 AM

by Gary David Hall, Real Estate CRM Broker,e-PRO,RECS (RE-ACT)

boy that is a great question. In fact I am going throught the same problem. As for phones, I have done extenstive research and while the iphone will develop more and more programs it is not close yet.

Problem I have is that I have gone through 6, yes 6 Palm 750 with ATT in less than a year. The phone is JUNK! Now the folks at ATT are great in fact earlier this week they sent me the ATT Tilt. While new to me it seems to do everything I need. Also I am have been playing with Microsoft Office Live Small Business. Thinking of making my main CRM. Why, MS will be around and is compatable with everything.

just my two cents

Tony

07/23/2008 09:23 AM

by Tony Grego with AmeriSave

If Outlook is so great, why are there 26 different Real Estate specific CRM solutions? The answer: Because Outlook is not so great. It is grossly inadequate, even with the new Business Contact Manager. How do I know that? Because I get calls on a regualr basis from people who are using it, and are dissatisified. I get more calls than anyone in the world on a daily basis from people using all manner of CRM solutions. That is the general consensus. The best quote I ever heard was that "It will do 80% of what a Real estate agent needs to do". First of all that's not true. Secondly; What about the other 20+%? There is no RE CRM solution that will do 100%, but there are some that will go a darn sight better than Outlook.

07/23/2008 01:21 PM

by Gary David Hall, Real Estate CRM Broker,e-PRO,RECS (RE-ACT)

Gary,

I will be on your call tomorrow with Jennifer Allan's Savvy Prospectors group. I am a big Mac guy and have downloaded the 10-day trial from REST. Digging it so far. You mention there are 5 CRM tools that work with the iPhone. Which are they? As a Mac guy I understand my choices are more limited for CRM solutions, but if I can find a decent program AND there is iPhone support, I will be a Happy Prospector!

Looking forward to tomorrow's call.

All My Best,

Mike

08/04/2008 07:25 AM

by Mike Lefebvre (Hallmark Sotheby's International Realty)

Mike - there are no other 'desktop' solutions that wqorkd with a MAC, without using VMWare, Parallells, etc. There are Web based ones like AllClients, Prospects, and RealFutureCRM. Those are all available through my site, as is REST.

08/04/2008 01:22 PM

by Gary David Hall, Real Estate CRM Broker,e-PRO,RECS (RE-ACT)

Gary,

I am a Mac guy as well, and I am also a broker of a small, up and coming company. I am in serious need of getting a CRM but am very CONFUSED by all the options out there. Company wise I have 4 Mac's, 2 iPhone's, and a few Window's boxes. I would like something that I am not sure exists, a CRM that works in all the worlds! Out of the 5 that are at least compatible with the iPhone which would you say is the best in the other arena's as well?

Thank you,

-Chris

08/20/2008 10:51 AM

by Chris

Chris,

I am a few weeks into my experience with REST and I could not be happier! I'm just a single user, but they do offer products more multiple users to work together. I'd say even better than the software has been the phenomenal customer support I've gotten from them. Karen Hardy has been super-helpful and responsive on a lot of "dumb rookie" questions I've had. Give Karen a ring and spend some time talking to her about your situation and your needs. I think they are real solid people, passionate about software (and Macs!) and really proud of the product they've created.If her product will work for you, she'll tell you. But more importantly if it's not the best choice for you, I think she'll tell you that as well.

Good luck! Please post back here when you make a decision.

Mike

08/20/2008 11:59 AM

by Mike Lefebvre

Chris - as has been mentioned, REST is a good MAC option, although it does not synch with iPhone. One was just brought to my attention that I had not yet heard of. I'm in the process of contacting them to do my CRM Comparison Matrix with them, and affiliate. It's called Daylite, and they have a Real Estate add-on. I only heard from one person, but he likes it, and has been using for about 3 months. It's at http://www.marketcircle.com/daylite/industry/RealEstate

08/20/2008 01:27 PM

by Gary David Hall, Real Estate CRM Broker,e-PRO,RECS (RE-ACT)

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