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Dear Vickie,
First of all, congratulations on making the commitment to
incorporate a contact manager into your business. The real estate sales
industry has become so complex and competitive that staying on top of your game
is very difficult without this kind of resource. Also, you are smart in
leaning toward the Web-based versions. In addition to being accessible
from anywhere, this approach provides the answer to your learning curve
conundrum...
Let The Experts Run It
Imagine if you were to build a brand new house and your
contractor pointed to the pile of material and tools you needed to get the job
done and says to you "There you go, it's all yours!" You would think he
was crazy not to provide the tradesmen (i.e. experts) to use the tools and
materials to build the house for you. The same applies when you consider
all the different tools we have at our disposal as salespeople to build our
business. The key to success here is to let the experts run the tools for
you.
Top Producer 7i is the Web-based version of the this very
popular real estate contact manager. Even though it is run through a Web
browser, it has most (if not all) the functionality of the version that you can
install on your PC. Unfortunately, it has much of the same learning curve
as well. Because it is Web-based however, this opens up the possibility of
having an expert (i.e. Virtual Assistant) run it for you remotely.
For example, an agent recently hired
REVA Teams (a
team-based real estate virtual assistant support company) to set up and run his
contact management system for him as follows:
Situation - Client needed a solution to follow up
with leads from his website over a 6-8 week period for top of mind
marketing. This will be used to showcase how he keeps in touch with
prospects as he creates a marketing proposal for a 50-unit building
development.
Software - Top Producer 7i
Problem - E-mails need to be sent out weekly and need to be
individualized for different types of prospects such as:
- If the prospect needs to rent, they do not receive any letters.
- If the prospect is working with a specific agent, they only get the
first letter in the series.
- If the maximum price of the home they are looking at is less than
$100,000, they receive first letter only.
- Keying off of the time frames located on the form they filled out:
- “Immediately” gets the first two letters.
- “30 days” gets the first two letters.
- “2-3 months” gets the first three letters.
- “4-6 months” gets all six letters.
- “More than 6 months” gets all
six letters.
- If a prospect un-subscribes at any time through the campaigns, emails
to stop immediately.
- All emails will follow applicable email rules (double opt out,
etc.)
Solution - Agent has his virtual team do the following tasks to
initially setup and execute the above plan remotely using Top Producer 7i:
- Help create verbiage and information with agent for all letters.
- Create different contact types for the different prospects.
- Develop document for assistant to follow as she calls the leads, and know which contact
type they are so that she can put them in the right field which
automatically flags.
- Start action plan depending on what kind of prospect.
- Add letters into Top Producer 7i.
- Create action plans utilizing letters above which the virtual team
adds onto individual prospects, according to the rules above which
automatically send the right letters to each contact.
- Track leads monthly to determine ROI.
Do you see how powerful a well thought out, comprehensive and consistently
executed contact management system can be for your business? And because the contact management system used was Web-based, all this
effort was able to be done offsite, saving the sales associate a great deal of time and
money. Yet, without the help of expert virtual talent, the above would
intimidate even the most dedicated sales associate, rendering a great
money-making idea impractical.
NOTE: Keep in mind that Web-based contact management systems may require a
separate license for each party that uses it, which means that if you use a VA to
run your system you may have to purchase a license for them as well.
Don't Pay Top Dollar For Amateur Results
Any time you do something outside your core competency (i.e.
sales, listing, negotiating, etc.) you are paying top dollar for amateur
results. Or worse, the job simply doesn't get done at all. Whether
it's contact management, online lead tracking or drip mail systems, it is much
better to let a pro consistently run these tools and systems so you are freed up
to do what you do best!
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