Do you have a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) or some sort of contact management system? Any small or large business owner (and lets face it, as a Real Estate Professional you are a small business owner) should have some form of a contact management system in place to manage and organize your client contacts, family, friends and general sphere of influence. In the case of most small business owners, many don’t need anything more than something like Microsoft Outlook. For the Realtor that is looking for a little bit more, there are many popular options out there, and many of them can easily be run by a Real Estate Virtual Assistant.
I often get asked what are the best CRM solutions for a busy real estate professional. The answer really depends on what your needs are. Over the next few weeks I will post about what CRM options are available to Realtors. Today I will examine two options out there for use by the real estate professional.
Microsoft Outlook: While Outlook is sometimes considered “basic” when it compares to other contact management programs used by real estate professionals, it is still a great tool to use to get email, manage appointments, tasks and notes, and keep your contacts organized in one central location. With more advanced versions, Outlook can easily be synced with handhelds, can be shared, and can easily interface with many other technology products used within the industry.
What the basic Outlook does lack are some of the advanced tools that some agents seek like drip email campaigns, document creation, marketing campaign management, and transaction management. (the newer Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager says it features things such as marketing campaign management, though I do not yet have personal experience to see if it is a right fit for real estate).
Top Producer 7i - Top Producer is one of the most popular products in the real estate industry for contact and relationship management. The reason may be because they have been so heavily marketed the in past couple years, and there wasn’t much competition.
Top Producer is a powerful web-based CRM with tons of capability including, contact management, listing and transaction management, drip email and letter campaigns, marketing tracking, CMA creation, and more. And because it is web based, it can do just about everything an agent may possibly need from any computer with an internet connection. You can also add assistants and team members to be able to manage your business together (all at an additional cost per license of course). The included action plans and library of emails and letters are can make prospecting and transactions go on autopilot. Top Producer has also partnered with many other vendors to help simplify a Realtor’s work-flow by integrating with mobile products, MLS systems, Outlook, many websites, real estate web forms and online transaction programs.
The main problem with Top Producer it is that at first glance, it is not the most user friendly to the non-tech-savvy agent. I have often been approached by an agent who purchased Top Producer and had it for months or even years, but have never even used it. Many were sold the product and then were not aware of where to receive training and support. Others simply didn’t have time to take training to learn to use it and have come to me to use it for them (which I will do gladly). Top Producer does offer live online training classes for $29.95 per class, or free Quick Start classes held in your local areas (must call to request, or check the site for upcoming dates).
When at NAR, excitedly I was told that Top Producer 8i will be coming out in early 2008. First, current subscribers will get to enjoy upgrades at no additional cost. And according to their customer service, 8i has been re-worked from top to bottom to improve many of the functionality and work-flow concerns that have cropped up with the previous version. I am hoping to get a glimpse of it soon.
Be on the lookout for later postings where I will be highlighting other contact management solutions for Realtors, including one viable alternative to the CRM giant Top Producer that I have found… The Wise Agent.
Find out about our contact lead management services we offer at BVAS along with much more by checking out www.barbervasolutions.com/services.htm.
© Megan E. Barber, Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, LLC
Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, and publisher of The REAL Advantage E-Zine. Megan has spent 9+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.
Very good article. Thanks!
I like very much TP7i, but as always, I will love to see in the next version, several things that they don’t have included now, like: documents storage, more versatility to open several windows at the same time, faster inbox, nicer way to work with the listings…
I review the Wise Agent that you mention, but it doesn’t look as complete as TP7i…
Do you know another program that can be compared (or is better) than TP7i?
Thanks again,
Bea