A good Contact Management program is critical to an Agent’s business.  There are many options out there, and it can be confusing to say the least.  How do you choose the right one for YOU?  Here are three easy steps to consider when you’re ready to look for the best CRM to fit your needs.

Make a list. Start by making a list of the features that are most important to you.  Do you want to send email marketing campaigns?   Do you need help staying organized with regards to your transactions?  Maintaining a detailed contact history is also important.  Do you want to sync your phone to easily access the information from anywhere?  If you leave your current brokerage, can you take your database with you?  Having a list of your top priorities allows you to easily weed out any options that don’t have all that you need.

Ask around. Do some research to see what options are available.  You can ask your colleagues or broker, check out Facebook groups, do some Google searches – the more information the better.  Run each program through your list of critical features to ensure it has what you are looking for.  Narrow the list down to a few programs that include all (or at least most) of your specifications.

Try it out. Most CRM programs offer a free trial period so that you can make sure it will work for you before you buy.  Make sure the interface is user friendly and intuitive.  This is also a good time to test their customer support – make sure they have help available when you need it.  The last thing you want to do is get stuck with a program you don’t know and there’s no one around to assist you.  Is there a cost for training, or is it included for free?  Also, confirm that the cost is within your budget, and be clear on the terms of any contract they may lock you in.  Be wary of any program that requires you to enter your credit card up front – this may be a ploy to lock you into a contract if you don’t cancel within a given time frame.

We realize that you have options when choosing a CRM.  Compare several programs side by side to best determine which one is right for you.  Wise Agent has been designed by real estate professionals as a comprehensive system that has all the bells and whistles, but none of the gimmicks.  Compare our features, ask others about their experience, and give us a try – we think you’ll like what you see!

We know how often real estate agents use Facebook, and how much it can help with your business. But, Facebook is also one of those tools that’s always changing and always being updated; and just recently, it’s gone through its biggest change yet. It’s the Facebook Timeline, and it’s forced many agents to change the way they use this real estate application entirely differently. While that’s not so bad, what’s not so good either is that many agents don’t know how to do it!

And that’s why now, there’s help.

On Thursday, April 12 at 12:00 noon Eastern (9 a.m. Pacific), we are sponsoring a free webinar for all members of Wise Agent to help them relearn Facebook, and show them how to change their real estate marketing tactics while using it. Ross Hair and SMMCamp have collaborated to gather five real estate industry and social networking experts to speak about the changes the new Facebook has recently undergone and how real estate agents can work around them, and with them, to get even better results they were getting with the “old” Facebook.

To register for this webinar and start using Facebook more effectively for your real estate business, sign up here: http://smmcamp.com. Then just join us on Thursday and hear all the tips and tricks for using the new Facebook, straight from the experts!

Wise Agent is excited to release another new update, adding value to your account! Our Facebook integration has been updated!  Here are a few of the things you can do, right from within your Wise Agent:

•           View your Wall and comment on your Friends’ posts
•           Post your listings, along with a slideshow, to your Timeline or business Page in just a couple clicks
•           View a Client’s most recent status update from the Client Summary or Contact Notes page, and save it if you want to with a date and time stamp

To activate this feature on your account, simply mouse over the Profile button and click on Facebook.  Follow the prompts to allow Wise Agent to access your Facebook, and that’s it!  If you had activated this feature in the past, you will need to re-activate it once again due to the update.

Having your CRM integrated with your Facebook eliminates having to switch between different programs, thereby simplifying your day.  With nearly a billion active users, Facebook is a great way to connect with people you may never have been able to otherwise.

We always appreciate your feedback and suggestions, so feel free to click the Contact Us button or find us on Facebook, and share them with us.  Keep those great ideas coming!

Wise Agent’s President and CEO, Brandon Wise, was quoted the other day in RE Technology’s article Your Email Program is Not a CRM! We thought the message was so important, we wanted to share it on our blog as well.  Having a good CRM can make the difference between being a successful agent and not.  Outlook is not a CRM – read on to find out why!

Quoted from the RE Technology site:

First things first – CRM stands for “customer relationship management.” While the term can be used to refer to a general concept, we use it to describe software specifically. CRM software is used to organize all of the information related to customers (or other contacts) as well as automate many tasks related to marketing and customer service. It is a sales tool that will keep you well organized and support your ability to plan and track your success.

I was chatting with my friend, Brandon Wise of Wise Agent the other day and he said something that really caught my attention. “I can’t tell you how many people are using Microsoft Outlook and believe that it is a CRM,” he said. “There’s not a day that goes by that my Wise Agent team doesn’t move someone over from the Outlook system because it has come back to bite them.”

Now, I’ve said it before, but clearly it’s not getting through so I’ll say it again: Outlook (or Mac Mail) is not a CRM! At the most basic level, this is because email programs like Outlook focus on just that – email! What happens when communication with that customer jumps out of the inbox and onto the phone, into the physical mailbox, or otherwise into the “real world?” I’ll tell you what – mail programs become blind to any non-email activity, prohibiting you from tracking important touch points. They also can’t help with marketing the way that a true CRM can.

But wait – there’s more! Let’s break this down list-style . . .

1. Outlook is good for sending one email to one recipient. If you’re trying to send an email to multiple recipients, you’re forced to cc or bcc everyone – neither of which is an ideal solution.
2. Outlook does not allow you to leave date and time-stamped notes about important customer interactions. So, when your communication occurs anywhere except via email, you have no record of it.
3. You cannot attach documents to contacts in Outlook. Any documents sent to you through that program are saved to your computer and only accessible from that computer.
4. Outlook provides zero support for marketing. These days, a true CRM provides a robust array of marketing tools and resources.
5. Because Outlook is limited to email, most real estate professionals resort to purchasing a variety of other programs to “fill in the blanks.” This can lead to a very disorganized and time-draining process as none of these other products “talks” to the others.
6. Outlook is, generally, industry-neutral. There are a few “plug-ins” for Outlook that are geared for real estate, but most experts consider these to be relatively weak. By choosing one of the CRM solutions that was created specifically with REALTORS® in mind, you’re guaranteeing better support and more advanced features.

If you’d like to learn more about your CRM options, visit our product directory. Wise Agent (mentioned above) is an excellent example of a CRM designed for REALTORS® – to find out more, we recommend our product review and Friday Freebie. Other examples include Top Producer, Growth Leader from Market Leader, MLS-Office, and Tribus.

A Note on “Internet-Based” CRMs

Unless you’re using Microsoft Exchange, Outlook is NOT Internet-based. (Don’t know what Microsoft Exchange is? Don’t worry; you don’t need to.) This means that you only have access to it when you’re on your own personal computer. This is one reason (of several) that it is not great for the team environment of most real estate offices.

Another reason an Internet-based CRM is a good idea: even though they know they need to, most people do not back-up the data on their computers. If Outlook lives solely on your computer, if it crashes and you haven’t backed-up, you may have just lost all your data. Many real estate CRMs (but not all) are Internet-based, so your data is stored off your hard drive and is safe (as well as accessible anywhere).

The original article can be found here.

How many times have you searched through folder after folder, looking for that particular property listing? How many times have you hoped that the lock box CBS code was scribbled down on that piece of paper, only to be disappointed that it wasn’t? With Wise Agent you can get rid of all the paper, and the headache, and always have what you need at your fingertips.

Begin by adding the Property to your Property List – adding Properties in Wise Agent is easy. Simply go to the Properties tab and click on the “Add Property” link. At a glance you can enter all the most important information including the address. Click on “Show Property Details” and you can add more detailed specs and other information.  Remember to save your work before leaving the page!

Now you can enter the lockbox connected to that listing – just mouse over the Properties tab at the top, and click on “Lock Box”.  You can enter all the information, including the CBS code, shackle code, serial number, and any additional notes. Link it to the property you’ve just added by selecting the correct address from the drop-down menu.  It’s as easy as that!

At Wise Agent we know you don’t have time to be shuffling through paperwork. That’s why we’ve created an innovative real estate contact management system tailored to the needs of a busy agent’s life.

Check out this really cool video one of our fans made for us!  A Wise Agent rap song!?