There are two general ways a contact management system pays for itself. The first is by managing your conTACTS and the second by managing your conTRACTS.
Managing Your Contacts
A good contact manager should enable you to create and maintain a database of everyone you know, obviously. But it's what you do with that database that will make you money.
What can you do with your database to make money?
You can remember and acknowledge birthdays of the people you know. You can print out a list of those in your social network and ask two people from that list to lunch every week. You'll have a handy place to enter the contact information of new people you meet and add them to your go-to-lunch-or-coffee activities or send them your monthly mass-email and annual calendar. You can take notes on conversations you've had with friends and acquaintances and set a reminder to follow-up with them in a week or two to "see how it went" (whatever the "it" is).
Simple simple stuff! Yet, without a contact manager, even a rudimentary one, most of these easy, friendly, stay-in-touch activities simply won't get done. And it’s highly likely you'll forget all about 90% of the people you're meeting out there in the world...and they'll forget about you. A year goes by... and two... and three... and then you wake up one morning and realize you've lost thousands of dollars in commissions because you lost touch with most of the people you know, and never followed-up with all those people you've met. You didn't mean to, of course, but without a contact manager, it's tough to do even a marginally good job of keeping track of those Very Important People In Your Life who can send you business.
If you don't have (and use) a contact manager, I'll bet you've lost over $10,000 in potential paychecks every year you've been a real estate agent. Probably more.
Managing Your Contracts
The second way a contact management system will pay for itself is by helping you stay on top of your transactions - that is - conTRACT management. And this will pay for itself in multiple ways as well!
When you're on top of your business, your clients are being well-taken care of - and they will notice! When you do the things you promised to do when you promised to do them; when you contact your client with updates before they have to contact you; when you head off problems before they even arise; when you always appear to be on top of their transaction - you'll have yourself one (or a dozen) impressed client(s) who will be delighted to spread the word of your impressiveness to the world.
But what's really sweet about having and using good conTRACT management is that you won't drop the ball - at least - not nearly as much as you might without it. When you have fully customized checklists and action plans keeping you on track, things don't slip through the cracks. And when things don't slip through the cracks, you don't have to open your checkbook to fix problems nearly as often. For example, once I got to pay for a thorough housecleaning on my listing after the seller moved out because he "forgot" to do it. So, my Listing-Under-Contract checklist now includes "Verify that seller has arranged cleaning after move-out."
Another time, I got to write a check because I hadn't verified that the HOA fee advertised in the MLS was correct... and it wasn't. We didn't find out until we were all sitting at the closing table and my buyer was, to put it mildly, annoyed. The listing agent (who made the error) wouldn't ‘fess up to his mistake, so it fell to me to make things all better. Which I did, to the tune of over $500. Now, right there on my Buyer-Under-Contract checklist is a line that says "Verify the HOA Fee."
So, the moral of these stories is to assure you that if you commit to using a contact management system in your business, it will pay for itself. Over and over. I promise.
Guest Author Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn has authored books and multiple courses designed to teach agents her Sell with Soul philosophy that centers on four interrelated principles: Respect, Competence, Confidence and Enthusiasm. Her first book Sell with Soul is available in the VanEd bookstore. Her new book, Prospect with Soul for Real Estate Agents is available online at www.sellwithsoul.com.
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