Too Many Choices

With constant advances in technology, the most difficult question facing the average real estate agent today is exactly which technologies they should take advantage first, which come last, and which ones might be a waste of time altogether.

It would easy for most of us to assemble a "to-do" list of technology that we would like to begin using this year. Unfortunately, that list would most likely exceed both our budget and our ability to implement.

Investing In Technology

Rather than thinking about buying all the technology you need at once, you should consider technology as an on-going investment, and budget accordingly. Successful business people invest in education, marketing and technology on a continual basis. Like it or not, technology is an ever growing part of our future, and the future is not something you buy all at once.

How much to invest every year is going to depend on where you are on the technology curve right now, where you want to be, and when. As a rule of thumb, I'd suggest that you budget as much on computer-related technology as you spend annual on your personal communications, meaning the total you spend on your business phone line, long distance, cell phone, fax and any paging or messaging services combined.

What To Do & When To Do It

The following lists represent the most logical order of technology implementation for most sales people. However, there is no set order within each group, as this will vary from person to person. The list hasn't changed too much over the last year, except that the "A" list is getting longer!

For most, completion of the "A List" should occur before investing in the "B List" though there is no reason to believe that you must, or even should, implement all of the following.  What follows is simply a ranking of what technology investments are most likely to result in increased production, and therefore yield a positive return.

The A List:

These represent the core technologies that any salesperson that takes the future seriously must fully exploit. Each of these tools are just about guaranteed to be worthwhile investments, as long as they are thoughtfully, and aggressively used.

Notebook Computer - For most salespeople, the days of needing a desktop computer are over. Today's notebooks have more than enough power to run entire businesses, and can also plug into all of the commonly desired accessories such as: monitors, keyboards, printers, scanners, back-up drives, etc..

Portable Printers - If you're going to go portable with your technology, then you need a printer that can go with you. Whether you use one mostly to print contracts, listings or disclosure forms, being able to do so "on the spot" is both impressive and affords a great number of follow up trips. When you realize that a good portable printer can be had for under $300 and that that these units really are portable, it doesn't take much calculation to realize their true value to today's mobile professionals. Cannon, HP and Pentax all made excellent portable printers.

Contact Management - This is the must have software for sales productivity. These are the programs that enable you to keep track of every detail regarding your prospects, sphere of influence, geographical farm and past clients. Managing thousands of contacts is amazingly simple and the ability to mass mail personalized prospecting and follow up letters is just the beginning of their power. Goldmine, Agent Office and Top Producer are good choices for effective contact managers.

SmartPhones - Now that most major wireless carriers support at least one Palm Operating System based Smart Phone it's time to take this technology seriously. The benefits that come from combining a cellular phone with a fully functional Palm OS are endless. Having access to every contact, appointment and to-do list on the very same device that you'll use to contact and manage this information is a perfect example of what I call "efficiency through convergence."  Kyocera, Palm, Handspring and Samsung all make excellent models with a wide range of features.

Professional E-mail - Any technology that enables salespeople to contact more prospects, while providing better follow up communication, is a valuable one indeed. The telephone, pager, fax machine voice mail and cellular phone have all been examples of how technology can improve productivity. With professional email software such as Eudora Pro or Outlook, email has the potential to rival the function of all of these devices combined. As email becomes more important to serving customers and clients, no business professional should rely on anything less than the best available email software.

A Personal Web Site - In short, web pages provide an amazing return on investment. A fraction of the cost a quality classified advertising budget you can have an effective web presence on the Internet. As long as you include your page's "address" in absolutely all of your marketing materials, (so that the readers of all your marketing material know how to find your web page) you really cannot fail to receive value on this kind of investment.  However, it's no longer sufficient to simply have a "page" on someone else's site. You now need your own complete web site that's professionally developed, and with your own domain name. Without these key ingredients you will not truly benefit from everything that Internet marketing has to offer.

Spam Protection - If you've gotten to the point that unwanted junk email is interfering with your productivity (and not everyone has) then you'll be happy to know that there are plenty of technology solutions that can help solve this problem. Unfortunately, most offerings have too high a rate of "false-positives" (where legitimate email is inadvertently deleted as spam) to be acceptable for business use. Other systems rely on initially denying delivery until the sender responds to a "challenge-request" verifying that they are a legitimate sender. This also poses problems for business users as it will almost guarantee that your competition is able to respond before you even receive a prospect's email. Fortunately, effective and accurate solutions for business users exist. Companies like OnlyMyEmail.com and Postini both are effective, and without interfering with legitimate email.

Digital Cameras - Few technologies are a satisfying to use as the digital camera. Not only does it save both time and money, but it also represents one of the few technologies that can directly impress your customers and clients as well. When you tour a prospective listing taking digital photos, and then import them into a marketing flyer right before the seller's eyes, you're building credibility in the process. And, when you e-mail a photo of your new listing to an out of town buyer, the same day the home comes to market, they're going to be impressed with you and the service you have to offer. Any digital camera will get the job done, but you'll find the best results with those that offer wide-angle lenses.

Broadband Internet Access - Services like AOL are clearly popular among consumers, and Internet Service Provider (ISPs) provide stable dial-up internet access from just about anywhere in the county.  However, the fast expanding rollout of cable and DSL now makes high-speed access a highly desirable option for business uses. Even if these services are not available where live, two-way satellite access is now available for practically any location in the Untied States. The added speed of any broadband connection may not seem necessary, until you start to use them. Then, you'll never want to access the Internet any other way. Now that these services are more competitively priced, you may be able to get high-speed access for not much more than you're paying for dial-up access and a phone line right now.

The B List:

The next tier of technology investments may add just as much productivity as the "A-List" but generally not until you've fully integrated the items on the previous list into your business activities. Technology is like most other aspects of life in that learning to walk before you run will usually make you a faster in the end.

Scanners - In terms of creating the "paperless office" the scanner cannot be beat. Keep in mind that it's actually the document management software included with your scanner that really helps you get organized and become more productive. To begin cutting the ties to paper and files, consider scanning a copy of all of your standard listing and sales forms. Combined with a portable printer you can truly become a more mobile professional. However, for a paper-intensive business such as real estate, make sure that whatever model you purchase comes with an Auto-Document Feeder. This will allow you to scan stacks of paper all at once, as opposed to a single sheet at a time.

Document Management Software - While scanners serve the purpose of getting copies of paper into your system, how you organize this information will make the difference between enhanced productivity and computerized disorganization. For the average small business user, nothing is easiest or more effective than ScanSoft's PaperPort Office Pro software. Spend a week with this program and you'll find it hard to organize "paper" any other way.

Automatic Email Campaigns - In order to achieve a high level of quality communications with prospects, customers and clients, automation is becoming more and more important. In addition to quantity, the most successful agents choose systems that also provide quality, as one without the other may actually damage relations, rather than strengthen them. Common provider of automated email follow up campaigns include: Constantcontact.com, Advanced Access Intellicards (advancedaccess.com)and Intellicontact.com just to name a few.

Wireless Networks - If you have an existing computer network in your office, or multiple computers in your home, you know how inconvenient managing information and sharing accessories can be. When you can group all your systems together wirelessly, you can now print to any printer, share a broadband Internet connection, and move and manage files on any hard drive, all though a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) network and thin air. While setting up, configuring and securing a WiFi network can take some patience, the boost in both productivity and flexibility make this well worth your while.

The C List:

The last grouping of technologies all have value, but are below the "A" and "B" lists in terms of what they can add to the typical real estate agents income, productivity and time savings.  This is not to say that you should avoid these technologies, just that they should not be addressed until you have fully exploited the more important, and productive, technologies above.

Desktop Publishing (DPT) - The ease of use with many DTP programs now makes the ability to create your own professional looking marketing materials a reality. Whether you're considering generic programs such as PageMaker and MS Publisher or industry specific solutions like Prospect's Plus or HP's Real Estate Assistant just about anyone can now make professional looking marketing materials.

Presentation Software - More and more of today's real estate professionals are successfully taking their technology into the field. Armed with a notebook computer and presentation software any agent can easily create outstanding presentations for their buyers and sellers. While electronic presentations drastically reduce the amount of time required to prepare for client appointments and also make a professional statement, they can be a bit overwhelming for some prospects and these technologies can take quite a while to master.

Mapping & Demographics - One of the great benefits of the computer age is the ability to purchase electronic information. Every day the availability of software for mapping, demographics, school information, and public records increases. While all of these lend themselves to providing greater customer service and personal efficiency, they do not represent products that provide the immediate return on investment that most real estate agents are looking for.

Digital Camcorders - The promise of affordable digital motion photography is here. But, actually sharing digital video with others and using it effectively in marketing is still a somewhat difficult task. While this will no doubt change in the coming years, digital video is still left for the truly tech at heart.

Wireless Internet Access - Currently, both Sprint and Verizon are marketing wireless Internet access through PC-card cellular modems that you can use with any notebook computer; and both claim speeds faster than dial-up access provides. While these cellular modems can offer solid Internet access in certain situations, they are often plagued by the limitations of their cell networks, and are still fairly expensive. For some users, these solutions are ideal, but others will find them both slow and frustration. For the most part, your satisfaction will be based on geography, local cellular coverage and how much traffic is on the towers in your area.

Your Future
As you plan your new year, whether for yourself or your associates, I sincerely hope that you will reflect on the above to-do list in order to determine how effectively you are using technology, and to set realistic goals for implementing newer technologies into the future.

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In addition to instructing GRI programs for a number of state associations, Stephen Canale has spoken at hundreds of conventions and seminars in 45 states over the last several years covering a variety of subjects relating to real estate, sales and technology. For information on seminars, Canale Calc - Financial software for the Palm, or Canale's Tips & Tricks newsletter, visit: www.canale.com

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