RealTown's RealTalk

I hope this question is something that will benefit a lot of readers . . .

I am going to change all of my categories in Outlook 2007 to become more effective at managing my client database. I know I brought this up about a year ago and actually got a couple of nice private advice, but I am unable to locate that. Buddy Snipes even sent me some screenshots!

What I am wondering is two things. First, I would like to know the different categories that you seasoned professionals use to assign to your prospects and clients.

Second, I am wondering what sort of system you use to "rate" your clients/SOI/prospects/etc. to decide how often to contact them. For example, a great mentor of mine hates making things difficult and only uses three total categories: Gold, Silver and Bronze. If they buy anything or refer anyone, they are Gold. If they talk now and then, are relatives or good friends or associates that he refers business to but yet these folks have not yet referred someone: they are Silver. Everyone else is bronze (i.e. met them at an open house, at the grocery store, looked at one of their listings and said they'd call back some day maybe possibly). He throws everyone he meets initially into the bronze category.

Forgive me for trying to be more complex, but want to have more categories to search than this, yet I want this part of the system to be simple, too.

I hope to see some great ideas posted on this topic and will be gleaning any wisdom possible.

Thanks,

 

Mark

Mark Claessens, e-Pro, NHSS
Real. DEPENDABLE. Results.
Edina Realty
www.DependableRealEstate.com
Mark@DependableRealEstate.com
Office: 763.767.5250

Very similar to what I'm doing with A, B & C clients. I have a few who are "none of the above" so I leave them unclassified. These may be other Realtors I work with…

I am all for keeping things as simple as possible. I vote for the gold, silver and bronze after all it is election day! All kidding aside one of my old coaches always told me to keep the top 10 leads in my pocket at all times and they should be the hot ones.

BRE… (before Real Estate) when I had a 'real' life, I sold industrial supplies and later radio advertising. There I had 5 categories for all my contacts… A thru E. Anyone who bought went into at least D, those buying an average amount were C, double average were B and double B were A… even had to add A+. Frequency of contact (important on those kinds of business!) was weekly for A's, biweekly for B's and monthly for C's. E's were, of course, Everyone Else!

In Real Estate Life, I have 4 categories: Suspects (the whole world), Prospects (people who've expressed some potential interest), Customers and Clients… with a B, S or B/S for each Customer or Client. Most Customers (no contractual relationship, but interest in buying/selling etc) are B(uyer) and Clients are evenly B or S or B/S. One qualifying question asked of most prospects and customers is what their urgency is, and how regularly they want/expect contact. Contractual obligations pretty well express the frequency and kind of contacts maintained with Clients.

After having used Top Producer (of revenue for TP) and Online Agent, I've resorted to using Outlook exclusively.

Walt Kinsey, Turning S P A C E into PLACE

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