XSellerate your earning potential

As a real estate agent, you know that by marketing your services daily you stay on the minds of your current clients, build relationships with new prospects — and, of course, grow your business. But between showings, listing presentations and closings and daily administrative duties, many agents don't have the time or money to dedicate to a full-time marketing department and crucial lead generating e-mails and print campaigns often become last on the agent's to do list.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

We're rolling out our new customer relationship and marketing manager, XSellerate, in November, which combines professional print and e-mail marketing with web-based client communication tools to help you get more leads, convert them into clients and retain them afterwards. It helps market properties and yourself to other agents and brokers. It even handles your e-mail and scheduling. We designed XSellerate to be a smooth and easy upgrade for agents frustrated with traditional CRM software like Homestore's Top Producer® or FNIS' Agent Office.

With XSellerate's Contact Manager, your current and prospective clients can be typed in, imported from other programs or pulled from your MLS. You can assign a contact to multiple groups, such as "first-time buyer" or "vacation homes." And if you use one of our Agent XSites for your lead capture, the lead can be added without retyping and the group can even be auto-assigned based on what page they were visiting. Plus, your contact manager is mobile — you can use it with any web-enabled cell phone or PDA.

Easy e-mail marketing
Many agents send out generic, cookie-cutter e-mails from their contact management software, which can leave the recipient wondering if the agent really knows what they're looking for in a home. Your XSellerate e-mail campaigns are automatically personalized for the recipient based on their information in your Contact Manager allowing your clients to get the personalized attention they deserve.

XSellerate makes it easy to send your clients multiple messages that span over weeks or months. Once you have your contacts in place, you can create "drip" e-campaigns using one of XSellerate's more than 30 customizable ad templates or by creating your own. Each e-campaign includes a series of ads such as "Cash in on your home equity," and "Staging your home's best features (for sellers)." In addition, each campaign includes actions such as phone call reminders for your to do list — just set each action item to happen at pre-set intervals, or even on specific dates or holidays.

Getting ahead using technology
We're not the only ones who believe that the use of technology is a crucial way for agents to get ahead in today's competitive real estate business. According to the National Association of REALTORS® 2004 Profile of Real Estate Firms, the use of technology was the most effective tool in helping firms generate sales (62 percent) and enhancing profitability (61 percent).

Women are no longer waiting to find "the man of their dreams" before investing in their future as the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) reports that single women now make up 21 percent of all home buyers — that's 1.7 million. That makes them the second largest home buying category next to married couples.