Discover 3 time saving and money making technologies for sales people. Learn how to get free PR and Marketing using free tools on the internet, and Discover how to run a virtual office to save money in Real Estate.
Hello! Thank you X for the great introduction and thank you Alex for an insightful start. My Name is Shannon King, I’m a Broker of TriBella Realty in Austin Texas, and a Co-Owner in the Real Estate Company School House Realty in San Diego. Because I run offices in two cities, and sell real estate in two cities I have found that Technology is the only way I can survive. Today I hope to speak to both independent agents, and the brokers in the audience. I hope you all can take away ideas and implement them into your daily routine.
What I’m going to share with you in this seminar is an inside look at how I run my business and use technology on a daily basis. First, is 3 Technologies I couldn’t live without. These are all time saving, and I often wonder how I functioned prior to me implementing them into my daily routine. Second I am going to share with you a marketing secret that has changed my lead generation for ever. PR, but not the oldschool Hire a Public Relations firm. I’m going to show you where and how to do it yourself using the websites available on the internet. Once you’ve created these contacts it’s important to have a system for follow-up. I’ll share with you what I use. Last thing I’m going to share with you is how I’ve taken my “bricks and mortar” office and turned it into a virtual office. I’ll share with you how I’ve saved almost 100k in overhead this last year alone- and for you agents in the room, this also applies to your business model- not just the brokers out there!
Let’s jump in with the 3 Time saving Tech. I use daily. Phonetag.com Jott.com and LiveSearchMobile from Microsoft
Phonetag.com is the first one we’ll look at here. Let me ask you a question, with a show of hands, how many of you by noon on a normal work day have at least 5 messages waiting for you? How many of you after your lunch appointment on the way to your next appointment are driving and listing to your 5 messages from the morning, and find that by the time you get to where you’re going you’re finished listening to the messages with no time to make call people back? How many of you – are just like me- hate listening to phone messages? And last question, how many of you prefer text messages as a way to stay in touch on the go? If you raised your hand to one of these questions, then Phonetag.com is for you.
Let me tell you why! On average, PT saves 3 hours a month- but this is for normal users- not REALTORS who live on their cell phones. I think PT has saved me at least 15 minutes a day. Which is 7.5 hours a month! What it does, is this… Your callers call you- leave a message and with in minutes you will get a text message with what the caller said- Perfect if you’re like me--- you’re with clients all day and you don’t want to be rude to answer your phone. Now you can be with your clients- and glance at your phone message that was texted to you to determine if you should step out and call them back. Typically you can just text them back the answer. Time saved! You will also receive an e-mail with an audio file attached. Nice thing about this is – if you have e-mail capabilities on your phone, it will work just like a text message does. But that’s not all- with the e-mail (audio file) You can forward calls on to anyone- for example- you want your assistant to follow up- all you do is forward the message (saves you time from calling) You can forward on to your clients any responses they are waiting on… AND the nice thing is it’s coming straight from the other agent- you’re literally just the messenger- they can’t get mad at you any more The last and my favorite part is you can file the audio files with your client files. SO when something comes up, and the other agent, or your broker, or your client says… I didn’t say that…. WhaLa you have instant CYA!!!! It’s fantastic!
Phonetag.com is very affordable- the unlimited, which I use is 29.95/month. This may sound like a lot, but think about what your time is worth… If it saves on average 3 hours per/month and your time is worth at least $100/hr- then look you’re saving yourself $270/month Since I love phone tag so much I spoke with them to see if they could offer you, NAR members a discount- and they said yes! If you call/register onloine and use the PROMO NAR you will get a 30 day free trial!
Ok, on to my next favorite technology- this is one for sure I wish had existed years ago. JOtt.com With Jott.com you can update twitter (if you don’t know what twitter is, then google it- wish I had time to talk bout it, but I don’t) Y ou can create todo lists Update your FaceBook Status Post to your blog on Blogger or WordPress send e-mails to clients, assistants, set appointments in your Outlook or draft e-mails in Outlook Google Calendars just by making a phone call!
Here’s how it works, u call jott 866.568.8123 it asks you “who do you want to jott” You say “Softball team” just like an answering machine you hear a Beep- after the beep you leave your message “ moving this week’s game to 10am get excited to win!) your e-mail is then instantly sent out to your team. This is a great way to stay in touch with your clients, or assistants without having to call each of them. The thing I love most is if I’m meeting with someone and they say- lunch on Tuesday at noon. I speed dial Jott- and say outlook calendar- lunch Tuesday at noon. DONE- that’s it- I don’t have to think about it again!
The last technology I use daily is Live Mobile Search by Microsoft- This is a free download- and you can get directions, GPS maps, weather, traffic- you name it. My husband uses Virizon- and was paying there 29/month for their VZ navigator which is just listings and gps directions… not all this extra stuff- and this is FREE!!! It’s amazing. Perfect for when your client insists on driving… you have your showing rout pre programmed in your car… but no worries, you won’t be lost because you have your cell phone!
Again, this is a microsoft freebee- it is speech activited- so you call in and say directions to xyz and a map comes up and the person starts giving you step by step driving directions!
Pretty cool stuff! Now we’ll move on to how I implemented technology into my daily lead generation. As well as what I use as a contact management system.
In my opinion PR is the best way to “brand yourself an expert” Nice thing is it’s free, and easy. You do have to stay on top of it though.