building a database that will support a careerintouchsystems.com/app/database_report.pdfbuilding a...

BUILDING A DATABASE THAT WILL SUPPORT A CAREER

Seminars & Systems by Pat Zaby | InTouch 2

Contents Definition ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Organization .................................................................................................................................. 4

Maintenance ................................................................................................................................ 7

Whose Contact Record Is It? ...................................................................................................... 8

Contact Record Procedures ...................................................................................................... 9

Meetings ..................................................................................................................................... 9

Pictures ....................................................................................................................................... 9

Follow-up .................................................................................................................................... 9

Email addresses ......................................................................................................................... 9

Social Media Connector ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Growing your database ............................................................................................................ 10

Prospect Your Inbox ................................................................................................................... 11

Building a spreadsheet .............................................................................................................. 11

Customer Communications ...................................................................................................... 12

Scheduled Calls .......................................................................................................................... 14

Phone Campaign Scripts .......................................................................................................... 15

Suggested Topics for Articles .................................................................................................... 19

Permission Protocol ..................................................................................................................... 20

Backup ......................................................................................................................................... 20

Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 21



Definition The database for a REALTOR® can be defined as including information on people most

likely to buy or sell real estate or make referrals with their assistance and service

professionals needed to assist during the process. It needs to be available to the user

from different devices and locations.

One of Steven Covey’s favorite sayings was “to begin with the end in mind.” While this

article is focused on building your database, the “end in mind” is what you’ll do with it

when it is organized. The principal function of a database is to communicate with your

customers.

There is a Chinese proverb that says if you

want one year of prosperity, grow grain; if

you want ten years of prosperity, grow

trees; if you want one hundred years of

prosperity, grow people. Since every business is a people business, a long term strategy

for building a business is to grow people.

The objective is to identify current and potential customers and market to them. The

product could be groceries, clothes, cars or services but the customers for those

products are people.

In order to understand the value of a real estate professional’s database, it helps to

know how consumers determine which agent they’re going to use. In the latest NAR

Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, participants who had purchased or sold a home in

the previous 12 months were asked specifically how they selected their agent.

53% of buyers chose their agent because

they were a friend, referred to the agent or

had used the agent before. Sellers’

combined total of the same groups was

64%. Clearly, buyer and sellers alike are

making their decision on real estate agents

based on a relationship that indicates a

level of trust and confidence.

The principal function of a

database is to communicate

with your customers.



The value of a database can be estimated by projecting the income derived from it

annually. One way to do this would be determine the source of each of your closings

for the past 12 months to see if they were a repeat customer, a referral or a friend. The

total revenue that comes from these categories will illustrate your database’s worth and

why it makes financial sense to spend the time and effort to maintain it.

Another way to show the worth of a database is to look at the potential revenue

generated by one loyal customer over a lifetime. Assume a person buys a home from

you today for $175,000 and it appreciates at 2% a year. Ten years from now, because

you stayed in real estate and you stayed in touch with them, they called you to list their

home which is now worth $213, 324 and they buy a bigger home for $319,986. They

keep that for ten years and it appreciates at 2% a year. Ten years from then, they call

you again to sell their $390,061 home and they buy a larger one still for $585,092. They

keep that for ten years and thirty years from

now, because you stayed in real estate and

stay in touch with them, you sold their $713,224

home before they moved into a retirement

community.

The total value of the real estate is almost $2.4

million and with a reasonable commission and

split, you would have earned $50,330 from one

customer. If you understand that a single contact could earn you over $50,000 during

your career, it becomes clear why you need to maintain a database with all the

people you know and stay in touch with them on a consistent basis.

Organization Experience shows the typical REALTOR® knows their database isn’t up-to-date and that

they should spend some time on it. However, agents don’t generally consider it a high

priority and other activities tend to occupy their schedule.

In many instances, the agent doesn’t have one database but multiple databases.

Consider the different places that you might have contact information. There’s the

address book in your email like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or similar service. Some agents

have more than one email accounts with different people in each address book.

Every agent in America has a cell phone with the majority of them being Smartphones.

They have address books that will hold basic contact information and most will

synchronize with their email program. The unfortunate thing is that many agents have

never synchronized their phone or do it so infrequently that it leaves them very

vulnerable.



If your database is in your phone but isn’t backed up, there is unnecessary risk that the

phone will be lost, stolen or damaged to point that the address book cannot be

retrieved. If you’re using a cable to sync the phone with your computer, it can be a

sporadic occurrence. An alternative involves syncing your phone over the air. There

may be different procedures based on your phone and email service.

Other places that a person might have valuable contact information could include an

Excel spreadsheet with names and addresses that they have used for mail merge

purposes. There could be a stack of business cards with a rubber band around them or

little slips of paper with people’s name on them that have not be entered into the

database yet. Maybe there’s an old rolodex or an old appointment book that still has

contacts in them.

With all of these possible sources of contact information, it is no wonder that a person

has difficulty finding the name that they need. The goal is to consolidate these into one

or two, at the most, databases.

The slowest way to do this is to manually input each record. You can probably export

the contacts from the email programs to a .CSV (Comma Separated Value) file.

Importing and exporting is a simple procedure that is available on almost all programs.

To get the business cards into your database, you could use a dedicated business card

scanner. Another option would be the Fujitsu ScanSnap desktop scanner that allows

double sided scanning and comes with a card scanning program. If you’re a good

typist, you might be able to enter them manually as fast as the scanner does it.

Before you can start consolidating though, you need to

make a decision on what you’re going to use as your

primary database and where it will reside. It could be

installed on a computer as a software application but that

limits the availability to the information. The alternative is

to use a web-based application that could be accessed

from any computer or mobile devices on the Internet. It

also provides a solution to an assistant or team to have

access to the database.

There are a number of real estate specific contact managers and CRM programs in

both computer-based and web-based applications. While the fields in the contact

records are customized to accommodate the real estate business, they also have

features that agents just are not using. The other challenge is that some of them don’t

synchronize satisfactorily with all phones.



The majority of real estate agents use Outlook in one of its desktop or online versions for

their email and to maintain their address books using the Outlook contact record. It is a

rich and robust application that will do almost everything that an agent needs. The

one notable item missing are the campaigns or action plans that many agents don’t

even use when they are available in real estate specific programs.

For this reason, Outlook is an excellent choice for a contact database. All popular

phones will sync with Outlook effortlessly which is one more reason to support this

decision. Gmail and Yahoo will also sync nicely with all popular phones.

The following checklist will help you identify whether the program or service you’re

considering has the features that are important for the real estate business:

• Handle email

• Sync with your phone

• Web access from any computer

• Robust contact record

o Categories

o Follow-up procedure

o Notes

• Mail merge – letters, labels,

envelopes and email

• Import and Export functions

• Calendar that syncs with phone

• Social connector for popular social networks

Your database should include all the people to whom you have sold a home to or for;

the people you know who might do business with you in the future and the people who

will refer business to you.

However, you’ll need to be able to search and sort through the contacts so that you

can effectively market to their needs. Applying

categories to each contact record will make

that easy. Categories describe the relationship

you have with each contact.

A common use of categories would be to sort

through all of your contacts to get a list of past

customers to make a specific mailing. The

homogeneous characteristics that they share

make creating a marketing piece something

that will appeal to more of them to increase the effectiveness of the mailing.



Maintenance Once your database is consolidated, the next exercise is to go through it one record at

a time. This may sound like something that could be delegated to an assistant but it

can’t. This is your database and you know the people. Only you can go through them

and make decisions like what categories should be applied while trying to update the

information on each record.

This tedious process is absolutely necessary but

not without its rewards. As you go through your

contacts, you’ll come across one that reminds

you about an opportunity that you may have

forgotten. You need to pick up the phone

immediately, even though it is distracting you

from the job at hand, and talk to them;

investigate the possibility of it turning into a listing

or sale.

This procedure isn’t necessarily something that once you’ve done it, it will never have to

be done again. You need to plan on going through your database, one record at a

time, each and every year. The payoff will be big and it will definitely be worth the

time.

As you’re talking to people, you need to verify that you have their correct email

address. The public changes their email address much more often than business

people. Being able to send things by email to your contacts will not only save you a lot

of money in printing and postage, the delivery is almost instantaneous.

You need to try and acquire both spouses email addresses. Even though it is easy to

forward email to someone else, the nature of email is to treat it like a hot potato. Once

you’ve read it, a person has a tendency to delete it unless it is important or they have to

keep it for a while to do something with it.

Another procedure that will have long term benefits is to make a note about your

conversation so that you won’t forget important details. This can be a great sales aid

but it can also be a risk reduction technique. Make certain that not only do you write

the note but you must date the note otherwise, it is almost useless.

If you’re talking to a person on your cell phone and can’t immediately put the note in

their contact record, make a voice recording on your phone to transcribe when you do

get back to your computer. Another technique possible if your phone has voice

recognition would be to send yourself an email that would automatically transcribe it to

text that could be copied and pasted into the contact’s record.



Each time you’re talking to a person and have the benefit of having your computer in

front of you, open their contact record so that you’ll have the benefit of your notes. It

can remind you of what you talked about last. As you’re talking, record any new

information you might learn about that contact.

Information on a contact is generally collected over time. For instance, let’s say a

contact called you. You pulled up their contact record and notice from the caller ID

on your phone that you don’t have that number in your list. You ask if they’re calling

from their cell phone and maybe they tell you that it is their office. You now have their

office phone number. It may not be a critical bit of information but there may be a

time when you really need it and then, it will be valuable.

The on-going collection of information pertains to anything that you might record in the

established fields of the contact record as well as other things. As you discover

birthdays, children’s names, rental property owned, when they purchased their home,

or anything like that, you’ll want to record it.

Whose Contact Record Is It? Some agents will put both the husband

and the wife’s names in the name field.

They generally do this because it makes it

easy to merge both spouses’ names onto

labels or mailings. However, it can cause

other issues. For instance, if you had Ken

& Karen Thomas in the name field but only

one email address, is it Ken’s or Karen’s? If

there is only one birthday field on the

record, whose birthday goes in there?

The solution is to select one name for the record; whoever is the primary contact.

Sometimes it will be the man and other times, it might be the woman. There are

generally fields for spouses and an extra birthday can easily be added. To merge both

names on a mailing, the mail merge codes “first name” + “spouse” are used.

It is good to record the date when you’re creating a new contact record. If the

contact record doesn’t have a field for that, you can put it as the first note. Other

valuable information that needs to be collected over time is the source of the lead to

help determine the value of certain types of prospecting and whether the contact has

ever referred a client to you. A person who refers enough people to you can be more

valuable than a repeat customer because the frequency can be more often than a

person who might only move once every ten years.



Contact Record Procedures

Meetings - Most email programs give you an option of setting a plain

appointment on a calendar or making it a meeting. This not only blocks the time

and date but sends an email confirmation to the parties in a special file format

that will put it on the recipient’s calendar when they accept it.

Pictures - By having a picture of the contact on their record, it makes it easier to

visualize the person you’re communicating with. You won’t need to set up a

photo booth like they have at the driver’s license bureau. With a little Internet

sleuthing on Facebook, LinkedIn and other sites, you should be able to locate a

picture. You’ll see the picture when you have the contact record open, when

you receive email from them and when they call you on your Smartphone.

Follow-up – Occasionally, you’ll be talking to a contact and they’ll suggest a

date to get back with them about something. That really isn’t an appointment; it

is a reminder. Some of the contact managers and email programs have a

feature specifically for this type of situation. It will go to your task list and pop-up

a reminder on the day and time you set it for.

Email addresses – Collect as many email addresses as you can for a contact.

If they give you their email address, they are giving you permission to send them

messages. Find a reason to confirm you have their valid email address each

time you talk to a person.



Growing your database Add new contacts regularly. Nurture relationships you have and actively pursue new

ones. Build a 100% Sphere of Influence business without ever having to make cold calls,

calling strangers or having to pay exorbitant referral fees. The more people you know

who are card-carrying members of your fan club, the more business you’ll have.

The following list will give you some ideas about adding names to your database.

1. Compile a list of every past buyer and seller

2. Address books from each email program you have

3. Add holiday greeting lists of friends and relatives

4. Export the people registered from your MLS new

listings announcements.

5. Add people you know from your church or place of

worship.

6. Add friends from your high school and college.

7. If you have adult children, add the names of their close friends.

8. Add the names of the parents of your minor children’s close friends.

9. Add names of acquaintances of your spouse from work, friends, classmates, etc.

10. Add names of people you know in civic organizations you participate.

11. Add names of people you know from your social activities.

12. Add friends from Facebook to your list.

13. Look at friends of your Facebook friends for people you know in common.

14. If you still have a Rolodex, go through it and reconcile it to your contact list.

15. Add any names you might have in spreadsheets that you used for mailings.

16. Add the names of the cards you have with a rubber band around them.

17. Look at directories of any organizations you belong.

18. Professionals that you do business with like doctors, dentists, accountant, etc.

19. Real estate affiliates you do business with like title, mortgage, insurance, etc.

20. Merchants that you do business with personally like cleaners, grocer, restaurants, etc.

21. Contractors that you do business with like painters, HVAC, and plumbers.

22. Former bosses and co-workers.

23. News media who could identify you as an authority on local real estate issues.

24. Out-of-town agents who could refer business to you.

25. Identify “Movers & Shakers” who know what’s happening around them

26. Add people each day as you meet them.

27. Add people that you receive email from.

28. Registrations at open houses (ask for email address).

29. Offering free reports from website or blog.

30. Subscribe to newsletter button from website or blog.

31. Have a subscribe button on your email signature

32. Have a subscribe button on your Facebook page

33. Have a subscribe button on your Twitter page

34. Friends of friends

35. Consciously aware to add 5 names per day



Prospect Your Inbox An overlooked source of contacts could easily

be in the Inbox of your email. Some people

have hundreds, if not thousands of names in

their Inbox because they don’t delete them

very often. If this is the case, trying going

through the messages to see if there is someone

who should be in your database. If so, right

click on their name and you generally see a

pop-up menu that allows you to add the

contact to your contacts. It’s a quick way to find people that should be in your

database but are not.

Another way to add the name to your contacts would be to drag the email to your

contacts button. It will open a new contact record, automatically input the name and

email address and put a copy of the message into their notes file. You can apply the

appropriate categories and add any additional information such as their address and

phone number which might be on their email signature.

Building a spreadsheet Sometimes, it might be faster to type the names

and contact information directly on a

spreadsheet rather than have to open a new

contact record each time. You may have a list

such as from a church directory where you have

to manually input the information.

Open a new spreadsheet and put some titles for the columns such as name, address,

city, state, zip, etc. such as the one in the

example. You can adjust the widths of the

columns to accommodate longer fields. Each

contact’s information is put on a single row of the

sheet. If there’s something you don’t have on a

particular contact, leave it blank.

When you’re ready, save the file as a .CSV or

comma separated value format. This will allow

you to import it into most databases. Most

programs will allow you to apply a category to

the group at the time they are imported.



Customer Communications Database management is an ongoing process that is never completed. The goal is to

compile the contacts so that you can begin working with them and realize that you’ll

continually add, modify and update the contacts. It is better to get it into a useable

condition than to try and get it perfect. If you wait until it is perfect to start

communicating, you’ll never get there.

As was stated in the beginning of this article, the

objective of database management is to

identify current and potential customers and

market to them. Selling a home is only one part

of the marketing process. It is a tangible event

but successful marketing wins the hearts and

minds of our contacts so they’ll consider us as

their REALTOR® for life. Successful marketing

results in repeat and referral sales.

Customer Communications is the principal reason to have a database but before a

person begins, they need to have a plan. It is certainly easy to communicate about

the purchase or sale of a home which might interest a person every ten to twelve years

when they are moving.

The challenge is to develop an ongoing dialog that will interest our contacts when they

are not in the process of buying or selling. The theme of the message needs to have a

common interest to all of our contacts. The message should be anticipated as

interesting and important. It should be relevant to our relationship with our contacts. It

should reinforce our brand as a real estate professional committed to our contacts.

REALTORS® are doing a great job in helping their customers and clients buy and sell

homes. Another reference to the Home Buying and Selling Survey is the question

where both buyers and sellers were asked if they were satisfied with the service they

received from their agent in their recent transaction. 89% of buyers and 84% of sellers

said they were satisfied and that they’d use their

agent again.

You’d expect that with 9 out of 10 saying they

use the agent again, that repeat business would

be a sure thing but the staggering fact is that

only 11-15% of the people actually do use the

agent again. The reason for the 80% fallout is a

result of not maintaining communications with

them.



What agents are not doing is costing them sales and money now and in the future.

There is currently one REALTOR® for every 300 people living in the United States. The

liklihood is that a person qualified to buy or sell a home probably knows more than one

REALTOR®. When they need the services of a REALTOR®, will they remember the agent

they know or possibly, have to decide from the different agents they know. They might

make their determination by the agent’s knowledge, willingness to help, their

professionalism and the trust that has been established between them.

Clearly, to expect repeat and referral business from past customers, it isn’t enough to

do a good job initially, an agent must continue to earn their trust and confidence year

after year.

An appropriate strategy to maintain top of mind awareness with your contacts is to

help them become better homeowners. This has benefits to them not only when

they’re buying or selling but all the years that they own the home. By helping them be

better homeowners, we demonstrate our commitment to be their REALTOR® for life

while sharing our expertise, suggestions and resources.

If the theme of the message is to help them be better homeowners, we need to offer a

variety of topics that will accomplish that. They can include things such as financing

ideas, tax information, DIY projects, insurance tips, suggestions to protect the value of

their homes, decorating ideas, money saving tips and recommendations of service

providers. This mix can provide a wealth of

information to help them be better homeowners.

The responsibility of staying in touch is with the real

estate professional. It isn’t something that can be

left to chance but needs to be a system that

guarantees regular, consistent communication.

The challenge is making each contact something

that is interesting, relevant and anticipated. It

must be centered on the needs of the consumer,

not the agent.

A multi-channel communication strategy can be developed to reach your contacts

throughout the year. Meetings, events and phone are more effective than others but

at the same time, are more costly in time and money to administer. Since 80% of your

income will be earned from approximately 20% of your database, the most expensive

communications will be reserved for the high-value contacts.



The less expensive forms of communications will be used to reach all of your contacts.

Direct mail, both print and email, blogs and social networking are easy to produce and

send.

Scheduled Calls Establishing scheduled calls to your past customers on a regular basis is one of the best

methods to maintain top of mind awareness. The calls give you an opportunity to get

immediate, unrestricted feedback. To implement a successful call campaign, commit

to the process by blocking the time on your

calendar for one hour a day, Monday

through Friday. Don’t allow anything,

including an appointment, to interfere with

your commitment.

Consider lunch dates with your best contacts during the week. It is always better to go

to lunch with someone who might do business with you or refer business to you than to

go to lunch with your co-workers. Eating a meal with a person can be an opportunity

to bond. It is a relatively inexpensive investment that can pay big dividends. The

relaxed atomosphere can give you more time and a better environment to really listen

to each other.

Use the categories in your database to make your calls. Open the contact record and

review the notes and social connector if available. Plan on a five to eight minute

conversation with some personal interest and end with telling them something good or

exciting about the market. Record what you talk about in their notes and add any new

information to the data fields . Follow up with a

personal note or email. Record a follow-up

reminder when to contact them again.

Some agents don’t like to make phone calls

because they’re concerned about what to say

in what could be an awkward moment. Having

a formula for the six to eight minute conversation

should relieve any anxieties while putting

structure to the call.

1. Each conversation should begin by

identifying yourself and saying something personal about them or their family. A

familiar statement heard in Dale Carnegie’s Win Friends and Influence People

classes is “to make people like you, talk about them.” This could be easily

accomplished by looking at your notes from the last conversation or something

they posted on one of the social networks you monitor.



2. The next thing you bring up is the purpose of why you’re calling. It could be

something that reinforces your brand to help them be better homeowners. It

can be a suggestion, news or a reference to something you read. There are

some examples listed below.

3. As you wrap up the call, make a request. It could be as simple as “please keep

me in mind if you hear of anyone wanting to buy or sell a home.”

Phone Campaign Scripts Area Activity – “…I noticed there has been some sales activity in the area and

wondered if you might be interested in knowing what those homes sold for?

(Look them up while you’re talking and mention a few) Would you like me to

email this list to you? Let me confirm that I have your current email address.”

Service Provider – “Almost every time we sell a home, there are things that need

to be done to either improve the marketability or required by inspections. Over

the years, we developed an impressive list of service providers that do great

work at reasonable prices. Anytime you need a recommendation for a service

provider, please give me a call. I’ll be your personal ‘Angie’s list.’ In fact, let me

confirm I have your current email address and I’ll send you a brief list of some of

my recommendations.”

Household Inventory – “Recently, I heard about a person who filed an insurance

claim who wasn’t as prepared as they could have been. The house was

covered but where the issue came up was with the personal belongings. The

adjustor originally asked for receipts which the homeowner didn’t have. Then,

he wanted an inventory of the personal belongings which unfortunately, the

homeowner didn’t have either. If you don’t have an inventory or it has been a

while since you updated it, I can send you one that you can complete and

document with pictures. Let me confirm that I have you current email address.”

Refinance – “When was the last time you refinanced your home? Interest rates

are low and it might make sense for you to consider it now. I have a refinance

analysis calculator that will tell you how much you’ll save and how long it will

take you to recapture the cost of refinancing. I can either help you over the

phone or I can send you a link so you can do it yourself. Let me confirm that I

have you current email address.”



Mortgage Accelerator – “Have you ever thought about pre-paying your

mortgage? If you pay as little as $100 to $200 extra each month, it will save

interest, build equity in your home and shorten the term of the mortgage. I have

an online app that will let you make some projections and if you’re interested, I’ll

send you a link so you can check it out. Let me confirm that I have you current

email address.”

Newsletters can be a great way to convey information and maintain top of mind

awareness at the same time. They do take effort, time and skill to research, write and

produce the finished product but you’ll find that it’s entirely worth it. The newsletter

gives you a platform to tell “your story” which is what makes you different from other

agents.

If you were a CPA specializing in homeowner tax law, you couldn’t write about

taxes every week without boring your contacts to death. You would want to

occasionally show your expertise but offer a blend of topics that would appeal to

all homeowners. The acronym INTOUCH can serve as a formula for the content of

the messages that can be sent over time.



Get Regular Check-ups



One of Zig Ziglar’s most famous sayings is “Help enough other people get what they

want and you’ll get what you want.” Instead of talking directly about what makes you

different, your articles will focus on helping your readers be better homeowners.

Consistently delivering this message over time will demonstrate what makes you

different from other agents in a way that would be difficult to describe in words.

Don’t think of the articles being the length of a term paper or magazine article. In

today’s society, most people want clear, concise bits of news and information. Your

articles should be short sentences with no more than four or five short paragraphs. Try

to include an eye-catching graphic and possibly hyperlinks to get more information.

Once you have an article written, you can leverage

the effort by emailing it directly to your contacts,

posting it on different social networks like Facebook

and Twitter and if you have a blog, post it there too.

Don’t be concerned that you might be diluting the

value of the article by posting it in different places. A

common practice in the news industry today is for a

network to premier a piece on their national news

magazine, repeat it on their national news show,

syndicate it to their local network affiliates and finally, post it on their website. They are

actually hoping that people will see it in more than one place.



Suggested Topics for Articles Local Market Data

Top 10 Lists

Video featured listing

Tax law changes

Featured neighborhood

Local Businesses

Credit repair

Rent vs. Buy

Community meeting summary

Home improvements

Home maintenance

Historic Buildings

Housing styles in your area

Kids events

Best advice for FSBO

Interview someone

Featured parks

Featured schools

Crime rates

Mortgage rates

Property Taxes

Senior housing

Improving drive-up appeal

National market trends

Decorating ideas

Churches

Showcase a lender

Things that can go wrong in a sale

Second homes

Breaking mortgage news

Transportation systems

Home safety

Building trends

Steps to sell a home

Steps to buy a home

What to avoid when selling a home

City council

Lawn and garden improvements

Consumer scams

Staging a home

Credit scores

Zoos

Foreclosures

Rental Property Investing

Legal real estate terms

Proper amount of earnest money

Best restaurants in the area

Shopping

Moving tips

Amusing transactions

Conserving energy

Final walk-through

Vacations

Short sales

Dealing with tenants

Homeownership

Property taxes

Condos

Different types of mortgages

Waterfront properties in your area

Your marketing strategy to sell a home

Your market strategy to buy a home

Real Estate investing

Zoning

Charities

Market predictions

Highlight a community

Is now the right Time to buy?

Luxury properties

Flood zones

Natural disasters

Best and worst of working with an Agent

Typical closing costs

Home equity

Family living

Appraised vs. Assessed value

When to consider refinancing

Walk-through checklist for buyers

Best home improvements for ROI

Buying lots or land

Top Things to Look for in a Home

First-time Home Buyers

Community resource links

Moving with pets

Where to play golf

Homeowner’s associations



Permission Protocol If your contacts gave you their email address, they essentially gave you permission to

send them email. Don’t abuse the privilege by sending things that won’t interest them

or are not consistent with your stated goals of

making them a better homeowner.

Email solicitation is protected by the Federal Cam

Spam Act and requires that you allow people to

unsubscribe. Include an unsubscribe button on

each mailing as well as a subscribe button for

people who may have had the article forwarded

to them and they want to receive similar articles on a regular basis.

Email messages that are returned to you as undeliverable due to incorrect email

addresses need attention. After each mailing, call the person whose email bounced to

find out their new email address.

Backup The amount of time, effort, energy and money it takes to

assembly a database is considerable. When you realize the

rewards of increased productivity, efficiency and

effectiveness, your database moves from a low priority to a

major asset worth protecting.

Online backup services offer the advantage of securely

storing your files at off-site server locations. These services will

automatically backup your specified data on a determined

frequency to be certain that it is done faithfully and not left

to chance. If your computers fail or are stolen or if your office

is destroyed, your data will be safe.

Standard IT procedures with most of backup services are in

secured buildings stored on secure servers that are constantly backed up with triple

redundancy that are available 24/7/365. They offer far more security in a consistent,

systematic method than an individual is capable of providing. Some of the more

popular online backup services are Backblaze, Carbonite, CrashPlan, Mozy and Norton

Online Backup.



Summary

• The principal function of a database is to communicate with your customers.

• Consolidate your various databases.

• Sync your database with your Smartphone.

• Once a year, scroll through each record one-by-one.

• Each time you make or receive a call, open the contact’s record to update and

make notes.

• Talk to each of your best customers/clients twice a year.

• Consistently stay in touch with your database multiple times per month.

• If your database isn’t growing, it’s shrinking.

• Add new names to your database daily.

• Backup you database along with other important files using an automatic online

service.

• What agents are not doing is costing them sales and money now and in the

future.

• The most expensive communications will be reserved for your high-value

contacts.

• Once you have an article, leverage the effort by emailing it to your contacts,

posting it on different social networks and, post it to your blog.

• The objective of database management is to identify current and potential

customers and market to them.

• An appropriate strategy to maintain top of mind awareness with your contacts is

to help them become better homeowners.

Final Thought – I have people tell me all the time that they don’t have a database. I

ask them if they have an address book in their email or on their phone; I ask if they have

Facebook friends. The point is that any collection of names or information is the

database and it can be the beginning of what will fuel your business for decades. A

business database is a work in progress. You’re never finished with it. It can always be

better. Most importantly, the primary purpose of the database is to facilitate

communication.

1 - Contact List Builder | www.PatZaby.com | [email protected] | 972-407-1337

Contact List Builder – complete the list with names only before adding other contact info

Closet friends _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Neighbors (current home) _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Neighbors (previous home) _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Church members _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Clergy _____________________________________

Social activities (golf, tennis, etc.) _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

High school friends _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Teachers from school _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

College friends _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Work Associates ______________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________


Work Associates (previous job) _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Relatives _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Doctors (physician, specialists, dentists, etc.) _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Veterinarian _____________________________________

Accountant _____________________________________

Attorney _____________________________________

Property Insurance _ _____________________________________

Life Insurance _____________________________________

Bank employees _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Stock broker _____________________________________

Car salespeople _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Barber/Hairdresser _ _____________________________________

Dry cleaners/Laundry _____________________________________

Mailman, FedEx, UPS _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Fraternal Organizations _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Civic Organizations _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________


Facebook friends not recorded yet _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Parents of children’s friends (school) _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Parents of children’s friends (sports) _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Children’s teachers _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Children’s doctors _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Children’s coaches ____________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

If your children are grown, their friends _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

If you are married, have your spouse complete pages 1-2-3 without seeing the names that you’ve

put on your pages. Compare them and eliminate the duplicates.


Mortgage officers _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Title officers _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Inspectors _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Home warranty reps _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Painters _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Real estate agents outside your market area _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Builders _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Investors _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

Other _ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________

___________________________________________ _____________________________________



Thank you for taking time to read this article. We hope you found it interesting and

that it helps you increase service to your customers while you are growing your

business. If you find that you don’t have the time and resources to build the

communication campaign described, we suggest you consider InTouch.

This system will do it for you for far less than you can hire it done.

InTouch is automated content marketing creating top of mind awareness through

personalized email and social networking.

InTouch emails your contacts an article, links it along with four other timely

messages to your Facebook and Twitter accounts and post the same article to your

blog each and every week – all AUTOMATICALLY! InTouch also emails birthday and

holiday greetings and reminders throughout the year.

This is the most cost effective, efficient way to maintain top of mind awareness

resulting in more listings, sales and referrals. Other features include drip campaigns

like the Buyer Information Series and a variety of financial calculators that can be

posted to a subscriber’s website.

*blog can be posted by email or copied and pasted

For more information, contact [email protected] or 972-743-9887

www.PatZaby.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.patzaby.com/

https://member.patzaby.com/join/

https://member.patzaby.com/InTouch/

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