TOP PRODUCER 8i Coaching and Training

TOP PRODUCER Hints and Suggestions

As REALTORS, we use computers. From time-to-time, there are hints and suggestions which make our lives with computers easier. The following are a series of items which you might find useful. While many may not be applicable to your situation, others may be useful. Browse through the suggestions and make your own decisions.

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TOP PRODUCER 7i

Processing a Buyer's Transaction

Question: We represented the buyer in a recent closing. My goal is to put this investment property information under the buyer’s name, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to import the MLS information in the closing section of TP. We know and do import the information when she has a listing and is representing the seller. So is there a way I can import this when it is a closing? Right now in TP it is still listed as pending, but I don’t want to close it until I put in the property details. Thanks for being so diligent when we have these questions. Have a great weekend.

Answer: Approach this in a slightly different manner.

The seller originally had this listed on the MLS. Put in the seller's name and property address, either as their primary or investment property. Now, create a listing. IMPORT FROM MLS their property entry. Now DELETE their listing. You will end up with their property record already populated with the property statistics and the front photo.

Now, approach the transaction as if you are representing the buyer. Start to create the closing and it asks for the seller and their address, as well as your buyer information. When you finally complete the transaction and TRANSFER the property, the statistics and front photo will move from the seller's record to your buyer's record.

Spanish language content expanded

TOP PRODUCER Systems, Inc. has expanded their content written in Spanish. They have added both CMAs and Buyer Presentations to the mix for those of you marketing to the Spanish speaking community.

- Complete Spanish Letter Template set (~350 letters)

- Complete Spanish Email Template set (~350 emails)

- Complete Spanish Action Plan set (= 37 action plans)

- Two CMA Presentations (1 Professional CMA; All Pages)

- Three Buyer Presentations (1 Professional Buyer Presentation; 1 Buyer Tour (i.e., Buyer - Comparables 4 per page); All Pages)

Quickly update your past listings using TOP CONNECTOR®

Many REALTORS® have yet to include data from their older listings completed prior to implementing TOP PRODUCER® 7i. They figure that it is too much trouble to update these transactions. But, there is a quick and painless way to insure that your database includes all your older transactions. Use TOP CONNECTOR® to pull each transaction which is still within your MLS database as a closed / sold property.

Find your client's Contact Record. Enter their former property address under PROPERTIES (underneath their name and address). Now, click VIEW LISTING, click CREATE LISTING, and click through to the Listing screen.

From the Listing screen, click MLS IMPORT, and type in the address of the sold property. Search the MLS for that record and use the result to make your listing. It should show the details of your last transaction within the Listing screen. Change the status to PENDING FIRM and click CREATE CLOSING from the top left-hand menu. If you did not handle both sides of the transaction, I suspect that the buyer is not a former client. Therefore, click on ADD CONTACT from the top left-hand menu. All you require is the name of the client. Click CLOSE at the bottom and you should be asked to identify if the contact is either a Seller or Buyer. Buyer should have been selected by default, and this is what you desire. You should now have a closing screen. Enter the correct contract date, closing date, make the possession date the same as the closing date, and the sales price. Change the status to Closed Paid. It will now ask if you desire to Transfer the Property. The answer is YES. You will be asked questions as to whether the Buyer is moving into the home or making it an investment property. Choose the correct option. You have now completed your transaction.

Your seller will now have their former property shown under PROPERTIES on their Contact Record as "Preowned". The property statistics will still be there, but greyed out.

The buyer will now have the property listed either as their primary address or an investment property. The property statistics and photographs which you originally stored within your former client's Contact Record have now moved over to the buyer's property pictures.

Don't forget to verify contact types for both your former seller and the new buyer. Then, insure that you have a Marketing Plan assigned to both. You have them both in your database and should consider marketing to each. Sending them congratulations (such birthdays, home anniversaries, and wedding anniversaries) and hints/information of value should help them to favorably remember your name.

Tracking Leads

Question: I am trying (with great failure) to help a team produce a lead report that has not only the lead name and contact information but also a contact history and whom the lead is assigned to. Anyone have any ideas?

Answer: While you can define the assignment of leads from the lead manager, when you print a report, they are all assigned to the currently logged on user in the report. While you could sort on the Assigned To field, then select only the leads assigned to a particular person (Team Member #1), and then make the report, the report will always say assigned to the currently logged on user (who might be Team Member #5). Therefore, you must log into TOP PRODUCER 7i as Team Member #???, filter the data by Assigned to "Team Member #???", and generate a report if you desire that the lead report reflect "Team Member #???" 's name.

Additionally, there is no way to modify this report, therefore you can't show any past history on one of your followed up leads.

If you want to see the contact information and the contact history, the only way I can see doing this is as follows:

1. first, logging into the system as each team member, filtering the leads by that team member, and then printing a list of leads for that specific member.

2. second, going to each individual record and asking for a report which includes contact history, and manually including the appropriate reports with the lead list for each team member.

Would not it just be easier to tell each team member to log into their own account, look at the leads with their names assigned, then double click to open them and work them. As they send items, mark calls done, etc., they certainly show up with their contact record's history for future reference. Do you really need a printed copy of this?

If the answer is Yes, I really do need printed copies for each team member, maybe you don't actually want to perform this using the Lead Manager. Consider approaching it from another direction.

Create a duplicate of the data found in the Assigned To field of the Lead Manager. Put this in the Contact Type field of the lead's Contact Record. Take the record of Dwight Kitchens. Open the lead, assign a Contact Type of "Lead = Christopher Green" to the Contact Record (Christopher Green is the name of the agent to whom the lead has been assigned). After you have assigned all leads to agents (i.e., each Contact Recors's Contact Type has a "Lead = Team Member Name" annotation, you are now ready to use this information.

Click Search, Search by Description, select Contact Type = "Lead = Christopher Green", assign to the right-hand panel, and click Start Search. You now have all leads assigned to Christopher Green. Select them all, click View Report, choose the Contact History report option, and you get a report with names, addresses, contact information, and a list of all previous outgoing (e-mail, letters, postcards, labels, envelopes, and phone calls if annotated done) and incoming (e-mail and phone calls if annotated done) communications.

Do the above for each team member and they will each have their own list of leads with history.

Just remember, if you only want current leads, once you have changed leads status from prospect to current client , you should also change their Contact Type to remove the "Leads - agent name" so that they don't continue to printed in your lead follow-up list. One of the agents should already be either Listing or Closing their property at this time and there is no necessity to have them on your Lead List.

Cut and Paste Library for Customer Web Pages (amended from May 2006)

From experience, very few REALTORS seem to have built an extensive library of comments which

can be quickly be pulled for providing feedback to the client. The more you tell your client about what

you have done, the more they understand what occurs in the background. While it is easy to do, may I suggest

that you might want to try cutting and pasting some of these comments into your system? Of course, building

your own makes sense, but these may give you a departure point.

First, paste all of the below into either WordPad (the free Windows word processor) or Microsoft Word.

This gives you the ability to copy and paste individual items and move them back into TOP PRODUCER 7i.

Get into the Service Report tab of any listing (current, active, etc.). Once there, click "Add Activity".

Click "Details", which should be underlined. Click "Modify List", and paste the following into the

empty line within the box. After the paste has been inserted, press enter to bring up a new empty

line, and paste in the next item. This permits you to quickly build your listing comments.

Of course, you will want to add to this list, but this may give you some 'food for thought'.

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A Supra lockbox has been installed at your home. This permits REALTORS to show your property

during your absence. Additionally, for security purposes, it permits us to track which REALTOR

entered your home on a particular date and time. It also helps us garner feedback on impressions

potential purchasers made about your home.

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Your home has been listed on the <<insert name of Multiple Listing Service>>. It may be seen by

going to www. <<enter your personal web-site domain name>> .com,

www. <<enter your company web-site domain name>>.com, and www.REALTOR.com .

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A "FOR SALE" sign has been placed on your property. A sign permits both neighbors and interested parties to

realize that your home is now on the market. Approximately 35% of sales result from initially seeing

a sign placed on a property.

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"For Sale" flyers have been made for your property. Copies will be placed in the tube attached to your

"FOR SALE" sign. Should you get low on "For Sale" flyers, please call <<your phone number>> and

let us know. We'll quickly reprint and refill.

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An electronic version of your "FOR SALE" sign has been sent to <<insert number>> of my prospective

buyers currently looking for homes. Additionally, I have forwarded this version to <<insert number>> of

fellow REALTORS who may have clients looking for a home similar to your own.

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A "FOR SALE" add has been placed in the <<insert newspaper name>> describing your home.

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An "OPEN HOUSE" has been scheduled for <<insert date, time>>.

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Your "OPEN HOUSE" drew <<insert number>> prospective clients through your home. I have

initiated followup with each of these visitors and will provide further information as it becomes

available.

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Your home was introduced to XXX member of <<name of firm>> at our last meeting. This information

is given to insure that their buyers are made aware of your property's introduction to the market.

Customer Web Page Notifications by e-mail

I was recently asked about sending out Customer Web Page Notifications when a team is involved. Since the Customer Web Page is designed around the Internet, I'm going to suggest you notify your clients of this feature by e-mail. Instead of sending the e-mail from the CONTACT RECORD, CUSTOMER WEBPAGE TAB, I suggest you put an e-mail template, similar to the one below, in your e-mail library. Make one for each team member so that their signature block can show up on the e-mail notification properly. Since you may be making this for everyone, you don't want to actually use merge codes as the sending agent's personal information would always be showing up. Now, when you need to send your e-mail notification for any team member, send one using their personalized template instead.

Personally, I would put two additional tasks within my Listing Plan. One would be to "*** Make the Customer Web Page" (Day 0). The second would be a cascading event, scheduled for one day after the completion of "*** Make the Customer Web Page". This insures that if I don't make the Customer Web Page, the Listing Plan will not ask me to send the e-mail notification to the client.

Before you make the Customer Web Page, always type in the name of the responsible agent for this transaction in the Password field of his/her e-mail template. This again helps to brand that name for the client, and will work appropriately with the e-mail going out one for each team member.

This also assumes that instead of using the machine generated hyperlink within the e-mail, you always send your clients to a button within your own website. Put the Customer Web Page Hyperlink behind the button so that when they click it, your Customer Web Page Login Screen shows up within a frame on your web-site. No need to send them anywhere other than www."typeyourDOMAINNAMEhere".com since you now have a button giving the access to their feedback once they type in their Username and PASSWORD.

======================================================================

(merge code COMPANY LOGO) (hard insert of AGENT PHOTO)

SUBJECT: Instant feedback on your real estate transaction

MERGE CODE = CONTACT.LETTER.SALUTATION:

Shown below is information you may use to access feedback on your current real estate transaction. Click on www."typeyourDOMAINNAMEhere".com and then click the CLIENT FEEDBACK button on the left-hand side of our web page. Fill in the USERNAME without spaces, and fill in the PASSWORD. You will then be shown feedback on your transaction for your property.

OUR WEBSITE: www."typeyourDOMAINNAMEhere".com

USERNAME: Type in the "first three letters of your firstname" plus the "first three letters of your last name" in lowercase letters (no spaces between your first and last name)

PASSWORD: (permanently type in the applicable Agent's Name in their applicable copy of this e-mail template)

Sincerely,

Paste in the applicable agent's signature block here (remember, you are making a separate one for each agent on the team and using their name in the title so that you can tell which one you need to send)

Using new flyer graphics in all your materials

TOP PRODUCER Systems, Inc. has provided you with a number of new flyer templates, with new graphics images. These graphics may be replicated for use in other portions of the program in addition to being used in other flyers.

Shown here is a .jpg version of one of the graphics. Due to the graphic's color depth, it can't be used here as a .gif graphics file.

Now, if you desired to create a flyer using this graphic either at the top or bottom of the flyer, you merely need to copy one flyer, open the copy, and then edit this new flyer, moving the graphic to the location of your choice.

Alternatively, you could copy this graphic into to the Windows Clipboard, place it within a photo editing program, and modify it to meet your needs. An example might be placing your phone number on the left-hand side, and your company logo on the right-hand side. If your photo editing program permits you to lock all the components together, when you save the image the two graphics are embedded within a single photo. You have changed the graphics from three hard to manage components into one photo, named LETTERHEAD GRAPHIC.JPG.

Some REALTORs desire to use this type of graphic within their electronic Agent Signature block. If this is placed at the top of the Agent Signature Block, when the Agent Signature is inserted within an e-mail after it has been drafted, the graphic will be below the body of the text. Simply move the graphic to the top before clicking SEND.

Alternatively, if you are drafting a single e-mail, insert the signature first, then draft your message below the graphic but before the text of your signature block. You end up with an e-mail message with a beautiful header, followed by your text, and then your signature block.

Now, for REALTORs who desire to make their own stationery as they print their letters, you could place this LETTERHEAD GRAPHIC.JPG graphic at the top of your letter stationery. So long as you create new letter templates by copying the MY STATIONERY template to a new name, opening the newly named file, and typing your body text, you always move the graphic and any other information over to your new letter template. Since our LETTERHEAD GRAPHIC.JPG. consists of the background graphic as well as your photo and company logo, you may still want to type your contact information within the footer portion of the page. Of course, you could have embedded it over the top of the graphic when you saved your LETTERHEAD GRAPHIC.JPG, but this would have made for a very busy graphic. Insure that your footer includes your name, designations, address, phone numbers, and possibly your e-mail address and web page address.

Of course, the intent of this type of procedure is to brand all your materials so that one exquisite impression is consistently placed before your clients.

FSBO marketing

Have you been paying attention to the FSBO plans within TOP PRODUCER 7i? If not, maybe it's time to take another look. The Correspondence Library includes twenty-five messages, reflected in both letter and e-mail libraries. Should you choose to market to FSBOs, these tools are a great departure point. After reading through all the letters, you decide whether you want to supplement them with any additional messages. After all your messages are complete, insure that they are all linked to your FSBO plan, and start implementing.

Wait. Where do I find FSBOs? While some realtors may drive through their communities to find FSBOs, others choose to use a service. For the past 14 years Landvoice, formerly known as Warnock’s by Owner, has been providing the largest For Sale by Owner (FSBO) lead generation service available. You choose a zip code, and for about $40 per month, they supply e-mail leads from your subscribed zipcode directly to you as a comma separated value (.csv) file. Once you have mapped the data using TOP PRODUCER 7i's Data Transfer Wizard and saved your mapping template, you easily move the FSBO data daily into your database.

See: http://www.landvoice.com/

Additionally, they provide an optional Call Capture service. You install a sign rider at their home and callers receive information about their property. Of course, at the same time, the Call Capture provides you with contact information for those making inquiries. Again, you import those into TOP PRODUCER 7i for followup.

Integration of TOP PRODUCER 7i and SureClose^®

Recently, TOP PRODUCER 7i became more versatile with the addition of a link with ZipForms Online, the most widely used automated contract program. They've done it again, but this time with the online transaction management platform known as SureClose^® (www.Sureclose.com). This will enable a one-click transfer of property data from a Top Producer 7i closing file directly into SureClose’s secure transaction management platform.

• one-click transfer of property data – including buyer, seller and other transaction information

• view the real-time status of their transactions, including open tasks and key documents, from a dashboard within Top Producer 7i

• initiate and track transactions, without resorting to paper documents and offline processes

• so long as you use SureClose, there is no additional cost for the link between the two programs

Address Merge Code Corrections

The merge codes within TOP PRODUCER 7i are reflected below for an address line used for a contact's office address. Should the primary address be their residence, I would suggest that you remove the "Contact.title" merge code so that you don't use a title more appropriate to their office address.

Please note that an overseas address, at a place of business, could actually require eight lines of text. First, I suggest that you change all letter stationery, envelope, postcard, and label addresses to reflect the merge codes shown below. Second, may I suggest that you might consider using labels larger than an Avery 5160 as the font would need to be significantly reduced to permit eight lines to fit within the label format.

Suggested Letter Address Format

Contact.envelope_salutation

Contact.title (use merge code only when the office address is the primary address)

Contact.company (merges only when checked on Contact Record for inclusion)

Property.adddress_with_pobox (merges building/floor - if applicable

(street address plus suite number - if applicable)

(P. O. Box number - if applicable)

(City, State, Zip Code

Property.country (enter country in contact record only if non-United States address)

Time Blocking for Time Managment

O.K. You're doing well in your business, but would like to take it to the next level. You might consider whether you are "Time Blocking" your calendar. We often work more efficiently when we can do similar tasks one after another. We get into the groove and become more efficient in our expenditure of energy. Do you have two times a day you return your calls? A particular time you send the day's mailouts coming from your applied plans? If not, you might want to consider blocking out time specifically for these tasks.

Many agents will set times, such as 11:00 - 11:30 AM and 4:00-4:30 PM to return calls which, by design, have gone to their answering systems. Of course, it helps if your recorded message states that you will be returning calls during specific times. This may preclude playing "telephone tag" with your clients. Of course, if your message asks that they leave name, number, and reason for the call, you might be better able to prepare for the return call.

Also, when you first start using TOP PRODUCER 7i, you might desire to block out an hour a day to build the components you will want to include in your practice. I suggest you initially set aside an hour per day Monday - Friday for four weeks. You use this time to automate the way the software manages your practice. Examples of processes you perform are:

update contact records with contact types, birthdays, sources, etc.

move all your current letters and e-mails into the TOP PRODUCER 7i Correspondence Library

modify plans to use your personal letters and e-mails

apply appropriate plans to clients

As you are building the materials for your practice, and afterwards, you want to again Time Block an opportunity for you to work your SCHEDULE, TODAY'S BUSINESS, SUMMARY of items currently due. Since you have already Time Blocked your phone calls, here you are primarily interested in managing both your Listings and Closings tasks, as well as getting all your letters, envelopes, labels, and postcards out to your clients. Assuming that your e-mail delivery from plans is set to go automatically, you won't need to worry about them in TODAY'S BUSINESS.

Apply the same comment to multiple Listing / Closing To-Do's simultaneously

Recently, I received the following concern:

This has to do with Service Reports in TP7i. With 15 listings I do one activity. An Advertisement. To update the service report in TP7i we have to enter the to-do 15 times and then mark it done. That takes longer than placing the ad. Would be nice to be able to link all 15 listings to the one To-do. Or even the ability to have repeating items in the listing plan. That would be half the work - would just need to mark done with a saved comment. Do you have any ideas on speeding up this process?

Solution:

Build your residential listing plan to include the task: Advertise Property on days 7,14,21,28,25,42,49,56, 63,70,77,84 for a ninety day listing. Add more events for longer listings. Although you must enter this as multiple tasks, you can copy the term "Advertise Property" to the clipboard and paste it down in the task entries after the first entry. No matter what day you start the plan, they are sequenced for all your listings as 7 days apart. Now, if you had a listing starting on 11/01/06 and one on 11/03/06, when you apply the plans, it tells you to advertise one on the 7th and the other the 9th. If you were to advertise your properties every Monday, you would not advertise either of these two on Monday the 6th, but would advertise both on Monday the 13th, as both have rolled over respectively from the 7th and the 9th of November 2006.

When looking at your listing to-do's in ToDay's Business (Schedule, Today's Business, Listing ToDo's), you will see all items due at this time (both those due today and those past due). You only want to work the task Advertise Property on the date that you submit the ads. If you always advertise on Monday's you only work the task Advertise Property on a Monday, no other day. You could either put a repeating event on your system to remind you to advertise each Monday, or make an appointment each Monday at a certain time to advertise your listings. Since you can sort the task items by Description, you sort the list so that all the due/overdue Advertise Property tasks are grouped together. Click the first in the list, hold down the shift key while clicking the last item in the list, and all items described as Advertise Property should now be highlighted.

Now that all ads coming due in the past week are highlighted, click MARK DONE on the left-panel menus. The system asks if you have really done them. Click YES. Now the system asks if you really want to tell the client that these have been done. Click YES TO ALL. This will put the same comment on each of the clients service reports. Click DETAILS and choose the standard comment from your library which you desire to have applied against all of the advertisements. Although the screen shows a single line, it will wrap when you apply the comment. Therefore, your saved comments might be something like: "Your property has been advertised this week in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, and Annapolis Digest."

If you currently have eighteen listings, and your listing plan includes the Advertise Property tasks, you will advertise these eighteen each Monday. Your Service Report tab will reflect "Your property has been advertised this week in the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, and Annapolis Digest." within each of the eighteen records. But, you have only had to mark the group done (completed) once per week after you actually call/e-mail each of the three papers.

Your web provider won't let you use Lead Inquiry Forms on my web-site

Although using either a Top Producer Website with built-in Lead Inquiry Forms, or linking a TOP PRODUCER 7i Lead Inquiry Form to your own website would be preferred, this may not be possible within your personal website. Therefore, how do you collect information regarding those who visit your site?

Assuming that your web host sends you an e-mail each time a potential lead inquiry is made, DO THEY ALSO STORE THE LEADS IN A TEXT FILE? Often the data will be accumulated within an ASCII comma delimited text file which you could probably access online (probably by FTP - file transfer protocol)? If so, you could download the file, use the Data Transfer Wizard, and map the data directly into TOP PRODUCER 7i. Alternatively, if you downloaded the file and pulled it into MS Excel, you could add a column to the data for the Source = "XXX website" and replicate it across all the records in the file. Then use the Data Transfer Wizard with "XXX website" mapped against the Source field. Since the Source field will be imported, these will automatically be entered in the Lead Manager as new leads. Just insure either that you clear (empty) the stored text file from the server each time after you download, or open the cumulative download file in MS Excel and delete all records (MS Excel rows) which you have previously downloaded, and keep only those new records which you have not yet touched.

Should your website designers feel comfortable in adding either .asp or .cgi code into their pages, your could have code generated by TOP PRODUCER 7i (Setup, Lead Setup, new lead form, custom code) which they could integrate directly within your page. This code would be set to send the data directly into the Lead Manager from your web-site.

In either case, you could write a plan which automatically implements your desired response to this particular source ("XXX website") from within the Lead Manager. Based on the number of responses you get, this might be necessary.

For those who get lots of inquiries by telephone, you can enter these from EITHER the HOME menu or the Quick Access Icon toolbar (Quick Contact Entry). From the Home menu, choose the Quick Entry - CONTACT option. This screen permits you to select a source after entering name and either phone number or e-mail address. The source entry puts it in the Lead Manager. Personally, I prefer opening the Quick Contact Entry off the Quick Access Toolbar. This permits me to record both a phone number, e-mail address, and source for the contact, where the Home menu, Quick Entry-Contact only permit either a phone number or an e-mail address (not both). Now, you could enter the Lead Manager, highlight all of the records manually generated today from phone calls, and apply a plan to all of them at one time.

TOP PRODUCER 7i calendars

If you are using your TOP PRODUCER 7i calendar to manage your day, but don't yet use either TOP PRODUCER Palm or TOP PRODUCER SellPhone for a truly portable calendar, possibly you need printed copies. Although you are limited to full size calendar pages (generally 8.5" by 11"), they may be printed in either a portrait or landscape orientation. Choose the calendar type you desire (day, week, month, year) and then choose VIEW REPORT. Once the report displays, click Print and the desired version prints out. I'll generally keep a paper copy for when I'm traveling and want to see a month at a glance.

Expireds Marketing

Have you checked out the series of twenty-five expired letters and e-mails within TOP PRODUCER 7i? If not,

why not check out the materials? Many REALTORS check their MLS daily to get leads on expired listings. The

tools are already within TOP PRODUCER 7i to help you market to this group. Why not check out the materials

and consider adding these materials to your repetoire?

Birthdays

Yes, I know that you have TOP PRODUCER 7i set to notify you of your client's birthdays. This is a nice feature which permits you to either call or send a card. Of course, should you desire to send cards through the mail, I suggest that you record the birthdays both under the Primary / Secondary person's record as well as in the Family and Friends section. The first can be easily searched, while the second shows you birthdays when you highlight the Family and Friends icon while talking with your clients during your quarterly calls.

Should you desire to send cards through the U.S. Postal Service, you may want to purchase them all at one time. This is easily done be getting a count of everyone having a birthday during a particular month. This is where having birthdays recorded under the Primary and Secondary persons name is useful. First, search on Primary.person.birthday and ask to be limited to a particular month. Print out a report. The first person on the report will have the birthday during that month. Next, search on Secondary.person.birthday and ask this, again, to be limited to a particular month. Print out the report. The second person on the list will have the birthday that month. If you combined them together, you would not know if the first or second person was having the birthday during that month. Count the numbers on the first report, count those on the second report, add them together, and you know how many cards to purchase.

Yes, of course, you could expand this and include gender in your search as well. This would require four searches, but you would be then know how many males and how many females had birthdays that particular month. Alternatively, as you make your counts from the paragraph above, just look at the names and you should be able to see which are either male or female names and similar results. The only places you might have problems is when you see names such as Lynn, Shawn, etc., which could be of either gender.

Now, if you desire to deliver birthday messages in a different format, you might consider an alternative subscription service to www.BirthdayAlarm.com . For only $13.95 per year, they will remind you of birthdays , anniversaries, etc., and send a Macromedia Flash animated card of your choosing to your client. You choose the card, type in your message, and it is delivered to the client's e-mail box. You get a reminder in sufficient time to choose the card, not postage, and no purchasing of cards each month. It only takes a dozen clients to make this a much less expensive means of delivering cards that the USPS. Just something for your consideration.

Should your brokerage set up an office account?

Brokerages may setup an office account consisting of multiple TOP PRODUCER 7i license subscriptionss. When they do so, they are given Broker Tools to administer the licenses. This tool permits them to assign/reassign licenses to agents as they come in and out of a brokerage. From an administrative point of view, if a brokerage subscribed to multiple licenses, TOP PRODUCER Systems, Inc. permits the brokerage to build databases and assign agent licenses to those databases as they see fit. Therefore, if the brokerage subscribed to ten licenses, they could build databases for a team of four, two partnerships of two, and two individual agents, which would use the total of ten licenses. Should an agent leave the firm, they could reassign the license as they see fit.

One advantage of having an office account with Broker Tools is that the brokerage can build materials (plans/letters/e-mails/flyers/CMAs/Buyer Presentations) and offer those templates to all users within their office account. Additionally, they can invite TOP PRODUCER 7i using agents who are outside of the office account to share the same materials which they are making available within the account. Anyone with Broker Tools may invite anyone outside of their office account (workgroup) and opportunity to benefit from the standardized materials developed at the brokerage level.

All it takes is a minimum of three agent licenses on an office account to be able to obtain Broker Tools. I encourage those offices where TOP PRODUCER 7i is being used to consider setting up a brokerage office account so that they can share centrally developed materials with other agents within the firm.

What do you see?

There are times when you desire to see information either on screen or on a report from within TOP PRODUCER 7i. One of those pieces of information is how to contact your client. Some REALTORS are unaware that when viewing a display of a selected group, or viewing a single line report, that you control which piece of contact information displays (home phone number, office phone number , mobile phone number, FAX number, e-mail address, or web-site).

Your control of this information is set from within the individual's Contact Record, the Contact Information page, and by your setting in the Show in List drop-down selection. Once set, this establishes how you will see this data. So long as you have recorded the information you desire to see, you can choose to have it displayed when you either search for records or view reports. If you always want to see a phone number, and you have recorded one within the Contact Record, don't let it show you an e-mail address just because you set the system to display something you did not desire to see. Change it now and you will appreciate it later.

Your web provider won't let you use Lead Inquiry Forms on your web-site

Changes to Presentations

You may have noted by now that during April, TOP PRODUCER Systems, Inc. updated many of the CMA, Buyer Presenatation, and Community and Schools Report templates. Some conflicting pages were removed, some verbiage changed, and other modifications to make these more relevant to your practice. Four brand-new content pages have been added to the Master (All) Template list as well as one page into the existing templates. Click Here to see Examples of new CMA pages If you have not been using these tools, please take another look. You my be pleasantly pleased.

Using new flyer graphics in all your materials

Shown here is a .jpg version of one of the graphics. Due to the graphic's color depth, it can't be used here as a .gif graphics file.

Of course, the intent of this type of procedure is to brand all your materials so that one exquisite impression is consistently placed before your clients.

PDA financial packages

If either your accountant or bookkeeper can accept digital financial information, you might want to relook PDA/SmartPhone versions of PocketQuicken. They now make versions for both the Palm as well as the Pocket PC 2003 through Windows Mobile 5, including the Treo 700w. Enter your records while mobile and the your PDA/SmartPhone data syncs with your desktop/laptop version of Quicken/Quickbooks. See: http://www.landware.com/pocketquicken/index.html

Alternatively, if your financial professional suggests that you use Microsoft Money, you might consider using Ultrasoft's Money, a Palm OS version. See: http://www.ultrasoft.com/ Ultrasoft Money Version 5 is stated to work with Microsoft Money through version 2007.

FSBO marketing

See: http://www.landvoice.com/

Integration of TOP PRODUCER 7i and SureClose^®

• one-click transfer of property data – including buyer, seller and other transaction information

• view the real-time status of their transactions, including open tasks and key documents, from a dashboard within Top Producer 7i

• initiate and track transactions, without resorting to paper documents and offline processes

• so long as you use SureClose, there is no additional cost for the link between the two programs

Dividing your database into delivery types (repeat from Nov 2005)

Often, it is easier for you to contact your clients by e-mail than it is to print, fold, insert, and post your message. Therefore, it is imperative that you know which clients have e-mail address and which can only receive materials through the U.S. Postal Service.

Personally, I assign a contact types of E-MAIL NEWSLETTER and DELIVERY BY E-MAIL to my clients with e-mail addresses to whom I desire to e-mail monthly. Then, for those without e-mail addresses, I assign a contact types of E-MAIL NEWSLETTER and DELIVERY BY LETTER.

Initially, I would perform a MASS UPDATE, searching first under ADVANCED SEARCH, choosing the field E-MAIL ADDRESS, and setup the search to find all records which CONTAIN the "@" sign. This will give me all records which have an e-mail address. Then, after choosing all records found from the search, I complete the mass update by adding a new CONTACT TYPE of both E-MAIL NEWSLETTER and DELIVERY BY E-MAIL. Complete this and you now have records which reflect these two new contact types.

Next, I would perform another MASS UPDATE, searching first under ADVANCED SEARCH, choosing the field E-MAIL ADDRESS, and setup the search to find all records which DON'T CONTAIN the "@" sign. This will give me all records which do not have an e-mail address. Then, after choosing all records found from the search, I complete the mass update by adding a new CONTACT TYPE of both E-MAIL NEWSLETTER and DELIVERY BY LETTER.

Now, the next message I mail to those without an e-mail address (contact type = Delivery by letter), I would explicitly mention that I can maintain better contact if my client would supply an e-mail address. Of course, I offer them both a phone number, e-mail address, and physical address to which they can provide the information. I would also do this with subsequent letters, always asking for an alternate means of delivery. Should I get an e-mail address, I would add it to the contact record and change the contact type from DELIVERY BY LETTER to DELIVER BY E-MAIL.

Hopefully, over time, you can get e-mail addresses for most of your clients. Of course, you have no requirement to send your messages by e-mail, but you will save on postage as you send more messages in this fashion. Just remember, if you get a rejection of your e-mail, you need to research it and find out why the address is no longer valid. I would suggest that you look at the rejected e-mail, copy to the Windows clipboard the address to which you send the message, and them perform a Quick Search on the field 'e-mail address', inserting the e-mail address which was rejected. This should show you the contact record from which the address originated. If you have either their telephone number or physical address, it's time to contact them and ask for a replacement e-mail address. They probably changed their address and just forgot to notify you.

Version 3.0 of TOP PRODUCER web-sites has arrived

TOP PRODUCER Systems, Inc. has upgraded the Top Producer® Websites. Lots of new features to give you more options to WOW your clients.

Top Producer® Blogs
Top Producer® Websites is proud to offer Top Producer® Blogs free of charge. Creating a blog page enables you to provide commentaries or news on real estate, your community, your listings, or any other areas of interest to your visitors.

Open House Calendar
Now you can advertise your upcoming Open Houses through a dynamic Open House Calendar page.

Registration Lead Forms
Top Producer Websites now provides the option to display a lead form to your visitors before they can access specific Web pages. This will enable you to obtain information on the visitor before displaying valuable information, such as articles, listings, and more. A useful means of insuring that you can follow-up with everyone who views your site. Of course, if automated, your computer can send follow-up materials to your potential clients before you even have a chance to call and quality their interest.

Upgraded Designs
We enhanced the look and feel of many designs and to ensure that our themes are compatible with the latest version of Internet Explorer 7.0. Also, our themes were upgraded with greater functionality and flexibility.

Custom Themes
In addition to adding new theme designs to our vast repository, we now offer you the flexibility to upload your own banner image to create a personalized theme. Of course, this makes it possible to use the same customized banner your use on your CMAs, Buyer Presentations, and customized letter stationery within your web-site, creating one unique theme in all your materials.

More Listing Options
You can now create customized listing pages and control how your listings will appear by default to your web site visitors.

Populating your database with REALTOR data

Many TOP PRODUCER 7i users want to populate their database with the names and addresses of REALTORS within their MLS. The easy way is for you to export the data from your MLS into either an ASCII comma delimited text file (.txt) or a comma separated value file (.csv) and importing the file using the Data Transfer Wizard.

Alternatively, if you can't get the data directly from the MLS, there are both a difficult and easier way to populate your database.

TOP PRODUCER 7i does not permit you to carry over the address information from record to record. While you could set the company name, contact type, and source to autopopulate, this does not apply to the address, phone number, etc. Therefore, the diffcult option is to type each record individually, which takes lots of work. Not recommended.

An easier way is to batch your data by firm and address and build a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Then, if you have lots of records to enter for the same firm, my suggestion is that you first put one record into an Excel spreadsheet across the first row. Then, enter your individual first names, last names, e-mail addresses, cellphone numbers, etc. in the appropriate fields in subsequent rows. Anything which is consistent between rows should not be entered manually, but copied across all the rows from your first row. When you come to a new firm / firm address, build a completely new row, then in subsequent rows copy the duplicating information again down the appropriate rows. Effectively, what you have done is only typed data which does not repeat while reusing all which is consistent across certain fields. Once your spreadsheet is completed, highlight records for each company and export the those company's records to a .csv file using that company's name (i.e.; l&f.csv) . This will give you a separate file for each firm.

Open the Data Transfer Wizard, load the .csv file you exported, map the records, save the mapping for reuse later, and then push them up into TOP PRODUCER 7i insuring that you apply the appropriated contact type based on the firm being imported. If you are working with multiple companies' data, so long as you enter the data the same way, you can use the map you made in the first set of records for subsequent .csv data files, merely changing the contact type for each data file.

This will quickly get all your records into TOP PRODUCER 7i with a minimum amount of typing.

Are you using Lead Inquiry Forms on your website?

Lead Forms permit you to accept data from potential clients and link it directly with your TOP PRODUCER 7i Lead Manager. This is a great way to have your website work for you. No longer do you need to receive e-mails about a potential lead. Instead, data on your potential lead is automatically linked into your Lead Manager. You do less typing and the action happens in the background.

If you have not been using Lead Forms, please click HELP, SEARCH, and type in Lead Inquiry Forms. You'll want to implement these on your personal website.

If you are using Top Producer Websites, you may also use Lead Inquiry Forms as a registration page anywhere within your website. From any page, you may force clients to fill out the form before they can delve further into your website.

TOP PRODUCER 7i calendars

Your web provider won't let you use Lead Inquiry Forms on my web-site

Time Blocking for Time Managment

update contact records with contact types, birthdays, sources, etc.

move all your current letters and e-mails into the TOP PRODUCER 7i Correspondence Library

modify plans to use your personal letters and e-mails

apply appropriate plans to clients

Apply the same comment to multiple Listing / Closing To-Do's simultaneously

Recently, I received the following concern:

Solution:

Leads / Referrals / Contacts and their relationship to Teams/Partnerships

If you are not a sole practitioner, you will benefit from maintenance release 10's ability to assign specific Leads / Referrals / Contacts to an individual on your team/partnership. This permits you to divide the work and the compensation among your members. If an assistant enters a lead / referral, it is entered as belonging to the assistant's default agent.

Mimic your schedule's "add recurring events" in Listing and Closing plans

If you have added a recurring event to your calendar, you will have noticed how easy it was to schedule something to repeat multiple times from a start date. Unfortunately, when writing Listing and Closing plans, the start date and the calendar date are not linked until the Listing Date or Closing Date have been determined. Therefore, since everything hinges on either the Listing Date or Closing Date, we schedule events either XXX number of days from those dates, or XXX number of days from a required preceeding activity.

Should you desire to put a repeating activity into either your Listing or Closing plan, may I suggest that you use the Windows clipboard to copy the description, and repetitively use the Enter Next button to add instances of your task. Just paste the description from the clipboard, determine whether the start date is XXX number of days from either the Listing Date/Closing Date, or XXX number of days from the previous linked event. In either case, you quickly build your plan with multiple instances of your task, all appropriately based on the start date of your plan.

Improvements to Customer Service Reports (Client Web-Pages)

REALTORs now have the ability to pass on information to consumers via the online service report (Client Web-Page) in a hyperlink format. For example, you can create an activity, mark it done, and in the notes section type in the URL that you want to pass on to the consumer. (Imagine a REALTOR having the ability to pass a customer information about a mortgage broker or even a vendor they recommend in exchange for referrals, just by creating a link in the report the customer looks at daily)

The system now supports http://, https://, www, ftp, gopher, and mailto (which are the more common ones that people use) and if any customer already had links in their service report prior to the maintenance update, they became active immediately.

In one of the upcoming maintenance releases TOP PRODUCER Systems, Inc., will make the hyperlink Blue in color so as to be more recognizable, but the hyperlinks are now active even though they are not reflected in the generally accepted underline blue format.

Dividing your database into delivery types

Personally, I assign a contact types of E-MAIL NEWSLETTER and DELIVERLY BY E-MAIL to my clients with e-mail addresses to whom I desire to e-mail monthly. Then, for those without e-mail addresses, I assign a contact types of E-MAIL NEWSLETTER and DELIVERY BY LETTER.

Holiday Mailing Lists

Many REALTORS desire to send out mailings over the holiday season. Whether it be a card, or next year's calendar, you want to insure that you only mail them to people with proper addresses. The below advanced search does not include street names, cities, and states. To mail, you require a valid street address, and the below advanced search will help you build an appropriate search. Generally, you have a valid number assigned either to the street name or the post office box. Therefore, we are going to check specifically that these fields are completed within your database.

You may desire to build a compound search which includes:

Street Number

Contains any of:

1 or

2 or

3 or

4 or

5 or

6 or

7 or

8 or

9 or

P.O. Box

Contains any of:

1 or

2 or

3 or

4 or

5 or

6 or

7 or

8 or

9 or

AND

Contact Type

Equals:

"choose you contact type, such as Holiday List, Mailing List, etc."

The purpose of this advanced search would be to check all of your selected contacts to insure that they have either a valid street number or a valid P.O. Box number. If the contact type lacks either of the other two criteria it would not be included in the mailing.

Potential problems with revising plans

Once a plan is assigned to a client, the general way to change it is to modify the plan, delete the old application of the plan, and reapply the
plan. The reason for this is that when you assign a plan, it actually assigns each task in the plan to that contact right 'then and there'. You
can see this if you go into a contact record and click ACTION PLAN on the contact record. You will then see all tasks yet to be executed, but part of your original plan, with your client.

Now, how might we resolve this issue?

PLAN A: FULL VERSION OF NEW PLAN: If you had envisioned writing a new plan FOR FUTURE CLIENTS, this is merely copying your original plan to a newly named plan, and then modifying it for the changes you would like to see.

If this new plan leaves all the old tasks in place, but merely adds additional tasks, resolving your dilemna may not be so difficult. All it
would require is for you to copy this PLAN A: FULL VERSION OF THE NEW PLAN to another named plan called PLAN B: PARTIAL VERSION OF THE NEW PLAN. Once the copy is made, delete all the old taks from the original plan,
leaving only the newly added tasks. This partial plan could then be applied to your previous clients based on their original plan start date.
It would merge your initial plan tasks and your new plan tasks for the client.

Depending upon what was used to initiate the first plan, you might have multiple contacts started based on the same item (closing date, contact type, etc.). If this is the case, an easy way to add PLAN B's partial task list to PLAN A's original task list would be through a MASS UPDATE. Search on the same criteria used to start the first plan, then add PLAN B and the two will be combined.

BUT.....If this new plan modifies some of the old tasks, resolving your dilemna may not be so easy. In this case, the original concept of removing the old plan and adding a new plan is the best way to go. If your new plan asks for all tasks to drop off after a set period, when you assign the plan, it should ignore all tasks which were previously sent by the former assignment of the old plan, as the calendar will be past the drop off date applied to each of the old tasks.

Unfortunately, this also means that you will need to perform five tasks:
a. find the clients whose plan requires changing
b. determine the start date for your original plan for that client
c. remove the old plan
d. tell the program to remember all previously applied tasks
e. apply the new plan, using the original start date

Adding Farm Areas Quickly into TOP PRODUCER 7i

Recently, a client asked me about adding multiple contact records with "Neighbors at: " and a

farm area address to their database. Personally, if I were going to do this, I would probably

open Microsoft Excel and generate a row for each street address. If the physical street number i

s in column A, the street name in B, the designator in C, City in D, State in E, zip in F, and

"Neighbors at:" in G, it would be easy to push this data into TOP PRODUCER 7i.

Consider that you have 15 houses on a street. Type in the data for columns B - G, and copy it

down an additional 14 rows. Now, goto column A and start typing in the street numbers,

i.e.; 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, etc. in row 1,2,3,4,5, etc. Now, do the same process

for the next street and their street numbers.

After all your data in in the spreadsheet, export all the columns and rows out to a .CSV file type.

Once this is all completed, you can use the TOP PRODUCER 7i Data Import Wizard to pull

the .CSV file into your database. The Wizard permits you to map these fields into

TOP PRODUCER 7i, then push them upto the database. Map the "Neighbors at:"

into either the Firstname or Lastname field.

This process should not take long and is much easier than typing the data into

TOP PRODUCER 7i as separate records.

Another approach to postcards

Recently, a member of "topproducerusenet" on Yahoo had the following question:

I'm a big postcard and handwritten notes type of person. I have a whole bunch of different

postcards/notes that I send out at various times throughout working with a client/customer.

For instance, from initial contact with a customer ... I send out a postcard as well as a handwritten

note. The postcard has an enlarged business card preprinted on one side and then on the other side

it gives me a space to write a quick line or two letting them know I'm looking forward to working

with them. It serves as a great "refrigerator reminder" for them.

My question is ... what would be the best way to track that these have been sent out? I know I could

go into "Contact Notes" and type it in each time ... but for me that's not at all effective for time

management as well as for assigning this job to my assistant. What I'd like to do is create a "template"

that would allow me to tell my assistant to send "Intro Biz Card Postcard" and "Welcome Note". If I

create this as a Postcard Template ... it seems it makes me have to physically print it. Is there any way

to create templates that can be used for tracking purposes and NOT have to physically PRINT them?

Hopefully I explained this so you all can understand. It would be nice to know that I can pull up a

contact record and when I look under "history" I could see that the Intro Biz Postcard was sent on

Jan 5th, that a handwritten note of welcome was sent on Jan 8th etc ..

My thoughts, as provided to the writer, may also be of assistance to you:

Assuming for a second that you don't actually want to print either a label or a physical address on the

postcard within your machine, but merely desire to have the job annotated within TOP PRODUCER 7i,

there is a fairly easy solution.

First, I would like to suggest that you write a plan calling for each of the items you desire to send on the

appropriate number of days from the start of your plan. Even though you are not going to print out labels,

I would make all of the tasks 'labels'. In choosing which label to use, I would actually make copies of a

generic size label and complete the title/describe them using such terms as "introductory card - first

preprinted card", "Why you should use me as your REALTOR - second preprinted card",

"Why our firm is the one - third preprinted card", etc. This title/description would be what you will

see in the history file when we are finished with each mailing. It also helps you to know which card

you are to send to that client since they will be shown in Today's Business grouped by label name.

Without an appropriate title, which card would you use?

Now, when you get a new client, apply the plan to their contact record. This schedules the individual

cards within Today's Business.

Each day, look at Today's Business, and you will see if you have any label jobs to print. You should be

able to tell from the title whether it is a REAL label, or merely a desire to annotate your history file.

Double-click the Label option in Today's Business, and you will see the individual print jobs. Look at

the print job for which you merely desire to annotate the history file. Double-click that line to look at

the job, and click CONTACTS to see the name(s). Insure that you have those cards addressed and

ready to do. This sequence is important, as once you annotate the record, you will no longer have a

view of to whom you were to send the cards. Now, click OK, and click MARK DONE. This will

annotate the history file of each of these potential clients, reflecting that you sent the appropriate card

to them.

Personally, I would suggest that you write a plan to call postcards, design a postcard template

consisting only of the client's address, and print only the address on your premade cards? Use the

same titles/descriptions as mentioned above. So long as your printer will handle envelopes, it will

probably handle cards as well. Using a postcard template rather than a label template means that

you don't have to 'peel and stick' the labels on the cards. The applied plan calls for the postcard to

be printed, which shows up in Today's Business. When the address is printed on the card, it annotates

the appropriate history file with the appropriate title/description.

Of course, you could use a script font on the address to make it look a little more like handwriting, if

you so desire. You can still handwrite your note, but the address itself would be placed automatically

and the record automatically annotated. Since the card will aready have the address, you can insure

that you are writing the appropriate note to that potential client before either you or your assistant drops

it in the USPS box.

Inserting .pdf documents within presentations

Got this question from a REALTOR's assistant recently: ... one of my clients (is) using 7i and

wondered if you happen to know who I might call at TP to find out how (or if!) I can add

a .pdf document to one of our presentations?

There are two ways to add .pdf files to presentations within TOP PRODUCER 7i. One is to publish

the .pdf file to your Published Materials folder, make the hyperlink a Marketing Link, and insert the

Marketing Link inside your presentation. This works only where you generate the .pdf file from within

TOP PRODUCER 7i. Therefore, you could link anything made using the tools found in

PRESENTATIONS, PRESENTATION LIBRARY, for making a multipage presentation. Additionally,

you could link anything made using the FLYERS, FLYER LIBRARY (single page document). Basically,

if you can publish it electronically, you can insert hyperlinks, as they can also be read electronically from

within the .pdf file.

Another option is to make the .pdf file (using either TOP PRODUCER 7i or another program), then

use an FTP manager (CuteFTP, WS_FTP, etc.) to publish your .pdf document to your own web-site's

FTP sub-directlry. Then, either insert the hyperlink to your web-site's page, or insert a Marketing Link

made in TOP PRODUCER of that same hyperlink inside your presentation.

Of course, if you print the presentations, none of the hyperlinks/Marketing Links will work. But, if you

present the presentation online, the hyperlinks/Marketing Links work as the machine goes across the

Internet and pulls those links when they are clicked. Should you publish the document within

TOP PRODUCER 7i and forward the document's link/Marketing link to your client, any

hyperlinks/Marketing Links inside that document should also work. Therefore, since they are reading

your document as a .pdf file, any embeded .pdf files should also open.

Postcards

A TOP PRODUCER 7i user recently sent in this concern:

I created a "Just Moved" postcard for my clients. My goal is to print these post cards and give them

to the buyer and seller at closing. Since they will be for the same person and I would like to print about

20 post cards for both buyer and seller, I would like to print 4 per page. Any suggestions?

Answer:

Actually, it is rather easy once you consider how the program works. I'm assuming that you are going

to make a template and TYPE IN the new address for your client (either buyer or seller). The new

address will not be a 'merge code'. Therefore, no matter how many contact records are used to make

the postcard, it will never generate anything other than the card for your specific buyer/seller.

If you desire 20 cards, go to MAIL, COMMUNICATIONS LIBRARY, POSTCARDS, choose a

starting template, copy that template to a newly named card, open the newly named card, and type in

the address of either your buyer/seller. Then, save the newly named card with the address you want

to print. This permits you to recall that named card later. Now, you need to merge this template with

20 contact records (it does not matter whose records you choose as there are no merges taking place

from the contact records), and print the cards. Do this by choosing MAIL, PERFORM MAILOUT,

POSTCARD, choose your postcard, then in the search window choose any twenty records and click

PRINT. You should get your four-up postcards coming out on five pages, for a total of twenty cards.

Specialized Plans in TOP PRODUCER 7i

I have a question... I need to produce an "Open House" plan and an "Office Manager" plan to help organize us.

Office Manager Plan - This is reminders for all those activities that are often done and often forgotten. It's like

maintain forms file, newspaper deadlines, etc. It includes those routine items that repeat at different times.

Is there a way to put this on Top Producer in one plan that can have activities to assign to others but kept

in one plan???

An "Office Manager" plan would not depend upon a particular listing date, but would start on a

specifically named day, such as the "First Monday of the Month", and then repeat. Since many of your

outside deadlines may depend upon the "day of the week" rather than the "date", I believe you want to

start your plan based upon this premise. In this way, you can write one plan lasting up to the first repeat ,

and then make the last task a "ToDo" reminding you to reapply the plan.

An example might be that you run advertisements on Wednesday and Friday of each week. If your

plan starts on Monday, you write the plan for five weeks, and have ten events. Since some months

have 31 days, I suggest a five week plan to insure all days are covered. Since the plan is started on

Monday, day "0", the next events are days 2, 4, 9,11,16,18,23,25,30, & 32. Once you write your

plan, you merely apply it for each month of the year. The last event in the plan would remind you to

reapply the plan at the end of the term.

Alternatively, you could write the plan differently by merely using repeating events. Write your plan

to have the first advertisement reminder on Wednesday, and use the repeat option to designate 52

occurrences of the event. Write you second advertisement reminder on Friday, and use the repeat

option to designate 52 occurrences of the event. Add one final event to the plan to remind you to

reapply the plan at the end of the term (somewhere around day 365).

In both cases, you can assign tasks to any member of your team for whom you have assigned a

license (subscription with Username and Password). The problem with using repeats in the second

option is that the assignment for each task which repeats can only be assigned to a single individual.

Therefore, if you repeated the occurrence of your event 52 times to cover the year, the same

individual would be assigned that task for all 52 occurrences.

Alternatively, if you wrote the plan as mentioned using Monday as day "0", you could mix up your

assignments, such as days 2, 18, & 32 to "team member one", days 4, 9, & 11 to "team member 2",

days 16, 23, 25, & 30 to "team member 3". In some ways this gives you more versatility as there are

options for up to ten different team members.
=====================================================================================

Open House plan - From the Office manager plan, on say Monday all of our team are reminded and

requested to do an Open House this week end. Once a listing is selected could this "Open House"

plan be included with this listing and schedules, coordinates the Open House. We have an Open

House Plan, it sure would be cool if the plan could be on Top Producer as either an action plan or

listing plan. It would have a completion date that we would want to set and have the reminder activities

adjust to this.

You could certainly write an "Open House Plan" and use it within TOP PRODUCER 7i. But, all the

listing plans are predicated upon either the Listing Date or Listing Expiration Date, which will do you

no good. You actually want to make an Action Plan (Marketing Plan), and assign it to your client.

Unfortunately, while this will remind you to do those tasks necessary to hold the "Open House", they

will not show up under either "Listing or Closing To-Do's", therefore, they won't be in those categories

on your "To-Day's Business". They will show up in "To-Day's Business" outside of the "Listing" and

"Closing" tasks, part of your standard "To-Do's".

Should this work? Certainly. But, you can't start at the end and work back. You must start at the

front of the plan and work to the end. This may be problematic, but there is a solution. If your agents

made their decision on Monday about which property to show on Saturday, you would have four full

days to prepare. If your agents made their decision on Tuesday about which property to show on

Saturday, you would only have three days to prepare. Therefore, this would imply that you might

need to draft multple plans, depending upon how many days of preparation remain.

I would write one plan permitting four working days of activities, one for three working days, and one

for two working days for showings on Saturday. My recommendation is to also copy each of these

plans and modify the last day of the plan when the showing is on a Sunday. I would not schedule any

activities on Saturday for a Sunday showing, as your staff may not be available on Saturday to

complete the "to-do's". Making a Sunday plan's last event to be completed on Friday should help to

eliminate this problem.

If your agents wait until Tuesday to determine which home will be shown, then apply the three day

plan (activities scheduled Wed-Fri). If they wait until Wednesday, apply the two day plan (activities

scheduled Thurs-Fri). While it would be wonderful to have this part of a listing plan, I just don't

believe that it is feasible.

Cut and paste library

From experience, very few REALTORS seem to have built an extensive library of comments which

can be quickly be pulled for providing feedback to the client. While it is easy to do, may I suggest

that you might want to try cutting and pasting some of these into your system? Of course, building