When Realtor.com and Realty Executives couldn't reach a price agreement to renew agent Websites, Realty Executives went a-courting a new marketing technology vendor. With 10,000 agents to provide marketing solutions for, Realty Executives liked what it saw at FNIS.

Using money from an institutional advertising fund supplied by franchisees, Realty Executives is able to leverage its large franchisee base of 10,000 agents to get better pricing on marketing products through economy of scale.

Instead of shopping for a new Website vendor, Realty Executives turned to FNIS, which offers a multitude of solutions including a new customer relationship management (CRM) system. Lucky for Realty Executives agents, FNIS also happens to operate a Website development company called Comstock, which would enable Realty Executives to combine their "free" CRM product, purchased through a bulk sales contract, with an upgrade to include a Website and other marketing solutions.

Rich La Rue, director of franchise relations for Realty Executives points to his personal Website as an example.

"We weren't able to renew the Realtor.com Websites with the pricing structure they have," explains La Rue, "so what we did is negotiate the logo deal to put the Realty Executives' logo on all Realty Executives listings on Realtor.com. We aren't negotiating to do bulk Websites, what we did was a different solution with FNIS."

FNIS branded a CRM product called e-Executives CRM for Realty Executives with the ability for agents to upgrade their exposure with marketing products. Why a CRM product instead of a Website? Is that putting the cart before the horse?

Not necessarily. Many agents already have a Website, including one from Realtor.com. The CRM is free to the agents, and enables them to better capture leads from the Internet. If agents need a Website, they can upgrade their CRM package to get a Website as well as other marketing tools. But a Website does no good without follow-up - lead management strategies are critical to capturing and maintaining business from the Internet.

Explains Steve De Laveaga, national vice president, regional sales for FNIS, "The goal with our e-Executives CRM product for Realty Executives is to start to help Realty Executives agents and brokers build a real estate practice, the way a doctor or a lawyer builds a practice. And to do that, we have found that systems are a critical component to that success, as well as training. We are embarking on a very aggressive training program, because for this to be the home run we want it to be, we have to get the tool applied and training is the key."

"e-Executives CRM, it is a lead management tool that allows our agent partners to follow up automatically with buyers, sellers and past clients in a consistent and systemized approach," says De Laveaga. "as well as the broker/owners to use the recruiting campaign to bring new agents into their business.

"The agreement," he explains, "is for every agent in the Realty Executives system, it has been branded and customized to Realty Executives for their specific agent. The e-Executives CRM system is what each agent automatically has, brokers can upgrade to our full suite of services, IMS- Internet Marketing Solution (Web Marketing Solution, lead generation), Executive Agent (Contact Management), TransactionPoint (Transaction Management) or Broker Back Office (Accounting software).

Are the packages only available through offices or can FNIS sell agents directly? "The IMS, Broker Back Office are available only at the broker level," says De Laveaga, "Transaction Point and Executive Agent are available direct to the agents. We have sold a large number of IMS systems to Realty Executive brokers in the following areas, Northern California, Southern California, Las Vegas, Florida, Knoxville, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin to name a few."

Combine an automated customer response system with a new Website, and FNIS is enjoying a windfall. So far, FNIS has put 37 offices, 1317 agents, and 455 Websites from Realty Executives online since the contract signing.

Published: July 14, 2003

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