First, for the uninitiated, a Contact Management System is a program you purchase to help you manage your business. Originally, contact management systems were promoted primarily to help agents create their database of everyone they know and meet so they can easily get in touch and stay in touch with those Very Important People. In recent years, contact management system providers have expanded their features to include just about everything a busy real estate agent could possibly need, including newsletter creation, drip email programs, CMA production, contract preparation and much more.

While it's always exciting to find a product that promises take care of all your needs under one roof, so to speak, there are two functions a good contact management system should do well. Very well. If it doesn't do these two things Very Well, it really doesn't matter what else it does, Very Well or otherwise.

These two things are:

1. Managing Your ConTACTS, and

2. Managing Your ConTRACTS.

Your "conTACTS" are the people who make up your database, aka, your sphere of influence or SOI. Your "conTRACTS" are your active listings and pending sales.

Managing Your Contacts A good contact management system (let's use CMS from here on) will allow you to easily and intuitively enter contact information for everyone you know, including data for their spouse, partner, children and other relatives, including different last names and individual contact information. It should allow you to track the birthdays of all members and notify you of an upcoming birthday (and other special dates you want to acknowledge). It should allow you to categorize your contacts into various groups, and the names of such groups should be fully customizable. It should allow you to include a person in more than one group and sort accordingly. It should allow you to link conTACTS with conTRACTS.

Managing Your Contracts Speaking of contracts, a good CMS should allow you to create checklist templates (also known as action plans or activity plans) that are fully customizable, to apply to your real estate transactions.

For example, the CMS should make it easy for you to create a "New Listing Checklist" with all of the to-do's associated with a new listing from Day One to the date it expires or goes under contract. When you get a New Listing, you simply apply the New Listing Checklist template to that contact profile and BAM! You have an auto-populated to-do list for the listing that reminds you to do all those things you need to for the seller, on the day you need to do them.

So, those are the two things a good CMS must do. The rest – it's just fluff if it doesn't perform its basic functions well. I don't care if it creates fancy splashy newsletters, I don't care if it has a gazillion drip campaign emails or marketing letters, I don't care if it creates CMA's or listing presentations, I don't care if it blows your nose for you. If it doesn't do the two things I just described Very Well, it's not a good contact management system.

Published: February 17, 2011

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Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn was a top producing real estate broker in Denver, Colorado before writing her first book in 2007. Since then, she has written several more books about the business of selling real estate including her flagship book: Sell with Soul: Creating an Extraordinary Career in Real Estate without Losing Your Friends, Your Principles or Your Self-Respect, the sequel, If You're Not Having Fun Selling Real Estate, You're Not Doing it Right and her latest, to be released in Spring 2011, Prospect with Soul for Real Estate Agents. Jennifer believes that the secret of success for real estate agents is not in aggressive marketing techniques or hard-core sales pitches, but rather in being competent in one's craft. Competence begets Confidence. And in today's world of increasingly suspicious and ad-weary consumers, having an air of self-assurance and enthusiasm will be far more effective than a slick sales campaign. Jennifer writes and speaks with this philosophy in mind. She preaches that salespeople should follow the Golden Rule in their day-to-day practice of business - treating clients and prospects respectfully, as the salesperson him or herself would like to be treated. Being competent, reliable and fair, and motivated by a true desire to earn a paycheck, not just show up at closing with hand outstretched. She is a regular contributor to several real estate newsletters and magazines, a member of the RE/MAX Hall of Fame and one of the industry's most popular bloggers. You can learn more about Jennifer's "soulful" philosophies at www.SellWithSoul.com. Subscribe Below to Enroll in the Daily Seduction Newsletter Mini-Clinic - Tips and Strategies to Generate Business and Referrals From Your Sphere of Influence! Your Full Name Your Email Address