S t r a t e g i c   T i p :

Use TOP PRODUCER Marketing service reports to improve your relationship with sellers, secure price adjustments and listing extensions, and keep all your commission when the home is sold.

R e a l   T i m e   B e n e f i t s :

Surveys have repeatedly shown that seller dissatisfaction often originates in the agent's failure to clearly explain and document their marketing efforts. Such communication and accountability problems generate seller stress and can make it difficult for you to justify a necessary price adjustment or listing extension -- especially if your sellers think, as they often do, that you haven't properly exposed their home to the market. These problems might also prompt your sellers to ask for a commission cut even when the home is sold.

Why not make things easy for your sellers and yourself? Keep them fully informed with regular Marketing service reports that document actual performance of your Listing plan (see Hot Tip #8) and more. These attractive, full-color reports provide a day-by-day, task-by- task account of everything you've done to service the listing. They also let you include MLS market data and graphs, comments and notes.

TOP PRODUCER gives you everything you need to both create a systematic reporting plan for a given listing, and also to follow your plan once you've created it. TOP PRODUCER's Automatic report feature includes two Marketing report plans that you can either use as is, or as a basis for creating your own library of plans to suit specific kinds of sellers and listings. When creating a plan, you can schedule when and how often you'll provide Marketing service reports. You can also specify whether a given report will be periodic (include all items since the previous report) or cumulative (include all items since taking the listing). You'll then be automatically reminded in Today's business to generate and deliver the reports as they become due.

Marketing service reports are the perfect vehicle for keeping your sellers completely up-to-date, both about your activities and also about the market and their home's position within it. After all, if you've put a lot of time, energy and money into their listing but it goes unsold because it's overpriced, you're going to have to break it to them anyway. If you've been giving them regular Marketing service reports , complete with MLS market data, you'll be able to show them clearly and convincingly that you've done everything you could and that you're not the problem. You'll be in a much better position to get a listing extension or a price adjustment, and you won't have wasted all that valuable time, energy and money you've already spent.

Naturally, all this refers to the worst case scenario. However, if all goes well and you get your sellers a good price, you'll have provided the kind of thorough and user-friendly service that leads to repeat business and referrals. Moreover, you'll have everything you need in advance if they still give you their best "you haven't earned your fee" objection. You'll keep your commission and your credibility too.

• Click on the For Sale icon on the Tool Bar
• Highlight the desired listing and click on View.
• Click on Automatic report.
• Highlight the desired Standard Plan and click on Copy plan.
• Give your plan a name, eg. My new plan , and click on OK.
• Click on View/modify plan.
• To delete a report from the plan, highlight the report and click on Delete/Yes .
• To change a report, highlight the report and click on Change .
• Fill in the fields as desired (i.e. Report name, This report to print, Introductory comments, Summary remarks , etc.).
• Click on OK.
• To add a report, click on Add, fill in the fields as desired, click on OK.
• Too apply My new plan to the listing, click on Apply plan. Note that My new plan appears in the Automatic report field.

• Click on the For Sale icon on the Tool Bar.
• Highlight the desired listing.
• Click on View.
• Click on Service report.
• To add a showing to your report, click on Add showing.
• Click on Shown by, select a name and click on OK. If your contact record includes the agent's company it will automatically appear in the Company field. If not, click on Company. Then click on Edit contact, fill in the Company name field and click on OK. Then click on OK in the Select shown by window. Enter the desired Date, Time, and Remarks and click on OK .
• To add an activity to your report, click Add activity. Fill in the fields as desired (similar to Add showing). Click on OK .
• Click on Report .
• Enter your desired comments into the Introductory comments and Summary remarks section.
• Adjust Starting date and Ending date to suit the reporting period.
• To enter the MLS market data into your report for the desired reporting period, click on Close to close the Print marketing service report window. Click on Listing in the Listing for window. Click on Report. Highlight Marketing report and click on Add market data. Adjust the reporting period as desired. Enter the MLS market data in the corresponding fields. If you wish to include a graphical display of the market data, click the down arrow on the graph type field and click on the desired graph. To preview the graph, click on Display graph. Click on OK.
• Click on Close in the Report options window.
• Click on Service report in the Listing for window.
• Click on Report options in the Print marketing service report window
• Click on Include/exclude and check the boxes of the information you wish to include.
• Click on Report text, fill in the fields as desired and click on OK.
• Click on Colors. Click on the Section colors and Font colors buttons to choose the desired colors.
• Click on OK .
• Click on Print this report
• Click on OK in the Print window.

N e t w o r t h y:

For details on how to get even more out of the Listing plan feature, refer to the Managing listings and closings section in VOLUME 2 of the TOP PRODUCER video training series

"Hot Tips" are designed to provide you with smart sales and marketing ideas in a format that’s quick and easy to use. If you have any innovative ideas or experiences you'd like to share, or if there are any topics you'd like to see covered, feel free to e-mail us at: hottips@topproducer.com