With wireless broadband-Internet cards, you can have a remote link to your office or home computer without searching for a wireless hot spot. With proper server access, you can access your files anywhere you can receive a cell signal.

This Internet access comes in handy when you're away from your office and desperately need access to contacts on a file. You can simply access your client-management system remotely.

Further, with broadband-Internet cards, you now can have access to an e-fax program anywhere, which allows you to send and receive faxes directly from your laptop -- wherever you and your laptop may be. There is no need to sit around wasting your valuable time waiting for that important fax anymore.

Do more with less

New Web-based technologies allow you to manage existing clients and leads more efficiently. You also can provide marketing tools to generate even more new leads at less cost.

Web-based client-relationship managers (CRMs) are the most-advanced systems available now for client maintenance. You will pay a higher dollar amount, of course, as you move to a more sophisticated CRM.

CRMs provide a quick reference tool to research previous calls and e-mails with a client. I often research previous correspondence while I'm on the phone with clients. "I haven't heard from you on the fax I sent last week" quickly receives a response of, "I responded with an e-mail at 3:22 p.m. last Thursday and a follow-up call on Friday at 2:15 p.m."

This also allows you to reference the last conversation easily. For instance, if clients call and say, "I'm not sure if you remember me. We spoke last week," you can look up their name in your CRM and reference all the details of their scenario. Not only is this a time-saving feature for you and your clients, but it also increases your professionalism.

CRMs also allow you to classify and rank all current and potential leads, schedule follow-up calls with pop-up reminders and manage your pipeline. The more-sophisticated CRMs offer a quick return-on-investment analysis to track the effectiveness of a marketing campaign in real time. They also give you a swift overview of your pipeline to determine projected income for a company for a certain time.

Marketing technology

For smaller brokerages, online marketing services provide everything from a one-time mailing at the click of a mouse to a detailed, 12-month marketing plan with a one-time setup. They provide convenient online management of the mailing and simplify any necessary plan changes. They also let you plug in a closing date on a file and send timely, personalized follow-ups on anniversary dates of that closing.

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