Chapter 1 Getting to Know Top Producer 7i

Chapter 1

Getting to Know Top Producer 7iIn This Chapter� Introducing Top Producer 7i

� Getting started with Top Producer

� Checking your system requirements

� Finding the help you need

Top Producer 7i is an Internet-based software application designed to helpyou with every imaginable task you might encounter in managing your

real estate career. Whether you’re looking for new prospects, showing newlistings, or simply keeping track of your million-and-three appointments, Top Producer automates routine tasks and organizes your data so that youcan focus on activities that give you the most bang for your minutes. Andthat’s what being a “Top Producer” is about!

Good-Bye Sticky Notes, Hello Top Producer!

Top Producer helps real estate agents stay organized and maximize their effi-ciency both in the office and on the road. No more scribbling color-codednotes on small squares of paper to stay organized; with Top Producer in yourarsenal, you can manage your listings, keep track of your clients, and closesales more efficiently than you ever thought possible.

One of the coolest things about Top Producer is that it is an Internet-basedapplication, which means that the program itself and all your data are safelystored on the system’s powerful computers rather than the computer you are using. What does this mean to you? No data loss because your systemcrashes or your computer is stolen. Top Producer handles all your backupsfor you.

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COPYRIG

HTED M

ATERIAL

Managing contactsOne of Top Producer’s most powerful features is the ability to store data onthe contacts involved in your business. You can enter detailed informationinto a contact record, including:

� Contact’s name, address, phone, and e-mail information: The contact’sresidence and business address, first name, last name, salutation, andpartner name as well as home and business phones, fax numbers, ande-mail addresses.

� Contact types: A simple and powerful way to organize contact records,and a searchable criterion that you can define, such as First-time Buyer,Listing Prospect, or Investor.

� Property statistics: Details their present home, future home, and pic-tures of their current property.

� Notes: Notes of phone conversations that provide an electonic “papertrail” of all your communication with and for this contact.

In fact, you can enter a huge amount of contact information for any contactyou enter in Top Producer. And after you assign your contact types, you canquickly locate and send a letter, e-mail, or flyer to any of your contact group-ings in just a few clicks.

Managing leadsTop Producer enables you to manage several types of leads, including the following:

� Web-generated leads: When contacts show interest in a posted listing onREALTOR.com or your personal Web site, their information is automati-cally downloaded into Top Producer and appears as a lead, completewith a contact record.

� User-entered leads: If you obtain a lead at an open house or from aphone call or walk-in, you can manually create a contact record forthis new lead.

8 Part I: Introducing Top Producer 7i

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Coordinating referralsThe Referral manager is the coordination center for all your referral records.You can track the referrals you send and receive, view referral sources, viewthe referred contact details and the details of each referral agreement, includ-ing your referral income.

You can view detailed referral statistics or print them in report form. TheReferral manager even includes a Top Referral Sources window that enablesyou to track those who send you the most referral business, so you canstrategically reinforce those connections.

Using action, listing, and closing plansTop Producer comes loaded with a number of action, listing, and closingplans which outline marketing and sales activities. You can use the plans“as is” or make modifications to them, such as:

� Adding an activity to a plan (for example, adding a telephone call or ane-mail to an action plan)

� Modifying existing activities (for example, assigning an activity to anassistant)

� Creating your own plans (for example, using a plan as the basis for acustomized plan that meets your unique marketing needs)

Note: This is not a task for novices to Top Producer, but this flexibilitymeans Top Producer can continue meeting your needs as your expertisegrows.

You can also generate a report to print out all the activities that belong to aspecific plan. See Chapter 6 for details.

Managing your timeTop Producer’s comprehensive Scheduler offers a visual representation ofyour busy times for any given day, and enables you to schedule appoint-ments and access them in daily, weekly, monthly and yearly views. You willbe reminded of your appointments and to-do’s in the Today’s Business feature(see Chapter 4 for details).

9Chapter 1: Getting to Know Top Producer 7i

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Managing your mailYou can produce highly professional correspondence and marketing materi-als by using Top Producer’s built-in communication templates. You can evengenerate mass mailings to your entire sphere of influence. You can performmailouts for any number of contacts and manage all of your snail-mail corre-spondence from one location — the Communication library.

The Communication library contains an extensive selection of templates thatyou can use “as is” or customize to reach any demographic segment or con-tact type. The use of merge codes and word processing tools gives you theflexibility to personalize and customize your correspondence for powerfultarget marketing.

These message templates can be used for either regular letters or e-mail andhave been written to serve a variety of marketing and prospecting purposes.The templates include sales-oriented and information-oriented styles, and communicate that you are an expert in all matters of buying, selling, and main-taining a home. Some emphasize your people skills, network-building, andnegotiating experience, and others emphasize your market knowledge, marketing expertise, and techno-savvy in today’s increasingly Internet-basedsales and marketing environment. All the e-mail templates convey sincerityand are meant to facilitate the “client for life” ideal.

Managing your e-mailTop Producer enables you to manage all your e-mail accounts through itsEmail Manager if you choose to do so. This feature means that you don’t haveto toggle between e-mail programs and Top Producer in order to keep yourTop Producer database current. In addition, you can link e-mails to contactsin your contact database, forming a permanent record of communication.

All the templates available for regular mail also work in e-mail and can bemodified to suit your needs.

Creating flyersTo advertise your latest listings, Top Producer comes with a large libraryof attractive and customizable flyer templates that cover all the standardprospecting and marketing themes, such as:

� Just listed

� Just sold

� Open house


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� Priced to sell

� Price reduction

These templates merge your agent and property information into each flyerand make producing high-powered flyers a breeze.

Creating presentationsThe Presentations features give you everything you need to turn prospectsinto clients. The Seller presentation CMA (comparative market analysis) letsyou include property data and photos for the subject property and severalcomparable properties. The Buyer presentation lets you do the same for currentlistings of interest to your buyer and recent sales. Both presentation typescome with a library of customizable, pre-written templates that you can modifyto create presentations for targeting specific prospects, homes, and markets.

By adding Top Producer’s Hot Marketer program to your marketing arsenal,you can provide visual property tours and send links to them in e-mails to yourprospective buyers. Contact the Sales desk at 1-877-861-2414 for information.

When you’ve created your presentation, you can print it, Web publish it ande-mail the link, or save it as an Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format(PDF) file. You can access your Multiple Listings Service (MLS) to downloadcomparable properties and automatically integrate them into your presenta-tions by using Top Producer’s Top Connector product. Top Connector doesthe data entry for you, even downloading the comparable photos directlyinto your CMA, saving you hours on each one. If you do not have access toMLS, you can manually enter comparables from your own database of prop-erties only. Contact the Sales desk to find out whether a Top Connectormodule is available for your MLS.

Creating and specifying information for a listingWhen you create a listing, you can specify a variety of information about thelisting, such as property features that are included or excluded in the sale, marketing information that should go into any flyers created for the listing, aswell as associated sellers. You can also add activities, such as phone calls andappointments that you need to perform to help market the listing by applyingthe checklist plan to the listing. In the action menu on the left side of thescreen, simply click the Apply Action Plan option.


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Closing a saleWith Top Producer, completing a sale is as easy as clicking the Create closingoption to convert a listing to a pending or closed status. That done, you cannow use the comprehensive Closing services checklist — which includes allof the main financial and service tasks that you need to perform to see thetransaction through to final closing.

You can schedule your closing plan activities for a fixed date or for a date rel-ative to the offer acceptance date or closing date. Your plan activities thenautomatically appear in Today’s Business as they come due. This step ensuresthat you have a reliable reminder of what needs doing each day to provideexcellent service to your clients who are parties in the transaction.

When the deal closes, you can immediately transfer the property to the newbuyer, and create a contact record for the buyer (if he or she is not in yourdatabase). The property statistics, pictures, and so on move automaticallyinto the new contact record.

Tracking income and expensesThe Income and Expense tracker provides you with an easy-to-use account-ing tool for recording and organizing your real estate relevant earnings andexpenditures. Use it to summarize financial information and run several typesof reports for a specified period of time. You can even let Uncle Sam knowhow well you’re doing when tax time comes.

Let’s Get Started!First things first: You have to log in. But before you do that, you may need toadjust your browser settings to get the maximum oomph out of Top Producer.

Before you beginBefore you use Top Producer 7i, you need to make sure that your Webbrowser is set up properly. This way, your browser can quickly load TopProducer when you are ready to use it.

The easiest way to enhance your browser’s performance is to adjust your set-tings to automatically check for newer versions of stored windows and notempty them each time you shut down. By doing so, you typically experiencefaster logins, because Internet Explorer doesn’t have to download all theapplication files each time you connect.


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Here’s how to do it:

1. Make sure that all your Internet browser windows are closed.

2. From your desktop, choose Start➪Settings➪Control Panel.

Note: Windows XP users may need to choose only Start➪Control Panel,depending on how your computer is configured.

3. Double-click the Internet Options item from the list.

The Internet Options dialog box appears (see Figure 1-1).

4. Click the General tab.

5. In the Temporary Internet files section, click Settings.

The Settings dialog box appears (see Figure 1-2).

6. Under the Check for Newer Versions of Stored Pages section, selectthe Automatically option.

7. Click OK to exit the Settings dialog box.

8. Click the Advanced tab of the Internet Properties dialog box andscroll down to the Security section.

9. Ensure that the Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browseris closed check box is not selected.

That is, the check box must be cleared.

10. Click OK to exit the Internet Properties dialog box.

11. Close the Control Panel window.


A note about system requirementsIn order to run Top Producer 7i, your system mustmeet the following requirements:

� Display: Color palette: 16-bit color or greater

� Viewing resolution: 1024 x 768 (recommended)

� Memory: 128MB RAM (recommended)

� Operating system: Windows XP or 2000

� Supported Internet browsers: InternetExplorer 6.0 or higher (required)

� Internet connection: High speed cable,DSL, or other high bandwidth connection(recommended)

Top Producer will operate over any stable Internetconnection. As with any Internet application,performance can vary depending on the speedof the connection.

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Figure 1-2:The Settings

dialog box.

Figure 1-1:The Internet

Optionsdialog box

with theGeneral tab

selected.


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Logging into Top ProducerWhen you become a subscriber to Top Producer, either online or by speakingwith a customer service representative, you choose your user name and thenyou receive an automatic e-mail from Top Producer giving you your initialpassword. Logging into Top Producer for the first time is easy. Just followthese simple steps:

1. Type www.topproduceronline.com in your Web browser’s addresstext box.

2. Click Go.

The Login window opens (see Figure 1-3).

If you want to save yourself the step of typing the Web address everytime you use Top Producer, bookmark the site. In Internet Explorer, clickFavorites➪Add to Favorites. The next time you want to log in to TopProducer, click Favorites➪Top Producer 7i, and the program opens withthe Login window. Easy as pie!

3. Enter your user name in the Username field.

4. Enter your password in the Password field.

Figure 1-3:The Top

ProducerLogin

window.


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If you forget your password, click the Did You Forget Your Password link.Top Producer prompts you to enter your birth date, zip code, and theanswer to the secret question you entered during registration. You canthen enter and confirm your new password.

5. Click Login.

After a few moments, Top Producer’s main menu is displayed.

On first login, customers are prompted to read the licensing agreementas well as several other questions.

If you want your username remembered the next time you access TopProducer, select the Remember my username check box. After you selectthis check box, the Remember my password check box becomes avail-able. If you also want your password remembered, select the Remembermy password check box.

Be sure to use this option only on computers that you alone use.Otherwise, anyone could access your Top Producer data from this computer.


Before you call Technical Support . . .If you are unable to log in to Top Producer 7i dueto a technical issue or version conflict with yourWeb browser, here are a few steps you canfollow before contacting Technical Support:

Reset your security settings to the default settings.

1. Close all internet browser windows,including Top Producer’s login screen.

2. Open the Control Panel by clicking Start➪Settings➪Control Panel.

Note: Windows XP users may need to clickStart➪Control Panel, depending on howyour computer is configured.

3. Double click the Internet Options item fromthe list.

4. On the Internet Properties dialog box, selectthe Security tab.

5. Select the Internet zone.

6. Click the Custom Level button. The SecuritySettings dialog box opens.

7. In the Reset Custom Settings section (nearthe bottom of the pop-up window), chooseReset To➪Medium.

8. Click the Reset button. The Warning dialogbox opens, asking if you want to proceedwith changing your security settings for thezone.

9. Click Yes.

10. Click OK. You are returned to the Securitytab of the Internet Options dialog box.

Add the Top Producer URL to Internet Explorer’slist of trusted sites.

1. Click the Trusted sites zone.

2. Click the Sites button. The Trusted sitesdialog box opens.

3. In the Add this Web site to the Trustedzone text box, type www.topproduceronline.com, then click Add. The URL isdisplayed in the Web sites list box.

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Logging out of Top ProducerLogging out of Top Producer is even easier than logging in. Simply followthese steps:

1. Choose Log out from the main menu.

The Log Out Successful window opens.

2. Click either the Close link or button.

Working with Top Producer 7iTop Producer’s various screens are called windows. These windows containelements such as menus and icons. You can click most window elements toinitiate commands, such as saving information or selecting items from a list.


4. Click OK. You are returned to the InternetOptions dialog box.

Delete all temporary Internet files. This procedureis safe to perform and only deletes the temporaryfiles and history that are created by InternetExplorer when you browse Web sites.

1. Click the General tab.

2. Under Temporary Internet files, click theSettings button. The Settings dialog boxappears.

3. Under Check for Newer Versions of StoredPages, click the Automatically option.

4. Click the View Files button. The TemporaryInternet Files browser window opens show-ing you a list of all temporary files containedin the folder.

5. From the main menu of the TemporaryInternet Files window, choose Edit➪Select All.

6. Press the Delete key on your keyboard. AWarning dialog box opens asking if youwant to proceed with deleting the selectedcookies.

7. Click Yes. In a moment, all of the temporaryInternet files are deleted.

8. Close the Temporary Internet Files window.

9. Click OK to close the Settings window. Youare returned to the General tab.

10. Under the History section, click the ClearHistory button. An Internet Options dialogbox opens, asking if you want to proceedwith deleting your history of all visited Websites.

11. Click Yes.

12. Click the Advanced tab and scroll down tothe Security section.

13. Ensure that the Empty Temporary InternetFiles Folder When Browser Is Closed checkbox is not selected. That is, the check boxmust be cleared.

14. Click OK. The Internet Options windowcloses.

15. Restart your computer and try logging in toTop Producer again. If the issue persists,then contact Technical Support.

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All of the windows in Top Producer have the same types of elements, such asa feature menu, feature submenus, and clickable icons. The three main ways tonavigate through Top Producer are the main menu (across the top), the actionmenus (usually on the left side of the screen), and the control menu (at thebottom of many windows).

Figure 1-4 shows part of a typical Top Producer 7i window.

Many ways Top Producer handles things by default can be arranged to suityour style by letting Top Producer know your preferences. Chapter 2 coverssetting your user preferences in detail.

Main menuThe main menu, located at the top of the application, provides access to allof the major functions and features in Top Producer 7i (see Figure 1-5). Hoverthe mouse over any of the feature menu items to display a submenu of relatedfunctions. Select the function you want, and then click the left mouse button.

Action menuThe action menu appears on the left side of most windows (see Figure 1-6).Action menu items enable you to perform tasks such as adding, editing, anddeleting. Depending on which items you’ve selected in a window, some actionmenu commands may appear disabled, indicating they are currently unavail-able. After you select a relevant item in the main window, the associatedaction menu items become available.

Control menusMany functions in Top Producer are wizard-driven, meaning that the applica-tion prompts you as to your next step through a control menu. Control menusappear at the bottom of the Top Producer window. Click any of the controlcommands, such as OK, Print, or Cancel, to initiate a command. The controlmenus help you complete an activity without omitting any steps.

Nifty shortcuts and handy optionsIn addition to menus, Top Producer has built in all kinds of other helpfulaids to make getting around and getting things done as quick and easy aspossible.


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Figure 1-5:The Top

Producer 7imain menu.

Figure 1-4:Typical TopProducer 7i

window.


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Calendar iconsOn some Top Producer windows, you see a small calendar icon next to adate field. Click the calendar icon to display a pop-up calendar, and thenclick a date on the calendar to automatically enter it into the field. The cur-rent date is displayed at the bottom of the calendar, which when clicked,automatically appears in the date field. If you need to select a date outsidethe current month, click the arrows at the top to scroll forward and back-ward through the months. Figure 1-7 shows the calendar icon and the pop-up calendar.

Check boxesCheck boxes are used to select or deselect options (see Figure 1-8). Clickthe check box, or its label, to choose the option. A check mark appears in thecheck box. Click the check box again to clear the check mark to deselect theoption. For example, click the Save Sent Emails in the Sent Items Folder checkbox to select the option to automatically keep a copy of the e-mails you send.

Drop-down listsDrop-down lists show the currently selected item or the first item in a list, asshown in Figure 1-9. Click the down arrow to display the full list of availableitems. When you click an item from the list, it is selected and displayed.

Figure 1-6:A Top

Produceractionmenu.


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Figure 1-8:Check

boxes areused to

select ordeselectoptions.

Figure 1-7:Top

Producerpop-up

calendar.


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Option buttonsOption buttons are used to present a selection between two or more choices,where only one may be selected at a time. A group of option buttons usuallyappears with one choice already selected as the default. Make your selec-tion by clicking the circular option button or the adjacent text, as shown inFigure 1-10.

Pick listsYou can view a list of commonly used words or phrases, called a pick list, nextto some text fields. These text fields are marked with tiny list icons, as shownin Figure 1-11. Click the list icon to choose a word from the pick list to fill in thefield. Pick lists make tasks such as entering new contacts easy because insteadof typing the item repeatedly, you can click the list icon and quickly select anitem from the pick list that appears.

You can even add your own favorites to these lists. In fact, if certain fields areso routine they hardly ever vary, you can also set the list to open automati-cally or enter particular data automatically when the cursor hits the field! Forexample, if you conduct your business exclusively in the same city and state,then set up the City and State pick lists to automatically fill in these fields foryou when the cursor hits that field. It’s a great timesaver.

� To set a list icon to automatically appear when the cursor is placed in itsfield, select the Pop-up automatically option button.

Figure 1-9:A drop-

down list.


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� To set a list icon to automatically insert a default item when the cursoris placed in its field, click the list icon, then select the desired defaultitem and click the Insert data automatically option button.

Selecting items from listsOften you need to work with one or more items, such as contacts, from vari-ous lists in Top Producer.

To select items from lists:

1. Click an item once to select it.

The item appears highlighted.

2. To select additional items, press the Shift or Ctrl, and then click theadditional items.

Pressing Shift while clicking items enables you to select consecutiveoptions. Pressing Ctrl while clicking enables you to select items from different parts of the list.

Pressing Enter has the same effect as selecting a pick list item with yourmouse and clicking OK.

To deselect items, press Ctrl and then re-click the item or items you want todeselect.

Figure 1-10:Click thecircular

optionbutton to

make aselection.


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Some windows provide Select All and Unselect All commands. Use these com-mands to select and deselect all items in a list at once.

Tabbing through fieldsThrough all the windows of Top Producer, you can use the Tab key to moveforward from field to field and the Tab+Shift key combination to move quicklybackwards through the fields. When you enter a field that contains a drop-down list, press the Alt key plus the down-arrow key to open the drop-downlist selection box. You can also use the up- and down-arrow keys to navigatethe drop-down list.

Help Me!Sometimes you just need help, straight up, plain and simple. Top Producerprovides three places where you can find the help you need, when you need it:

� The Top Producer 7i User Guide

� Online Help

� Technical Support

Figure 1-11:Click listicons to

access apick list.


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Give me the manual!The Top Producer 7i User Guide is saved in Portable Document Format (PDF) sothat you can easily view it in the Adobe Acrobat Reader. At 618 pages, the userguide is chock full of useful information, but don’t let its length daunt you —the Top Producer folks provide you with loads of hyperlinks to help you easilynavigate the document. Simply click the blue text (that’s the hyperlink), andyou’re automatically taken to the corresponding part of the manual. The tableof contents is linked to the text, too, so you just need to click the section youwant to view, and Acrobat does the rest.

Figure 1-12 shows a page of the Top Producer 7i User Guide. You access theuser guide through the online Help system, as described in the next section.

Exploring online HelpTop Producer 7i includes online Help that you can use to quickly find outhow to do something.

To access the online Help:

1. Choose Help➪Help topics from the main menu.

The main online Help window opens.

2. You can navigate Help in three ways:

• Click the Contents tab to navigate to the topic you need help with.

• Click the Index tab, type a key word, and then select from the topiclist that appears.

• Click the Search tab and then type the topic you want help with,and then press Enter.

3. To print the topic, choose File➪Print.

Calling in the expertsSometimes, you exhaust all your options, and you still can’t find the answersyou need. If you’ve tried online Help and the Top Producer 7i User Guide, andyou still need help, your best bet is to call Technical Support.

Top Producer Technical Support personnel are available Monday throughFriday, 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Time). To make it easy, you can reachTechnical Support in a few different ways:

� E-mail: [email protected]

� Internet: http://topproducer.com/support


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� Telephone: 1-800-830-6047

� Fax: 604-270-6365

For more specific questions and answers, please type any of the followinglinks into your browser to view the Top Producer Technical Support FAQsWeb site. For more information on:

� Top Producer 7i, see www.topproducer.com/support/7i

� Data conversion, see www.topproducer.com/support/dc

� Top Producer 7i usernames and passwords, see www.topproducer.com/support/7iinfo

� Top Connector 7i, see www.topproducer.com/support/TC7i

� Top Producer 7i SellPhone, see www.topproducer.com/support/SellPhone

� Top Producer 7i for the Palm Handhelds, see www.topproducer.com/support/Palm 7i

Figure 1-12:The Top

Producer 7iUser Guide,

hyperlinksand all.


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Chapter 1 Getting to Know Top Producer 7i

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