By Beth McGuire
RISMEDIA, May 16, 2008-John Bearden, president and CEO of GMAC Home Services, faced a dilemma: he wanted to give all of his 20,000-plus sales partners nationwide access to a comprehensive online marketing suite.
All he needed to achieve his goal was time and the technology-two commodities that were in very short supply.
Enter Denver-based SharperAgent, a company GMAC Real Estate partnered with to provide Market Advantage. This comprehensive online eCRM and marketing suite of tools includes a powerful digital print and direct mail fulfillment system, an e-mail marketing platform, a campaign management system and a library of GMAC Real Estate templates.
“We’re not in the business of building technology from scratch; we simply don’t have the time or the resources needed,” Bearden explains. “But we are definitely interested in integrating best-of-breed technology into the tools we provide our sales partners. SharperAgent is a great partner for this, and had the capacity and flexibility to construct an end-to-end platform that is unique to our company.”
In today’s market, more and more real estate professionals are finding that it’s more important than ever to find ways to stay on top of technology, while staying in touch with clients and prospects.
“What we’ve been able to do with GMAC Real Estate is quite unique, and it was made entirely possible as a result of the company’s commitment to equip its sales partners with the best technology available,” says Brian Wildermuth, president of SharperAgent. “As a result, GMAC Real Estate sales associates now have a suite of tools that includes personal marketing, property marketing, prospecting, lead management and client marketing features. In the truest sense of the phrase, it’s a one-stop shop-and it’s all on their desktop.”
With Market Advantage, GMAC Real Estate sales partners now have instant access to a wide array of high-quality materials, including: brochures, flyers, postcards, greeting cards, buyer and seller guides, newsletters and animated flash home shows-all of which include a multitude of online and print file formats, with print production through digital print provider RR Donnelley.
“Our goal and our pledge is to create added value for our sales partners by offering significant resources that enable them to operate more effectively than their competitors in an increasingly online marketplace,” Bearden says. “We believe this has the potential to be a game-changer in terms of the economics of our business, and gives us a competitive advantage to attract full-time service agents.”
“We have developed one of the industry’s most complete libraries of online e-mail and direct-mail marketing materials, a powerful customer management system, and a sincere dedication to customer service and technical support,” Wildermuth says. “Combine that with RR Donnelley-a global leader in print fulfillment services-and you’ve got a powerful system that truly enhances the agent’s ability to send the right pieces, to the right clients, through the right medium.”
SharperAgent’s suite of marketing tools was designed exclusively for real estate professionals. Subscribers can use the integrated Client Relationship Manager and an extensive library of more than 2,000 pre-designed marketing materials to create top-of-mind awareness with prospects and clients.
For more information, please visit www.sharperagent.com.
