The information is good. The concepts work. Too few attendees, however, will rise to the heights they are capable of achieving simply because they don't follow a few simple rules that would help them incorporate the tools and concepts into their business. Here are a few tips on how you can maximize your effectiveness the next time you attend a good tech seminar.

Take A Lot Of Notes

Every time you hear a concept that you think will increase your business during the seminar, write it down. Every time you see a tech tool demonstrated that you think will work for you, write it down. NOTE: Don't worry if you don't understand just how every tool or concept works, just write it down.

Take The Next Day Off

Well, maybe just half of it, but in any case, get off by yourself the next day. Review your notes. Take time to think about what you've written down. Review the entire spectrum of ideas covered the day before. Think about how each idea or tool could do one of three things for you: increase your market share, reduce your expenses or give you more time for life!

Pick Your Top Two Ideas

In our CyberStar™ National Tour Seminars (www.afhseminars.com/tourinfo.htm), three leading sales associates from around the country throw out hundreds of ideas during a daylong session. They show attendees how they use a vast array of tech tools, and they present a number of concepts: notebook computers, real estate databases, marketing with printed presentation programs, using PhotoShare and PictureWorks multimedia programs, eNeighborhoods, marketing with Microsoft Publisher, marketing with Microsoft Outlook, digital cameras, specifics on Web sites that earn them up to $300,000 per year, using SoftKlone, e-mail-capable cell phones, PDAs, personalized e-mail newsletters...and much, much more. Good tech seminars do this, and there is no way that you can immediately absorb and utilize all the tools and concepts presented. The secret is to select the top two ideas that fit your business from among all you heard the day before. Review your notes, select your top two ideas, and write them down on a separate sheet of paper.

Write Down A Time Frame For Implementation

After you've selected your top two ideas, move on to a time frame for implementation. Which idea will you use first? When will you start implementing it? What steps are needed for its implementation? When will you accomplish each step? When is your target date for completion? This is the step that takes you from wishes to goals. Without it, the "small stuff" of day-to-day real estate will always intrude. The result? Six months from the seminar date, you'll be working just as hard as you were before attending the seminar, and your market share will not have increased.

Hire A Techie To Implement Your Top Two Ideas

Your job is selling real estate, not understanding how technology works. It's meeting face-to-face with prospects, buyers and sellers, not spending time learning software or how to get great results from your new digital camera and incorporate your photos into printed and multimedia software. If your top two ideas involve anything more complicated than buying a notebook computer or a digital camera, hire a "techie" to implement the idea.

A techie is someone who understands the technology and is not frightened by it. It can be a local high school student, for example – someone you pay on a part time basis to take the tool or concept you have decided to implement, learn it, get it running, then teach you how to do it yourself. As an example, you may have become excited by the possibilities of a personalized e-mail newsletter using either WorldMerge or Microsoft Outlook. You know that implementing such a newsletter can do two things: increase your business and dramatically reduce your expenses. If you're like most sales associates, however, the fact that you don't know how to use WorldMerge or Outlook is a tremendous stumbling block. Faced with the fear of acquiring and learning either program, most people never implement the idea. Consequently, their business doesn't grow.

So, find your techie, tell him or her about the concept, have him or her get the necessary software, install it, learn it, then have him or her sit down with you and teach you what you need to know to use the tool.

Two Additional Suggestions

Finally, here are two additional ideas for maximizing your use of today's technology:

• Attend the RS 206 two-day technology course. The RS 206, conducted by the Residential Sales Council of the National Association of REALTORS^®, is, bar none, the most comprehensive, objective and effective course available today to expose you to tech tools and techniques available to increase your business. The RS 206 is taught by the finest, most knowledgeable tech instructors in the country (Randy Eagar, Pat Zaby, Tina Daniel, Robert Morris, Rolf Anderson and myself), and it covers all areas of using technology effectively: printed presentations, multimedia presentations, database software, digital cameras, e-mail marketing, money making Web sites, marketing on the Web, an assortment of tech tools...and more. It shows you what you need in order to compete in your marketplace. (For a schedule of dates and locations where the RS 206 is given, go to www.crs.com.)
  
  
• Use a personal technology coach. Using a technology coach allows you to focus on the exact areas of concern to you, and it produces great results. Three types of coaching are available to you, each one right for the particular needs of individual sales associates. I conduct all three types, and here are some suggestions I've found for utilizing each method:
  
  
• Individual Coaching. The most expensive of the three methods, but for some, the most effective. As with all three methods, select your coach based on his or her track record in both technology and real estate, and make sure you get one who is capable of reaching you on your level of expertise.
• Telephone Coaching. This method involves you, other sales associates and a coach connected via a conference call, usually one hour in length. Again, choose your coach carefully, and look for a group with no more than 15 members, thus insuring that each group member has time to address his or her concerns during the hour. Look for a coach who focuses on marketing with today's technology, rather than on just the technology itself.
• Coaching Groups. Using this method, a coach puts together a small group that meets on a pre-determined schedule. During the meetings, the coach is able to demonstrate various technologies and marketing techniques, as well as work with you individually on your use of technology. Join a group that has a maximum of 15-20 sales associates. Select a coach who offers analysis of where you are, a plan for getting where you want to go with technology, and individual access via e-mail or phone, at least on a limited basis.