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First is an in-network marketing tool for real estate agents.
Platforms: Browser, iOS
Ideal for: All agents and teams
Top selling points
- Smart approach to lead generation
- People-to-property connections
- Likelihood to sell ranking
- Overall ease of use
Top concerns
Agents invested in a big CRM may find themselves turning their attention to this clever app, even with its current and future CRM integrations.
What you should know
Every agent knows the value of referrals and getting business from the people you know.
First, which can be used in a web browser or app, is one of the best products I’ve seen that focuses marketing solely on who you already know.
It imports contacts from an array of existing databases and uses big data tools to map each person to a property (more than likely the place where they currently live). The contact card displays their home, it’s market value and other general details about your relationship.
Contacts can also be connected to the app through email accounts. Duplicates and fellow agents are automatically deleted.
I was told — and the website boasts — that First has access to hundreds of data points on more than 200 million Americans. This is how the app then employs predictive analytics to apply a Seller Score to each of your contacts based on how soon they may sell, an impetus for using the software’s conversation tools to engage them.
Seller Scores are consistently updated as behavior changes, offering users an ever-present “eye-in-the-sky” on their sphere of influence.
Every conversation with a contact, via text or call from within the app, is tracked and reported back to the user at the end of each day.
The daily summaries of conversations serve as nice little motivators, reminding agents how productive they’ve been.
A swipe right or left interface drives the way the app learns who in your database is most important. This could mean those people in a certain ZIP code, what sizes of home one prefers to sell, or a specific planned community.
In a short time, the app learns to float your best prospects to the top of the contact list until you’ve decided they’re no longer a lead or until they close.
The user interface and experience are exceptionally well done within First.
The software uses contact and property cards that are easy to tap, grab and interact with.
Calendar, call and text icons are always at the ready. I see very little time being dedicated to learning the product.
What I dig about this software is that it’s not a traditional CRM, and it’s not trying to over-manage your contacts. It will have integrations with Contactually and LionDesk in the near future.
Instead, First shrinks the concept of a CRM down to the people and information that matters: I know them, and this is how likely they are to buy or sell a home.
Good stuff.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
