I have moved this blog to a fully hosted location.  To get the latest information go to www.dmcarter.com.  I look forward to hearing from you

When I was first introduced to Network Marketing I was very excited.  The income potential sounded great and I loved the people.  I listened to, and watched, all the training material provided and there was one recurring theme among it all.  Make a LIST!!!!!  Your list is your inventory.  Without your list, you haven’t started or do not have a business…right?  So, I made a list.  I got a sheet of notebook paper and together with my wife we started writing and had over two hundred names before we knew it.  We thought, WOW this will be a piece of cake.   Then I realized I had a problem.  How do I keep track of all these people?  When did I call them last?  Who did the 3 way call with them?  When am I supposed to call them again?  How do I know if I forgot to call someone?   

I asked my upline and many other leaders in the organization.  Some of their answers were ok.  Some clearly would not work for me and some just made me laugh.  One person used index cards and put one name on each card.  Not bad, but I would hate to be carrying around a few cards and the lose them.  My all time favorite was a guy who was actually kept his contacts on sticky notes and restaurant napkins.  I’m not kidding.  I can’t even begin to imagine how this might work.   Most used a printed call sheet with blocks for each call, but it was limited in what information you could track and you had no way to organize it other than the order you had written them down on the pages.  I tried this, but I was constantly flipping back and forth between twenty pages to find my hot market and who to call next.  Very frustrating, but on a warm day the page fanning might keep you cool.  From paper, I moved to a spreadsheet and this was a great improvement.  I could sort my list on any column I wanted and then print the list to take with me.  Better, but still not great.   

If the List is the most important thing in your business, why does there not exist a simple and effective way to manage it?  Your right.  There should be.  So I took it upon myself to create something I could use. Since I had spent the last fifteen years creating custom software for other businesses to solve their business needs, I felt confident I could solve my own.   

I thought about what I wanted to do.   

Some simple and obvious things like sorting my list by Hot/Warm/Cold prospects and sorting by next scheduled calls.  I also wanted to see a quick list of who I had called and how many times I’ve called them       

Sounds ok, but I wanted to really know about my business, so I added some other ideas like, logging the type of call and who did the three way call with me or if I used an 800 number, what number I used.  I wanted to store much greater detail about my prospects.  I wanted to communicate more effectively with both my downline and uplline.  I wanted to run reports telling me history of my business.  I wanted to know how many calls I was making in a week or a month.  I wanted to send messages to my team with the click of a button.  Well, you get the picture.   

So, with this goal in mind, I set out to create contact management software for Network Marketing Professionals.   

After many months of labor, I had my solution.  I was so pleased with the results I gave it a name, PaceTracer and started offering it to other Network Marketing professionals.    Currently, it is setup to work for Quixtar, Team National and The TEAM.  Users can also sign up under the category of ‘Other’.  Everything works the same, without the pin level tracking of a setup organization.  I am also working to add other organizations. All I need is the organization name and pin levels and within 24 hours, the new organization is ready.  It’s very exciting for me to see this application completed and helping others achieve their dreams.

 To learn more about PaceTracer go to http://www.carterss.com/pacetracer.aspx and signup for the free 30 day demo.

We are happy to announce we have recently added support for The TEAM.  Members of this organization can now signup for a demo or subscription and begin managing their Contacts Today.   More organizations coming so check back often.   If you would like to see your organization available in pacetracer contact us at support@carterss.com.

go to www.carterss.com to sign up today!

Go to www.carterss.com and click on PaceTracer Demo.  It’s quick and easy.  Check out the website for all the features.

It is an exciting time for our company and for myself in particular.  We are preparing the launch of our first of several hosted applications.   PaceTracer is scheduled for release September 1st, 2007.   After talking with a number of Network Marketing professionals,  the need for a contact management solution taylored to this industry became apparent.   In this industry, the list is everything.   If you don’t manage your prospects, your not going anywhere.  I was amazed to see professional busniess people keeping their contact/prospect list on notebook paper and even napkins.  Some lists were fairly organized on printed forms, but many were in complete disarray.  This prompted us to provide a better solution.   Check back often.  As we get closer to the release, I’ll be posting sample screens and other information about this great product.

www.carterss.com

www.pacetracer.net

Ever since the inception of Carter Software last year,  I have been considering starting this blog.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to focus solely on the subject of our business and software or if I would include other subjects.  I have decide to leave it open so I can cover a wide range of subjects and just see where it goes.  I hope you enjoy and check back often for updates.