CRM Blog

In our world today, spell check has bred a bit of laziness in our typing. Even as I compose this, I am allowing my editor to “suggest” words for my typos. But in a CRM solution like ACT! By Sage 2011, your data will suffer from this new age laziness if you don’t do something about it.

Imagine: you and your team are focusing on your CEOs in your database. Little did you know, you team has taken some liberties in this field. Just scanning through your Contact List View, you see CEO, C.E.O., Chief Exec Off, Chief Executive Officer, and a number of variations due to misspellings. What a nightmare! We can help clean up the data after the fact, but wouldn’t it have been nice to put it in cleanly?

Two words: Drop Downs!

1. Drop downs ensure correct spelling which gives you consistent data which gives you improved Lookups.
2. Drop downs save time by allowing Type Ahead.
3. Drop downs are simple to use.

In each of my ACT Training classes, I implore the class to pay attention to the drop downs.

• If there is a Drop Down, Use It.
• If it’s not on the Drop Down, Add it.
• If there is no Drop Down, Make One.

Don’t know how to do this? We can help.

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Sugar 6 just came out on July 13th. And it is the best version yet. It’s also the best tested version to date. Thoroughly beta tested – our customers are going to love this release!

Call us for a personal demo and learn about the new user interface, how Sugar 6 helps workers be more productive and how Sugar 6 can help your company meets its goal in the second half of 2010.

So what’s new in SugarCRM 6.0?

1. Everything you expect in a CRM – only faster.
2. Do just about anything inside the application – in one click.
3. A simplified design with a Web 2.0 interface.
4. Built for speed, simplicity and easy integration.

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Even if you consider yourself an expert in ACT 2010, there’s a chance you aren’t using all of these 6 tips! So take a minute and compare your knowledge!

1. Do you need quick driving directions? Just memorize ALT+VIID.  Select the contact and hit ALT+VIID. Presto – you now have driving directions to the client.
2. Use the Opportunity Name whenever possible. This is one of the most easily searchable fields in ACT. Just go to the ACT menu and select Lookup|Opportunities|Name
3. Although ACT allows you to attach mail-merged letters to history, we recommend you do not do this. You see, if you attach  a 5 page Mail-Merge to 100 contacts, then you will be attaching a 500 page document to the database 100 different times. Doesnt’ make much sense to bloat your database, does it?
4. When in doubt, right-click. Sometimes you’re searching for a certain button or icon, and you just cannot find it? Try just right-clicking. ACT has done a great job of putting the most important options into the right-click (context) menu.
5. Consistent Color-Schemes for Activities. If all users adopt the same Color-Scheme, then it becomes easier to view calendars for multiple users. We recommend that all users set High Priority to Red, Medium Priority to Blue, and Low Priority to Black.
6. When customizing Activity Types, apply an icon. This allows for clearer viewing within the Calendar. There are dozens of websites offering free icons. We often use alphabet icons (“M” for Marketing Call, “T” for Travel, etc…)

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SugarCRM 6.0 will be available on July 13th! If you haven’t seen it yet, contact us for a demo!

Sugar 6 has a simple approach. Everything revolves around the following 3 keys:

1. Flexible - Easy to customize and deploy anywhere
2. Intuitive - Works how people are using other social web 2.0 applications
3. Open - Low price and low risk and without limits 

Stay tuned for more details…

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One of my greatest web frustrations is the mass of information yet the lack of strategy regarding Social Marketing.

I kept looking for someone to tell me the 10 easy steps to getting started in the world of Social Media. So I decided to create my own - here’s my breakdown of how to get started. And all the tools below are free.

1. Set up your Logo. Branding is crucial, and you want to make sure that your brand is consistent across all platforms.
2. Start blogging. Content is king. So if you have nothing to offer to “the conversation” on the web, then don’t waste your time with Social Marketing. Figure out how you want to position yourself in the market. And start producing (or intelligently summarizing) the content that your listeners are interested in. If you aren’t set up with WordPress or don’t feel comfortable with it, then just go to WordPress.com and set up a free account. It’s not that difficult; in fact, it’s easy – and powerful. Just make sure to keep your blogs bite-size, use visuals and create alluring titles!
3. Get your Accounts set up. That means (a) a Facebook Page (b) one or more Twitter sites (I separate my personal tweets from my business tweets) (c) one or more YouTube channels (d) a LinkedIn group.
4. Start following opinion leaders. It’ll help you learn how to best blog, how to best tweet and how to best use YouTube. By “follow”, I mean (a) follow on Twitter (b) become a Fan of relevant Facebook Pages (c) Subscribe to Blogs that matter to you – most blogs let you set up an Email subscription (d) Subscribe to the YouTube Channels of valued leaders. For example, while I follow Max Lucado on my personal twitter, I follow Gizmodo on my business twitter – to help me stay abreast of the latest trends in gadgets. I subscribe to Problogger’s blog, and I also subscribe to MarketingProfessor’s YouTube channel. Lastly, I highly advise you to configure your SmartPhone so that you can easily view Facebook and Twitter. If you’re like me, then time is precious. Having quick access on my Sprint EVO 4G helps me stay abreast of all the trends.
5. TweetDeck and HootSuite are the two best products that allow you to send and receive Social messages. They aggregate the messages for you. I create a message and then choose which channels I will push it out through. Very convenient. And best of all, you can set up filters (such as “CRM”) to help you stay abreast of the conversations that matter to you.
6. Bit.ly is a simple tool that you can connect directly into TweetDeck. It helps you create personalized links to the pages you are marketing. And you will love the reports it provides. If you use it right, Bitl.y will help you discover which of your links (and blogs) are really drawing readers and which aren’t. You might be surprised!
7. YouTube. Although this might appear daunting at first, most cameras these days allow you to easily create video content. This is the wave of the future, so hop on board now! It ain’t going away. There are fantastic tools out there like Camtasia – as well as some great free utilities  from DVDVideoSoft. Create the videos, shorten them, convert to Flash and upload to YouTube. I do it all with DVDVideoSoft. Did I say free! And don’t worry about the quality for now. No one expects you to be the next Steven Spielberg. By subscribing to popular YouTube channels, you will become aware that the people want content, not beautiful editing. If it takes you a month to edit a video, it might just be “old news” by the time you post it. Web 2.0 is fairly forgiving.
8. Gadwin Printscreen. Although there are more professional tools out there, I have been using Gadwin for 8 years. It installs in 2 minutes, it’s free and it is easy to configure. It is probably the tool I use the most! Everyone loves a picture, and Gadwin puts you in the driver’s seat.
9. SlideShare. This online PowerPoint reader allows you to upload your PowerPoints and then embed them into your blog or website. Very easy to use, and it makes your blog look slick! Again, this last tip is more about your blog than your social marketing. But it definitely helps to embed visual content into your blog – be it JPG pictures, YouTube videos or SlideShare presentations.
10. Configure your blog to automatically feed into your Facebook Page, your Twitter feed and your LinkedIn group. So when this blog went live, my 3 Social Marketing pages were immediately updated. FeedBurner is a great tool to help you with this. You will likely also need to use your RSS feed. This is probably the most complex part of the whole experience. And if it is too complex initially, then skip it and instead promote your published blog manually via TweetDeck.

So whether your CRM is Sage ACT 2011, Microsoft Dynamics CRM or SugarCRM, you need to get going on your Social Marketing strategy!

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