CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions can mean a lot of different things to different people. It all boils down to the interaction a company maintains with its customers. The premise is simple: keep better track of your contacts and you'll close more sales. To a salespeson in a smaller company, CRM might largely entail the use of a single copy of ACT software on a laptop to maintain a client database. But to the marketing executive in a large corporation, CRM might call for the use of an industrial-strength networked solution from any one of a number of CRM software developers like Siebel, SAS, SAP, Pivotal, Oncontact, Salesforce.com and many others.

I'll be quite honest here. I never--not once, not ever--saw myself filling a sales role while in my younger days. Alas, I've had to do a few stints in sales to keep the bills paid. While sales has never been my specialty, it's filled in the spaces in my career between marketing, design, and writing gigs. As a result of having only worked for smaller enterprises in sales roles, ACT became my CRM software of choice. Once I got hooked with their thirty day free demo, there was no looking back. I have to admit, tho ... I was initially very resistant to the process ...

Over the years, I had become accustomed to keeping a paper notebook. The notebook didn't completely replace scribbled notes on scraps of paper and the back of envelopes, but it went a long way to help organize things. With my notebook CRM method, I'd start a new page for each customer. If an account didn't take off, the notebook worked fine. But if the account caught fire (in a good way), I'd rapidly fill up all the available space on the front and back of the page. And then I'd fall back on writing on little scraps of paper.

So once I got started with the CRM software, it didn't take long to get into the swing. I began entering my contact information immediately after the software was installed. ACT works like a supercharged address book. After entering a client (or potential client), you merely keep track of each contact (ie: phone calls, email, faxes, and f2f visits) you make with that client.

While I didn't completely abandon my tried-and-true paperclip and scratch paper CRM system, I quickly saw the benefits of using software to handle the CRM chores. My prospecting became more thorough and my follow through increased exponentially.

But did I close more sales?

Truth be told, the prospecting process has been the most enjoyable part of the sales game for me. I love doing research on companies. But I'm not a high-pressure guy. When I can focus on prospecting, rather than closing the sale, I'm happiest. CRM software allowed me to become more successful in that role. While I'm sure I could have been even more effective than I was, I shudder to think how things would have gone if I had not learned how to keep track of my customers.