Earlier in the year I was asked to write a guest column for a publication by the trade organization PSDA. In their magazine “PS” they published 6 articles by me over 3 months . One of those articles was titled “Staying in Touch and the Power of Repetition.”

There seems to be some misconception that CRM software is going to make it more difficult or time-consuming to do the things one has to do during the day in sales or administration. That may be so for some, but not from my personal experience.

CRM software, once configured and applied to your daily workflow and tasks, can save you time and make it actually easier for you to do your day. Features in CRM allow for automation, faster information capture, speedier communications and more. CRM functions help a salespeople, customer service representatives, and office administrators fulfill their jobs quicker and more efficiently day in & day out.

The following 7 capabilities are NOT optional. They are “Marketing Musts” and to achieve them every business is better off with a CRM application.

1. Maintain an accurate central list of all your prospects and customers.
2. Track details on those relationships that are used for marketing, sales and analysis.
3. Segment your list to create more relevant communications to a target audience.
4. Distribute leads and other records for follow-up by sales people.
5. Capture interactions and conversations which are the basis for future marketing, sales and service activities.
6. Rely on objective data collected over time as the basis for management decisions.
7. Use and maintain your list in order to improve its accuracy.

In sales, if you don’t know your next step, you’ve already lost the sale. The test of a good salesperson is how well they follow-up. When it comes time to “take the order” the sale has been made.

Follow-up is one of the key differentiators of top-notch sales professionals.

Have you ever a wished to see a chronological list of all your QuickBooks activity? With the QuickBooks audit log report, you can keep track of added, deleted, and modified transactions, as well as user entries. The audit log feature allows you (and any other viewer with access rights) to see history of changes made to individual transactions…