Archive for the ‘CRM’ Category

Here’s what I mean by that.  Often when I am working with a client we look at how they are managing their sales process.  The first question I ask is:  How do you define a suspect?  Once they have a good definition for suspects, then I ask how do you inventory those suspects?  If possible, I try to get them to point me to one place where they have all of their suspect’s inventoried. Often, as we talk it becomes clear that their suspect data base is collected in some form of Electronic Rolodex.  Maybe it is an excel file, or perhaps it is in Outlook or some other contact database.  My next question is often the most revealing.  I say, “How do you market your product or services to that list of suspects”?  Here is where most business owners run into difficulty because they have no clear way to use or manage their Electronic Rolodex.

So then I say to them:  “Okay, here’s a scenario.  What if I were to give you 2,000 names and numbers of contact people, company profiles, e-mail addresses of suspects, people who I know could use your service?  What could you do with that information?  They usually respond with a flurry of ideas: I could e-market to them, I could send them newsletters.  And so on.  “Exactly,” I say, “you would do something with that new list of suspects to make sure you could turn them into prospects.”  The point is most business owners are constantly building a database of suspects without even realizing it.  Every time you or your sales reps call on a qualified suspect that doesn’t turn immediately into a prospect, that name should go into a CRM database.  As you build your database over time and continue to market to that database, you develop a “warm” market for your product or service. It is warm because as a result of your regular marketing, they recognize your name and identify your product or service.

For many businesses however, that potential warm database never develops because the names they collect are tucked away somewhere in an Excel spreadsheet or in Outlook just sitting there stagnantly.  What they have is an Electronic Rolodex, not a CRM system.  The difference between the two is not so much how they are put together, but what you do with them.

Here’s a tip:  Look carefully at your sales and marketing systems.  Identify clearly where are you inventorying all your suspects?  First, no matter what system you use to collect and maintain the data, make sure you have someone in your organization managing some type of system to ensure that this suspect database is constantly growing?  Second, identify someone to make sure that there is some regular strategic marketing being done to that database?

This has been your Estrada Strategies CEO Rule of the Week.

I am Ruben Estrada and this is your next move.

Please click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week

Someone once asked me during an interview, “Ruben, how much success do you see the small business market having in the future?”

My response came quickly.  I replied that the businesses of the future that succeed will be the ones that have mastered the ability to manage relationships.  Succeeding in a small business is all about strength in relationships.  Contact Relationship Management, CRM, is a tool that many businesses use now and will continue to use, that helps manage those relationships.  Through CRM we are able to separate our suspects in many ways:  from our prospects, from our opportunities, and from our customers.  We can separate our customers by type, by products, and by referrals.  The same holds true for referrals by follow up.  The ability to do marketing, mailings, and an abundance of other successful operations will be yours only if you are using managed relationship software.

So here’s a tip:  Look at your data base of contacts.  Are all of your contacts sorted or separated by prospects and by customers?  Can you sort by type of customer or by frequency of customer?  More importantly, if all you have is an electronic database that you’re using to manage relationships, you don’t have CRM.

This has been your Estrada Strategies CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Here’s what I mean by that.  Often when I am working with a client we look at how they are managing their sales process.  The first question I ask is:  How do you define a suspect?  Once they have a good definition for suspects, then I ask how do you inventory those suspects?  If possible, I try to get them to point me to one place where they have all of their suspect’s inventoried. Often, as we talk it becomes clear that their suspect data base is collected in some form of Electronic Rolodex.  Maybe it is an excel file, or perhaps it is in Outlook or some other contact database.  My next question is often the most revealing.  I say, “How do you market your product or services to that list of suspects”?  Here is where most business owners run into difficulty because they have no clear way to use or manage their Electronic Rolodex.

So then I say to them:  “Okay, here’s a scenario.  What if I were to give you 2,000 names and numbers of contact people, company profiles, e-mail addresses of suspects, people who I know could use your service?  What could you do with that information?  They usually respond with a flurry of ideas: I could e-market to them, I could send them newsletters.  And so on.  “Exactly,” I say, “you would do something with that new list of suspects to make sure you could turn them into prospects.”  The point is most business owners are constantly building a database of suspects without even realizing it.  Every time you or your sales reps call on a qualified suspect that doesn’t turn immediately into a prospect, that name should go into a CRM database.  As you build your database over time and continue to market to that database, you develop a “warm” market for your product or service. It is warm because as a result of your regular marketing, they recognize your name and identify your product or service.

For many businesses however, that potential warm database never develops because the names they collect are tucked away somewhere in an Excel spreadsheet or in Outlook just sitting there stagnantly.  What they have is an Electronic Rolodex, not a CRM system.  The difference between the two is not so much how they are put together, but what you do with them.

Here’s a tip:  Look carefully at your sales and marketing systems.  Identify clearly where are you inventorying all your suspects?  First, no matter what system you use to collect and maintain the data, make sure you have someone in your organization managing some type of system to ensure that this suspect database is constantly growing?  Second, identify someone to make sure that there is some regular strategic marketing being done to that database?

This has been your Estrada Strategies CEO Rule of the Week.

I am Ruben Estrada and this is your next move.

Here’s what I mean by that.  Often when I am working with a client we look at how they are managing their sales process.  The first question I ask is:  How do you define a suspect?  Once they have a good definition for suspects, then I ask how do you inventory those suspects?  If possible, I try to get them to point me to one place where they have all of their suspect’s inventoried. Often, as we talk it becomes clear that their suspect data base is collected in some form of Electronic Rolodex.  Maybe it is an excel file, or perhaps it is in Outlook or some other contact database.  My next question is often the most revealing.  I say, “How do you market your product or services to that list of suspects”?  Here is where most business owners run into difficulty because they have no clear way to use or manage their Electronic Rolodex.

So then I say to them:  “Okay, here’s a scenario.  What if I were to give you 2,000 names and numbers of contact people, company profiles, e-mail addresses of suspects, people who I know could use your service?  What could you do with that information?  They usually respond with a flurry of ideas: I could e-market to them, I could send them newsletters.  And so on.  “Exactly,” I say, “you would do something with that new list of suspects to make sure you could turn them into prospects.”  The point is most business owners are constantly building a database of suspects without even realizing it.  Every time you or your sales reps call on a qualified suspect that doesn’t turn immediately into a prospect, that name should go into a CRM database.  As you build your database over time and continue to market to that database, you develop a “warm” market for your product or service. It is warm because as a result of your regular marketing, they recognize your name and identify your product or service. 

For many businesses however, that potential warm database never develops because the names they collect are tucked away somewhere in an Excel spreadsheet or in Outlook just sitting there stagnantly.  What they have is an Electronic Rolodex, not a CRM system.  The difference between the two is not so much how they are put together, but what you do with them.

Here’s a tip:  Look carefully at your sales and marketing systems.  Identify clearly where are you inventorying all your suspects?  First, no matter what system you use to collect and maintain the data, make sure you have someone in your organization managing some type of system to ensure that this suspect database is constantly growing?  Second, identify someone to make sure that there is some regular strategic marketing being done to that database?

This has been your Estrada Strategies CEO Rule of the Week.

I am Ruben Estrada and this is your next move.

Click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week

Someone once asked me during an interview, “Ruben, how much success do you see the small business market having in the future?”

My response came quickly.  I replied that the businesses of the future that succeed will be the ones that have mastered the ability to manage relationships.  Succeeding in a small business is all about strength in relationships.  Contact Relationship Management, CRM, is a tool that many businesses use now and will continue to use, that helps manage those relationships.  Through CRM we are able to separate our suspects in many ways:  from our prospects, from our opportunities, and from our customers.  We can separate our customers by type, by products, and by referrals.  The same holds true for referrals by follow up.  The ability to do marketing, mailings, and an abundance of other successful operations will be yours only if you are using managed relationship software.

So here’s a tip:  Look at your data base of contacts.  Are all of your contacts sorted or separated by prospects and by customers?  Can you sort by type of customer or by frequency of customer?  More importantly, if all you have is an electronic database that you’re using to manage relationships, you don’t have CRM.

This has been your Estrada Strategies CEO Rule of the Week.  I am Ruben Estrada.  Your Next Move

Click here to listen to the CEO rule of the week