Sales are all about leverage, because there is only so much you can do on your own. But, with the help of these simple tools, you can easily double, triple and quadruple your productiviting and make more sales.

PhoneTray Dialup

PhoneTray Dialup allows you to receive and screen phone calls while you are online. The program uses your V.92 modem and Call Waiting service from your phone company to detect an incoming call. If you have Caller ID on Call Waiting, also called Call Waiting ID or Visual Call Waiting, PhoneTray will show the caller’s name and number, so you can decide if you want to answer the call or ignore it. If your internet provider supports Modem-on-Hold, you can put internet on hold, take a call and continue browsing after you finish talking.

PhoneTray logs all your incoming calls. It keeps the date, time, name and phone number of each call. You can view a complete call history or calls received today, this week or this month. You can select what type of calls you want to see - all calls, local calls, long distance calls etc.
Because PhoneTray Dialup logs all calls (you can keep the log as an Excel file), you can easily follow up on your prospects.

More information: http://www.deprice.com/phonetraydialup.htm

Cure Reminder 2.1

With the help of Cute Reminder software you can easily create desktop sticky notes and make reminders for an appointment, birthday, phone call, bill payment, meeting, oil change, TV show and other events or tasks, so you can concentrate on your business.

The program automatically tracks the history of related events and stores the information into archive. Individually colored skins, support for audio files in various formats, schedule, linking files and Web pages to reminders and printing. The user-friendly interface provides comfort at your workplace whether at the office or at home.

Cute Reminder will make it easy and natural for you to manage your information, it will protect your mind from overstrain and encourage your creativity.

More Information: http://www.deprice.com/cutereminder.htm

TextAloud

TextAloud converts any text into spoken words. Instead of the valuable time you spend reading on your computer, imagine being free to relax, get up and stretch, or work on other things while the information you need is read to you in a pleasant, natural sounding human voice.

Better still, leave your computer behind.
TextAloud’s unique Text to MP3 conversion can save your daily reading to MP3 audio files to download to your portable MP3 player. Listen to email, online news, or important documents while you exercise, work or commute.

Just imaging how much more business you can do, if you listen to your e-mails while driving back home, rather than wasting hours on e-mail chores in the office or at home

More Information: http://www.deprice.com/textaloud.htm

John Deprice owns and operates http://www.deprice.com/utilities.htm

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I have yet to see a business that, sometimes in spite of themselves, didn’t benefit from implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or a simpler Contact Management software solution.

Your small business might be the rare exception, but if you can relate to some of the following scenarios, you may be ready to take advantage of the improved and inexpensive CRM systems coming on-stream.

Mary, your star sales performer, has just been poached by your opposition. She departs your employ with immediate effect. You are left wondering:

What deals was she working on?

What is the status of those deals?

Mary’s replacement would be able to hit the ground running, taking over where Mary left off if you have a small business CRM solution installed.

You need to do an e/mail marketing campaign to your customer base, but even the simple task of extracting a targeted list of all your client’s names and addresses proves difficult. And you haven’t even begun to send out your mailer yet, never mind manage and follow through with your responses.

Your sales people spend an inordinate amount of time preparing themselves for the next day, deciding who they are going to call or visit. That information should be spat out by the Task List of the CRM or Contact Manager, freeing them up to spend more time productively doing scenario planning, and selling.

Is getting reports from your sales people like pulling teeth? Do your reps spend far too long compiling data and reports essential to forward planning?

This is time that you’d far preferably have your employees spend doing what they are paid to do - sell your

products. We only have a finite amount of time to contact and meet clients. Employees should, as far as possible, discipline themselves to perform the bulk of admin ‘after hours’, rather than during office hours. The right CRM tools will yet again put you on the right track.

These are all reports that could be generated at the touch of a button, and winging their way to your inbox with another, if you have the right CRM solution in place. You could even, depending on your choice of CRM solution, have reports extracted and forwarded to you automatically.

Nobody can sleep well in the knowledge that their biggest asset, their customer database, is in a mess! It may look pretty, but does it work?

Here are some other possible questions that you need answers for; the facts may remain elusive without the benefit of a functional CRM solution.

Why did you lose that deal?

Just when did you promise to get back to ACME Inc., after their budget gets approved?

Exactly how much did you quote them?

Who last engaged with that client from your sales/service or accounts departments; when, and what transpired?

When does their contract with your competition or with you expire?

What is the weighted value of those potential deals, forecast for the next x months?

You have a great new deal sweetener and need to get a mailer, fax shot, emailer out to your clients in a hurry, but how?

Who are your VIP customers - by region, product, rep or any other user-defined category? How do you rate or profile them?

You can’t pinpoint just why Johnny is having problems closing deals.

You want to sell your business but you can’t show your prospective buyers a professional, current list of your pending deals or active clients, the goodwill that makes much of the real value of any business.

These are just a few of the questions a competent CRM application should be able to answer for you.

Next time up, we’ll examine the different types of CRM or Contact Management solutions that you should consider for your small business.

One thing is for certain - a few short months after implementing your CRM solution, you’ll wonder how on earth you ever got by without it!

About the author:

Perry Norgarb has specialized in CRM solutions for small businesses for the last 15 years.

Contact him or find out more about Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Contact Management and other Sales Tracking software tips and solutions for small businesses at: http://www.smallbizcrm.com.

You are free to re-publish this article as long as this bio box and copyright remain intact and the links ‘live’. © 26, April, 2005.

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Customer Service Management Software

CRM software is becoming more the norm than the extreme in multiple industries. What does CRM software do? For one CRM software helps ensure customer success by automating much of the customer service management process.

CRM is often considered an integrated approach that organizations can use to identify potential customers, acquire new customers and retain existing customers. CRM software programs allow organizations to coordinate various customer interactions from multiple perspectives, through varying departments and across different locations. Organizations can maximize their performance and the value inherent in each customer interaction when taking advantage of CRM software.

CRM And Efficient Business Processes

Today’s organizations face increasingly difficult challenges when dealing with customers. Many have customer bases that reside among multiple different geographies. Organizations must also manage interactions that occur via various communications networks. Some examples include communications through call centers, the Web and networks. Fortunately RM software makes it easy for customers to conduct business with an organization in any way they want regardless of the communication channel they operate through. RM also facilitates communication with customers across varying lines of business.

When an organization adopts CRM software, customers often reporting feeling more satisfied with their business relationships and feeling that an organization has a unified approach to customer service management. This helps strengthen customer relationships and improve customer retention rates in the short and long term. A business taking advantage of CRM software is more likely to attract and retain high quality customers at a more rapid and efficient rate than organizations using outdated modes of customer service management.

Article by Frank Owen, visit his web site on crm software for more on crm software. http://www.softwareforbusiness.net/crm-software/

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