MRSware by EYOND, Inc.

Laptops or tablets?

2012-02-22T16:24:00.004-05:00

A recent headline read "2012 - The Year of the Tablet". With all the talk about tablets lately, many are wondering if they will replace laptops. Today's USA Today Money has the results of a survey from BCG Research asking "Will your tablet replace your laptop?" -

No - 42%
Yes - 38%
Don't know - 20%

Let me know - will a tablet replace your laptop?

Managing Your Technology Tools, Pt 2

2011-09-30T15:48:00.001-04:00

In my previous post I talked about how our behavior is affected by the introduction of a stimulus (ringing or vibrating of a cell phone or mobile device) which brings about a conditioned reflex (immediately answering the call or reading & replying to the message).

In this post I want to offer some suggestions,for sales reps who are on the road, on how to manage the beast (remember Pavlov's dogs) - our conditioned reflex - in all of us.

First - the dilemma.
I was a manufacturers' representative for 25 years and as such know when you're in sales it is difficult not to automatically respond to a ringing or vibrating phone. It could be a customer, prospect, end user, designer or contractor looking for information on one of your products. Who doesn't want to be known for responding quickly to one of these opportunities? The tricky part in all of this, is managing the desire to respond quickly with the ability to be efficient and productive throughout the day.

Now that we all agree managing this conditioned reflex can create a challenge, let's look at some suggestions to help sales reps be efficient and productive, as well as responsive to customer's, prospect;s, end user's... needs.

1. Use common sense and proper etiquette

Before any activity (sales call, demo, lunch, training sessions, presentation), change your phone's setting to vibrate.
During the activity, do NOT even glance at your mobile device if it vibrates. What kind of message are you sending (no pun intended) if your attention wanders from your current discussion, negotiation, or demo to your phone? Do you think your customer feels important when you look at your phone?
During the activity, if you are using a mobile device for a presentation, turn off pop up notifications.
If you are going to use your mobile device to take notes during the activity, make sure you explain this to whomever you are with so they understand what you are doing.
If you are expecting an emergency call, let the people you are with know this and if you receive the call, apologize, excuse yourself and leave the room or immediate area before you answer the call.

2. When scheduling your week, schedule time, throughout the day, for responding to calls and messages

Schedule 15 minutes "open" time between activities for answering your calls and messages.
Schedule a 30 minute break in the middle of your day to answer calls and messages.
After an activity, listen to voice messages, read e-mail and text messages. If you have time (we all know sales activities can run longer than expected), spend your 15 minutes responding.
If you do not have time after an activity, and you are rushing to another activity, please do NOT text or reply to e-mails unless you are not the driver (seems obvious, but...).

3. Maximize software options for efficiency

Set spam filters so you don't have to read junk mail
Create folders for quick management of e-mail (keep priority e-mails in your Inbox and move all other messages to other folders for completion at a later time)
Use reminders available in e-mail, calendar, tasks, journals, and file share for maximum efficiency
Create notes for later entry into your CRM system
Use a transcription service to enter your notes into your CRM system

4. As my father always says, "Stop and smell the roses". Life is short and whenever you can, remember to enjoy the day.

I think we can all agree, technology tools are an essential part of our daily life, and we have to find ways to utilize these amazing tools without becoming a slave to the technology itself.

These two posts were primarily focused on mobile devices - smartphones, tablets, etc. I would be interested to hear what other types of technology you are using, while on the road, and how it is affecting your behavior and what you are doing to manage it.

Managing Technology Tools (for sales reps)

2011-09-30T14:52:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are on the road sales reps, have you asked yourself - Are you managing your technology tools or are they managing you?

You probably remember from your school days reading about Pavlov's dogs. Pavolv ran experiments showing the introduction of a certain stimulus to dogs could bring about a certain behavior in expectation of a reward (food in their case). What he did was ring a bell (among other stimuli) and then measure the amount of saliva the dogs produced thinking about the food they were going to receive after the ringing of the bell.

The upshot was he showed introducing a stimulus brought about a conditioned reflex that affected behavior.
Now, let's fast forward 120 years to today's version of the experiment:

The stimulus - the ringing or vibrating of a cell phone (mobile device)

The conditioned relex - immediate answering of the phone or reading the text or e-mail message (no matter what we are doing, who we are with)

The affected behavior - a slave to our cell phones (technology tool)

Sound familiar?

If so, once again ask yourself the question - are you managing your technology tools or are they managing you?

Next post - Part 2, some suggestions on how to manage our technology tools and still be productive while in the field.

6 Questions to consider when choosing CRM

2011-08-11T11:53:00.002-04:00

Following are 6 simple questions to ask when choosing a CRM solution:

Who is going to be the driver of CRM in your company?
What do you want to accomplish?
Where will CRM be used?
When do you want to implement the system?
Why use CRM?
How are you going to implement the system?

1. Who is going to be the driver?

Choose someone you believes in and understands how your company will benefit from CRM to lead the initiative.

2. What do you want to accomplish?

Know your goals before you look at your options.

3. Where will CRM be used?

Know where you want to use the system - inside the office; outside the office; at home or a combination of all three. How will you provide access for outside of the office use?

4. When do you want to implement the system?

Choose a time when your business is slowest to provide time to get the system up and running, your people trained, and support and maintenance of your system in place.

5. Why use CRM?

Answer this question in advance to be able to tell your employees how they will benefit from the system. Be sure to get their buy-in.

6. How are you going to implement the system?

Have a written plan in place prior to your implementation to ensure a smooth start up.

Once you've answered all of the above questions you can research your options, try them out and determine which application best meets your criteria. With the right person in charge and everyone on board you will experience a smooth and successful implementation.

Communication skills - Listening

2011-03-01T12:17:00.004-05:00

"Listen, do you want to know a secret?" Those Beatles lyrics may not have been written with business communications in mind, but they do apply. If you want to learn a secret or gain a competitive edge, you need to listen effectively.

Studies show we spend half our time listening to other people talk. Are we listening actively? Are we hearing what is actually being said? Or are we hearing selectively?

Years ago, I took a listening skills class during my CPMR (Certified Professional Manufacturers' Representative) designation course. Here are some of the tips provided in that class for improving your listening skills:

Intend to listen - plan on avoiding distractions and actively listen to what is being said
Concentrate on what you are hearing - focus on the speaker, show you care about what they are saying
Control your emotions - tamp down your emotions to actually hear what they are saying, not what you want to hear
Check for understanding - when the speaker is done, think and then ask questions or repeat what they said to make sure you did hear correctly
Use memory aids - take notes or record (with permission) the speaker

Active listening is a core competency of communication which requires the listener to not only hear what is being said but to show the speaker that you care about and understand what they are saying.

As you master this skill you will be amazed at the secrets you learn and the competitive advantage you gain.

Sales Training, Part 2 - Product or Process?

2010-05-07T16:52:00.008-04:00

In Sales Training, Part 1 - Cost or Investment, we learned the value of investing in your people by providing them with training. In Sales Training, Part 2, let's review the types of training you provide.

Product Training

Obviously, product training is an essential component of any training program. Without product training a sales person cannot effectively assist their customer. But, who should provide this type of training? Ideally, product training should be done by the manufacturer of the product. They are the experts - on their products, their markets and their competitors. Whether your sales reps go to the factory or a sales manager comes to your office, product training should be conducted by the manufacturer.

With the manufacturer providing the product training, the focus of your time, effort and money should be on the selling skills, process and procedural training.

Basic selling skills

You can ensure your new sales people have a solid grounding in basic selling skills by choosing from the plethora of sales training programs available. [google "sales training"] One program you may want to look at is the Certified Sales Professional (CSP) program from MRERF (Manufacturers' Representatives Educational Research Foundation). And veteran sales people also appreciate opportunities to learn more about the science of selling, so do be sure to encourage them to participate in ongoing educational events.

Processes and Procedures

As with the manufacturer and his products, you and your current staff are the experts - on your policies, procedures, processes, territories, markets and competitors. Be sure to use your staff to assist in the training of new sales reps. It's a great opportunity for the reps to get to know the people they will be relying on to assist them with their sales efforts.

It's not unusual for new sales people to spend their first couple of weeks inside learning about your procedures and your CRM application. They will also learn the way your staff interacts and collaborates with each other and with people outside your company.

When this training is completed, it's time for the new reps to start making sales calls. You, your sales manager and veteran sales reps should take them along on sales call until they are comfortable with your sales process and learn how to form relationships with the people they call on.

While all of this may seem elementary to you, never assume a new sales rep will know what you expect of them. Make sure you take the time to explain it to them. Make sure they know who to turn to when they have questions. And make sure they have received written copies of your policies, procedures and processes so they have something to refer to while learning your systems.

Your people will indeed become your greatest assets when you make sure they are well trained about, not only your products, but also your processes.

Sales training, Part 1 - Cost or investment?

2010-05-03T16:11:00.003-04:00

Hiring sales people is a risky proposition. Once hired, training them can be very costly. Or is it an investment? Does the investment in training lower your risk of hiring?

First, let's examine the differences between a cost and an investment. In business terms, cost indicates the payment of money for an acquisition or supplies, services, labor, or products. On the other hand, an investment is a commitment of money to purchase assets in order to gain profitable returns.

You always hear the phrase, "my people are my greatest assets". If this is true, do you consider your people a cost or an investment?

To use the above definition of cost, you pay a salary to acquire the services of your sales people to produce profitable sales for you and the manufacturers you represent. The cost of these services produces risk. After you have hired sales people, are your people an asset? Have you lowered your risk?

Again, to use the above definition of investment, after hiring, you commit your time and money to training - selling skills, product knowledge, company processes and procedures - to ensure future profitable returns from your sales people. After training, are you people assets to your company? Have you lowered your risk?

Another factor to consider is the normal time it takes to bring your sales people up to speed so they can become productive for your company. To illustrate this cost, the 2007 Sales Performance Optimization survey by CSO Insights, found new sales rep ramp-up times have doubled over the last several years from an average of 3 to 6 months to an average of 10 - 12 months. That means your risks and costs have doubled as well.

Can you afford to wait an entire year for a new sales person to become productive? Can you even afford to wait 3 months for your current sales people to become productive if reassigned to new accounts or to a new territory?

We believe, with training, your sales people can become your greatest assets. And by investing in them, you help build their loyalty and commitment to you and to your company, thereby lowering your risk. Without training, your sales people are merely a cost for the company and your risk remains the same as it was initially.

So to answer this blog's original questions - training is always an investment, one that lowers your risk of hiring and produces success, for the trainee and for the company.

1 Company: 1 Source, 1 Destination Newsletter Poll

2010-02-23T20:16:00.004-05:00

... And for those of you who might have missed the Newsletter article, here is the Editorial section pertaining to this survey.

1 Company: 1 Source, 1 Destination

Have you ever called a company that you purchased a product from and the representative says. "Thank you for calling. I see that you purchased a ______. How is that working out for you?" It's an inspirational a thing. This example of excellent customer service, which will usually result in excellent customer satisfaction. The opposite end of this spectrum is that time when you, the sales rep, are in front of your customer and the customer asks "so, what is going on with that issue I called about _________"?, and you don't know that they spoke to someone in the office about this. What is the outcome of that conversation, and how does it impact customer satisfaction?

What we are talking about here is having a central place for customer touches -- all interactions with a customer, whether they be a sales call to the office, a visit to their business, or just e-mail correspondences. Having a system in place where your customer service reps can see what is happenning in the field (for when they talk to the customer) and where your sales reps in the field can see who talked to their customer and about what (before they visit or make a call themselves), is essential in providing an efficient and effective experience for your customer with your company.

If you are currently sharing a central contact database, you are on your way there (1 point). Does your system allow your field personnel access to it from their work locations (home office, hotel, etc.)? (+1 point) Does everyone in the company have the ability to leave an entry [journal] under a customer of an interaction they had? (+1 point) Are all of the touch point types covered in one place, logged under the effected customers (e-mails, appointments, tasks, journals, sales leads, quotes)? (+1 point each). Does this include sales numbers and purchasing history? (+1 point). And, can you pull a report that has all of this information in a format to be shared with the customers themselves, or to report upstream to your business partners? (+2 points).

In our little exercise here we have a total possible of 12 points. How did you do? If you would like to share your score, and see what others are scoring, click the link to post your results on our site.

How to get organized - It's simple

2010-01-27T12:23:00.000-05:00

We are all soooo busy these days, it seems like we don't have time for anything or anyone extra. I recall reading in "Agency Sales" magazine 2 years ago that the average U.S. worker wastes 2 hours a week trying to find stuff. And that's just work. How much time do you waste looking for stuff at home or helping someone else at home look for their stuff? I can guarantee you it's at least 2 hours a week. You can do the math - that's a lot of time that you could be doing something more useful or even fun.

So how do we get organized? For home organization there is a great magazine called "Real Simple" that has great ideas on how to organize everything in your home and personal life.

At work, it's real simple too - use MRSware more. Here are some simple ideas:

1. You need to send an article you read to one of your customers. Instead of writing this down on a handy piece of paper, type the reminder into a Task in MRSware. Not only will you have the note available with a reminder that keeps popping up, you will have a record of the name of the article, where it came from and when you sent it. And if you use MRSware Mobile, you will also have this task on your mobile device as well.

2. While with a customer you quoted a discount on a product. Instead of writing this down on a handy piece of paper, type it into a Journal in MRSware. Not only will you have a record of the price, but if the customer calls your office and talks with one of your customer service reps, the CSR will be able to see the price you quoted as well (instead of having to call you and then call the customer back which is a waste of their time, too).

3. You're playing golf with a prospect and he gives you his business card with his home phone number and personal e-mail address on it. Enter the information into MRSware in his/her contact screen and everyone in your office will know how to contact your customer at your request.

4. You're with a customer who heard about a promotion from one of your Principals. There are a number of items on the promotion and you want to make sure he is aware of all the specials. The promotion sheet is in MRSware's File Share, where you will be able to attach the file to an e-mail and send it to him right away.

5. You have an opportunity to pick up a new customer and you need a credit application. You can open the appropriate document in MRSware's File Share and e-mail it to him right away.

6. You are doing a sales meeting on Monday morning and want to bring in something to eat and drink. You can check your Additional tab in the Company/Contact listing to see if your main contact at the company has a preference in food (no donuts, he's trying to lose weight) or drink (decaf tea with lemon, a personal preference).

7. One of your customers needs to get rid of some inventory that isn't moving for him. You can go into Data Analysis and find out who's buying the line and specific item and be a hero by moving the product out of his/her warehouse. Your manufacturer will be pleased, too, that they didn't have to take the items back.

Are you seeing a trend?

Everything you need can be found in one place. No more searching through stacks of paper at the office, in your car, or at home to find the one scrap of paper that you need to follow up on or tell someone else in your office about.

With all the extra time you'll save by using MRSware more, you'll have more time for that extra phone call, that extra e-mail, that extra sales call or even a chance to stop and smell the roses along the way!

Disaster Recovery and Redundancies

2009-11-19T10:00:00.001-05:00

I usually have a soft drink of some type at hand while working on the computer throughout the day. I generally move that beverage around as I drink it. Sometimes it is on the right side of the computer, sometimes the left, sometime right in front. One afternoon, a fine, tall glass of blackberry iced tea sat in front of me. While I was typing away, I would occasionally take a sip and was thoroughly enjoying it. I'm not sure what it was -- a distracting pop-up of an e-mail, the startling ring of the phone next to me -- but whatever it was, it had my hand moving rather quickly, ever so gently brushing that iced tea glass and to my horror knocking the entire thing directly onto the keyboard of my laptop. In the end, the keyboard itself cleaned up very nicely under the faucet (yes, it surprised some people in the office too), but the circuitry underneath faired far less well with sticky blackberry goo seeping down onto it. Ultimately, that laptop never made it back to life. But the workday must go on, and all I needed to do was move to the other office and login to MRSware on another computer. All of my e-mails were waiting for me, marked, flagged, and organized exactly how I left them. Likewise, all of my files were right were I left them in File Share, etc.

Two lessons learned quite clearly:

1) Never keep a glass of liquid between your hands and that thing you type on all day. Which, I am very careful not to do these days.

2) Having a backup strategy is extremely important. Using something like MRSware for your daily business keeps everything safe and sound, and easily accessible in the case of unforeseen circumstances.

That is a small-scale example. In the bigger scope, when considering a SaaS solution for your business, it is prudent to take into account disaster recovery models, even for catastrophic events of extreme rarity. Earthquakes happen; floods happen; hurricanes happen. What is your business continuity plan in these events, both to guarantee no loss of data as well as the continuation of business throughout the crisis.

This is something that MRSware achieves for you as well. MRSware runs in several data centers around the country, each geographically dispersed and independent of each other. Additionally, backups of all data are stored in separate secure datacenters for additional recovery should it ever be needed. This type of geographic distribution and redundancy allows for continuation of business even during major events.

We've seen power outages on a multi-state scale (where were you when the lights went out in the entire state?). We've had customers who have lost power at their office for 2 weeks in a row due to hurricane flooding. In both those examples, those users effected were completely safe from data loss. More than that, what could have been a work slowdown for the 2 days or 2 weeks where the office didn't have power, turned into a change of work location and continued productivity through access to MRSware from home offices and alternate locations. Users are able to maintain productivity, and suffer no loss of data.

These things are not unique to MRSware by any means. They are things you should expect from your Software as a Service provider. They also happen to be things that are more difficult for a business to achieve by themselves -- if you run your own Customer Relationship Management or Sales Force Automation systems in house, do you use offsite storage for backups, and are you able to maintain access to that system should something happen to your office, server, or network?

SaaS sales up in 2009

2009-11-18T15:48:00.003-05:00

Gartner recently reported that the outlook for SaaS (Software as a Service) sales was up 18% year over year for 2009. It's always encouraging to see your market grow, especially so in a general climate of soft sales and downturned economy. MRSware has always been software as a service (even before that term came into existence). As part of that general movement, we also have enjoyed a continued growth in revenue year over year, with that success continuing in 2009 at just over 55% growth.

When EYOND first started selling MRSware in 2003, we had our work cut out for ourselves. At that time the term "Software as a Service" didn't exist yet. The predecessor to this, and most applicable term for what we were doing, was "Application Service Provider" (ASP). As the market evolved -- in no small part due to the significant marketing dollars put in by Salesforce.com -- the SaaS term came about and is generally understood today (cloud computing is the next change in name, but we won't get into that today). The important part is not the name of how the service is delivered, but the advantages of that model. Is SaaS, the user doesn't need to buy server hardware, software, or IT consultant time to manage those things.

On occasion the sales people tell me about prospects that want to run our software system on their own servers. Perhaps they have extra servers already running. Perhaps they already have a redundant SQL Server enterprise configuration, with multiple points of presence in geographically diverse areas of the country (for disaster planning and mitigation). Perhaps their IT staff has extra time to allocate to another project of running those things and supporting its users. Well, I think that is the point -- even if you already have all those things, when something serious comes up, you are still going to need to call the experts. Software as a Service eliminates all of those infrastructure requirements and gets you right to the source, the experts who work on this all day every day.

Software as a Service is a great model, and it is not surprising to see it grow. And it will continue to grow as it brings expertise and cost savings to the end user. An article on CIOzone reports SaaS market capitalization currently around $7.5 billion. I wouldn't say that EYOND was a major player yet, but we are certainly working on it. With growth expectations to continue unabated, we look forward to continued success for years to come.

Written sales processes - why should you have one?

2009-10-19T12:01:00.000-04:00

During an interview with potential new reps, the manufacturer asks questions about the internal workings of the rep agency. They may ask obvious questions, but they are reading between the lines during your answers to see if you are a business person or a sales person. What's the difference, you ask? In the manufacturer's mind, it can mean the difference between getting a line or not.

The manufacturer is looking for a business professional with plans, strategies and processes in place to efficiently run his business regardless of the challenges facing him or her. They are looking for an extension of their company and want to make sure the company they choose represents their company image.

Do you have the plans, strategies and processes in place to present a professional image to your current and prospective manufacturers?

One of the processes you should have written down is a sales process along with the methodology to achieve the steps in the process. CSO Insights, in their annual Sales Performance Optimization survey finds companies who have a written sales process are more successfull in reaching their goals, have a higher win rate, have a larger deal dollar volume and have lower total rep turnover than those companies that do not have a written process with methods.

Whether you choose a commercial offering or develop your own internal process does not matter. It's having the methods and process in place so you can train and coach your sales people in your process, use it as a basis for comparison with your leads and opportunities as to your win/loss ratio and communicate the activity and results to your manufacturers.

Start with a simple process and refine it over time so it includes the necessary steps for each type of sale you may encounter. Once in place, you can add the name of each step in the Opportunity Phase field of MRSware, which will allow you to easily track the activities and results of your sales efforts.

With a written sales process and methodology you have taken one step in communicating the professional business image desired by manufacturers.

Effective Communications between Reps and Manufacturers

2009-05-18T17:49:00.001-04:00

At the recent AIM/R conference, one of the sessions was on "Communication throughout the distribution channel". Leading the discussion was a rep, Alan Guidish of Preferred Sales, Inc and a manufacturer, Fred Carnevale of the Bradford White Corporation.

The age old question was asked, "What is the best way for us to communicate to/with the manufacturers/reps?" Even though I have heard this question asked many times, the discussion that ensued came up with some new and productive ideas.

Know your audience.

Everyone agreed that there is no one way to interact with each other. Each person has a preferred method of communication. The trick is to remain flexible, find out what the preference is and then use it as the primary way to exchange information.

Use a variety of methods to communicate.

Notice above, I said "primary way". Even if e-mail or voice mail is the way someone wants you to contact them, you must still use all viable ways to reach that person. Otherwise, they may use voice mail as a shield and you may never have the opportunity to talk with them.

Some of the methods used by manufacturers to communicate with their reps are:

1. Webinars - mostly used for training purposes; a regular schedule of training dates should be set up

2. Conference calls - Quarterly Market Intelligence calls; a minimum of 30 days advanced notice should be given to the reps

3. Informal rep councils - rotate reps quarterly to get everyone involved

4. Rep resource center on website - links to articles should be included in notifications

5. Social networking - internal company community networks (this was a new idea for everyone)

This last item lead to a discussion on the perils of communicating with the younger generation (texting was mentioned). There were some funny stories about the assumptions made by different generations and how they lead to a breakdown in communication. Remember, when in doubt about what someone is doing, ask!

It was suggested that the manufacturer set up a point person or persons at the rep agency for effective communications. Another idea was for the manufacturer to contact the sales manager or owner for strategic questions and for tactical questions, contact the sales person directly.

There was quite a bit of discussion about reporting. The reps were concerned that the manufacturer was not doing anything with their reports and they were wasting their time. Fred told the reps that the manufacturer needs to be held accountable. He suggested the reps ask their manufacturer to be clear about why they want the report and what they are going to do with it.

Some of the methods used by reps to communicate with their manufacturers are:

1. Phone calls to their regional managers - frequent but not without a reason for the call

2. Pro-actively request manufacturers' territory visits - yearly scheduled visits

3. Written sales summaries for follow up to territory visits - reminds everyone of the follow up needed

4. Regular phone calls to national sales managers - territory updates, agency news, competitive info

There was a lot of discussion about territory visits from manufacturers. The reps said there needed to be advanced territory planning for these visits - both for scheduling and purpose. MRERF has a pamphlet called "Passport into Territory, A Guide to Making Successful (and profitable) Visits to the Territory" that goes over the many facets of a territory visit. Some of the reps have their own forms and were willing to share.

Lastly, the rep owners discussed the ways they communicate internally with their own people. A couple of them used reports to their reps. One called it their "Daily Update", another called it their "Daily Issue Report". The daily issues were summarized and sent out, via e-mail, to their reps.

I thought there were some good ideas mentioned. Are you doing anything that isn't mentioned here to effectively communicate with your Principals? If so, I'd love to hear it.

Of course, MRSware makes it easier for you to communicate with your manufacturers. Everything from call reports to e-mails to forecasting can be tracked and easily shared with others. If you need a refresher in how to accomplish any of the above, please let me know.

Appointments, Journals, Tasks oh my! Which to use and when.

2009-04-16T14:48:00.000-04:00

Appointments, Journals, and Tasks are all part of the greater Activity Tracking system in MRSware. While each has its own niche, they do overlap in some aspects, and purposefully so. What we are going to talk about here is our recommendations for the use of each and how we designed MRSware around there concepts... Each company, of course, is welcome to use them in the way which most fits their style, business, and reporting needs.

Appointments

The Niche These are the basis of the Calendar. Schedule times and upcoming events with contacts and other Users at your company. Block out time when out of the office, on vacation, sales manager visits, etc. for everyone to see. Coordinate schedules and scheduling throughout the office by knowing availability and where Users are at a given time.

The Overlap In addition to scheduling the appointment, the appointment contains a free-form notes field where some Users will keep the details of the activity in the appointment as well (overlaps journal usage). Advantage:
keeps everything in one entry. Disadvantage: not as easy to search and filter on to get a list of entries for a particular contact or category.

Journals

The Niche The journal is for the most part a note at its heart. It contains several fields that enhance that note taking capability in a significant way, most notably the front-and-center time duration aspect of the journal. The journal is meant to facilitate the capture of a particular call on/from a contact, one particular note of importance, or any other single activity. Note our emphasis on a single activity -- it has sometimes been seen that users will go back to the same journal entry repeatedly and add to it for total unrelated events. In essence, using a journal like the notes field on a contact. Entries are really meant to be used in a journaling aspect -- one entry for each subject -- in this way entries can be later grouped by time, category, or subject; individual entries can be included or excluded to capture just what is of interest at the moment. Using only one journal for every note removes all of this capability.

The Overlap As the most free-form type of entry, it is easy to see where the Journal could be replaced by one of the other entries. The advantage of journals is that they are independent of the other types of entries -- they didn't have to be an appointment with, or a task to complete for the contact -- they are just what they are a note. Add to that the powerful time keeping and reporting aspects of the journals, and they are our recommended call reporting, phone call logging, activity capturing tool.

Tasks

The Niche When you have an entry that you need to assign to someone else, let them know about it, or follow as in see when someone else has completed it, that it a Task. The Task entry lets you assign it to someone else while keeping a copy in your list as well, so that you can see when it is update, completed, and any notes the other user adds to it. Tasks display on the home screen and have reminders that show on both the Assigned By and Assigned To person's screens.

The Overlap Tasks have timers, like Journals, so that time spent completing an item can be tracked. Tasks with Due Dates will show in the Calendar for the day they are due.

Notes fields on Contacts

Each contact has its individual Notes field at the bottom. This is indeed intended to keep any pertinent and/or often referenced information readily at hand. What it can't do for you is any type of searching, sorting, or grouping for reports later on. There is sometime the temptation to keep a call note in the general notes section, but we really recommend that it get its own entry in the Activity list instead, so that next time the temptation comes again that notes field doesn't get filled up and disorganized.

To delve deeper into the anatomy and usage of each of the activity reporting entry types, take a read through the Contact Relationship Management User Manual

The Power of "R" in CRM

2009-03-06T17:03:00.000-05:00

By now you're all familiar with the term CRM - Contact Relationship Management. But are you really maximizing your CRM application? Most companies using CRM have created a master list (database) of companies and contacts. This master list is often used as a computer version of the old paper Rolodexes - a place to look up addresses, phone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, etc. Keeping the master list information up-to-date is much easier today with CRM applications than it was with the Rolodexes.

While this database is a great first step in setting up your CRM system, the real power of your CRM is in establishing a solid "RD" or Relationship Database.

A Relationship Database includes all pertinent information, built over time, contributed by anyone in the company, about your customer and how best to do business with them. Simple, isn't it?

With MRSware, we make it easy to build your RD. In both the "Companies" and "Contacts" screens you have a number of tabs to add the pertinent information for easy access and review.

For instance:

"Relationships" is a great location to list the manufacturers from whom your customer is buying. You should list both your Principals and your competitors. You can also note the discounts they are receiving from your Principals as well as any competitive pricing and information they have shared with you.

"Categories" is the location where you will want to set up the specific categories that apply to your customers. These could include markets, buying groups, job titles, marketing information, etc.

"Additional" is where you will add information such as birthdays, favorite sports teams, family member's names, etc.

"Activity" is where you'll find every appointment, task, journal, campaign, expense or opportunity, associated with a customer, along with the e-mails sent or received from them.

Just as it takes time to build a good relationship with your customer, it will also take time to build a good Relationship Database. But once you do, the power of the "R" will provide enormous efficiencies and productivity.

P.S. You, the MRSware user, have a competitive advantage over other CRM application users because you also have sales data integrated with your "RD". You have analytics and reports that contain all of the above to give you a leg-up on the competition.

Activities or Results - Which are you tracking?

2008-11-05T15:58:00.000-05:00

During many of the rep conferences EYOND attended this year, sales consultants talked about sales processes, sales management and hiring talented sales people.

One of the common themes was activities vs results - which is more important? The consensus among the consultants and attendees at the meetings was that tracking activities is more important than tracking results. Results are in the past. There's nothing you can do about them now. Activities lead to results and that's where the focus should be.

I think to get a full picture of your business you will need to track both activities and the results from these activities.

Activities are absolutely critical to the success of any sales organization. And communicating this information to key partners - manufacturers represented, sales managers, other members of a sales team - helps everyone stay on track and focus on the ultimate goals - satisfied, loyal customers and increased sales.

Even though results are in the past, you can learn from this information. Knowing where you are succeeding or failing is important for managing your sales process. If the pipeline is full, but no sales are coming through, you need to know where the breakdown is occuring. Sales procedures may need to be changed - adding new steps or processes, altering old methods or systems - that will lead to success. Additional coaching or education may be needed. On the other hand, sales successes also need to be looked at so you can ensure that these profitable steps are repeated.

MRSware offers both activity tracking and the ability to track results.

Activity Tracking

If you have not already done so, Journals should be implemented as part of your sales process. This is the first step to building an internal database to be shared with your sales team. The sales details are the critical piece of the pie, not only including actual sales calls, but where you can add customer's preferences - a kind of Harvey McKay compilation of facts -

What they buy, how they buy, why they buy, frequency of purchases, credit issues, hot buttons, key players within the company, how they like to be contacted, names of family members, birthdays, anniversaries, favorite leisure activities and so on.

This is important relationship building information not just for a current deal, but for future opportunities as well. Having this information in a central location with easy access for all team members is priceless.

Make sure there is an understanding on the importance of this kind of shared information and how it benefits everyone. Reviewing all activities and contacts with a customer - from inside and outside sales teams -during the last month maintains your professional image. You are up-to-date on all your customer's issues, keep you from repeating yourself and focus your attention on the current deals in progress.

Getting the details of your activities into the system can be as easy as leaving a phone message, right after the sales call, to be entered by a transcriber, or as simple as entering the data yourself.

Once the information is in the system, it can be edited and and shared with key partners, communicating your efforts on their behalf.

Also, as part of your sales procedures, you can implement New Opportunites. These opportunities, leads or new deals can include as much or as little information as you need. Everything from a current marketing promotion to a sales phase to a competitor to a close reason to actual sales dollars can be tracked. The sales phase helps you stay focused on your sales process and assists you in noting where your successes and failures part ways.

Tracking Results

The easiest method of tracking results is with Data Analysis. You can really dig down into your data to find the information you are searching for. You can sort by customer, by manufacturer, by product, by sales rep, by business address by month. You can choose to see a week, month, quarter, year or compare current month, quarter or year to last year, last year same month or last year same quarter. Once the information has been filtered you can export and then chart and graph to visually share the details.

From these results you can change your sales focus, alter the sales process, coach and educate individuals or analyze profitability.

So, activities or results, which is more important to you? Activities need to be monitored and measured along with results. Activities lead to results which may change how the activities are performed going forward which will hopefully lead to better results. And on it goes...

With MRSware you are able to track activities as well as results to complete the full picture of your sales organization.

Why Use Sales Force Automation?

2008-06-08T16:27:00.000-04:00

There are many reasons to use Sales Force Automation.

1. Record and track all the stages in your sales process.
2. Record and track leads from your Principals.
3. Record and track new business opportunities.
4. Record and track bids.
5. Record and track sales and/or marketing promotions (yours or your Principals).
6. Record and track expenses (related to promotions, related to conferences, tradeshows, daily).
7. Analyze the results of all of the above.

Once you start using a SFA system to record and track the above, you will find:

1. everyone is better organized.
2. nothing slips through the cracks.
2. it's easier to measure activities.
3. it's easier to measure results.
4. it's easier to change sales strategies.
5. it's easier to see where your employees need coaching.
6. response time to your customers and Principals is faster.
7. you're not blindsided by issues with customers or Principals.

As a manager you will be:

1. more efficient - you're not wasting time duplicating efforts, waiting for information from sales people so you can consolidate several reports into one to send to your Principals.
2. more effective - you're better able to prioritize your time and see what and where to focus.
3. more productive - you're better able to see the big picture. You have more information at your fingertips so you don't have to micromanage your sales team.

With all the leads, new business opportunites, bids and notes in the system, the agency retains the gathered intelligence and industry knowledge of the sales team even if one of your people leaves.

When you replace that person, your new sales hire will ramp up faster, saving time and money for your agency.