I’ve been using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software since the DOS days. Yeah, I’ve been around for a while. From the beginning I saw CRM applications as leverage to grow my business. And for the most part, the investments have paid off. This is one of the big reasons we offer CRM consulting and CRM setup as services for our clients.

But no software or software as service is perfect. And my having had this expectation in the past was a source of frustration that was self imposed. I’ve got to admit the tendency in past has been to focus on what doesn’t work. The bugs. The frustrations climbing the learning curve. The wait for support to answer the phone. The desire for someone who could speak English well enough so we could communicate well.

The truth is that while no system is perfect, entrepreneurs must adopt a system that they will embrace and use systematically in a way the helps them achieve their goals. For us, we leverage our CRM application for the following…

1. Completely organize and segment all contacts. Have you ever met anyone with all their contacts neatly stacked in piles of business cards? Not a very efficient way to organize contacts.

2. Organize our follow up contact with everyone in the system. Yes, we find it extremely important to actually follow up with people worthy of being in our system. Otherwise, we they get the big DELETE.

3. Communicate regularly be phone and email in a very personal way. Alas, the ancient art of communication. Some of our relationships want a phone call every month. Our clients we meet with every week. And our Centers of Influence we touch base with depending on how often it makes sense to stay in touch. Everyone else gets our newsletter at an absolute minimum.

4. Save time by leveraging technology in a way that my old 3×5 index card system never could achieve. When I get frustrated with any CRM software we use or our clients use, I think back to the days when I relied on 3×5 index cards. Then I have a better perspective on how much more efficient I am today instead of how it used to be.

If you’re like us, you are committed to growing your business. Which means you must be focused on generating more leads. And if you’re investing the time and energy to generate more leads, you better be focused on closing more sales with disciplined follow up marketing. This take the form of sales calls, follow up email marketing, direct mail, faxes, and many other “touches.”

It’s safe to assume that if you’re doing all this work, you really want to grow your business. And implementing a Customer Relationship Management application, training yourself and your staff on how to leverage the CRM setup, and staying committed to making this an integral part of growing your business all critical disciplines in the are of business development.

What matters most is that you actually leverage the system you decide to use. Because if you’re not disciplined in using a contact management or CRM system in the first place, you might as well resolve to be happy not growing your business. Because growing a business requires staying in touch with the people in your network. And having a solid CRM system in place can make a world of difference in terms of leveraging time and efficiency.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona

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