Many business owners believe that getting the latest gadgets and programs will help their business… but the reality is far from it!  You can spend thousands of dollars on the latest laptop, related software, and then some specific programs for your business needs.  The costs can mount up.  But do you really need this major upgrade?  Will you use all the functions?

Every day there are new applications created for the iPhone and iPad, but most of these are more time wasters than time savers…  Then there are the programs that profess to take your hassles away, manage your marketing or your data, or print labels seamlessly, or even manage your tasks better in a timely fashion.

Here’s a tip:  technology is a lot like the big sales at Myer and David Jones… it’s only a bargain or of value if YOU NEED IT!

Determine Your Real Needs First
In my line of work I am constantly seeing new applications and systems designed to do multiple things. The marketing campaigns for these are brilliant because they make the busy business owner think that they NEED it to make more money!  Occasionally that might actually be the case.

Yet without having identified the business needs first – you aren’t going to make many wise purchase decisions.

When I worked for large corporations like NAB and Australia Post, we spent a LOT of time in the initial stages of our projects to determine our needs.  This shouldn’t be any different in the small or medium business.

If you don’t do this initial analysis, you will end up being MORE frustrated with a new tool that doesn’t meet your needs.  Plus you may find that they bog you down with complexity rather than make you more efficient. Seems pointless if you’re aiming to create an efficient and leveraged business!

So my advice to you is… if you are considering a new app, tool, system or gadget – ensure you know exactly how it’s going to benefit your business.  Otherwise you could get the exact opposite of what you set out to achieve.

Remember: in business purchasing make wise, informed decisions, and if you don’t have the expertise or knowledge about something – ask someone who does.

This problem came up recently with a prospect who is using SugarCRM. He says that it doesn’t DO anything for him; it’s just another place to store data.  After forking out his valuable time in setting up this system, he now realises that he needs something EXTRA that is going to automatically communicate to people, based on what they buy and what they request on his website.

This busy business owner wants to save time and effort when communicating to people in his database, so he is looking into Infusionsoft for both marketing and customer relationship management purposes.

The Right Tool
I guess the basic problem is having the right tool for the job. Also to be considered is, a lot of Customer Relationship Management systems available, especially Enterprise CRM, were designed for large companies with various departments. They are too cumbersome and expensive for the one-person to five-person small business.

Managing Opportunities
There is another segment of CRM which focusses on Opportunity Management.  Recording sales opportunities is important in most businesses, so every good CRM should include this facility. You can note multiple tasks against each contact, record activities likes meetings and calls, and note possible sales. Reporting tools also help you keep up with progress on a weekly or monthly basis.

Marketing is Left till Last
Save the best till last… while most large CRM systems are used with Enterprise Resource Planning, tracking customer data, and even recording all sales force activity… they do not automatically send out information, offers, and newsletters (by SMS, email, fax). That’s the work of yet another external system and an administrator as well.

So that’s why, when my new customers have got to the stage of seeing the Infusionsoft demonstration on automating their marketing to a segmented list, it’s like the light bulbs go on – because they realise it’s all simple enough for just one person to manage. Hooray.

Some micro business owners feel caught in the middle – they do not have the time or resources to use the full functionality of the large CRMs built for medium to large enterprises – but they could do with a contact management system to keep it all together in one place, as well as build targeted marketing campaigns.

With a well-executed CRM system, you can better service customers, increase customer loyalty and repeat business, streamline tasks, and of course ensure long-term profitability. The more information you gather in your system, the better you will become at seeing where the opportunities lie.

Unfortunately, while all business owners know they are vital, these strategies are rarely implemented consistently and easily, so let’s look at some of the sticking points.

Problem Overcome – Under-Marketing

Often we overlook marketing our other services/products to people that we have already sold to. This upsell or cross-sell can be an easy way to add to your profits for little extra costs. But how?  One way is to market to a segmented list with a special offer for that particular type of client.

Many business people have been doing it the manual way so long, that they are surprised when I show them a system that does it all so easily … often automatically. This frees up their time as well as aids their brand recall.

Problem Overcome – Crossing Over Tasks, Chaotic Working Style

In working with businesses, I have seen some partner businesses misallocating tasks, sometimes forgetting tasks, crossing over tasks, and having poor systems and tools. Once such couple I recently coached at length had all these problems.

When it comes to this couple, their working style was very different, one had more on their plate, and the unbalanced task allocation was having a big impact on their relationship all-round. A fresh look at it opened up some great answers, like using a journal for noting ideas instead of interrupting, respecting the spouse’s time, having a schedule, discussing business at a weekly planning meeting and prioritizing tasks.

In your team, who are doing similar tasks?  Which tasks could be streamlined?  If it’s a manual task or process then we see how it can be automated using technology or a simple system sequence.  Oft-times using a software tool can streamline a task into a few simple steps…  saving many hours of painstaking work.

You may even be paying for a bells & whistles CRM program, but haven’t seen the benefits yet as so-and-so was supposed to be doing it (i.e. a dusty database). Take charge and look at new ways to perform those regular repetitive tasks like quotes, proposals, invoicing, follow-up emails, newsletters, etc. I’d love to hear all your questions about how to streamline your tasks.