Time to Regroup?

It’s that time of the year, the time to evaluate goals and objectives set at the beginning of the year and decide whether to press on or regroup. Did we achieve what we set out to accomplish this year? Should we think about getting rid of some staff or dump expensive salaries? Maybe we should take our best and most expensive talent and let our competitors have them? Perhaps we just waive the white flag and let the new guys (inexpensive salary folks) run the company for awhile and start planning for next year.

For those of you who recognize this scenario - and perhaps agonize with me during this time of year - you are a fellow baseball fan with a losing team. At some point after the All Star break, executives with losing teams begin to dump players and salaries to teams that think they still have a shot to make the playoffs. They talk about the prospects they get in trade or the salary they save and start “spinning” the possibilities of the next year. The most amazing thing to me about this process is that they do it just before they send out the season ticket renewal forms.

Think about that in a business sense for a minute. The team is struggling or playing poorly, they dump good players that fans enjoy watching (maybe bought their jersey), the fans are frustrated with the team so they are more aware of the little annoyances of going to the ballpark (traffic, parking costs, ballpark food cost and service), and the fans have to hear how bad their team is from friends. What a customer service nightmare!

Luckily for baseball executives and team owners, baseball fans with losing teams have their own “5 Stages of Grief”. Team executives count on the majority of them always reaching the fifth stage of Acceptance. At least in time to renew their season ticket package.

Sadly, baseball has become a business first and sport second. In a pure business sense the players can’t be thought of as staff but rather products. This business model of planning, hope, execution, evaluation, adjustment, execution, evaluation, and possible retreat is more common to a manufacturing or retail business. Launch a new product (player) and then dump it when it doesn’t meet sales objectives or customer acceptance.

What about your business? Do you re-evaluate your business model or objectives often enough? We can easily get comfortable with our process but not really see the complete picture. As in baseball, we must constantly be evaluating our team, product, market, and process to keep competitive and relevant. If you think your market or customer hasn’t changed lately, you are heading for a big surprise. I sincerely doubt YOUR customers will go through 5 stages of grief so they can stay with you.

Get your key team members together for some open and honest conversation. Look very closely at your competitors and any deals you lost lately (or worse, never had a chance to compete for). What is changing, what is the same, where will your customers and market be in two or three years? Are you ready?

Thanks for helping me get to stage 5 - now where is that renewal form…

Top Ten Reasons Why Your CRM Should Be Microsoft Dynamics CRM

 1. Turns Microsoft Office Outlook into the one place where you manage both customer data and communications. Microsoft Outlook is already the world’s leading tool for customer communica­tions. Microsoft Dynamics CRM extends the reach of Microsoft Outlook by turning it into a tool to manage customer information. It puts lead information, marketing pitches, and sales call information into one central location for your sales and marketing staff.

2. Works tightly with Microsoft Office Excel so businesses can make decisions on the fly. Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool for turning data into information that can be analyzed and shared. Microsoft Dynamics CRM features an always-on connection to Excel that enables you to quickly turn customer information into dynamic snapshots or PivotChart dynamic views. These views can help you understand in seconds how a sales increase or company expansion can benefit the business.

3. Improves operational efficiency through the standardization and streamlining of processes. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM adaptive workflow engine en­ables a business to automate business processes in ways that employees can use each day. Microsoft Dynamics CRM can relieve your staff of mundane but vital work. It can automate time-consuming repetitive tasks, warn staff of open customer issues, and automatically send important e-mail messages to customers and partners. Requests and orders don’t fall through the cracks.

4. Works the way your business works with point-and-click system customization. Microsoft Dynamics CRM can be tailored to work the way your business already works. Microsoft Dynamics CRM forms, relationship links, and customer views can be designed and modified without complicated programming.

5. Gives the right information to the right people. Certain employees need certain information. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM, system administrators have the tools to make sure the right information is delivered to the right people— whether they are using Outlook or the Web.

6. Targets your marketing campaigns so you’re always in touch with the right customers. Today, it’s more important than ever that your customers know about special offers and new services your business offers. Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers a marketing automation module that simplifies the following tasks: Building customer and lead lists, developing marketing campaigns targeted at specific customers, measuring the results of these campaigns, and developing follow-up marketing efforts.

7. Simplifies service to keep customers satisfied. One of the most challenging aspects of delivering great customer service is ensuring you never let customers down by missing a service call or appointment. Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides a centralized, all-in-one view of all customer service requests and service professional calendars.

8. Integrates with your existing systems to help break down information silos. Microsoft Dynamics CRM harnesses the power of Web servic­es through the Microsoft .NET Framework. This latest genera­tion of Microsoft technology enables businesses to connect isolated, legacy business systems and applications.

9. Enhances offline communications so everyone can be productive regardless of location. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is designed so your staff can be productive both in the office and on the road—even if they aren’t connected to a network. Information can be filtered so that people receive only the information they need such as meeting updates and sales figures.

10. Builds on the power of SQL Server Reporting Services to create insightful business reports. The SQL Server Reporting Services engine is a powerful analytical tool for business. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM em­bedded reporting engine integrates smoothly with Microsoft SQL Server to generate compelling data reports for business decision makers.

Welcome!

With the launch of our new website, it’s time to begin blogging in earnest. One of my goals of the new site was having a place to blog. The desire to post thoughts, ideas and business conversations has been digging at me for a while. This gives me a great vehicle - and soapbox - to post my words and hope to create thought and discourse.

The content of my blog will be centered on business. This is purposely a very broad subject as I don’t want to agonize every time over whether the content fits. Any given post might be about process engineering, leadership, effective management, customers, or employees. Might be based on a book I am reading or a recent web article. Might even be based on a conversation I had in a fine drinking establishment.

My writing style will be simple - I write as I talk. While every other part of the website will be heavily reviewed by my copy editor (who also happens to be my wife), the blog is a copy editor free zone. For better or for worse, we are hopefully in for an interesting ride.

I’m setting a goal of blogging at least once a week. I will try to post more but sometimes life gets in the way. I have a lot of words stored up, let’s go forth and see if they can be posted in a way that is first understandable and later, thought provoking.

Thank you

Philosophy 2.0?

In the world of blogging, what happens to the age old question, “if a tree falls in the forest…” Does the question - or the answer - make us more or less relevent?

Microsoft Releases CRM Online!

Microsoft released their CRM Live (hosted here online) product several months ago.

Before suggesting it to friends, acquaintances and business partners, I wanted to make sure it was something I could feel comfortable recommending.

Many of you know that I have been working with Microsoft products – specifically Microsoft Dynamics CRM – for over 5 years. With the addition of Dynamics CRM Online, I feel the cost and value for businesses of all sizes is truly a good fit. What used to cost a business owner $3000 plus another $1100 per user is now affordable on a monthly basis.

Click on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online link for more information. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

My role is to help you define your business process, configure CRM, build automated workflow, train your staff and help you better utilize the application to maximize your investment. I would enjoy working with you and your team to bring effective Customer Relationship Management processes to your business.

The new website is up!

Thanks to Chris Harris and the team at Inventure Global for all their hard work putting up the new website!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now comes the hard part… writing and getting the content online!