As you think about your day and your view of the world, consider this helpful story about "Attitude" that a good friend passed to me and I share with all of our readers:

We fix sick, weak and just plain ailing CRM systems

Over the last several months we have been engaged in helping various small businesses and some rather larger corporations upgrade, fix or just plain replace their current CRM systems. These new clients for us come from various industries and the primary focus has been on improving sales effectiveness.  Helping these "sales-oriented" departments is always interesting and challenging.

FACT:  A CRM business development system that isn't easy to use will NOT be used and will have incomplete data!

Can your sales reps easily view records of all your business's interactions for accounts, contacts, and leads? An easy-to-learn and user interface is a must if they are to have access to the information they need to be successful in their role.  All customer interactions--notes, opportunities, activities, purchased products, marketing campaign information, service tickets, and more--must be easily viewed and shared so your sales reps can better sell and service customers.

Invent Better Ways of Interacting

More often than not, we find existing business processes need fine-tuning before they are implemented as part of a CRM implementation program.  This focus on business processes is a requirement for success with CRM.

Improving the Clients' Experience...Number 1 for 2012.

While recently visiting with the founder and President of a large regional Information Technology firm, we were discussing his recent implementation of Sage SalesLogix CRM system.  He certainly understands the value of technology in helping a business move to the next level and get more done but our conversation turned to planning for 2012 growth.  It is all about connecting with people and enhancing the relationships, we agreed.  Focus on improving the client's experience - do a better job of engagement -- those are our themes for 2012.

Santa Claus must have one heck of a CRM system!

Ability to personalize -from wish list items to physical locations.

Imagine your global business needed a very personalized database to track all the aspects that go into deciding if a person was being naughty or nice.  And next year do this assessment all over again.  Knowing the characteristics of who is a good prospect or a good client for a business is core in serving ideal clients.  But for Santa he would need to track some additional pieces of information - number of times a person was helpful to another or was a pain in the neck to those around themselves.  Santa and his helpers also have to track what is on the "wish lists" of those he'll be creating gifts for- making sure not to duplicate a gift from a prior year. Similar to your own business, there are psychographic characteristics that are helpful to your business and having them easily accessible in your CRM database is a must.

MY IDEAL CUSTOMER IS YOUR IDEAL CUSTOMER: First Steps to Building Your Referral Network

Have you ever noticed how attorneys seem to share clients with financial advisors? They are strategic partners—that is, their ideal customers are the same. Most likely, you have some strategic partners, too. Maybe you already know who some of them are, but you’d like to find more. Here are some ideas for developing a strong network of strategic partners.

Your Ideal is.....

Don’t assume you know what it is that your customers value most about what you do – ask them! Ask lots of them. Specifically, ask your ideal customers and then really listen to them. Look for patterns to emerge.

I’m going to say this again, because it’s so crucial: To do this, you have to be quiet and listen. Stop selling. This is called customer relationship building. It’s also called researching what sets you apart from similar businesses. If nothing sets you apart, then customers will make their decision based on cost alone.

Is your product or service a commodity? I didn’t think so. Your business does have different people with different levels of skills and experiences. You have different processes and systems developed in solving a customers challenges. Differentiation means you have to stand out from the crowd. If you haven’t yet nailed down what makes you unique, do it 'stat' – as my family in the nursing profession would say. Do it immediately, yesterday – you get the idea. Find out what your customers value, what you do really well. Then do more of it.

Wait – let’s go back up there to where I said something about your ideal customer. Do you know who that is? If you don’t, you’re setting yourself up for negative buzz, according to John Jantsch in The Referral Engine. And I’m sure you don’t want that.

Start by answering these two questions:

Have you ever been on a sales call and forgotten a crucial piece of information at the office? Maybe it was the address or time of the meeting, or that extra piece of information which would have sealed the deal.

It just got easier. The lives for those of us who are in the field and must stay connected to grow the business have new, integrated tools!  Hurray....