Turn Business Cards Into Business

Your clients are your No. 1 priority, right? So how are you managing their information and your relationships with them? Do you have all of their information stuffed in a file folder, or do you have an effective Contact Relationship Management (CRM) system? Or maybe you’re somewhere in between?

The difference between having the right and the wrong CRM system can make or break your business. Today and tomorrow, Promotional Consultant Today shares these tips for evaluating the right CRM for your business.

1. Contact Management
For starters, you know you need to store and manage all the people in your life, from your clients, colleagues, prospects and vendors, but what is it that you need to save?

• Do you want to store their family information, e.g., spouse and children’s names, pets, birthdays and stories?
• Are you a visual person and want to store business card images and logos? What about their pictures?
• Do you want to be able to organize your contacts into groups? [Hint: Yes!]

2. Your Relationship
Now that you have their information, what about your relationship with them—your history? Is this important to you? If so, what is it you want to store and manage?

• Collect any and all phone calls and take note of important things discussed
• Keep a record of items covered and discussed during meetings and presentations
• Any e-mail correspondence (If e-mail is important, you definitely want to look at a CRM system that syncs with your e-mail.)

3. Projects, Tasks and Events
Some CRM systems have their own calendar or can integrate with your calendar system, making it easy to share events, projects and tasks with other people in your team. It is helpful to sync your tasks and events with your contact system.

With some CRM systems you can even automate your assignments and tasks; this is a great time-saver!

Are you starting to think about your contact management priorities? Read PCT tomorrow for more ways to evaluate the right CRM for your business.

Source: Athenee Mastrangelo helps busy professionals use technology to stay organized, productive and connected. She is available for workshops, online training and individual consultations.