Month: February 2015

I know little about design. I like it when it’s good. I notice it when it’s bad.

A wonderful friend sent me a note that they were in Boston. Some of their team was delayed getting into town for a trade show due to a blizzard. Could I come over and help set up?

Being the optimist that I am, I thought, Sure, that sounds easy.

On the following day, over 25,000 dentists would be strolling through the show looking for the best dental floss, financing for their practice, and, we hoped, comfy shoes (my friend’s product at the show).

As we were designing the trade show booth, my brain was rambling away:

• Where should the table go?
• What about the STUNNING tall sign featuring the shoes? Oh, no. The sign gets lost against the dark backdrop of the booth.
• Where to put the grass so people could feel the comfort of their shoes?
• Wow, that’s a miffed carpenter swearing in the next booth as he sets up!
• I really do need to find a new dentist—the last one creeped me out!
• It’s funny that we’re next to a booth promoting candy—but let’s get back to the task at hand.

I stepped back and thought, How do I like to buy shoes? Luckily, my friend gave me carte blanche to design the booth. So I created a space for people to sit down where others could see the shoes they were trying on. The middle was grassy—something Bostonians weren’t going to see for awhile—and inviting. The chairs faced each other so people could talk. (Personally, I like to get feedback when I’m shopping because I’m fashion-impaired and would rather be learning new technology!)

So this made me think, When was the last time you stepped back and got ideas from others? People who aren’t in your industry, geography, or family?

It’s easy to get comfortable hanging around people who tell us we’re great. I’m not suggesting spending time with people who are negative or demeaning. However, getting a different perspective means you’re open to new ideas.

Takeaway:

• Who do you call when you need last minute help?
• Do you know how to contact them?
• Are you willing to share your knowledge, even if you’re an outsider to the field?
• Will the people you’re working with listen?

I just signed up for Insightly and realized that it’s a great way to keep your mind fresh. You have all this great information about your contacts and network at your fingertips to dive in and get creative. Here are some tips:

• Create tags for different industries so you can easily search for people.
• Realize that you’re brain is wonderful, but you’re not going to remember EVERYTHING—so write notes after conversations.
• Take 15–20 minutes at least 2–3 times a week and just scan your contacts. Eventually you’ll get a system that works for you as far as follow up. But in the beginning, don’t be hard on yourself or try to manage it all at once.
• Use Evernote’s new app called Scannable to scan business cards and link the Evernote to your Insightly account. This is just amazing!
• Add Insightly to your smartphone. Your notes and contacts are right there!
• Celebrate! The year is young and there’s lots to learn!

You can learn about any of these Insightly features on our support site. And check out our pricing plans to sign up for a 14-day trial.

About the Author: Diane Darling knows the value of relationships and how to build them. The author of McGraw-Hill’s definitive book on networking, The Networking Survival Guide. Diane speaks and trains thousands of people each year on ways to build relationships, leading to opportunities and growth.

One of the keys to maximizing your CRM is to find ways to enhance it with other powerful platforms. Google Apps for Work is a set of tools that many businesses are using to improve collaboration and productivity. In fact, Insightly is a member of Cloud Alliance for Google Apps, who recently put together The Business Transformation Guide for Google Apps for businesses that are considering or implementing Google Apps in the workplace.

One of the many apps that is having a positive impact on many businesses is Google Drive for Work. Google Drive can significantly enhance the productivity of any team, especially when it is integrated with a good CRM.

Google makes its Google Drive app incredibly affordable by offering unlimited storage for only $10 per month per user. But how can a company take that low pricing and make it work to its advantage? There are a few functions within Google Drive that, when teamed up with good CRM software, can help a company to grow and expand rapidly.

Cloud Storage

It is hard to appreciate the value of cloud storage until you actually utilize it for a growing business. Prior to cloud storage, a company was tethered to its office because of the need for real-time data and file sharing. With cloud storage, a business can hire people from all over the world and give them all access to the same files through a secure file sharing system.

CRM software contains all of the customer interaction information a company would need to maximize each customer experience. When that data is combined with files like contracts, project plans, or spreadsheets on a cloud storage system such as Google Drive, it is accessible to every person in the company no matter where they are. The road warrior sales professional can have access to all of the customer service interactions with a particular client just before heading into a meeting with that client allowing them to deliver a much more effective presentation.

File Sharing

File sharing prior to the development of Google Drive was inconsistent and difficult. If a person in the field was not on the same network as someone from the office, then a file that was needed in the field may never get there. With Google Drive, file sharing is extremely easy and efficient, which makes it a very strong business tool.

CRM solutions rely on the ability for different departments to share files and information. When CRM software is teamed up with the file sharing abilities of Google Drive, there is more accurate and reliable information being shared by everyone in the company.

Real-Time Document Editing

Collaboration is the key to business success, and businesses want to encourage real-time document editing and collaboration in any way they can. The ability to work in real time on a customer document is critical in sustaining clients and maintaining a strong bottom line. Google Drive allows for real-time document editing and collaboration which can be extremely powerful when teamed up with good CRM software.

Insightly is a CRM software provider that has a smooth Google Drive integration feature. Utilize the Insightly 14-day free trial to see just how seamlessly your CRM and Google Apps can work together and allow your entire workforce to be more productive, no matter where they are or what their particular document needs may be.

George N Root III is a professional freelance writer who has expertise in topics such as Internet marketing, business, advertising, and personal finance.

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on using Insightly, a tip on running your business, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

Set Up Teams for Task Assignments, Permissions, and Filtering

If you have different groups at your company using Insightly—like regional sales teams, a human resources department, and a project crew—you can create teams of users to assign, filter, and limit access to Insightly items on the team level. For tasks, organizing a team allows you to create assignments for teams on either a per-user or per-team basis. The first option saves time by setting up a separate task for each team member—no more time-consuming duplicate data entry. The default filters on the Home tab and Tasks tab include selections for teams so you can filter the list by members of the selected team. The Contacts, Organizations, Projects, and Opportunities tabs also include team options through custom filters. Finally, you can set viewing permissions when creating or editing a contact, organization, opportunity, or project, and you can choose a team by selecting the team name from the Permissions section at the bottom of the record. Teams will only appear on these lists after your administrator has added members to them from the System Settings > Teams page. So set them up and help your teams get organized!

Gather a Team When Making Software Purchasing Decisions

With all the business applications available today, it can be hard to determine which ones will actually help your business be more productive. For any software to have a successful impact on your business, it must be used effectively by your staff. Making an executive decision without listening to input from the people who will use and configure your new software can set up your implementation for failure. To avoid this pitfall, include relevant staff and stakeholders in the decision-making process when choosing an application. If you’re looking into new accounting software, your CFO, lead accountant, and one or two key users will be able to add valuable insights and help you shore up your requirements list. When looking for a CRM, define how you’ll use it and include people whose teams will be affected, whether it’s sales people, project managers, or HR representatives. If you have an IT department, you should ask for their requirements in addition to the input of users and management. And if you already have administrators in mind for the new system, include them in the process. Choosing a handful of key people to help evaluate and define your software needs will guide you in making the right choice. You’ll also show your future users and administrators that you value their opinions, which will help to rally them behind a successful implementation.

Play, With or Without a Team

“Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” ― Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. We no longer live in the era of Justice Holmes when all of humanity was referred to as “men,” but the old guy probably knew something about longevity—he sat on the U.S. Supreme Court until he was 90. Today, it’s common to think of play as something only for kids, or in the context of competitive team sports, like the American football game that was just being created during Holmes’ time. But play is vital to keeping your mind creative and healthy. As anyone who has brought up a kid can tell you, play is a great way to keep your body and brain in shape. Team sports leagues are certainly a way to connect with other people while getting exercise, but any kind of recreation can help you take the focus away from a nagging problem and let your subconscious tackle it for a while. From crossword puzzles and mobile brain games that can exercise your intellect to having a laugh at comedy club, take some time out to play to keep yourself healthy and make life more interesting.

 

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with other Insightly customers? Send them to us!
If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email.

 

And if you haven’t tried the best CRM around, check out Insightly’s features and pricing plans, and sign up for a 14-day free trial from our pricing page.

About the author: Tony Roma is Insightly’s Content Manager. He’s been helping businesses implement software solutions and improve their work processes for over ten years.

With so many customer relationship management platforms out there, it can be a challenge to know which one is best. Still, if your business is growing, you can’t ignore the fact that you need a CRM solution that will grow as your company grows.

We’re not going to talk about how to choose the right CRM here. For that, check out our free resources:

• How do I Find the Right CRM for My Business?
• What to Look For in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Application for Small Businesses

But once you’ve decided on a CRM, don’t let the idea of integrating it with your other business practices and programs daunt you. We’re here to make it easier.

Get Input From Your Team

This isn’t a decision you should make on your own. Consider the people that will actually be using the CRM. Don’t you think your team members would like to have a say in which CRM you choose? Hold a meeting and ask what features and benefits each wants to see in a CRM. Getting their opinions will also help when it comes time to training and use. If they weighed in on the selection, they’ll be more likely to embrace the new system.

 

Preparing for the Change

Before you go cold turkey on your former CRM (or even that archaic spreadsheet system you’ve been using), get everything ready to make the transition seamless.

Gather all the documents you want to import into your new CRM with your contacts and house them in one easy-to-find file. Make sure you’ve got all the necessary login information if you need to pull records from your email marketing or other software.

Now’s the time to standardize all the data you’ll be importing. What does that mean? Make sure all the names in your database are separated by first and last to seamlessly import into your CRM. Make sure address fields have addresses and not company names. A quick scan of your spreadsheet should show you what’s sticking out like a sore thumb.

 

Import Your Records

This step is easier than it sounds. Basically, you’re copying client data and contact information from one source (say, an Excel spreadsheet) into your new CRM. If you use Insightly, these Insightly import tips will help (and, in fact, they’ll be useful no matter what CRM you use).

If you plan to manually enter records, check to make sure you’re not creating any duplicate records.

You might start by testing a small batch of imported files to make sure you’re doing it correctly. This will also help you avoid starting over in case the data isn’t standardized (see above).

 

Take Your CRM for a Spin

Once you’ve loaded all your contacts into your CRM, play around with the system to familiarize yourself with how it works. A few hours should make you an expert!

Next, schedule time to train your team on using your CRM. It’s of the utmost importance that you dedicate time to training, as that will be what determines how excited your sales team is about adopting the new software into their sales processes. You can force them to use it, sure, but it’s better if they want to use it because they understand the value of a feature-rich CRM.

A great CRM will provide you with plenty of resources to answer any questions you have. The more learning channels you have, the easier adoption will be.

Knowing ahead of time that transitioning to a new CRM doesn’t have to be the headache you imagine might just make you all the more ready to take that step. What are you waiting for? Register today for Insightly’s 14-day trial and take your CRM for a spin.

One of my biggest weaknesses is that I’m a terrible judge of people. Take Patty, for example.

Patty works at a large hospital system in central Pennsylvania (and although I’m changing her name she’s real). She is the administrator for a group of 30 hospital “consultants” who are tasked with visiting doctors and healthcare firms in a 500-mile radius to make them aware of the systems’ many offerings, from rehabilitative services to therapy and preventative care. When I first met Patty she was introduced to me as the person responsible for the new CRM system we were implementing for them. And I was concerned. Patty didn’t look the part to me. She was older (in her late 50’s at the time). She didn’t seem very technical-savvy. She talked slow and she moved slow. She didn’t seem very motivated at the time. She seemed like she was waiting on retirement, rather than getting to implement a CRM system for 30 people.

Which concerned me. Because Patty’s job was absolutely critical for the success of this implementation. Why?

Her job, as the CRM Administrator, meant that she would be ultimately responsible for the integrity of the data in the system. If information was missing, out of date, or wrong, it would be her responsibility to fix the problem and implement the right procedures to ensure that it didn’t happen again. As the CRM Administrator, Patty would have to know the system inside and out. She would have to be familiar with customizing reports, doing ad-hoc queries on the go, creating workflows, and sending mass emails when needed. She would be the go-to person for any questions or problems. She would train new employees on how the system would be used. She would maintain a custom manual specifically tailored to the group’s processes. She would be responsible for making sure that everyone was using the system the right way and consistently. Because a CRM system is only effective if people are using it. And her job was to help people use it.

And I was worried. To me, Patty just didn’t seem to have the right stuff for the job. As we started the implementation, I gave it a less than 50% chance of success. And of course, as usual, I was wrong. Patty took the ball that we threw at her… and ran with it.

She not only embraced the system, but she spent the hours needed to learn it as well as we knew it. But more importantly, she exercised the authority given to her by her boss to get others to use it, too. She made it a point to ensure that each user had the appropriate training and support. She worked with us to setup the right kind of access on smartphones, tablets, and laptops that fit the workflow of the group’s employees. She trained herself online. She dug into the details of setting up forms, creating custom reports, and configuring workflows. She made mistakes and she fixed them. She did research when she didn’t know the answers. She was relentless in asking us for help. And when it came to her group, she took no prisoners: she wiped noses, changed diapers, and smacked people in the head (all figuratively of course) when they didn’t follow the rules. She set up alerts in the system to notify her when certain fields were changed or hadn’t been changed in a long time. The buck stopped with Patty. She owned the CRM system. She loved the CRM system. And I couldn’t have been more surprised… or wrong.

So what happened? Success. Patty’s boss smartly gave her full authority to do what she needed to do to make it work. And so she did—with a combination of empathy and tough love. Six months into it, her group was using the system to track activities, send and receive emails, manage opportunities, quickly access their information wherever they were and, most importantly, maintain a database with accurate and complete information that was not only relied upon by the group’s managers in daily and weekly reports but also by the hospital’s marketing team who used that data to communicate services and offerings to the physician community in the area. Patty was in on it all. It was her system. And it succeeded because of her.

Insightly is easy to use and easy to set up, but no matter how easy it is to use, a CRM system needs a Patty to succeed. Without a central CRM Administrator, you’re looking at nothing but a messy rolodex, if best. My company has implemented hundreds of CRM systems over the past decade and the one similar trait of each success implementation is that they had a Patty. This is not a technical person. And it’s not your IT staff. It’s a person who likes technology, isn’t afraid to learn, and has no problem kicking the group into gear so that they’re doing what they need to do—all with the authorization of management, of course. Make sure you’ve got a Patty in place before you move forward with your implementation. And if you ask me to recommend someone, make sure to do the exact opposite. You won’t be sorry.

Find your internal champion and take a look at Insightly’s plans and features to see if it’s the right CRM for you. You can sign up for a limited free account or try the 14-day trial for all functions.

About the Author: Gene Marks is a small business owner, technology expert, author and columnist. He writes regularly for leading US media outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur. He has authored five books on business management and appears regularly on Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC and CNBC. Gene runs a ten-person CRM and technology consulting firm outside of Philadelphia. Learn more at genemarks.com

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on using Insightly, a tip on running your business, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s email tips!

Save Important Business Emails to Insightly

It’s important to keep track of correspondence with your customers, and finding an important email when you need it can save time, prevent confusion, and maybe even save a deal or two. To make finding these items even easier, Insightly includes an Emails tab where you can file away copies of messages relating to your customers, sales opportunities, and projects.   Save important email messages to your CRM by forwarding or CC’ing them to your Insightly mailbox address. Even better, Insightly customers using Insightly for Google Apps or Outlook 2013 can not only save emails with the tools that appear right in your inbox, you can also create records like tasks and opportunities right from the Gmail gadget or App for Outlook 2013.

Manage Your Email and Keep Your Focus

Your head is for having ideas, not holding them. – David Allen   David Allen’s advice and Getting Things Done method have helped many people better manage their time and tasks. Rather than thinking about something twice, you can write it down or set a reminder for later so that you can focus on your current goal and get more done.If you’re reading emails more than once, it’s not such a jump to compare your inbox to your brain—there’s so much to do that important things can get lost in there! There are many methods to sort through the clutter. You can create email folders to move messages out of your inbox and prioritize or mark them for follow-up.   When reaching out to someone you could BCC yourself, but this could add to the clutter. If you’re sending invoices for clients or requesting assets from a freelancer or estimates from a vendor, a tool like Boomerang for Gmail can automatically remind you to follow up if you don’t get a response after a certain amount of time. And you can also schedule emails to be sent later, setting up your follow-up even before you need to follow up!

Protect Your Private Information When Sending Email

Would you ever send information like credit card or social security numbers on a postcard? It’s easy to understand that what you write on a postcard is visible to whoever handles it, but it’s not so clear that email has similar problems. Email takes a long and convoluted path over the Internet, albeit a fast one, and passes through many computer systems before it reaches a recipient. This is the reason why industries like healthcare and finance are required to have secure messaging for patients and clients.   Encrypting your email is an option to regain some privacy, but it still carries risks if you’re on a public WiFi network. Rather than sending such sensitive information in an email message, one option is to save it in a password-protected document, transfer it through a secure file transfer service like Send This or Dropbox, and then provide the password separately through email or phone.

 

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with other Insightly customers? Send them to us!
If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email.

If you haven’t tried the best CRM around, sign up for Insightly’s 14-day free trial for our premium plan or try our free account for the basics.

About the author: Tony Roma is Insightly’s Content Manager. He’s been helping businesses implement software solutions and improve their workflows for over ten years.

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on using Insightly, a tip on running your business, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips on using categories to organize and improve business!

Like Insightly Categories? Make them Super!

This week’s Insightly tip comes from our customer Gene Barton, Ph.D., President of Paradigm Systems, Inc. We’ll be sending him a $10 Amazon gift card for his contribution. Thank you, Gene!   “You might assume that you should use different colors for each category, and that works well. However, Insightly doesn’t stop you from reusing the same color for different categories. Categories are already distinct by their names. So you can create “super categories” by colors that quickly identify what geographic region, subdivision, product line, etc., categories relate to.”

Regroup Products and Services to Attract More Sales

If you’ve ever been approached by a customer who had a need they were willing to pay a little extra for, or if you’ve a lost sale because a prospect needed a less-expensive option than you currently offer, you could be in a position to offer both simpler and premium versions of your product or service to capture more sales. This strategy can bring in new customers, open the door to return business, and increase revenue. It’s also a well-known pricing rule that when you have two items with different prices listed, you’ll drive more sales overall.

Sort Out Your Goals for Better Focus

The goals you’ve set for the new year can seem overwhelming and exhausting to think about, but you can reduce the anxiety that often gets in the way by organizing your tasks and goals to help you prioritize and move forward. At a high level, you’ll want to group your goals into a life categories like “Finance,” “Health,” “Professional Development,” and “Family.” Write down these categories and goals, and then evaluate each group separately, prioritizing and eliminating the tasks involved. You can then start budgeting time for the urgent and important items, with less time for the things that need less attention. A little planning can go a long way to reduce the stress of achieving your goals.

 

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with other Insightly customers? Send them to us!
If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email.

If you haven’t tried the best CRM around, sign up for Insightly’s 14-day free trial for our premium plan or try our free account for the basics.