Small Business Technology

Not too long ago, we renovated our home office. It was simple stuff…fixing up the walls in preparation for painting, fixing floor trim, putting up shelves…easy stuff. My wife Jen and I put together out budget, bought our supplies and got to work on what we thought would be a pretty straight forward day. Once again, I was about to be reminded of the parallels between amateur home renovations and companies doing CRM projects.

Now, when it comes to home renovations, you need to understand that despite our willing nature and hours of do-it-yourself TV watching, we are amateurs.

Once again, we had underestimated the budget (cupboard handles cost HOW MUCH??!!) and underestimated the time by half! (Oh yeah, we also totally underestimated if not forgot going into this little project the sore muscles!)

In the end, we got what we wanted (minus a few paint mishaps) and are pleased with it. Did it matter that we goofed on estimating this project, not really. We’d still have done it because it was worth it and we’re only talking in the magnitude of $50 and an extra day.

So, why am I talking about my home renovation project? Very simply, it demonstrates the difference between the Pro and the Amateur.

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Why do companies spend the time and money to implement a Customer Relationship Management system? The reasons vary, but near the top of the list you’ll almost always find:

1. Generate more sales.
2. Get control of their contacts with a central database.
3. Reduce operating inefficiencies and costs.

Companies get sold on how slick everything fits together and the flashy reports that will give magical insight into their business. CRM demos are designed to give maximum WOW factor and all of the scenarios used in the sales presentation are tailored to show off the CRM system at its very best and completely side step any product deficiencies. Those selling CRM systems get good at selling the “sizzle”.

However, the “steak” usually falls well short of expectations. And that’s because the sales process they’re using has been purposely designed to distract you from a critical fact.

More on that later…but first…

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I've been noticing a disturbing trend in CRM that could have a major impact on small business...the move to eliminate single license versions of products.

Case in point: FrontRange has officially dropped their GoldMine standard product. The option available to new users is to buy their GoldMine Corporate product which comes with a 5 license minimum.

And FrontRange isn't alone.

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My sister just alerted me to a fantastic service called GoodSearch.

It's a yahoo powered search engine that lets you do your searches as you normally would WITH A TWIST...every time you do a search, money flows to your favourite charity!!

In my case, my niece has a rare conditon called "Russell-Silver Syndrome" and the charity

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