What your Grandma Never told you about Relationship Management

Grandma always said; mind your own business, do not gossip, respect your elders, keep your mouth shut, choose your friends wisely. Perhaps that works on the playground, but not in a social business world.

CRM says:

• Everyone is your friend and their business is your business
• Gossip is a note that you need to highlight in RED, and share discretely with your team members! 
• Respect your elders and all the other relationships you encounter by connecting with them on their terms, the way they prefer
• Open your mouth and log what you say ~ make sure what you are saying is relevant to your listener and benefits your goals for them
• Choose your friends wisely and tag the rest of your contacts as vendors, prospects, alliances, or otherwise needed to remind you that not all relationships have the same value, but all relationships have value.

CRM says not to:

• Clique, classify, or corner yourself into a reputation that you don't want to represent you. By handling all appropriate relationships in a strategic way you have more control over your customer experience.
• Be your own data aggregation tool! That will be an epic Fail! Trust a technology sweet that will give you some integration and streamlined analysis
• Work with someone without properly understanding the relationship. If you have no way to monitor or reference your history with a person, than how can you expect to classify them as a good partner! 

You can't live without Grandma or CRM, they both have their places in your life. But you spend more than 8 hours a day developing your business value, shouldn't you trust that to someone more relevant! Sorry Grandma! New Media Wins this one!

5 Reasons CRM Projects Fail...

Taking a look at the whole story...

I was sitting in the office of a new prospect just the other day, and the inglorious topic of software blunders came up as a topic of conversation. This particular professional was carrying on about how they have found most software they have implemented in the past to be a real headache for users: filled with bugs, not user friendly, and poorly designed. When I looked around their office, I took note of many clues as to why this person felt this way. It led me to write this post. Here are the five most evident reasons software fails:

1. NO Implementation Strategy ~ This is not just the Why, but the How, and the What. They need to be clearly defined to measure not only the proportion of need for this software, but the methods to how it will solve problems, meet needs, achieve goals, and fix something that is broken. Many time I find that clients who sign on for new technology without strategy, haven't properly assessed the situation as a whole. They sign on to fix one thing, and create a slew of other concerns in the aftermath. There has to be a good strategy behind any successful implementation.

2. NO Desire to Change ~ Let's face it, any new addition to your already comfortable system is change. Change that is not embraced corporately will create a bigger problem for any company. Data is our most precious commodity, and it needs to be preserved and protected. Companies that resist change are usually not good candidates for successful implementation unless they change their thinking.

3. NO Proper Investigation ~ You can't be an expert at understanding the ins and outs of technology and business process unless that is what you do... for a living. Working with experts can help you find and address the right questions, give you all the options, and help you understand thoroughly the pros, cons, benefits, and differences. This is desirable in order to make a solution last, and not have to revisit the existing issues that were not solved or that were newly created over and over.

4. NO Appropriate Training ~ I tell my clients that training, and not just software training, but process training is 95% of a CRM solution. I have gotten to a point where I will refuse to perform an implementation without commitment to train in most corporate environments. The reason should be so obvious. People who are busy don't have time to teach themselves a new software and a new process. They need the method predetermined for them. This is not only fair, but it is necessary. You cannot expect a person to develop a system for use and a application on their own, and yet so many companies do this to their employees. This can cause anxiety about implementing any of the right software tools because of the wrong software experience.

5. NO User Feedback and Follow-up ~ This is critical to pass or fail. Like most technology, once you get your users on board, they become your biggest evangelist. Once the see the vision, tackle the mission, and embrace the tools, they drive your productivity sky high! This is what we want. This is what we like as Software Experts! We want to see the user commit. You have to engage the user to get them to marry the strategy. They have to be able to work, refute, develop, and rework the technology to best fit their roles and needs. They are as diverse as there are options! This is why feedback and communication can seal your deal. If you want a technology solution that delivers, include the users in its development and redevelopment. You won't be sorry.

Think of your technology as not the solution, but the method to your philosophy. Get a really good expert to help you define it in ways that can be interpreted through sophisticated software tools. As you do this, you will realize that your technology has endless possibilities and immense value to you, because of your timeless and developed philosophies underlying it. Then and only then will almost any software solution you implement will be a success.

5 Tools for Posting on Social Networks

When I first began the great big dive into Social Media, I was scared to dealth... Literally shivering in my shoes... It can be very overwhelming tweeting, posting, retweeting, favoriting, direct messaging, and so on and so forth. As I began to get more adventurous and brave, I discovered some great tools to better manage my time and help me be the most effective.  I have listed the ones I use below. Each of the tools I use helps me solve a certain struggle I had with new media marketing. I hope you can find these solutions helpful in your efforts as well!

1. Content Aggregation:  When you begin any marketing strategy, it is paramount that you begin with a content blueprint.  This is an outline of what you are posting when, where, and why. It is important to really listen to your audience, and study your industry to filter through only the best stuff to pass along to your audience.  My two favorite tools for this are

Google Alerts and Feedly. Use them everyday and they make researching my content an absolute breeze!

2. Time Management: We all start this social media thing doing the same thing over and over again. We spend hours on end trying to figure out how to listen and share, share and listen. Before long we are speaking in hashtags and dm's. This is where Bundlepost has proven to be invaluable!  I can spend half the time scheduling posts after my content is gathered, and more time listening.  I would much rather listen than speak, that's just who I am!

3. Frequency of Posts: Hootsuite is an absolute must have in the social media arena.  I never knew how awesome scheduling my posts could feel until I realized how normal my life looked after Hootsuite!  Using Hootsuite in conjunction with Bundlepost is a breeze and a true answer to Social Media overload!

4. Analytics: While Hootsuite does a terrific job with analytics, I truly enjoy SproutSocial for my account analysis. The presentation is seamless, simple to read and interpret, and just the most comfortable Social Media Portal I have experienced.

5. Twitter Conversations: TweetDeck is my go to desktop application for twitter conversations. The real live feed and alerts makes following and engaging in any discussion and event simplified and profitable.

And what would be a good social media strategy without a CRM component!  NOTHING! That's why I use NimbeCRM which has a direct integration with Hootsuite! This way I can easily qualify my social leads by importing them into my CRM for more analysis, opportunity tracking, and historical reference across all my platforms, including email!

Without a strategy and a well thought out plan, these tools are not fully utilized and effective. You can waste time and effort figuring out just what to do next with what platform. STOP!  Get some help from an expert.  They can lead you the right way and save you more time for your business. They can even manage your strategy for you!  Don't dive in without your life vest!  Be a smart marketer and invest in the right gear to keep your boat afloat and get you where you intend to go!  You can do it!  Don't wait!

Listening is the Key to Communicating What They Want

It occurred to me that with listening being as important as it is to success, we might need to stop and investigate how to listen properly and effectively.  This is always a good thing to ponder over and consider, so that we can identify if our listening skills are in tip-top shape.  So here are my top five tips for listening better!  Hope they are intuitive for you, or easy to instantly apply adopt for your good fortune!

How to Listen

#1~ Be teachable!  A good listener enters into every conversation with a personal motive to discover!  What can you learn about this person, situation, or circumstance?  What is the goal, motivation, focus, areas of penetration or need?  How can you help develop the argument or the solution! Both are important in problem solving!

#2~ Be accountable!  Make sure that you repeat back what you have discovered so that you can then take responsibility for the role you will or will not play in it.  A person who feels you understand their uniqueness, needs, and problems will likely trust you to solve them!  Make sure you interject with validating phrases, such as, "So you are saying that", "Just so I can be clear that I am understanding", "Let me verify that I understand this right", "I am not sure I see your total vantage point, can you further explain", or "Just so I can be the most help to you in solving your problem, it seems as though you are saying".  Be careful not to paraphrase exactly, as it can come across and disingenuous, and you definitely don't want them to discover you are practicing your listening skills on them.

 #3~ Listening is 70% eye contact! If you are on the phone this is hard!  Make deliberate efforts to have important talks face to face! Skype can help with this if you are a technical consultant! If not, make sure you dialogue enough, so that the relationship has time to manifest. This requires an effort to let them talk, and to give them the freedom to digress.  Authenticity happens in the details.

#4~ Listening is hands-free!  Put down the gadgets, phones, ipads, computers, or any other little distraction that will steal your audiences' confidence in your interest, and your attention!  If you are like me, and you struggle with paying attention, then you need to make extra measures to do this!

#5~ Listening is active!  It grows, develops, shows, and remembers!  A tool for this is helpful.  I use #NIMBLECRM to record relevant details about my audience, so that I can revisit, resuse, and re-encounter our comfortable place over and over again.  You can do this, too, and it is necessary to be fully engaged and effective!

The final part to listening is conveying that you have done so! Here are five queues you give to your audience that you heard them and understood what they said!

How to Convey

#1~ You are important enough for me to think about!  If you cannot see the big picture after the first conversation, let them know that they are important enough for your to study and research the best possible situation for them.  Since they feel you have confidently responded earlier that you understand their needs, most people will greatly appreciate a well thought out plan, and not a quick answer. Stay away from quick answers! They hurt your reputation and your relationship.

#2~ Take some time to teach! If you feel that the problem is only developed partially, and my have additionally areas that will be affected, take the time to explain additional considerations, ideas, thoughts, and possible limitations that might pose a problem to the solution.

#3~ Take the time to come up with examples they relay your thoughts! Have some ideas on hand that can be expressed in tangible ways.  Sometimes words can get muddled, but people understand real life situations or examples. Have a few to spare.

#4~ Don't give away too much info. It's scary, and un-necessary.  Be careful that they don't find you intimidating and run for the hills.

#5~ When in doubt, hold your fire!  The less you say about a concept or a thought you haven't fully considered, the wiser you appear.  The wiser you appear, the wiser you are.  Don't speak before your think.

Be honest with your listener that this is your standard of business, and what they can set for you as an expectation.  It drives the ball home, and hopefully the project, too!

Why Having an Expert Makes the Difference

 

Recently, a new client called me into their business to clean-up remnants of a database implementation gone wrong.  I might mention that they shopped me first, determined I cost to much, and hired a general IT firm.  Now, I am not saying anything negative about IT firms, I need them as much as they need me in a perfect network LAN setup situation, but what I am saying is: Don’t let a general doctor perform your heart surgery! That’s just asking for trouble!

After peeking into the situation, and seeing all 30+ databases that were created during the troubleshooting process, it reminded me of why I specialize in particular areas of expertise.  Here are three things that I need to remind my clients and prospects of when price is a factor:

1. What I can do in 3 hours as a product expert, others probably will have to multiply by 5. In the end, how much money did you save?  Not only did you spend your time, but they spent theirs trying to solve problems they didn’t really have a complete and total understanding, grasp, and full scenario of possibilities.  A product expert that knows the ins and outs of the product will be able to leverage different aspects of the software that most other professionals miss, or fail to completely develop thesis on.  Sometimes their solutions create the need for other solutions. Sometimes their solutions create other problems to be solved as well.

2. What happens when they cannot fix a problem is: You are paying for me anyway.  That has to really hurt.  When you shop someone, go with the lowest price, and then you have to pay the firm you hired for their time, and the person you could have hired from the beginning to fix the mess.  Can you imagine all the time and money saved had you just done what needed to be done in the first place. Moral is: Go with Experience! It is the only truth that can be trusted.

3. Trust your IT firm to provide you references for professionals/experts they have worked with. Your IT firm is your trusted advisor, your intermediary.  A good IT firm will refer you to who you can work with when they realize and understand the extent of their own expertise.  They will steer you in the right direction and save you money by bringing in partners or experts in what you are trying to do.  If they don’t, find a new firm.  You are no one’s Guinea pig. Don’t allow yourself to be treated that way.

Having and expert makes a difference because it saves you time, energy, and money.  They all combined equate to success…

What the Experts Know…

Recently I was called in to work with an IT firm who was trying to implement and troubleshoot issues with a LAN based CRM solution that I support.  When I got on-site, the flustered and frustrated technician told me through angry tears that he had exhausted all his resources: time, technique, and treasure. In the end he lost money on this deal, and he was losing his rapport with the client by the minute.
After assessing the situation, diagnosing the problem, and setting up a plan to solve it, relief immediately overcame him.  I was glad to facilitate this, but it also reminded me of 3 important lessons I learned early on in my career.
1. Always have a plan before starting any engagement with a client.  If you are not an expert in what they are asking you to do, it’s best to evaluate how much time you can spend figuring it out versus paying someone who knows how to do it, in order to prevent you from losing money. If you are not profitable, you will not stay in business.
2. Set the expectations for the client (this is why the plan is PARAMOUNT). If you can explain to the client before hand what steps need to be taken, they will trust you as you walk through the steps with them, and they will likely go with what you determine as situations progress.  People want to know that what you say will be, especially when dealing with their livelihood and business processes. Set the expectations and follow-through with them as described.
3. Develop partnerships: If you are not an expert, work with experts. Partnerships will make you a lot of profit because they save you time.  It is important to remember that time is worth more than your hourly rate! When you think about it from this perspective, can you really afford to sell it for cheap?
Being and all hands technical expert can take you very far, but it limits your ability to get really good at any one certain thing.  Assess your abilities: strengths and weaknesses, and grow your clients in light of them… This is what the experts know will bring them the greatest success all the way around.

Elevating your CRM Experience with SOCIAL!

As  a CRM advisor and an Inbound Marketing Professional, I see all kinds of cases where companies are striving to get an edge on their marketing by just being able to get a handle on listening.  Listening to their prospects and customers across all platforms in relevant ways, can be the determining factor in success or failure.  Listening is key, and here are some new ways to do it that won't have you running in every direction: #SOCIALCRM

Here are three very important ways Social CRM can enhance your CRM experience:
 ~ A 360 view of all your social platforms in one place can be a time saver, and key benefit to understanding your audience, and a way to help you offer a timely response to inquiries without being superman, or needing ESP! Many of your customers and prospects probably have a preferable mode of communication they prefer to use, and have an insight on this can be a real benefit to great customer service. Being quick to respond, and engaging in Social Circles can also build the kind of rapport you need to close that deal, or keep that client retention.
~ You can see in full what you previously only saw in part!  Let's face it, Social Media can offer us personal insight into places that mean the most to our audience.  Where previously we only saw sides to our customers that were professional and impersonal, SocialCRM allows us to hear their true voice. It allows us to follow what gives them passion, and what fills their values. At the end of the day, understanding what drives a person or a business can ultimately be the difference between helping them succeed, or missing the mark.
~ Reputation is Gold: SocialCRM can help you build it, maintain it, and develop your image among the audiences you are trying to attract.  It gives you sophistication, brand recognition, and credibility among other thought leaders.  It increases your visibility, awareness, and persona before those who need to hear your message, or use your services.  Being engaged is only ever a win.  It is what we all long for when we place every one of those cold calls to the receptionists that never relay our messages.  If you know they are listening, get in front of them!  You cannot close if you don't have an audience.

Traditional CRM's do so many things well for some many sectors, but with emerging new media technologies, it is time to get SOCIAL and lead the charge!  Only the courageous will win!

Want to get started, try NIMBLE risk free today!
http://partners.nimble.com/goldcoastadvisors/

Lessons from THE LORAX

I have never been much of a writer... but I love watching movies with the three year old... I love to listen to him hum the tune of each show he has watched 200 times.  There is no better sound to me...

This weekend we watched THE LORAX and as I watched my little guy enthralled by every moment in this movie, I found myself very intrigued by the lesson we can learn in life and business that I took from this movie... As I said, I am not much of a blogger, so I thought I would make this short and sweet:

1. Preserve the SACRED by not using more than you need for personal gain!  Don't cut down the trees translates across many platforms.  Things that are sacred in our environment can extend to things that are sacred in life: TIME is of great value when at home or at work.  We should be careful not to overindulge others who mean to misuse it or discount it.  We should carefully value our time, and the time that belongs to another.  We should show them that in everything we do.  VALUES are another example we can attribute to  SACRED.  Ask yourself what you regard as SACRED in your life and business.  Can you identify those things?

2. Love is a motivator!  We will do all kinds of crazy and wonderful things for love.  That should be an important motivator in life and at work. The Golden Rule can move us to make major moves toward another in various ways.  Even though some of the things we do will not serve us well over time, most of the time LOVE Wins. Pursue all the things you desire that are motivated by love.

3. Let it Grow!  NO matter what it turns into, to grow is better than to die.  Death symbolizes the end of something, sometimes good and sometimes bad.  But to Grow something is the essence of a seed that has taken root. In life and in business the fruit of these seeds should be analyzed by the first two lessons listed: Does this fruit look like love, and does this fruit have attributes of the sacred.  That's how we can foster good fruit, deciphering between the weeds that seek to steal the sacred and remove the love. You cannot, however, examine the fruit without them taking root.  Don't be afraid to let them do that.  There is truth and power in learning from weeds.

I love the LORAX. I love the time that I get to cherish with the three year old, but I also love how these things transcend into all areas of life.  Does your business preserve the SACRED, and is it motivated by LOVE.  These will determine how it GROWS... I want to encourage you to think on these things... Use them to Turn your relationships into Gold...