Online CRM Software
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10 Ways We Are Making CRM and Sales Management Easier
for Small and Medium Businesses
by Mark Morton

Our goal for CRMTrak is to make CRM and sales management easier. This goal is especially true for the small and medium businesses who need an online CRM tool but are frustrated with the options available to them. In my humble opinion the industry has made it too hard and complex for the majority of small and medium businesses. With web technology continually improving, there is no need for things to be this hard.

Here are some of my thoughts on creating a practical, successful CRM tool:

1) Just The Right Features - we get feedback all the time from companies searching for a new CRM tool and they tell us that most solutions are far too complicated. This overkill includes hundreds of useless features that do little more than overwhelm the users. With CRMTrak, we want our users to have the tools they need, but we are not interested in getting into a feature race that adds to the problem. In fact, we are continually listening to our users to uncover ideas on how to make CRMTrak easier, not more complicated.

2) Easy Migration - many of our users have data in numerous formats from numerous applications like Excel, Outlook, ACT, etc., etc., etc. Most CRM companies do little more than provide some import tools that seem to create more problems than they solve. We decided from the beginning that most companies wouldn't want to deal with data migration so we do it for them. We make sure the data is properly formatted and it gets in the correct fields.

3) Understand Salespeople - CRMTrak is developed and continually modified with the clear understanding that almost all salespeople hate cumbersome software, in fact most of them will just decide not to use it. Since we are sales and marketing people we strive to make the software add value, and not task work, to the sales process.

4) One Size Doesn't Fit All - we know that every sales team has unique information they capture and utilize. As a result, we offer a 100% flexible solution. If you want a custom version, with unique functionality and a customized interface hosted on your private web server, no problem. We also frequently customize our standard version for our customers to make the software better fit how they do business.

5) Be Helpful - we are here to help you be successful. If you have a quick question, call us or email us and we'll reply within 24 hours - but usually the same day. We understand that our users need our help and we look at that as an opportunity to serve, not a burden.

6) Email is for Outlook - if you are caught up on having your CRM tool be a quasi-Outlook, CRMTrak won't be for you . . . and for good reasons. The support forums for many CRM tools are full of Outlook problems created by plug-ins and we aren't interested in being in the Outlook crashing business. Most CRMTrak users realize that cataloging every email you ever send is not a requirement of good selling. When Microsoft decides to make Outlook data more open to web applications, we'll take another look.
However, we have implemented a calendar synch between CRMTrak and Google Calendar that also synchs with Outlook.

7) Email is Also For Sales and Marketing - we do understand that email marketing is a good tool and that it should be easy for CRMTrak users to create email campaigns. Our recent partnership with leading email broadcast partner VerticalResponse means our users can easily create and manage email campaigns in conjunction with a leader in email marketing technology.

8) Data Must Flow Smoothly - for the most part people hate data entry, and they really dislike redundant data entry. Once contact data enters CRMTrak it can be utilized for Sales Quotes, Merge Letters, Email Marketing, etc. And since we can integrate with your website (we'll set that up for you as well!) to auto-capture leads, you might not have to enter any contact data into CRMTrak.

9) We Know What Matters - many of our users want help with their Email Marketing, Web Development, Direct Mail, etc. - all of which we provide. So not only can we help them better manage their sales and marketing information, we can provide turnkey services to help them grow their business, which is why they want a CRM tool in the first place!

10) Constant Evaluation - we update and revise CRMTrak almost every day. Our users tell us what's on their minds and we try to accommodate them if it makes sense for our users as a whole. And, it's not always adding features, we have even removed features that were in the way and not adding value.

If you some ideas on how to make CRMTrak easier, please let me know!