Salestrakr Blog

Email Blasts and CRM

Salestrakr provides email capabilities directly within the service enabling you to find a contact, click on their email address and pull up a dialog box for an outbound mail.  And when you want to find a select group to email, you can use advanced search to find that particular group that may benefit from a specific message.  But, if you want to send out hundreds or even thousands of emails..............better get the right tool for the right purpose.  Salestrakr isn't an email blaster.  What applications or services do this well?  Below are a few to consider:

• Constant Contact - A very popular online service that allows you to send simple emails, newsletters, surveys and event notifications to a large list of addresses.  Salestrakr uses Constant Contact.
• MailChimp - A very easy to use online service developed by former Georgia Tech "Rocket Science Group" folks
• VerticalReponse - Lots of customers, easy to use, completely online.

These online services though would prefer you don't refer to their services as "Email Blast" services.  In fact, they are quite firm in their demand that you not spam people.  Yes, you can reach your constituents and lots of them.  But, the terms of service for these companies require that your list be populated with the email addresses of people who have opted-in to our list.  That is, they have requested to receive your emails destined for many people.

How can you use Salestrakr with these services?  Your initial list can be created by an export from Salestrakr.  Further, your email replies can be forwarded to a Salestrakr dropbox.

Don't let email marketing scare you.  It can play a big part in your marketing plan.  Use it too much though and you may turn people off.  Use it too little and people may ask "what's this?".

Small Features, Big Impact

Our development cycle never ends.  We are always improving, either due to items we've added to our wish list or those items requested by customers.  We've made a few updates that will help all Salestrakr users gain more value out of the service.

Here they are:

- We have more fields on our business address.  You can now more easily enter a suite number or perhaps a floor number.  The link to Google Maps is there too.  Your entries here will show on the business card just as you type it in the fields.  This is helpful as some of our customers in other parts of the world list floor numbers or even building names to identify their location.

 - Our next update was the stretchable Details field in the "Opportunity" box.  This enables you to see all Details you've entered in an opportunity.  We've also added a "next step" field.  This too is stretchable.  Customers use this to show status and required next steps for a given opportunity.

 - We've corrected our tagging mechanism such that a tag that is no longer used now disappears from the tag cloud allowing for easier "housekeeping" of your tags/keywords.

 - Our pipeline report now has more information at your fingertips.  Now when you see a list of opportunities in a given stage, you can click on 2 new icons. One allows you to pull up the specific opportunity (to make changes or just see the information.)  The other allows you to open up a new browser tab or window with a report for that specific opportunity.  Once open, you can print the opportunity for use in meetings or reports.  See the graphic below.

Give these a try and tell us what you think!

A Good CRM without Good Sales Processes is just a Good CRM

Salestrakr is a GREAT CRM.  But, even the best tool won't cause an increase in sales if your processes aren't good.  A friend of Salestrakr is Adam Shapiro, owner and operator of MS Strategies, LLC - a certifed partner of CustomerCentric Systems, LLC.  Adam recently posted this sales refresher on his blog.  Combine this with Salestrakr and your well on your way to success!  http://bit.ly/3PP4Ul. 

Adam has some great recommendations that may seem simple but sometimes get ignored in the heat of business battle.

If you are interested in CustomerCentricSelling, please see their site here:  http://www.customercentric.com/. 

A Simple Update for Greater Flexibility

Our customers add lots of custom fields.  Recently one of our financial services customers showed us a problem they were having.  They had added 30+ custom fields.  Great!  Well, not quite.  Seems all of these were showing on the Salestrakr business card.  Not Great! 

Many of these items are important but not when just making a passing glance at a contact's information.  Only certain fields are ALWAYS important.  So, we changed our administration to allow an administrator to determine what they'd like to see on the front of a business card.

Below is the "new and improved" section of administration for adding and deleting custom data fields.  Just add all the fields you want and then merely tick the box on the right if you want it shown on the business card.

Bye Bye Telephone Companies

Salestrakr already is helping businesses to bypass the telephone company.  Click on a telephone number in Salestrakr and it will use Skype to make your call.  If you have a Skype subscription and are logged in, the call is cost free (perhaps even to other countries depending on your subscription.  And if you don't have a subscription, you can use SkypeOut credit.  This is a very helpful feature for a salesperson who needs to work their CRM system.

This past week I registered my new Google Voice number.  It's totally free.  It's not perfect.  When you make an outbound call inside of Google Voice, it first calls your line (mobile or land line).  Once you pick that up, it then connects to the person you are calling.  OK, not perfect.  But, let's say you need a line for your small business.  Really for inbound calls.  You no longer need a hosted PBX or line somewhere.  People can call this number and it will ring to your mobile or other line and even record voice mail when unanswered.  

With iPhones and similar devices, such as the new T-Mobile MyTouch, having near full computer capabilities, we may see that these devices are our new PBX extention.  Only the phone system is Google or Skype and available from anywhere at anytime.

Browser Choices with Salestrakr

Salestrakr is a browser based product.  Today, that's how our customers reach their contacts and schedule on their mobile phones too.  Just yesterday I had a customer ask what browsers we support.  Easy.  All of 'em.  CRM is used at large and small companies.  Mac bigots and Windows stalwarts.  And even by Linux netbook users.  So, what browsers do we support?  Here goes:

• My favorite, Firefox (www.firefox.com).  Mac, PC and Linux.  The latest version is 3.0.11.  Perfect operation in Firefox.
• My next favorite, Safari (http://www.apple.com/safari/). Mac and PC.  The latest version is 4.0 on these platforms and it is much faster than before.  It has better Javascript processing, a plus for Salestrakr.  Safari for iPhone OS 3.0 is super fast and fully supported.
• Next is Internet Explorer.  PC Only.  But, the primary browser in the PC world (Vista and XP).  While we don't specifically architect for IE, we work well there.  Kudos Microsoft (and Salestrakr.)
• Blackberry Browser.  Has worked for a good while.  Latest browser is fine.  Works great in the Pearl and the Curve.
• Opera Mini is fully supported and available on a number of platforms including Blackberry, Nokia and Palm.  Smart phones are covered nicely.   

These are the platforms we know about and have tested.   Could there be more, sure.  Do sales reps use many more than these.  No.  But, we aim to be a great web application!  And given the list above, we're on our way.

Closing Can Kill Sales

I was reading through some sales articles and blog posts from the past six months.  I ran across this one from February of this year.  It was posted at Salesopedia and was an anchor for a podcast/interview with Jill Konrath.  Jill is a former star salesperson with Xerox and is now a consultant to companies who look to improve their selling processes.  AND, she hates to close.  She is always selling, caring about her customers and interested in making sure her products can benefit her customers.

This is interesting advice.  I've always respected those salespeople who are just interested and passionate.  They don't remind me of their quota or their end of the quarter deadline.  They just believe in their product and are ready when I am. 

Social Networking Tools for Business

Our customers have been asking us what else we use, besides Salestrakr, to keep up with people we know.  There are many places to go, some good, some not.  But, a few of them are now even known by folks at church, friends in the book club even the coaches of the kids soccer teams.  So, here goes:

1. Twitter.  Twitter is basically a 140 character blog with a very simple "networking" method.  Those Twitter blog posts are called "tweets".  When you are logged on to Twitter, you are either following people or are being followed.  As such, each refresh of your page shows your posts and those of the people you are following.  And if you don't like using the Web to participate in Twitter, you can use one of many client applications out there available for participating on Twitter.  These include ones we use at Salestrakr: Twitterrific (Mac, iPhone and iPod Touch), Nambu (Mac, iPhone), Tweetdeck (Mac, PC and Linux) and Twitterberry (Blackberry.)  BTW, our twitter ID is Salestrakr.  Our URL is http://twitter.com/salestrakr.  My personal Twitter URL is http://twitter.com/newbrew.  My personal Twitter posts are "snarkier" and, well, personal.  However, I can still tweet about Salestrakr in that personal stream of information.
2. Facebook.  Salestrakr has it's own Facebook page.  It's still new.  But, it's another place for the company to have a "face".  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Salestrakr/91233944770.  Once you have a Facebook page for your business, you van invite "Fans" from your personal Facebook list of friends.
3. LinkedIn.  Ok, Linkedin is really about people.  You link with people.  And your profile is searchable.  My LinkedIn profile is http://www.linkedin.com/in/steveyoungblood.  So, as long as I keep that profile up to date, people will know about Salestrakr.
4. Our Typepad Blog.  You're looking at it!  You can also though use Wordpress (either on your own server or at theirs.)  Wordpress and Typepad will "ping" other blog aggregation sites when you post to a blog.  Further, Google and Yahoo crawl blogs hosted at Wordpress and Typepad and make those sites available in their search results.  Ok, this is not REALLY social networking.  But, blogging is publishing information for people to consume.  Further, Typepad and Facebook work together to show Typepad posts directly on a Facebook page.

You need a good CRM.  But, you also need to use those tools out there that help you keep up with the latest information of your contacts. And help those contacts to keep up with you.

Integration with Parature

Thanks to some dedicated engineers, Salestrakr now offers instant integration of Parature's Help Desk Support Software.  Parature is the global leader in on-demand customer service software.  You'll need accounts at Salestrakr and Parature.  Beyond that though, only a few clicks are needed to show Parature help desk tickets inside of Salestrakr.  Further, changes made to contacts in Salestrakr are updated in Parature.

In the past, best of breed implementations meant heavy duty and costly projects to integrate multiple systems.  Not anymore though.  Web 2.0 development methods make it easy for two systems to easily and securely share information over the Internet.

If you've been considering going with another CRM due to the need to integrate salesforce automation and help desk functions, there's no need now.  Salestrakr and Parature give you the end to end CRM you want without having to sacrifice features or quality.

A bit more about Parature.  Founded in 2000, today Parature helps support more than 15 million end users worldwide. Parature is at work in a wide variety of organizations including national associations, leading educational institutions, gaming & interactive media, manufacturing, services, and technology companies.

Parature is the recipient of numerous industry awards and recognition including:

• 2007 & 2008 Product of the Year Award from Customer Interaction Solutions magazine
• Inc. 5000 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies in America
• Washington Business Journal’s list of Best Places to Work for three consecutive years
• The Washingtonian Magazine’s Great Places to Work
• Software Magazine’s Software 500
• Northern Virginia Technology Council Hot Ticket Award
• SmartCEO Future 50

Please see their site for more information.  http://www.parature.com

Video Showcase of Salestrakr

The folks at TechDrawl recently showcased Salestrakr.  Take a peak.

Salestrakr from Celia Dyer for TechDrawl on Vimeo.