Talking about Customers

Marketing is often viewed as a discretionary expense by accountants and in tough times, many businesses are tempted to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, their marketing spend. However, businesses that work on keeping their brands alive during thes...

Focused Sales Management Sales are the lifeblood for most companies. Businesses cannot sit still & wait for things to commence, especially when generating revenue continues to be a priority. Even though customers’ current buying behaviour ...

Accurate Business Planning When the growth period returns, it’s not going to be a case of business as usual. Companies will have to work smarter and harder for every bit of revenue they generate. The biggest mistake organisations can make is...

In a crisis, a business can grow and profit by responding to the changing dynamics of the marketplace. Crises tend to stimulate change in people and buying behaviours can shift.  The opportunity is there for businesses to respond to these change...

The current global health crisis has presented businesses with the toughest economic conditions seen for decades. While countries work towards re-opening their economies in some fashion over time while balancing the needs of lockdown to suppress ...

The beauty of Workflow: How it drives Sales Force Automation Last time, we spoke about the overall benefit of workflow across a business. This time, I wanted to draw out a few more ideas on persona specifics inside most business'. To boost your s...

More than ever, it is critical for businesses to deliver a superior customer experience or risk losing to the competition. Manual processes slow down sales and marketing efforts and hamper customer service. So, ask yourself: Does your organization st...

Following on from on previous session, Basil talks about what CRM does for his business [Basil] When I first started, I didn't make the time to do things properly so I didn't gain all the benefits. But, realising I need to be 'eating my own dog foo...

In an occasional series of 'being successful with CRM', I like to speak with Sage partners about their approach to business, how they work with customers to deliver successful Sage CRM installations and what CRM has meant to their own business. In th...

As we come to the close of 2018, I wanted to share just a few of my reflections on this year & give you an insight into the world of Sage CRM in 2019. We continue to gain many new customers around the world each & every month, drawn to the highly f...

Many years ago, I wrote a few pieces on how & where social media interacts with a business' CRM strategy. Across those pieces, I considered how to bring a business strategy in line with employees. Sounds odd, I know, as many would consider the lat...

Previously, we talked to Jon Luning about his experiences as a long term Sage CRM partner. Moving on, we talk about lessons for partner business' when it comes to successful CRM [David] How about PEP - what has working with Sage CRM meant to your...

Every week here at Sage CRM HQ, we take time out to review recent sales to customers. These are both new customers as well as additional seats to existing customers. In the latter category, we saw an additional order from a customer who has been usi...

Continuing from on from part 1, we talk with Sage Canada's top performing partner, Atlantic Data Systems [David Beard, CRM Principal, Sage CRM] Why you think you are a top performer in Sage 300 — I am thinking about ideas not only around the produc...

Looking back on a piece I wrote twelve months ago, I thought it time to re-visit our friends in the maritimes of Canada, Atlantic Data Systems (ADS). Since then, Calvin O'Driscoll and his team have been awarded Diamond Partner status . For ADS, not ...

I wrote sometime back about how & where social media interacts with a business' CRM strategy. A build upon that idea is in executing a CRM strategy so that everybody really "gets it". In particular, the idea of employee engagement & how that inter...

I was looking back through old notes & scraps of ideas, when I came across some musings in support of an interview a few years back - I had been approached by Peri Shawn, to speak about the leveraging a company's CRM system in supporting of Sales C...

Continuing on a theme of what makes a successful CRM implementation, I spoke with a long term CRM Consultant, Jonathan Jack, about how he works with customers. [David Beard, CRM Principal, Sage CRM] Talk to me about when you first meet a customer & ...

My last posts have been speaking about, and with members of, our North American business, so I thought it time to move elsewhere. For this post, I am in my home territory of the United Kingdom and, for this edition, would like to share an interview ...

For this blog, I am returning to a favourite subject of mine - that of helping articulate & recognising the value of investing in a business management system (BMS). I was speaking to a Canadian partner of ours just recently & wanted to share a cus...

Many of our customers have been using our products for years. Yet these customers' business may have evolved - perhaps through growth, maybe through a change in strategic direction, even changes in compliance or similar. Change also comes from young...

I have, over the years, spoken about the importance of building a strong business case for CRM in the *first* instance - engaging with all stakeholders in a company, uncovering their business needs, speaking about ROI and shaping the story around th...

If we accept that knowledge of a customer is a critical part of your goods or service offer, then CRM is a key differentiator and a key to business survival. With product & price innovation driving increasing competitiveness, all business need to en...

Why bother to invest in systems? The oft-quoted and, I believe, still relevant answer, is to do things faster and better. Saving time, money & delivering better outcomes for all stakeholders. Can automating everyday business processes within the co...

There's a lot to think about when you're expanding your business across regions or operating across country borders. What are the tax, legal, currency and cultural differences? How will you overcome language differences? The list is long. Hopefully ...