Monday, March 22, 2010
How effectice a CRM solution for a startup
Starting a Small Business has BIG challenges. With so many people starting out as entrepreneurs the number of small businesses has increased drastically over the last decade or so. The personalized service that such small startup companies offer is what endears them to their potential and existing customers. Not everyone prefers to do business with a relatively unknown company, no matter what word of mouth reputation it may have. Many variables can influence their success. One factor crucial to the success of a small business customer relationship management is keeping in touch with your customers and potential customers. In a small business you do not depend on the sales volume as much as you do on repeat business. This means that you need to be constantly on your toes following up with any existing customers. At the same time you cannot ignore a potential lead which may turn into a loyal customer. For a big corporation with tens of people in marketing & sales department this is not a problem. They can assign a number of people to the different tasks involved in CRM. The Disadvantage of being a Small Business, being a small business means that you have limited resource (man power and funds). You may have the same people doubling up as sales and after sales support. So who gets to organize the customer relationship management? Most people are too busy handling the regular day to day crises to pay attention to special CRM needs. It is here that managing the database of your existing customers and potential customers becomes a major contributing factor to the success or failure of your business. To make it easy to handle, a lot of small companies are now going in for web based CRM systems. The ideal solution for a Small Business set up: A web based contact management software allows you and your core business development team to keep track of your existing customers with ease. You can feed in contact information, purchase history, special notes and even add follow up alerts for each individual customer. That way when you need to get in touch with a particular customer you will not be hunting for that small diary in which you made special notes to remember while speaking to this particular client. With a click on a button you can get access to all the information you need. The added advantage: In the given economic situation where we are experiencing a global growth decline the customer truly is king and needs to be pampered. CRM systems give small businesses many strategic advantages such as the ability to personalize relationships with customers regardless of which employee is service them. So Customer Relationship Management assumes a great deal of importance. If you can keep your present customer base happy, they will stay loyal. With a central CRM data management system you are giving your sales team the added advantage of knowing just how to handle each individual. If the customer is an old lady who lives with a cat and when you call up you ask after her cat by name, believe me you are going to close a sale that day. Using CRM data, marketing campaigns can be co-ordinated more effectively by ensuring that promotions do not target customers who have already purchased that particular products. It also ensures higher customer retention by introducing loyalty programs. A business would never like to see a product to a customer who has just bought it recently. In a short over view using CRM, a small business can:
1) Provide Better Customer Service
2) Increase Customer Revenues
3) Discover New Customers
4) “Cross Sell” and “Up Sell” Products More Effectively
5) Help Sales Staff Close Deals Faster
6) Simplify Marketing and Sales Processes
In a one line definition about the CRM, it allows the business to give its customers the option of choosing how they want to communication with the business.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Senator asks drugmakers to explain prices
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Senate Democrat asked top drugmakers on Wednesday to explain why Americans pay higher prices for prescription drugs than patients do in other developed nations.
Senator Herb Kohl, who chairs the Special Committee on Aging, sent letters to AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Pfizer, and Sanofi-Aventis .
Kohl said Americans on average pay twice as much as people in other industrialized countries.
"While I firmly believe that drug quality should not be sacrificed for cost, the large discrepancies in the cost of identical drugs cannot be explained by differences in production or manufacturing," Kohl wrote to the companies.
Some Democrats have attacked drugmakers as the U.S. Congress works on an overhaul of U.S. healthcare system.
The pharmaceutical industry has pledged to pay $80 billion over 10 years in price cuts and other concessions to help fund wider insurance coverage as part of a healthcare overhaul under consideration in Congress.
Some lawmakers have criticized that amount as a small price to pay for a $315 billion-a-year industry that stands to gain tens of millions of new customers if insurance coverage expands. Democrats are trying to pass a final bill for President Barack Obama to sign into law in the coming weeks.
Eli Lilly, responding to Kohl's letter, said drug prices were lower in other countries for various reasons including currency value, market dynamics or government price controls.
The United States "relies on competition rather than government-imposed price controls that contain costs" and U.S. patients "have the greatest access to the newest medicines," Lilly spokesman Ed Sagebiel said.
Pfizer spokeswoman Kristen Neese said the company "stands behind the value our innovative medicines bring to patients." The company provides free or discounted medicines to uninsured other needy patients, she said.
Novartis is reviewing the senator's request and will respond to the committee, a company spoke Hot News: Solved Biology CBSE XII Board Paper 2010 absolutely FREE on meritnation.com!
The Purpose Driven Corporation - How Charities Can Make a Profit and an Impact
Chris Ryan proposes an interest tact in addressing the ongoing funding pressures inherent in non-profit organizations. At the heart of what’s being proposed is the historical dependancy of non-profit groups on commercial enterprises. With increased pressure to shore up expenses on both sides of the relationship, one solution is providing non-profits the tools and legislation to create and employ for profit entities that in turn support the non-profit mandate.
Simply, we couldn’t agree more. Charities impact every facet of our lives and the current state of affairs dictates that business is unable to sustain itself and the levels of charitble contribution we’ve seen in the past. For the non-profit to survive…the solution can be quite simple. That said, “simple” rarely means “easy”.
The following is an article written by Chris Ryan Senior Editor for Newswire.net on March 18, 2010. The article can be seen HERE.
The single most pressing problem facing every charitable enterprise in the United States is one that is inherently tied to the fundamental nature of non-profits: funding. Regardless of whether the enterprise is a non-religious charity or a church-sponsored structure, the difficulty remains the same. Funding levels are inevitably dependent upon the goodwill and graciousness of sponsors and other donors who underwrite the enterprise’s activities.
Of course, few people would claim that there is a crisis in charitable giving in the United States. After all, though total charitable giving in 2008 and 2009 saw a real decrease in inflation-adjusted dollars, the total amount of money given was still in excess of $300 billion in each year – hardly a number about which to complain. Still, with Federal and State budgets across the nation stretched thin through a combination of overspending and shortfalls in revenue – and with the nation’s economic condition balancing the tightrope between fragile recovery and double-dip recession, many non-profits are bracing themselves for even larger revenue shortfalls in the years ahead.
Unfortunately, any reduction in the revenues received by charities and churches will have an ever-increasing impact on the most vulnerable of society. As government budgets face burgeoning deficits and the very real threat of across-the board freezes or outright cuts in programs that serve the poor and disadvantaged, charities and churches will be needed more than ever to help meet these societal needs. The problem is that demand for these services is peaking at precisely the moment that the financial resources of most charitable enterprises are at their weakest point in decades.
Given that the demand for charitable services is most keenly felt during times of strong economic distress – such as the current recession, and that it is during such times of distress that these charitable entities often have the fewest resources with which to meet demand, should we not work to find a better way to provide funding to charities and churches to ensure that they have the opportunity to meet the needs of the people they service? In other words, should we not strive to find a means by which charities and churches are allowed to be self-empowering entities?
An Historic ProblemThe principle difficulty in empowering charities is primarily derived from the history of such entities within the United States. In fact, the very term “non-profit” is perhaps illustrative of the underlying reason why so many charitable enterprises struggle so mightily to achieve their goals. Derived from the Latin word “profectus”, the word profit literally means “to progress”. In like manner, the word “non-profit” means the opposite –not to progress. Indeed, the history of American charities makes clear that these entities were expected to do precisely that.
The earliest history of organized charitable activity in what would later become the United States occurred with the Puritans who settled in the Northeast. Though devoted to a strong work ethic derived from Biblical directives regarding man’s duty to work diligently, the Puritans nevertheless retained the Calvinist need to compartmentalize profit and charity. Keenly aware of the Bible’s warnings regarding the difficulty rich men would have in obtaining salvation, The Calvinist Puritans quickly developed an answer in the form of Puritan charity as a means to assuage capitalist guilt. This view of charity differed little from the Catholic sentiment that penance for sins should commonly take the form of charitable activity to help the less fortunate, save that the Catholic penance was a ritualized removal of guilt for sin, while charity in early America allowed those early businesspeople to compartmentalize any guilt they felt for gaining riches while those around them suffered from want.
Unfortunately, that distinct separation between the way the Puritans conducted their business and the way they conducted their charities remains with us to this day. Businesses were expected to accomplish their goals through savvy market decisions, an expansive mentality, and keen investment strategies. Charities were expected to accomplish their goals through what was, in essence, organized begging. Four hundred years later, little has changed.
Today’s CharitiesThe history of charitable entities in the United States has not served to impede the growth of such entities. In fact, there are currently more than 1.4 million recognized charitable enterprises in the country – or more than one charity for every three hundred people. Though some might find that number excessive, the truth is that the scope and reach of most of these enterprises is far more limited than the average citizen might think. Hamstrung by archaic rules that prevent the recruitment of top talent, adequate long-term investment strategies, and direct investment in for-profit enterprises, most non-profit companies are left scrambling for scarce resources to accomplish their mission, while simultaneously scrambling to retain their most talented employees.
The religiously-inspired differences in the way for-profit and non-profit enterprises conduct their affairs would, on the surface, seem to have little validity in today’s marketplace. Where Christian society once recognized a divine command to set aside 10% of all earnings in the form of a tithe that was designed to aid churches in their mission to care for the poor and infirm, recent trends demonstrate that actual charitable giving falls far short of that mark. It is obvious that a ten trillion dollar economy should see charitable giving of at least one trillion dollars each year – a number more than three times the actual amount of U.S. annual charitable giving.
Given the disconnect between the religious underpinnings of charitable contributions and the modern practice of giving, non-profit enterprises have become more reliant than ever upon government grants, corporate endowments, and hastily-constructed fundraising efforts. The law’s prohibitions against profits have caused most non-profit entities to look no further than the next quarter in their financial planning. Indeed, most are called to task every twelve months to account for how the previous year’s monetary capacity has been managed.
How much more successful could these organizations be if they were allowed to take a more long-range view toward the capitalization of their mission? How many more people in need could they reach if they were given the freedom to take greater risks and reap greater rewards in their efforts to build capacity? In other words, are there not ways in which society at large would benefit from non-profits being allowed to pursue capital expansion through many of the same means which for-profit enterprises use to increase their profitability?
A Change In Direction
Any solution to non-profit capacity building will not flow from policy makers in Washington D.C., nor is it likely that the individual States will take up the cause any time soon. What is needed is a fundamental shift in the paradigm that there must always be an inseparable wall between business and charity. Though that wall once served a religious compartmentalization purpose four centuries ago – business is what you do to make money, while charity is what you give as penance for making money – the need for it no longer exists. Unfortunately, the illusion that non-profit poverty somehow equates to purity and greater ethics still persists in our culture, and more importantly, in our law.
One of the most obvious solutions would be to permit non-profits to more directly invest in the profitability of for-profit ventures. The limitations with respect to non-profit investment in capital ventures are at present so restrictive as to almost preclude this possibility. Yet it remains one of the most viable means by which non-profits could make sound investments in the marketplace, thereby building greater capacity to accomplish their mission and serve their constituents.
One obstruction to such investment can be found in the aversion to risk that many non-profits share. With limited funding – and outside skeptics who oppose any use of charitable funds for investment purposes – most charitable boards are understandably reluctant to take even the mildest of risks in the pursuit of capacity. Because non-profits have to acknowledge donor concerns about how money is allocated, the majority of charities suffer from chronic shortages of funding.
To change the status quo and enable non-profits to seek greater capacity through sound investments, one solution involves finding a way for these charitable institutions to bypass the concerns of their donors, and directly invest in the future profitability of various for-profit enterprises – unencumbered by the need to immediately spend every donor dollar they receive to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Of course, the question immediately arises: is such a strategy even possible?
Fortunately, it is. As restrictive as the laws are with respect to how non-profits may and may not invest in other firms, those restrictions provide opportunities as well. In fact, they provide the very means by which non-profits can directly benefit from the profitability of private companies undergoing public offerings – with relatively small risk to the charity or its donors.
The Solution
The accomplishment of these goals involves a straightforward strategy of allowing a non profit the ability of incubating a for profit enterprise. In return the for profit entity alligns itself with a charity (purpose drive corporation) by donating stock to the non profit which in turn utilizes its stakeholders base and tax bracket as an underwiritn vehicle for the corporation at hand.
The tas deduction of the non profit status acts as a mitigation tool of risk of the stakeholders whle the charity becomes the ultimate beneficiary of gain and groowht of the enterprize it incubates.
This solution takes advantage of an alignment of interests from the various parties involved. For the corporation itself, the process enables the raising of capital necessary to take the company public; for the non-profit, it provides a means for investment that does not involve funds that are otherwise needed for the missions operations of the charity; for the donors and investors involved, it allows them to promote and support their chosen charitable endeavor while retaining the opportunity to profit from their investment.
Today we need more than ever the allignment of our greatest financial minds in creating the next generation of financail instruments. Not for the purpose of using computer programs to arbitraige profit potential, but rather to create the new instruments which will once again create value for our country.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
B2B Marketing Principles 8: Slow uptake of digital marketing techniques
The debate has raged in the business press about the merits of digital marketing techniques in B2B.
B2B companies predominantly sell product and operating a sales driven approach, so it is not a surprise that some if not most continue to use unsophisticated marketing methods to drive interest, stimulate enquiry, convert, and remain in long term dialogue with their customers.
Sales teams want material that supports their presentation of the business, positions the product, helps handle objections, compares with competitor products and closes the sale. This in itself gives some context for why communication problems are created when companies try and introduce a marketing led approach to a sales focused business. Marketing techniques, including digital, are aimed to drive enquiry, work 24-7 and when done well keep your sales teams busy.
Companies in B2B can be slow to adapt digital marketing techniques for several reasons.
1/ Information skills gaps mean there isn’t always someone who sufficiently understands the technology or is able to argue the case for its use at a senior level, contributing to a general reluctance within the business to embrace it.
2/ The fear and cost of change (including the cost of hardware, software, training, resource and maintenance and upgrades) puts some companies off.
3/ The challenge of converting from legacy paper based systems to digital can be process obstacle to overcome.
4/ The bewildering selection of database, CRM, eCRM, types and styles of website can put off important decisions.
5/ The emergence of social media and with it an era of direct communication and engagement frankly scares many companies. They have also spent years building lucrative distribution relationships to secure market penetration and don’t want to risk upsetting business partners by entering into it.
So where does this leave us? Most B2B companies operate limited database and communications systems, do not maximise customer relationships, do not leverage prospects, have underperforming websites and limited awareness online.
But the benefits of embracing digital marketing techniques are vast (and will be covered in an entire series on digital marketing in April 2010). Every click, enquiry, visit, recommendation, connection, friend, fan, follow, email, advertisement can be tracked, measured and evaluated in ways offline marketing techniques can only dream of.
As a minimum, consider putting in place the following:
- A hosted database/eCRM package – like Project Sales Achiever.
- A website with a contact form, news and email opt in subscription and RSS feed.
- Encourage (and incentivise) 1-2 passionate employees to start blogs about what you do.
- Register an email address with Google and set up the following
- Google Reader – to keep on top of industry news without increasing the amount of email you receive
- Google Analytics – to monitor traffic to each and every page of your website
- Google Adwords – even if only £5 a month, create a presence in customer searches
- Have an expert assess the SEO functionality of your site, these guys are my pick www.latitudegroup.com
- Create a Linkedin profile for yourself, join relevant groups and create a company profile and encourage your staff to join it
These are small steps but they will give you additional exposure on the web, raise your profile and give your credibility a shot in the arm.
Social Media Meltdown
If it hasn’t happened to you yet, you will inevitably hear the words “We need to be on Facebook and Twitter.” Now mind you this isn’t coming from some profound strategy or remarkable use for the technology — but simply because that is what all the lemmings are doing. You”ll find these words freshly dripping from the mouth of many senior and mid-level leadership returning from business conference who ironically have:
a) never been on Facebook.
b) if they have, still don’t have a profile picture.
or my personal favorite
c) sign their name/initials to all of their posts.
As much as I enjoy social media and the many humorous laughs it affords, I don’t think marketer’s (and especially trade journals that cater to marketers) really understand that Social Media has its limits. From reading Ad Age you would think that the Apocalypse will now happen in 140 characters or less.
Many marketers suffer from the delusion that customer’s want to have a personal connection or relationship with a brand. I hate to burst your bubble, but they actually just really like your product. Don’t get me wrong, but as much as I like Coca-Cola, I could care less if they are trying to get their 2 millioneth fan on Facebook . . . I just want a refreshing drink when I’m thirsty. Of particular interest to me are the businesses like steel manufacturers getting fan pages. Really?
I certainly hope every business joins Facebook soon so that I can become a fan . . . because afterall, fans = sales, right? Well . . . not necessarily . . . someone put it like this: If a restaurant has 1,000 people sitting in its establishment because they like it, but no one buys a meals . . . you aren’t going to make any money – shocking, I know.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate social media at all. It’s a tool . . . but just that a tool. If you are going to use Social Media have a plan, stick to your plan but don’t make it your business plan.
Rememeber, that your business made money long before facebook and it will continue to make money long after facebook. I hope that businesses will realize the folly of hiring twitter experts or facebook gurus with proven experience in social media (how does one even define proven experience . . . ?) If you’ve hired one of these so-called experts, I hope you see a return on your investment, a real one – not simply 20 comments in response to your post of “Will the groundhog see his shadow?”
Just as we learned the hard way in the late 1990’s with the dot-com burst. I won’t be a bit surprised to hear of the Social Media Meltdown of 2011. You’ve heard it from me, consider yourself warned . . . the writing is on the wall – literally?
Monday, March 15, 2010
Marketing for the storm recession
Image : http://www.flickr.com
Once an afterthought for many companies to market quickly becomes important as the oil revenues dry up, the phones have not played, word of mouth recommendations are not more common, and the unemployment rate begins to rise. How does the average small business will continue to work to build a business professional, keep your head above water and the storm that will take place this recession, with a tsunami earthquake weather?
Just like a beer hurricane in the Atlanticthe world has been a huge amount of warning that this day was coming, and we had a great idea where it came down to earth. When the storm at sea in force, the time when many small businesses need to start was down their marketing efforts, many do not know, and who will be asked to remote desert island, business, what had happened.
However, you can correct the course, if you now take immediate action. It does not take aa lot of money to make the impact in your community, but it is an investment in time to benefit. First, everything starts with a plan, and many small businesses see marketing as something you stumble upon. We were all there, on the phone from the phone manufacturer or seller of this ring, visited with some glossy magazine ads. We all advertising like this from time to time. Now is the time to stop this behavior.
Marketing your businesscan be effective as a military operation was thinking, it must be deliberate, planned and executed and measured. Shooting from the hip in today's economy is no longer, as can be if the economy was strong work. Now is the time for effective marketing, is the evidence, it is time to be creative and some of the things that your competitors are there or not realized they can do. Also, some continue to sleep their way out.
They arewin if you act and do something now. Here are five areas that you can be on the bench, without breaking.
Press release – Journalists are always hungry for great stories, giving them a competitive advantage in newspapers, magazines sell subscriptions to more people can tune into their news program, and so forth. There was once a time when the only people who read the press release was average, but those days are long gone with the Internet. All future of yourCustomers have access to your messages. You need a machine to make headlines. Announce new partnerships, improving service, key staff changes and so on.
Internet – Your company uses the Internet as a tool for your business? With Web 2.0 and now Web 3.0 Strategies are now in full bloom, you use the power of social networks? How about creating a podcast for your community? Your company has a blog? His web page a poster orPresentation of your skills and results? The Internet is not everywhere, combined with more and more companies are using applications in the cloud and services on the Internet, because it is not on the Web, as well?
Search Engine Optimization – When you have a large Web presence have established, are in the situation? Many companies have a website and many blogs out there hiding. The trick to using the Internet as a marketing resource that in fact the peopleYou can find and learn the broader your line up card. What makes you different? What products and services for sale or service? How people find you? Use the Internet and copy writing that people find you are able to be very important. Now more than ever, optimization of search engines is a key factor in the marketing plan.
Networking – The area is perhaps one of the most important priorities that we have to get out of your office andfind out where the target audience. Where to take your customers and ideals for which she flirts with. The success of small businesses are marketing machines that know they are always on the road, meet people and particularly to ensure that people know. Owners of small companies have down in the ditch, that's where the battles won, from hand to hand combat business occurs in the trenches. Take advantage of your Chamber of Commerce, the organizations are networked, just start yourBusiness Club The key is to learn and people.
Be unique – Crack the shell to try something new, different things and see how it works for your business. Do not make the same old thing and expect different results. Brainstorm with a professional, seek the advice of colleagues, or remove something that day at operations of days. There are many ideas in other fields who work for you. We must be clear and search marketing or sales tactics.They use the Internet to push you and share your network with those around you.
More than ever, especially in economic conditions of today's society that meets the best markets, the right people, create the right strategic alliances, has very strong relationships, partner with winners and use the tools that are potential customers to products and services may be able to make these economic storms, now flows into the sea with a storm surge climate, thedrown many of those who are not ready.
Can you survive?
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