“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” does not apply to your customer relationship management application programs

Posted by Commence on January 25, 2010 under CEO Corner | Read the First Comment

Much of today’s small business for profit and not-for-profit application software was written over a decade ago. The million dollar question is: Are these applications still worth running ? Considering all of the technology innovation that has occurred since then, can we expect an application designed and built with yesterday’s technology for yesterday’s business world to fit today’s?

The answer is no.
“If it aint broke, don’t fix it” does not apply to your small business application programs. Your application is like a good race horse, you run it until it can’t race anymore and then you retire it. You don’t try to patch it up.

The contact management sector is a prime example of this.  Thousands of small to mid-size businesses are still operating old versions of desktop programs such as ACT, Goldmine and Maximizer that are no longer meeting changing business requirements, but because they aint broke, they don’t get replaced.  As a result of this, these mid-size businesses are not taking advantage of newer web based CRM programs that are helping businesses become more effective marketing, sales and service organizations.

The great applications replace is upon us and we can’t fight it any longer but how do you go about deciding which applications to replace? See my list below.

• If it was built over a decade ago, no matter by whom, it is a prime candidate for replacement.
• If the underlying business requirements have changed significantly since the application was developed, you can be certain that it is not performing optimally.
• If the application was written to run natively on a mainframe, a midrange or even a personal computer, it’s on the list.
• If the application has a pure character interface and all of the reports are in text, it’s a candidate.
• If the application does not grant web-based access to staff or members, it needs immediate attention.  Some things to beware of:

If the application does not fit the business requirements then you have to go back to the drawing board. To do this properly, presupposes that you thoroughly understand how your business functions.

The good news about replacing older applications is that there is a large number of providers to choose from.  In the CRM sector for example products such as Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce.com and Commence CRM from Commence Corporation are excellent choices for managing customer interaction and improving sales execution and customer service.

About the author:  Jim Smith is the CEO of YChange International, a consulting firm that provides marketing and consulting services to small businesses. Smith has more than 30 years of experience in the field and has held executive level positions with several Fortune 100 software firms.  He is an accomplished author of numerous white papers on the subject of marketing and business development. Additional information may be found at http://www.ychange.com

Photo Credit: by Barbarossa source Wikimedia license GFDL from acobox.com

Want to Win Sales? You need to Differentiate

Posted by Commence on January 8, 2010 under CEO Corner | Read the First Comment

Sure it’s tough out there. There is no doubt about it.  In today’s environment no matter what you are selling there are dozens of competitors calling on your prospects and making similar claims.  So how can you differentiate yourself from the pack? I have some recommendations.

As an executive of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software firm I understand competition.  There are literally hundreds of CRM vendors from contact management software and sales force automation software providers to vertically based CRM providers all pitching their solution as the best, the easiest and the cheapest.  Some make claims that their product is better than ours, others are offering lower prices and some will do almost anything to win business. Yet despite all of this, our sales team is winning more business based on a few simple tips that may help you.

Lets assume for a moment that you have a new qualified opportunity:

• The prospect has a need for your company’s product or service,
• They have a short decision timeframe,
• There is a budget in place,
• You are dealing with a decision maker.

Life is good! Now let’s go and win this business:

Tip 1. Preparation: Schedule a pre-approach appointment for the sole purpose of finding out the critical business issues in advance of your next call or appointment. This is the time to learn about their challenges and show them you are committed to understanding their business requirements and helping to address them. Too many sales people make the mistake of asking questions during their presentation or demonstration, which often frustrates the prospect and reduces the effectiveness of the call.

Tip 2. Research: The prospect has told you their needs, but before you make that next call to schedule your presentation or demonstrate your product, do some research about the company to learn about their specific industry and any critical business issues that affect companies just like theirs.  This will help you to develop a flow for how you wish to present or demonstrate your product or service as an effective solution for their business. It’s also important to remember that any intelligent prospect will know if you have really taken the time to understand their business challenges or not.

Tip 3. The Presentation/Demonstration: Focus on their critical business issues right away with specific examples of how your product or service will address them. That’s what the prospect is interested in and if you wait too long, you run the risk of losing their attention and the potential for their business.

Tip 4. Sell Value but Know When to Stop: You probably have a lot of things about your product or service that will provide additional value to your prospect, but if you have successfully addressed their core business requirements then it’s time to stop selling.  Sales representatives all too often frustrate or irritate prospects by over selling. Your product or service does not have to do twenty different things. It just has to solve one or two critical needs.

Tip 5. Know Your Competition: You know the prospect is shopping around and there is nothing you can do about it — or is there?  Very often there will be a bottleneck in a competitive product that your solution addresses very well, but if you are unaware of this you will lose the opportunity to gain a competitive edge. In the famous book The Art of War, written by Sun Tzu, he states, “know they enemy and you shall not fear the outcome of any battle”.

Successful Sales CRM – It’s All About Process

Posted by Commence on November 12, 2009 under CEO Corner | Be the First to Comment

I read an interesting article that compared the success rate of accounting software implementations to that of CRM solution implementation within a sales organization. The results were intriguing.  While accounting software implementations seem to enjoy a high level of success, this is not the case for sales automation systems.  The article went on to compare and outline the differences between the two areas and while it did not provide any specific recommendations, if you’re a small to mid-size business the information below may make you think differently about the importance of implementing a sales methodology or structure within your sales organization.

Outlined below is a brief summary of the article.

Accounting departments are traditionally known for having mature well-documented business processes, perhaps because the federal government requires them. Sales organizations are traditionally void of structure and process, which often results in inaccurate forecast and sales with lower profitability then desired.

Accounting departments have mature people.  This is not to say that sales people are not mature, but accountants are traditionally degreed and well trained on the principles of accounting while sales people often come from different walks of life with different levels of education and sales experience.

Accounting systems have also been around for decades and have a mature set of features that have been designed to address a specific set of rules and guidelines. Sales systems while mature must be flexible enough to support a variety of unique sales functions within multiple sales channels. This often makes these systems overly complex and hard to use.

This brief analysis would indicate that mature business processes, mature people, and mature solutions drive the operational success of your accounting department. If this is indeed true, shouldn’t we be emulating this within our sales organization?

Small to mid-size businesses that have a CRM initiative should make sure that they add the ability to have a flexible sales methodology to their functional criteria list.

CRM vendors like Commence Corporation offer fully integrated solutions for contact management, lead management, sales management as well as consulting services that help businesses deploy proven sales methodologies or create custom programs to match unique selling requirements.  The flexibility of web based solutions like Commence coupled with high level sales expertise can help make your sales organization as efficient as your accounting department.

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Commence CRM: A David and Goliath Story

Posted by Commence on October 13, 2009 under CEO Corner | 8 Comments to Read

TR Cutler, a leading business journalist, recently interviewed Larry Caretsky, CEO of Commence Corporation, to learn more about the company’s significant success in the CRM space and plans for competing with the large players in this space.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is growing at a significant pace with other hosted solutions significantly surpassing traditional client server technology offerings.  This growth has allowed several smaller companies, like Commence Corporation to quickly capture marketshare in the small to mid-size business sector.

TR CUTLER: The CRM field has big players, like Salesforce.com.  Why did Commence choose to enter the space?
CARETSKY: A few years ago industry experts asked Jet Blue executives why they choose to start an airline when the industry was in turmoil and even the giants were struggling to stay alive.  Jet Blue succeeded in becoming a significant carrier.  Unlike the airline industry, the CRM space and is growing rapidly and no single vendor has more than a 5% market share. The new battlefield is the SMB market, which Commence has been servicing for almost twenty years.  This is our core competency and we know how to compete effectively.

TR CUTLER: What was missing in the CRM market that Commence addresses more effectively?
CARETSKY: Hosted solutions such as Salesforce.com addressed the difficulties associated with deploying traditional client server based CRM solutions, but utilization rates have remained low and customer renewals have been problematic. This is the direct result of a business model that does not include the proper planning and coaching required to ensure customer utilization.  Regardless of the deployment model (in-house or hosted), there is still a reasonable degree of planning and mentoring necessary for the successful implementation and utilization of CRM.

Commence has addressed this requirement with extraordinarily effectiveness through the use of a proprietary implementation methodology called STEP (Selling Tools Enablement Program).  STEP outlines the planning and responsibilities required by the customer and Commence staff to ensure a successful implementation and use of our CRM solution.  This critical training functionality has been missing in the industry and has become a significant differentiator for our business.

TR CUTLER: How does a company like Commence compete against the Goliath of Salesforce.com and other CRM giants that are publicly traded and well-financed?
CARETSKY: Well in this “pay to play industry” it is hard to rise above the noise of Microsoft and Salesforce.com. The way Commence succeeds is to simply be better at one or two aspects of the business then the big guys.  Commence has been very clear in differentiation and continues to quietly and consistently earn new customers and build solid references.

The single most significant differentiator Commence possessed versus the big CRM giants is our business model.  Saleforce.com’s objective, for example, is to sell their solution to as many companies as possible regardless of size or industry. The only way to do this is to develop a generic set of features that supports the general business requirements of companies across all industries.  This one size fits all approach does not work in all industry sectors.

Salesforce.com has recognized this short-coming and created an add-on development tool that allows for the customization of their CRM solution. The problem is that the SMB space has no interest in doing custom development, nor has the infrastructure to support it.

Commence CRM, unlike Salesforce.com, is developing specific vertical industry solutions that are already tailored to the unique business requirements of the customers in each particular sector. The result…customers can achieve a rapid return on their investment (ROI) without costly development work.  Commence currently has a tailored solution for manufacturers and distributors and a construction vertical CRM is in development.

TR CUTLER: Why should a company with a general database such as ACT, jump up to a more sophisticated CRM solution?
CARETSKY: Many of SMB companies, while small, have simply outgrown their contact managers and are looking for tools to help them improve sales execution and customer service effectiveness. In order to achieve these improvements, SMB companies require an integrated CRM system that supports sales, marketing, and customer support, while providing better collaboration and disparate system integration.  In the past, this level of functionality was too expensive for small to mid-size companies and required IT support.  Hosted solutions like Commence make this level of functionality affordable, easy to use, and simple to deploy.   Additionally, Commence has developed conversion tools that make the transition of contact management databases such as ACT and Goldmine virtually seamless to Commence.

TR CUTLER: What do you see as the drawbacks for those firms that have selected the big CRM solutions, like Saleforce.com?
CARETSKY: The problem with CRM today is that companies often look at CRM as a commodity and it’s really not.  Having interviewed many customers that purchased their CRM solution based on brand recognition, they have been extremely disappointed with the end result.  All of us at Commence Corporation believe that there is more value in the domain experience a CRM technology vendor can provide to the customer than in the product itself.   The big guys specifically SalesForce.com and Microsoft are severely lacking in this aspect…  their business model does not provide them with the ability to engage the customer directly.

Instead the CRM Goliaths rely on third party companies which rarely have the industry knowledge or experience to ensure the successful implementation and use of these products. This has resulted in higher cost implementations and a low level of customer satisfaction among many SMB organizations.

TR CUTLER: Other than a price advantage, what do you see as the top reasons people should consider CRM solutions, Commence specifically?
CARETSKY: Commence’s staff recognizes that improving the customer experience is one of the few excellence differentiators.  CRM has shown to significantly impact sales execution and customer service by providing the end user with access to the vital customer information needed to perform their jobs more efficiently.  Few question the value of CRM anymore, but rather are concerned with the high failure rate and low adoption usage that has plagued the industry.

TR CUTLER: Your literature indicates that your solution is modular and priced in license packs rather then by user. Can you elaborate on this?
CARETSKY: Commence is modular in nature which allows the end user to only select the departmental applications required for their business.  Other vendors, such as Salesforce.com, force customers into more expensive solutions in order to add a minimal amount of functionality.  This means customers are paying for functionality they don’t need.

The Commence licensing program is designed for the SMB sector…these margin-conscious business owners have made it very clear that they do not want to pay additional fees every time they need to add a new user. They refer to it as “paying by the drink.” Commence has created user packs that are designed for smaller businesses.  SMB Customers can purchase a 5, 10 or 20 pack for instance at a discounted rate.  This way the customer can add users at no additional cost. The significance here is that the solution actually gets cheaper as they add users and they don’t have to call Commence to change their license.

TR CUTLER: Where do you see Commence in five years?
CARETSKY: I believe that Commence will most likely continue to focus on those industries where our product offering and domain experience make us the logical and best choice among CRM technology solutions available.

TR CUTLER: Where do you see Salesforce.com in five years?
CARETSKY: I think Salesforce.com will continue to be impacted by the increased competition in the general purpose space from players such as Microsoft and Oracle and from industry specific players that are trying to carve out a vertical niche, like Commence Corporation.  I suspect that the company would be a good acquisition target during this timeframe.

TR CUTLER: Where do you see the CRM marketplace in five years?
CARETSKY: The continued growth of CRM has attracted some of the largest software companies in the world and I suspect that the industry will go through a high level of consolidation as these companies look for strength in specific vertical sectors.  It’s fair to say that many of the companies in existence today won’t be five years from now…after twenty years, we know Commence will still be here.

Manufacturing and Distribution CRM

Posted by Commence on under Commence News | 4 Comments to Read

Industrial CRM Solutions That Eliminate Company Inefficiencies

When it comes to using Contact Management and Customer Relationship Management software for Industrial Sales, Commence literally wrote the book. Using Six Sigma, lean practices, Commence CRM can help you implement smart business processes that will make your company a more efficient sales and service organization. Manage the selling cycle from introduction to closure though our contact management, lead management, activity management, quoting and sales automation software. Our off-line or disconnected capability is ideal for field sales representatives who need customer information with them at all times.

Our Sales Tools Combined with Smart Business Practices will Help You To Maximize Every Business Interaction and Achieve Your Sales Potential

Industrial Sales Tools

Rapidly deployable, easy to use tools for managing the sales cycle from introduction to closure. Commence takes the guess work out of sales management, contact management, lead management, pipeline management, forecasting and reporting. Commence can even help your company set up it’s own sales force automation services.

Smart Practices for Industry

This compendium of CRM smart practices offers real life examples of how to create a customer centric marketing strategy, efficiently manage the sales process and use CRM technology to achieve industrial selling results.

Commence Corporation to Offer Cloud Computing Option

Posted by Commence on under Commence News | Read the First Comment

Commence Corporation, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software solutions designed specifically for small- to mid-size businesses, today announced details of the new cloud computing edition of its award-winning CRM software. The new offering, planned for January 2010, will initially be deployed for the Amazon Web Service’s Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) environment.

Amazon EC2 is a Web service that provides resizable computing capacity for the “cloud,” enabling users to increase or decrease capacity needed for applications within minutes. In the EC2 environment, Commence’s popular CRM software will be run on secure, shared servers; customers will not need a data center, additional office space, or a technology team. The service will be offered under a subscription model, enabling customers to pay only for the functionality they desire.

“We are excited to leverage Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing environment and take advantage of the increased scalability, high availability, reliability and disaster recovery options that it offers, ” commented Todd Pape, chief technology officer at Commence. “This approach enables us to offer a world-class solution to our customers at a fraction of the cost of implementation on their own. In addition, the service leverages Amazon’s global cloud data centers enabling Commence to further extend our service within Europe.”

Commence provides a central CRM database for capturing, managing and sharing vital customer information, while customers retain ownership of data and business processes. It can be tailored to fit different industries and business requirements and, with the cloud technology, there are no restrictions on customizability. Its adaptable, modular design allows users to select applications from a comprehensive suite of business CRM functions, including contact management, lead management, activity management, sales force automation, marketing and campaign management, quoting, project management and customer service.