By Dave Kahle

Q. Dave, I am finding it difficult to manage my personal finances.  As a commissioned sales person, my income varies from month to month.  It seems like I’m always struggling with finances.  Do you have suggestions for me?

A. Congratulations for having the courage to ask that question.  Do I have suggestions?  Yep, a bunch of them.

First, a little perspective, so you know where I’m coming from.  For almost my entire adult life, I have been a commissioned sales person whose income varied from month to month.  Even now, my income varies monthly.  So, I can certainly understand your situation on the income side.  On the expense side, there have been times when I had obligations that, at times, seemed overwhelming.  My wife was a full time homemaker, we raised a family of five children, and for many of those years I also had child support payments.  Those were heavy financial responsibilities.

In all of this, I have learned some things about managing personal finances.  Here are some of the lessons I have learned along the way.

Avoid debt

First, as much as possible, avoid debt.  Debt adds tremendously to your stress.  You know that you must make those payments or you are going to have lots of unpleasant consequences.  That may be constantly on your mind, contributing to sleepless nights and rising blood pressure.

Debt reduces your options.  If you have monthly payments, for example, they must be paid even if you have a bad month or two.  Without those payments, you can generally find a way to ride out low income months by temporarily reducing your standard of living.  You can eat in every day, for example, instead of buying pizza or going out.  Without monthly payments, you can even survive a few months of no income at all.

Interest you pay eventually reduces your standard of living, because your interest payments are expenses that bring you no value.  So, be careful about putting anything on that charge card.  And if you do, try to pay it off each month.  Deciding to make just minimum payments is one of the most expensive decisions you’ll ever make.

Also, be careful about any long term commitments.  Instead of a three year lease on a new car, think about buying used and paying it off in two.  Instead of a two year lease on that apartment, try 12 months.

You may not ever be able to be totally debt free.  However, you can make decisions which, over time, will significantly reduce your amount of debt, easing the pressure on you and allowing you more options.

Develop a monthly budget

Second, develop a monthly budget for reasonable living.  In good months, don’t spend the excess, put anything you make above that amount into a savings account.  In bad months or years, tap into that savings account to meet your budget.  At the end of the year, use some of the excess that you’ve build up to make those big purchases that you were tempted to put on a charge card during the year.

For example, say that you set up a budget of $4,000 a month.  In January, you take home $4,400.  Of that, $400 goes into the savings account, and you live on $4,000.  In February, you take home $4,500.  You repeat the discipline, putting $500 away.  In March, you take home $3,500.  You take $500 out of the savings for your day-to-day expenses.  When you’ve built up a comfortable surplus, buy those big things that you’d like to have.

This is one of the best things that I ever did.  Even to this day, my wife and I operate on a budget.  Here’s an example.  We have a certain amount of money dedicated each month to “entertainment.”  We use this for meals out, concerts, etc.  When the money’s gone, we’re done. If we want to go out to eat, but don’t have any money in the entertainment budget, we don’t go.  It’s called deferred gratification, and it’s the secret of surviving financially in a turbulent environment.

A number of years ago, I was involved with a group that had an excellent budgeting system, and taught it in small groups that met in homes.  If you are interested, check out Crown Ministries.

Increase your giving

Finally, one last thought.  This will sound counter-intuitive, but I have followed this rule for all of my adult life, and have found it to be extremely powerful.  That rule is this:  In times of economic uncertainty, increase your giving.

There is something about giving that helps you put your situation into perspective.  It focuses you on people around you who need help in ways that you don’t.  It gives your family a broader perspective, injects new purpose into your life, and encourages everyone to be less self-centered.

Realize that I’m coming at this from a Christian perspective.  There is a promise in the Bible that says we cannot out-give God.  When we give of our time and talents, God will respond by returning to us much more than what we have given.  I have found that promise to be as bankable as my paycheck.

You may not share my perspective.  Regardless, just from a purely pragmatic point of view, there are still some very practical reasons to increase your giving.  When you get involved in some volunteer organization, you mix with a different group of people than that with which you are accustomed.  New people, new situations, new issues are all invigorating for sales people.  Also, you’ll find, through your investigation of places to which to donate time and money, lots of people who need help a whole lot more than you do.  That helps you put your situation into perspective.  And that helps you stay positive, optimistic and effective.

Think of giving in two ways:  giving of your money, and donating your time and talent.

If you have some organization, cause or church to which you regularly donate, consider increasing your donation.  If you don’t, now is the time to find some place to donate some of your money.

Find something in which you can donate your time. If you are not involved in some volunteer work, find someplace to give of your time and talents.  For a number of years my wife and I were foster parents, caring for a total of 19 children of various ages, races, and emotional and physical disabilities.  It kept us humble, broadened our lives, and taught us a lot.  I’d recommend you find something like that – something into which you can invest your time and talent.

It really is the difficult times in your life, and your reaction to them, that shape your character and make you a better person.

Image “credit-card” owned by Baptiste Franchina (cc)
Image “Balancing The Account By Hand” owned by Ken Teegardin (cc)
Image “A MODERN THERMOPYLAE: 300 hunger strikers” owned by SpaceShoe [Learning to live with the crisis] (cc)

About the Author:

Dave Kahle is one of the world’s leadng sales educators. He’s written nine books, presented in 47 states and eight countries, and has helped enrich tens of thousands of sales people and transform hundreds of sales organizations.  Sign up for his free weekly Ezine, and visit his blog.  For a limited time, receive $547 of free bonuses with the purchase of his latest book, How to Sell Anything to Anyone Anytime.

Copyright MMX by Dave Kahle

All Rights Reserved.

The CRM software sector is one of the most competitive segments of the computer software industry.  Despite this, each year more and more vendors enter the race positioning their CRM products as easier to use and lower cost than the established CRM vendors.  The CRM gold rush has created an environment chock full of low cost entry level CRM programs that provide basic contact management and a sales forecast and little more.  While this group of newcomers struggle to compete in this difficult sector, three companies have risen to the top of the charts based on the functionality they provide, the quality of their products as reviewed by customers, and the level of service they provide.

Salesforce.com CRM is often viewed as the industry leader especially among enterprise level organizations.  The company offers a highly scalable CRM solution capable of supporting several thousand users, robust functionality, multi-language product versions and an add-on developer’s toolkit that enables experienced programmers to customize the applications.

The middle market has become a much tougher battleground for Salesforce CRM.  This is due to two very well established companies that offer a comprehensive suite of applications that compare favorably to Salesforce.com, are known to be easier to use, and are much less expensive.

Commence Corporation has served the middle market and small enterprises for two decades. The company has a top rated CRM solution that is highly regarded for its robust functionality, ease of use and ability to be quickly customized without programmer intervention.   One of the unique characteristics of Commence CRM is the product’s modular design which offers customers the flexibility to select only the applications they require for their business vs. being forced into higher CRM costs with a pre-packaged set of CRM features at a set price point.  Commence CRM is also available as a cloud based offering or on premise. This has made Commence CRM an attractive alternative for larger companies that desire an on-premise CRM solution at an attractive price point.   While not yet a household brand name, Commence CRM is built using industry standard technology and the company’s CRM software is currently being used in more than 35 industries and in 22 countries around the world.

SugarCRM is another company that provides a mid market CRM solution and competes with Salesforce.com and Commence CRM.  Originally offered as an open source solution at no cost, the company changed direction and now offers their CRM product under an annual software licensing model. Sugar offers comprehensive functionality at a lower price point than Salesforce.com and the ability to be customized as well.   The downside with Sugar CRM is that the product is written using the PHP programming language which means you must be a developer to tailor the applications.  This adds additional cost to their offering.

You may find it interesting that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is not included above. This is because the company’s hosted CRM Online solution was recently released and there is simply not enough history to determine the quality of the product or the ROI and value realized by companies that may have selected it.

The Bottom Line:

If you currently looking to implement CRM software to streamline your internal business processes, you are in the driver’s seat.  There are dozens of options available, but a shake-up is coming and it will be difficult for many of the lower cost CRM solution providers to survive.  Perhaps a more compelling reason to focus on an established CRM vendor is the following: the competitive nature of this industry sector has forced CRM solution providers to reduce their cost to such a degree that the difference between an unknown low cost provider and a world-class company like those listed above is just a few dollars per user per month.  You will also find the level of service provided and the protection of your data with the three industry leaders is far superior to the lower cost, “new to the market” solution providers.

Better known for its on premise desktop CRM software, Commence Corporation has been providing contact management, sales force automation and marketing campaign management solutions to small and mid-size companies for more than two decades.  The company introduced a web-based hosted version of their popular CRM software and is gaining notoriety.   With an outstanding track record for performance, reliability and world-class customer service Commence is a strong competitor and becoming a favorite among smaller businesses looking for a flexible hosted CRM solution with productivity tools that are easy to use.

“Commence web CRM has an impressive and unique user interface that makes the product very easy to use and navigate” says Gary Sanders of OK! Magazine.  “The product’s Home Page or Dashboard is completely customizable by individual or job function.  This allows each user to create a dashboard to the way they work.  The value here is that you can place the functions you use most right on the home page, such as today’s calendar and activities, e-mail, sales opportunities, leads, reminders and even an interactive sales funnel.  We hadn’t seen this in any other CRM solution.  This flexibility enables people to conduct 90% of their daily activities without ever leaving the Home Page and has really improved productivity.” 

Commence Home Page

Karen Deneau, Director of Marketing with Center for Film Studies, needed CRM software that her staff would feel comfortable with.   “When selecting a CRM solution, you worry about utilization, but we were confident that our staff would adapt well to Commence CRM and they have.   We also liked that Commence is modular in design, which allowed us to select only the functionality we required. We weren’t forced to purchase a package with a dozen features we would never use.  Commence’s strength clearly lies in its ease of use.  Within two weeks we had marketing campaigns out the door and leads captured from our web site were integrated directly into the Commence CRM system.  The staff at Commence was also extremely helpful in ensuring that we quickly realized value from their solution.”

Key Differentiators

Commence’s modular design provides the flexibility to start with basic CRM functionality such as Account and Contact Management, E-Mail integration and Sales Pipeline Management, then add additional features such as Quoting, Marketing Campaign Management and Project Management when you’re ready.  Integration to disparate systems can be achieved via an Application Programming Interface or API, and Commence CRM supports the majority of popular Mobile devices.

Another key differentiator of Commence CRM is the product’s lead qualification and sales reporting capability. The leads module includes an automated business process that scores leads based on pre-defined criteria, then color codes them based on how well defined they are.  This capability is unique to Commence CRM, and ensures that your sales team is working on the most qualified opportunities and not chasing tire kickers. 

Lead Scoring Screen

Reporting

The reporting engine offers three levels of data analysis.  A set of pre-defined reports for sales management, marketing and customer support can be viewed with a single click and modified just as easily.  A built in report writer allows you to create customer reports against any field in the database, including custom fields.  Lastly, Commence CRM includes a pre-built set of graphical and analytical reports for all sales activity, marketing, lead generation and customer support.

Reports

Commence offers the freedom of choice to deploy CRM software on premise or as a hosted web based solution and offers a level of functionality traditionally only provided by enterprise level solutions. Commence products are distributed around the world in more than 22 countries and 35 different industries.  The company’s track record for providing high quality reliable products and outstanding customer service make it a solid choice for growing businesses.

About the Author:  Jim Smith is the founder and managing partner of YCHANGE INTERNATIONAL,  a management consultancy specializing in helping small to mid-size businesses expand or execute a turnaround strategy.  Jim is a commissioner for the Housing Authority of Portland, Oregon and serves as a member of the newly formed economic cabinet of Portland. Jim is a motivational speaker and trainer and lectures on Customer Relationship Management in the areas of sales, marketing, business and leadership.  He is an avid blogger on www.ychange.com/ychangeblog.

Commence Corporation has moved beyond traditional Customer Relationship Management software programs that are primarily focused on managing the sales cycle to delivering a solution that enables you to increase the effectiveness of your sales organization and focus on business with the greatest potential. Commence has introduced an automated business process that ranks and scores leads based a set of pre-defined criteria.  The criteria consist of a series of questions that are used to automatically score each lead based on the responses entered into the system.  The questions are completely customizable and users may create as many as required. (See sample below):

Lead Scoring Questions

The lead qualification questions and rating criteria are determined by sales management and ensure that every new opportunity is ranked according to the criteria.  It’s an efficient process that results in a high level of consistency because every opportunity is scored using a standardized set of qualifiers and is no longer dependent on the experience level of the sales representative.

Each lead is then automatically color coded as highly qualified (red), requires additional follow-up (yellow), or not qualified (blue).  (See diagram below)

Lead Qualification

The value here is two-fold:  First, there is no question with regard to where the sales team should be focusing their attention.  The leads coded red are the most qualified opportunities based on the company’s lead qualification criteria and need immediate attention.  Secondly, sales management can quickly view the most qualified opportunities and assist with the process of moving them toward closure.

Part of the Commence value proposition also comes from an integrated marketing application that is directly tied to the lead qualification system.  Yellow and blue coded leads may be placed in an automated drip-marketing program that nurtures each lead with periodic mailings while your team is focused on the most qualified opportunities.

The Commence lead scoring feature provides critical intelligence and has proven to deliver measurable results.  It will ensure that your sales team has a laser-sharp focus on the most qualified sales opportunities.  With the Commence CRM features, you’ll shrink the sales cycle and improve your bottom line results.   I guarantee it.

About the author: Larry Caretsky is the president of Commence Corporation, a leading provider of CRM software which can be deployed in a web-based, cloud-computing environment or on premise. Caretsky is considered an expert in Customer Relationship Management and has written numerous white papers on the subject, which may be accessed via the company’s web site at www.commence.com.

It seems like manufacturers of Customer Relationship Management software are doing almost anything these days to add new subscribers.   Some are offering free utilization for the first few months, others money back guarantees and a few are even offering utilization of their software as a monthly service with no contract at all.  Price points are all over the map and they have consistently changed to attract new customers.  It’s gotten so crazy that if you need a CRM system right away some vendors will allow you to enter your credit card and for a few bucks you’ll be up and running in minutes.  In some cases the service is even free.  But wait a minute.  Is this a business solution that is going to address my requirements for improving how I sell and provide services to my customers?  It sounds more like I am buying an out of the box contact manager.

The fast sale & low cost craze must be working however, because CRM vendors like Salesforce and Microsoft — two of the recognized leaders — have continued to repackage their offering and lower their price.  Just a few weeks ago a small company of two people could purchase Salesforce CRM for $9 per user per month.  A few months earlier up to ten users could take advantage of this offer.  Recently the program changed again and now five users can purchase the product for $5 per user.  I appreciate that CRM vendors are having a tough time differentiating themselves, but are they now convinced that the sole driver of CRM decisions among small to mid-size companies is price?   This CEO is not.

Warren Buffet once said, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” Seems appropriate here doesn’t it.   My firm Commence Corporation has been providing CRM software solutions to small and mid-size business for two decades. Most of the executives we work with are entrepreneurial and savvy operators.  Sure they want the best price they can get, but they are more interested in addressing their business requirements and improving their business than finding the lowest price.   Sometimes their requirements are as simple as data consolidation.  They may be managing their customer data using excel spreadsheets or a contact manager and are unable to consolidate and share the information with the people and departments that need it to efficiently do their jobs.   Some are frustrated with their inability to organize and manage their sales organization and are looking for tools and expertise to assist them. But one thing is for sure: they recognize that a CRM tool on its own at any price is not going to solve their business needs.  They want a CRM partner.

Value Added Services, the True Differentiator

So what do I get for $5 dollars or $9 dollars per user anyway?  What level of service should I expect?  Do I get a documented installation plan that will ensure the successful implementation of the CRM system?  Do I get assistance with data migration? What about training?  Is the CRM vendor available to assist my staff with best practices for data consolidation and data sharing, sales optimization and measurement of sales performance?  Will I get the services I need to address my business challenges and improve my business?   After all, this is why I began the search for a CRM system in the first place.

CRM Partner vs. CRM Vendor

Addressing your business challenges will not be met by the selection of a low cost CRM solution, but instead by engaging the expertise and domain experience of a true business partner. A partner will take responsibility of the successful implementation and utilization of the CRM system.   A partner will provide a high level of service before, during and after the sale and supply the industry and product expertise to ensure that you realize the maximum value from their solution.  The only problem is you cannot get a partner for $5 per user.

Commence Differentiators

Commence Corporation has taken pride not only in our top rated CRM software, but in the world-class service we have provided to our customers.  For more than two decades Commence customers have relied on our expertise and domain experience to ensure the successful utilization of our product and the growth of their business.  This partnership between Commence and our customers have ensured their success as well as ours.

See what customers say about Commence and take a look at my white paper “Don’t Make a CRM Buying Mistake” at www.commence.com.

A standard approach to pursuing and tracking opportunities is a smart way to assure that all sales activities are aligned with organizational goals and the overall direction of sales management. Consistency also reduces the amount of non-value added sales activities such as drafting letters, writing reports, and having lengthy phone calls to determine what stage is next in a sales opportunity.  Having standard terminology saves time and minimizes confusion.

Sales managers benefit from standardized CRM Sales processes because it is also easier to determine how each salesperson is performing.  Opportunities that are stalled in one stage can be identified and resolved.  Salespeople benefit from standardization because they waste less time determining what information is missing and what the next step should be in the workflow. Sales appointments become more productive because they are only conducted when qualified as part of a planned sequence of events.

The high level steps to implement a sales process are:

1. Document your sales process
2. Design your implementation
3. Train your sales team
4. Support the implementation

Some companies adopt branded systems such as Sandler, Solution Selling, Dale Carnegie or others.  Others develop their own systems with distinct terminology; perhaps a hybrid of popular systems or a mix of the techniques used by the company’s most successful sales performers.

A standard sales process allows companies to more easily analyze events and make sense of trends. As a regional sales manager at a mid-sized organization observed, “The only way to discover what’s working and what’s not is to measure the individual steps of the sales process.  If you know the percentages of prospects that proceed through each stage of the process, you accurately predict how many sales will close in the future, based upon the current pipeline.  You can also compare the performance of team members and take appropriate action, like additional coaching, in order to ensure that the team remains productive.”

Applying Best Practices to Sales

Most organizations are not strangers to processes, systems, and re-engineering.  For example, in the manufacturing industry, plants and warehouses couldn’t operate profitably without them and no business manager would let accounting and purchasing departments improvise. The more complex the task, it’s more likely that the effective principles and processeses for successfully completing that task have been defined and codified.  In other words, much of the business world is already highly process-driven, systematized, and automated.

Yet, oftentimes, the sales department hasn’t been automated.  For example, in a recent study of distributor respondents, eighty-eight percent indicated that they do not have a documented, formal sales process.  Given that sales is fundamental and represents a large expense item, it was quite surprising that written sales processes were non-existent for the majority of the study participants.  Without such a document to provide a consistent road map, executives have no choice but to depend on the creativity, work ethic and luck of individual sales reps and their managers.

Organizations without a documented sales process often exhibit several common symptoms, such as a disconnected and manual approach to selling and a lengthy cycle time to find prospects, get quotes out the door, and close orders.  This may in turn lead to irritated prospects, who expect a rapid response to their inquiries or request for a proposal. .  In addition, top sales employees may become annoyed.  They want to sell, not figure out the best way to put prospects in the pipeline, create quotes, enter orders   and track shipments delivered. Other symptoms of process deficiencies include abundant and costly errors, evidenced by expedited orders and high volumes of returns, and inadequate margin on too many quotes, resulting in deflated profitability.  This may lead to stagnant sales from the most important customers and cause engineering and other departments to be pulled into disarray when the sales team gets a request for proposal or learns about a bid opportunity.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone.  Many executives voice issues similar to these, yet the remedy seems to be incredibly difficult.  Sales teams are often extremely autonomous, and management struggles to avoid “big brother” accusations and micromanaging.  Despite these legitimate concerns, it is not that difficult to successfully implement a standard sales process.

When reviewing the various sales methodologies and processes available, make sure your final selection is repeatable, predictable, and scalable.  What you want is a sales process that is simply enough that, over time, it will become second nature to the sales staff. Also, make sure that it isn’t too complicated, or the sales team will not use it.

The elements of a sales process typically include:

• a common vocabulary for describing the activities involved in selling
• clearly defined stages of selling
• an agreed upon checklist of what it takes to move from one stage to the next
• consistent guidelines for information to be gathered and given at each stage
• clear expectations for how long each sales stage should take
• concise definition of suggested next actions

When smart organizations are designing a sales process implementation, they focus on change management, not sales training.  By implementing a formalized sales process, businesses are fundamentally changing the way people do their jobs on a daily basis.  There will be natural resistance.  To develop a change management plan, make sure you can answer the following questions:

• What motivation do sales people have to use the new system?
• What potential barriers are there to implementation?
• How can I overcome those barriers?
• How will I know if the implementation is successful?
• What should I expect during the transition?
• Who can people go to if they have questions?

Follow the Leader

One of the best ways to make sure implementations “stick” is to have the management involved.  One recent study found that when sales training is reinforced by management, the sales skills taught during training produced a 15% permanent increase in productivity.

Management needs to be involved in more than a cosmetic fashion.  A senior member of the management team needs to attend the training, and this same manager should inspect the sales activities for a period of time to make sure they continuously are consistent with the new sales introduced during the training.

At the end of the day, the challenge with adopting a new sales process is getting everyone to follow it.  Sales management must lead by example in sales meetings and on sales calls.  An automated workflow reinforced by a CRM system that quickly prompts a salesperson to enter required information before moving to the next sales stage is invaluable. Standard reports and online visibility into the sales pipeline can help monitor the progress of opportunities over time so that both the salesperson and the sales manager can spot when an opportunity is stalled.

As one sales leader summed up his company’s recipe for success: “Our company can’t grow consistently unless the sales process is repeatable, not arbitrary.  For us, it is a condition of employment – you have to embrace the standards, follow the processes and use the CRM system.”

About Commence Corporation: Founded in 1988, Commence develops and delivers a diverse suite of award winning CRM software that integrates people, processes and technology.  Available on-premise or online, Commence CRM solutions are utilized by several thousand businesses to streamline sales and customer service front office business processes.  As a result, Commence clients increase workforce productivity, generate positive customer interactions and reduce operational cost.

Commence Corporation, a leading provider of customer  relationship management (CRM  ) software solutions designed specifically for small- to mid-size businesses, today announced enhancements to its reports  library in the newest version of its software-as-a-service (SaaS) CRM solution, Commence OnDemand.

“While most CRM solutions offer report writing capabilities, the small- to mid-size business sector often under utilizes this capability simply because they do not have the time or resources to design the reports. With Commence OnDemand, users can view pre-built reports immediately with a simple click of the mouse. Sales and marketing management, for example, can easily access strategic reports such as a 30-, 60-, 90-day forecast, sales activity by sales rep or customer account or marketing campaign analysis. Customer service can review the number of open support tickets, who is handling them and how long they have been open,” commented Larry Caretsky, Commence’s CEO. “For many of the reports, users can choose between text-based or graphic formats.”

With capabilities that rival many enterprise-level solutions, Commence OnDemand provides a central database for capturing, managing and sharing vital customer information. Its customizable, modular design allows users to select applications from a comprehensive suite of business functions, including contact management, lead management, activity management, sales force automation, marketing and campaign management, quoting, project management, and customer service. A flexible, Web-based hosted solution, Commence OnDemand provides automatic updates and enhancements and seamlessly integrates with both PC and Mac operating systems.

The enhanced reports library is available immediately to Commence OnDemand customers. More information about Commence OnDemand can be accessed at www.commence.com.