It was many years ago while selling ERP systems that I learned to appreciate the power of technology to help me manage my prospect database. Cutting edge back then was a laptop, Microsoft Windows, MS Word and MS Excel. I used MS Word to craft my proposals and invitations. I used MS Excel to keep tabs of my prospects as they progress from cold to hot leads and everything in between.
Reports were simple because I only had a few leads at any given time. I spent an inordinate amount of time between looking for prospects and nurturing my relationships. Most of those relationships were forged through long hours of sifting through directories, begging for referrals, and sticking by every bit of opportunity that comes my way.
My newfound career in the publishing doesn’t require me to be directly involved in sales but I still have relationships to forge with our company’s customers. My contact database is a respectable 2,300 records of people I’ve met in the last seven years, many of whom have moved about their own respective careers and businesses. So if forging good relationships is important in my job as well as career, how do I keep my tabs of all 2,300 names?
The only technology I use at this time is my Outlook contact database. Is this sufficient? Probably not. It would be good for me to know what each of my 2,300 contact looks like because my memory fades as I age (with grace). It would be nice to greet them on their birthdays – thank you FaceBook! And so on and so on.
A friend suggested I try using customer relationship management (CRM) software. Although I’ve heard of and written a bit about CRM, I’ve never really used one. The sales people in my company have. They tried their hands on a CRM solution from salesforce.com and recently migrated over to Oracle On Demand.
I’ve not been offered nor asked to use the system. I am testing out a couple of free CRM products: FreeCRM, MX-Contact and ZohoCRM. I’ll let you know what my adventures (or misadventures) in finding the right CRM software in a separate story. For now this is about de-linking CRM from customer relationships.
According to Anthony Lye, senior vice president of Oracle CRM, many companies misconstrue having CRM as tantamount to knowing and understanding your customers. He re-iterates an old computing adage: garbage in, garbage out. He warns that many CRM implementations fail because companies implement CRM without understanding the context for which the [CRM] solution is being deployed.
He has a point. Today we are often overwhelmed by the promise of technology and we lose sight of what we want to achieve in the first place. Technology should always be viewed as an enabler of a goal or objective. Process innovation should not be sacrificed in favor of technology.
It’s not a matter of “if you build it, they will come.” Rather, its about listening to your customers whether an opportunity is present or not. My aunt is probably my best role model for developing loyal customers/clients.
I’m not advocating you ignore what technologies like CRM, business intelligence and business analytics can do for you. These are great tools at helping you automate some of the mundane aspects of customer relationship building and nurturing. Rather I am suggesting that we do not let technology, and all the marketing hype that surround it, to overwhelm our sense of what is right and proper. Each of us is endowed with common “business” sense. Use it wisely.
There is an escalating war going on. It started in 2002 with Apple running their now famous Switch advertisements featuring what they call “Real People” who “moved out” of the Windows platform to the Mac. While the switch ad was later replaced by “Get a Mac” in 2006 (and still runs today). In recent years Microsoft has tried a similar tactic but focusing on freedom of choice as its primary value proposition.
I am a Windows user myself both at work and home. I also have a venerable iMAC running OSX 10.4 at home. When I first bought my iMAC I was surprised at how quickly my kids adapted to the new platform even though they bought used Windows PCs at school (they still do). But then again my kids used the iMAC mostly for Net surfing and checking out emails. My wife remains a Windows user although occasionally she powers on the iMAC when she wants a quick check on the web.
I continue to be amazed at the intense Windows versus MAC battles. Apple continues to run these ads enticing people to switch over. But really people, do you honestly think that switching over from XP to Mac OS X just because you hear the horror stories about the early days of Vista is going to be easy. For those who see the hassle of moving from XP to 7 as being difficult, you will face the same hassle of migrating from any Windows platform to Apple Mac.
The reality kicked me very early on when I bought my first Mac. I very quickly realized that I don’t have a plethora of choice in terms of software for the Mac platform. In fact software choice was limited especially during the days of the “G” series processors that powered the Macs of yester-years. Windows emulators back then were notoriously bad. The shift to Intel processors is certainly a welcome boost to most PC users as the Windows software emulators that followed were more stable. The mere presence of Windows emulators suggests that people are not totally out of the Windows world even when they shift to the Mac.
The Windows 7 platform appears (during my tests anyway on a very old – unsupported HP tablet TC1100) stable. It runs most of the XP applications I am familiar with. There is a bit of a learning curve as you learn to grapply with widgets. But the overall experience is pleasant and not as nerve wracking as when I moved to OS X the first time.
I love Apple for continuing to offer OS X upgrades at frequent interval. Likewise I deplore Microsoft’s slow and cumbersome strategy to OS platform upgrades. I can only guess that they are living by the truism “why fix something that ain’t broken?”
Today we live in an “experience” society where product success or failure can be measured by the experience of the individual. Enough individual experience can amass together to destroy (or make it difficult for) a product. The coverse is true. Just look at the mobile platform. For years the dominant OS was Symbian that powered Nokia. Then along came Windows that tried but failed to get sufficient traction because the PC experience is clearly not very conducive for mobile users. When Apple launched the iPhone, users quickly fell in love with the touch experience. Windows has tried to emulate this as it partners with device manufacturers to come up with better user interface but the experience isn’t quite up there as that of the iPhone/iPod Touch.
What I’m getting at here is that anyone who thinks that migrating from Windows XP to Mac OSX is going to be pain free will be in for a rude awakening, particularly for those who are heavy into Windows-based applications. Checkout whether the programs you have been using, and for which you have lots of data resting in archives – say your accounting program or your spreadsheets or your data files. Before you decide to switch to the “cool” MMac factor, find out if there are equivalent programs on the Mac platform that will take your data and allow you to move forward seamlessly. If this is not possible, your choice is clear, stay with Windows. The new Windows 7 platform is an amazing leap forward by Microsoft. I just hope that Microsoft moves a lot faster with its succession of OS updates.
PS: To Microsoft – notice how Apple’s OS is priced way, way cheaper than Microsoft’s? Apple has learned that the fastest way to get into people’s heart is through great experience. The fastest way of shifting hardliners is through their wallets.
In My Humble Opinion 