With the passing of Walter Cronkite I got to thinking about what it means to be “the most trusted man in America”. How is it possible that one man delivering the news can capture the attention of everyone in America and much of the world?

Before Walter Cronkite the news was sort of homogenized. Bundled up into little easily-absorbed bites. All the news stations were doing the same thing. Walter Cronkite changed all that for CBS. He delivered the news with vigor, compassion and a sense of purpose. He knew the American people could deal more effectively with the actual facts rather than some watered down variations. And he was able to connect with the millions of viewers one soul at a time.

Walter Cronkite’s success came down to 4 things: credibility, sincerity, loyalty and approachability. His quest for the facts, his caring about getting the job done right, his devotion to family and America, and his clear opinions and delivery is what made him the most trusted man in America.

As business people, if we follow Water Cronkite’s example our customers will always want to do business with us. If we know the facts, present clear ideas, prove our case and show them we care, we have done our job and customers and prospects will appreciate it. They might not always agree with our counsel but they know they can trust us.

George Clooney said he hates America without Walter Cronkite. We all know he does not mean that but the world has lost one of its best parts. We should all strive to carry a little Walter in everything we do and slowly we will make our world a better place.

Tags: CRM Basics

While dashboards are good to have, sales reps really just need a couple of basic views or reports to do their job well. My Pipeline and Opportunity Forecasts are the two most important ones. You should have a couple of different views of each one such as monthly, quarterly and yearly time frames and open vs. closed as well as opportunity and product forecasts.

CRM solutions will come with prepackaged reports which you should be able to modify for your needs. Reps and managers will have different ones of course. Managers should have the aggregate of their reps.

You also want to create simple negligent reports such as when my last contact and deal was with a customer. You should have the overall business you have done with them. This will help better gauge how much time you should be spending on the relationship. It shows if you are spending too much time on too little business.

So while dashboards are all the rage you can be just as effective without them with your standard, no-frill reports.

Examples:

My Pipeline – Sorted by probability of closing. You can also have a view by stage in the sales cycle

My Forecast – Sorted by months and probability of closing. You can also add quarterly if that is how you manage your deals.

Negligent Report – Sorted by revenue generated in a given timeframe and last actual contact (hopefully captured in an activity report you save)

Tags: CRM Basics