A great time saver when working with your CRM solution is to invoke bookmarks.  This allows you to access specific information with one click.  The thing to remember about bookmarks is to keep them current.  You do not want to have a large collection of bookmarks because it makes it harder to find the ones you want.  The bookmarks you have should only pertain to current deals and situations you are dealing with currently or everyday tasks.  Once they are resolved or the deal is closed, you should remove them. 

Some solutions let you also bookmark items outside you CRM data.  That becomes useful if you are accessing things like Word documents or PowerPoint presentations.  This way you do not have to leave CRM to access this information. 

Utilizing bookmarks is a great way to drastically save time searching for the data or documents you need.

Tags: CRM Basics, crm productivity

I have been going to a new gym close to work for about 6 months.  When I went during the first week in January it was more crowded than I had ever seen.  I did expect a small bump with people trying to get their New Years workout resolution off to a good start.  I mentioned to the employee at the desk that I guess this will last for a few months and he said, “Not a few months, 2 weeks”. 

It shows how quickly people give up on things that require more effort at the beginning.  If you can force yourself to stay with your workout plan, in a pretty short time frame you will find a rhythm and start seeing results.  That fuels your desire to continue and push even harder. 

The same is true for CRM.  It is harder at the beginning.  You have to do more work in the beginning and not really seeing any immediate results.  Once the reps and the system reach a more critical mass many of the benefits are seen.  The reps would have figured out how to use the system based on how they work, more mundane tasks are completed and a lot of useful data is now easily available.  The results and benefits are now being seen.

It is just a matter of getting all your CRM users through the New Year Resolution collapse.

Tags: CRM Basics