Crm Systems Vs Excel Spreadsheets

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For a lot of sales people,CRM systems is a waste of time but who can really blame them?

To the top performers who spend their time dialing, smiling and closing deals, it is a valid complaint. Sitting idle and waiting for a screen to load is definitely not where they want to be but where the money is at.

Excel Versus CRM Software. The pain of having to wait for a screen to load to access a telephone number so a phone call can be made, so a deal can be closed shouldn’t be underestimated. Productivity can be crippled when the typical wait for a screen to load is 4 plus seconds. Add to that the frustration of trying to find key data and the difficulty in entering new information and you can understand why many sales people choose to rely on Excel.

Now Excel is fast – but that is really all there is to it. It’s hard to organize data, hard to share and unreliable.

Here are some of the usual complaints and limitations most notable of Excel as a customer relationship management tool:

-No File Storage. In Excel, what you see is what you get. It does not allow you to attach important files such as invoices, emails, letters, quotes, etc relevant to a client’s record. You need to store these documents elsewhere, where they can be forgotten, corrupted or lost completely.

-No Sharing. Excel does not allow reading and writing of multiple people at the same time. For businesses with one sales person, this isn’t a problem. A nightmare indeed, if you are in a team.

-Limited Field Control. Creation and organisation of the fields in an Excel spreadsheet can be done only manually. The number of fields you can use comfortably has some limitations due to the layout of Excel. For example; first name, last name, phone number, email, last call date, call related notes address, notes, invoices, quotes, lead categorization etc etc all in one row, it’s not easy.

If speed is the reason why you use Excel, what if a CRM system can provide all the speed of Excel plus all the benefits of a genuine CRM system?

With a proper CRM you have:
– The ability to schedule tasks
– Set reminders
– Chart call outcomes
– Track Campaigns
– All important files can be attached to the client’s record i.e., invoices, quotes, emails, letters, etc
– Manage your email
– Instantly assess your sales pipeline
– Much, much more.

Bulky, slow and holds up work flow-these are what traditional CRM systems were way back then. Speed has been built as well for the newer CRM systems. Pi in particular uses a new framework our team spent 5 years perfecting in order to give the fastest user experience possible.

Direct Sales Is One Of The Best Ways To Make Big Money

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There are many ways to make big money on the Internet. I personally have found direct sales to be one of the best ways to make money online and make alot of it. Why do I say that?

1. Higher commissions. Companies are willing to compensate you for your efforts at a higher commission rate than you can make in other ways.

For example, Primo Vacations is a big ticket direct sale opportunity. You earn $500 on every $697 sale you make. This works out to over a %70 commission rate.

Some companies will cut checks directly to you. In the Primo Vacations example you are your own business owner and the money is paid directly to you on a completed sale.

There are examples of high commission rates in other business models such as affiliate marketing. In many ways selling other people’s products as an affiliate marketer is a direct sales approach.

ClickBank is an example of an affiliate program where you can earn up to 75% commissions selling ebooks. The downside to this is these are not really big ticket items, so you have to make more sales to really make big money.

2. You are in control. People who want to have control over their income love direct sales opportunities.

When you go to work your boss tells you how much are going to make. Generally every Friday you get a paycheck and you know exactly what it is going to be.

In direct sales the more you sell the more you are going to earn. For people who are self-motivated this is an excellent way to make a lot of money.

Unlike other business models such as network marketing, you are not relying on a downline to earn you money. This is why so many people fail in network marketing.

Unless you are in an MLM program that offers products that pay a high commission, many times people never make enough money to justify staying in business. Therefore they quit.

3. Easy to focus. This is one of my favorite things about direct sales.

Your focus is strictly on selling your product. You may need to do marketing on the Internet to drive traffic to your website.

You might need to follow up with people via phone or email to answer questions. However, your focus is on generating leads and selling your product.

You are not worried about blogging every day. You are not worried about adding new web pages. If you can get focused on selling direct sales is the way to go.

There is no doubt the direct sales is one of the best ways to make big money if you promote the right product. Look for big ticket items that will pay you commissions of $500 or more and you can make a lot of money.

Why It Pays To Be Honest In Sales By Matthew Coppola

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To many business people, the belief is that honesty pays, but not enough. To survive in the cut throat world of business and sales, many feel that they need to lie or bend the truth to get anywhere in business.

But is that the case? Does being deceitful, dishonest and untruthful in sales and business really the answer to gaining success? In this article I am not just referring to small amounts of dishonesty or bending the truth, I am talking about all types and degrees of dishonesty no matter how big or small they are.

There is no such thing as a white lie. A lie is a lie.

Any type of dishonesty is created by greed for dishonest gain. Greed leads many business owners and sales people to lie. But you may justify by reasoning that “its business” and “business is business”. Many sales people even put the responsibility back on to the customer, saying that its the customers end decision and “let the buyer beware”.

But, can a theif justify his robbery by saying “let the victims beware”? Of course not! Same with in sales. If a salesperson is dishonest and makes a sale, they are just as bad as that theif. Both the thief and the salesperson have been dishonest.

The theif is dishonest by taking someones possessions without their permission and not telling them. The salesperson is dishonest because they sold the customer a product and not told them the truth about the product. The salesperson sold the product knowing all too well that if the customer knew the truth, they would not have bought the product in the first place.

Yes, honesty in business and sales may require greater time and hard work, but the satisfaction and joy from honesty and truthfullness far outweigh that from dishonesty!

But is this view realistic? Can salespeople who need to meet weekly targets follow it? Well yes they can! To illustrate, lets use an example of an employment placement coach whose job it is to place all types of people into employment, even those who are not the most preferred people to employ.

When you are advocating a candidate for a job, you may find it pays to be honest and upfront with the employer in the beginning. If you hide the negative points about a job seeker and just focus on whats good about them, the employer will be trying to evaluate them and the reasons as to why they are unemployed.

Not only that, but if they actually get the job and their negative side is seen by the employer, it will not only affect the security of their employment but also affect the employers view of you and any other candidate you recommend to the employer in the future.

Falling Fowers, Yard Sales, And The Diploma In The Box

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How would you describe life? What is it? In a short little book of the Bible written by the Apostle James we find the answer. “Life is but a vapor. It’s here for a moment and then it’s gone.” Another of the Apostles described our lives in much the same way saying, “All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls away.” In two short passages of Scripture we are given an extremely sobering and important reminder.

The inspired words of the Apostles should remind us that so many of the things that steal away our time, energy, effort, and finances won’t matter much in the end. The things that keep so many people awake at night suffering from anxiety induced insomnia are all temporary.

Our lives are vapor.

You and I are as grass. The achievements that currently seem so incredibly important to most of us in this age, just like a dying flower will wilt away into nothingness.

Regardless of how much we exercise and how carefully we monitor what we eat, the mortal and corruptible bodies we are currently wearing will eventually begin to wear out, break down, get sick, and die. There is no avoiding it. Do some research. Check out the death statistics yourself. They are startling! Surprisingly enough, one hundred out of every one hundred people die.

Think about the thousands upon thousands of diplomas proudly displayed in offices around the globe. We spend a fortune in student loans paying for that diploma and a tenth of our lifetime working for it in the hope that it might help us land a better paying job. But have you ever thought about where that diploma is going to eventually end up?

One day your diploma, along with your framed employee of the decade certificate are going to find their way into a cardboard box in someone’s garage or attic. Eventually your children or grandchildren are going to have a yard sale to free up some space for extra storage. Your plaque and diploma will find their way out onto the driveway in the ninety-nine cent box on top of a folding table.

The neighbor from across the street will wander over to pick through the loot. When she sees the diploma and employee of the decade certificate in their shiny frames she is going to be overjoyed. As she lifts them from the ninety-nine cent box your grandson will walk over to ask if she needs any help. They will haggle over the price for a minute or two before she walks away with a smile on her face carrying the two prizes she purchased for a total of fifty cents!

Immediately after making her way back across the street she will grab a screw driver to pry open the back of each frame. She will pull out the diploma, crumple it up, and toss it in the trash followed immediately by the cherished employee of the decade certificate. She will then run to her computer to print out a picture of her dog and one of her cat, put them in the frames and hang them on her bathroom wall.

“All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers and the flower falls away.”

James Flanders is a musical artist, writer, audio blogger, and full-time student of Scripture. You can find some of his music on sites like CDBaby and Rhapsody. Dozens of his audios can be found on YouTube and his main site “The Path Of Grace.”

Q84 Books 1, 2 and 3 by Haruki Murakami

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A publishing event which will capture the attention of the trade and of the reading public Huge sales in HS and Vintage for both his recent books and across the whole backlist Murakami fans will love this novel but 1Q84 is also a thrilling introduction to his world for those not already familiar with it The first printing in Japan sold out on the first day of sale. It sold over a million copies in its first month after publication. Murakami’s books are published in 45 territories, in 42 languages ‘Critics have variously likened him to Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, Arthur C. Clarke, Don DeLillo, Philip K. Dick, Bret Easton Ellis and Thomas Pynchon a roster so ill assorted as to suggest Murakami is in fact an original’ New York Times

About the Book: 1Q84: Books 1, 2 and 13

The year is 1984. Aomame sits in a taxi on the expressway in Tokyo.

Her work is not the kind which can be discussed in public but she is in a hurry to carry out an assignment and, with the traffic at a standstill, the driver proposes a solution. She agrees, but as a result of her actions starts to feel increasingly detached from the real world. She has been on a topsecret mission, and her next job will lead her to encounter the apparently superhuman founder of a religious cult.

Meanwhile, Tengo is leading a nondescript life but wishes to become a writer. He inadvertently becomes involved in a strange affair surrounding a literary prize to which a mysterious seventeenyearold girl has submitted her remarkable first novel. It seems to be based on her own experiences and moves readers in unusual ways. Can her story really be true?

Aomame and Tengo’s stories influence one another, at times by accident and at times intentionally, as the two come closer and closer to intertwining. As 1Q84 accelerates towards its conclusion, both are pursued by persons and forces they do not know and cannot understand. As they begin to decipher more about the strange world into which they have slipped, so they sense their destinies converging. What they cannot know is whether they will find one another before they are themselves found.

1Q84 is a magnificent and fullyimagined work of fictiona thriller, a lovestory and a mindbending ode to George Orwell’s Nineteen EightyFour. It is a world from which the reader emerges stunned and altered.

Praise for Other Titles by this Author

After Dark: ‘For sheer love of a thumping narrative, the novel delivers gloriously Inventive, alluring’ David Mitchell, Guardian After Dark: ‘A magnificently bewildering achievement Brilliantly conceived, bold in its surreal scope, sexy and driven by a snappy plot Exuberant storytelling’ Independent on Sunday Dance Dance Dance: ‘A remarkable writer…he captures the common ache of the contemporary heart and head.’ Jay McInerney Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: ‘Murakami’s fictional world is extraordinary.’ Sunday Times