On May 20th the GoldMine Product Team announced that in testing the latest GMPE 9.0 build FrontRange found issues that require additional investigation.   As a result they've decided to postpone the release of9.x, which was previously anticipated in May.   A target release date was not offered, and First Direct will announce the 9.x product release once it happens.  While we all are disappointed about this delay, frankly it is better they push back the release to address any serious issues they are aware of.

We hear the word repetition used over and over again in marketing. Especially from anyone trying to sell us advertising! Maybe they’re just trying to sell us something, or maybe they know something. Here’s eight (8) smart reasons to use repetition with your marketing communications and what it can do for you:

1. Right Place at Right Time – If the timing isn’t right … it may not matter how good your overall message is. Today’s consumer suffers from “information overload.” People are just too overloaded to pay attention to things that are of low or no priority to them. They may buy your product or service in a month from now, but if you are a month early or a month late, you lose. Repetition improves the odds of being in the right place at the right time.
2. Right Message – Life has been called a “moving parade” and at any point in time there’s something new passing by. What interests one, may not interest another. Repetition gives you more opportunities to appear before your prospect with something of interest to them. Each new communication you do affords the marketer or sales person with the opportunity to try a new, albeit congruent, message. What works for one prospect, may not be effective with another. Altering your message gives you a chance to appeal to more people.
3. Easier for the Consumer – Making it easier for the consumer can lift response. Repetition puts your offer in front of the consumer thereby making it easier to find what they’re looking for. (Assuming that they were in the market for your product or service.) Plus, repeating certain information inside an offer, such as phone number or website, makes it easier for them to respond.
4. Residual Effect – Each marketing message has an impact that leaves a residual impression in the mind of our prospective consumer. Even if they don’t act on it, as long as we capture their attention and interest, our marketing can have some lasting, residual effect. This can have a positive influence on the strength of subsequent marketing and sales communications. In other words, past communications can increase our ability to motivate our consumer in future communications.
5. “Top-Of-Mind” Awareness – Building brand recognition is a long accepted mission for marketing. The fact is that purely “institutional” or brand-awareness advertising is out of financial reach for many businesses. Most organizations have shifted over to direct response advertising where the emphasis is on motivating our consumer to take some form of action. With repetitive direct response communications, you can also build “top-of-mind” awareness.
6. Relationship Development – To build and maintain any relationship, you need to stay in touch.
7. Thin-out Your Competition – Studies show that the majority of people who inquire on a product or service do eventually purchase it. In many industries, especially those with a longer sales cycle, the majority of sales are made after 5 or more contacts. Yet, less than 10% of salespeople make five or more contacts. This is one important explanation for why 80% of the sales go to less than 20% of the salespeople in any industry. Therefore, repetitive follow-up alone will thin out your competition.
8. Database Maintenance – As you follow-up you come to learn about changes in information. Key contacts change along with their contact information. You have more opportunity to collect missing information. You increase the value and usefulness of your database through repetition.

GoldMine CRM is a tremendous tool to help you achieve the repetition you need with prospect and customer communications.  Learn more and do more ... contact an expert like First Direct Corp.

There’s more to a successful QuoteWerks implementation than just taking the CD out of the box and installing the software. Here is a list of things to consider when planning your QuoteWerks roll-out. We at First Direct are here to help you with your QuoteWerks project. We can assist you with the following tasks and help you get up to speed efficiently and as quickly as possible. The items in GREEN are items that we consider your “homework”. Having these items ready, or at least giving them some thought, really lets us hit the ground running.

Consider Technical Aspects of the Installation

• Make sure all systems meet the QuoteWerks system requirements.
• Determine if users will be QW “nodes” on the LAN, or QW remote sync users.
• QW install wizard needs to be run under a Windows account with administrator rights to the local machine.
• If you have QW Corporate Edition and plan to host to MS SQL Server backend note the SQL software/licensing is NOT included with QuoteWerks.
• If on QW Professional or Corporate Editions and plan on remote sync users, make sure those users have LAN or VPN connection to the QW server.

User Accounts and Permissions

• Have a list of all users’: Full names, contact info, and email account settings.
• Determine what users should have full admin access to QW.
• Decide what features/functions should be taken away from “regular” users.

Products/Services Price Lists

• Determine if you want a single product price list with products from all vendors, or a separate price list for each vendor.
• Gather any current price lists you have in electronic form (Excel files, Access Database, QuickBooks, etc…) in preparation for import into QuoteWerks.
• Decide on Pricing Method(s) to use. (i.e. – Discount from list, markup from cost, fixed, volume based, etc…)
• If you plan on using QW’s link to online vendors (Synnex, Ingram Micro, TechData, etc…) make sure you establish the account information and enroll in the required services offered by those vendors.

Quote/Order Layouts

• When it comes to the design of your Quote and Order layouts think about what information, logos, and verbiage you want to appear on these documents.
• Gather existing sample quotes/order forms that you currently use if you feel these would provide a good starting point or illustration of what you need.
• Any logos/images you would like to use should be of print quality and in an image file format (jpeg, gif, bmp, etc…)