Skimping on hardware makes no sense today.  The cost of virtually any piece of computer hardware from laptops to servers to switches & hubs has dropped so much over the last several years that you can make a case for replacing any piece of equipment that is slowing your users down and limiting their productivity.  People should be able to work as fast as they can go and when the reason they are going slower than they want to or are able to is because of your computer equipment then something should be done about it.  People and their time are expensive – hardware is cheap!  

With many of the new Windows applications today the demands have never been greater on your computer and network resources.  If you want to enjoy the robust functionality of GoldMine Premium, let alone your new Microsoft Office and other Windows applications give them adequate resources.  Just meeting the minimum system requirements of one application is self-defeating if you plan to run multiple applications simultaneously like everyone does.   More computing horsepower will give users the high-performance they need to perform more highly for you!

This issue’s Golden Nugget is not about any one customer, but a general need that people have for integrating their GoldMine CRM with their Accounting or ERP data. First Direct has been called upon by many customers to do this from ACCPAC to Macola to vertical applications such as eQuantum for the distribution industry. But far and away the most popular application for small to midsized businesses is Quickbooks. For that reason we have developed a solution which answers the needs of many organizations using GoldMine and Quickbooks, we call it QB2CRM.

Finally there is an economical and ready to go way to integrate these two popular solutions by giving users many benefits, including but not limited to:

• Creating and linking records in either system from the other
• Viewing QuickBooks invoice history from GoldMine
• Launching from GoldMine to QuickBooks Account or Invoice
• Reporting & analysis possibilities
• Fast and flexible data integration
• Limit access to your QuickBooks data

Our customers are happy with the results and First Direct Corp is adding new capabilities for purchasing managers. Because of the built in flexibility of QB2CRM we are able to do customized implementations, tailored to specific customer requests such as a tie in with sales orders and opportunities and a way to roll-up to Quickbooks jobs. Given how we are accessing the data the possibilities for custom reporting and analysis and unique use of your accounting data from within GoldMine is possible. Aligning your CRM with your accounting helps your organization operate more effciently and smarter. It’s another great way to move from “Survive to Thrive” in the new year. We invite customers to share their needs and ideas.

If you’d like to learn more click here to request more information or register for our upcoming online webinar presentation.

If you are not using QuickBooks contact us for other integration options.

Management that is engaged and involved wants to be connected to the activities of the individuals and processes they are managing.   They want to be able to touch and see for themselves the details that form the big picture they operate in.   CRM gives managers a means to do so.  With GoldMine CRM, managers can drill down at their discretion let alone pull the data together for a rolled-up table or graphical view.  

When management is in the system and comfortable with how the information they manage is collected, they are much better able to collaborate with the sale force and their support staff.  Just because a race car driver doesn’t change their car’s tires, doesn’t mean they don’t understand the mechanics of their car.  To the contrary, it is through this understanding of the engineering of their car that they are able provide their pit crew and race team engineers with input that empowers them to achieve greater performance!

Management that begins with clear goals & objectives can then devise coordinated strategies & tactics.  Having done this, then the next vital step is to align these with the design and usage of your CRM system.   When this is all done the users of your CRM will have a more intuitive workflow and produce better results for you.  What’s more, your reports will provide you with more helpful information to help you manage smarter.  And, because you’re tied into the same system as the people whom you manage, as managers you have a ready means for communicating with one another and delegating and tracking follow-up.

Managing how we handle customer service, from the back-office administrative aspects to the tracking and managing of customer service requests, is as important as any area of your firm.  While no technology on earth will replace the “human touch” including but not limited to the instincts, common sense, and good nature of your staff that handles your inquiries, these people can be aided by CRM.  Your administrators and customer service staff will only fully embrace the use of CRM if they are shown how its features can be applied to their day-to-day situations and help them to work in more efficiently in concert with others.

They need to know you’re watching!

I hate the phrase, “do as you say not as you do.”  Besides the fact that I don’t believe it works that way, it says the wrong message on a of couple levels!   This is true in many areas of your life, including your CRM system.  Management needs to get in to the system and the sales force needs to know you’re watching.   When management is on GoldMine, tracking and interacting with prospects and customers and the reps on those accounts it has a profound impact – providing both direct and indirect benefits!

If you’ve ever taken my basic end-user GoldMine training, you’ve heard me say “do your day.”  One of the key points about a workgroup CRM system for the sales team (reps, support, management, etc.) is that everyone should just do their day, the same way, in GoldMine!

The famous comedian Jack Benny once humored, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice!”

A workgroup of CRM users is like an orchestra in that everyone has their role and needs to play their part well, but no matter how good we all play, it will only sound good if we’re all playing at the same time off the same sheet of music. 

GoldMine Premium provides you many tools for aligning the day-to-day life of your sales people, including but not limited to email and letter templates, fields for collecting qualifying information, a means of tracking activities and planning future follow-up, opportunity management, a seamless basis for providing the data that is needed by marketing and management, and much more! 

It’s important to get your prospects into the hands of an effective salesperson.  But when that salesperson is also a capable user of a CRM system that is aligned to the way they do their job, you have an even greater result.   In addition to that salesperson achieving greater sales productivity, your whole business can thrive as you achieve the synergy that comes from a sales team that is able to function far better with one another, their support staff, marketing, and management!

GoldMine has long allowed users to store multiple email addresses in a contact record.  It’s not uncommon for someone to have multiple email addresses, let alone the email addresses associated with additional contacts within the same GoldMine record.  By the same token only one address can be marked (identified) as the “primary email address” .

When doing a broadcast email from GoldMine, or when exporting emails, the targets recipients are typically these primary email addresses.  So, if you have a record without the primary email address being identified this contact will certainly fail to be sent or receive your communications.  That is why the GoldMine administrator should run a sql query to identify records with missing primary email addresses.  And, to build lists of records that require clean up by your staff or sales reps. 

A sure sign that a record is missing a primary email address is if there is a blank email field.  In GoldMine Premium Edition this field will appear blank even if there are other emails addresses in the record.  This is a difference from older versions of GoldMine which would display one of the other emails when there was no primary, creating the illusion that you had a primary address even when you did not. 

Here is a SQL Query your GoldMine administrator can run to identify records that don’t have a primary email address specified.

select c1.company, c1.key5, c1.accountno
from contact1 c1
join (
select distinct(accountno)
from contsupp cs1
where cs1.contact=’E-mail Address’ and
substring(cs1.zip,2,1)<>’1′ and
not exists
(select distinct(accountno)
from contsupp cs2
where cs2.contact=’E-mail Address’ and
substring(cs2.zip,2,1)=’1′and cs1.accountno=cs2.accountno)
)
Emails on c1.accountno=Emails.accountno

Staying with the alignment theme, marketing and CRM go together like your car and its tires.  Without your tires your car isn’t going anywhere.  And, without your CRM system you’re going to have a hard time targeting your marketing message to the right audience.  CRM is crucial to marketing because data is crucial to marketing and your prospect and customer data resides in your CRM.  Your tires are where the “rubber hits the road” and your marketing data is where your CRM system hits the road. 

Who’s navigating and driving your marketing database?  Their understanding of the system and ability to drive it makes a difference in your success.  GoldMine provides you great marketing capabilities including but not limited to:  filters, groups, SQL queries and other ways to segment and target your database, a center to store and access your letter and email templates, a knowledge base for marketing & sales information and materials, reporting and analytical tools to evaluate marketing data and activities, a way for your marketing, sales, and administrative support staff to interface,  an automated processes center where you can build “drip campaigns” to stay in touch with prospects and customers, and much more.

Unlike stand-alone marketing systems, GoldMine is fully tied in with the activities of your sales force and provides access to the same contacts, companies, etc.   Leads are easily distributed to your sales people, even on an automated basis.  And, GoldMine provides an easy means for your sales people to collect information that is vital to the marketing side of your business. 

Sales and marketing professionals have different roles and responsibilities.  However, there is supposed to be a strong synergy between sales and marketing.  This is often lacking!  But I can assure you that when you align your marketing and sales in your CRM you have surely achieved one of the most significant factors needed to thrive in 2010!

If you are finding your GoldMine Email Center slow (when moving from one Email to another, deleting, replying, or filing Emails) you may want to turn off the “Sync Contact” feature that keeps the GoldMine Contact Record in sync with the your email center. This capability can be toggle “on/off” as you see fit. Simply right-click on the header of any Email in your Inbox and select Options->Sync Contact. When there is a check next to Sync Contact it is ON, and when there is no check it is OFF.

There are many other areas of GoldMine that also have the “Sync Contact” option, and you can turn it ON/OFF in a similar fashion: Contact Search Center, Calendar, Activity List, Opportunity Manager, Project Manager, Case Manager, Groups. Although the “Sync Contact” option appears in these other areas, the performance impact is by far most noticeable in the Email center.

Note: After you turn this option OFF, it is still very easy to navigate directly to a linked contact by right-clicking on the Email and selecting “Go to Contact.” This gives you nearly the same functionality without degrading performance.

Did you know that you can have more than one GoldMine Contact Record tab opened at the same time? It’s easy – from the “Window” pull down menu in GoldMine Premium simply select “New Contact Window.” At times when you are trying to go back and forth between two contact records this is an option. Of course, you can also just use the “recently viewed” left navigation area to do the same thing.