#1) Know the Competition
A manufacturer that uses GoldMine wanted to keep a better handle on the market share they and their competition had. Knowing that their sales reps are speaking to the same national pool of dealers, they recognize that this would be possible if the reps asked certain qualifying questions and tracked the responses in GoldMine. So we created custom GoldMine fields with the names of their competitors in the lookup lists. They instructed their reps to gather the necessary information. Then at the end of a period of time we produced a customized report using Crystal Reports to calculate and graphically display their market penetration as compared to their competitors by region and nationally. The information told them where they were strong and where they were weak. It also gave them a basis for territory realignment. It could even lead to staffing and recruiting actions.

#2) Spread the News
A service company decided to create a help desk and hire a help desk manager. They believed a more formal customer service system and process would lead to improved service and therefore, greater customer loyalty. It was a significant investment. Recognizing the value they were seeking to provide their current and prospective customers, they decided to get the word out about their actions to serve them better. So they prepared a written publicity announcement and then targeted their prospects and customers with messages geared to each audience. Letters and emails went out with GoldMine and the reaction has been very positive!

#3) Automating Event Registration
A consulting firm, which holds seminars to attract new clients, sought a better way to handle registration. They were already a GoldMine user and their Solution Partner used GoldMine to help them. Many of the attendees register on-line so it was a perfect opportunity to capture contact information using eGrabber’s Web Response tool. Aside from entering all the contact information, the web import is designed to also:

■ Record in the Details tab a campaign response
■ Add them to the event registrant list.
■ Kick-off an email thanking them for registering.
■ Schedule a event confirmation call for an administrator
■ Advise the event planner the good news about another registrant. Mission accomplished!

An office products dealer was looking for a way to promote more consistent use of GoldMine as well as push users to the next level. They had some very devoted GoldMine users along with some very infrequent users. Key sales staff attribute increased sales directly to their commitment to GoldMine while others are more timid about making the commitment to this sales force automation tool.

With full management support, Christine, the GoldMine Project Manager, implemented an in-house GoldMine User Group. The User Group began meeting weekly to share GoldMine tips and tools. Christine found that the User Group offers an open forum for learning and brainstorming new ways to use GoldMine.

In addition, the company began providing individual users with some special hands-on training, both during and after business hours. Christine also distributed a “newsletter” to keep users up-to-date about new procedures and other pertinent user information and provide them with helpful user tips. Christine stated, “The key to making Goldmine a successful tool in our organization revolves around the users’ feedback.”

Once upon a time there was a company that made special kinds of products that were sold to special kinds of companies. This company made lots of sales each year, and each sale was worth a lot of money. One day, their GoldMine consultant was trying to help them work out some better ways to use their GoldMine. The consultant and the people from the company started talking about lead management. The company had a very simple lead management process. They advertised in lots of important magazines, and waited for people response cards to come in. Then, the company would send every response their beautiful, expensive brochure. It cost the company lots of money, but they didn’t care because they were selling lots of products.

The GoldMine consultant asked them how they managed things like bad addresses and returned mail. They said the company had a whole pile of envelopes that had been returned by the post office. One day they were going to put that information into their database, but not today! The consultant asked about duplicate names. The company said that it happened sometimes, but they thought it was really important to send their brochures out right away to show they really cared. The consultant was a little bothered by this, but the company didn’t seem to mind the money they were throwing away. Then, from the back of the room, a little voice said “What about those guys in prison?”. Well, you can imagine everybody’s reaction! The consultant said “What guys in prison???”. And the little voice (that belonged to the girl who saw to it that all the brochures went out) explained: “We get a lot of cards from guys in prison. A lot of the magazines we advertise in are free, so they fill out the cards so they can get mail. I guess they’re lonely…”.

After talking with all the important people at the company, the consultant found out that they wasted more than twenty thousand dollars every year, sending their nice brochures to prisoners and lots of other bored people in the world. Best of all, almost twenty percent of what they sent out were duplicates! So, as you can see, even a simple lead management process can benefit from some common sense database practices!