CRM technology is a fantastic set of tools to help make sales and marketing efforts more efficient, faster flowing, and more accurate. At the same time, they help you automate your database management so that you don’t have to spend so much of your precious work time keeping up with records and files.
However, CRM is about the relationships between peoplenamely, your prospects and clients. Companies are a grand illusion, in a certain sense. People do business, companies do not. There were businesses before computers (though some of you out there might find that hard to believe) and there were thus relationships before computers. CRM is not something that got invented after computers. Only the moniker CRM was invented them.
The key practices of client relationships did not go out the window with the invention of the computer, either. Only the toolbox for helping you do it right has changed. CRM technology is your new toolbox. We have to use the practices that work for relating to people and getting them to buy and come back for more. We can take advantage of all that CRM technology software provides us to help make our practice perfect (or a reasonable...