Maximizer CRM Central

Is your CRM leaking productivity? It may be time for a CRM Tune-Up.

Kelly McKeown — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:28:00 GMT

As we know, businesses have their own set of individual characteristics. However, the need for a regular inspection and tweaking of CRM systems is something they have in common. You may consider your CRM process to be running like a finely tuned Ferrari, or as reliably as a used Honda Civic but there is always good reason to take a peek under the hood.

If your company is due for a CRM tune-up but you're not sure how to begin, a great place to start is by asking questions. Reach out to key stakeholders in your organization to help identify which areas they need to improve. Talk to your end user to establish a list of common concerns and time wasting activities. Or chat to your customers ... they will be quick to draw attention to areas in your customer service process they feel could be better. Most likely, everyone you speak with will appreciate your proactive approach.

Now that you have identified some key areas to develop, you may ask yourself "How do we compare to our peers?" You will be happy to find out you are not alone in your problems. Unveiled in the "Time for a CRM tune-up?" e-book are poll results from the 'Navigating Roadblocks with CRM' webinar series. It's a great way to see how your business challenges stack up against your peers. Here's a preview...

What challenge(s) are you facing in measuring business performance?

Inconsistent reporting requirements 45%
Time consuming analysis 25%
Inaccurate data included 40%
Lack of customized reports 65%
Analysis not relevant to my role 5%
Other 10%

If your mind is now racing with CRM adjustment ideas ... minor attention here, full overhaul there ... to make your business more efficient, you will find the interactive checklists included in the "Time for a CRM tune-up?" e-book especially helpful. By rating your sales, marketing, customer service and business intelligence ability you can easily identify areas to focus your efforts.

Mobile CRM. Take Care of Business Anywhere You Are at Anytime

Margarita Orlov — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:07:00 GMT

Your CRM software needs to work wherever you are. Now it does, since the new version of Maximizer CRM works on any smartphone or tablet on the market.

When salespeople and executives have real-time access to the information they need before a sales call, they’re more likely to close the deal. That’s why Maximizer CRM^®12 is now available on all of the popular mobile devices used in offices today.

There’s no need to purchase a variety of software based on the different mobile devices used throughout your organization. Thanks to this change, executives and employees have the freedom of choice among different devices. If the CEO prefers BlackBerry^®, the sales representative already has an iPhone™ and the IT expert is never without his Android™ phone and tablet PC, they can all use the same CRM.

Mobility brings opportunities. Consider the following scenarios where it might save the day:

A salesperson in between meetings gets a call from a customer who is ready to move ahead with a deal faster than expected. Thanks to the CRM on his mobile device, the sales rep has all of the real-time information they need about the client and their correspondence to date available with just a few clicks.
A CFO attending a conference suddenly gets a notice from their assistant that an audit is required. Without getting up from their seat, the executive can direct their department about next steps.
A supervisor responsible for work crews at several different locations. She has access to complete client records from whatever location she is assigned to, so she can make an immediate decision and direct the crews on how to rectify a sudden customer service case escalation. (Take a look at how mobile CRM has enabled Corporate Cleaning Services to take their customer service to a whole new level.)

Leave Wasting Time in 2011: Click-Through to Edit Information in Maximizer CRM 12 Web Access

Margarita Orlov — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:02:00 GMT

Did you know that in Maximizer CRM 12 Web Access, you don’t need to press the Edit button in an open entry in order to edit the user-defined fields? Clicking in a field will evoke the control for editing value. This allows accessing the edit controls quickly and helps you work more efficiently.

Address Book entry, opportunity and case dialogs

In the User-Defined Fields tab, clicking a field will display the controls for editing value. You can make a selection from a list; pick a date; or directly typing in a value; without extra pop-up dialog box. Only the fields that allow multiple selections will use a pop-up dialog box.

Following window

In-place-edit a date UDF

In-place-edit a numeric UDF

This is just one of the features in Maximizer CRM 12, discover how you can Email Dashboards, Add Hyperlinks, and use Dependant Activities in your Action Plans.

Mobility and Social are the Next CRM Wave for your Business. Are You In?

Margarita Orlov — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 18:05:00 GMT

By Margarita Orlov

Mobility is on the mind of many people in today’s ‘plugged-in’ environment. Businesses know that when they need to access their information fast they need something they can depend on. For instance would getting real-time reports on your latest sales pipeline have been a possibility even 3 years ago? Maybe, but certainly not at the rate and efficiency the world saw in 2011.

“The other thing we started to see, from the back-end analytics side, was the ability to actually capture, expose and report analytics data on a mobile device. That was an important emergence for 2011.” – Neil Davey, CRM in 2011: The Experts’ View. www.Mycustomer.com

Read more insights from Neil Davey: http://www.mycustomer.com/content-by-user/15225

The word ‘trend’ gets thrown around when talking about mobility, but is it really a ‘trend’ when it’s undeniably applicable to the success of your business from every angle? Only time will tell for sure, but one thing that is certain is that now is a time for decision-makers to decide on whether they’re on the mobility bandwagon or not. Standing on the sidelines could impact the success of your business in the near future.

Maximizer Software’s President, Vivek Thomas, sat down with Customer Management IQ to discuss if mobile and social CRM can transform the customer experience). This podcast dives in to go ‘Beyond the Hype’ of mobile and social CRM to determine what you and your business should be focusing on.

Before you go mobile do you know what is that one must have feature that’s pivotal to any mobile CRM suite? Vivek Thomas shares:

“I think it’s important for an organization to have a centralized repository of all of this data and information…For example, the updates from a mobile interface should be able to drive a business process with improved speed and agility. There should be sufficient accuracy in that update to create the kind of custom engagement experience that is being demanded today. What you don’t want is all that information lying in different areas of the organization so that you cannot get a cohesive response out to a customer. “

This means that your business needs a reliable CRM that has the right information to get you that report on your iPad the minute you need it. Find out what else Vivek Thomas has to say on this topic by listening to the webcast or downloading the transcript: Can Mobile and Social CRM Really Transform the Customer Experience?

Are you using mobile solutions or social CRM to enhance your customer engagement or is it all just hype?

No one showing up for your meetings? Make appointments Using iCal

Margarita Orlov — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 17:46:00 GMT

Did you know that in Maximizer CRM 12 we have introduced the ability to include an iCalendar attachment when sending appointment notification emails to Address Book entries? This means that you can book meetings with almost anyone, thus increasing your chances that the second party will attend the meeting and not forget about it. Before when meetings were established you had the worry that it was up to the second party to make a note of it on their own, but with iCalendar that worry is extinguished as it sets the appointment for them.

iCalendar is an industry standard file format that is supported by a large number of products, such as; Google Calendar, Apple iCal, IBM Lotus Notes, Yahoo Calendar, Microsoft Outlook and various others.

This can be done by setting the ‘Email appointment notification’ to Ask or Always and enabling the checkbox, ‘Include the iCalendar (.ics) attachment’ through the user’s Calendar and Hotlist preferences.

The recipient of the iCalendar email (if using supported software) will have the appointment created in their calendar and can respond to the sender with their RSVP or counter propose another date/time for the meeting.

Making appointments using iCalendar is one of the top CRM features in Maximizer CRM 12, find out what the others are here: Top 12 Features in Maximizer CRM 12

Join us for the “Planning for 2012 Success: Navigating Roadblocks with your CRM” webinar series, next webinar is Optimizing Marketing Campaign ROI on November 30, 2011. Register Now!

Don't Keep Your Progress to Yourself! You Can Now Share Dashboards Through Email with One Click

Margarita Orlov — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:51:00 GMT

If you want to report your current status to your manager or share the information with colleagues, you don't need to type all the data in an email. In the dashboard windows for Maximizer CRM 12 Web Access, you can insert the screenshot of a dashboard into an email by clicking a button.

On the toolbar for dashboard, you will find a new button, Email.

Press the Email button to open the compose email dialog. The screenshot of the dashboard will be embedded in email body and if your email is in plain text format, the screenshot will be attached. The name of the dashboard is added to the email subject line so your Manager knows exactly what to look forward to in your report.

This is a great feature that allows staff to quickly and efficiently update their leaders on their progress with just a click of a button!

Emailing Dashboards in Web Access is one of the top CRM features in Maximizer CRM 12, find out what the others are here: Top 12 Features in Maximizer CRM 12

Join us for the “Planning for 2012 Success: Navigating Roadblocks with your CRM” webinar series, next webinar is Optimizing Marketing Campaign ROI on November 30, 2011. Register Now!

Develop a Plan AND Make It Stick with Maximizer CRM 12!

Margarita Orlov — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:47:00 GMT

Did you know that dependant activities have been introduced into Action Plans as part of the Maximizer CRM 12 release?

This provides a Maximizer CRM user with the ability to create a rigid action plan where all activities should be completed in a specific order. If an activity is completed out of order Maximizer CRM will prompt the user with a warning that there are incomplete activities that precede the one they are currently completing. Additionally, if an activity is being completed early or late, Maximizer CRM will prompt the user and allow them to dynamically move the following activities.

To set an action plan with dependant activities you must enable the checkbox, ‘Set activities as dependant’, when scheduling the action plan.

Dependant Activities is only one of the Top CRM features for Maximizer CRM 12, find out what the others are here: Top 12 Features in Maximizer CRM 12

Join us for the “Planning for 2012 Success: Navigating Roadblocks with your CRM” webinar series, next webinar is Monitoring Performance with Business Intelligence on November 23, 2011. Register Now!

New Feature in Maximizer CRM 12: Adding a Photo to an Address Book Entry in Web Access

Margarita Orlov — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:33:00 GMT

Did you know that in Maximizer CRM 12, the Web Access users can now upload a photo for a contact, individual, and company Address Book entry? This allows the users to view the photo of a contact or the logo of a company when reviewing the detail information of the entry.

In an open Address Book entry, you will find the Upload button.

Press the 'Upload' button to open the dialog box where you can upload an image from your computer. You can use the whole image, or use part of the image by marking the area that you want to display.

Once the image is saved, it will be displayed in the Address Book entry dialog.

Find out what else is new in Maximizer CRM 12.

New Feature in Maximizer CRM 12: Adding Hyperlinks to the Documents Tab

Margarita Orlov — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:39:00 GMT

by John Easton, Director of Product Management

Did you know that Maximizer CRM 12 Windows Access and Web Access allow you to create a new Hyperlink document type? This hyperlink document can be attached to an Address Book entry, as well as to an Opportunity, a Customer Service case, a Campaign, a Knowledgebase article, and inserted as a Company library document.

This allows you to link to HTML files stored on an Intranet, on the Internet, on MS SharePoint servers, and in any other locations that can be expressed as a URL, thus providing you the convenience of accessing all these documents from one unified interface inside Maximizer.

A great use of this feature is to build complete customer and prospect profiles by capturing links to all relevant social networks in one place. You can obtain up-to-date information on your contacts with direct links to external websites and social media profiles (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn).

This new functionality can be accessed from within the Documents following windows for each of the modules listed above, as well as from the Knowledge base window and the Company Library window.

Windows Access: Address Book module main Ribbon menu and Following window right click menu

Web Access: Address Book - Document following screen and Address Book entry form screen

This is definitely one of the Top CRM features in Maximizer CRM 12 and brings value by allowing you to build better customer relationships by having access to dynamic social profiles of your contacts.

Find out What’s New in Maximizer CRM 12

Join us for the “Planning for 2012 Success: Navigating Roadblocks with your CRM” webinar series, starting November 16, 2011. Register Now!

Two Ways to Work Faster with Maximizer CRM 12

Margarita Orlov — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:12:00 GMT

By Herbert Yen

Have you been using Maximizer CRM Software for so long, that some of your Address Book entries have amassed a pile of notes that takes a while to sift through (and load), not unlike the new Facebook layout?

In the latest release, Maximizer CRM 12, you can work more efficiently by filtering out irrelevant and older notes. When you select a more recent time period (such as “Last 30 Days”), the only notes that get loaded and displayed will be ones which were created in the last month.

You can see this new feature as a new filter option beside the “Show All” checkbox in the Notes window.

A drop down list called “Filter” has been added, which gives you options such as All, Last 30 Days, Last 6 months, Last 12 Months, Last 2 Years, Last 5 Years, and Custom.

Selecting “Custom” brings up another window which simply allows you to enter a “Date Range”.

The best part: The option you’ve selected is sticky, and will persist even if you close out of Maximizer CRM 12. So next time you’re looking up that client with 15 years of history, you won’t have to wait 15 minutes for every single note to be retrieved. This makes your CRM implementation in your day-to-day work much quicker. (The email Joe who doesn’t work here anymore sent to Bob, who is no longer with your client probably isn’t important enough for your business anyway).

You will also find this feature present in both Web Access AND Mobile Access, as shown below:

Another neat little change to Maximizer CRM 12 is the concept of “My”, which you will see in places such as the Favorite Lists, Search Catalog, and Column Setup windows.

For those of you who have been with a company for many years and worked in different teams and departments, you probably have accumulated a large assortment of Favorite Lists and Saved Searches.

In Maximizer CRM 11, finding a favorite list meant bringing up the “View Favorite List” dialogue, and then scrolling through a seemingly endless list of favorite lists, created by yourself as well as those created by everyone else in your company.

When you open up the View Favorite Lists, Search Catalog, or Column Setups dialog in Maximizer CRM 12, you will be greeted with a new dropdown box near the top that says “Show: My Favorite Lists”.

Here you can choose to see just yours, or “All” of the Lists, Catalogs or Column Setups in your corporate database.

And, just as with the Notes filters, you can see this change has been made all across the CRM platforms: Windows Desktop, Web Access and Mobile Access.

Bonus: You may have noticed that I used a few different browsers, and even an iPhone to show screenshots in this blog. Maximizer CRM 12 has really improved cross-browser and mobile device support over the previous versions. Browser support when using Firefox/Chrome/Safari, as well as mobile devices such as iPhone, iPad & Android has come a long way from what you may have seen in Maximizer CRM 10 and 11.

Check it out how you can now have Android CRM, iPhone CRM, iPad CRM all in one by trying Maximizer CRM 12 today!

‘Right-Click’ For the Win

Margarita Orlov — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:44:00 GMT

Web Access for Maximizer CRM 12

By Will Leung

I can honestly say that after nearly 5 years here at Maximizer CRM Software that I have never been more excited about a new release - our latest version, Maximizer CRM 12. Not to take anything away from its predecessors, but the attention to detail in addressing major pain points the product has had will not only engage those who are new to Maximizer but excite those who have been using Maximizer for years.

I admit that before the existence of Maximizer CRM 12 I have been more comfortable using the Maximizer Windows client. That all changed when I saw the performance improvements, the updated visually aesthetically pleasing User Interface of Maximizer Web Access and especially the availability of the Context Menu via ‘right-click’ in the Address Book Window.

As you can see the many options that are available in the Context Menu for the Address Book Window in the Maximizer Windows client have made their way into Maximizer Web Access. This is a great step that has been taken by Maximizer towards an ideal goal, which is creating a product that is indifferent of what it is being run on, a Window client or Web Browser.

So start using Web Access for all of your CRM needs, including Business Reporting, Sales Management and Marketing Management!

CRM. Not Just For Customer Management

Margarita Orlov — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:42:00 GMT

When executives and managers think about Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, the first use that comes to mind (naturally) is sales management. But CRM can do a lot more for companies.

Here are 5 non-traditional uses of CRM for business:

1. Corporate branding. Every company is obsessively focused on building brand, but there’s more to becoming a top brand than just being top of mind. CRM helps companies ensure consistency in messaging and a positive experience for prospects, customers and channel. CRM allows for multiple points of contact so you can build those customer loyalty relationships and your business’ reputation at the same time. (See our related webcast, A Personal Branding Tool for Financial Advisors)

2. Enforcing compliance. For legal firms, financial services providers and a wide range of industries, government regulations like HIPAA, the Patriot Act, and Sarbanes-Oxley are forcing companies to pay more attention than ever to issues of privacy and security. Customizable business rules built into CRM processes help make sure your employees don’t inadvertently put the company (and your clients or partners) at risk.

3. Tracking investment opportunities. CRM helps financial services providers more easily track investment projects, potentially matching them up with the right investors. (A good example is the South Carolina Department of Commerce, which used Maximizer CRM to exceed their investment goals by $62 million.)

4. Project and Bid Management. Manufacturers, construction companies and other project- and bid-based organizations use CRM to manage all of their projects from the proposal stage right through to completion. Having one centralized database enables them to record all activities such as estimates and proposals, drawings and purchase orders, project status updates plus management teams can easily forecast resource needs and track project bid win/loss ratios through business reporting. (Take a look at how Roberts Onsite has built their business with CRM)

5. Citizen relationship management. Municipalities and other levels of government can use CRM to streamline the process for handling complaints, communicating with special interest groups and notifying residents of new initiatives and policies.

Learn more about how all kinds of organizations, from manufacturers and financial services providers to high tech companies, are using Maximizer CRM

First Look at Maximizer CRM 12 in the Attract, Engage and Succeed Webinar

Margarita Orlov — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:38:00 GMT

This week Maximizer was proud to introduce the world to our new pride and joy: Maximizer CRM 12.

With exciting new features like LinkedIn social CRM integration and extensive enhancements to our built-in mobile and web access products our new release should provide a whole new level of capability for your businesses to attract and engage with customers. The big improvement that webinar attendees couldn’t stop raving about was the powerful CRM functionality now available for the Apple iPad and Apple iPhone (as well as any other Smartphone or tablet device) through mobile access.

Of course, you can’t just take our word for it– here’s what we heard from the 250+ webinar attendees:

What was your initial impression of Maximizer CRM 12?

“Great new features for CRM mobility.”

“Flexible, able to be used on a number of platforms.”

“Looks like a good progression from Maximizer 11.”

“Kudos to making Maximizer 12 work with the iPad. This is a big deal for my company.”

“With Maximizer CRM 12 we are able to pull up accounts on the road to do personal contacts with clients.“

“Improved speed, search filters, LinkedIn, improved mobile access.”

“Our sales team is always on the road so the mobile access and its features are important.”

“Dashboard improvements and new mobile iPad and iPhone applications.”

“The iPad functionality could be a game changer for some of our current processes.’

“Liked the new iPad tablet look. Sales team’s our moving to tablets and the clean, bigger look will be great!”

NEXT WEBINAR

If you missed out and would like to see Maximizer CRM 12 in action, we’ve got great news!

Join us at the next webinar on October 25, 2011 at 10:00am PT/1:00pm ET. The webinar will feature a live demo and Q&A session.

Register Now

How CRM Savvy is Your Business?

SteveJan — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:12:00 GMT

Have you ever wondered if the software you use day-after-day could do more, but you just don’t know how to make the most of it? Take your CRM (customer relationship management) software for instance, are you using it simply to store contact information or are you taking advantage of all of the its features and functionalities to improve your business?

For example:

Is your staff able to access your CRM software from a variety of platforms (desktop, web, mobile device)?

Is management able to easily access Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and dashboards?

Have you set up your CRM software to integrate with key programs like Outlook?

These are the kinds of questions that you can ask about your small business CRM software to determine what areas need to be improved on.

To make it easy, we’ve created a short quiz that zeros in on the kinds of information you need to ask to find out if you’re fully optimizing your CRM software and how ‘CRM savvy’ is your business. After you’ve discovered where your business’ CRM strengths rank, you can learn how to improve your score by downloading the CRM Proficiency Kit. The kit includes the resources and tools you need to make your software give you more insight into your business, streamline processes and increase revenue.

Take the Quiz!

Small Business CRM Software Comparison by Software Advice

Kelly McKeown — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:47:00 GMT

From Lauren Carlson, CRM Analyst at Software Advice:

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is no longer optional. It's imperative. Regardless of size, almost every business needs a CRM system to help manage sales, marketing and customer service operations.

Today's most popular CRM systems are extremely sophisticated, but costly, which is why many small businesses are wary of investing in CRM. However, there are plenty of CRM systems on the market targeted specifically at small business owners, offering them the right mix of features and functionality. Many CRM solutions are now offered in a web-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) model - providing simplified access at a subscription price that is digestible for the budget conscious.

Most small business CRM systems offer the same core functionality, including contact management, lead management and basic reporting, but there are other features to consider.

Take a look at Software Advice's side-by-side comparison of the primary features of five CRM software solutions for small businesses, including Maximizer CRM.

What CRM Can Do For Your Business

Margarita Orlov — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 23:40:00 GMT

From PC Today.com – August 2011

Read Full Article (page 32-33)

Is your business debating whether purchasing a Customer Relationship Management system is the right step to take? The article "What CRM Can Do For Your Business" in the August 2011 issue of PC Today.com looks at what your business will gain and how best to make use of a CRM system.

Perhaps you have the notion that CRM is not for your business, but did you know that "SMBs can use CRM to boost revenues by better analyzing and reacting to existing and potential customers’ needs, while greatly simplifying their marketing, service, and sales operations, whether they are a one-person operation or a 1,000-employee enterprise." This means that even small-scale entrepreneurial operations have an opportunity to boost sales with the help of a CRM system.

Pre-conceived notions of CRM exist and it "has a reputation as being expensive and geared for large-scale industrial operations. But today, developers have honed and crafted CRM’s power in such a way that it has become simple to use and very applicable to the needs of SMBs." No longer do you need to fear the intricacies of the settings tab and how to navigate through a complex set-up. The ideal CRM that can benefit your business the most should include "your enterprises contacts, business leads, customer data and calendar data, along with word processing, order status or anything else that merits your attention relating to your customers in a single screen."

The data in a CRM system is "constantly updated in such a way that it is also accessible to enterprise users so they know what is going on with accounts on an as-needed basis". By having all of your customer information available to everyone in your organization your staff can really zero in on what matters to your customers so your customers always feel like they are your most important client. "Mark Sippola, CEO and owner of Vancouver-based Corporate Cleaning Services, says his firm uses Maximizer to ensure that every employee can check on the status of a customer at any time." This means that once you have a CRM system implemented you can make sure that "the ball [is] never dropped along the way" and customer satisfaction is always within your reach.

Cloud CRM is beneficial for a business whose staff benefit from customer data information on-the-fly. "Using cloud-based CRM, salespersons, for example, can access comprehensive customer data from a cloud server with a smartphone, which they can also update in real time."

More information can be found in the full article in PCToday.com (page 32-33)

Get More Subscribers to Take Action When Receiving Email via Mobile Device

Margarita Orlov — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:49:00 GMT

Another good post by Runaware on their Marketing & Web Blog, view more posts HERE

Runaware hosts the Maximizer CRM Free Test Drive, where you can try Maximizer CRM through online access with no software download required!

Get more subscribers to take action when receiving email via mobile device

Here are some best practices that help ensure your content is received in the best possible light when on a mobile device. If you want subscribers to take action on the emails they open via mobile devices consider using the following...

Keep the subject short and sweet.
Mobile devices display a limited number of characters in the subject line, so title the email in as few words as possible. Your recipients can't take action on your emails if they don't open them first.

Trim the fat.
Mobile Internet connections run slower than desktop connections, so avoid extremely data-heavy content. You don't want your recipients abandoning the email before the content loads so take down that file size.

Get to the point quickly.
If content via mobile is not easy to read and respond to, your customers will most likely delete or ignore the email. Get to the point quickly; your recipients are probably on the move and exposed to all sorts of distractions throughout their day.

Optimize landing pages for mobile devices.
Mobile landing pages should have brief, direct copy that gets the point across. Those who want more information can return to your site later from a desktop and explore deeper links for more detailed content.

Encourage sharing.
Social media sharing buttons should be available and easy for your mobile audience to use. Instead of placing these buttons all the way at the bottom or top of the email, insert them near the middle, next to content that recipients most likely will want to share.

Create a sense of urgency.
Hinting, not screaming, a sense of urgency is a good idea. Make it clear when your sale or special offer expires, so that recipients have more incentive to take action immediately on their mobile devices rather than waiting to view the content on a computer.

Make sure to test and review results to determine what percentage of your subscribers are opening messages on mobile devices and use the results to adjust your message and layout to cater to your mobile users.

New Maximizer CRM 11 Training Videos

SteveJan — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:08:00 GMT

Maximizer has just released a bunch of new training videos on Youtube!

Take a look at the latest:

Maximizer CRM 11 Entrepreneur Demo - Sales Opportunity Module

Maximizer CRM 11 Entrepreneur Demo - Creating Email Templates

Maximizer CRM 11 Entrepreneur Demo - Creating Favorites Lists

Maximizer CRM 11 Entrepreneur Demo - Integration with MS Outlook

Maximizer CRM 11 Entrepreneur Demo - Inserting Documents

Maximizer CRM 11 Entrepreneur Demo - Opportunity Pipeline Report

Cool and Useful Twitter Tools To Start Using Today

Margarita Orlov — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:40:00 GMT

Great Blog Post by Runaware on their Marketing & Web Blog, view more posts HERE

Runaware hosts the Maximizer CRM Free Test Drive, where you can try Maximizer CRM through online access with no software download required!

Cool and Useful Twitter Tools To Start Using Today

If you are one of the many folks out there using Twitter these days, whether it be for personal or business reasons, you know that managing all your outgoing and incoming content can get overwhelming at times. Not to mention if you are doing any kind of tracking on your tweets its always great to find the latest resources out there that can help you see who is sharing your posts and which individuals are interested in a similar topic as you.

To make connecting and managing life in the Twittersphere even easier here a few tools you may want to start taking advantage of.

Tweet Everywhere
These Twitter tools help you to not only post tweets but also to other social networking and social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, etc...
• Ping.fm
• Hellotxt

Contact Management
These Twitter tools help to manage your contacts, those who you follow and those who follow you. You can also search for new followers, analyze those following you, find out who they are following and more.
• Twerpscan
• TwitterCounter

Twitter Directories and Search

These Twitter tools are directories where you can search for new followers or find who is following you via certain parameters and keywords. They are a really helpful set of tools to increase followers relevant to your niche.
• Twitter Search
• Twellow
• WeFollow
• Twitterholic

Tweet Schedulers and Productivity and Auto Tweets
With these Twitter tools you can schedule tweets for later as well as tweet blog entries. Don't over-do it though or you could appear to be a "bot", a spammer, rather than a person. Use wisely my friends.
• PostLater
• Twitterfeed
• Twitresponse

Twitter Statistics, Graphs, Analysis and Evaluators

These twitter tools allow you to evaluate your twitter profile, run analysis on your twitter reach and popularity, with all sorts of stats and graphs.
• Twitter Grader
• Tweet Value
• Tweetstats

Toolbars and Firefox Add-ons

Twitter tools to make tweeting from within your browser easy.
• HootBar
• Twitizer
• Echofon

A Day in the Life: Carlos the Field Services Technician on the Road

Kelly McKeown — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:57:00 GMT

Carlos is out doing service calls for the commercial heating and air conditioning system servicing company he works for. He is dispatched to inspect an office building furnace that has stopped working in the middle of winter.

Carlos has never seen this particular model as it is really old and he isn't sure that he can get replacement parts. His colleague John has been with the company for 30 years and has seen it all, he'll know for sure.

John is working out of town but that is not a problem for Carlos. He takes a photo of the furnace with his Blackberry and saves it to the customer's service case in Maximizer CRM with a single click, and hotlists John to respond.

John knows exactly what it is and where to get parts. He sends Dave the contact information for the parts supplier. Carlos calls the supplier, receives a quote, gets customer approval to go ahead and schedules a follow-up appointment to install the parts as soon as they are delivered.

The process went so smoothly that it didn't even cross the customer's mind to get a second opinion or quote. Carlos checks the next service case assigned to him and carries on with his day, smiling to himself and thinking... "Maximizer CRM, as handy as any wrench or screwdriver."

Meanwhile, back in the office, Carolyn the account rep sees Carlos' service case alert and creates a reminder in her calendar to talk to her customer about a longer term solution - replacement of the furnace.

Curious about mobile CRM? This webcast might interest you:
Mobilizing with CRM... Your Competitive Advantage

Personal Branding and CRM

Kelly McKeown — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:46:00 GMT

Whether you are a lawyer, accountant, financial services professional, realtor, or health and wellness professional you know how important developing a positive personal brand can be for your business. In an environment where services appear similar this is what makes you stand out from the crowd. It is a way to reflect your values, personality and expertise, and increase your credibility by providing exceptional client experience.

When building a personal brand Robin Fisher Roffer; author, speaker, personal branding expert and strategist, and CEO of Big Fish Marketing, starts with what she calls "the Holy Trinity of Branding: consistency, clarity and authenticity".

Consistency makes you look like a brand leader. This is about staying on message - synchronizing agreement and action -- walking the walk and talking the talk. Think about Verizon's "Can You Hear Me Now?" campaign. Is there anyone in American that doesn't know that Verizon delivers the most consistent and dependable cell phone service?

Clarity tells the world why your brand matters. The best brands edit their communication down to its essence and speak to their audience in a language they can understand and emotionally connect with. Think about how much Nike communicates with the simple tagline, "Just Do It."

Authenticity gives your brand staying power. Great brands come across as real. They don't manipulate the truth to get what they want. What they say about themselves comes directly from their true essence. Think of fast-growing brands like Zappos, Google and Apple. Not only do they have authenticity at their core, their visual image syncs up with what they say they can do.

So what does this have to do with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software?

As your business evolves and your client and prospect database grows it becomes more and more difficult to deliver a consistent message, maintain a high standard of service and stay on top of your sales and marketing activities. With CRM you can deliver a customized, high-value and consistent experience to each client or prospect every time to build and maintain your positive personal brand.

Maximizer CRM not only stores client contact information but also their complete history with you, account history, product and service profiles and even their favorite sports teams and life events like birthdays and anniversaries, to build a 360-degree view of your client.

Organize resources and coordinate a series of activities (such as emails, calls, meeting preparation and appointments) around a client or prospect with an action plan. Maximizer CRM allows these plans to be reused so you can stay on track no matter who you are engaging. Clients will notice your attention to detail and the consistent, dedicated experience that you deliver.

If you are a Financial Services Professional you may find this recorded webcast of interest - "Maximizer CRM - A Personal Branding Tool for Financial Advisors".

A Day in the Life: Mark the Sales Rep on the Road

Kelly McKeown — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 17:58:00 GMT

While waiting in line to buy a coffee at his usual morning café stop Mark plans out his day. Using Maximizer on his Blackberry, he looks up a few details to familiarize himself with his new prospect, Cynthia Kent, a category manager at Assentis Pasta, prior to their meeting.

Mark looks up Cynthia's address and with the click of a button, pulls up a map. He realizes she is located very close to Goodstuff Foods, one of his best customers.

So to make the most of his day, Mark phones and also schedules a meeting with Tim, the operations manager at Goodstuff Foods. He adds the details to the entry and sees from his records that Tim's birthday is a few days away. Instead of the usual e-card he would normally send he sets a task to remind himself to buy Tim a Canuck's NHL cap on his way to their meeting... "Appreciation goes a long way" he thinks to himself as he orders his coffee.

Mark does all of the above in less than 5 minutes, his competitors haven't even opened their laptops yet.

Curious about mobile CRM? This webcast might interest you:
Win More Deals & Increase Customer Satisfaction with Mobile CRM
presented by Barton Goldenberg, Founder, ISM Inc.

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Gain a Competitive Edge by Mobilizing Your CRM

Kelly McKeown — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:56:00 GMT

Competition is fiercer than ever to acquire and retain customers so quite often the customer experience becomes the battleground for competitive advantage. With customers being a company's most valuable asset it is imperative that customer relationships are managed and nurtured effectively. Many businesses are realizing the need for more efficient ways for their teams to do this, and are taking customer relationship management (CRM) software implementation to the next level; mobilizing their frontline teams and arming them with CRM enabled mobile devices.

A longtime customer of Maximizer Software, Corporate Cleaning Services (CSS) is one such company. With Maximizer® CRM 11 enabled on their smartphones they were able to more effectively monitor and resolve service issues as well as manage sales opportunities. Utilizing the Customer Service module, supervisors are able to create customer service cases, enter notes from inspections, and access files in real-time from the client site eliminating the time consuming, slow and unreliable manual processes that were previously in place. Founder and CEO, Mark Sippola envisioned using information and data effectively to help provide a high level of customer service and to distinguish CCS from its competition. Sippola saw Maximizer CRM as key in helping them realize that vision. "I have been waiting for the day when the technology caught up with my vision of providing my staff with real time reporting and monitoring of customer relationships. This latest version of Maximizer has hit the nail on the head as far as my vision is concerned."

Advantages of mobilizing staff with CRM include:

More efficient and effective collaboration and communication across your organization with departments working together on closing sales or resolving customer issues anywhere, anytime.
Reduced reliance on staff being in the office, providing flexibility to spend more time in the field in front of customers.
Ability to manage and update customer information on the road so opportunities aren't missed and colleagues can act on the latest information.
Helps maintain momentum with your teams to achieve higher levels of performance.
Streamlined sales and services processes resulting in improved response time to customer inquiries.
Visibility into up-to-date customer profiles and history moments before a meeting so sales and service reps can walk in prepared and with confidence they have all the information they need to succeed.
Providing a consistent experience for the customer whether they are interacting with staff in the field or in the office.

If positive customer experiences and long-term loyalty is what you are looking for, mobilize your sales and service teams with Maximizer® CRM!

If you would like to learn more, watch the "Mobilizing with CRM... Your Cometitive Advantage" webcast which includes guest speaker Mark Sippola, CEO of Corporate Cleaning Services, sharing his story about how MaxMobile improved workflow and efficiencies for both his sales and customer service teams.

Why Outlook is not a CRM?

Céline Côté — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:13:00 GMT

If you think Outlook is the equivalent of a CRM, think again… allow me!

written by Céline Côté

Read more about CRM on Céline's blog "A CRM User's Thoughts and Tips"

No doubt Outlook is an excellent electronic mail manager with an address book, calendar and tasks list and a CRM has an address book, calendar and to-do list. The resemblance stops there, so what’s the dif?

A good Customer Relationship Management system, like Maximizer CRM, will integrate Outlook as one of it’s windows to view and make even better use of Outlook, without reinventing it but extending it.

Here’s how:

The Flexibility of Personalization
The most powerful function in Maximizer is it’s ‘list view’. From the beginning Maximizer works like we do, it shows people or companies in a list view rather than a form for each contact. This form is called the Basic Information sheet and contains, well the basics, name, address, phone numbers, which we don’t need to look at all the time. This is a major difference as in the Address Book window you can view the exact information you need as a view into the database that can be changed at will for what you need at the time you need it. You can create a list view with specific information/fields for prospects, clients, buyers, sellers, opportunities and tasks. Each piece of information is put in a column, and each column can be the sorting column, so you can put the list in alphabetical order, postal code order, city order, the choice is as you wish. You can even put more than one piece of information in the same column, not too many CRM will do that. Each column setup that you create is saved in a list to be reused in a snap! That’s flexibility in my book!

Now Maximizer goes further by having ‘following windows’, that means when you click on a person or company in the list, it displays the related information such as other contacts for that individual or company, notes, the list of User Fields that give at-a-glance a portrait of who the contact is in relationship to you. How about having your Ideal Client Profile, where does the person fit compared to your ICP!, you can also tell then how the entry is qualified and where he/she in the sales process!

These fields are not just to know who you are dealing with; every field can be searched and grouped. Can you say ‘target marketing’! All those that meet a set of your criteria, can be searched and appear in a list you can save as a Favorite List and send a mass letter, fax or email with your latest marketing info. With Maximizer you can even narrow a list or add to a list you are building. And this is so easily done!

Speaking of user fields, for Maximizer CRM we call them UDFs (User Defined Fields) and they are so very powerful and flexible. These fields can be used to profile, categorize, differentiate all your companies and people/contacts, you can arrange them in the order you need or want as a directory down to 3 levels! There are no limits to the number of UDF’s in Maximizer CRM. Impossible to do this with Outlook! In it, you can have category names per contact, but you have to go into the address book, choose the tab for fields and then select a category of fields… too cumbersome.

Maximizer CRM UDFs used in the Address Book window is so easy to see in a tree (directory view) on the tab that you view at the same time that you view the contacts and with the flexibility of choosing which fields you want to see in the main window - you can use any UDFs or basic fields to sort your contacts or companies for example: by amount ‘sold this month’, plus ‘year to date’ to easily find and cater to your 20% that brings in 80% of your sales/revenue. It can be used to do target marketing or segmenting for promotion by classifying/sorting by industries, regions, city, postal codes, etc… There is no limit to the number of views and uses you can have on your information. I have used Maximizer CRM to assist me superbly and efficiently to manage lists for whatever purpose I need or can think of. Not possible with just Outlook…

Usability
When using the address book, calendar and to-do list (called Hotlist in Maximizer) of Maximizer CRM, you will make everything more efficient because an appointment is attached to a contact, person or company, and is cross-referenced as a note entered automatically for the contact. You never have to reenter a name, address or phone number.

Same thing with tasks (to-dos or Hotlist), they are attached and cross referenced to a contact or as a personal task if it doesn’t involve any contacts.

Considering the fact that contacts are entered either for a company or for an individual, so a company has all the employees/staff all together, an individual is a professional without a company name but has a few assistants or is self-employed. Then all the notes for the company and for each individual are easy to view, what has happened in the past, any appointment set in the future, any tasks past and future, this is not possible with Outlook since it is a basic address book name by name in alphabetical order.

Then consider before emails. People were sending letters, faxes, thank you notes, real Christmas cards… and some still do. This is so easily done in Maximizer CRM as a merge between names, UDF and an integrated editor or using Microsoft Word. I would not thing of using anything else to help me be efficient. For each contact and company, you have a document tab, this is a real document manager as it’s an area to keep together all the correspondence. Now with emails being more used than letters, you save significant emails that are important for the history of the relationship in that same section, they are saved with 2 clicks: right click on the email to get the drop down menu then select ‘save to …name of person…’ and the email is now a document inside Maximizer CRM and can be shared, viewed and even responded to by others if you are in a company with whom you need to share information.

There is an advanced function in Maximizer called ‘Global Edit’ that can be used in both the Address Book or in the Opportunity Management section, it makes tasks for mass editing easy and a real time saver for the user. When group of people, customers, prospects or sales opportunities need to be reassigned to a new account manager, or a note needs to be added to several entries at one time, this function makes it so simple and fast, it even allows modifying multiple UDFs at the same time!

I’ll quickly tell about the creation of Action Plans since I have another post entirely on that subject, this is the scheduling of a string of appointments and/or Hotlist tasks that is set up as a reusable template and you can chose which company or person to apply a different Action Plan template for. Is it that you want to keep in touch once a month, every two months, quarterly, etc… Or is it that you want to handle a project like organizing an exhibit and things need to be planned and executed in a timely manner, and that are consistent every time you are an exhibitor at trade shows… Maximizer CRM is your full time assistant!

Did I mention how easy it is to keep the emails in each contact documents section for history, how easy it is to have email templates…

One other thing you have in Maximizer that’s so neat, your library! This is document management that’s so very useful, all the documentation that you have for business correspondence and are not attached to a contact as they are in each individual’s documents section, this is a area to keep the latest versions of forms, catalogs, price lists, and other reusable documents, ready to be emailed to a contact.

Upgrade and scalability
If you start with either the Entrepreneur or the Team Editions, that are contact and sales management applications, it is simple and seamless to have an upgrade path to the full CRM Editions of Group and Enterprise, so that your CRM grows with you with full featured Sales, Marketing and Customer Service and Support and can synchronize with people working on the road or at another location.

Maximizer already synchronizes contacts, calendar and tasks with Outlook.

This is not an either/or, it’s both!
Finally, the integration between Outlook and Maximizer CRM is seamless.

A CRM like Maximizer provides customers/prospects/contacts/suppliers/partners management; sales opportunity management; marketing campaign management and customer service and support management (those last two are in Group and Enterprise Editions) with many functionalities both basic and advanced that Outlook doesn’t have. And it is not an either/or, it’s best using both Maximizer CRM with Outlook! May I say that they are like Batman and Robin, they work together!

Any questions anyone on this subject?

Adding a "Twitter" button to Maximizer

Margarita Orlov — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:15:00 GMT

Tweet-Creep from your CRM

By Will Leung

Twitter is imagery for the new age. Twitter is to social media as Haiku is to poetry.

Good Tweets, like haiku, invoke imagery in the reader's minds and provoke thought. In the case of tweets, you can also follow them up by replies, re-tweets, or if you are truly impressed by the author, a follow. Good tweets are clear, concise, and most importantly short. And if they are not clear, concise, and short? Click on the bit.ly link for more.

Maximizer has the capability of opening somebody's twitter page at the click of a button, so you can catch a glimpse of their soul, 140 characters at a time. So the following involves 2 user-defined fields, and a Custom Action button.

1. Create the twitter name user-defined field

This is where you put their twitter name. For example, Maximizer's twitter name is MaximizerCRM. This field should be an alphanumeric user-defined field.

2. Create a formula field that combines that with twitter.com

Create an alphanumeric formula user-defined field with the following syntax: "http://www.twitter.com/" + [Twitter Name]

What this will do is it will append the contents of the "Twitter Name" user-defined field to http://www.twitter.com/.

Some users may be confused with 2 twitter fields, so to make it a little bit more clear, just hide it or throw it into a "Do Not Use" folder.

We'll call this user-defined field "Twitter URL"

3. Create a custom action button that will launch this field

On the Setup tab, select the Custom Actions option in the Workspace group.

Create a custom action group (the group that will contain the button) by clicking Add, or select an existing group and click Properties to add an additional button.

Next, click Add to add a button. Select the "Start a user-defined field for an Address Book entry" option. Then select the "Twitter URL" field from the user-defined field drop down. You can also change the tooltip if you want. After you select the button icon, then click finish.

You now have a button in a group in the Custom Actions tab. You can also add this button to the Quick Access toolbar.