“For any entertainment company, whether a sports team or not, NetSuite makes perfect sense,” says Stewart. “It lets you really understand your customers and their buying habits, which lets you better serve them while building your own business.”

–Cameron Stewart, Interactive Marketing Manager for the A’s

CRM in Action: Oakland Athletics

With the 2005 baseball season in full swing, it may be too early to tell how the Oakland Athletics will fare on the field—but off the diamond, the results are clear: With NetSuite CRM providing a more efficient, flexible way to track sales, the team has been able to improve customer—and advertiser—satisfaction, while laying the groundwork for improved marketing campaigns and bigger sales.

In just six months, the A’s have been able to better manage and track sales leads, and reduce the errors that were an embarrassing side-effect of its old paper-based sales system. “We no longer have different sales representatives calling the same leads, and with NetSuite’s reporting capabilities, we get a real-time look at what’s selling and who is buying it,” says Cameron Stewart, Interactive Marketing Manager for the A’s. “Before, it took so long to compile data that everything was always out-of-date.” Read more »

By Katherine Jones, Director of Marketing at NetSuite

For years, the mantra for SFA and CRM systems has been to achieve a 360° view of the customer.  The sad truth, however, is that traditional standalone Sales Force Automation solutions are not able to deliver this complete view for the sales force and leave major “blind spots” on key customer activity with the company. 

The important intersection of sales teams and their customers is central to optimizing sales effectiveness. This means that real-time visibility into every aspect of the customer life cycle from initial lead through revenue transactions is vital.  Having this information within one business solution improves productivity and efficiency across the entire sales and support teams.  Without that broader visibility, the sales rep is driving blind and can easily run off the road by not knowing customer purchase, service, or payment history.  However, when businesses rely on a single integrated system, the sales team and its management can obtain more timely, accurate data while reducing the need to chase down information from disparate systems and to reiteratively enter data in multiple applications.

Read more »

The CRM Advisor
You ask the questions, and our resident CRM guru shares her wisdom.

This week’s question:
“We are in the midst of our CRM implementation, and our consultant is recommending extensive customization. How much modification should an out-of-the-box CRM solution typically need?”

A: There is no black-and-white answer when it comes to CRM customization. The level of customization required will vary greatly from one company to the next, and will depend on a multitude of factors, including the functionality contained within the solution you chose, the level of complexity and uniqueness in your customer-facing processes, and the needs of your users.

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Do you desire to increase your selling success?

If so, you need to read Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager, written by Lee B. Salz.

In his book, Salz provides sales people with an energy boost and an easy to implement sales tool kit. His book was inspired by the gap that exists between sales people and their managers; and Salz tackles this issue head on!

The book was written to help sales people and their managers remain competitive. Those who fail to adapt become extinct, just like the dodo bird of ages ago. Many laugh at the use of the word “dodo,” but there is nothing funny about a business losing its competitive edge due to unmanaged change.

In his book, he bridges the gap between sales people and their managers. The book empowers sales people by providing structure, guidance and support for them so they can create their own sales system which he refers to as sales architecture®. Told in a mentoring style, the book provides focus to an entire sales organization, helping them become self-sufficient and enabling them to perform at levels they never thought possible. It is with this new toolset that sales people learn to adapt and thrive.

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Lee B. Salz is President of Sales Dodo, LLC and author of “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” He specializes in helping companies and their sales organizations adapt and thrive in the ever-changing world of business. Lee is available for keynote speaking, business consulting, and sales training. He can be reached via email at lsalz@salesdodo.com, his website at www.salesdodo.com or by phone at 763.416.4321.

In most corporations today, email marketing programs continue to play a major role in sales and marketing strategies.

In fact, a survey conducted earlier this year by Dantran Media indicates that as many as 83 percent of businesses still consider email to be their most important and widely-used advertising and lead generation initiative. That same study shows that approximately 35 percent of B2B marketers and almost 40 percent of B2C marketers actually plan to increase their use of email as a marketing tool in the coming year.  

But, buyers are getting increasingly frustrated by the massive volumes of junk email they receive on a daily basis, and are relying more and more on sophisticated spam filters to block unwanted messages from clogging their inboxes. This approach, however, can be counterproductive – often preventing legitimate, relevant, and targeted marketing messages and promotions from getting through. 

So, how can you avoid the dreaded spam filter, and maximize the results from your email marketing campaigns?   The truth is, no two spam filters are exactly the same. And, most available solutions offer extensive customization, so companies can adjust the filtering techniques and related controls to meet their specific needs. However, there are some smart ways to outwit the spam filters, regardless of how they are implemented or set up, and make sure your email gets delivered to its intended target.

Avoid Certain Words

Certain words and phrases simply scream “SPAM”, and almost every spam filter out there today will be dynamically triggered to block any and all messages that contain them.

Read more »