Oh my goodness, someone shoot me!
I've been trialling various software products for CRM and it was driving me absolutely bonkers.
Initially I thought I just wanted CRM functionality because working off spreadsheets was driving me insane and honestly just putting me off all those things I had to do for my marketing endeavours.
Then I discovered something called ERP, which is like Project Management software (I think - this is all so gobbledegook to me), which I found appealing. Afterall, I'm working on projects that run for an extended period of time, and I'm looking to implement something now that can be used by others as well as myself in the not too distant future.
But then I started thinking, well, if I'm going to have a combined CRM/ERP solution, it's pretty dumb that I don't have the accounting functions integrated into it as well so when I'm working with my clients in the CRM I have a complete picture of their position in relation to my company....and this led me to XRM!
The X is basically anything you want it to be, as far as I can ascertain.
I thought I found something I liked that was the complete deal and it was specific to the construction industry which I rationalised was essential because of the nature of the way our industry works. I've bookmarked it for future reference as I think it was too big for us, if that makes sense.
Now, on top of all this I discovered things called SaaS, open source, on premises, hosted and managed, hosted and not managed....and I really meant it; someone just shoot me!
Why on earth couldn't I find something that I liked but I could also get on premises? Now, I'm not a ludite, and I'm ok with advances in technology, but I've got to say this whole Cloud technology doesn't quite sit so well with me yet. It hasn't been around long enough for me to be comfortable exporting my data to it and leaving it in someone elses hands to manage. Now, my data is really piddly compared to other companies out there, but still, it's my data and if something happens to it then I have to start again.
Simon (my business coach) thinks I'm crazy and says there's more chance of someone breaking into my home and stealing my laptop (where my data is stored) than there is someone hacking a cloud host and taking my data (and besides, there's not much they can do with my data anyway).
So, I did it. I purchased my first SaaS (software as a service for those uninitiated!) application yesterday.
I decided to go with a CRM that had a really "loose" style of Projects in it. I have to say it was the first one I trialled after I read someone elses blog who said she was using it too. I liked the looseness of the Projects because it really just lets me run things my way instead of how the software developers things things should be run. I trialled too many to remember but just kept coming back to this first one. It just felt better than the rest.
Next thing on the list is to see if I can work with Google Apps including GMail for Business as this CRM that I bought yesterday intergrates with Google Apps and it'll save me keeping 2 sets of contacts; one in Outlook and the other in my CRM.
On other fronts, my marketing efforts are going reasonably well and Simon and I are developing a rather good system for all the marketing I need to do. The only problem is I'm supposed to call the people I'm directly marketing to within 2 weeks of my initial marketing to them, and I hate it. I really, really hate it. I'm finding it so hard to get motivated to do it.
It's not so much the clients directly that I have an issue calling; it's the architects that I have the problem with. Simon laughs, I'm sure, at my logic. You see, in my mind, if I'm calling an architect enquiring about potential work, it's like I'm grovelling and it's a really uneven start to the relationship. I don't do uneven very well. I like even.
I really need to change my mindset somehow so that I can think to myself that I have something they need just as much as they have something I need. Easier said than done, though...
Anyway, till next time...
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