Ask the coach about CRM: Some great tools for the Sales Evangelist

A reader and great friend to the entrepreneur,

Cheryl Liquori, asked me the following:

“Do you have any knowledge of, or experience, working with ZOHO.com for CRM?  I’m not interested in the desktop applications, but only in the CRM.  I\’ve read reviews, but they seem to focus on large enterprise applications.  For the sole propriator on a shoe string, wrestling with excel and overwhelmed by user-unfriendly ACT, I was wondering about zoho as an alternative.  Your expert thoughts?”

Now you all know I support Landslide as the ultimate Workstyle system. If you need something that focuses o the sales process, YOU MUST ADD LANDSLIDE TO YOUR TOOLKIT!

What you do not know is that I am designing a fully automated CRM system for a client that is based on the combo dialer-crm Insidesales.com. These guys have designed a complete system that allows you to do anything via javascript. I am literally making it so reps can make 200-300 quality calls a day with almost no admin work. EVERYTHING IS AUTOMATED BY A BUTTON CLICK!

If you are CRM hunting, let me know, as I get a referral fee for either of the above.

Now back to the question. What a coincidence! I found Zoho and have loaded one of my clients into it. Mind you, I havenever talked to the company, but intend to!

As their sole sales person for my startup client I have started using it for everything. Frankly, it is awesome! I believe it is based on SugarCRM, but SalesForce look out. At a price of $12/mo after 3 FREE USERS, this is going to get the small businesses, entrepreneurs, individual consultants… onboard and adopting.

So far:

1.  Fast, I mean super fast

2. Complete sales and marketing system with all of the trimmings

3. The reporting is easy to use

4. Forecast tool is great

5. Opportunities are called potentials, how adorable!

6. Uploads work really well.

7. Mimics the standard SalesForce, SugarCRM, Netsuite methodology of lead to accounts.

8. Really flexible design

9. Did I mention that the first 3 users are free?

10. Upgradeable to an enterprise system with a load of featers for $25 a user. YES I SAID $25 A USER!

I would strongly recommend any small budget player with little demands on automation to play with this system prior to looking at anything else.

A webTV show on training and ki work for sales trainers

So I am in the process of setting up a sales training show on one of the big web TV sites. Please let me know what topics you would like.

The show will be 30 minutes once a week (suggested times anyone?) The trainings will not be gimmicks to buy somethin but complete sessions or done in parts. You will get something out of every one.

An initial focus on staratups and evangelism will help all of you in growing companies. That said, I intend to invite some of the worlds brightest sales consultants and business experts for guest appearances.

Also and this is IMPORTANT. I AM NOW THE CATEGORY LEADER FOR SALES TRAINING ON ki work. ki work is an amazing site that is designed to unify the fragmented global market of remote work, offsite training, regional opportunties, and outsourced projects. As the leader in sales training I will be looking for other training experts to join my group and offer their services to the ki work community.

Landslide – A new release, from great to olympic

Landslide just released its new version, and I am pretty sure it’s code name was Olympic Champion. If you have not demo’d Landslide, or are not sure what they are up to, please start by reading this post about the new way of looking at sales activity -

Sales Training: Integrating CRM-SFA into the sales team Part 1 – A cry for Web 2.0 and now Sales 2.0

then read this -

From the Newsletter – Landslide the Sales 2.0 team tool!

Now, with that out of the way, it is time to focus on how they have gone beyond my wildest dreams. Do not take my word for it, here is what one of my colleagues has to say,

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On topic: An exchange of ideas with Paul McCord

This last week was one of those times in my blogging history I will never forget. The renowned sales trainer to the management world, Paul McCord , left a great comment on my blog. Below that you will see my response, then what happens is what my social networking master of a friend, Alejandro Reyes (click his name to check out his blog), would call a necessary and long overdue exchange.

This discussion leads from a post I wrote last weekend called A late night rant on sales training – read it here

Now for what ensued:

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Off topic: A late night rant about sales training

The corporate world is changing at a pace that can not be comprehended by people that have yet to embrace the realities of the Web 2.0 world. Things that most sales people do not pay attention to, like SOAP (Service Oriented Architecture Protocols), and Ruby on Rails or PHP and CSS are not household names. That said, they are effecting everything from how quickly you know what is happening on the other side of the world, or that all night IM session your 14 year old is in the middle of. It is instant access to flight information, or channel management and inventory control in seconds not days. Bottom line, people that embrace technology are moving faster than those who do not. Is faster always better, no, but in the corporate world, effectiveness and efficiency in tandem RULE.

So, a word to all of those that train. Mr. and Ms. Salestrainer, it is time to teach people to be more effective by leveraging the new technology of our virtual social existence. I have had to adapt, and believe me I was the crowned prince of 150 dials a day and a pipeline that was an equilateral triangle standing on its point. Your writer naileed quota after quota by casting that giant net and yanking what would slide up and in. SO LISTEN TO ME WHEN I TELL YOU THAT IT IS OVER!!!!

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