Customer management system?

[leeb]

Hi all,

I have guys out on the road doing sales, they are currently using a 10 yr old version of Act!. Works Ok, but we are looking to get a different system, as Act! just has too much for what they need. Plus I need to do a refresher course for them all, and it wuold be a good time to introduce a new system.

Just wondered what any of you sales people use out on the road for tracking your calls, meetings and contacts? It doesnt need to be centrally hosted, we are able to just collate the data all together, it would be good if i could extract the current data from act to update the new system.

Ideally we would be able to edit the field and button names etc to customise it and make it VERY simple.

Thanks a lot
Lee

[escargot]

Lee, I use filemaker here. It does exactly what we need it to do and it can be as simple or as customisable as you need it to be. It isn't an out of the box solution as you'd need to build the database yourself (or pay someone to do it), but as an effective means to an end it works well. Plus, it's easily scalable.

[amir_j]

leeb said:

Hi all,

I have guys out on the road doing sales, they are currently using a 10 yr old version of Act!. Works Ok, but we are looking to get a different system, as Act! just has too much for what they need. Plus I need to do a refresher course for them all, and it wuold be a good time to introduce a new system.

Just wondered what any of you sales people use out on the road for tracking your calls, meetings and contacts? It doesnt need to be centrally hosted, we are able to just collate the data all together, it would be good if i could extract the current data from act to update the new system.

Ideally we would be able to edit the field and button names etc to customise it and make it VERY simple.

Thanks a lot
Lee

Microsoft Access database should be the first thing you look at as its free (as long as you have Office) and sounds very suitable for your needs.

Not hard to design a simple database in it yourself if you are willing to put some time in- if you want something more advanced then pm me.

EDIT: Or even simpler, even Excel (with some field validation built in) sounds ideal for your needs -as long as you make sure the files don't get too big.

Edited by amir_j on Monday 15th March 12:59

[Carsie]

Leeb- you know you're going to get deluged with offers of CRM Software don't you!

I sell a lot of business software including CRM and frankly you can google to your hearts content and come up with a bewildering range of product offers and prices. The key however in my experience is firstly to understand what you want to achieve (in our speak "Business Needs Analysis")and then subsequently automate the business process(reduce cost) by installing/stripping out software

I obviously don't know your business or its level of sophistication but as an observation to your post - you've said you have salesmen on the road and they don't need anything particularly complicated - that's very expensive nowadays if they're not part of the total marketing mix of your business and if they're not an integral part of the Company's sales process,are they true salesmen or are they order takers in which case why not just use MS Outlook?

I'd be delighted to supply you with any upto date CRM software and associated training but I suspect that you probably need a review of your sales strategy first and then select afterwards and naturally I'd be happy to oblige; just drop me a line