If your company decides to move forward with implementing a CRM program, the work is just beginning. At this point, you have to figure out which CRM vendor to more forward with.

In the current environment, there are a number of vendors who specialize in a particular field, so it can be difficult to narrow your choices down to one. Companies can use a CRM vendor assessment matrix to help simplify the process of vendor selection.

By Jerry Rackley

I once had a boss who taught me the meaning of the phrase, “when someone asks you what time it is, don’t provide instructions for building a watch.” I confess to being rather impatient. For most communications, I don’t want the War and Peace version of something when the Cliff’s Notes version is available. What this impatience really represents is a style of communication that marketers should care deeply about: brevity.

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When you are operating an account-based sales business, there will be specific reporting tools needed by your company’s management team, marketing department, and sales personnel. Where the status of your key accounts is concerned, these reporting tools can be invaluable. When you need to be provided with reports possible on the status of your key accounts, it will be to your benefit to use a customizable account planning template.

As with any job position within a company, when you hire someone for an inside sales representative position, you need to make sure that it is clear what the job requires from the employee. The best way to do so is by using a template to create the position description to give to the potential employee when they come in for their interview. It is important for any individual applying to the position to understand what is required of them before they commit to the job offer.

When companies want to allow their stakeholders to have easy access to company information, they typically create an extranet portal for individuals to access. Thereafter, anyone at the company with access information can log into the extranet portal.

When developing the portal, it is important to consider the overall extranet design. There are a number of reasons for this. To begin, you need to assume that someone who is not the most accustomed to technology will be accessing your portal. For this reason, it is important that the portal be very user-friendly.

Editors note: this is the third post in a series we have invited some of our partners and members to contribute.

By Jerry Rackley

I caught a recent NPR interview of Dr. James Pennebaker, social psychologist and professor at the University of Texas. He has done some research on how we use language, which is described in his book, The Secret Life of Pronouns.

Today, many businesses are taking advantage of blogging by utilizing a company blog. This can be a good way to keep people up-to-date on how things are going with your company, as well as can provide fun commentary on items within your particular industry. In order to have a successful blog, a company must have at least one person to write the entries and maintain it. It is important that the individual not post anything that will get the company into trouble.

By Jerry Rackley

As marketers, we make a career out of learning what customers value, and then trying to persuade them that our respective companies are the best at providing it. The channels and technologies involved in this work have changed, but the core strategy of trying to herd as many customers as possible into the corporate corral has not.