Using a CRM is like eating broccoli

Why did I choose that article title?  Because using a CRM is exactly like eating broccoli…It’s. Just. No. Fun.

I’ve tried.  I’ve really tried but there’s just no way to make entering leads, accounts, contacts and such be fun.  It. Just. Isn’t.

So there…I said it.  Me, a partner in a firm that specializes in implementing relationship management solutions a la Salesforce.com and whose very same company uses Salesforce as the backbone of our operations.

If there’s anyone who disagrees with me, shout out -- while the rest of us agree to my above sentiments.  There’s no doubt either, that the more “creative” folks in “creative” functions – like sales and marketing – will rebel against using them because of the discipline required to create new records and maintain activity histories.

And guess what?

Use your CRM anyway for the same reason you should eat broccoli.  CRMs are good for you and will help you keep your business <erm> well-greased...

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Salesforce.com solutions – Intellicore Design’s value-add

The cool thing about the world we live in today is an abundance of choices.  It’s just as true when deciding on an IT service provider to implement a Salesforce.com solution as it is for anything else.

That begs the question then of why you should select Intellicore Design Consulting as your solution provider for Salesforce.com solutions.  The answer?  Choose us because we aren’t IT service providers.

Huh?

We the folks at Intellicore Design Consulting are business strategy experts who translate business processes and programs into on-demand business solutions we implement.

For and foremost, though, we’re business strategy experts...

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Internal corporate communities – making great music together

RainToday.com writers Mike Schultz, Publisher, and John Doerr, Contributing Editor attribute words of wisdom to Benjamin Zander, founder and conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  In a conference for business leaders Zander said,

The job of the conductor is to get the best music out of the musicians. His role is to coach, encourage, support, and occasionally push. But the conductor never makes a sound.

That got me thinking about internal corporate communities. 

If handled correctly, internal corporate communities are one way for corporate executives foster communication, collaboration, and participation among employees....

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The real Value of B2B blogging

Last week, I had a pleasant exploratory chat with a potential blog service partner and they get the point of corporate or B2B blogging – and it’s not the same as B2C or personal blogging.  In the corporate world, using a blog to build community is only one benefit – and in my mind, it’s valuable but not the most important reason to blog.

Let’s talk today about the real value of B2B blogging and the reason behind that value.  From there, we’ll segue into a realistic overview of the time requirements needed to build a successful blog. 

The discussion will help you put your own company’s situation into perspective when considering whether blogging is the right avenue for your company to build community...

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It's all in the dance -- What's makes successful online communities

The numero uno factor contributing to community success  is the ability to connect with others, so say a little more than 50% of survey respondents of 100-ish companies who participated in the Deloitte-Beeline Labs 2008 Tribalization of Business study.  Another factor, scoring a little more than 40%, is the ability to help others.

Know what I immediately thought of when I first read the study results?  Dancing.

Let me tell you why because it gives a clear metaphor of the power of online communities...

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Spend marketing dollars effectively during a trashed economy

Where are companies investing their marketing dollars as the economy turns down?  Two blogs in my reading list posed this question recently.  One is Jeremiah Owyang and the other Marketing Sherpa.

Their posts stimulated my own post on where companies are likely to gain the greatest bang for their marketing bucks and why.

To set the stage, we'll start with some wake-up results from Marketing Sherpa and then I'll segue into  answering some where and why questions posed by Jeremiah...

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Bagging management back-up books in favor of knowledge bases

Most times when a marketer like me touts the benefits of a knowledge base, we focus on the customer service benefits.  While those are plentiful, today I want to share a story that exposes the internal benefits of having a well-populated knowledge base.

Back in the day, Cynthina Heinsohn, developer extraordinaire, and I worked in an Exxon Exploration Planning group.  Among our various semi-regular responsibilities, the Planning group prepared our division management team (the Exxon way) to weather senior executive reviews of our division's operational activity and investment portfolio (and our division budget encompassed $100s of millions).

For each review, our group's preparation involved undertaking a mountain of analysis, generating a plethora of reports, and then building two to three back-up books filled with the results, with each binder book being about about three to four inches thick.  And this happened two to three times per year...

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Tooty tooting -- Three Spheres of Web Strategy

Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst at Forrester Research, authors an interesting blog called Web Strategy by Jeremiah.  I like peeking in on his articles because they focus on how companies can use web tools to connect with their customers.  A topic near and dear to us over here at Community Network.

One of Jeremiah's articles from last August focused on The Three Spheres of Web Strategy, complete with a cool graphic that shows the overlapping relationship among the spheres...

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