Every time I see the signs of economic recovery, I want to believe. (Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus…) The other day the “Loomis Sayles Portfolio Perspectives” landed on my desk. The headline was “Inside: Economy shows signs of recovery”. Although the report started out pretty gloomy (“During the first nine months of the period October 2008 to September 2009, the US economy suffered the worst recession since the early 1980’s”) it improved as I struggled through reading one economic indicator after another. All in all, it told me things were getting better. But “better” is a relative term, isn’t it? Is YOUR business better today than it was 10-12 months ago? Are your customers happier and more satisfied with your products and services than before? Did you take action a year ago to ensure you could easily track your customers’ buying behavior, anticipate their orders and proactively go after their business while your competitors floundered?
If so, congratulations! You are likely patting yourself on the back for your foresight and insightful business planning. If you didn’t, you’re now a year older and still wishing you knew how to forecast and capitalize on customer purchasing patterns. (customer relationship management) is a tool that can help you do just that – and a whole lot more. At a very basic level, it can help you earn more from your customers, help you save money by streamlining customer operations and help you save time with efficient sales and marketing processes. Download a complimentary copy of
If you are considering a CRM implementation, contact us for a look at and . Sherwood’s emphasis on superior customer service and our rare customer-centric approach set us apart from the masses. We encourage you to discover more via our , info@sherwood.com or contact Ed at 602-943-9696 or edb@sherwood.com.
by Sherwood Associates, an
Dear Curtguy,Thanks for the compliment; and thanks again for bringing this point up- I guess it needed clarification. My intent was not recommending any deceitful behavior. I have seen people hiring staff for one day for a big meeting, renting computers and furniture to impress a customer with what they have, or faking customerlists and employee counts. Such behaviors are dishonest and should be condemned. In addition, there is nothing bad about working with small businesses. I do it every time I have a choice. If you read my recommendations carefully, they are all around two things: getting more organized (which helps anyways) and creating better perception of the small business- this is exactly what the large corporates do with large budgets, consultants, and double spreads in the WSJ. SMBs don't have the budget and are not always that sophisticated, so at least they should appear to be decent businesses, in order to get the customer to try them out. Then, they can differentiate on superior service. Hope I clarified things a bit.