Contact Management Software

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***tier3square.shtml***This subtitle has nothing to do with contact management software, but if you've seen the movie about "Borat" maybe you'll figure out that I'm poking a little fun at the origins of CRM software. Having fun is what it's all about, right. And if you are still using this kind of software, you probably don't have much time to have fun.

Contact Management software really got going back in the 1980's in the good old DOS days. I remember them well. I feared computers back then. Those were the days when software couldn't figure out how to send formatting codes to a laser printer without the user embedding them into a spreadsheet. But someone wasn't afraid. The fearless salesman, Pat Sullivan, created a legendary product called Act!

Now back then, there wasn't a lot of automation going on in my opinion. We're talking about something as simple as a rolodex powered by electricity. This software could help you put together a calling plan so you touched contacts on a regular basis. Tools like this were designed for individual sales people. Lone warriors trying to beat the competition with the latest gadgetry. It was a wild success from a certain point of view.

This was the genesis of software is the solution brainwashing by our glorious software vendors. Burn a CD, put it in every store on the planet, repeat! It was a great business model...I wish I had thought of it. But did it make every salesperson a superstar?

Unfortunately, it did not. While it made them slightly more organized, it didn't really solve the real problem.

Let's take a look at your bedroom closet for example. It has all of these clever organizing racks and stuff. Yet, after the initial thrill, your stuff ends up piled on the floor. And that works for some individuals. It works for me!

Most folks that are successful, whether they know it or not, have a plan. The plan is how they purposely intend to function day to day to achieve whatever goals they have set for themselves. These are the folks that were wildly successful with contact management software. The software was merely a tool to make the plan run smoothly.

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I talk about plans a lot on this site because the site is about effective CRM. Effective CRM starts with a strategic plan and then executes it using humans and technology.  Salespeople that used products like Act Software and other contact databases and had a plan were highly successful and it was noticed in Sales organizations around the world. But the needs of the sales organization were different than the sales person. Which led to the next term we were all forced to learn....SFA, or Sales Force Automation.

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