Procrastinators of the World Unite!

I’m fairly good about getting ready for the holiday season.  In fact, I have a pretty set schedule:  decorations go up the weekend after Thanksgiving and come down the weekend after New Years.  Most gifts are purchased via the Internet on Black Friday.  I even stock up on little “stocking stuffers” just in case I left someone off my list.  But, like everyone else, I find myself at the mall...

Help! Someone Hacked My Yahoo Account

computer virus
I received a rather bizarre e-mail last Saturday night just as I was getting ready to enjoy a lovely evening at a Marlins game.  It came in to my business account from my Yahoo account and was asking me to send money to myself.  According to the e-mail I was attending a seminar in England and needed some extra cash.  This was all news to me as I was sitting in my Boca Raton home. About that time...

4 Free Ways to Connect With Your Customers NOW

grow your business
Today’s post is by guest blogger, Deborah Shane of Train with Shane.  Deborah is an empowerment expert who specializes in career transitioning for women and provides sales, marketing and branding consulting.  She can be heard on her weekly on Blog Talk Radio. Take it away, Deborah! It’s amazing what you can do online, for free, in terms of connecting with your potential and existing customers...

Knowing the In-N-Out of Marketing

database marketing
I just returned from two weeks in beautiful Ventura, California, where I was recording new training videos for lynda.com on Outlook 2010.  In addition to beautiful weather, California is the home to the In-N-Out hamburger chain. For those of you unfamiliar with the In-N-Out chain, they have approximately 250 locations sprinkled throughout the Southwest.  Compare that to McDonald’s who has over...

Should I Switch from ACT to Sales Force

Boy, do I hear that question a lot!  Sometimes I get a variation (feel free to substitute the name of the current CRM product du jour for Sales Force). Here’s the deal.  I know folks like you – I call them ACT fanactics.  I had 500 of them wait in line to get into a seminar I ran in August, 2002 on a not so sunny night in South Florida introducing the all new ACT 6.  I guarantee I wouldn’t...

Qualifying Opportunity and Potential in Sales

grow your business
Today’s post is by guest blogger, Deborah Shane of Train with Shane.  Deborah is an empowerment expert who specializes in career transitioning for women and provides sales, marketing and branding consulting.  She can be heard on her weekly on Blog Talk Radio. Take it away, Deborah! Yea, you made a warm contact, connection and received some promising referrals! What comes next? QUALIFYING:...

Is Your Business the Underdog?

business marketing tips
I love sports and I’m a sucker for Cinderella stories so I was pretty excited to see that Butler made it all the way to the NCAA Basketball Championship final this week.  After all, if my beloved Gators couldn’t be there I was glad to see that my dad’s alma mater was represented.  Maybe I’m prejudiced, but it seemed to me that most of the country was rooting for Butler.  Most of us like...

How to Lose 10 Database Pounds

act database problems
I’ve lost ten pounds since the holidays!  Having been on the Injured Reserve list with a knee injury for over a year I packed on the extra weight.  I’ve been fortunate enough all my life not to have to deal with weight loss issues so I wasn’t sure what to do.  Quite frankly, the thought of paying hundreds of dollars for artificial meals or drinks wasn’t appealing so I tackled the problem...

Six Ways to Make Sure Your E-Mail Isn’t Flagged As Spam

emarketing spam prevention
A few years back I worked with a large cruise line company.  Although the cruise line spared no expensive when it came to onboard amenities, the CEO flatly refused to spend money on an ESP (e-mail service provider) to help send out his e-marketing campaign to his very large user base.  Within a very short period of time, he managed to get his entire company domain black-listed to the point where...

Being Penny Wise and CRM Foolish

crm advie
I got a call from a potential client the other day who wanted help in converting his existing databases into the latest version of ACT; he was a long-time ACT user and had accumulated over 20 databases.  He then went on to explain that unless I could match the $15/hour price quoted to him by the kid down the street he wasn’t interested in my services.  Shortly after that I received a call from...