Many agents still use Excel spreadsheets or a simple contact manager (like the one in Outlook or Gmail) to manage their database. They simply think of their database as a list of names and numbers. They are missing out on the power of automating the processes around developing and maintaining relationships with the people in their database.

Most of the current business industry leaders are pretty different from one another. Take Amazon and Airbnb, for example. Sure, they’re in tech, but they serve completely different needs, with different products and services, and different missions. If you ask them what led to their success, you mind hear of a slew of reasons that are as different as the companies themselves. Among those reasons, however, you’ll hear at least one common answer – and it’ll ring true for every other successful business you ask that question to – it’s the relentless pursuit of an amazing customer experience.

Every CRM has this as a checkbox on their feature list. Whether it is integrated as part of the system, as is the case with Net Suite & Oasis, or achieved through a partner integration, Sales-force and Campaigner, no CRM system is complete without it. Doing it well and making it easy, however is another story. Having been a marketer for longer than I care to admit, suffice it to say I have had plenty of experience with email campaigns…(not to date myself, but can you say mail-merge & Eudora?)

CRM (customer relationship management) has a direct relationship to sales management. But unless a customer relationship management system is flexible, intuitive and implemented in the right way, sales management will not be able to benefit from it.