Comments on: Customer Relationship Management for Writers

By: Weekly translation favorites (Nov 21-27)

Weekly translation favorites (Nov 21-27) — Mon, 05 Nov 2018 16:35:47 +0000

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By: Emily Fowler

Emily Fowler — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 06:54:54 +0000

I'm a total spreadsheet girl (throwback from working in finance for all those years!), but a CRM sounds like a better plan in the long term.

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:30:15 +0000

Keri, I love your perspective. It's great hearing from someone who's had experience in customer tracking! I'm playing with a "lite" version of one now, which may be okay, but the freebie lacks the full functionality I might need. It may be short-lived.

Paula, I like that system. Hey, if it's working, why not? My spreadsheet system is getting out of hand, so I had to do something. Plus I was cleaning out the in box and found three client emails that I never followed up on. That's not working for me.

I'll keep you posted on this latest one, which integrates with Outlook. So far, it's okay, but not a game-changing program.

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 18:33:49 +0000

I use good old-fashioned paper and pen. Each January I start a new folder - I list every contact made (date, person, company, reason, etc..). Every month or so I look it over to see what I need to follow up with.

I'm very much and out-of-sight-out-of-mind (ahem) person, so the paper works best. It's right here in a drawer I open every day, so it's always front-of-mind for me. But I am extremely low tech.

By: KeriLynn Engel

KeriLynn Engel — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 18:22:10 +0000

Great topic! Sales was one of those things I had a LOT to learn about when I went full-time. It's not something many people enjoy, but it's so vital to business success!!

I'm all about finding systems that integrate into the way I'm already working- they should make me faster and more efficient, not add more tasks to my to-do list! That's why I haven't tried a CRM yet. I do like my spreadsheets, but I just keep losing interest in the few CRM spreadsheets I've tried keeping.

What works for me right now is email automation with Boomerang and Yesware integrated into my Gmail account. While I'm sending an email, I can set it to remind me again in a week or a month. There's a lot of other features to Yesware, too, like email templates and tracking opens and response percentages.

Maybe if I grow much bigger a CRM would help, but right now it would just create more work for me :)

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 15:23:42 +0000

Hey, whatever works, Anne. 🙂

By: Anne Wayman

Anne Wayman — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 15:10:59 +0000

Lori, I've got almost a non system… email and a calendar… of course, I write books for folks so I don't have a ton of clients.

By: Lori Widmer

Lori Widmer — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 14:53:52 +0000

That's great, Eileen! I'm currently testing one I happen to love, too. More on Friday. 🙂

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 13:18:00 +0000

Lori, I recently discovered ClinchPad. (www.clinchpad.com) It's a web based CRM app, and it's free. I've been using it for a couple months now and love it – you can attach notes, emails, to-do's and so on to a contact. You can look at your entire pipeline and see at a glance where each contact is in your sales process. I'm liking this better than spreadsheets for sure.