Here is useful information
regarding your GoldMine system as well as new offerings from Beachwood Systems.
What's included in this message?
Key Business Metrics. What do they
say about your business?
Feeling Frustrated? Get a
Specialist.
Companion
Product Spotlight: Learn about Wireless
Contact Server.
If you have any questions or
would like to schedule an appointment with a consultant, please feel free to
call us at (216) 765-0220.
Sincerely,
The GoldMine Team at Beachwood
Systems Consulting
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Key Business Metrics. What do they say about your business?
Looking for ways to keep your
finger on the pulse of your business? A
handful of key metrics can help you to do just that.
The first set of metrics relates to the value of your marketing dollar. Identify the total number of leads you
generate each year. Factor in the cost
of acquiring those leads and determine how much each lead costs you. To take this one step further, section out
your leads and marketing expenditures, by type.
Determine which type of marketing activities generate the most leads,
and compare these numbers again to the costs associated with those
activities. Using the same theories,
calculate the total number of qualified leads generated each year. Compare this against the costs, and again
break each down by the type of marketing activity. Finally, tally the number of new customers
acquired during the year, compare against the marketing costs, and break down
by type. This should provide a very
clear understanding of the value of your marketing dollars. It is important to work this analysis all the
way from lead to qualified to customer to get a true picture of how effective
your marketing truly is. Generating a
lot of leads, doesn’t always mean generating sales.
The next set of metrics is
useful to manage your sales force. It is
important to not only review the activities of your sales force such as total
number of appointments or calls, but also the automated activities such as
literature being mailed. Evaluating
only new leads that have become customers, calculate the total number of
“touches” between the time the lead was
created and they became a customer.
Divide this number by the total number of new customers, and you have
your average touches. Knowing how many
communications or touches it takes to close a sale is very important in keeping
your sales force motivated to make the next call or to continue follow up. Using the same group of customers, calculate
the average “sales cycle” by taking the difference between the sale date and
the lead date. Don’t let your sales
force give up on a lead, just before they are ready to buy – make every lead
active for at least the average sales cycle or the average number of touches.
The prior metrics deal with
getting new customers and new business. Finally, we discuss the metrics involved in
keeping your current customers and current business. The first metric is most obvious; how many
active customers do I have this year, and how does that compare to a year
ago? The key here is a good definition of
“active”. You may determine that an
active customer is any customer who purchased a given dollar amount, or placed
a given number of orders. Either way,
the measure needs to be the same each year.
Knowing whether your base of active customers is growing or in decline
can say a lot about your business. Do
you need to spend more time managing or marketing your existing customer
base? The next metric takes the total
number of existing active customers divided into the total sales created by
those customers. This figure tells you
how much retaining each customer is worth to your business each year.
If you’d like more
information about these key metrics, and how to setup GoldMine to help you
acquire these metrics, please contact one of our consultants. More information about GoldMine and our
services can be found here.
Beachwood Systems is proud to
announce several new training courses added to our class offerings. The new courses and their descriptions appear
below. You can enroll in a class by
calling Amy Augustyn at extension 100 or online.
Introduction
to MasterMine: This class is for
users interested in designing or modifying custom reports using the MasterMine
software. The course will cover the creation of reports and modifying
existing reports. It will also cover basic sorting and totaling options
within the reports as well as drill down and grouping options.
GoldBox
Level I: This class is designed to provide a basic
understanding in utilizing the power of GoldBox. Discover imports,
exports, updates and Q-Files and how they can easily be integrated into your
daily job schedule. A good working knowledge of relational databases, and
an understanding of the GoldMine architecture is required for this class.
GoldBox
Level II: This class is
designed for those having successfully completed the GoldBox Level 1 course and
desiring more detail about advanced expressions, functionality and
scheduling. This class also explores global replace, global delete, hub
and spoke referral generator, org chart creator, data clean up, and data
preparation.
Introduction
to Crystal Reports and GoldMine: This
course provides a thorough examination of using the world's most popular report
writer to pull information stored in GoldMine into various custom reports.
Feeling Frustrated? Get a Specialist.
You’re
a manager. You’re responsible for
producing results. You’ve made the
decision to use GoldMine as a tool to achieve these results. And, you’re frustrated.
Technology
is a two edged sword. It can make things
easier, but there is much in the “black box” that you don’t understand and when
something breaks down, the feeling of frustration arises. Even Microsoft, the best software company in
the world, does not make a perfect product that can operate without problems.
Do
not worry another day! Rather than
increasing frustration by 1) expecting perfection, and 2) trying to solve all
problems internally, simply plan support from outside specialists into the
process. (Most companies do not hire an
attorney full-time even though they require these services on a regular
basis.) Don’t be penny-wise and
pound-foolish. Gain control by setting
aside some funds each year for computer hardware and software support from the
experts.
Beachwood
Systems Consulting has specialists in the entire product line of GoldMine
software. These highly trained
consultants can help you better use your software and solve problems rapidly
before they compound. Very reasonable
support plans are available that guarantee that you are going to have a
reliable and responsive service partner.
If you’d like more information on
the support plans that are available, feel free to reply to this email or send
a new email to goldmine@beachsys.com.
Companion Product
Spotlight: Learn about GoldMine Wireless
Contact Server.
Canadian mobility software
developer Xybo Systems of Markham, Ontario has continued to stake out a
leadership position in enabling the rapid deployment of wireless solutions by
launching Wireless Contact Server,
a wireless extension to the GoldMine software package that will deliver
significant productivity gains for an enterprise's mobile workforce. This
extension to GoldMine, the successful contact management solution, operates as
an interface for any wireless-enabled device and allows users to access
critical real-time customer and prospect information.
"By extending the
GoldMine software solution to wireless devices, mobile workers are now
empowered to more effectively manage and deepen their customer
relationships," comments Raymond Ho, President and CEO of Xybo Systems.
"Wireless
Contact Server is a breakthrough
application in that it delivers total access to valuable data anytime,
anywhere, and on any device for mobile professionals. This powerful solution
can provide companies with a key source of competitive advantage in an
increasingly mobile marketplace," he adds.
Wireless Contact Server
permits GoldMine users to have full access to the most vital elements of this
software through any Internet-enabled device while they are on the road. This
includes access to essential information such as scheduled appointments,
customer contact information, sales leads, and pending action items, amongst
others. Xybo has designed the solution so that multiple remote users can view
the same data and so that any alterations are immediately updated. The
company's thin-client approach enables real-time access for users and ensures
that a company's mobile workforce can readily view critical back-office
information.
This is a first-of-its-kind
solution that adds a dynamic, intelligent component to customer relationship
management for companies. "Wireless Contact Server is particularly well-suited to organizations with a
large and dispersed sales or field force, since 'always-on' access increases
productivity by streamlining the management of customers, both existing and
prospective. Wireless device optimization has been embedded in this solution,
allowing companies to fully extend the benefits and functionality of GoldMine
to the out-of-office environment," noted Ho.
With an estimated 25 percent
of the current North American workforce mobile in nature, and this number
projected to increase dramatically going forward, the value of mobilizing CRM
solutions for an enterprises' employees is evident. More effective lead
management and greater speed and responsiveness to customers through the Wireless Contact
Server extension afford a
significant opportunity for top-line revenue growth and lucrative return on
investment.
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