My old CRM consisted of four things: memory, in person networking, social media and wayward scraps of paper.
That got me through for awhile, but as my biz grew, it as harder and harder to keep track of everything and everyone. I couldn’t be as useful as I wanted for prospects because I was inefficient.
I had trouble nurturing contacts I didn’t see regularly because… well, I didn’t see them regularly. Sound familiar?
Enter Nimble.
Truth be told, we met before. About a year ago and while I signed up for the free trial but I never bothered to open it because “I didn’t have time”. Sound familiar?
Fast forward a few months and my biz is evolving. I’m taking on different types of clients and I need a better prospecting and lead nurturing system to keep things moving. Social media is perfect for the initial intro. But I’m not going to add people to an email list without permission because– well everyone hates that so it’s counterproductive.
Nimble showed up in my world again through the book I was reading …John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame’s latest, Think Like a Marketer, Sell Like a Superstar. (Thanks John!)
I decided it was time to give it a try.
I signed up for the free trial, imported my LinkedIn Contacts, connected Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Boom! My connections show up and I can see how connected they are with one another.
Better yet, you know all those connections you forgot you had? Well, now they can show up in a rotating list to remind you of who they are.
The CRM software simply asks you if so and so is important. If you say “yes”, you can go to their profile and connect their social profiles so you can see what they’re saying where. It also has a handy feature of letting you decide how often you want to contact someone: weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or no reminder at all.
It’s much easier to explore your existing network and put it to better use and it’s easier to connect people.
The first day I started using it, I saw a Facebook post about an acquaintance who was looking for vendors for a car show. I have another acquaintance who’s husband works for a car dealership and is active in a local antique car show. I sent a quick message to the latter so they could see if it might be a good fit and take the next step.
Making connections for others and providing value is important to me. With my old “system” it was tough to do that.
Two and half weeks and I still have a crush. The customer service even tweeted me and asked how I was enjoying it!
It’s not perfect of course. No CRM is. Sometimes it brings in ancient jobs or the social isn’t fully integrated perfectly. Of course, that could have something to do with people’s privacy settings and the customer service department assures me they’re working on the ancient job info. So far, the drawbacks are minor and it’s a huge improvement over my scraps of paper and failing memory. 🙂
What do you use for a CRM software and what do you love about it? Love to hear in the comments below.
(P.S. Contrary to popular belief, I was not compensated for this post.)
