If you have ever managed a sales organization, you know the importance of a CRM solution. The most popular are ACT! and Goldmine. These are both wonderful solutions. But what is keeping your data in-house? Have you ever interviewed new experienced sales associates and find that their employment comes with their own database? I know I have always taken my database with me.

It is time to secure our data in-house. If you use a solution, make sure it prohibits exports. Goldmine software and new web based solutions like SalesForce.com can prohibit this feature.

It is time to lock down our data. We are only as good as our last sale and we are only protected in our current solution.

Make the change now.

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Written By: Scott Lichtenstein

Everyone reading this has at one point had a client from hell. Often we justify their work load, abuse, criticism, and downright rudeness because we believe that it is what we are supposed to do. We do it because we don’t want them to go to a competitor. We believe that because it is a big account that we MUST put up with them. Truth is, that is strait BS.

First step: Get the courage to fire their ass!

Do two things right now.

1. Put a dollar amount on your time working for clients. If you make an average of $500 per week, or if you make $50,000 per week, it is the same formula. Your Gross Per Month / Total Hours Worked Per Week = Hourly Rate. How many hours are you working per week for this client? How many hours of your total income are really attributed to this client? You would be suprised to find that a lot more hours per week are spent on this client and yet the smaller clients add up to more than this client’s total revenues. Do not forget to add the hours of stress and anxiety, it may be at home, but it is still wasted hours.

2. Check out the Pareto Principle. This is the 80/20 priciple. It states for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. This means that roughly 80% of your revenues come from 20% of your clients. It also states that 80% of your problems comes from 20% of your clients. Identify which clients fit into which category. Concentrate on the 20% that brings in the most revenue and remove the clients that cause 80% of the problems, and stop worrying about the rest.

You may be afraid that losing these clients might hurt your income. Truth is, it wont! Because the amount of hours you save on not working with these hell clients can be better spent on the better clients. Even more, these hours could be spent with your family or friends.

Take a moment, imagine what is the worst thing that can happen if you lose these clients?

We can go into so much more detail on this subject. I can talk for days on about this, but I am trying to keep it short. If you need help or examples, let me know. I am always happy to help.

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Written By: Scott Lichtenstein

The above comment came in a conversation when I was talking to a manager about a specific supervisor and my suspicions of his integrity. Knowing myself and my diligence, I knew it was only a matter of time before I began to dig into the files and look for internal fraud. I had no idea what I was in for.

It turned out, not only did I find that the supervisor was stealing an average of 80k per year, but each person I had suspicions of turned out to be stealing as well. How were they getting away with this for so long?

If you know everyone steals, why are you not trying to stop it and recover your funds?

The supervisor clearly was a large case and this one was not overlooked once identified. But the small ones? Does it make sense to count every penny? Does it pay to employee an anti theft officer over a few hundred dollars a week? Or have you not put in the proper procedures and mechanisms in place to stop these thefts before that happen?

On top of the above, I think the most important question is why are your employees stealing? Are they shady people or are you not paying enough attention to their needs?

I do not have an exact answer for this dilemma outside of increased security. Increased security certainly does the trick, but it inhibits creativity and in a competitive sales environment, this might be more costly in the long run then just letting the few hundred disappear a week.

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Written By: Scott Lichtenstein

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