Navajoland Business and Entrepreneur Information

Do you have leads withering away inside your CRM software? Maybe you do and don’t even realize it! Your CRM software could be an untapped goldmine. Mining your software for leads, scoring leads, and taking action could give your sales team – and your bottom line – a boost. Here are a few effective ways for effective CRM management.

Whether you purchase new leads from a vendor or have an existing data set that you’d like to tap into, you’ll want to focus your efforts on the leads that are most likely to buy from you. This involves:

• Segmenting leads – While you could call every single lead in your CRM, your list is likely extremely diverse. Segment leads into their appropriate buying “personas” so that you can tailor your messages appropriately. For example, your message to a C-level executive will be different than your message to an IT department manager.
• Lead Scoring – Next, assign scores to leads based on criteria such as company size, annual revenues, job role, assumed budget, and other factors relevant to your offer.
• Identifying the most sales-ready leads – Lead scoring is used to determine sales-readiness, among other things. Use the lead scores to rank your leads in terms of sales-readiness.
• Taking action – Once you’ve segmented, scored, and identified leads, it’s time to take action. Which segment makes the most sense to pursue right now? Start with the most sales-ready leads in that segment and craft your offer. Using what you know about your sales team’s skills, assign these leads to the sales representatives with the product knowledge or sales skills most appropriate to buyer’s persona and lead score.

Your CRM could be filled with leads who are ready to buy right now. By identifying and focusing on those leads rather than playing the numbers game and calling everyone, you can expect a significant boost in sales. (Source: IT Sales Outsourcing by AAyuja)

Many business owners consider Section 179 to be somewhat of a mystery, but in reality, it’s not that difficult to understand. In essence, Section 179 is a part of the IRS tax code that allows you to take the full purchase price of qualifying equipment and deduct it from your taxes. Of course, like any tax code, there are going to be exceptions as well as considerations. These may differ depending on whether you file as an individual or as a business owner. One of the things that many people wonder is if a used pickup truck for sale is going to qualify for Section 179. It is important to note the tax code changes on a regular basis, so it’s always a good idea for you to verify this information with your accountant.

If you purchase a used pickup truck or even a used utility truck for commercial usage, it is going to be deductible under Section 179 (Source: Used Utility Truck by Hengehold Trucks). You will be able to take the full purchase price of the truck and deduct it from your taxes. It is important to note, however, there is another consideration which is known as bonus depreciation. This is only going to be allowable on new equipment, including new vehicles. If you are a large business and spend $560,000 or more annually on capital equipment, you may be able to take advantage of the bonus depreciation on new vehicles that are purchased. You will not be able to use it on used vehicles.

There are always considerations when purchasing anything for your business. Talk to your accountant before making your purchase to determine if it is going to be to your financial benefit to purchase something that is used. You will likely find that it will be beneficial.

For some time prior to the sequestration, many municipalities have been feeling the strain of budget cuts and making due with skeleton crews.  The sequestration, which is slated to kick in in early May and continue through 2014, will result in furloughs for government employees and budget cuts across “every program, project, and activity”, according to the Washington Post.  Given this climate, The City of Richland’s (in Eastern Washington) efforts to become a model of efficiency and economy are truly prescient.  Towards that end, it launched a five-year strategic plan, girded by seven guiding pillars.  Central to the plan are the two pillars to use collaborations to more cost-effectively minimize investments in existing assets and ensure a sustainable long-term maintenance program for existing facilities and infrastructures.

(Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/20/the-sequester-absolutely-everything-you-could-possibly-need-to-know-in-one-faq/)

Pillars of the Community

Richland’s Parks and Facilities Manager, Tim Werner, foresaw that implementing the pillars would be extremely difficult without building maintenance software. To find a suitable solution, the City Manager asked the Parks and Recreation department to launch a pilot program.   The project sought a computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) system that could provide long-term asset life-cycle reporting by tracking maintenance costs and associating them to specific buildings and other assets, allowing the team to make “maintain vs. repair” decisions, analyze data in the cycle, and track expenses relative to the budget.

Werner had a large task ahead of him: the assets for all 10 city-owned buildings had to be matched to the city time keeping system, and, for each specific building ID and room #, each asset had to be accounted for, including: electrical equipment, roofing, and floors and walls, down to the square footage of carpet and sheet rock.   By setting up the CMMS in this way, an unprecedented level of asset integrity was created.  Now the team is rapidly able to initiate any work that needs to be done, procedures have been standardized across all sites, expenses can be easily traced to the exact location and staff member who performed them, and managers can accurately assess whether it is more cost-effective to maintain or replace a facility. The City of Richland continues to see the benefits of implementing eMaint’s CMMS & preventative maintenance software across all its facilities and buildings, which was instrumental in realizing the five-year plan’s seven pillars.

Your business is going to require updates on a periodic basis, especially when it comes to the technology that you are using. I’m not talking about updating your computers or other hardware with every change that comes down the line, I’m talking about keeping your software updated and using it to your benefit. When you have your software set up properly, it can help you with everything from your customer to cash process all the way to the SAP document archivingthat your company uses. When you find that everything is working together, it is going to help to streamline those processes which will have financial benefits for your company and will also benefit your clients.

One of the ways in which software can help your business is in the information lifecycle management that is utilized within your company (Source: Information Lifecycle Management by Dolphin Corp.). This is something that should not be overlooked, as it can make a difference in the efficiency of your database and how easily information is able to be accessed. There may also be reasons for you to look into this type of software solution because of the sensitivity of the documents that you are archiving. This may not only be necessary for personal reasons, it may also be necessary to keep you in compliance with the regulatory agencies that are monitoring your business.

Of course, we’ve only really touched on the outskirts of the different ways in which using the proper software can help with your business practices. Make sure that you are giving the software that you are using the attention that it deserves and you will benefit as a result.