If you are an organization currently looking for implementing CRM or hiring a consultant for evaluating various vendors, here is a higher level view after which you start getting deeper into stuff. Here is a short list of CRM companies which may prove helpful. The list is a mix of traditional large software companies and fast growing CRM companies with a lot of momentum. The CRM short list is aimed towards medium and large enterprise customers and should be sufficiently long for 90% of the target group to find their prospective CRM supplier in this list, or better, to provide a starting point for a software selection trajectory. If you are a small and growing organization, I shall come up with a list soon. These companies have
Entrepreneurs Archive
Are you one of those who are waiting for the right time in their lives to start a business? The right money, the right education, right time, right age? I have a short experience to share, for many aspiring entrepreneurs it may be inspiring or enviable, depending on how you look at it. Youngest entrepreneur I’ve ever met His name is Haja; a kid from streets of Gurgaon. When asked, doesn’t know his age (around 6 years, I guess). His father, Abdulah is a rickshaw puller in the city and mother is a cleaner in a nearby school. He has 5 sisters and 4 brothers. And he is a proud owner of a tea stall on one of the busiest roads of Gurgaon where all brands
Cricket is a religion in India. Nowhere in the world one can see thousands and thousands of fans taking an off from their work to watch a cricket match. IPL would not have born elsewhere. The motivation lies not only in the joy of the game of cricket but also the business opportunities around it. The hugely anticipated India Pakistan World Cup 2011 Semi Final clash in Mohali exemplified where a 10 seconds time slot on air was up for grabs at a staggering Rs.18 lakhs (1.8 million Rupees) for an advertisement. Business Opportunity around Cricket A rule of marketing: “Be where your customers are!” And what part of cricket can get all your customers converging at a single platform with similar emotions? An opportunity
Who doesn’t want to excel is business, but how many achieve the set objectives and how many die? It’s a trend to transform a business into a social business so that the customers become producers and the entity becomes self sustainable which can run on auto pilot mode. How can one convert into or start a social business. Make sure, it has following characteristics Conversations It’s important to have a two way conversation between producers-consumer, consumer-consumer and producer-producer (competition). Unlike traditional way of promoting a business, social way of promotion shall give you benefits of feedback, sensors and improvements. Participation Social business encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is interested. It blurs the line between media and audience. Openness Encourage voting, comments and the
What is a mash up A mash up, is a web page or web application, result of an aggregations of information on web, by means of (news updates, videos, photos, maps, weather etc). Under its cap, it’s a one point reference page which an integration of – data on web and Web tools, woven altogether is a Mash up. Voila! Example: RSS feeds, Google goggles, IGoogle, Yahoo pipes, credit card processing etc. How does Mashup work? The main characteristics of the mash up are Mix, mutate, Match & Aggregate. It is important to make more useful already existing data, moreover for personal and professional use. Mash ups depend on three components 1. Client’s browser, 2. The mash up website, 3. And the online data sources
Implementing social media is much more than ‘just being there’. Incorporating social media into your business as a part of marketing mix is a result of refined thought process and not just setting up facebook and twitter accounts. Don’t dive into social media unless you’re ready You need objectives, goals and ways to measure success and accountability. See how to prepare yourself. Don’t be a big brag Know the difference between becoming a thought leader and endless self-promotion. While a reputation of thought leadership will never be as “risk-reducing” as a personal referral, it’s a great way to build awareness and increase your chances that the prospect will respond to future demand generation efforts. Don’t be afraid Don’t be afraid to try social media because