Keeping it simple

10 Tips for Sales and Marketing in a Tough Economy

I am constantly looking for ideas which fit my marketing plans during this economic cycle. Hence I read quite a few blogs related to sales and marketing. I found this article to be focused and valuable, and I suspect there is someone in your organization that does the marketing and sales that also would enjoy it. Pass it on. Positive intent, which is a business philosophy which I support, is definitely part of these 10 tips.

 

Ten tips:

 

 

1) Pitch: Come up with at least 3 reasons it makes sense for your clients to shift their budgets from other products/services to yours in a down economy.

2) Products: Focus on products/services that are more likely to be seen as valuable to your clients in a down economy.

3) Pricing: Keeping prices at current levels or continuing with standard price increases could hurt sales; lowering prices too much could eliminate profits. Find a price that gives your clients the feeling you are adjusting prices to help them get through this tough time, but does not eliminate your profits.

4) Perception / Attitude: Make sure your sales team realizes that companies can still grow in a down economy.  If your team is already holding the position that all companies suffer in a down economy, their sales will suffer.  If they understand that many companies prosper in poor economic times, and believe that they can do so as well, they now have a chance to succeed.  If they don't believe they personally can thrive despite the economy and/or that the company can thrive despite the economy, they have virtually no chance of success.  Sharing many of the points from this article with individual employees and/or your entire team may help with setting perception and attitude.

5) Team: Trim order-takers and keep those who vision-sell and build strong relationships. It's time to do some spring cleaning (a little early) and let go employees with bad attitudes and a negative outlook.  If employees are overly negative about the economy, their chances for success within the current economy, or the company's chances for success within the current economy, you will want to seriously consider removing them from your team.

6) Medium:  I would strongly recommend that you utilize more direct marketing and less "awareness" marketing such as TV, radio, billboards, ads in newspapers, and ads in magazines.  You can also cut expensive physical direct mail campaigns and do more email marketing.  I also recommend you further utilize email marketing by having reps call on warm leads generated through email campaigns instead of cold calling.  It is more efficient and you can accomplish more with fewer reps. 

7) Targets: Go after companies more likely to have a positive outlook. Very small companies are often the most scared and least likely to spend. Very large companies often institute blind company wide spending freezes, especially with new vendors, regardless of how logical a purchase may be. Mid-market may be your sweet spot, but it is most important that you imply think this through and try to determine which companies are most likely to still be spending within your specific target markets.

8) Vendors: Look for vendors that offer guarantees, pay-per-lead, or cost-per-acquisition campaigns.  Measurable results and accountability from your vendors is more important than ever.  Ask for and check references from potential vendors and make sure at least a couple of the references are with companies that you have at least heard of.  Also, don't hesitate to ask vendors to cut you a price break in light of current economic times. 

9) Customers: Focus on existing customers, make sure they feel you are on their side in these tough times. At the same time, make sure they realize that your company's outlook is very bright (point out rational in #1 above for why clients are likely to actually spend more with you during these times), so you are rock solid, stable, and will be here for the long haul. This also avoids making you appear desperate, which not only erodes confidence, but also weakens your position in price negotiations.

10) Realize the Opportunity: Realize and make sure you team realizes, that chaos is opportunity and many very successful companies and individuals get their starts during tough times. Competitors may be going out of business, leaving market share up for grabs. People lose their cool during tough times, and by keeping yours you can easily rise above them and gain even more market share. Most of all, you now have points 1 through 9 above under your belt, giving you a distinct advantage over those who do not.

Good luck.

Article written and contributed by Forest Cassidy of ProspectDB Inc, December 10th, 2008.
 

A trick to quickly resolve SL warnings at the month end closing process

When trying to close the period or year in SL (screen 01.560.00) there may be occasions when SL will warns you that there are unreleased batches. In my mind this error message says that there is a yellow flag being waived which says you started a batch in module xyz but never released it and the period to post is the current period or earlier. Most likely it was a batch which was started but not completed or released. But the only way to know is to go to that suspect module and find the problem batch and process the batch in a manner like delete or release. The challenge often is which Maintenance screen you look at to find the suspect batch. Over the years, I have used this trick, which I recommend you only share with trusted employees.

In SL, you need to close out of all open SL screens and SL reports. Then locate and start the initialization mode. For SL 6.x this area is found by clicking on the Option & Application menu and then clicking on the Initialize Mode sub menu. For SL 7.x users, this screen is launched from a different location. At the top left hand area of the screen, there is a link to Applications, then sub menu Initialize Mode

Click on the Initialize Mode sub menu choice. (Note: I usually repeat this process to make sure that I selected the screen and verify that there is a check before this sub menu.

Next open the Journal Transaction screen, and put your mouse focus on the first field called module and take note that this field is now is black.

Normally this field is grey in color and you cannot access it. But in initialize mode, you have the ability to change the module value to any module (say AP – Accounts Payable), and then move to the next field, which is batch number. When you focus on the Batch number field and hit the F3 key, you have all batches which are in process or completed for this one module. If you click on word "status" in the grey area of the F3 list of possible values, you can sort data in this column.

In this sorted list of batch which was started you can quickly review the "H" or hold batches and also the "B" – balanced for release and "S" – suspended batches. By typing in one of the letters (B, H, S) you can quickly jump to the area where the batches have that status code. Once you find the problem or suspect batch, take note of both the batch number and the screen id. These are you clues to which module to open, and which screen were used to review the partially released batch number. Navigate to find this suspect batch and make the required disposition on this batch so that the next time you attempt to close this module; you will not get the warning messages.

Don't forget to release the "initialize mode" condition. I recommend you log out and log back in the SL.

You may need to deal with your SL administrator to modify your access rights for this screen so that the initialize mode is available to be selected.

Hope this trick helps you if you ever get warning when process the module close activity.

Regards,

Jeff Cozens

Remove your phone number from searches

I ran across this tip from Kim Komondo’s web site http://www.komando.com/
For those whose want more privacy with general knowledge on personal phone numbers,
here are a few of her tips:

Once it's online, personal information spreads quickly. There's no shortage of sites offering up phone numbers, most for free. Most searches require only a last name and a city.
Fortunately, the search sites usually allow you to remove your own listing. Focus on the biggest search sites to virtually eliminate your number's exposure on the Web.
 
Below are simple steps for removing your number from major online directories. If your number is public information, however, it may eventually reappear online. To counter this, consider making your number unpublished. Most phone companies will keep your number unpublished for a fee.

Google
To remove your listing from Google's PhoneBook search, you must first find it. To invoke a PhoneBook search, enter any of the following in Google's search box:
• First name, last name, state or city
• First name, last name, ZIP code
• Last name, city, state
• Last name, ZIP code
If you find your listing, visit Google's online PhoneBook Name Removal form. Then enter your information as it appears in the Google listing. Google won't allow your number to reappear in its listings.
WhitePages.com
WhitePages.com supplies information to MSN, Verizon's SuperPages, YellowPages.com, PhoneNumber.com and 411.com. Start by finding your listing on WhitePages.com. At the bottom of your listing is a small link that reads, "Is this you? Remove your listing." Click the link and then confirm the removal. That's all there is to it
Switchboard.com
Switchboard.com is part of InfoSpace, which runs the Dogpile.com search site. First, find your listing by searching Switchboard. Beside the listing is a link that reads, "Remove this listing." Click the link and provide your e-mail address. You'll receive an e-mail including a confirmation of removal. 

 AnyWho
AnyWho is owned by AT&T, but the directory is not limited to AT&T customers. AnyWho requires you to request removal by phone. Also, you must make the call from your listed number. Visit AnyWho's Privacy Listing Process page for details before you make the request.

Intelius People Search
Intelius accepts removal requests by mail or fax. Include your listing information as it appears on the site, or include a printout. According to the site, listings reappear if your number is public information. Here is the fax and postal information:
Intelius fax number: (425) 974-6194
Intelius, Inc.
500 108th Ave. NE, 25th Floor
Bellevue, WA 98004

 Yahoo! People Search
To remove your listing from Yahoo!, you first must find it. You can do so using Yahoo!'s People Search. Then use the online Remove Phone Listing form. Enter your name as it appears in the listing.
 
   
 Hope this helps,

Jeff Cozens
   

 

Count Your Blessings

 

 

 

More Than A Day

As Thanksgiving Day rolls around,
It brings up some facts, quite profound.
We may think that we're poor,
Feel like bums, insecure,
But in truth, our riches astound.

We have friends and family we love;
We have guidance from heaven above.
We have so much more
Than they sell in a store,
We're wealthy, when push comes to shove.

So add up your blessings, I say;
Make Thanksgiving last more than a day.
Enjoy what you've got;
Realize it's a lot,
And you'll make all your cares go away.

By Karl Fuchs

 

Best wishes for a great Thankgiving Day.

 

From the Staff at

 

Systematic Solutions

 

 

SL users with Terminal Services Tip: missing cursors.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873418

 

Check out this link if you are experiencing a missing cursor. There is a hot fix available which seems to address the problem Only valid of older 2003 servers with terminal services and Solomon 7.0 users.

 

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Now Certified for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

We jumped the gun with one of our clients about a month ago where they are running Solomon 7.0 fp1 on hype v. All is running well at this site. Here is the official release that ALL of the ERP products are fully support on these new platforms. Yea Dynamics team!!!

Published at Microsoft web site.

We are very pleased to announce that all of our Microsoft Dynamics ERP and Microsoft Dynamics  CRM products will be certified to run on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 when these become available on October 22nd, 2009. 

Over the past few months, our R&D teams have conducted extensive testing of the current versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics SL on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. As a result of these tests, we are confident that our customers will be able to deploy the latest version of Microsoft's desktop and datacenter operating systems alongside their Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions, and enjoy all the advantages that this will bring to their business, including:

• Saving money through server consolidation.  By running Microsoft Dynamics applications virtually with Hyper-V, our customers can maximize the utilization of the underlying physical servers, reducing their data center footprint along with costs of sourcing, purchasing, and maintaining server hardware.
• Easier, quicker access to information. The improved taskbar and other innovative desktop management features in Windows 7 make finding and interacting with business information easier than ever.  We are currently looking into other ways we can optimize the desktop experience with Windows 7 for the next release of our products, by integrating with features such as Jump Lists and Federated Search. 
• Interacting with Information in New Ways.  We're excited by the possibilities that the Windows Touch feature enables in Windows 7, supporting multifinger manipulation of programs displayed on a touch-screen computer.  This capability opens up interesting new role-based scenarios that the Microsoft Dynamics research and development team is already exploring. 

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM team is also hard at work with the Exchange team on certifying Exchange 2010, and are looking to certify later this year. 

Moving from Paper to Electronic for Vendor Payments… and save $

Most SL / GP users are still paying their vendors via checks. The cost of check stock, envelopes, stamps, stuffing time, and mailing time all add up. Maybe your company should look at switching away from this old method to electronic fund payment methods.

 

For SL users, here is a link to a short demo on a great integrated solution from Sandler Kahne for EFT payments: Save-Time, Save-Money with this add on module.

 

    http://www.sksoft.com/scrncams/APEFTVideo1.html 5 minute demo

 

 

Five new advantages of ACH payments

Sending electronic payments through the automated clearing house (ACH) network — provides you cost savings, convenience, reliability, and security. And with technological advances and new ACH applications, now you have the ability to:

1. Accelerate electronic billing and payment. Use the ACH network to move online bill-pay consumers from paper to electronic bills. You'll reduce accounts payable and accounts receivable costs, improve efficiencies, and increase remittance and bill-payment posting accuracy.

2. Enhance supplier relationships. Checks sent by mail can get lost or stolen, and you don't know how long it will take for them to arrive or when funds will clear. As a result, suppliers might not get paid on time. ACH payments post directly to accounts and settle within one to two days, so there's no speculating when transactions will clear. An added bonus: If you pay suppliers promptly and consistently, you'll often benefit from early-pay discounts.

3. Optimize funds availability. Use ACH debits to concentrate cash from multiple accounts into a single account for investments or loan payments. It's easy and inexpensive to put available funds to work.

4. Improve cash forecasting. With ACH transactions, you know exactly when your account will be credited or debited — an increasingly important function in this economic environment. Domestic ACH transactions settle the next business day; international ACH transactions settle on a set schedule. You may also specify future settlement dates.

5. NEW FEATURE Reduce international transaction costs. When global ACH transactions replace wires, the cost savings are impressive. This act can save as much as 90 percent of their costs of making payments. And global ACH payments have no lifting fees, so payment recipients are happier, too. (I.e. Use ACH instead of international wire transfers)

 

Multicurrency accounts (MCAs) offer another level of cost reduction. By making global ACH payments from MCAs, you collect and pay in local currencies, virtually eliminating costs for currency trading, foreign exchange risk, or concerns about managing hedging programs.

 

Maybe 2010 is time to move your company to the 21^st century for vendor remittances.

 

Regards,

 

Jeff Cozens

How to create exception reports in Solomon

Most of our pre set up reports in Solomon are created with Crystal report writer. Although we have a powerful way to create quick exception type reports using the select tab on a typical report, many SL users are frustrated by the fact that we do not have lookup or F3 possible values for the field column. This is an example of programmer vs. customer interface which means we need to understand what the programmer called a field by the name the programmer originally gave to the field. Here in lies the problem. What programmer think are good names, may not be what you think these names should be.

A tip which can help you get past this problem is to take advantage of your customersource membership. Log in to customersource and in the search customersource field type: Report Assistant. You should be able to find several report assistant brochures which can help you learn about reporting with various modules. Being a graphical person, the part of these report assistance is screen like this:

 

 

From this screen you can learn the name of the key table that the data was originally posted to (i.e. batch, apdoc, aptran) and the field name. Know this information it is really a cake walk to get selected data for your exception report.

 

Another thing people forget that you can select on a field which is not displayed on the report and still create an exception report. For instance, in the report, General Leger Detail you can find information about a specific AP invoice number by creating this type of selection statement:

 

    

 

Where you are looking for ap invoice 1234 in the current GL period.

 

Good luck with your new tool, Report Assistant.

Regards,

 

Jeff Cozens

 

Ps. Contact me if you need more help finding report assistant documents.

 

Protecting your FRX Reports

Got a panic call the other day from one of our clients They had been modifying the row logic for a couple of their FRX reports, but failed to save the original versions. "Help, I really blew it today. How do we recover the missing Frx reports. ?" Our options did not look too good until I realized that she had a backup spec set for all of their FRX reports. This tip applies to anyone running FRx (i.e. Dynamics SL, GP, and Nav) and hopefully can save your "bacon" like it did for this client. We were back up and running in less than 30 minutes, and my customer was very happy.

 

To follow this tip, you need to be able to log into FRX Designer. Once you are in the program, click on the menu item at the top called Company, then the sub menu called information.

 

In the left frame of this screen, click on the main Frx company that you want to backup. (i.e. SSI New)

 

Under the frx System information tab, write down the name of the specification set; (i.e. SOLADV). Next close out of this form.

 

Next click on the Company menu at the top, and then the sub menu: Specification Sets. This will get you to this window.

 

Click on the spec set you wrote down in the first step, the then click on the menu Export:

 

Next for each of the four tabs: click on the tab then click on the select all button, to cause all rows on that tab to be selected.

 

 

 

After confirming that all items were selected (see info at bottom left corner), click on the Export button and export out. I like to add the date to the export tdb file to keep in clear in my mind when the export was run.

 

 

Click to save button and you have successfully backed up your entire catalog, rows, columns and tree components for your Frx reports. This is a good file to archive to a save spot. We will be using, however, this file for the next step.

 

 

Staying in the Specification set form, click on the new icon, and assign a name and description in the first two fields. (i.e. SSI_bkup_1009)

 

Click the save button at the top.

After saving this empty spec set, we are going to import the saved building block components from the tdb file, we just created. Click on the import file and select the saved tdb file.

 

 

Click the open button to continue, which imports these saved definition to a new spec set.

The import step may take a few seconds. Once done, exit the screen for specification sets and re enter the screen. Select in the left hand frame, the newly created spec set, then click on the export button, this will display all of the saved components in the four areas of catalog, rows, columns and trees.

 

When a crisis for a lost report occurs, you can recover your lost report definition by using either the saved tdb file or use your backup spec set to create a new tdb file. Taking 5 minutes to set up this simple system can save you hours of frustration, if the problem ever occurred.

 

Call us if you have questions….. Be save with your frx report definitions, since an ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure….

 

Regards,

 

Jeff Cozens

 

 

 

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Construction Offer

Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft Dynamics GP promotion targeting small and medium sized Professional Services businesses in the United States and Canada that wish to take advantage of the rich functionality offered by Microsoft Dynamics ERP.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Microsoft is excited to announce the "Construction Offer" - a Microsoft Dynamics promotion targeting small and medium sized Professional Services businesses in the United States and Canada that wish to take advantage of the rich functionality offered by Microsoft Dynamics SL and Microsoft Dynamics GP. For a limited time, Microsoft is offering a discount of up to 20% for new customers when they purchase Microsoft Dynamics SL or Microsoft Dynamics SL Advanced Management ("AM") or Business Essential ("BE") edition user licenses.

The SL project series is very robust for both professional services and construction companies.

Call if you need more information.

 

Jeff Cozens