No matter what business you are in, maintaining information about the people you deal with is vital to your success. Your contacts are your livelihood from customers, prospects, vendors, and suppliers to the employees who work for you. How do you keep tabs on all of these people? If you are still using a tattered and disorganized Rolodex, it’s time to upgrade to contact management software.

Contact management software programs allow you to take charge of your profession. Not only can you store contact information such as name, address, and phone number, you can also use your software as a comprehensive scheduling tool. For example, if you’re a salesman who must make regular sales calls to potential customers, you can set up these calls according to your specifications. You’ll be able to look at your calendar each day and know exactly who you need to call.

Not only will you know who to call, you’ll be able to drill down the information and look at your notes for that contact. What were the results of your last call? Suppose your contact said he’d demo your product for a few weeks. Now you know that you should discuss how the demo went during the sales call.

Implementing a contact management system throughout your organization keeps everyone on track. Whenever anyone has any interaction with a contact, they can enter relevant information compiling an ongoing history that everyone in the office has access to. For example, if a customer calls with a service issue, the CSR can enter the information and schedule a follow-up call by a manager. The manager will see that he needs to call this particular customer and can read about the problem before making the call. In the meantime, if the customer calls back, anyone who answers the phone can see the status of the current issue.

Contact management software generates a huge variety of reports measuring everything from sales to activities and schedules. This keeps everyone in the office accountable and informed. With built-in scheduling and reminders, it’s impossible to forget to complete a task. Even tasks that everyone dreads will get done when there’s a reliable system in place.

When you have a good contact management system in place, your sales staff will begin performing at a higher level. You will have a system for contacting prospects, creating mass mailings, setting up meetings, and following up on sales calls. You can create a plan for each team member and give them the tools to follow through.

Sales professionals appreciate the discipline that a contact management software program delivers. They know what to do, when to do it, and what to discuss thanks to the information that’s literally at their fingertips.

Contact management software isn’t just for sales people. Any business person will appreciate being able to manage their time and people they work with. Whether you’re scheduling consultations, sales meetings, classes, or managing employee information, having the right tools makes your job easier and more profitable. One of the best investments you can make is in a system that lets you manage your workload and your contacts at the same time. Horton Group can work with you to select or customize a contact management software that will work for your business.

– Celeste Stewart