Salesplace

 Occasionally, you may have the need to switch views to sort or categorize your data in a different manner but still want to keep the cursor's focus on the same document. . By default, Salesplace "remembers" the last document that you have selected in any given view; thus, when you switch between views your cursor may not point to the same document that you had selected in the previous view.

To maintain focus on the SAME selected document when switching views, hold down the CTRL key when changing the view selector.  In the example below, a contact document was selected in the "All Contacts" view.   Pressing the CTRL key and changing the view to the "All by Company/Division" view allowed the system to maintain the focus on the same document that was selected in the original view.  This works for other document types too.... opportunities, account plans, activities etc.

































Regards,
Mike Stoltz
Vice President, Consulting Services
www.Salesplace.com
Blog Code: 1003

Salesplace is the award-winning CRM tool designed specifically for Lotus Notes and BlackBerry.

 Thanks to all of those who dropped by the Salesplace booth in the Lotusphere showcase.  Our team at Salesplace had a wonderful week meeting new faces and chatting with old friends.  Congratulations to IBM for hosting such a fantastic conference... some great technology coming down the pipe to complement the already great technology we use.  Here's a few photos from Orlando:  LS10 Photos    See you next year.
























Regards,
Mike Stoltz
Vice President, Consulting Services
www.Salesplace.com
Blog Code: 1450

I'm sure you've heard the expression, "Time is Money"; well, one of the last things that sales people want to spend time on is data entry.   Salesplace has a number of advanced features to input information in an expedient manner.   One of these features is the 'Quick Create' feature that individual users can take advantage of.  Each person can define a set of buttons to allow them to create the document types that they use most often.  If a document is currently selected when the Quick Create button is clicked, the system will inherit the demographic information of the selected document into the new one!  No typing is required to populate the company, contact, address or phone data on the new document!  You can see in the image below how I have my own Quick Create actions configured.

Setup
After selecting the "My Preferences" option at the top of the screen

1. Select the "Create Buttons" tab on the form

2. Select  the "Manual Configuration option

3. Select the document types from the drop-down menus that you would like to appear in your action bar.

After saving your preferences, re-launch the system to have the new buttons appear in your action bar.

If you have any questions or feedback, please be sure to post a comment or visit our website.

Regards,
Mike Stoltz
Vice President, Consulting Services
www.Salesplace.com
(905) 475-4064
Blog Code: 0430

When that unexpected call comes to your extension and asks for a demonstration of your product, the availability of your services or simply to ask for some help, many sales people never ask the question... "Where did you hear about us?"  Tracking the source of this lead can prove to be very rewarding.  Over time, trends in your lead sources will tell you how to spend your marketing dollars allowing you to reach deeper into your target market. More leads, more opportunities... more business.  Here are a couple of tips to track your lead sources:

1. Be specific about your lead source names. Rather than using a generic category like "Trade Show", use something distinctive such as "2009 Lotusphere".

2. On your website, if a prospect is filling out an information form, be sure to include a question asking where they heard about you. Use a drop down field to ensure the quality of data is high and easily categorized.

3. If you are sending marketing material via an email marketing campaign, include a tag at the bottom of your message that classifies the source of your contact names. When receiving responses, check the email replies for the source list.

4. When using print media to get your message out, include a unique 'promotion code' beside your telephone number so that you can trace the publication it was referred from.

Salesplace for Lotus Notes and BlackBerry allows you to associate a lead to a source. The return on your marketing investment can be calculated by analyzing your successful opportunity wins against the cost of engineering your campaign. Hope this helps and if you would like to consult our team of sales software professionals check out our web site or give us a call.

Regards,
Mike Stoltz
Vice President, Consulting Services
www.Salesplace.com
(905) 475-4064
Blog Code: 0417

When you convert a lead into an opportunity, it becomes part of your sales funnel. To help manage the milestones within your funnel, a series of sales stages can be defined. These stages categorize the sales processes that represent a series of best practices to win new business.  Quite often, organizations associate the probability of winning a sale to the stage that the opportunity has reached. But what do you call these stages?  Here are a few ideas for your consideration:

- Introduction, Discovery, Initiation, Orientation, Fact Finding, Interest, Awareness, Identification

- Planning, Communication, Development, Design, Assessment, Needs Analysis

- Solution Analysis, Presentation, Evaluation, Proposal

- Commitment, Negotiation, Submission, Approval

- Closure, Legal, Delivery, Decision, Fulfillment

Typically, companies have anywhere from 3 to 5 stages/phases within their funnel defined but there is no set rule on this.

The probability of winning a specific deal may not always be accurate; however, the level of your sales funnel's overall predictability increases if the probability of all your opportunities are maintained over time.

Regards,
Mike Stoltz
Vice President, Consulting Services
www.Salesplace.com
Blog Code: 0410

The Salesplace vision is to make sales, marketing and service professionals more productive in building profitable customer relationships. We build highly intuitive, functional and mobile software solutions based on the IBM / Lotus collaborative and BlackBerry platforms.