It's no secret that we're in a recession and CRM companies are laying people off because of cutbacks in spend. Being able to run lean and mean allows them to weather the storm and hopefully power out once it's over. A recent article on Inside CRM called "CRM Strategies for a Recession" interviews several people getting their opinions and advice on how to improve lead flow and managing your leads.

Check out their article for the complete scoop.

Regardless of your company's size and the requirements for your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution, the goal remains the same: learn more about your customers and leverage that knowledge into increased customer loyalty and improved sales.

However, too often companies jump into their CRM initiatives without the proper thought and planning. The result? A CRM system that does not meet critical organizational needs and fails to provide the proper insights into their customer base. Or perhaps worse--a CRM system that is not used at all. The key to success for your CRM implementation is not just the technology driving your solution, but in the strategy itself.

To achieve CRM success, there are 3 steps every company must follow before starting to consider CRM technology:

An interesting article came up on CRM Buyer about how CRM Bloggers are actually people too. I have to agree. :-) Here's what it said.

Bloggers -- especially those whose traffic volumes can rival a minor newspaper's -- are getting used to the royal treatment. Consumer electronic vendors, hotels, auto manufacturers -- heck, even politicians -- are reaching out to the people who have made it their avocation to blog about them. Everywhere, it would seem, except in the CRM industry.

Vendors have typically ignored the bloggers who cover the CRM space -- at least in the run-up to a product release. That changed a few weeks ago, though, when Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) gave a group prebriefing to CRM bloggers about its On Demand version 15.

The bloggers who attended should be commended for not breaking Oracle's embargo. So far, it seems that none did. What they did do, though, was talk about their amazement at being included in the first round of briefings.

The advantages of CRM are so many that they cannot be listed in just one article. I'll try my best though to highlight the best of the lot. A properly planned and designed CRM system can give an organization a clear cut advantage over an organization that doesn't use it.

Personalized and better relationships with customers are the key to the success of an organization and that's exactly what a CRM system will give you.

Due to it's importance to the success of your business, you need to
consider your choice of CRM software carefully. Here are few buying tips
for CRM software systems:

1) Application integration - make sure the CRM software can interface
with your current software applications such as Microsoft Outlook and
any contact management software.

2) Import and export features - you need to be able to both import
existing client contact information from a database as well as export
information out of the CRM software system.

Nothing is more important and critical to the success of a business than their customers. Maintaining satisfied, loyal customers has proven essential to success.

This is an even more critical element in the small business sector as they battle with their larger counterparts to succeed.

For this reason, making good use of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution becomes vital for small businesses.

When small businesses utilize the information provided by CRM software and combine it with an electronic resource planning (ERP) systems, they are able to optimize on productivity and increase sales.

After weeks of development, the new CRM Blog site has officially launched! If you normally access this site via http://www.crm-guru.com, then you will automatically be directed to the new site. If you have http://crm.blogs.com bookmarked, then you will need to update your bookmark.

Many thanks to the entire design and development team for getting this launch done flawlessly! Here is a picture of the new CRM Blog site: