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Steve Hosmer

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President, AM&B Marketing Corp. - SFA and CRM Consulting

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CRM, SFA and Automated Marketing Consulting from AM&B Marketing Corp.
Focus on full selection and implementation discipline for CRM and SFA including assessment, recommendations, selection, implementation, configuration, integration, training, user compliance and enthusiasm, We help companies create, understand, and ...

CRM, SFA and Automated Marketing Consulting from AM&B Marketing Corp.
Focus on full selection and implementation discipline for CRM and SFA including assessment, recommendations, selection, implementation, configuration, integration, training, user compliance and enthusiasm, We help companies create, understand, and execute on an aligned strategy for measurable business growth. Growing both new and existing customer sales for our clients.

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Steve Hosmer recommends this answer by Dana Craig

Aug. 23, 2011

Is it fair to say that CRM and ERP projects should "never end"?

The projects themselves must end. They need to have definitions of success assigned to them early in the process, including a discrete list of objectives and achievements. The end of the project is the recognition that the tool now belongs to the business rather than ... more

Information Technology

Steve Hosmer and 8 other people answered this question at this roundtable

May 27, 2011

Why Your SMB Should Consider Investing in CRM [5/26 @ 11 am]

Why aren't SMBs using CRM?

Hi Craig,
One subset of SMBs that are not using CRM is SMBs that have tried it and have abandoned their CRM for a variety of reasons.
Reasons may include lack of:
- training
- uppper management support
- proper configuration
- appropriate integrations
- use incentives
- value to the sales team
- ... more

Steve Hosmer recommends this answer by Michael A Brown

May 25, 2011

Should sales and marketing have SLA’s between the two organizations? Why/why not?

Hooray for Dan, Jeremy, and Scott for calling-out the internal SLA nonsense. A sales-marketing SLA and $2.25 gets one a subway ride in NYC.
There are no internal “customers” within an organization. The only customers sales and marketing have are real customers. SLA or not, sales ... more

Marketing Department

Sales Department

Steve Hosmer and 9 other people answered this question

May 19, 2011

What are the top barriers to CRM Success?

Hi Brian,
Speaking only of the Sales Force Automation (SFA) part of CRM, the most commonly perceived "greatest barrier to success" is user adoption by the sales team members.
How do you best achieve user adoption?
Let's assume that the top three things salespeople really want are:
- More ... more

Customer Service

Steve Hosmer and 6 other people answered this question

May 13, 2011

What's the one thing I can start doing TODAY to improve my sales performance?

INVEST time each day or each week to review, analyze and improve your sales process. That extra email template you create, that new resource that you add to your pdf information library or that tweak in your sales process will return itself to you in ... more

Sales Management

Sales Performance

Steve Hosmer and 5 other people answered this question

May 8, 2011

Why is ERP change management so difficult?

Steve Christensen's comment inspires this observation...
Because ERP change management touches all aspects of a business (as Steve says), it also impacts the lives of every C-Level and VP level executive.
The need for executive sponsorship is almost always mentioned in the list of requirements ... more

Human Resources

Steve Hosmer and 6 other people answered this question

May 8, 2011

What are best practices for change management after deploying SaaS applications?

Hi Michael,
Please provide some clarification on YOUR question by answering these two question...
What do you believe is different about a SaaS application deployment compared to a server installed application deployment?
With the right software, both can deliver the equivalant of desktop, web or mobile access.
What application ... more

Information Technology

Change Management

Steve Hosmer and 4 other people answered this question

March 21, 2011

If sales has low adoption rates on their CRM usage, how can marketing automation change that?

Great question, Lauren, and here is how marketing automation can change CRM adoption.
1. FOR LEAD GENERATION MARKETING
DELIVER
- MORE
- BETTER QUALIFIED
- WARMER
LEADS INTO THE CRM SYSTEM
from the marketing automation system.
High quality marketing automation systems today go far beyond ... more

Marketing Automation

Steve Hosmer and 14 other people answered this question

Feb. 28, 2011

What other CRM systems are available besides Salesforce.com for small companies?

Hi Jonathan,
Maximizer is an excellent tool for your size company and should definitely be considered with the other CRM products mentioned above.
What matters most, however, is what you want and need to do with the CRM. Matching company needs with the right CRM tool ... more

Customer Service

Steve Hosmer answered this question

Feb. 25, 2011

What should Virgin Mobile Australia do in response to their problematic CRM upgrade?

Assuming that this did not hit the press, the three most important considerations in deciding how to handle this are:
1. User concerns (imagined or real) about the security of their data.
2. A limited number of users was affected. (You did not specify how ... more

Customer Service

Information Technology

Steve Hosmer recommends this answer by Josh Margolis

Jan. 3, 2011

CRM adoption: How do you get sales reps to use your CRM system?

Gartner Research Director Chris Fletcher said in the July 2010 issue of Customer Relationship Management, p. 18, that] originally, CRM systems were “geared toward high-level managers and CIOs.” The result was these CRM systems didn’t “give salespeople something they wanted to use, something that makes ... more

Steve Hosmer and 9 other people answered this question

Nov. 13, 2010

What are the key questions to ask when gathering CRM requirements?

THE VERY FIRST QUESTION -
Let's put much more focus on something Marty Knight touched on in his answer.
From the very beginning, CRM assessment, design, selection and implementation is a "special project". From the answers above, you can conclude that is not a business ... more

Steve Hosmer and 1 other person answered this question

Oct. 21, 2010

Which CRM vendors have a reputation of serving small businesses?

Hi Justin,
Each year, CRM Magazine announces a market leader award in August and groups their market leaders into size of business serviced. Here is the Small Business list from August 2010:
- SalesForce (.com)
- Maximizer
- NetSuite
- Oracle (Social CRM and Sales ... more

Customer Service

Steve Hosmer and 4 other people answered this question

Oct. 2, 2010

What can a good CRM system do for a business?

Hi Chris,
Great comment.
The assumption in my response was "assume a well implemented CRM system with good usage and compliance".
Clearly you are correct in that the three key points that you have addressed:
- obtaining and sustaining mandate
- obtaining and sustaining buy-in ... more

Steve Hosmer and 6 other people answered this question

Sept. 16, 2010

Has anyone tried Maximizer's CRM 11 Entrepreneur & Team Edition?

Hi Catherine,
Considering
- IT support
- Infrastructure - Hardware Requirements
- Hosted solution
for Maximizer.
IT Support Requirements
With its sweet spot in small to medium size businesses, Maximizer has done a great job of making a product that is easy to install, has ... more

Steve Hosmer and 2 other people answered this question

Feb. 3, 2010

What is the role of a customer relationship manager?

The use of the word "happy" may seem trite to some businesses. In providing excellent client experience during customer service interaction, "happy" becomes very important. It's hard to create happy, dedicated advocates for your company among your customer base when your customer service team is ... more

Customer Service

Steve Hosmer and 1 other person answered this question

Feb. 3, 2010

How should businesses manage their cost of sales?

Hi Ellen,
One obstacle is the variety of places and ways in which the information required to deliver cost/benefit analysis is stored and the number of departments involved.
Here one way to better track cost of sales:
Some CRM tools have the ability to set ... more

Steve Hosmer and 10 other people answered this question

Feb. 3, 2010

What are the best CRM systems for a small B2B company?

Trevor,
So far the answers above seem to based on understanding who your company is and what you want to do today.
Choosing CRM software based only on the "now" understanding of your organization could be dangerous if your organization morphs or grows significantly in ... more

Steve Hosmer and 1 other person answered this question

Feb. 3, 2010

CRM marketing tips?

Hi Ben,
With marketing software, your business success is dependent upon more than just
- great capabilities within the software
- appropriate data exchange with related systems
- ease of software use
- flexibility of the software
Business success is also dependent upon
- a ... more

Steve Hosmer and 5 other people commented on a brief

Jan. 29, 2010

A CRM for Mac OS X?

Here is another solution that helps you break free of Macintosh software limitations.
If you have a favorite Windows based CRM desktop software and long to use it in a Mac environment, there is a hosting company that will remote desktop host it for you ... more

Software as a Service

Steve Hosmer and 9 other people answered this question

Jan. 26, 2010

Is CRM on demand the best deployment option for small businesses?

Hi Ted,
A great small business CRM that won't box you in to limited capabilities is Maximizer (www.maximizer.com). The Small Group Edition desktop version has all the functionality you could want and as you grow, Maximizer has full integration capabilities with other programs including pre-built ... more

Small Business CRM

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