Managing my contact information is a big challenge. Non Stop Portals is a small business. Keeping up with the names and information for customers/prospects for the larger organizations that I have worked with was also a challenge.
I would like to hear from you if you have a similar problem! We need to figure out a solution.
Background
The paper business card is still my number one way of getting information about someone else. After I get home from a networking event I take the card and see if the person is on LinkedIn. About 90% of the time the person is on LinkedIn and I request a connection.
LinkedIn has implemented some recent changes that allow me add contacts that are not on LinkedIn. They also provide the ability to enter additional information about my LinkedIn contacts. I really have not tried out these features. I still have a preference to maintain my own Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with a consolidated view of my prospects and customers.
Having my own CRM system allows me to configure the software to collect the specific information I want to collect. I also use it to keep a history of "touch points" with each person in the system as well as a current list of selling opportunities.
My primary email system is Gmail. I even have my Non Stop Portals account set up in Gmail to send and receive my emails. I attempt to use my CRM system to send important emails, but I have to admit that in many cases I just use Gmail and bypass my CRM system.
My Gmail implementation is synchronized with my Blackberry. My Blackberry calendar and contact list stays the same as what is on the Gmail account. This feature alone has created a serious "I love Gmail" relationship for me!
Martin Brossman has introduced the Poken to the Raleigh area. I am a little introverted, so the Poken is a great "ice breaker". It gives me a way to easily approach someone I don't know. While the Poken has an online database of everyone I am connected to via the Poken, there is still going to be a large number of others that I want to keep up with.
The problem is compounded with contacts on Yahoo, Inside919, Twitter, Buddypress, Quickbooks, et al.
What's The Problem?
Let's face it. My lists are not always the same. I forget to replicate the contact information I get into my CRM repository. It's a lot of work to key the information into a single place. Let's not forget the duplicates! It took me weeks of hard work to weed out duplicates in my CRM system.
What's The Solution?
Well, that's the point of this post. If you have a similar problem, we need to collaborate and solve this problem. Share your experiences as a comment to this post. If there is sufficient interest in the problem, I will create some type of platform for a larger group to contribute and get it solved.
