Leopard CRM

Good communication

Dan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 06:22:00 +0000

Good communication routines keep you in touch with your partners in business: your customers, your suppliers and, of course, those who care about you. Without it, you are only ever reacting rather than being proactive about what you can do to to improve the effects of whatever your partners are experiencing.

A CRM gives you tools which can help you to be that proactive business partner.

Think about what makes you buy...and apply that to what makes your customers buy from you...is good communication part of it? Developing and activating good communication routines takes time away from running your business, I hear you say. Yes, it does, but don't be so focused on the present and the minute that you forget to think broadly and for the future.

A CRM is a time effective tool that can assist you to maximise your precious time so that you have more time to spend with those who love you.

Novice CRM'ers

Dan — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:34:00 +0000

If you have never used a CRM in your business processes it can take a little time to navigate your way through. A new customer of ours who in starting a new small business has decided to implement Leopard CRM early in her start-up process rather than later down the track. Her CRM journey is interesting to follow as initially she was not totally sure how best to manipulate her data in this new environment to get the most benefit.

While she understands the principles of tracking sales against time, customers and budgets, she has always done this either manually with good old fashioned paper and pen, or with the more updated spreadsheet method. As her customer base grew in the first few months she found both of these methods very cumbersome and time-consuming for many of her first customers wanted repeat business and this meant constantly repeating and transferring parts of her data between different spreadsheets. There had to be a better way!

Her research led her to investigate Leopard CRM with our 30 day free trial. She tells us now that while it took some effort to transfer her customer information and past sales data into the program it has been a learning experience that she feels was very worthwhile. Initially, she had some problems with realising that dates do matter as this is a major mechanism in being able to track your past sales and to forecast your future sales. Again, another learning experience when she had to go back through her past sales data and enter in the Closed Sales dates. Like magic, suddenly all her generated reports in the Sales function magically appeared!

So if you are new to using a CRM take some time to to fully investigate the power that is available to you. In the long run, a CRM like Leopard will save you time and therefore money, give you an improved understanding of your business operations, and enable you to track your customers' engagement with your business.

CRM and qualifying your choice

Dan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:11:00 +0000

When considering incorporating CRM software in your business processes, you should be asking yourself some qualifying questions:

Does the system do what you, as the client, thought it would do when you bought it?
Does the system allow you, as the user, to accommodate your needs in an easy and intuitive fashion?
Is the system easily configured to allow changing circumstances?
Does the system place significance on your value as a client by providing a mechanism for you to give your feedback or to request new features?
Is the system easy to use even for your staff who may not be comfortable with computers?

These might be simple questions but they assist you to differenciate between CRM offerings. If you can confidently answer 'Yes' to these then you are well on your way. A worthwhile and valuable CRM systen should be a CRM made easy.

New Support Documentation

Dan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:44:00 +0000

We've just released some new technical support documentation on the website. Right now we have documentation on adding contacts, creating sales leads and importing data into Leopard CRM.

We're planning on adding more documentation over the next little while, particularly on some of the more complex features of Leopard CRM. If you'd like to be kept up to date on any changes, just subscribe to the RSS feed that is available from the support page.

Discovering more Leopard

Dan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:01:00 +0000

“ In business, there will always be obstacles and problems along the way. Being tough will enable you to work through them without becoming worn-out or negative. In fact, you should expect problems. That will save you the time wasted on surprise or dismay when they surface. Never giving up is courage. Courage is the opposite of fear. Do not allow fear to paralyze you. Mark Twain put it well: “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.” Donald J. Trump from Solutions @ Work ezine (MCEI, April 2009).

I have been immersing myself in CRM, cloud computing, sales as a service, twitter and, of course, blogging. Without even leaving my desk I have been able to taste something of the world's knowledge bank on all these terms. Leopard CRM certainly taps into the internet's power and remote accessibility opportunities but it also is a web-based tool by which businesses can help to deal with "obstacles and problems along the way." If being tough about problems, as the quote from Donald J. Trump puts it, will keep you from becoming worn out or negative and that you would be better served by expecting problems than not, then early consideration of good quality tools and applications would surely help you in this endeavour.

I rather liked this quote and I thought it was worthy of being printed out and stuck on my office wall. Life is far too short to have time wasted on surprise or dismay.

Meeting a Leopard in the night

Dan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:57:00 +0000

I have just come on board with Leopard CRM and what a really fast education I've had to do regarding my knowledge of a CRM. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to learn something new in delivery techniques and to improve my technological knowledge.

If you're anything like me you may say hesitantly, "what is a CRM?" The fact is this is something that many of us have used in business for a long time. It's a way of tracking our customers, our sales, and our ongoing relationship with these two things in our business.

My other initial thought was, "what's so special about Leopard CRM?" We're looking at an online delivery that gives us remote access on a monthly subscription basis without a large capital investment in software. But that's not what makes it special - it is the team at Leopard. They are passionate about the work they do and everyone has a very personal investment into making this opportunity successful not only for themselves, but for their customers. I think this passion and this determination is rare in the cold world of business but it effectively contributes a strength, robustness and integrity to Leopard's CRM. It makes the product shine.

Leopard CRM Subscriptions Available Soon

Dan — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:14:00 +0000

Well, Leopard CRM v4 has been available for trials for a few weeks and so far we've had a great response in trial signups. We're currently working on making paid subscriptions available, which should be ready soon. There may be a few extra little features coming also, but I won't give too much away about that yet :)

Please feel free to sign up for a free trial if you haven't yet, and don't forget to send through any questions that you have once you start having a look around.

Management Software

Dan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:44:00 +0000

In talking about Leopard CRM, the website mentions a lot of "managements":

Project Management
Case Management
Sales Management
Marketing Campaign Management
Contact Management

But what does it all mean? Well, when using the term "Management Software" we mean something special. At it's core, Leopard CRM is designed to help you manage your business. Now, for some people, "business" could mean more sales, better customer service, or the delivery of projects.

We understand that software is not the be all and end all, software is a means to an end, and we're OK with that. We view CRM software as a tool for business. So, when we use the term Management Software, what we really mean is software that helps you get the job done.

Leopard CRM v4 Released!

Dan — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 02:40:00 +0000

We're excited to announce that free trials are now available for version 4 of Leopard CRM! Version 4 marks a giant step in the evolution of Leopard CRM, providing even more gains in efficiency for businesses worldwide.

Version 4 introduces some exciting new features to Leopard CRM including:
- Case Management, easily track customer service, technical support and similar incidents
- Email Integration, increase customer service levels and reduce double entry
- A new look and feel, making this the easiest to use version of Leopard CRM we've ever done
- A new Project Management system, including a new user interface and task methodology

To sign up for your free trial, just head over to http://www.leopardcrm.com now.

Kind regards,
The Leopard Software Team

Version 4 about to be released

Dan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:01:00 +0000

We're excited to announce that trials for version 4 of Leopard CRM will be available from 12PM Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), Wednesday 29th July 2009.

We're thrilled to see how version 4 has come together and we're sure that you'll love the new features and improvements to the system. Enjoy!