My Improvised CRM (Customer Relation Management) Database

For years, I have been compiling lists of potential clients from various sources on excel spreadsheets.
Since I focus on contractors and architects, some lists are easy to get. Many small contractors and architects are Certified LBE (Local Business Enterprise) with the City of San Francisco. I can quickly download a long list from the city website. But for the other, I have to think up of the sources, and painstakingly compile one lead at a time. --Talking about time and cost, I wonder for a small local service provider like me, if it is cost effective to just buy lists from lists brokers.

With all these lists floating around, and with many mailers got returned, I was challenged on how to eliminate duplicates, inactivate invalid leads, and have better control over who to touch and when.

For a month I tested out a web based CRM software. Since my marketing department was only I and I did not have to share list or updates with a team, even at $49/month, the CRM was too pricey and had many features that I did not need.

A CRM I was looking for need to do just a few simple tasks:
- allow me to quickly import all the lists I have
- allow me to inactive leads that are no longer valid
- allow me to categorize where the leads come from; say LBE-architect, LBE-contractor, Google, etc.
- allow me to write some notes about this lead
- allow me to find a particular lead quickly and its related info
- allow me to sort the list by source, and show only active leads
- allow me to export the leads to excel and generate mailing labels quickly.

I have been a Quickbooks Proadvisor for years. I revisited the idea of using Quickbooks for lead database. It turned out to fully satisfied all the criteria.

I use "Customer Type" to define sources; i.e. LBE-Architect, LBE-Contractor, Google map, Castro-merchant, etc.

Each customer record allows me to add  up to 7 user defined fields. I use them to filter the lists. I have these fields setup:
- sales (annual sale figure) - show how big the lead is
- year established - show how matured the company is.
-  number of employees - denote size of the company. 2 to 16 is my ideal size.
- legal entity - sole prop tends to be small / loose. Corporate and LLC are more formal/ established.
- worker comp - Yes or No. Any established contractors should have worker comp coverage
- remarks - such as specialty, owner info.

And "note" button is another place where I can date-stamp info, and type very long note. I can keep adding new note above the old notes.

To import the list onto Quickbooks, I go to List | Add/Edit Multiple List.
Select: Customer
Click "Customize Column" button where I can add/remove columns, and move up or down columns to correspond to columns setup on Excel.
There is a link to a video tutorial here. The video is 6 minutes long, which shows how it is done. Very useful.

I even added "Inactive" column to the Add/Edit Mulitple List while importing various lists. Then I  copied and pasted all the info from excel to this window. I manually checked the "inactive" field to put a check mark there.

Next blog, I will write how to filter results and create mailing lists.
Everything takes time. But, with this database, I finally feel like in control.

Quickbooks Keyboard Short-Cuts

I love keyboard short-cuts. They are so useful and are easy on hands.

+ to increase date by 1.
- to reduce date by 1.
t for today.
y for beginning of the year (Normally 01/01/yy, though it doesn't bring up the right date sometimes.)
mmdd followed by tab will put in the date in mm/dd/yy format.

Ctrl+Delete to delete a line (useful on creating invoice or splitting expenses)
Ctrl+Insert to insert a line (ditto)
Ctrl+D to delete the whole entry.

Ctrl+C to copy (good for copying and pasting long text)
Ctrl+V to paste (ditto)

Edit and then select duplicate (useful to duplicate a similar invoice or estimate to bill to various parties or create several versions with mostly same info.)

Ctrl+M to memorize entry I enter regularly.
Ctrl+T to bring up memorized transactions.

I like to memorize reports I pull regularly.
I normally create a group of reports named "01 Monthly Review" where I save Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, and General Ledger and other useful reports.
Each month when I change the period, I re-memorize them hence overriding the old dates.