How do you share business contacts?. I will be announcing a new business shortly, that will require different professionals to share business contact and business prospect information. These people will be similar to much of the user population on this site. They are solopreneurs who each have their own business or brand. Most of the systems I have looked at for this don't account for this common situation - they assume that the people sharing the information are in the same organization, or at least, operating under the same brand.
I know there is all sorts of stuff on the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) market, but there is a network effect here that works against us. What if you choose a particular CRM but the person you want to share the contact information with doesn't use the same system?
It strikes me that this must be a common - almost universal problem, so I have to assume that people are working out solutions. May I ask how people in this community are addressing this? I'm starting to think that almost everyone needs a "custom" system to some extent so would like to know what people are using, and if they have come up with any procedures or technologies for sharing this information. What do you use for CMS (contact management system). Are you using CRM yet? What is working, and what isn't.
Since I am somewhat dissatisfied with my own systems in this area, I am mostly fishing for information.
.csv (excel formatted) list, is accepted with every CRM to add and share contacts, I've never seen a CRM that didn't anyways. Plus most CRMs will identify custom fields from within a .csv file. And all CRM has the option to export as .csv as well.
ReplyDeleteMichael Gonzales So you pass around a CSV file? How do you share contacts one at a time?
ReplyDeleteGood discussion! For me it depends on the context.
ReplyDeleteWhen I want to share a business contact as a referral on social media I tag the parties. If one person is not connected there, I would post a recommendation with their name and website. I always see people looking for a service provider, such as a professional organizer. I post the name of the person I'm recommending along with a link to their website.
I sometimes use "share contact" on my phone and send a contact by sms if it is someone I text with and I have permission.
Most often, I do it by email. First I contact the person to make sure it's ok to share their info. Then I email some combination of name, company, website, email address, phone number to the person who needs it. Occasionally I may do an email to both parties to introduce them but I also get permission or give them advance notice that I will be doing so. I prefer not to do it this way because I don't want to stay in the middle.
I've looked at some CRMs but am not using one. I have lots of contacts between family, business, community, school, and client's business contacts. I don't want separate databases so, instead, I use groups, codes, notes to differentiate within my G contacts. That way they are all connected on computer or mobile, in contacts and email and text. Not the best solution as far as CRM properties but it's far easier for me overall. If I had the type of business that had lots of leads this wouldn't work. I do use an email service provider for my email list though.
Rebecca Quinn Interesting response. I agree that separating business from social doesn't work for most of us. Still mulling what you said, but quick question - the "share contact" on your phone - what app is that? Is that Google Contacts?
ReplyDeleteYes, Rob Gordon it is just an option in Contacts (Google / Android.) I can "share" which means I choose where I want to share to from all kinds of options (beam contact, Evernote, Gmail, etc.)
ReplyDeleteOr there is another option, "send by sms" for text. The reason I don't often use the options is because it sends all the info (not my notes) so if I have multiple phone numbers and email addresses for someone, it sends all of them. In a business context I probably don't want to send the person's cell phone or home address, for example, so I have to go in and edit before sending.