A CRM is the memory of a business. You will never remember what you forget and it's amazing the number of opportunities we forget.
Import your contact list, put _each_ conversation and email in your CRM. Before calling a client, take a look at what happened recently. Your clients will be amazed of how much things you remember.
If someone is talking about a future project/dream, add it to your CRM with a low priority (I use % of probability of winning). Add a task (in the CRM) to call about the project in a couple of months.
When a conversation ends with the client saying "I'll get back to you", ask when you should follow up on the project and add a task at this date. When it is time, follow up! Clients don't call back and it's ok because it means they are busy with their business.
A CRM is not a task manager but it's essential to add tasks related to contacting your clients in there.
I use CapsuleCRM. Not because it's the best but because it was the easiest to use at that time. I tried the old version of ZohoCRM and it wasn't that good, but they changed it recently so you should take a look. Try them all, you'll find the one that fits you best.
Garry Tan, cofounder of posterous, said of it : "Finally, timezones in javascript done right. The world has been made a better place via this fine javascript library."
I pretty much hate Pascal as a language but I recently used it on one of my project. I wanted a executable that would just WORK on any computer without any installation, dependency or a specific version of a .NET framework. I used Lazarus and it just worked.
That would be a bad idea. You make your living by selling those things, you share your numbers with us and then, you would remove some ads because of a jealous programmer. Please don't do it and feel free to sell your stuff as much as you want.
I was almost angry when I saw the <AUTOPROMOTION> tag in your post. Why writing it? You have to autopromote your products if you want to sell them. This <AUTOPROMOTION> tag makes me feel like you're not serious about your book.
Thanks for this comment. <Autopromotion> tag is just to give my readers little smile. But I am very serious about the eBook. It is really helping to increase others revenue and give my income some boost too. You may check it by reading comments by happy buyers. So no without tag I am really recommending it to anyone who want some boost in downloads of their Android apps based on my experience ;)
I understood it as "find yourself a woman with similar entrepreneurial goals so she can understand, be patient and support you". It is _really_ important to me, I just couldn't do it if I didn't have that support.
My advice is no matter how good are your programming skills or your product, if you're not selling, it's useless to be that good.
Get some good selling skills and human skills. The only reason why that other crappy software that you're competing with sells for millions is because the guy is better than you at selling it.
Maybe you should study and invest in learning how to sell and then give another chance to your software (that should be a good one after 4 years).
Or find a business partner who can do the selling for you.
Nothing says you have to give up your dream or stop doing what you love, just make sure you have the right people around you.
Most startups fail. The fact your company failed doesn't mean you are a failure. Make sure you know why the company failed, though, so you don't make the same mistakes again.
Import your contact list, put _each_ conversation and email in your CRM. Before calling a client, take a look at what happened recently. Your clients will be amazed of how much things you remember.
If someone is talking about a future project/dream, add it to your CRM with a low priority (I use % of probability of winning). Add a task (in the CRM) to call about the project in a couple of months.
When a conversation ends with the client saying "I'll get back to you", ask when you should follow up on the project and add a task at this date. When it is time, follow up! Clients don't call back and it's ok because it means they are busy with their business.
A CRM is not a task manager but it's essential to add tasks related to contacting your clients in there.
I use CapsuleCRM. Not because it's the best but because it was the easiest to use at that time. I tried the old version of ZohoCRM and it wasn't that good, but they changed it recently so you should take a look. Try them all, you'll find the one that fits you best.