You've probably received plenty of phone calls and emails from various Client Relationship Management (CRM) vendors, all pitching the necessity of their products for your business. In a world where the grocery shelves are stocked with 500 different kinds of deodorant, contact management products may seem just as plentiful and equally stupefying. If all deodorant is designed to combat body odor, and all CRM products are designed to make your life easier - how do you possibly choose?

First, businesses need to be aware of the need for CRM. Without some kind of system in place, it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep up with your clients and prospects. Let's say you have 40 clients and you would like to contact them at least once a month. How do you keep track of who has been contacted, and information from that last contact? Most of us spend our days reacting to client needs, returning the most urgent phone calls and handling work that is under immediate deadlines. Part of every day should be spent doing proactive client and prospect work, and CRM systems can help force that task to the forefront of the mind.

Secondly, many assume that CRM has to cost a huge amount of money to work well. We have seen clients manage their clients and prospects using basic software, like Excel, although we don't necessarily recommend it. Many businesses shy away from investigating CRM because they assume they can't afford it, and that simply isn't true. Start-up businesses may be able to get away with using the contact management functionality built into Outlook and grow into programs like ACT or industry-specific CRM packages.

Before committing to any one package or another, we suggest the following steps:

• Decide what you want to use your system for. Is it simply for collecting contact information, like an electronic rolodex? Do you want to use it for prospecting?
• Go through your cards or contact lists and decide what kinds of groups you would like to segment. Common segmentations are clients, prospects, business contacts, referral sources, etc.
• Decide how you would like to contact these people. Email? Letters? Phone calls? These are important questions as different CRM packages have different strengths. An e-mail marketing campaign requires very specific information to be collected.
• Still confused? If you are unsure of how to proceed, talk to your marketing advisor.

CRM can seem overwhelming, but it is an extremely important part of your overall business and marketing plan. It can also be essential in helping you create and measure your return on investment. Without a way to "touch" your business base, you can be assured that your competitors are"touching" them instead. So, what do deodorant and CRM have in common? Without them, your marketing can be pretty stinky.