All posts by John Paul Narowski

I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.

We’ve made it easy for you to easily upload multiple files at once. This feature is available to all browsers except IE, as the trend generally goes. It also comes with a fancy progress bar. If you use IE you’ll still be able to upload files, but just one at a time and without drag and drop.

Drag and Drop

When in a record such as contacts, companies, deals, or in the files section you can simply start dragging a file from your desktop into the “Files” section to upload it. Once you drop the file into the “Dropzone” highlighted in gray, the file will automatically start uploading. Even if you’re not viewing the “Files” tab within a record, it will be automatically selected when you start dragging.

Upload Multiple Files by Browsing

While browsing for multiple files, simply hold shift in order to select multiple files to upload. As soon as you hit “OK” they’ll start uploading

Other New Features Worth Nothing

Email attachments now show up in history – Any attachments included in an email, or added manually in the note show view will now appear in the history associated with that note or email. Simply click the file to download it.

Added option to ignore email attachments – Sometimes you might have logos, or other images that are always a part of your email. To prevent them from getting added to each contact, you can tell karma to ignore them from your emails in the “My Info” -> Dropbox settings.

Add local files to emails, with “drag and drop” or normal file browser – Up to this point you weren’t able to send emails from karmaCRM with files from your computer, well now you can. When sending an email click “Add Local Attachments” or just drag files into the dropzone.

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

Small Business

The “We Forgot How Great You Are” Trap

January 18, 2012 John Paul Narowski Leave a comment

According to Sandler Sales System, 78% of your current customers will not do business with you again not because they dislike you or are unhappy – it’s because they forgot about you.

Out of sight and out of mind

Small businesses may not be aware of this, but customers actually forget brands more often than we think. Customers do business with us, are satisfied – and then get busy. If they like it enough and time permits, they’ll start telling people about it.

Yet, most of the time, the scenario is that someone asks them where they found a product or helped and provided them the service and their answer is “some guy online” or this ” vendor we’ve been working with” or even “this guy whose been calling on us for a while”. They are hardly any phrases of referral or recommendation.

You did your part and they liked your product but because they can’t remember the name, how can they refer people to do business with you – or even find you again?

Repeat sales and referrals are the “bread and butter” of any business. Do you make it easy for customers to buy and refer others to buy or do business with you?

The forgetfulness is even more prominent in recurring service based businesses.

For example: let’s say your a dentist or a hair stylist and have booked someone their next appointment to happen in the next 8 weeks or even a year. When a client cancels last minute, you lose an hour’s pay. Have several people do this and you might be losing half a day’s worth of business. This often happens when you have no way or system of staying in touch with you customer.

Following a system provides you the framework to develop your relationship with your customer further. There is so much benefit in automating the process so you energy and focus can be on personalizing the relationship.

Here’s what you can do to make your customers remember you:

The System

Customer Database – Have a system in place to capture their information like name, address, contact details (mobile, e-mail), and birthday. When they come visit you, give them a piece of paper where they can write their information.
Organize Touch points – Set guidelines of when, where and how you’ll contact your client. This is your template. Invent it once; let it work for you the rest of the time. The hardest part is creating it. The biggest benefit is not having to reinvent the wheel thus freeing up your focus and time.

Using the System

The system is there to help make your transactions easier, help you build a relationship with customers, and increase brand awareness. Make sure that your customers don’t forget you. Make use of the system that you are using to get in touch with your customers.

Here’s what you can do:

Follow-up – through reminder, emails, tweets, phone calls or newsletters – every customer needs to at least be reminded of you once a quarter.
Say thank you – Send your customers an email or a thank you card to extend your appreciation of doing business with them. This will make an impression and make them remember you.
Call past clients – Remember your database? When you’re not too busy, you can email or call your clients to remind them about your promos, or if they’re due for their haircut, etc. A creative approach will make your customers come visit you again. Make use of your customer database.
Send birthday greetings – Because you have their information, greet them on their birthday. I remember opening an email and a company greeted me on my birthday – it worked liked a charm because I ended up getting things from them as a gift to myself.
Send holiday greetings – Stand out from the crowd by staying away from them. Don’t be the one of a thousand who sends “Season’s Greetings”. Be the one who sends a July 4th; or Veteran’s Day or some other holiday not focused on by others.
Send anniversary greetings – My favorite are those emails that say “we’ve been together a year” then there’s an offer or even a simple “happy anniversary”.
Re-connect – In your database, there was something that was on their mind, either they were worried or excited about, when you last connected. Touch base with them and see how that went – just to check in with them.

It’s tough to find new customers and it’s even tougher to be forgotten by customers who once thought the world of us to forget who we are, what we do, or how we can help them. What are you doing today to be memorable?

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

Sales and Marketing

It’s Not Who You Know – It’s Who You Know Well

January 11, 2012 John Paul Narowski Leave a comment

Clients are valuable to our business and they are much more than numbers in our books. To us, they mean income, pipeline referrals, stability, and growth.

Your social capital directly impacts your financial capital. So, how does your social portfolio look?

First of all, ask yourself: What are the common frames of reference for my clients?

What are the common themes, interests, activities and goals for your client? If you know their business, the industry, their sphere of influence and most importantly what’s important to them. You will be seen more as a valuable adviser than someone who is “merely selling”.

The second step: Research.

Look for things that they’ve already told you, even if you weren’t asking. Clients appreciate someone who is “aware” of what goes on in their business. Look at current purchases, preferences, and general information that is already there for you to see.

My favorite source of information for this is their “wall of fame.” It could be in their office such as a shelf area with the latest boating picture; reunion; ski trip; along with trinkets and memorabilia from events gone by. It could be that wall of their office which displays their diploma, certificates, plaques of appreciation. If you’re online, then it could be their Facebook timeline cover photo, their Pinterest board (Pinterest is an online social board where you can “pin” your “interests” and share them) , their Twitter favorites and background, or their LinkedIn recommendation and groups. All are sources rich in insight into your client.

A few questions to ask

Now it’s time to focus on an interactive conversation. For clients, there are some invaluable questions that you need to focus on in order to better serve them. Aside from basic information (age, household, sex), ask questions that start a conversation. Conversations are where you get to know how someone acts, thinks, and perhaps what they want from your product or service. So make sure that your questions are open-ended so that you allow for unique and personal answers.

Start with the classic with a twist: Instead of so tell me more or about your business. The question could be – What does success in your business or industry look like?
After that question, one of my personal favorites is – If you could change one thing about your business (job, CRM tool, staff, training – whichever pertains to how you can help or what began the conversation/connection) to make it better, what would that be? The key here is to – be quiet. Their answer will tell you so much about who they are, what they’re needs are and their focus. If you interrupt the answer or answer for them because their response is delayed, then you lose all the good info you “could of” gotten.

These questions can be useful for new clients, yet remember your veterans, too. Do you want to know a question that will even make that connection more profitable?

If you could change one thing about the way we work together, for the better, what would that be?

Ask, but don’t interrogate

You don’t want your client to go into defensive mode nor to get the impression that you’re “just a drone” going through a series of questions required by your sales manager. In fact, no one is excited to work with someone who behaves like a drone. We like and want to work with someone who is at the best in their field and at the top of their game. Remember, to keep it conversational . Even if formality is your style, you don’t want to seem like a lawyer cross-examining a witness.

Your business depends on your relationships. It is no longer, “who you know and who knows you” it’s gone to the next level – who do you know well?

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

Productivity

Warning: A Lust For Lists

January 4, 2012 John Paul Narowski Leave a comment

The New Year has always been thought of as a time of change and new direction. We make huge lists of resolutions and plans of what want to change. Sometimes that’s as far as we go yet we have to take things a step further in order to accomplish our lists for this upcoming year.

The tip of the iceberg

The list is merely the start of things. It is nothing more than an outline of a plan that we dream of. Whatever format you use – from using a notepad and forming your list, we have transformed to using your PDA’s, computer programs, and online systems that do something a little different than just write down a few thoughts- they schedule.

Scheduling rather than listing

The list is still good, yet you have to take it a step forward. A list alone is merely a lust for thought. You think, but do not plan. You say, but fail to do. So, you schedule to ensure that you will do. Luckily, these electronic devices that convenience our life possess an array of abilities that make scheduling easy. When you form your list, arrange for time to be able to accomplish each item. If you don’t, a list will merely frustrate you as a reminder that you have yet to do something about it. When you schedule, you set that time to the side. Even if it is next week, or the week after, you are going to have an appointment with your plans.

A bit of initiative

Your mind set has to desire to do this. If you plan to make your list into a schedule, all you’ve done is make another list. Sit down and start scheduling your list. Even if it’s not your final design, it’s the beginning. And once you’ve started, that is half the work.

Prevention planning

Sadly, the New Year start is possibly the one time of the year that we do think about the future. I’m not talking just talking about tomorrow, but all the days after as well.

Prevention is the first line of defense. Ask yourself:

Do I know all the steps to accomplish what I want this year?
Do I have all the resources available to accomplish what I want to this year?

For every item on your list, write down the three or four things that need to occur or that you need to have to make completing that item on your list inevitable.

Time management

What it all comes down to is being able to manage your time. Your lists are just that- lists. They are simple reminders. They are only “to d0’s”. Yet, when you’re serious and put your list item in your “time budget” then you’ve taken the action necessary to complete it. Taking the initiative to schedule your time bestows enormous value for you and your business. You analyze what needs to be done, and manage your time so that it can be done. This New Year, lose your lust for lists, and schedule time to accomplish your goals.

Lists that provide a road-map to completion, a timeline to do that and a way to track that are vital success tools to make your new year great!

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

Sales and Marketing

Break for Perspective: The Hub of Relationship Management

December 28, 2011 John Paul Narowski Leave a comment

“There are times when the best appointment you keep is with yourself.”

The strongest relationship management tool?

Time with yourself making sure your systems and focus are aligned to make your goals – inevitable.

Many, especially those responsible for driving sales or those who are entrepreneurs, find it challenging, if not frustrating, during this week. It’s an impatience that happens when you’re forced to wait for the next step or that decision which makers just haven’t convened to sign off on to move forward on a project.

This time is the “go slow to go fast time.” I often call it the strong foundation time so that you can soar during the beginning of the new quarter. It’s also the time that separates the “doers and the dreamers”. Or, better phrased and more realistic, it’s the element that separates the employees from the entrepreneurs. It’s that terrific self discipline to slow down and use this time to build a strong foundation of a successful empire or sales force that will make 2012 a huge success or a perpetual struggle.

Establishing “no fly zones” are areas in your life that are non-negotiable – they are boundaries and promises to ourselves and our valued others in which we say “no” so that we honor that which is most important to us.

What are your no fly zones?

They are those times that are 100% committed to those items that move you closer to your goals. From acquiring skills to establishing systems, your “no fly zones” are the times that you are compounding your success and exponentially developing your relationships. It’s a struggle I see many good employees struggle with as they work to bridge the gap to an entrepreneur. It’s a confusion of activity with accomplishment. Many times those two standards “collide” and our schedules and our feeling of well-being are in a literal train wreck!

For this week’s no fly zone, let’s make sure your system is ready to run well in 2012.

The importance of having a great system established and following up is amply illustrated by research from the National Sales Executive Association, a trade organization for professional sales executives. Their remarkable statistics demonstrate that most sales are made from the 5th through the 12th contact!

Did you know that 67% of contacts listed in people’s database are no longer at the company listed in that database? Even worse, 3% of the people on your list are dead. Literally, they’ve died since you last made contact with them.

Here are your action items to make the most of this week’s “no fly zone”:

Clean up your database. Make it rich in client content that it will catapult your relationships (and sales) for 2012?

a. When was the last time you made contact with that client?
b. Do you have all of their contact information?
c. Do you have a system to house your clients’ and contacts’ information?
d. How are you cataloging information about your clients, such as: names of children, milestone dates, interest areas, common frames of reference? (There’s a comprehensive list of 20 things you need to know about every client in Tim Templeton’s Book, Referral of a Lifetime, a part of the Ken Blanchard Series.)

Here is the data they have compiled regarding sales per contacts ratios:

2% of sales are made on the 1st contact
3% of sales are made on the 2nd contact
5% of sales are made on the 3rd contact
10% of sales are made on the 4th contact
80% of sales are made on the 5th-12th contact!!!

Do you know that 95% of your competition will drop a prospect after the third try? Can you see where putting out 25% more effort than your competition (by making the 4th contact) will improve your sales by 100%!

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

Sales and Marketing

Taking the Time

December 21, 2011 John Paul Narowski Leave a comment

We all know how fast paced the business world can be. Traffic buzzes by in both directions with a few speeders and slow pokes amongst the crowd. And now that the holidays are here, everything seems to speed out of control as though someone has hit the turbo button on life. We sometimes find ourselves in such a hurry that we forget to take the time to do more than drop a message or wave at those around us. While we may get to where we’re going, we’ve forgotten to take care of what matters the most- our clients and customers.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to slow your roll to a crawl as you shake everyone’s hand and talk about the weather. There is a niche that you must achieve in order to make it to your destination in time and still take the time to get to know your customers.

Taking time to get to know your customers

You stand out when you slow down to notice and focus on a person these days. Our time deprived society finds that type of behavior to be the exception – not the norm. Valuing someone for who they are and slowing down to listen to their needs is virtually nonexistent when we’re having conversations with a phone in one hand ever vigilant about seeing that next text, tweet, email or update that we’re wanting to see. Become an invaluable trusted advisor not just in your industry of expertise but for life in general, when people know that they can trust that you listen to them and actually value them enough to stop and hear.

Take the time to get a little more personal at your customers comfort level. Often people quote the golden rule of “doing unto others as you would have done to you.” For your customers, think of the platinum rule – do unto others as they would have done unto them.

If you have a client who likes phone conversations and considers that important, then that might be the most effective way to reach out and connect with that person. Yet, there are some clients who dislike the phone and find it very time consuming. They find a handwritten card to be the item that provides them the feeling of being valued. And, there will be others who want and appreciate a short text that doesn’t fill their inbox, clutter their desk or take too long to receive.

Most businesses make the mistake of thinking that once they have a client, that client will stick with them. They often focus on trying to gather new clients, rather than spending time with the ones they have. It’s a misnomer to label a sale made of a client acquired as “closing the sale”. It’s really more like “opening a relationship”. It’s not the end but the beginning and a chance to them to see confirmation in their choice or for you to slip out of sight and out of mind.

Spend quality time with your customers so that they are eager to share and recommend you to people they influence. There’s nothing better than being able to borrow from someone else’s credibility as they speak to their sphere of influence about your services. The natural results are new connections at a higher level of engagement and new customers for you. Take the time to take care of your clients, and your business will grow accordingly.

What are some ways you can take the time to know your customers?

Compile a list of 20 questions or factoids that you need to know about each and every client you have (having this list compiled will help you focus and direct some of the conversations you have as well as glean the information through status updates, posts and tweets your client makes).
Create a touch-point plan so that you are connecting with your clients not only when you have something new to sell or when something needs to be renewed – their relationship building connections.
Track your client’s preferences- remember, you want to meet and connect with them at a level that’s comfortable for them.
Have an organized database and contact system. There’s nothing worse that can kill the energy of making connections with clients than having to reinvent the wheel every time. If you don’t have a system in place, your energy will be lost in the process of making the connection – every single time.
Keep this acronym in mind – S.Y.S.T.E.M. – Save Yourself Significant Time, Energy and Money.

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

karmaCRM News and Updates

New Feature – Relationships and Links Abound

December 9, 2011 John Paul Narowski Leave a comment

With our expanded relationships feature you can add multiple companies to a contact, link companies together, or add contacts and companies to deals. Relationships can be anything from a contact who referred another contact, to contacts and companies associated with a deal.

Each relationship can also have an optional label or role associated with it. This helps clarify what a contact’s role might be in a particular deal, or what type of partnership two companies might share.

Features

Contacts, Companies, Deals and Cases now all a relationships section
Track which contacts were referred, and who they were referred by
Add secondary companies to a contact
Each Relationship can be assigned an optional label to help identify the records role in the relationship

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

karmaCRM News and Updates

New Feature – Calendar Revisions, Google Calendar and More

November 15, 2011 John Paul Narowski Leave a comment

Better collaboration through the calendar is something that many of you have requested. Today we are happy to announce a number of enhancements that will help improve your karmaCRM calendar experience.

Better sharing

You can now share the calendar with your entire organization, a group, or a select number of users. Admins and owners are now automatically added to all calendars as well.

Assign events to other users

You can now assign events to other users in your organization (as long as they have access to the provided calendar).

Better Google calendar 2-way sync

We’ve made a number of changes to how the Google Calendar sync operates. You can connect your calendars without providing your google account password, as well as revamped the code behind the scenes.

2-way sync means if you change an event in karmaCRM it will be updated on your Google Calendar, and if you add an event to your Google calendar, it will be updated on karmaCRM.

Note: if you are adding an event to your Google calendar, it only updates the karmaCRM calendar at regular intervals so it may be delayed a bit before it appears in karmaCRM.

“My Calendars” VS “Other Calendars”

The calendars you specifically create, VS other shared calendars are now separated. Calendars that are shared with you will appear in the “Other Calendars” section. You can toggle the other calendars on and off by hitting the Hide link to the right of the heading.

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

karmaCRM News and Updates

Announcing karmaCRM Mobile!

October 25, 2011 John Paul Narowski 19 Comments

karmaCRM MOBILE UPDATE

Please note that karmaCRM Mobile is no longer supported as outlined in the article below (and only applied to karma1 users).

Instead, for karma2 users, we would like to provide you with a link to download the karmaCRM iOS app (for iPhone). You can find it by clicking here.

—

October 25, 2011

After much ado, the karmaCRM mobile app is here. We understand the importance of accessing your contacts and CRM data on the run and want you to know we are committed to constantly expanding our mobile presence. This launch is just the first of many regarding mobile so be on the lookout for more to come. This version is still beta, but we wanted to get it into your hands as quickly as possible to get your feedback.

We are proud to announce the availability of karmaCRM for the following devices:

iPhone 3G+
Android 2.0+
BlackBerry OS 6+ Blackberry Torch

Trying it Out

To access karmaCRM mobile, enter the following url into your mobile browser:
http://[your-subdomain].karmacrm.com/m

Be sure to replace [your-subdomain] with the subdomain you use to access your karmaCRM account. Please note that this application will only run on the default webkit browser. It won’t run on Opera or Firefox.

Adding app to your home screen on IPhone

Tap the safari bookmark button (second from the right)
Add to home screen

Adding app to your home screen on Android

Bookmark karmaCRM in the browser
Open the bookmarks page
Press and hold the karmaCRM bookmark
Select Add to Home screen

Features

We plan on having full feature coverage of karmaCRM within our mobile app in the long run, but started with the features we found to be most crucial.

Contacts
Companies
Tasks
Notes
Events
Search

Why Not Native?

Cross Platform
Instead of focusing on one platform at a time, we wanted to engineer a product that could reach the widest audience possible. By choosing to do a mobile friendly version first, it gets karmaCRM immediately into the hands of IPhone, Andriod and Blackberry users, which covers a wide majority of the mobile market.

Increasing Speed
We believe that HTML5 powered mobile apps are only going to get faster as browser and mobile devices continue to improve.

Rapid Development
We wanted to release a mobile application that was able to be as agile and rapidly updated as our web app. This mobile app allows us to be very responsive to your suggestions and issues, shorten feature development time, and get it in your hands sooner.

Whats next?

We want your feedback on how we can make improve this app, and give you the features you need while on the go. Our future plans includes making this app installable on IPhone and Android and a mobile app designed specifically for IPad or Android Tablets.

Offline Access?
For the first few versions of this app we decided against offline access, so we could be sure to get it online as quickly as possible. We will be adding offline access in the future as we get closer to version 2, so consider it in the roadmap.

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com

karmaCRM News and Updates

New Feature – Duplicate Detection & Note Filtering

October 20, 2011 John Paul Narowski Leave a comment

We’ve made it easier to identify duplicates by adding duplicate record detection to contacts and companies. When adding a contact or company, if the name or email address matches an existing record, you’ll get a red notification of any potential duplicates it found. You can continue to create the record if you choose, but at least you’ll know there is a potential duplicate. This detection runs on all records whether it’s private or not to help minimize redundancies.

This duplicate detection also runs when you load the records detail view. It will appear above the tasks box if it detects another record with a matching name or email.

Better Note Filtering

We understand the importance of knowing that no contacts slipped through the cracks of your sales cycle. This is why we added some advanced note filtering to contacts and companies. Any time a note is added to a contact or company, this timestamp is updated.

You can now do the following:

Order records by the least recent note at the top
Order records by the most recent note at the top
Show all records that have notes
Show all records that do not have notes

These filters are available in the advanced filters of the contacts and companies list.

Coming Soon

We have been hard at work making karmaCRM mobile friendly, and will be announcing the first version in our next post. It is already available online, so you can check it out now. It’s primarily tested on the Iphone, but should also work on most Android phones, and some Blackberry.

To give it a spin, browse to your karma subdomain /m, so http://yoursubdomain.karmacrm.com/m. We want to make this the best it can be, so please send your feedback, ideas and issues. Cheers!

John Paul Narowski

http://www.jpnarowski.com