Jess Todtfeld, Founder & President of Success in Media and bestselling author, knows what it takes to get people’s attention. A nationally recognized television producer for 13 years, Todtfeld funneled his naturally ability to captivate audiences into a successful media training business. Now, instead of grabbing attention with hard-hitting news segments, he coaches business executives, spokespeople, and other experts on how to leverage the most out of their public speaking engagements.

As a small business owner, Todtfeld is always looking for ways to improve. Success in Media was using an enterprise-class CRM but found that its clunkiness and complexity was taking up more time than it saved. Todtfeld went looking for a more streamlined, affordable, visually appealing solution. His search led him to karmaCRM.

Success in Media was tired of the hassle of using a CRM that was too complex and expensive for their needs. “Unlike other solutions I tried, karmaCRM was extremely easy to use,” said Todtfeld. “I figured it out in an hour and had the whole system set up on the first day.”

With karmaCRM’s in-contact email feature, Success in Media can connect with their clients more quickly. Rather than having to switch back and forth between a CRM and an email program, Todtfeld can get all the work done in a single application, which streamlines his client contact process.

Todtfeld also enjoys improved efficiency from how quickly karmaCRM moves. “The speed of a system is also extremely important to me,” said Todtfeld. “The faster it is, the more people I can connect with. I was very impressed with the speed of karmaCRM.”

“If you don’t have a CRM, you’re losing money every single day.”

Todtfeld stresses that a CRM isn’t optional these days. “There’s no way your memory, a spreadsheet, or Outlook reminders can help you keep in touch with your contacts as quickly and accurately as a CRM,” said Todtfeld.

We couldn’t agree more. Do you have a success story you’d like to share with us? Be in touch!

About Success in Media

Founded by Jess Todtfeld, Success in Media is a media training company that coaches business executives, spokespersons, public relations representatives, experts, and authors to become more confident, more in control, and to create more results from their speaking engagements and media appearances. Success in Media encourages clients to leverage every speaking engagement — from a one-on-one conversation to a business presentation — to provide value, move toward the close, and create the precise outcome they desire.

Krista Garver

I am a passionate inbound and content marketer. My goal is to create content that educates, engages, and helps people do their jobs better. In my offline life, you can almost always find me attending live theatre.

Before technology caught up to Craig Zelizer’s vision of providing a peer-to-peer network for global changemakers, he started an informal listserv on Yahoo to connect people around the world. Eventually, technology did catch up, and in 2007 he launched PCDNetwork, a worldwide hub for those dedicated to social change. Gathering almost 37,000 professionals and organizations, PCDNetwork gives members equal access to the kind of info that changes careers, lives, and the world: social change funding sources, leading research, job opportunities, and more.

As the founder and CEO of PCDNetwork, Zelizer knew that his business had outgrown manual client engagement management. Though his team was small, their reach was extending rapidly, and it was no longer feasible to track client engagement with memory and Excel spreadsheets alone.

PCDNetwork tried out four different CRM systems before partnering with karmaCRM. Zelizer values the reasonable cost and powerful features, saying, “karmaCRM was the best product possible at a price point a small business like ours can afford.”

With karmaCRM, PCDNetwork standardized their outreach process, automated engagement reminders, and improved their client tracking. Zelizer said, “karmaCRM is the lifeblood of our internal organization. It’s versatile, adaptable, customizable, and easy-to-use. It made generating sales and managing client engagement so much easier.”

“karmaCRM is the lifeblood of our internal organization. It’s versatile, adaptable, customizable, and easy-to-use.”

PCDNetwork also found that karmaCRM was the kind of company that aligned with their values as a social change organization — one that is committed to generosity, partnership, and mutual growth. “We want the companies that help us do our business to put a set of ethical values into practice, not to try to milk every dollar out of every client,” said Zelizer. “karmaCRM is just that kind of company. From their great customer service to their dedication to continual improvement, karmaCRM is committed to helping their partner businesses grow and to growing with them.”

We love hearing that our values resonate with our customers. And we’ve recently made an even greater commitment to karma by providing even more value to help our clients succeed. Read karmaCRM CEO John Paul Narowski’s pledge to “put the Karma in karmaCRM.”

About PCDNetwork

Created by Dr. Craig Zelizer in 2007, PCDNetwork is the go-to hub for the global change making community. PCDNetwork is a rapidly growing social enterprise that gathers almost 37,000 professionals, organizations, and students engaged in social change, peacebuilding, social entrepreneurship, development, and related fields. We are a one-stop-shop to inspire, connect, inform, and provide the tools and resources to scale social change. PCDNetwork also gives members the tools, resources, and jobs to lead successful lives and careers in the social change sector.

Krista Garver

I am a passionate inbound and content marketer. My goal is to create content that educates, engages, and helps people do their jobs better. In my offline life, you can almost always find me attending live theatre.

Celebrating their 50th anniversary last year, Graphel Carbon Products is a leader in providing graphite solutions for a wide range of industries — they produce and distribute parts that are used in jet airplanes and the electric generators. And in their five decades of success, they have learned that businesses need to adapt to grow.

Marketing Manager Aileen Crass knew that Graphel needed to adapt when it came to how they managed their customers. As is common in many organizations, salespeople were still keeping customer data and follow-up schedules on spreadsheets or in their heads.

As a former financial advisor, Crass knew the power of a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. She also knew that for a company with a modest management team of about 20 people, an enterprise-level CRM with all the bells and whistles would be too complex to be functional for Graphel.

Enter karmaCRM.

Crass said, “I was looking for software to introduce CRM to the company culture. We didn’t need a tool tied to accounting or manufacturing — we strictly needed a CRM for sales. Something like Salesforce or Netsuite would be much too complicated — and costly — for what we needed. Ease of use was my number one priority.”

Graphel looked at five other CRMs before deciding on karmaCRM. “The unnecessary tools and integrations of the other CRMs got messy really quickly,” said Crass. “karmaCRM had exactly what we needed.”

“Ease of use was my number one priority…karmaCRM had exactly what we needed.”

The company found the visual interface especially intuitive. “The dashboard was particularly user-friendly. You can see everything you need to know at a quick glance — your task list, who you need to call and why — those easy, visual cues really sold our staff.”

karmaCRM was also a massive timesaver over more complex systems when it comes to data entry. Crass said, “With Salesforce, you have to drill down six screens and it takes three to four minutes to do a single entry. karmaCRM adapts exactly to the info you need and a new entry takes just 15 to 20 seconds.”

karmaCRM appealed to Graphel’s entire team, whether they had never used a CRM before or whether they were experienced users of other platforms.

At karmaCRM, we’re always happy to hear about our happy customers! Do you have a success story to share? Pay it forward!

About Graphel Carbon Products

Graphel Carbon Products manufactures precision graphite solutions. They provide integral parts for the aerospace, power generation, medical, and plastics molding industries. They help customers tackle complex manufacturing challenges quickly and easily, from a simple blank to a tight tolerance electrode. Service is the foundation of all of Graphel Carbon Products’ solutions — their key commitment is to their customers. They strive to understand their customers needs and provide every customer with individualized, responsive service.

Krista Garver

I am a passionate inbound and content marketer. My goal is to create content that educates, engages, and helps people do their jobs better. In my offline life, you can almost always find me attending live theatre.