The Importance Of A Powerful Search System Within A CRM Software (Aka Contact Management Software)

Imagine being in the market for a new car. You love the idea of owning a sports car. You are looking for a car that has both speed and power. A car that can absolutely blast past the competition. You are looking for the most powerful car on the planet.

If you are looking for the above mentioned characteristics would you buy a 1970’s Volkswagen or would you buy the latest version that Mustang has to offer?

The obvious answer is of course the Mustang.

Each one has massive differences, but at the same time they have some similarities. Like for example each one has 4 wheels. Each one can hold a certain number of passengers and each one is run by an engine.

A few of the notable differences would have to be power and speed. One car can get you to a desired location a lot faster than the other can. If you are looking to have an impact out in the road then the Mustang has that to offer.

Now what does this article have to do with cars? Well, nothing really.

But it is a good comparison to how many Contact Management Software’s search engines work.

There are many Contact Management Software that just simply don’t do the trick when it comes to the quality of their search engines. Most Contact Management Software are comparable to 1970’s Volkswagen while a very few are comparable to the latest model of a Mustang.

When someone decides to use a Contact Management Software it is because they want to be organized and want to save time while building meaningful relationships with their customers and prospects. The last thing that you want to do is spend valuable time searching through slow and confusing search engines to just simply send your prospect an email. Believe it or not, many of the Contact Management Software’s search engines are exactly like that. They run slow and don’t move very fast. Needless to say that they are comparable to the 1970’s Volkswagen.

Imagine with me for one moment. You are running a special promo for your company. You want to send a personalized email to a contact by the name of “Cassandra.” You don’t quit remember her last name, but you do know that it begins with the letter “M”. You also remember that she lives in Florida, but aren’t sure which city.

So you start the engine of your old & slow 1970’s Volkswagen, or in other words, you open up your search browser within your current Contact Management Software. You type in “Cassandra” but nothing is showing in the results tab. So along with the name Cassandra you also type in the letter “M” in the last name field.

The Volkswagen kind of search engines are difficult to use. If you are using a Contact Management Software that is like the above example then this is the exact process that you will have to do to find “Cassandra”

You are going to have to type in the name “Cassandra” in the first name field. Then you are going to have to type in the letter “M” in the last name field.

Since you do not know the phone number by memory nor the address you are going to have to leave each respective field blank.

The result? Your engine won’t even start, or in other words, it won’t work. The system will not give you the results that you are looking for. The reason? Because you need to know the complete first and last name, and on top of that the phone number in order for the result to come back positive.

And lets say that you have a excellent memory and you remember all the above mentioned required information: first name, last name, phone number, etc… if you happen to misspell a name or add one too many numbers or any error of any kind, the Contact Management Software’s search result will not give you the information desired.

Doesn’t just reading that make you tired? (heck, trying writing about it!)

There are hundreds of Contact Management Software’s out in the market and sadly they promote themselves as if they are the latest and greatest vehicle out in the road. It isn’t until you actually take it for a ride that you realize that it wasn’t all that it was cut out to be.

Now it is time to get out of that old slow car and hop inside of a Mustang.

When you are sitting inside of that Mustang, you don’t even have to turn the car on to feel the power. Just sitting inside is pretty impressive.

The same goes when you are searching for a great Contact Management Software that has a great search field.

When using a Mustang like Contact Management Software you are going to notice that searching for contacts is as simple as putting the keys into the ignition of this mustang and driving away.

A Volkswagen Contact Management Software has many fields that need to be filled in when searching for a specific person. A Mustang Contact Management Software would only have ONE field.

The Mustang kind of Contact Management Software should have just one field to put in the information of the person that you are searching for. You most certainly wouldn’t need to know all the required information of the person that you are searching for. So to continue using “Cassandra” as an example this is how a great Contact Management Software with an even greater search system should work.

You click open the search tab within the system. All you would really need to input into the one search field would be “Cassandra FL”. What the system will do next is to bring your attention all of the records by the name of Cassandra that lives in the State of Florida.

Even if you aren’t sure how to spell the full name “Cassandra” but you just write “Cass FL” the system will bring to your viewing all the people whose name begins with the 4 letters “Cass” that live in Florida.

This kind of search engine would be very unique and like the Mustang extremely powerful and fast. It would allow you to get to where you want to be fast.

Another unique feature that a strong Contact Management Software should have is cross-referencing capabilities.

Lets say for example that you want to contact one of your customers within your Contact Management Software. You have the name of the owner of the business and his Assistant Manager in your records. Mike and John are their respective names, that is all the information that you remember. So you open the search field and type in “Mike and John”, and just like a Mustang would probably have a “turbo” button, this kind of Contact Management Software will have a similar button. A cross-reference button.

The system goes out to search and cross-reference all the files with both the names “Mike and John” within their profile.

So if there is an email address within your records that has either the name of “Mike” or the name of “John”, the system will bring it as a search result, just because the name was found within the records. This is very unique feature that a strong and powerful Contact Management Software will have.

Just like when you are in the market for a new car. You are going to compare many features that each respective car has. You are going to compare what is important to you against the features and benefits of the car that you are going to buy. At the end of the day, the car is going to fulfill a need and make your life a little bit easier.

The same goes when you are searching for a Contact Management Software to work with. You are going to compare what is out there in the market and see which one suits your business best.


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