Every now and again in this web 2.0 world it�s refreshing to come across something that gets your attention and is decidedly not web 2.0.

One of the staples of some Duct Tape Marketers is the business card strategically placed on community boards in coffee shops and grocery stores. It�s not the right play for every business perhaps, but it�s dirt cheap and can gain some nice exposure for those in the home services business.

A reader of mine passed an ingenious little tool on to me to aid this tactic. The product is called Card Cues. The simple little device allows you to place up to 40 cards in a pre-configured little card holder and pin the entire little package to the bulletin board without taking but a little more room than a traditional business card.

A package of 10 costs you about a buck apiece with shipping. Just go get some. (If you are in the printing business they will sell you some templates that you can personalize for customers.)

7:00:05 PM    

Mark your calendar. Entering its third year, the Microsoft Small Business Summit, a nationwide, online event that runs for four days is coming. This year it runs from March 24 through March 27. Summit registrants can participate online from home or office.

I have been asked to kick the summit off with a session on small business marketing so I hope that lots of Duct Tape Marketing readers will be joining me live online on March 24th at 9am PDT!

The summit offers advice from entrepreneurial peers and small business experts on topics ranging from sales, marketing, productivity, mobility, security, financial management and startups.

Over the four days, a variety of panelists will speak, including Cheryl Broussard, financial advisor and author of Sister CEO; Duct Tape Marketing�s John Jantsch; Louis Barajas, author of Latino Journey to Financial Greatness and Small Business, Big Life.

The summit is free and registration is open now. Make sure to register even if you can�t make the live events as you will get access to the archived recordings months after the event.

3:00:05 PM    

A few weeks back I asked the question, �What would the perfect CRM look like?�

The question drew lots of conversation and was accompanied by a survey.

I think this comment from Ben Smith of WBP Systems, maker of HeapCRM, sums it up for the true small business.

I just wanted to comment on your great point. I do think that many people confuse �CRM� with �CRM software�. In an attempt to make this point, we actually spend the first part of our manual discussing a coffee shop and how by simply putting a sticker on the cup they have achieved every goal that you would ask of a CRM.

What someone really should do, to implement a CRM, is get a list of goals they want to achieve with the CRM system (not necessarily software), then find the simplest tool that achieves all of their goals. If you can achieve all of your goals with a spiral ring notebook, then you should use a spiral ring notebook. Of course if you need Salesforce with some-odd add-ons then that�s what you should use.

And perhaps the survey results may support this as well.

Only 61% said they used any form of CRM or Contact Management

When asked what tool they used:
• ACT, Spreadsheet and Highrise tied at exactly 22.2% each
• MS Outlook Business Contact Manager and Microsoft CRM combined for another 21.3%
• The napkin only accounted for 2.2%

When asked what was most important in terms of features:
• Contact history 79.6
• Lead tracking 62.2
• Opportunity management 49
• Task list 40.8

More advanced features such as inventory management, partner management, shopping cart integration, lead distribution, quote management were largely unimportant.

• 78% of the respondents were companies with less than 20 employees.

Any surprises? Not really - conclusions - keep it simple, don�t make me have to change the culture of the organization to make it work.

1:00:09 AM