In the office this week we were discussing some of our favorite websites and we decided to update our blog roll to include some of them to share them with you.  I do my best to keep up with them as much as possible, but the ones we're adding now are especially relevant and very informative to the readers of this site.  We think you'll find the focus of these blogs very relevant to your top priority - your customers as well as the technology aspects you utilize for business. 

David Sims ran an insightful article in TMCnet a few weeks ago, discussing why "Firing customers is a bad idea". Sims cites a study from the Wharton school that disproves the common, and in my opinion incorrect, philosophy of shedding your less valuable customers to increase profitability.

Many of the business-minded CRM professionals will argue that low spending customers take up too much time and effort to make up for the smaller percentage of profit they bring in, in comparison to the high spending customers, which take up the same amount of resources but return much more. The argument is that getting rid of the less profitable customers provides more time and resources for the more profitable ones.

The other day I was speaking to a small business owner. They told me that using Concourse Suite was helping them manage sales leads, and I was asking them about the steps beyond the sale and how they were using the CRM and other capabilities, and what processes they had introduced.

"Beyond the sale? We're just looking to grow," was the response. I was stunned.

I'm not undermining the importance of the sale. Nothing happens until someone sells something, that's business. But good businesses looks beyond the sale and to a longer-term relationship. Relationships should be a top concern for any business that wants to grow. It doesn't matter if you have 10 employees or 10,000.