Do-it-yourself Dashboards

The most common buzzword in CRM these days is "Digital Dashboard." In effect, this refers to creating a one-stop location where a manager can see tables and graphs that reflect information from the many areas they are responsible for. For example, a sales manager might want to see a summary of calling activity, appointments set, and sales pipeline information, broken out by sales rep, all in a single view, like the one pictured here.

Click for larger image

In about an hour, we put together this dashboard for a client using readily available functions and components in Excel and MasterMine. You can do this too, or we can do it for you, by fitting together several MasterMine pivot tables and using spreadsheet formulas to read the data into a summary report.

In this case, we started with a standard MasterMine "Call Activity" report showing call activity broken out by result codes. We grouped the codes into two categories, "Connection" and "no connection." We included the row totals, but hid the "no connections" column so we just show real contacts and total attempts.

Next, we pulled in another existing report that looks at completed Appointments and saved it in the workbook as tab "DATA1." Columns F thru I are "reference" formulas of the form

=IF(A20 = "Grand Total", sum(A$18:A20), GETPIVOTDATA(...)

...where the GETPIVOTDATA function pulls from a specific lookup cell in the pivot table on sheet "DATA1" and the "IF" statement causes the whole column to total if the cell is on the same row as the Grand Total for the pivot table. This way, we accommodate the likelihood that at different times, this report might show a different number of sales reps (because some are added, or go away) while still totaling properly at the bottom.

Finally, we added a graph of the sales calling activity, clearly indicating each sales rep's "hit rate" in their calling, which will be very useful for the client's sales management and training efforts. The graph was included on the same page with the pivot table after it was created, by right-clicking on the graph and selecting "Location," clicking "As object in:" and selecting the same worksheet (KPI Dashboard) on which the rest of the dashboard resides.

If you would like help building dashboards like these for your managers, or deploying them to the correct users' GoldMine taskbars when you're done, please give us a call and set up an appointment. The work can be quite fast, and can make a tremendous impact on your sales success in a short time!

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New: Calendar of GoldMine Events

MasterMine now publishes an online calendar of GoldMine CRM user-related events. Visit the MasterMine website frequently and click on the calendar link (on the right) to find upcoming events and training hosted by GoldMine dealers, FrontRange, and MasterMine. The list includes both live and online events that are offered for free or under $100.

GoldMine dealers all around North America may include their events by calling Gail at (877) 877-7212 ext 210. GoldMine CRM user-group members: Please let us know when your user-group meets, and we'll list it for free, to help get the word out.

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Current MasterMine release v6.0.381 (12/7/09)

The current release of MasterMine dated Dec. 7, 2009 includes a fix for handling custom profiles for Details. If you run "Create MM reports" and click Details, then select a specific profile, your user-defined field name should appear in the field list below.
To get the latest release of MasterMine, download from the website and install over your existing software. There is no need to uninstall the earlier release.
If you are current on annual maintenance and your version of MasterMine is older, download the latest build for free by clicking here.

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MasterMine and GoldMine 8.5

MasterMine has been tested against the newest version of GoldMine, v8.5 and is almost completely compatible without any updates. However, there are a few issues that you should be aware of.

1. Notes

Your pre-existing reports that include notes from Contact1 or OpMgr will need to be re-created after installing the latest build of MasterMine. The notes are now stored in a different location by GoldMine, and as a different data type than before.

In many cases, we can repair existing reports to read the new format, but you will need to engage MasterMine Support Services to do this for you. The work can be done fairly quickly, but does require an expert's hand.

2. Menu items

In GoldMine v8.5, look for the MasterMine "Open" and "Create" menu options in the "File" menu of GoldMine instead of "GoTo." If you don't see the MasterMine items on your "File Menu," you will need to add them to the GoldMine "Standard Toolbar."

This can be done manually (instructions follow) or download and run the current MasterMine release (v6.0.381) for an automatic solution:

• Click the down arrow at the right end of the Menu bar.
• Click "Add or Remove Buttons" and "Customize."
• Click "New" and create a new toolbar and name it "MasterMine."
• Click the "Commands" button to see a list of the available commands.
• With "File" selected on the left, find "Open MasterMine Report..." on the right, and drag and drop that item (the text) up and drop it on the empty MasterMine toolbar.
• Right-click on the item and set a new (shorter) name like "MM Open."
• Repeat 5 and 6 for the "Create MasterMine Report..." item.

Note that GoldMine v8.5 did not require a license change from earlier 8.x version releases, so there is no need to re-license MasterMine when you upgrade.

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Contest: "Have it your way"

Does this slogan sound familiar? Reply to this e-mail with the name of the product it originally promoted, and your choice of the following prizes:
* 16-oz. MasterMine ceramic mug, emblazoned with the classic iron rule of GoldMine CRM: "if it's not in GoldMine...IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!"
* OR a FREE 30-minute data management session using MasterMine to identify and correct errors and inconsistencies in your database.
Your name will be entered into a drawing.

"if it's not in GoldMine... IT DIDN'T HAPPEN!"

These attractive mugs are also available for purchase. Order here, in quantity, for your GoldMine CRM users to help promote correct GoldMine usage throughout your company. Except for widespread MasterMine usage, there's no better way to ensure the success of your efforts with GoldMine CRM.

Thanks to all coffee-loving readers who entered this month's contest. Half of you gave an incorrect answer of Folgers coffee, whose motto was, "The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup." Mug winner for December 2009 is Tonya Barlow, M.S., CCC-A, director of audiology for Avada Audiology & Balance Centers in Louisville, KY, whose answer was Maxwell House coffee.

When President Teddy Roosevelt drank coffee at the Hermitage, the home of former President Andrew Jackson in Nashville, TN, he said it "was good to the last drop." The coffee was from the Maxwell House (hotel) in Nashville--a regional brand of coffee later sold to General Foods, which began using the slogan in the 1920s.

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Love MasterMine?

If you love MasterMine, please give us a testimonial so we can share it with the world.

If you're not pleased or have some difficulty, please let us know and we'll work to get it fixed - then share it with the world.

Here's a testimonial:

"Our ROI on MasterMine was literally one day. We had scheduled some time with an internal developer to create reports using Crystal Reports -- a project no one wanted to do since we knew it would take infinite tweaking. Within the first few minutes of using MasterMine, I had all the report data I needed -- and more.

MasterMine saved us a lot of time -- and it's helped Neon
Software understand our customers better.

Thanks for the great product."

Craig Isaacs, President
Neon Software, Inc.

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