Printable dashboard

Printable dashboards are now available at PlaybookIQ.com.  Simply click on the printer icon on your dashboard, and take a printout of your day’s activities with you.

Feature enhancements

Last week we implemented two user suggested enhancements to PlaybookIQ.  One enhancement involves the steps shown on your dashboard.  Previously, multiple steps within the same Playbook may have appeared on your dashboard if one or more of the steps were past due.  Now, only the current step is shown.  Second, the contact title and contact company have been separated on the contact screen for clarity.  Simple changes that we hope will make a difference for our users.

 

New in PlaybookIQ: ‘Recent’ – History at a Glance

You can now get a quick overview of recent activity across your entire sales team, with the new ‘Recent’ tab in PlaybookIQ.  You have told us that an understanding of what happened over the last hour, days, or week is critical to team communication.  It helps you get the big picture and is a very easy way to see what has been accomplished between the last time you were in PlaybookIQ and now.  From here, you can click on any of the contacts listed to open that contact for more detail.  As expected, contact privacy settings are honored in this new view as well.

Here is what it looks like.  We hope you like it and thank you for using PlaybookIQ.

PlaybookIQ Product Blog

Lot’s of new features announced and coming soon at the PlaybookIQ product blog.

New in PlaybookIQ: Web Forms

With Web Forms, you create publicly accessible web-to-lead forms to capture prospect information from a web page hosted by us. PlaybookIQ hosts the web page and creates contacts out of each response entered on the page.  For example, here is one we created for people interested in more information about PlaybookIQ.  Let’s see how it works.

Admin / Web Forms

First, we need to create the web form.  In the admin section of your account, you will notice a section called ‘Web Forms’.  Click ‘Manage’ and then ‘New’ to build our new form.

Form Title

First, give your new web form a title and description.

Customize Form Messages and Links

After creating your web form, customize its title, message and links.  Include a ‘Thank You’ message that will be displayed after someone submits your form.

Playbook Assignment

This is an important step.  When someone submits your web form, a new contact record is created.  That contact will appear on the first step of the playbook you specify here.

Your Web Form URL

After you save your new web form, you will see your new web form URL.  Use this web address in your emails and on your website to easily capture leads into your PlaybookIQ account.

Try it Out

Go ahead and click on your new web form URL.  Fill out and submit the form.  Now, go to your dashboard.  If the fist step of your playbook has “days: 0″, then you will see the newly entered contact in your PlaybookIQ account, ready for you to take action!

We really hope you like this new feature and thanks again for using PlaybookIQ CRM.

Speed Improvements

This weekend, PlaybookIQ received some system tuning and additional hardware.  These improvements have resulted in faster application response times and less waiting for you, especially in the areas of searching and opening contacts.  We thank you for your patience and hope your experience with PlaybookIQ is improved.  As always, let us know through email, Twitter, chat, or phone (contact information is at http://playbookiq.com) if you have any issues or questions.

Performance Improvements in PlaybookIQ

Recent performance monitoring on PlaybookIQ has resulted in the launch today of a faster system.

With the addition of multiple playbooks, a contact’s playbook and step information can get much more detailed.  The newly tuned contacts screen handles display of this additional information without impacting response time.

All changes in this release are behind the scenes.  You will not notice any UI changes but you will notice a faster, more responsive CRM system.  We like how the speed improvements have turned out and hope you do too.

Launched in PlaybookIQ: Assign multiple playbooks to a contact

We are adding a new feature to PlaybookIQ.  With this new feature you can assign more than one playbook to a contact.  When you apply a playbook to a contact, any existing playbook assignments remain unchanged.  For example you can assign the ‘Seminar attendees’ playbook to ‘West Coast Supply’, even if they are already on the ‘Prospect’ playbook.  ’West Coast Supply’ remains a ‘Prospect’, while also receiving the additional treatment of ‘Seminar attendees’.

This new feature appears on the details screen for every contact:

Assigning a playbook

The previous version of playbook assignments allowed for just one playbook at a time:

In the new version, you can apply multiple playbooks:

Removing playbook assignments

In the previous version, you removed a playbook from a contact by assigning the ‘blank’ playbook choice:

In the new version, if you wish to remove a playbook, you do so by simply clicking ‘remove’ and confirming.  As always, each time you apply or remove a playbook, that action is captured in the contact’s comments and history.  We hope you enjoy the new multiple playbooks feature in PlaybookIQ.

Why I Love my iPhone Camera

Yes, I said “Love-It”. Even with no flash, low megapixel, no zoom, no movies, no tripod mount, and no sound. All of its shortcomings are overshadowed by *accessibility* and *ease of photo uploading*.

Prior to the iPhone, I would always notice small shots I would like to take — but found I did not have a camera with me. Or, the opposite would happen and I would bring my camera and find nothing interesting to shoot. Now, unless I know I am going to want a large zoom, I leave my my Canon S3-IS at home. My iPhone: I have it with me all the time. It is accessible.

Prior to the iPhone, I had a backlog of photos on the cameras that need to go to my laptop, and then a backlog of photos on my laptop that need to go to flickr. Now, uploading photos to flickr is almost instantaneous with iPhone applications like Klick.

All of this is to make a point about product features. Even with the un-impressive specs of the iPhone camera, I am happy to be able to walk out the door and not wonder, “should I bring a camera?”. I’m happy to finally be sharing photos I take with friends and family.

Actionable point:
- Find something in your product that you think is a underperforming feature and resist the urge to crank up the performance.  Instead, think of the related positives that offer something your competitors don’t.

Book Review: Blog Blazers

Here’s the book that has gotten me interested in blogging again.

Just like a good blog, “Blog Blazers” is full of timely information written in a very readable format. The question and answer format is surprisingly effective and Stephane Grenier presents the expertise in a very practical, actionable, motivational, and entertaining format.

Whether you read “Blog Blazers” from front-to-back or jump around to your favorite bloggers, each page offers actionable advice that you can use to immediately improve your efforts. If you do not have an active blog, the discussions on the benefits of blogging and the supportive advice of successful bloggers will make you want to kick start your efforts straight away. Its actionable (“5 best tips for blogging”) and motivational content makes the book a valuable read.

I was impressed with the quality of bloggers interviewed. The focus of the book is how to be _successful_ at blogging and the success of its subjects is impressive. Bloggers that I have read for years such as Eric Sink and Seth Godin are interviewed. It’s like having a direct line to the top bloggers.

The variety of bloggers is also a pleasant surprise. Being in the technology business, it is easy to forget the limitless range of subjects upon with successful blogs are based. “Blog Blazers” interviews include business and software blogs, but also include interviews with bloggers of topics such as weight loss, fashion, parenting, and finance.

Though the author and the bloggers interviewed in “Blog Blazers” present their advice better than I can summarize it here, I will list a few of my favorite take-aways. First, “get started”. Obvious advice, yet a reminder that is evidently required because many of the interviewees mentioned it. Secondly; like any writing, blogging requires writing skills. Do not worry about SEO, ads, or monetization until you have the writing down and honed. (Blog Blazers has plenty of advice on how to write better as well). Third, be consistent and persistent. Successful blogging is not (usually) a result of overnight success.