Contact management
As a small business owner, I encounter hundreds of prospects each month. And I need to keep track of things like when I communicated or last did business with them and details about each encounter. My current method of managing contacts is almost unmanageable–an Excel workbook that I started when I had only a few contacts.
My quest for a usable contact management system has been unsuccessful. But I see I’m not the only one afflicted. Like Ms. Bram, I need more than a glorified address book. If I only need a list of names and contact information, it wouldn’t be hard to find something easy and inexpensive. But I need something flexible, searchable, and easy to use.
For example, I need to be able to find all the contacts who received a certain mailing or email, or all the contacts I’ve haven’t been in touch with over the past month. Or all the banks. Or everyone with a fiscal year end of December 31.
So far, I haven’t found a prepackaged product that can do any of this. And I’m not thrilled about the idea of having to design my own database from scratch.
Any suggestions?
BTW…I’m a Mac user, but I’d also consider an online solution. Thanks!