To call Maximizer CRM software a contact manager is to seriously undervalue it. Maximizer uses contact management as the starting point for building relationships with clients and/or customers and maximizing sales and it does what it does very well. I reviewed the Entrepreneur Edition of Maximizer CRM 11, designed for entrepreneurs, small business owners, and sales professionals working by themselves or with a team of up to five people. Team, Group and Enterprise versions of CRM 11 are also available.

Much More Than Just an Address Book
What I like about Maximizer CRM 11 is all the things it lets you do with your contacts after you enter them that basic contact managers don't. This CRM software fulfills its promise of letting users track and manage every aspect of their customer relationships. With Maximizer CRM 11, you can record and view a complete history of all customer interactions, including faxes, emails, and calls. And you can easily communicate with customers, creating letters, faxes, memos, and email messages that are stored under each contact for easy reference. No more searching your separate email program for the important message you think you sent your customer last month!

My favorite "beyond the address book" feature, though, of this CRM software is the sales pipeline/opportunities features. The Opportunities function lets you manage your sales processes and is a great tool for scheduling and keeping everyone on the sales team up-to-date about the status of a particular sale; activities assigned to individual members of the Sales Team show up in their personal Hot Lists. It also lets you forecast the probability of a successful outcome so you can prioritize and schedule sales activities more effectively. You can use the Opportunity Pipeline Report to see all the Opportunities that are in development.

Integration a Real Strength
Integration with Microsoft Outlook and Word is a definite plus if you're a Microsoft Office user like me and Maximizer CRM software does a nice job of this. An add-in bar in Outlook lets you save Outlook contacts and email messages to your Maximizer CRM Address book, open Maximizer address book entries from Outlook and send email to Maximizer Address Book entries. In Microsoft Word, Maximizer adds a set of buttons to the toolbar for inserting merge fields, performing mail merges and linking Word files to Maximizer CRM documents.

Maximizer CRM 11 also offers integration with Blackberry, letting you easily create contacts, track sales opportunities and even draw maps to client locations on the run. And through an add-on application called Accounting Link, you can access and update your QuickBooks invoices, estimates and purchase orders from within the CRM software. Web site integration includes a Web Inquiry Form Wizard so you can gather customer information with your own web forms.

CRM Software Designed to Share & Customize
This Entrepreneur Edition of Maximizer CRM has a lot of features that facilitate sharing, making it ideal for the small office. The Calendar, for instance, has a Peg Board feature so when you record an appointment, others can see when you are busy or out of the office. The My Work Day view is an area where everyone in your company using Maximizer CRM can view Hotlist tasks and appointments. And there's a Company Library for storing sales and marketing information for everyone to access.

Maximizer CRM 11 is also very customizable, a feature I always appreciate. You can personalize the User Interface of this CRM software for maximum work efficiency by customizing everything from the particular windows that are visible through the icons you want displayed. You can also set up Custom Actions, such as browsing a website or retrieving a search catalog, which you can then access from a Customs Action Tab. And you can enable or disable certain features, such as the OrderDesk, as you wish.

The Bottom Line
Maximizer CRM 11 is a powerful customer relationship management solution that delivers on its promise to “help individuals, home offices, and small businesses succeed by helping them maximize their time, create satisfied customers, and increase sales”.

My personal closing comment: I would not want to work without it!