Discover our blog articles
Boost your growth with our expert advice on sales and CRM strategies.
SME cybersecurity: threats, security measures and handling an attack
Key takeaways: According to ANSSI, SMEs, very small businesses and mid-sized companies remain the category most affected by ransomware. Account hacking dominates the assistance requests from businesses and associations. The baseline of good...
Digitizing an SME’s internal processes: where do things stand in 2026?
Key takeaways: An SME's digitalization first affects its internal processes: customer relations, invoices, shared documents and data-driven management. According to France Num, 88% of small businesses and SMEs use a management tool in 2026....
All articles
Becoming an SST training provider: authorization, trainers and rules
Key takeaways: Only providers authorized by the INRS and the Assurance maladie Risques professionnels network can deliver SST (workplace first aid) training. Only they issue the national certificate. Initial training lasts at least 14 hours in person, for 4 to 10...
Training agreement: mandatory mentions, contract and OPCO
Key takeaways: The training agreement binds a training provider to its buyer, most often a legal entity. It has nothing to do with the IDCC 1516 collective agreement. Article D6353-1 requires the title, objective, content, resources, duration, period and share of...
Changing an association’s board: declaring the new officers to the registry
Key takeaways: Any change to an association's board must be declared within three months, under Article 5 of the 1901 law. The file goes to the associations registry of the département where the head office is located. The declaration is the responsibility of the...
Customer satisfaction: why aim for trust and engagement
Open any reference book on customer relations: the stated goal is almost always satisfaction. A satisfied customer is a loyal customer, the saying goes, so the whole organization should aim for satisfaction, right down to the indicators tracked by management. The...
Satisfaction surveys: are you really listening to your customers?
Almost every company surveys its customers: post-purchase surveys, annual questionnaires, ratings left after an exchange with support. The results are often flattering. Sometimes too flattering. Because a satisfaction survey only measures what the respondents say....
Video customer testimonials: 10 steps to get them right
Customer testimonials are among the most convincing content there is. A hesitant prospect is more inclined to believe a peer than a sales pitch, and video adds what text cannot convey: a voice, a face, conviction. But it still has to be credible and produced properly....
CRM: 6 misconceptions that make projects fail
CRM comes with a number of misconceptions. Some stem from vendors' marketing, others from failed projects from which the wrong lessons were drawn. They all have one thing in common: they lead to decisions that weaken the project before it even launches. Here are six...
Falling leads: identifying the cause and responding
The number of inbound requests has been falling for several weeks, and the pipeline is starting to feel it. The temptation is to react quickly: relaunch a campaign, buy a list, increase the advertising budget. That is often the wrong response, because the cause has...
CRM at the heart of a company’s ability to adapt
"We've always worked this way, and it suits us." This phrase often comes up when discussing CRM with some managers. It is perfectly understandable, and it often signals difficulties ahead: customers, channels and competitors do not stand still. The ability to adapt...
Customer support at a software vendor: a competitive advantage
At a software vendor, support is not just one department among others. It is the most frequent point of contact with customers, and often the only place where people really know how the product is used. Well organized, it becomes a competitive advantage. Poorly...
Marketing campaign: the example of exhibiting at a trade show
A trade show is expensive: stand, travel, staff time. And yet many companies would be hard pressed to say what it brought them, because they did not track contacts from the first day to the last. Through this example, here is how to manage a marketing campaign with a...
5 indicators to better track your prospecting
Many companies still track their sales reps' prospecting in a spreadsheet. On paper, it is simple: ten minutes a day is enough to keep it up to date. In practice, how many actually do it, and how regularly? A well-configured CRM produces these figures on its own,...
Winning tomorrow’s customers with lead management
The companies that grow steadily are not necessarily the ones with the best marketing strategists. They are often the ones that structured a simple, unspectacular process early on: managing their leads. Identifying potential customers, getting to know them, ranking...
CRM as a structuring project: start from the field
The argument most often put forward to justify a CRM is customer orientation. The idea is sound, and yet it leads many projects to failure: by trying to transform the company's culture, the project is given an ambition that no software can carry on its own. There is...
The 3 pillars of a successful CRM project
The success factors of a CRM project are the subject of an abundant, often partial literature. For some, everything happens in the analysis phase. For others, everything depends on user adoption. Both are right, and neither is enough. Rather than yet another list of...
5 practices to improve the adoption of your CRM software
A well-designed CRM that is rarely used produces nothing. It is the most common failure of CRM projects, and the most frustrating: the mechanics work, the processes are clean, the dashboards exist, but the data does not go in. Here are five practices to improve the...
B2B phone prospecting: 10 tips for effective calls
Phone prospecting remains sales reps' least favorite exercise, and one of the most effective when done well. The phone allows what no email can: a conversation, with its questions, objections and subtle signals. Here are ten tips for effective phone prospecting in...
Managing a sales team: 8 steps to lead it better
The sales profession has changed profoundly: buyers arrive informed, cycles have lengthened, channels have multiplied. Management methods, for their part, have often changed less. Here are the eight steps to better manage a sales team, from equipment to individual...
Customer support: the 5-step process and best practices
A dissatisfied customer does not always complain. Very often, they simply leave for a competitor, and you find out at non-renewal time. Support is where that departure takes shape, or is prevented. But it has to work as a process, not as an inbox. Here is how to...
How to integrate your company website with your CRM
You might think websites are less useful than before, competing with social networks and marketplaces. Yet they remain a central point in the customer journey, and most often the first. But the website still has to be connected to everything else. Here is how to...
Prospecting on LinkedIn: 5 practices that still work
In B2B, LinkedIn has become an essential part of prospecting. But it still has to be used properly: most of the advice in circulation dates from a time when the network worked differently, and some of it is now counterproductive. Here are five practices that still...
Customer experience map and persona: two tools to know your customers
Managing the customer experience first requires knowing it. Two tools serve this purpose, and they complement each other: the customer experience map (customer journey map), which describes a journey, and the typical profile, or persona, which describes the person who...
Generating leads from social media in B2B and B2C
It is hard today to imagine a sales strategy that ignores social networks. Used well, they produce contacts, meetings and sales, in B2B as well as B2C. Used badly, they consume time without producing anything. Here is how to generate leads from social media, and what...
How to choose the right provider for your CRM project
You have decided to implement a CRM. Now you need to know where to start. Installing a CRM has nothing to do with installing a spreadsheet: the tool affects your processes, and therefore your organization. Hence the value of getting support. Here is how to choose the...
Average association membership fee: 3 methods to set the ideal price
Wondering how much to charge for membership of an association? The question comes up every year, whether the organization is just starting out or revising its articles of association. No law imposes an average membership fee for an association: each association freely...
GDPR for very small businesses: obligations to meet and choosing where to host your data
A company with 3 employees processes as many categories of personal data as a large group, just on a smaller scale. Customer files, job applications, payroll, prospects: GDPR for very small businesses applies from the first spreadsheet row, with no headcount...
SME performance indicators: the essentials
A dashboard gets stronger the more focused it becomes. A handful of figures tracked every week sheds more light on a decision than thirty lines checked once a quarter. What is more, the SME performance indicators that can actually inform a decision can be counted on...
Association treasurer: the role explained in 6 concrete duties
Taking on the role of association treasurer without any accounting experience is often a mix of wanting to do well and fearing a costly mistake. Rest assured: the role rests on a limited number of identifiable duties, and no accounting degree is required to hold it....
4 ways to improve the productivity of your customer support
Customer service is still wrongly seen as a cost center. That is an analytical mistake: focusing too much on its cost produces exactly the opposite of the intended effect, degrading perceived quality and therefore loyalty. How can you reconcile productivity and...
Why your CRM needs to be mobile
Accessing company data from anywhere is now part of the minimum expected from a CRM. It is no longer a selling point but a prerequisite, and that is precisely why you should look beyond the "mobile app" box in a comparison chart. Here is what a mobile CRM really...
Steering online marketing performance with dashboards
Usage and tools have changed, but the need of marketing and sales teams has not: measuring the effectiveness of what has been launched. Measuring is not enough, though; you also have to measure the right things. Here is how to design marketing dashboards that...
Call for Candidates for the Renewal of an Association’s Board
Key Takeaways: The 1901 law imposes no periodic election requirement: it is the bylaws and internal regulations that set the duration of mandates and the voting procedures. The ordinary general assembly remains the sovereign body for electing the board, ensuring...
SME Cash Flow Management: Mastering the Lifeblood of Business
Key Takeaways: Cash flow is neither revenue nor accounting profit: a profitable SME can fail due to timing mismatches between invoices issued and payments received. Four indicators drive daily management: bank balance, 30-day cash position forecast, Days Sales...
Training Organisation Insurance: Obligations, Guarantees, Claims and Costs
Key takeaways: There is no legal obligation to take out professional liability (PL) insurance for a training organisation, except in the health, sports and apprentice-training-centre (CFA) cases, but the market systematically requires it. Five contracts are combined...
Security Training Organisation: Approvals, Courses and Funding
Key Takeaways: The private security sector requires CNAPS approval, Qualiopi certification and mandatory trainer professional cards since March 1, 2025. The TFP APS (182 hrs) and SSIAP 1, 2 and 3 are the flagship qualifications delivered by approved security training...
How to better manage quotes for a VSE
Poorly managing your quotes is like throwing money out the window. For a VSE, every proposal sent carries significant weight. Between a hesitating client, a competitor who hits back fast, and a project looming on the horizon: everything often comes down to the quality...
Becoming a Training Organization: The A-to-Z Practical Guide for 2026
The continuing professional training market in France is worth over €32 billion and continues to grow. Every year, thousands of consultants, independent trainers, and companies decide to take the plunge and register their activity. Creating your own training...
When and how to say no to a prospect or a client?
Saying NO to a client—and by extension, finding oneself in a position to decline a commercial proposal—is not part of a salesperson's DNA. And yet, if the file has been carefully analyzed and does not meet the company's standards, refusing it is a wise decision and a...
In which cases should you grant a commercial discount?
If we look at the semantics, one could argue that the answer is contained within the question itself… Because in the expression "commercial discount," there is the word "commercial": that says it all! A discount that makes sense must be part of a thoughtful, strategic...
6 Tips for Tracking Your Sales Team’s Activity
Managing a sales team is a great challenge. As a sales manager, your success depends on your team's ability to reach their performance goals. However, it can sometimes be difficult to monitor and motivate your sales representatives. Without necessarily "policing" your...
RAD and JAD Methods: Differences and Project Management
It’s a project management method! As early as the 1980s, the RAD and JAD methods were implementing practices that wouldn't be formally codified for another 15 years by Agile methodologies. Key Takeaways: RAD and JAD are project management approaches that emerged in...
