Makis Marmaridis was born in Melbourne of Greek parents, but in his early years, his family returned to Greece. He spent his childhood in Paiania, a suburb of Athens, and although he was an excellent student he started working at his father’s furniture shop during school breaks.

“My father Tasos taught me the meaning of hard work and that’s how I developed a strong work ethic,” he remembers.

After high school, he decided to return to Australia and study computer science. He graduated with honours and impressed a great number of important people in the field. This led him to a full time job as an IT consultant and software architect at the University of Western Sydney and later at a number of different companies that he helped grow.

Mr Marmaridis is now a pioneer of Australia’s information technology field. He is the founder and managing director of IMTG (Information Management Technology Group).

IMTG™ was founded in the year 2000 in Sydney and has since grown to provide IT solutions for businesses in Australia and abroad. IMTG today has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and New York in the USA. Mr Marmaridis gave Neos Kosmos the following interview.

How does IMTG help organisations?

We help businesses with an introduction to systematic, repeatable and profitable client management, through our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform software. This is software that organisations run to keep track of their most valuable asset – the relationship with their clients. Using the system, they are able to keep their team focused on the same outcomes, generate more efficiency and save money.

How does a business owner know they need a CRM system for their business?

They would generally notice that not everyone in their team is on the same page with what their clients are up to. Not everyone in the company can tell the owner who their top 10 customers are and when they last talked with each one of them.

They may notice their sales staff are unclear as to how many opportunities they realistically think they can bring to close successfully in the next 90 days and how much revenue that may bring them.

Or, they may realise that they are not able to see how much after-sales service and work each client is causing.

What are some benefits customers can expect from implementing a CRM for their business?

There are three key benefits to implementing CRM solutions for a small and mid-sized business:

1. Transparency
2. Accountability
3. Reliable information to make decisions about the future

Transparency comes from seeing what everyone is working on and how that is impacting the team’s workload and the customer experience.

Accountability (especially for the sales team) comes from seeing how much work is coming through the doors in the next 15-30-90 days and beyond. This allows you to make decisions about pricing, levels of staffing and even which salesperson to compensate higher or lower based on their actual performance.

Finally, reliable information comes from being able to quickly and easily access information about your clients, your team’s performance and your products and services. Instead of waiting for all transactions to take place and a look at financial statements 30-90 days later, you can instead see things as they happen and be better prepared to take action when it counts most. Financial statements are of course a great tool too, and you should also take that information into account when it is available. Most businesses, however, leave a lot of right action undone because they don’t have the information necessary to act upon what is happening in their business as things are actually happening.

How can interested business owners find out more about you and connect with you?

I am always delighted to hear from business owners and I try to make the time and speak to as many people as I can each day. Sometimes it is not possible to talk to everyone in person, and so my team and I have put together a very comprehensive special report, free for a limited time, about the seven mistakes small businesses make with CRM and how to avoid them”.