ConvergeHub Blog for 2018

5 Ways to Tell If Your Alternative Lending Business Needs a Merchant Cash Advance CRM

Any good easy to use CRM software can alleviate many of the persistent headaches that come with managing alternative funding business that is poised for fast growth. However, how do you know if your MCA business needs a Merchant Cash Advance CRM software solution? If you know what is a CRM solution, well then CRM or Customer Relationship Management has been around for quite some time and more to say has in the recent times made a booming comeback, with social CRM technology, with applications focusing more on interactions than on just transactional feedbacks. Here in this article let us look into the 5 keys areas that suggest any alternative financing MCA business, just like other industries, need a Merchant Cash Advance CRM.

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If you know what is a CRM solution, well then CRM or Customer Relationship Management has been around for quite some time and more to say has in the recent times made a booming comeback, with social CRM technology, with applications focusing more on interactions than on just transactional feedbacks.

Without an easy to use CRM, 79% of leads fail to convert- Pardot Click To Tweet

With Cloud-based and SaaS CRM solutions integrating even more features, CRM in all industries and businesses is gaining popularity, that too with easy installation and low initial costs, which can also be accessed through handheld mobile device.

Here in this article let us look into the 5 keys areas that suggest any alternative financing MCA business, just like other industries, need a Merchant Cash Advance CRM .

DO YOU- Wish You Had More Time?

Does it seem to you that you had more time to concentrate on selling your financial products and services to prospective new customers? Or just simply wish that you could have spent less time dealing with admin tasks, such as managing your sales rep’s progress, or locating information and past communications with your customers. An efficient MCA CRM software solution will allow you to store and access all your customer data in CRM, as well as provide you with in-depth analysis on your sales team’s progress- thereby allowing you to focus on other important tasks and manage your office hours more efficiently.

DO YOU- Want More Revenue?

To increase their revenue, all businesses typically invest in improving their sales, and support teams. With the help of a thorough easy to use MCA CRM like ConvergeHub, alternative funding companies can easily afford an insight into their customer information stored in the CRM database.

MCA organizations can view where their best leads and sales are coming from, or which marketing campaign proved successful that in turn enables companies to invest more money and time, in the right areas to maximize growth.

DO YOU- Want To Grow Your Customer Base?

It is natural that in the present times your customers will communicate with you company in a multitude of ways. Now, if they have to deal with different representatives of your organization, every time they contact your MCA firm, having an accurate record of each and every dialogue, in the CRM database, ensures that your debtors do not have to provide details of their contact information, loan history, complaints and other documents needed for establishing their credibility.

All customers want to deal with organizations that understand and is capable of responding to their needs, preferable even anticipate them in advance.

Using a Merchant Cash Advance software helps in treating your customers as individuals, provide them with personal attention, acknowledge their requirements individually, and therefore give the respect they need for doing business with your MCA firm.

Invariably, earning the trust of your customers will also lead to growth in your alternative lending businesses’ revenue.

Using an MCA CRM software solution you can make your customers feel special by targeting personalized messages to your present and would be consumers, helping to better connect with them across multiple communication platforms.

DO YOU- Want To Increase Your Customer Retention Rates?

Over the last few years, customers and prospects have become much more tech-dependent and tech-savvy than they were ever before.

As a result, consumers expect a seamless user experience across every channels and device, whilst at the same instance, they also expect the best possible standards of customer support.

With countless customer choices, building up loyalty among your highest value customers for your organizing is crucial for your alternative lending business.

A Merchant Cash Advance software platform can help in communicating with the existing clients at the right moment, through the right channels, and with the most appropriate message to ensure that your customers come back and better yet become a ‘brand advocate’ of your MCA firm.

DO YOU- Want Better Insight into Your Cash Advance Business?

Not be able to precisely forecast your incoming revenue can cause a lot of stress. Can you predict which of your sales reps is going to close your biggest deals? Alternatively, which of your marketing email campaigns delivered the best returns on your investments?

An MCA CRM software platform should not only allow your business to gather and track that data from its CRM database whenever you choose, but also provide substantial information to help you in making decisions and correct your course of actions and strategies as and when it is needed.

Takeaway

If one or more of this five enlisted areas resonates with you, then for sure you need a Merchant Cash Advance CRM software like ConvergeHub to manage your growing Merchant Cash Alternative Lending business.

To test the effectiveness of any proposed CRM initiative, primarily use a small-scale working model of the software.
So why wait!
Try ConvergeHub’s 14-Day Free Trial– The most awarded Merchant Cash Advance CRM for alternative funding businesses.

10 Tips to Smooth Your MCA CRM Initiative

According to the industry research giant, Gartner an average MCA CRM project for a small and medium-sized business takes 10 months. Managers responsible for Merchant Cash Advance CRM business applications spend a considerable time selecting, implementing and upgrading their online data management technology itself, which most often also includes integrations with or replacement of legacy applications. However, no matter what CRM you select as your Merchant Cash Advance software and irrespective of how impeccably is you strategize; roadblocks are too common on the CRM implementation highway. Since these barriers mostly in MCA CRM implementation often boils down to human-related issues. In this article, we have gathered such 10 most common CRM implementation defying factors that we collected working with our Cash Advance customers, those that cater to the alternative funding industry.

However, no matter what CRM you select as your Merchant Cash Advance software and irrespective of how impeccably is you strategize; roadblocks are too common on the CRM implementation highway. Since these barriers mostly in MCA CRM implementation often boils down to human-related issues.

The CRM market has seen a steady growth in the recent past. For this reason, its value is estimated to stand at $19 billion. - GoalCast (2017) Click To Tweet

In this article, we have gathered such 10 most common CRM implementation defying factors that we collected working with our Cash Advance customers, those that cater to the alternative funding industry.

Do Your Homework

They say that there are no better means to get attention than using the word Free. If that really be so, then why don’t businesses take the advantage of free software trials before implementing their customer relationship management software.

It has been often noted that with the anticipation of rolling out a new solution, decision-makers in small organizations mostly starts implementing the CRM software without extensively evaluating the product.

The initial planning before an implementation of MCA CRM software is crucial says Manash Chaudhuri the CSO of ConvergeHub Merchant Cash Advance CRM, he says, “the front end is about 60-90 days of fully understanding what the strategy is, and what the business needs are, and what you want your CRM to supplement. The technology piece is relatively simple from that point.”

To test the effectiveness of any proposed CRM initiative, you need to use a small-scale working model of the software, as by doing this exercise; management can better gauge the likely rate of adoption of the software and view what needs to be altered while going live.

Involve your front-line employees

Now it is time to put the conference room to use. Therefore, even before you think about buying an MCA CRM solution, organizations must get down to the basics, involve key stakeholders, and discuss pain points and objective. Although the CIO and the management are often the ones for finalizing decisions, nevertheless they must also involve their front-end colleagues (people who will actually use the CRM), right from the start. Since neglecting this step will only lead to incessant difficulties, once the solution is rolled out.

Per say, management may desire for a reporting tool for better visibility, but the marketing staffs and the front-line sales reps are the ones who will have to feed in the data into the CRM system. Since, without enhancing the CRM database , management cannot know which capability fits their business processes.

This common chasm costs a lot both in expenditure and in missed opportunities. Therefore, a buy-in signal from both the management and the front-line staffs is the true foundation of a successful MCA CRM initiative.

Let It Trickle

When you design the scope of any CRM implementation, do as little as possible, since throwing too many functionalities while implementing a software, could lead to failure. Therefore, it always prudent to develop a strategy to phase in new features and functionalities, since doing so provides the users of the software application to adapt to the functionalities and then get prepared for the next wave.

For an example, initially, rolling-out several functions like sales, campaign, financial management all at once is never a wise decision while implementing a CRM platform. Hence, do as little as possible when designing the scope of MCA CRM implementation for your alternative funding business.

“Change management is always understated,” says Manash Chaudhuri the CSO of ConvergeHub. “While it is absolutely necessary that CRM implementation must deliver results, a step-by-step implementation approach is always prudent for the smooth functioning of the MCA CRM platform.”

Therefore, by thinking big but starting small, users will become comfortable using Merchant Cash Advance software and if something does not work, users will find sufficient room to fix it.

Think Outside the Box – Just Not Too Far Outside

Do not try to fit an oversized couch into a tiny room. Since, irrespective of how many times you move the furniture around; it will remain still too big for the apartment.

Similarly, in the case of CRM software, you can always customize some functionalities and codes for your MCA business, but remember the more you customize, the more you risk developing unforeseen issues.

Therefore, make sure that any customization is always done within your businesses’ known limits.

In order to leverage CRM functionalities, it is most essential to set up systems as close to the ‘by-design’ way the software vendor wanted you to do. For the more, you stray, the more expensive and harder it becomes implementing the Merchant Cash Advance software.

Do Not Be Seduced by Technology

Do not fall a prey to fancy software services. Stay away from shiny things with their newest bells and whistles, which may seem appealing as cutting-edge technology, at a first glance.

With more than hundreds of installations, ConvergeHub easy to use MCA CRM developers believe that small and practical functionalities in Merchant Cash Advance software are of real importance.

Regardless of how hip, new, or innovative a technology may be, remember, if your employees do not find benefit in a new software implementation, they likely will not use the CRM effectively and bring no measurable CRM ROI. Therefore, you should probably hold-off before considering any spiffy new technology for managing your thriving alternative lending business.

Find Sponsors That Stick

Even before a customer or a borrower becomes an evangelist of your MCA firm, you need to make your employees evangelists of your alternative funding business.
Likewise, in terms of MCA CRM implementation, you need to find and build a project sponsor team within your organization, who can articulate the essence of what your software is trying to accomplish and who also has the authority to make sure that your Merchant Cash Advance software is properly implemented.

You sponsor does not have to be one from the higher management in your organization, but just someone who is passionate about the CRM implementation undertaking and will not lose his or her good intentions while implementing the process.

Plan for Product Enrichment

A CRM really becomes nothing more than a Rolodex machine if you do not incorporate add-ons to the software. Therefore if there is a chance that you alternative lending organization might feel dissatisfied with a plain-vanilla MCA CRM platform, it is during the implementation phase that you should start thinking about potential future add-ons that you can integrate with the software.

Always remember the Pareto Principle (the rule of 80/20) while implementing the add-ons. Therefore, never stray more than 20% from the way the Merchant Cash Advance software was designed.

If you are a user of ConvergeHub Merchant Cash CRM solution, we recommend you to use QuickBooks integration along with our award-winning small business CRM software, for accounting and booking purposes.

Using our cloud based CRM system, which offers QuickBooks CRM integration free, ConvergeHub QuickBooks CRM is one of the best CRM for QuickBooks online, which makes your accounting processes easy and fast and also help in avoiding duplicate entries into multiple silo software platforms.

Audit, Audit, and Audit

You can never guess where you have gone wrong in you Merchant Cash Advance CRM implementation strategy if you fail to record the genesis. You always need to inspect what you expect out of your CRM solution. Easy to use CRM software like ConvergeHub gives you several vital metrics to measure your progress.

Therefore, agree on milestones and metrics before the go-live date of your CRM application, which will make your auditing easier, by which you can assess basic adoption stats that are capable of providing the health of your solution right away.

This way, if you audit the MCA CRM solution on a continuous mode, you can put a hold on data-quality issues (as and when they arise) and also tweak the solution as any problems arise.

Pull the Plug When You Have To

Although it can hurt a little (in some instances may be a lot), however, if a lot of time has gone and your CRM solution has not worked up to your expectations, it might be the right time to call it a quit.

It often happens if you roll out a functionality or a process that does not completely hit the mark, the efforts you expected to contribute to the overall success of your CRM initiative begins to gum up the works.

Now, if you do not want to shut down your CRM solution completely, which you have painstakingly taken through the implementation process, there is no harm in eliminating those little sub-processes and lay-off certain functionalities and add-ons in a more realistic scenario.

Mind the Generation Gap

If you ever have to deliver value to an older generation of employees, you need to get over their stigmas and doubts. Remember adapting to a new software, with tons of functionalities, where each click matters takes time to learn.

Therefore, it is most important to deploy change management techniques and ease fear of your employees using the Merchant Cash Advance CRM solution by re-framing the project as mere business transformation.

Takeaway

For smooth implementation of your MCA CRM initiatives “You have got to work the way they work”, says Manash Chaudhuri the CSO of ConvergeHub, and by ‘they’ he means both your employees and customers.

What Is CRM ROI? How To Get Paid For Your Investments Using Cloud Based CRM Systems

According to a study done by Nucleus Research, it was found that for every single dollar spent on a cloud based CRM platform, the return is between $5.60 and $8.71. According to another research done by HubSpot, it was established that 40% of sales reps do not even use this online lead management tool to manage leads and prospects but instead relies on Rolodex cards and Excel spreadsheets to manage their sales funnel and cultivate customer relationship. Now, how can this be possible when statistically 47% of the sales teams that use a cloud based CRM say that they registered a positive impact on customer retention by using CRM for their businesses? Part of the problem in this long-standing self-contradicting confusing statement lays in the horror stories we hear about companies that did unsuccessfully spend thousands of dollars on the promise of improving productivity with the help of a CRM for their sales teams.

According to a study done by Nucleus Research, it was found that for every single dollar spent on a cloud based CRM system , the return is between $5.60 and $8.71.

Nevertheless, there is also a bad news.

According to another research done by HubSpot, it was established that 40% of sales reps do not even use this online lead management software to manage leads and prospects but instead relies on Rolodex cards and Excel spreadsheets to manage their sales funnel and cultivate customer relationship.

Every single dollar spent on a cloud based CRM system, the return is between $5.60 and $8.71. - Nucleus Research Click To Tweet

Now, how can this be possible when statistically 47% of the sales teams that use a cloud based CRM say that they registered a positive impact on customer retention by using CRM for their businesses?

Part of the problem in this long-standing self-contradicting confusing statement lays in the horror stories we hear about companies that did unsuccessfully spend thousands of dollars on the promise of improving productivity with the help of a CRM for their sales teams.

We all know any CRM is more than just a sales tool.

This means a CRM database serves as a data warehouse that centers on client interactions, so that marketing, customer support, billing, and other departments should be able to use its centralized repository for collecting and retrieving information.

Cloud based CRM software should also offer automation that effectively improves workflow and permits a seamless connection to all the front and back-end systems in an organization.

However, the golden key for this cutting-edge tool is that you have to use it right to garner your ROI.

In this article, we will look into CRM ROI and provide the readers with certain pointers on why investing in cloud based CRM software like ConvergeHub can make all the difference for your team.

Top Considerations for CRM ROI

Creating a business case for your cloud based CRM software got you this far. However, after go-live of the CRM users must find the impact this new online lead management software has on all the departments that use this platform.

Forrester (the global research firm) is one organization that has provided us a framework of how we can do this. Their methodology, which is known as ‘Total Economic Impact’ views on the sales outcomes as weighted against money and time spent on the CRM.

Forrester’s TEI methodology typically looks at whether sales increased or closed faster via improved lead generation strategies.

Forrester also evaluates the user-friendliness of the cloud based CRM software and how scalable is the CRM as the company changes and registers growth in employment over time.

Here are some of the questions Forrester use to measure their CRM ROI, which includes:

Did the CRM platform increase wallet share by capturing more customer income and consumers on your offerings?
Did the cloud based CRM software help sales reps match the services that your client needs?
Are the customer relationships lasting longer than before?
Did the cloud based CRM software provide marketing, sales, support, and the management teams with automated functions that improve business efficiency?
Have the management team in your organization been able to capture data that shows reduced direct selling costs?
Is the CRM platform, easy to use and intuitive enough to eliminate the time required for IT to pull reports from the CRM database?

CRM implementations are never identical. Therefore, as you can only see an ROI from your CRM if your employees use the platform, this human variable has a direct impact on CRM ROI. Hence, if you take two organizations with competing offerings from the same industry and provide them with identical CRM platforms, it is highly likely that the experiences of these two companies will never be similar. Consequentially, so shall be the differences in their ROI.

With that being said, let us quantify some of the steps that are necessary to set up a new cloud based CRM system for success in any organization, that include:

Making certain that the information silo housed in the different departments in the organization are abolished. It has been found that there will always be certain departments that will be more unwilling than others to comply with the CRM software, where all data is collected and stored in one place. However, it is important that each department in your organization agree to enter information in one place to reap the benefits of CRM ROI.
Create a means to measure the different metrics by departments and develop a reporting structure that can follow these benchmarks effectively. Therefore, select an online lead management software that is able to handle the deviating goals of marketing, sales, operations, billing, customer support, and others.
Accept workflow changes that will completely leverage the software. This may be a conflicting situation for most employees that are set in their ways. Setting the expectation upfront that CRM ROI is based on each team member’s acceptance of the software, is an important part of finding employee buy-in. Each of the employees must be aware that they will receive proper training to utilize the cloud based CRM software, which will make them grow individually and as a department.
Customize the CRM software to reduce the busy works, which is holding your organization back for generating CRM ROI, as you are likely to find a host of redundant tasks baked into many of the departments in your business.

Recovering what you pay for your cloud based CRM software means choosing the right CRM software and optimizing the platform to fit your business.

Recently we hired a research agency to conduct an analysis of CRM ROI for ConvergeHub CRM. Let us look at what they discovered about ConvergeHub online lead management software, which is a FinanceOnline award-winning CRM for small businesses:

According to the research study, the potential ROI of ConvergeHub cloud based CRM saw a number of business benefits, like reduced CRM maintenance and infrastructure costs, and quicker time-to-market.

The report further elaborated that:

The time-to-implement and deploy was much faster with ConvergeHub cloud based CRM solution than an on-site CRM implementation.
Organizational efficiency in the processes was improved as sales and customer support departments were able to automate several basic and redundant works.
The online model of ConvergeHub CRM software allowed customers to avail a fixed monthly subscription, which nullified overhead costs.
ConvergeHub helped businesses save money in the long term.
Businesses began to see an ROI within 3 months after installation of the small business CRM software.

Ultimately, the research stated that ConvergeHub has an overall 63% CRM ROI rate, a figure that places ConvergeHub as a highly rated SaaS-based online lead management software , which is worth considering, as it helps you to get the most for your investments.

What To Do And Avoid With Pipeline Management Using Best Small Business CRM Platform

Pipeline management is vital for any sales company using the best small business CRM software. Since, without pipeline management software that offers necessary features, your business will be left with a chaotic and bewildering mess of data that will not be useful to anyone in your company. Therefore, it is imperative that you must use your easy to use CRM software platform’s pipeline management system appropriately and effectively, and ensure that each member of your sales team is also using it proactively to generate more sales and revenue. In this article, we shall explore how you can best manage your sales pipeline in order to increase your profits and ROI.

Therefore, it is imperative that you must use your easy to use CRM software platform’s pipeline management system appropriately and effectively, and ensure that each member of your sales team is also using it proactively to generate more sales and revenue.

In this article, we shall explore how you can best manage your sales pipeline in order to increase your profits and ROI.

What is Pipeline Management?

A sales pipeline of an organization is a diagrammatic representation of its sales prospects, and to find the exact place where these prospects are in the purchasing process. Visualizing a sales pipeline also provide an overview of any sales person’s account forecast and how he is to accomplish his sales quota, as well as, how a sales team as a whole is capable of reaching its target.

80% of all sales are made on the 5th–12th contact. 15 years ago it took on average 2–4 contacts before concluding a sale. - The National Association of Sales Executives Click To Tweet

Sales pipeline management enables sales managers and reps to forecast the numbers and revenue generation of deals that are predicted to close in a given span of time.

In other words, a sales pipeline aggregates individual prospect and customer’s sales funnel into a composite visual representation that weighs the health of all the sales prospects of an organization. The sales pipeline also helps in illustrating the lifecycle of various customers and prospects from their initial interaction with your business to the closing of the deals.

These steps in a sales pipeline management include:

Help to collect incoming leads.
Qualify a sales prospect into a marketing-qualified lead by using methods such as lead scoring and thereafter into a sales-qualified lead.
Help to validate a qualified lead into a sales opportunity.
Register the deal as ‘closed’, ‘on hold’, or as a ‘lost opportunity’.

Therefore, having a sales pipeline management embedded in your best CRM for small business helps to manage the task more efficiently.

The health of a sales pipeline is most often measured by the following metrics that include:

The total number of deals in a pipeline.
The average size of the deals in a pipeline.
The average percentage of deals that have been won or the close ratio.
The average time taken to close the deals or the sales velocity.

Common mistakes- what to avoid in pipeline management

Sales managers using pipeline management embedded in the CRM for small business most often tend to think only about numbers and statistics. Therefore, they fail to focus on what is happening with each opportunity. Sales managers do not look at people they are positioned with, the customer’s goal or buying process, the relationship strength with the customers, the competitive position of the offering, or what is in for the customer for purchasing the product or service provided by the organization.

That means sales managers who use pipeline management often miss coaching opportunities and therefore produce poor results.

Here are certain things that you should not do with pipeline management:

Avoid keeping focusing only on the numbers. Instead, look into more in-depth study of the status of the opportunities and how they can be moved forward through the pipeline.
Do not confuse pipeline management with sales forecasting.
Remember, sales pipeline management is just a coaching tool.
Do not believe in the idea that a bigger pipeline is a better pipeline, as smaller pipelines can be more productive, since it can be devoid of the junk deals that will never amount to any revenue, allowing sales reps and managers to focus on selling to lead that are more qualified for faster closer of the deals.
Do not focus on only late-stage or about to close deals.

Best practices for Pipeline Management using small business CRM

Over-complicating what you are trying to measure drives low adoption of pipeline management software. Therefore keep your sales pipeline management simple and to the point.

Believe in creating holistic skill development of your employees in the sales and marketing teams. Let your sales managers help the reps to execute necessities required for managing the sales pipeline across all stages of the process, and so create targeted training for each step for every individual in the team.

Create account plans that illustrate the sales rep’s position within the organization, and what are their opportunities. The strategies that you need to employ, the resources needed to be successful, and recognize the key players to help move the opportunities through the pipeline.

Train the sales team how to prospect, which should include things like asking questions, writing emails and motivating potential prospects to act.

Takeaway

Advanced and best small business CRM software like ConvergeHub, allows users to manage multiple sales pipelines.

This is most important since most CRM do not offer this option.
Suppose you run an automobile dealership and make money by selling cars, automobile parts and also provide repairs. Many customer relationship management software, will allow you to configure only one pipeline, which means you will not be able to accurately analyze or track multiple lines of business and profit centers using such CRM platforms. Therefore, keep this in mind while choosing your pipeline management software embedded in the CRM.

For more information on sales pipeline management and a 14-day free trial of ConvergeHub, click on the link below.

Salespeople, Big Data, Chat Bots, and AI- Stay Tuned for the Easy to Use CRM 4.0 Revolution

Continuing our series on easy to use CRM, AI, and sales, let us now take a close look at Industry 4.0, which is more commonly termed as the 4th Industrial Revolution since the fourth industrial revolution has a profound effect on sales- and if done right, for the best. Before we dive into this heavy and interesting topic, what do we mean by Industry 4.0? As we said even before, Industry 4.0 is the 4th Industrial Revolution, which is evolving in front of all our eyes right now. Industry 4.0 is bringing in internet-enabled smart devices that seamlessly interface with each other and human beings. These devices provide for virtual models and data analysis that makes it possible to solve production issues by evaluating them on the fly.

Explaining Industry 4.0

Before we dive into this heavy and interesting topic, what do we mean by Industry 4.0?

As we said even before, Industry 4.0 is the 4th Industrial Revolution, which is evolving in front of all our eyes right now. Industry 4.0 is bringing in internet-enabled smart devices that seamlessly interface with each other and human beings. These devices provide for virtual models and data analysis that makes it possible to solve production issues by evaluating them on the fly.

We may not have known it was called Industry 4.0, but we've been doing it for years. - Techradar Click To Tweet

4th Industrial Revolution is all about providing state-of-art services being delivered to customers and companies through the Cloud.

In brief, Industry 4.0 Revolution describes an industrial world virtually interconnected in real time.

The Trodden Path Through History

The 1st Industrial Revolution ushered towards the end of the eighteenth century in Great Britain, marked by the invention of James Watt’s steam engine, began the substitution of the human workforce by mechanical manufacturing units in industries and factories, the transition of hand to mechanical manufacturing. With the 1st Industrial Revolution, products began to get manufactured in greater quantity and more rapidly than at any time in history.

The nineteenth century witnessed the onset of the 2nd Industrial Revolution, which is also termed as the Technological Revolution. The 2nd Industrial Revolution was facilitated by the introduction of assembly-line concept along with access to the electrical power in industries. The assembly-line concept that broke down production steps into individual processes, delegated the employees to become more specialized, which consequentially reduced production costs. This revolution bought a massive expansion in telegraphy and railway lines, which signified an unprecedented exodus of people and ideas, which finally lead to a new wave of globalization.

By the early 1970s, information technology and electronics dovetailed into the manufacturing processes, making it achievable for several manual production steps to be automated. Moreover, businesses and offices became computerized and computer networks began to step into the limelight, which propelled the beginning of 3rd Industrial Revolution all across the globe.

Presently, at the dawn of the 21st Century, we are witnessing and are on the cusp of the Industry 4.0 or the 4th Industrial Revolution. As we move forward, the 4th Industrial Revolution will be enabled to a greater extent by two predominant factors: Artificial Intelligence and Big Data.

What Does Industry 4.0 Have For Salespeople?

A common fear that is sweeping with the steady advances in Industry 4.0 is that sales will become fully automated and human sales reps will be replaced by automation and bots. However, in reality, the opposite is true, as, despite this fear and the growing trend in highly evolving digital solutions and smart technologies, customers and buyers are raving for a personal touch in sales as never before.

Evidence of this ever-growing demand for the human touch in sales is reflecting in the trends of 1-to-1 marketing, which empathize personal interactions with the consumers. Therefore, it is amply clear that the value for human interactions, which is very much still alive, will continue to increase as the 4th Industrial Revolution becomes more of a reality.

In fact, many believe that the more automated businesses and industries will become, the greater personal touch will be required as Industry 4.0 becomes a bigger reality.

A part of the reason for the requirement of personalization is the complexity of B2B products and services. Therefore, it requires an expert to help guide customers and prospects and so in the modern times, the role of B2B salesperson has changed, from one that simply pitches an offering, to an expert who assists prospects and customers in every possible way.

Added to this changing role of sales, the other innovation that is making Industry 4.0 possible is the constant increases in the speed at which people are conducting commerce in this digital age.

Therefore, the bottom line is that sales reps must be constantly armed with pertinent data they need to accurately sell to specific customers and prospects- a zone that requires AI and Big Data, especially in conjunction with technology like easy to use CRM . A software platform that is capable of providing a 360-degree view of customers and prospects, with a real-time record of their past and present wish lists and transactions.

The Role Of Easy To Use CRM In Industry 4.0

As the future world unveils, visualization is getting ever more important. Smart machines work together with one another- but as humans act along with technology, the only way humans and machines can perform so efficiently is through highly effective visual interfaces, which in the last few years, have become increasingly commonplace.

ConvergeHub CRM was ahead of the curve in this regard and therefore has evolved the most visual CRM in the industry.
Salespeople and sales managers are already applauding the fact that ConvergeHub the best small business CRM software provides them with a clear, immediate visual view of their priorities and statuses. Therefore, allowing their sales teams to focus on important tasks to move sales and win deals- at a speed that allows them to keep up with the stellar digital transformation and growth in this modern times.

Small business CRM doesn’t have to be an expensive undertaking. Click on the above link to try ConvergeHub, the award-winning best small business CRM solution for free.

Ways To Warm Up Leads Using Your Best Small Business CRM Software Platform

Every lead is singular, therefore understanding what messaging they will reply to, and what actions they are taking on your website makes lead nurturing easier. Although it might seem like a massive undertaking, it is a lot simpler when you are using your best small business CRM tool. Now if your organization has an impeccable sales enablement strategy, it is likely that you will most probably be already using a CRM tool, which can be used to warm up leads and therefore improve your company’s sales performance.

Now if your organization has an impeccable sales enablement strategy, it is likely that you will most probably be already using a CRM tool, which can be used to warm up leads and therefore improve your company’s sales performance.

38% of businesses surveyed experienced higher lead to opportunity conversion rates thanks to lead scoring.- Kentico Click To Tweet

HOW YOU CAN USE YOUR CRM TO WARM UP LEADS?

Use automated communicate to keep them warm consistently

While it is true that you do not want to spam any of your potential leads, you should also keep communicating with them times and again so that they do not lose interest in your offering and look somewhere else. Using small business CRM software allows you to automate your email marketing campaigns and set up sales sequences to grab every lead that comes into the system.

It is natural, following up on every lead, which needs warming up and nurturing would be practically impossible if your system is fetching more than 1000 leads a month. Nevertheless, using a CRM means you can enroll fresh leads into automated work, which takes the pain out of the lead nurturing process.

You must also use your small business CRM to make certain that your attempts at re-engaging are not becoming annoying to your prospective leads. For example, if you are blasting a dozen emails in a day without any response, you will easily be able to see that information in your CRM software and then can adopt a different strategy to warm those non-responsive leads.

Know what stage your leads are in the buyers funnel and send them appropriate contents

If you are using a small business CRM such as ConvergeHub, it is a trouble-free process to define leads by where they are in your sales funnel, assign them as marketing qualified or sales qualified, and identify the buyer persona.

Now, once you have demarcated your leads into different stages of your sales and marketing funnel, and you are aware that your lead is qualified, it is much easier to send them the required content useful to them at the stage they are in the pipeline.

Look at their past actions and behaviors

Modern small business CRM software platforms are capable of tracking clicks on landing pages, website visits, email opening rates, and content downloads, which provides a great insight into what actions your leads have taken previously and what contents can pique their interest. Therefore, once you are using a CRM, and you have this information on your fingertips, you can send relevant contents to your leads that they are more likely to respond.

Keep a lead in contact with the same person

People feel more confident with people rather than with companies. Therefore, prospective leads are more likely to respond to information coming from an individual they have previously interacted, than to a generic email, such as ‘info@company.com’.

Nobody wants to speak or respond to “info”, rather they want to speak to ‘Mike’ or ‘Gracie’, with whom they have interacted previously or have seen or read on the company’s website.

Now you may think what does this have to do with best small business CRM.

Well, when you are using a CRM platform, you can easily assign leads to sales reps of your choice, those who are thereafter termed owners of the leads, and so any communication going out from a lead-owner to the prospect is considered as a reliable information that is recognizable by the receiver of the communiqué.

Since it is not advisable to warm up any leads if they are not opening their emails, using a CRM platform ensures that all leads are properly distributed, and all communications come from persons that your leads trust and recognize personally.

Re-engage old customers

Like a microwave meal, old customers those who are needed to be warmed up again are also as valuable as your new leads. Hence, if you are using your small business CRM efficiently, you can always have a list of previous customers you can retarget. All best small business CRM such as ConvergeHub are capable of taking note of any actions taken and communications done with old customers, and so your sales and marketing departments should be able to gauge the prospects past responses, and thereafter re-engage them with the appropriate messages.

Takeaway

Follow these five steps and take the hassle out of lead nurturing by using your CRM for small business to its full potential.

At ConvergeHub, we have a team of professionals skilled in lead nurturing and marketing automation to help you synergize your marketing and sales efforts.

So why wait, go for a 14-Day free trial of ConvergeHub and let us help develop a lead nurturing strategy to supercharge your revenue.

9 Facebook Marketing Mistakes You Should Avoid While Using Best CRM For Small Business

Now that Facebook has become the de facto social focal point for just about everything on the internet, it is more important than ever for users of best CRM for small business to harness the full power of this social media platform or be left behind by those businesses that truly make use of Facebook. Fortunately, there are a number of common mistakes that can be avoided by owners of best CRM for small business on Facebook, that if fended off can beyond doubt help your brand excel in your targeted Facebook audience’s news feeds.

Now that Facebook has become the ‘de facto’ social focal point for just about everything on the internet, it is more important than ever for users of best CRM for small business to harness the full power of this social media platform or be left behind by those businesses that truly make use of Facebook.

In our previous article on how to create a custom Facebook audience from your easy to use ConvergeHub CRM for SMB, we have described how small businesses can use their CRM database to send targeted Facebook ad, by creating a list of the custom audience, to draw in prospects to their business websites.

93% of marketers use Facebook advertising regularly, which translates to about 3 million businesses that use Facebook to market their business.- Facebook Click To Tweet

While it might seem like that, all you need is a good page, a sound profile and some regular posts to get your contents really stand out in the crowd. However, the deluge of contents on Facebook often makes it hard to achieve that.

Fortunately, there are a number of common mistakes that can be avoided by owners of best CRM for small business on Facebook, that if fended off can beyond doubt help your brand excel in your targeted Facebook audience’s news feeds.

Leaving Your Profile Incomplete

One of the most widespread yet easy-to-avoid mistakes that many small and medium businesses make is not filling up their profile diligently. Make sure that apart from appealing images your page has your organization’s address, hours, and other necessary contact information. While this might seem like a no-brainer stuff, but you will be really astonished to know how many businesses leave their profile incomplete and visually unappealing that ultimately makes them lose the footfall of many prospective visitors on their page.

Failing to Promote Your Content

It is known to many, that Facebook’s algorithm is a complicated and tricky one. Therefore, while it might seem that just by sharing your content people will magically flock to it, but in reality, it is far too easy for your posts to get obscured by the avalanche of contents that gets posted on any user’s daily news feeds. Fortunately, Facebook has a plethora of built-in paid and free tools to help you promote your content and drive customers to your page.

Ignoring Video Posts

According to Facebook’s own stats, it has been noted that business pages that regularly share video contents outperform image or text-based posts by up to 135 percent. However when you share your video, make sure that you are using Facebook’s native video player, as these video posts are ranked much higher by Facebook’s algorithms than embedding videos from other sides like Vimeo and YouTube.

Failing to Engage Your Audience

Just creating and uploading post regularly is not enough. As a social media platform, Facebook is a place where people come together and share information. Audience engagement, therefore, plays a substantial part in Facebook’s algorithm. Hence, to make your feeds to stand out in Facebook you need to engage your audience. One of the most common and easiest means to do this is to create open-ended posts that encourage audiences to reply and replying to comments posted on your post. Therefore, create posts that ask open-ended questions by using your imagination.

Posting too Sporadically

One of the main things about Facebook marketing is that owners of best CRM of small business who uses Facebook for fetching prospects and leads often forget to stay in the user’s news feeds. This means you need to upload your posts on a regular basis, maybe even multiple times in a day, depending on the demographic scale of your business. However, too many posts on Facebook can also make you to get un-followed. Therefore, look into how other businesses in your area are posting and then achieve the fine balance of how many posts you need to upload on Facebook everyday to keep your business growing.

Making Your Page Difficult to Find or Share

Your Facebook page just like your business website is essentially the “face” of your business. However, if you assume that users will automatically find your Facebook page, just after you have created it, you are wrong in your assumptions. Therefore, use Facebook widgets like “share” button of your Facebook page along with your Facebook page’s URL on your website, other official materials, and on your business cards. In other words, link your Facebook page in as many places as possible.

In addition, always remember that your website, Twitter profile, Facebook and other social media profiles use the same name, title or keywords so that your audience can easily find and share your posts.

Not Informing Your Followers Before You Go Live

Since Facebook introduced the Facebook Live feature in 2015, this has become one of the most popular ways to engage your audience. According to Facebook, the use of Facebook Live has risen 330% since its inception to the present times. Moreover, Facebook’s algorithm promotes live videos more than any other posts on its platform. Therefore, if you plan in advance and promote your Facebook Live posts you will certainly find more interactions and hence more engagements on your wall.

Failing to Harness the Power of Giveaway

Everyone loves free stuff. Hence, small and medium businesses must take advantage of this instinctive human liking for free stuffs by using Facebook as a platform for giveaways.

For example, not long ago, we at ConvergeHub developed a Free Lead Generation software and promoted it as a giveaway among our followers on Facebook, who likes our post as one of the best small business CRM software.

However always check out Facebook’s rules and guidelines for giveaways before you post your awards and contents online.

Not Having an Overall Strategy

If you are using Facebook for marketing for your brand, you must consider why you are using this social media platform over others. Hence, look before you jump right into promoting your posts, providing giveaways, buying ads or sharing your live videos online.

Conclusion

Many small businesses merely join Facebook because they know they should do it, but are not aware of their overall social media strategies and goals for marketing their brands.

Therefore, create your social media marketing goals before using Facebook. Are looking for retaining your existing customers, attract new leads, open a new market, or boost your online sales?

Hence, if you are already using the best small business CRM software for taking care of your customers and your sales and marketing leads, the best way to understand the complex world of Facebook marketing is to hire a social media marketer and then create a strategy for marketing, before you place your brand on this most popular social media website.

Reasons Sales Do Not Use Their Easy to Use CRM (And Solutions)

No matter what industry they work in, sales people, do not use their easy to use CRM for the same reason everywhere. Therefore understanding this “why” is just one-step forward to choosing the right best small business CRM for your SMB. There are several examples of successful and unsuccessful CRM adoption in this world. The cold reality is that even the best small business CRM fails because adoptions of online lead management software like CRM technology can often be an uphill battle. Now the question remains, why would sales representatives want to go back to using pen and paper, sticky notes, and spreadsheets to build their customer relationships? According to Cloudswave’s research, by using an easy to use CRM lead to sales conversion rate improves more than 300 percent.

To Love or Hate an easy to use CRM software?

There are several examples of successful and unsuccessful CRM adoption in this world. The cold reality is that even the best small business CRM fails because adoptions of online lead management software like CRM technology can often be an uphill battle.

Using a CRM can lead to sales conversation rate improvements of over 300%- Cloudswave Click To Tweet

Now the question remains, why would sales representatives want to go back to using pen and paper, sticky notes, and spreadsheets to build their customer relationships?

According to Cloudswave’s research, by using an easy to use CRM lead to sales conversion rate improves more than 300 percent.
Even we did hear from one of our customers using our Merchant Cash Advance CRM software that by using our ConvergeHub MCA CRM the company increased its revenue by 152 percent. While it is not 300 percent, however, we think that is really impressive, as we known and the customer also agreed that after using our CRM software they are well on their way to increased success.

Here is a look at some of the most frequently found reasons we have heard from sales teams in different organizations regarding difficulties and problems in implementing CRM application and why they seek a new solution. `

#1. Salespeople do not want changes

One of the most common and familiar sales tools to the sales reps to track customer relationships is the spreadsheet. Now the question is if the sales teams have been so good at their work so far with spreadsheets, they might not just want to use some other customer relationship management software and fix their existing spreadsheet-based process unless they feel it is broken.

Solution

You must convince your sales teams that easy to use CRM data benefits not only them but also the entire organization, right from marketing to accounts and also support.

Illustrate to your sales reps that when they close a deal without understanding or showing the steps taken to reach the conversion it is a loss. Reiterate the fact that best CRM for small business brings value to that ‘win moment’ because the entire organization can perceive the value of the deal for future reference, which can help in gaining would-be sales.

#2. Salespeople do not perceive the value

Speaking about value, another pertinent reason sale does not use their CRM platform is because they think that the customer information database software or CRM was forced on them. This situation typically occurs when the owner or the manager tell their sales teams that they need to use a CRM without discussing or explaining them about the benefits of the software.

“What a waste of money!”, “What a waste of time!”, or “I can’t learn this!” are some of the first thoughts that sales reps have once they are not explained about the utility of the CRM software, which consequentially makes them perceive even an easy to use CRM as a threat rather than a useful tool.

Solution

This trepidation stems back to not involving the sales teams and understanding their needs during the buying process. In an ideal scenario, organizations should see an easy to use CRM that is capable of solving specific sales-related problems and highlight those features to their sales teams.

Explain to your sales managers how their sales reps can close more deals if they are using the right small business CRM.

Always make sure, that the final decision about buying your easy to use CRM software is a shared decision by your sales teams.

#3. CRM software is too complicated

Good sales reps want to spend their hours selling rather than learning how to use the software.

Therefore, adopting complex CRM software sets sales teams up for failure. Moreover, unwanted bells and whistles set by the CRM software worsen the problems.

Solution

Choose an easy to use CRM like ConvergeHub that is known for its ease of use. Purchase a CRM that does not have a long learning curve, which can take weeks to learn.

#4. The CRM is not aligned with our sales process

Another reason why sales teams do not use their CRM platform is that it is not aligned with their current sales process.

To overcome this issue, you should go back to make the sales reps understand the features of their easy to use CRM and how important those features are for the growth of your organization.

Many CRM platforms include features like depicting deal stages, sales pipeline management, workflows, and others, which are absolutely necessary for winning more prospective deals.

Nevertheless, as all businesses do not track sales, in the same way, therefore, when a CRM field does not fit a sales process that your sales reps are familiar with, they will stop inputting data, unless you further customize the software to fit their needs.

Solution

Purchase a CRM that can be easily customized. Every organization has a different sales process, therefore your best small business CRM’s pipeline stages should be customized to suit how your salesperson sells.

#5. No training or support

Regardless of which industry you work in, software takes time to learn. Moreover, some people are less tech-savvy than others.

In the CRM space, those sales reps that do not know how to use your CRM will simply not use it or end up inputting inaccurate data into the CRM database .

Solution

Proper training is most essential even if you are using an easy to use CRM platform. This training can include basic instructions about the software.

Choose a CRM company that offers free customer support when it is needed.

Remember, there are several CRM companies that only offer support as a paid add-on, which can really prove frustrating for your sales teams.

#6. CRM keeps them stuck at their desks

Sales reps naturally spend a lot of time out of their offices, meeting prospects and building relationships in the field. Therefore, mobile phones are a necessary tool for their meetings on the go.

Hence, if salespeople have to remain at their desk for inputting data inside the CRM database, they will for certain stop using the system.

Solution

Choose a CRM software that is mobile. If your sales reps can pull up conversation history, contact data, deal histories and more when they are out in the field (providing them with a big advantage over other salespeople who cannot) they will obviously like using your CRM.

Moreover, mobile easy to use CRM software empowers the sales teams to update their data right away rather than losing vital information after scribbling on their notebooks.

#7. No time is saved

In the sales world, it is natural that none likes to do data entry. Therefore, this is also yet another reason why salespeople do not use their CRM since they feel it is taking up too much of their precious time to learn and use the software.

Solution

Your chosen CRM should automate as many sales tasks as possible. Since a CRM that is incapable of doing that is not worth considering.

#8. CRM has bad data

According to a survey done by Experian Data Quality, it was found that most companies lost 12 percent of their total revenue due to bad data.

Now if your new CRM consists of bad data like out-of-date information and duplicates records in the CRM database that none can trust to use, then your salespeople will end up doing the sales analysis on their own, which culminates in a waste of time.

Solution

To avoid the ever-true curse of bad data residing inside the CRM database, you should roll out your easy to use CRM implementation after cleaning the existing data and continue executing the data-cleaning procedure at regular intervals.

Conclusion

Therefore, the key to making your sales reps use your CRM software is in choosing the right easy to use CRM software that your sales teams will actually use.

Do you use a CRM?

If it is affirmative, let us know the incentive for using your CRM software, and if you are still not using an easy to use CRM use ConvergeHub free trail and find how convenient, your sales reps feel after using our best CRM for small business by clicking on the image below.

Best Small Business CRM And the 4 Human Point of Contacts in Sales

Now that most of us know what best small business CRM software stands for, let us understand CRM software as a platform that helps businesses to track their customers and manage prospects and leads through the sales pipeline, making selling easier and more effective. While the stellar growth in technology is making this process less hard every day, nevertheless, there is no way to completely automate the human point of contacts that are most essential for effective sales. Therefore, in every step of your sales process, you should be making direct contacts to keep your buyers informed and educate them about your products and services, which builds trust between the brand and its consumers.

While the stellar growth in technology is making this process less hard every day, nevertheless, there is no way to completely automate the human point of contacts that are most essential for effective sales. Therefore, in every step of your sales process, you should be making direct contacts to keep your buyers informed and educate them about your products and services, which builds trust between the brand and its consumers.

Hence, what should you be doing exactly to ensure that you are hitting the nail on its head, by striking on these points of contact and help guide the consumers of your brand towards a decision making process?

Brands that provide the best experience throughout the customer journey accomplish higher levels of sales, retention, and customer satisfaction.- McKinsey & Company Click To Tweet

To aid you in refining your efforts, we have outlined the most crucial human point of contacts that should be present in any sales procedure, with subtle hints of different ways you can deepen your customer relationship with potential purchasers of your brand along the way.

Point of Contact #1

The Potential Buyer Makes Contact

Your primary chance to create a connection with the purchaser is during the initial contact.

At this juncture, the purchaser has visited your brand’s website and has expressed an interest in your product, service, or solution. For example, they may have filled out a CTA form for downloading a free resource like a Free Lead Generator Tool or an eBook or may have just contacted you personally with certain questions they have on their minds.

Remember, this is your primary chance to speak to your buyer’s needs and create a good impression in their minds.

Now, it is most pertinent to understand that in most cases this is not the ideal time for pitching your brand since your job now is to find out exactly what your buyers are looking for and how you can help them to satisfy that desired quest.

You can decide to follow up on these prospects directly and if you do, you must try to identify the following:

-How did the purchaser found your website?

-What made them reach out for your product or service?

-What are their problems?

This is the chance for you to better understand your prospective buyer’s wants, needs, and pain points. Where after, you can apprehend if your brand is a fit and suggest ways you can help your customer.

Additionally, you can also direct the prospect to other helpful sales resources like blog posts, videos, case studies, and F&Qs.

You can even enquire if the prospect wants to sign-up to your email list, once they have already availed or signed in for your free offer. This way, you can send them your best offers and keep them engaged with your brand.

Most importantly, you need to be available when your buyer has a question and wants to converse with someone. Therefore, make sure you are always available on your email, phone, and live chat. For this include all these information in your email signature and in your website so that the buyer can retrieve your contact details easily.

Point of Contact #2

The Prospect Is Assessing Your Solution

Once the purchaser is able to understand how your product or service can address their pain-points, they move ahead to the ‘mid-to-later’ stages in the sales funnel, where they most likely evaluate the existing solution with other providers in the market.

Therefore, what can you do to persuade them to choose your brand? What does additional information the purchasers needs to finalize their decisions?

Every single situation, in this case, will be different, but then again the key decision factors culminate to:

Does your solution meet the purchaser’s needs?
Does your product or service make financial sense?
Does buying your proposed solution make them stand more successful?

Here is what you need to do now to address each of these questions:

To answer, “Does your solution meet the purchaser’s needs?” you can-

Set up a call or product demo

This will permit you to speak directly with the purchasers and show them how exactly your solution can address their particular needs. Once you set up a call or a product demo, you can ask what your buyer is exactly looking for and then show them just how they can benefit by using your solution, software, product, or services.

Invite the purchaser to a webinar

A webinar is an appropriate alternative to a one-on-one product demo, whereby you can invite multiple prospective buyers. This option applies best for demonstrating the key features of your brand and for explaining how the features of your brand can benefit the users.

Invite buyers to sign up for a free trial or use a test account

This will empower the prospective purchasers to try your solution on their own. Thereafter, you can follow up on the free trial users of your solution and answer any question that they have on your products or services.

To answer the question “Does your product or service make financial sense?” you can put forward a personalized plan after referring to the contact’s information in your best small business CRM software’s database, which fits the buyer’s budget. This will permit the prospects to perceive the exact cost of your solution and anything other included in the plan.

Moreover, it will also help the prospect to clear up any misunderstandings about the pricings of your offerings.

Lastly, to provide the answer to the question “Does buying your proposed solution make them stand more successful?” you can bring confidence in the proposed buyer’s decision-making process by:

Furnishing case studies
Furnishing positive customer feedbacks
Referring them to a customer who may speak positively of your solution, as a brand advocate of your company

Lastly, in most cases even after all these efforts, you may have to “nudge” the buyer a little, in order to make them choose your brand. For this, you can continue to follow up your buyers via phone or email and since it is been sometime that the prospect first considered your brand, you may reach out with a new time-bound discount offer, as a last-ditch effort to secure the sale.

Point of Contact #3

After the Purchaser Has Bought Your Solution

Congratulations! You have won the sale. The purchaser has decided to go with your brand and buy your solution. Nevertheless, it does not mean that your sales process is over and it is now the right time to move onto the next qualifying lead.

Customer retention should be your next logical step in developing the buyer relationship since it can take anywhere from 5 to 25 times as much in cost and effort to attract new customers than to retain an existing one.

Remember for small businesses, it is more essential to keep existing customers happy, rather than simply pursuing new businesses.

At this point, it is necessary that you must make your recent buyers feel comfortable by making them think that they have made the right decision, which will encourage them to stay with your brand and start building a long-lasting relationship.

Therefore, what are you planning to do to ensure that your customers are satisfied and your buyer retention plans are running smoothly for increasing the CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) of your purchasers?

Here are a few golden ideas to keep your buyers happy:

Thank the buyer
Provide fast delivery
Help the purchaser set up your solution
Reach out frequently to see if your buyers need help
Make sure you’re easily available on all channels
Send use cases
Send surveys

Now by sending surveys, you can inquire about things such as:

– How satisfied are your buyers with your solution?

-How satisfied are buyers with your support?

-How difficult or easy do your purchasers find your solution to use?

-What unexpected problems your buyers are experiencing after purchasing from your company?

Point of Contact #4

Going Beyond the Initial Purchase (Continuing the Relationship)

The final customer relationship management’s point of contact remains with continuing the relationship over time.

One of the biggest reasons buyers leave because they feel neglected.

Therefore, what can you do to keep your buyers happy in the days, weeks, months, or even years after they made their purchases?

Here are some ideas apart from the others mentioned previously, which you can also implement, such as:

Create a loyalty program
Set up a referral program
Send your buyers freebies
Up-sell or cross-sell to your purchasers other products and services

Final Takeaway

Never Lose That “One-on-One” Connection with Your Buyers

Although best small business CRM software like ConvergeHub and others makes our lives easier. Still then, it is most important to maintain that “human-touch” with the buyers, as every buyer is unique and they all have specific wants, needs, and pain-points in their distinctive ways.

Therefore, we strongly believe that by implementing these ideas listed in the post, you may not only be able to increase the effectiveness of your existing sales processes but by upholding these strategies you can also build stronger and long-lasting potential relationships with the existing consumers of your products and services to help grow your business over time.

9 Killer Outbound Marketing Tips To Drive Growth In Merchant Cash Advance Business In 2018

A merchant cash advance or MCA allows small business owners those who allow credit card payments to acquire an advance of the funds regularly flowing through the businesses’ merchant account. Hence, MCA is not a loan, but rather it is an advance based upon the future credit card sales of a business. An MCA provider weight credit criteria and evaluates risks differently than traditional bankers, as merchant cash advance providers examine the volume of daily credit card receipts to evaluate if the business can pay the MCA lender in a timely manner. However, whatever may be your business, even for Merchant Cash Advance organizations, outbound marketing is still a doable option for moving leads through their sales funnel.

What is Merchant Cash Advance?

A merchant cash advance or MCA allows small business owners those who accept credit card payments to acquire an advance of the funds regularly flowing through the businesses’ merchant account. Hence, MCA is not a loan, but rather it is an advance based upon the future credit card sales of a business.

An MCA provider weigh credit criteria and evaluates risks differently than traditional bankers, as merchant cash advance providers examine the volume of daily credit card receipts to evaluate if the business can pay the MCA lender in a timely manner.

Merchant cash advance companies are less concerned with FICO scores and more concerned with signing businesses up that have a steady supply of paying customers.- GSFunding Click To Tweet

Since in MCA the small business is selling a portion of its future credit card sales to acquire a capital, businesses opting for MCA get the required advance deposited into their accounts quickly.

Why use Outbound Marketing?

However, whatever may be your business, even for Merchant Cash Advance organizations, outbound marketing is still a doable option for moving leads through their sales funnel.

Although there has been a lot of clamor about inbound marketing in the recent times, however, it also has its drawbacks. For example, inbound marketing may generate demand for your content rather than your services. Hence, it is best used in combination with outbound marketing, in order to convert more leads into customers.

Here are nine highly useful outbound marketing tips to help users of merchant cash advance CRM to close more deals.

#01. Social media advertising

Every MCA business using merchant cash advance software is also much familiar with social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Therefore, with so many people on social media platforms these days, it is hard to go wrong leveraging social media advertising, when it is anticipated that the social media reach is expected to grow to 3.02 billion by 2021.

Advertising on different social media channels comes at varying costs. Nevertheless, Facebook is usually the cheapest, and Twitter is likely to be the most expensive.

Hence, do your research before deciding upon which channel is best or your MCA audience, before pushing your ads out into the digital world.

#02. Boost successful social media posts

Boosting a social media post is a little different from just posting your ad.

You can boost your existing posts by paying a little extra to extend its reach and put your post in front of more people.

The best time to boost your post is when you find any particular post doing well (having lots of shares and likes), as boosting popular posts is likely to skyrocket its engagement and thereby increase your social returns on your investments.

#03. Pay-per-click advertising

PPC or Pay-per-click advertising is creating an ad for your MCA firm with an image that is linked to a particular landing page on your website.

It is fairly easy to setup and runs PPC ad campaigns. You only pay Google once someone clicks on your ad, and so if your ad is not successful, you do not end up paying for the flop.

#04. Cold calling

Cold calling is still a necessary and viable part of any outbound marketing strategy. Especially if you are using a merchant cash advance CRM that can be integrated with call management software like Ring Central and others.

Even though many people will certainly hang up or say that they are not interested in your MCA business, a certain percentage of those you call will actually be interested in opting for a cash advance for their small businesses and become your leads.

Moreover, integrating advanced call management software with your MCA CRM lets you make more calls in much lesser time than it was possible before. Therefore, advanced telephony software used in combination with merchant cash advance CRM can turn your sales and marketing team into a lean, mean, calling machine.

#05. Email newsletters

If you are using a cash advance CRM, email newsletters are an excellent way to get the word out about your new and existing products and service offerings to new leads. You can leverage marketing automation solutions found in ConvergeHub merchant cash advance CRM to create professional-looking email newsletter in a matter of minutes.

Always select or design email templates that fit your brand’s personality, after which with your CRM software’s email marketing capabilities, you can send it to your entire list of leads in no time.

#06. Print and radio ads

You may think that these marketing strategies are dead, now that we have ventured into the age of digital marketing. Nevertheless, radio ads and print advertisements can be even very successful for cash advance business, especially for smaller firms with a local presence.

Therefore, when you are developing your outbound marketing strategies, do not forget to consider these types of ads and target small brick and mortar business establishments in your community.

#07. Video Ads

Video ads are no exception, as they are also one of the most engaging forms of marketing contents. Channels like YouTube and Vimeo lets you easily upload your video clippings and even determine your targeted audience. Moreover, like PPC advertising, you can also run Pay-per-click video ads of your cash advance business, and when someone shows interest in your ads that makes it another cost-effective solution for outbound marketing.

#08. Tradeshows and other industry events

The oldie but still a goodie, tradeshows are still there, so why not sponsor one and show up with your best sales reps, highest-quality marketing materials, and most experienced product experts. Tradeshows are one of the best ways to land and shine in front of your leads. It also helps to how superior or at par, your business establishment is compared to other cash advance companies.

If you are using a mobile cash advance CRM software, you can easily enter the information of your new leads instantly to your CRM database, without even bringing the lead-sheet back to your office.

#09. Email blasts with one-time discounts or offers

Good old email blasts still work. Despite the onslaught of social media email use is still on a rise. Therefore, if you are using a merchant cash advance CRM for managing your cash advance business with the right email marketing capabilities like ConvergeHub, which aids in creating emails quickly. Use your CRM’s marketing automation capabilities and send email blasts to new leads with one-time discounts or offers.
People love free stuff.

Conclusion

Although inbound marketing has been seriously on the surge in the last few years, when it is used in unison with outbound marketing tactics, they can form the perfect marketing storm to help you generate more leads.

Additionally, as inbound marketing cannot convert leads on its own, therefore, when it is complemented by outbound marketing strategies using merchant cash advance software it will certainly aid you in closing more deals.

3 Proven Steps To Follow When Creating A Marketing Campaign With ConvergeHub

If you are like many of our ConvergeHub CRM customers, you are in the thick of developing and executing numerous marketing campaigns at once, it is natural you must be using different forms of contents for a variety of selling channels to address your prospects and customers. However, if you are not aware in the very first place at what you are aiming at, how is it possible for you to measure whether you are hitting the right goals? Therefore, just as a pilot works through a pre-flight checklist before hitting the runway, similarly, every marketer should adhere to these three pivotal steps when creating and executing marketing campaigns to measure its goals.

In a recent marketing event where we were discussing about measuring Marketing, a participant asked for a list of metrics that can be used to measure the campaign’s performance.

CRM is used for email marketing 60% of the time for small businesses- MarketingCharts Click To Tweet

However, if you are not aware in the very first place at what you are aiming at, how is it possible for you to measure whether you are hitting the right goals?
Therefore, just as a pilot works through a pre-flight checklist before hitting the runway, similarly, every marketer should adhere to these three pivotal steps when creating and executing marketing campaigns to measure its goals.

Know Where You Are Aiming

There is no marketing organization that has unlimited resources. Hence, every marketing campaign must serve a clearly defined specific purpose that will bring a positive impact on their business. Therefore, before creating any campaign, you must recognize what the campaign is expected to impact and how this impact can be measured using your easy to use CRM software.

In other words, do not execute any campaign if its business outcome is not well-defined in advance.

Establish Performance Targets Before You Fire

Next, armed with a solid business outcome, your subsequent step is to set each campaign’s performance targets, which can be illustrated as a specific goal the campaign will accomplish within a set period of time.

Executing on time and within (or under) budget is not the performance target. Rather, create measurable and relevant performance targets that you want to relate to your business needs, which you are trying to move.

For example, if your desired business outcome is related to expanding your market share among a particular customer segment, or acquire a specific set of customers in a new market, your performance target for this campaign (taking into consideration the buying cycle that has been deployed) may consist of a certain number of inquiries, appointments, and quote requests.

Nevertheless, whatever be the performance target, the target should be defined in advance, so that all can understand what result the campaign is expected to bring. It is only by pre-setting your campaign’s performance targets you can understand if your aims are viable and true.

Therefore if you are using a best small and medium business CRM software like ConvergeHub and you do understand the importance of sales force automation, be sure that you remember to incorporate your performance targets before firing your campaigns.

Plan How to Measure Your Results

Measurements cannot remain as an afterthought. Your performance targets and business outcome provide insights in what data you will require to measure your campaign’s performance, and how you will strategize to manage that captured data, in addition to what analytic parameters you will apply on that info.

Therefore, to apply any cloud-based marketing technology to support your measurement reports, like an easy to use CRM, you need to do your planning in advance, put your elements in place, and thereafter test your performance before you hit the “send” button. Since this the only way by which you can truly determine whether your campaigns are moving the needle when you view their analytic reports.

Takeaway

Following this above-stated process for each of your campaigns will do more than just enable you to measure the success of your campaign, but it will also ensure that each campaign is linked to a business outcome and therefore help you to find out the expenses the campaign will incur accurately.

As per our knowledge, most ConvergeHub CRM users follow this process during budgeting and marketing planning, for this actions can be used to justify your budget, renegotiating goal, and for applying bonus components for your sales and marketing teams.

A Comprehensive Checklist for Auditing Customer Database in CRM

In this modern world of big data and ever-increasing data availability with respect to its volume and variety the challenge to understand, which customer database in CRM is valuable for your organization’s growth is the key for starting a revenue generating marketing solution. When we talk about customer database in CRM, the most often cited response is that “all data in the CRM database is important”. Although this may be true, but to help you in deciding which data elements are most important in the initial phases of building your customer relationship management software solution, can be illustrated as a method to evaluate and identify the value of each type of data for your businesses.

When we talk about customer database in CRM, the most often cited response is that “all data in the CRM database is important”. Although this may be true, but to help you in deciding which data elements are most important in the initial phases of building your customer relationship management software solution, can be illustrated as a method to evaluate and identify the value of each type of data for your businesses.

Bad data sources result in 30% of all leads failing- Cyber Sphere Click To Tweet

After several implementations of online lead management software solutions, we have seen many types of data including “favorite color”; “pet names” and even “number of car doors” all have potential value to different markets for buyers of best small and medium business CRM software.

While “pet names” can be an important data for pet supply retailers using easy to use CRM, “favorite color” can be an essential data field for retails in the clothing industry and “number of car doors” for users of best small business CRM in the motor insurance industry.

Therefore, when you first consider the importance of each data element of the customer database in CRM, the ability to classify the data can help in determining how valuable the data is or in which phase of a solution it should be delivered, if at all.

This following list provides examples of the data elements that can quickly identify the critical pieces of information, which are needed to accomplish your business goals from an array of different data sources.

The priority order of this data is as follows:

#01. Identity Data in CRM Database

In the heart of customer database in CRM lies the individual, so knowing the customer or the individual and to view and maintain that information in a single customer view provides the primary data type which is known as identity data.

Identity data can be any information about an individual that enables the individual to be uniquely identified, which include:

Name Information: Title, First Name (Forename), Last Name (Surname), Designation, and others.

Postal Address Information: Building Name, Building Number, Town, County, Zip/Postal Code, Country, and others.

Person Information: Date of Birth, Gender, and others.

Telephone Information: Home Telephone, Work Telephone, Mobile, and others.

Emailing Information: Personal Email, Work Email, and others.

Social Network Information: Twitter Address, Facebook Identifier, LinkedIn Identifier, and others.

Account Information: Details of your customer’s account ID or User ID.

Professional Information: Company Name, Department Name, Job Title, and others.

Permission and Suppression Data: Although this not essentially an identity element of data, but it is important for finding information concerning permission to communicate and the reason for not communicating (suppression).

#02. Quantitative Data in CRM Database

Now once you recognize who these individuals are in your customer database in CRM, the next element is to find focus on the measurable operational data that enables you to find how the customer behaved, reacted or has transacted with your business. This data includes any info, which describes the activities completed between the customer and your business.

Transactional Information (Offline and Online): Quantity of products purchased, Subscription/Order Value, Renewal/Order dates, Abandonment rate (abandoned shopping), Product Returns, and others.

Online Activity: Product views, Website visits, Online registrations, and others.

Social Networking Activity: Twitter interactions, Facebook likes, and others.

Customer Support Information: Customer complaint details, Customer query details, and others.

#03. Descriptive Data in CRM Database

Knowing your customers and the type of activities they have completed with your brand provides a good starting point for any marketing activity for up-selling and cross-selling your products. Therefore, to find a fuller perspective of your customer’s additional information, beyond the identity and quantitative details, you must include any info, which may include:

Family Details: Marital status, number of children, age of children, and others.

Lifestyle Details: Car type, Property type, Pet ownership, and others.

Career Details: School name, College/University name, Education level, and others.

#04. Qualitative Data in CRM Database

The concluding type of data, (which you will come across apart from the one, already mentioned) will provide additional description of your customers and their potential behaviors. It is the data acquired by questionnaire type of information captured, where your customers provide data on motivation, attitude, and options that include:

Attitudinal information: How do you value our product, How do you rate our customer service, How likely you are to purchase our products and services again, and others.

Opinion based information: What is your favorite holiday destination, What is your favorite color, and others.

Motivational information: Why was the product purchased (personal use, a gift for someone), What was the key reason for purchasing our product (quality, price, locality), and others.

Takeaway

Using this simple CRM data classification process and relating them with your business goals, will not only enable you a quick identification of which data is vital for the success of your business, but it can also help you to understand the value achieved from each of this data element.
Therefore, combining the most advanced customer modeling, micro-segmentation, and analytics technologies with an easy to use CRM platform you can really grow your revenue by using data classification process and associating them with your business goals.

Year: 2018

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