Year: 2020

How To Adapt To Changes In The Evolving B2B Sales Funnel For A Smooth Ride

Is your B2B sales funnel providing the desired results? In fact, the Business-to-Business (B2B) sales funnel is an excellent marketing and sales tool for following up the buyer’s journey through any brand from their initial visits to being converted as lead, and to the point where they finally become the customer. Nevertheless, the B2B sales landscape has changed a lot over the years in what that worked before or a decade ago is no longer viable, thanks to the changes that occurred in the conversion/persuasion game in the B2B marketplace. This is because, in today’s marketplace, it is no longer the sales teams who are in control- but rather it is the buyers.

Is your B2B sales funnel providing the desired results?
In fact, the Business-to-Business (B2B) sales funnel is an excellent marketing and sales tool for following up the buyer’s journey through any brand from their initial visits to being converted as lead, and to the point where they finally become the customer.

Businesses that leverage CRM software see sales increase by 29%, sales productivity increase by 34%, and sales forecast accuracy increase by 42%. Click To Tweet

Nevertheless, the B2B sales landscape has changed a lot over the years in what that worked before or a decade ago is no longer viable, thanks to the changes that occurred in the conversion/persuasion game in the B2B marketplace.

This is because, in today’s marketplace, it is no longer the sales teams who are in control- but rather it is the buyers.

We as one of the most popular vendors of easy to use CRM solutions have often observed that today’s buyers in the B2B space prefer to do all the research with little or no interference from the salespersons, which results in leaving most B2B sellers outwitted and clueless by those who know.

Hence a B2B sales funnel that aligns well with the buyer’s journey is important to measure a successful and smooth ride in the present marketplace.

What is a sales funnel?

To understand a sales funnel imagine an actual funnel through which you can guide liquids into a container.
Now in business, this liquid represents leads and the funnel stands for the medium for marketing which is for example emails and the container is where your customers are served by your company.

Hence at the top of the funnel even though a lot of liquid can go inside at once, nevertheless as they progress into the funnel ( your email series) the funnel narrows only to include those leads that are ready to buy and eventually become your customers.

Therefore, this above-stated analogy which illustrates the buyer journey through a sales funnel can be broken down into three main stages which include:

Stage 1: Awareness

In this phase most leads in the B2B sales funnel are seeking general information that can either give an answer to their most pressing questions or effectively address their pain points.
Therefore the content that the leads look here is that provides more light on how to find aid for their specific situations, and hence is no place to sell them your offerings.

Stage 2: Consideration

In the second stage in the sales funnel, most leads, in general, have already explored different options available in the marketplace to for getting their issues solved and so are now busy to critically evaluate solutions at their disposal to decide the best fit, which is of course from their own standpoints.

Stage 3: Decision

Conditional to how effective are the above mentioned two processes, in the decision making stage in the sales funnel the lead then makes a final decision on whether to buy from your brand or not. So if the decision made by the prospective lead in this third stage of the funnel is in your favor, they become your customers. If not, they move off without completing the sales cycle and mostly goes away to the competition.

The Modern Evolution Of The B2B Sales Funnel

Thanks to disruptive technology, the B2B sales funnel is a thousand miles ahead of what it used to be ten years ago. As predominantly, the B2B buyer is a lot more informed nowadays, and hence, more sophisticated, and completely transforming their decision-making and buying behavior in the present times.

Hence in the past, whereby you would invite a targeted buyer out to lunch, or meet them up at a golf course, or have a sales team storm their office, today, according to the founder of Growth Acumen, Steven Norman, B2B buyers make 70 – 80 percent of their buying journey virtually, without ever meeting any salesperson, face to face.

In fact, with so much information at their fingertips, a B2B buyer today is able to do product research, read reviews and references, and make a decision without being influenced by a single salesperson.

And what all of this means is that, in today’s marketplace, buyers are a lot more in control.

Therefore, this major tilt in power and control from the seller to the buyer has been dramatic, to say the least, whereby today B2B sellers are finding they have to constantly up their game to stay on the B2B buyer’s radar, and so they have to adapt to the constantly evolving sales environment to have a firm grip on their marketplace.

So what happens if they fail to adapt?

The obvious answer is – they die and are quickly forgotten giving way to those who know how to act quickly and stay on top of things (as far as the changing dynamics of today’s marketplace are concerned).

Hence, as one of the best Salesforce Alternative CRM tools, we believe one of the worst things that can happen to a B2B seller is being clueless about the current customer journey, blaming low sales and poor results on a slow market or its sales force.

At first, the loss might be slow. But as more quick-to-adapt competitors get right in front of the pecking order the late or non-adopters lose out faster until they are completely dispossessed of their market share – especially if they continue in their ignorance.

How Can B2B Companies Adapt Before It Is Too Late

According to Richard Branson, “Every success story is a tale of constant adaptation, revision, and change.”

Hence, here are 3 top ways to adapt like a pro:

1.Reposition your sales force

Granted, your B2B sales force is still critical to your sales success but you must understand the new role they play in the B2B buyer journey and position them accordingly.

Yes, today’s buyers do not want a product straight out of the shelf, but they do not want a salesperson to simply tell them about the product either.

Instead, modern buyers expect salespeople to help them distill the complex buying process and then present a concise, customized solution that addresses their pain point or situation adequately.

2.Use SEO and leverage digital marketing

The thing is 93 percent of website traffic comes from search engines and 50 percent of prospects are more likely to click on a link if they come across it more than once.

Therefore investing in SEO gives B2B sellers the upper hand over their competition.

In the past, going ‘traditional’ with your ad campaign was way-to-go for the majority of B2B sellers looking to capture the minds of buyers. But amazingly, 54 percent of present-day buyers say they do not trust traditionally branded content.

Hence, to win over this category, B2B sellers must embrace brand awareness, using digital marketing tools.

3.Leverage the power of “Big Data” tools

Take it or leave it, nevertheless, it is true that B2B sellers who replace instinct with big data are 6 percent more profitable. With the advent of AI and machine learning, companies who invest in it are now able to leverage big data to predict buyer behavior much more accurately, using previous buying history stored in their sales CRM software’s database.

This way, they are able to qualify leads by analyzing data and using the results to create targeted marketing messages that reduce cost, dramatically improves efficiency, and supercharges sales activities predictably and consistently over time.

Therefore as a B2B seller in today’s world, you cannot afford to sit on your hands and expect prospects to come and eventually buy from your brand.

Rather you must take up your ‘proactive thinking cap,’ find out the new channels prospects are on, and share content that connects, convince and convert them.

You also need to work hand in hand with your marketing arm, using the data and recommendations generated to create sales tools that can draw-in the prospects further down your B2B sales funnel. Since only by doing this activates you can create the B2B buyer-seller ‘courtship’ that engenders trust and ensures you succeed in modern-day B2B sales.

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COVID-19 And Ways To Enhance Experiences In Customer Lifecycle Journey During This Pandemic

All of us want to treat our customers and prospects the best we can, which is more true during this pandemic when businesses are forced to wade through unchartered waters and face these turbulent times. Hence over here as one of the most popular vendors of easy to use CRM tools in the marketplace with thousands of customers using our cloud-based CRM platform, here are some of our observations that can make your brand’s customer lifecycle journey a more meaningful, productive, and a pleasant one even in these troubled times. Now even though there are several advices that you can find online about creating the perfect customer journey and customer experience, nevertheless as your brand’s customer lifecycle journey needs to be carefully managed especially during these trying times, following these four effortless practices consistently is sure to bring your business unforeseen success and growth.

All of us want to treat our customers and prospects the best we can, which is more true during this pandemic when businesses are forced to wade through unchartered waters and face these turbulent times.

Hence over here as one of the most popular vendors of easy to use CRM tools in the marketplace with thousands of customers using our cloud-based CRM platform, here are some of our observations that can make your brand’s customer lifecycle journey a more meaningful, productive, and a pleasant one even in these troubled times.

65% of companies start using a CRM system in their first five years of business - Capterra Click To Tweet

Now even though there are several advices that you can find online about creating the perfect customer journey and customer experience, nevertheless as your brand’s customer lifecycle journey needs to be carefully managed especially during these trying times, following these four effortless practices consistently is sure to bring your business unforeseen success and growth.

1. Send follow-up messaging to one sender

Always remain sure that your business processes align with the requirements of your prospects and customers.

We all are of the same opinion and agree to the fact that businesses are nowadays keen upon deploying business growth technology solutions like easy to use CRM tools that can help automate processes that can increase employee efficiency and productivity- which is of course a brilliant move.

Nevertheless, businesses must primarily take into account the CX and the buyer’s journey when they are ready to build a process even before automating their workflow.

Hence as one of the most popular vendors of Salesforce Alternative CRM platforms, we would advise that businesses should limit the number of automated emails that they send to their customers and prospects during these troubled times.

That means, brands should not send multiple emails from different sales or support reps with inconsistent messages to the prospects and customers since doing this can easily get the recipients confused and annoyed and thereby even delay the buying or resolution process considerably.

2. Ask, discover and listen

The basic goal for any business is to make revenue by satisfying its customers.

If you are working in sales, your goal is identical. Whereby you need to enquire for information, send a quote, and thereafter set up a meeting with the prospective customer or schedule a demo for conversion.

Similarly, if you are looking after customer support activities then again your goals remain the same since over here you even need to satisfy the customer by reverting back to a tough question or crack a problem for your customers.

Therefore, during this pandemic, any employee and representative in businesses should remain well-equipped with the right knowledge and tools to help their prospects and customers.

They must also primarily listen to what they are being told by their prospects and customers since most people are in a habit of not listening when they are talking- so be quiet, listen and then comprehend your customer’s needs.

It is also a good practice to always repeat what you have heard from them back to your callers since that can make sure of a mutually agreed-upon understanding between both the parties involved in the interaction, which help decrease miscommunication that can result in a delay in finding the right resolution or the best answer to the customer’s issues.

3. Ensure continuity while resolving the issues

Even though it might sound simple apparently, but it is not easy to find out what your customers or prospects need and get it to them consistently every time.

We say this every time in our  business growth training and ideas, as the path to any resolution can be really challenging, complex, and complicated, and hence everyone in your business must see it through.

For example, in response to an issue may be the person who first responded to the problem might not be the person who has the answer and so was unable to resolve the problem at the end. Nevertheless, the first person in the chain should always remain responsible and act as an interface with the prospects and customers to see that their problems are solved by someone more efficient and knowledgeable in the team. This is because it can always happen that the first person may have to hand off the prospect to another representative to help them find the necessary solution.

But even in situations like this one, it is absolutely important that a three-way introduction is required before the handoff occurs between the inquirer, the first contact, and the person thereafter entrusted to take over the pending responsibility for solving the issue.

4. Remain empathetic and timely in your approach

Finally since during this COVID-19 pandemic times, your 6-hour or 12-hour automated response providing time might not be the perfect or the desired solution for your customers, so remain timely in your approaches while solving your customers’ issues.

Always remember that any world-class CX and a positive customer experience in the customer lifecycle journey through a brand depends a lot on those who take care of their consumer’s pain-points, challenges, struggles and are dedicated to making their customer’s life better by using innovations and creativity while resolving problems faced by the prospects and customers during these troubled times.

This is because going by what we always say as one of the most popular vendors of easy to use CRM solutions if your business truly apprehends the problems faced by your consumers, you will soon understand that one solution never fits all, and so in order to provide a world-class customer experience businesses must make use of appropriate timings in order to respond according to the individual customer’s needs to increase customer satisfaction of their brands.

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How To Create Custom Value Of Your Offerings Using The Best Marketing CRM Software

Would not it be a welcoming fact if you owned the only shop selling your customer’s preferred offerings in town? Now unfortunately when it comes to buying their offerings, consumers are spoilt with several choices nowadays. Hence in order to make your customers feel interested in your offerings, they need to find value as the main deliverable factor of your brand to get them motivated to purchase. Now, this does not imply that your offering(s) need to be the least expensive one found in the marketplace. Since the reality is that the price tag that you put on your products or services constitutes only a small part of its value. We say this as one of the most popular vendors of the best marketing CRM software platforms since the real value of any offering reflects its usefulness, importance, or the worth of something to the buyer of that offering.

Would not it be a welcoming fact if you owned the only shop selling your customer’s preferred offerings in town?
Now unfortunately when it comes to buying their offerings, consumers are spoilt with several choices nowadays.
Hence in order to make your customers feel interested in your offerings, they need to find value as the main deliverable factor of your brand to get them motivated to purchase.
Now, this does not imply that your offering(s) need to be the least expensive one found in the marketplace. Since the reality is that the price tag that you put on your products or services constitutes only a small part of its value.
We say this as one of the most popular vendors of the best marketing CRM software platforms since the real value of any offering reflects its usefulness, importance, or the worth of something to the buyer of that offering.

91% of US businesses with more than 10 employees now use CRM - CRM Magazine Click To Tweet

Therefore, when applied in the context of business, a value is reflected as the worth in monitory terms of the offering, in addition to the social benefits that the consumer finds in exchange for the money or the price paid for getting that product or service in the marketplace.

According to Peter Drucker the famous management guru of the 21st Century:

“The starting point has to be what customers consider value.”

Now to create a way to gauge this metric, we must primarily understand clearly what is meant by the term ‘value’, which Gautam Mahajan (the president of Customer Value Foundation) defines as:

“The perception of what a product or service is worth to a Customer versus the possible alternatives. Worth means whether the Customer feels s/he got benefits and services over what s/he paid.”

How Can You Crack the Customer Value Equation

At its most fundamental level, James Anderson suggested the following equation to explain customer value:

Customer value = Benefits – Costs

Hence, prices and values are the set values and prices of the market offerings presented by the supplier. Now as the differences between that value and the prices proportionately equals to the customer’s willingness to purchase, therefore, the value equation fetched by the customer implies that the customer’s incentive to procure an offering must always exceed the willingness of the customer to buy the next best alternative available in the marketplace.

Hence to formulate a value metric of the customer you need to be capable of answering these four important questions:

  • Why among your existing customers purchase repeatedly and how often?
  • What do your customers breakout by volume, frequency, or the number of products owned?
  • What is the rate of deflection of your customers?
  • What is the likelihood of your customers to buy again?

Maybe to find the right answers to these questions it might take some research, but it is worthwhile to invest time in finding these answers as they provide valuable and actionable metrics that can enable businesses to make better decisions about their customer’s investments.

As one of the most popular vendors of the best marketing CRM software platforms we know customer relationship value is an important leading indicator in any business since once you have these data you can easily create customer relationship value metrics, which you can start by using these three variables:

  • The complete list of all the interactions that the customer had with your company
  • The cost involved in each of these interactions
  • The direction and degree that each of these interactions impacted on moving the relationship forward or backward between the customer and the company

How to Define the Fundamental Mission of Marketing

Marketers communicate, develop, and thereafter deliver value to the customers. Hence creating customer value is the primary mission of marketing, and so the marketing department’s job in any organization is to build the value element of your offerings and your brand and thereafter communicate it to the consumers in the marketplace.

This is because value elements are anything that affects the costs and benefits of your products and services.

Therefore an offering which is of good quality and low cost represents good value, there are even non-price value elements to be considered in the benefits side of the value equation, which includes but are not always limited to:

  • Reliability
  • Customer service and experience
  • Domain, subject matter, industry expertise
  • Delivery
  • Guarantees and warranties

Therefore, we can say in other words that marketing indeed plays a very important role in your businesses’ ability to create customer value, as you marketers are the ones who must reflect how everything that your company does must deliver value to your customers.

Now given the fact that your brand’s marketing teams should always focus on finding and growing the value of your offerings to your customers they are unable to connect with the consumers or do what is needed to create customer value of your offerings, you may need to ask yourself as to why they are feeling this.

Hence under this circumstance, it is advisable that businesses must use a business growth technology like an easy to use CRM software which is in the modern times the best available platform that can aid marketers to better understand the market and also your customer segments by collecting data and creating an analysis of the customers.

We say this as one of the leading vendors of the best small and medium business CRM software as it has often been observed that dissimilar value propositions find relevance to different customers and so marketers need to develop these propositions by analyzing data of previous sales and thereafter creating supporting messages for the future customers, to communicate the value of your products and services through the right channel and at the right time during the customer journey.

Hence your marketing teams once they use CRM software like Salesforce or even any other Salesforce Alternative CRM must understand the various buying processes and customer personas, which can help in finding the right solution for business growth.

Does Customer Value Increase Customer Lifecycle Management

CLM or Customer Lifecycle Management is the measurement of several customer-based metrics which when carefully analyzed over a specified period of time, helps in indicating the performance of any business. Therefore, while implementing the best marketing CRM software it is advised that companies must encompass all domains and departments of an organization so that it can help in bringing all the sources of dynamic and static data, marketing and value-added services to a centralized decision-supporting platform like a CRM looping in different phases of customer acquisition, customer retention, up-selling and cross-selling, for creating consistent customer value of your offerings which translates to business growth.

Since at all cost, it must be remembered that business should always focus on creating customer value of their offerings as market value is derived from what exceeds the willingness of the customer to buy the next best alternative available in the marketplace.

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Three Common Mistakes In Market Segmentation Strategies (And How To Overcome It)

So now that you have spent money, resources, and time creating the impeccable marketing strategy for your business, you want your marketing message to resound well with your potential lead and customers-right? However, communication is a form of art and without the right moves, it is unbelievably easy for your messages to get lost, or shunned altogether as the size of your addressees grows with time. The larger is your audience, the broader are their needs, preferences, and opinions, which can put your marketing messages at risk of becoming irrelevant to the majority of the people that you are attempting to reach. This is exactly where market segmentation strategies come into play, as segmenting is a crucial factor to reach your target markets globally.

So now that you have spent money, resources, and time creating the impeccable marketing strategy for your business, you want your marketing message to resound well with your potential lead and customers-right?
However, communication is a form of art and without the right moves, it is unbelievably easy for your messages to get lost, or shunned altogether as the size of your addressees grows with time.
The larger is your audience, the broader are their needs, preferences, and opinions, which can put your marketing messages at risk of becoming irrelevant to the majority of the people that you are attempting to reach.
This is exactly where market segmentation strategies come into play, as segmenting is a crucial factor to reach your target markets globally.

How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose - Bill Gates Click To Tweet

Customer segmentation using an easy to use CRM tool allows businesses to focus their marketing efforts on individual segments of customers so that businesses can better accommodate their specific requirements, wants, and needs.

In other words, market segmentation strategies are ruled by a method that provides your business an advantage over the competition since it allows brands to prove to their potential customers that they understand and know what their customers need the best.

What Is Market Segmentation?

While the purpose of market segmentation is to provide tailored messages that will be received successfully by the audience, which is advantageous for brands that may have an offering in the marketplace which can boast of providing multiple benefits for different types of customers, according to Wikipedia market segmentation is a terminology that implies:

“Market segmentation is a process of dividing a heterogeneous market into relatively more homogenous segments base on certain parameters like geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. It is the activity of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as segments) based on some type of shared characteristics.

In dividing or segmenting markets, researchers typically look for common characteristics such as shared needs, common interests, similar lifestyles, or even similar demographic profiles. The overall aim of segmentation is to identify high yield segments- that is, those segments that are likely to be the most profitable or that have growth potential – so that these can be selected for special attention (i.e. become target markets).”

Hence acknowledging the fact that you cannot be everything for everyone in the marketplace, and so as a marketer you just cannot solve everyone’s issues or appeal to every single person in your business space, this is exactly why market segmentation is such an effective business growth strategy to implement in most brand and businesses.

Four Types Of Market Segmentation

As you can be imagining by now, there are several approaches you can ensure when segmenting your target market or the database of leads, prospects, and customers stored in your CRM database.

So as one of the most popular vendors of Salesforce Alternative CRM tools, learning from those who have done it right, let us walk you through the four key types of real-life examples of segmentation to help you get started.

Geographic Segmentation– This can be as general as a country or as specific as a particular neighborhood.

Demographic Segmentation– This type of information includes age, ethnicity, gender, occupation, etc.

Behavioral Segmentation– This includes buying patterns, attitudes, and knowledge towards products, brands, and services.

Psychographic Segmentation– Honing in on more psychological aspects, this segmentation includes lifestyle, values, social class, and personality patterns.

THREE COMMON MARKET SEGMENTATION MISTAKES

Now that you know the basics of market segmentation, it is time to focus on the most common mistakes marketers can do when segmenting their target market for the first time while implementing their market segmentation strategies.

1. Creating too small of segments

Once you are using a robust marketing CRM tool, even though it can be rather easy to do if you are trying to make sure that you have every last detail included while segmenting your targeted audience, nevertheless, if the segments that you create are too small, you will surely lose the buying power of those groups as well as create a segment with non-quantifiable metrics.

Therefore always remember that at the end of the day every single person is vastly different, and therefore you just cannot appeal to every aspect of every person stored in your business growth software’s database.

2. Not updating your strategies as your customer base changes over time

People change- and they change fast.

Therefore in your brand’s interest refresh your market segmentation strategies and resurvey its audience from time to time.

For this choose a cycle that makes sense for your brand and stick to it diligently. It can be a monthly refresh, or you can even do it every year.

In other words, whenever you see a big change within your customer-base, perform a refresh then immediately to keep your market segmentation strategies working as your audience changes over time.

2. Targeting the segment instead of the money

Finally, as a marketer, you might have segmented a large customer base that aligns with your businesses’ strategies, but if that specific segment does not have the purchasing power or a real need for your offerings, then it is imperative that you will not garner any positive ROI.

Now, since marketing segmentation can be a complicated and laborious task, these mistakes in the beginning stages might seem inevitable.

Nevertheless, being aware of the three common pitfalls will surely better prepare you and your teams so that they do not fall into these snares in the future.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE RIGHT MARKET SEGMENTATION STRATEGIES

It is time to put what you have learned to use. Here are five steps that lay the process out. However, before getting started, consider using marketing CRM software solutions to streamline and measure your efforts effectively. Since as your strategy becomes more complex and your campaigns grow larger, you will be happy with the amount of time and resources you were able to save from having everything automated from the very beginning.

Define your market

Where does your brand fit within the current market landscape? Is there a need for the solution you promise to provide? How large is the market? These are all important questions to consider when starting this step.

Segment your market                

This is where it gets fun. Decide which of the four segmentation methods you are going to use, but do not feel confined by one segmentation method.

It is common for brands to implement more than one segmentation technique and take a combination approach, so play around with each and find the perfect mix for your brand.

Understand your market

Ask your target market the questions that relate to the segmentation categories you chose. You should get to know your target market through and through at this step. You can use surveys, focus groups, polls, and more to obtain your answers. Make sure you are asking questions that will provide quantifiable answers.

Build your customer segments

Interpret the responses you received to create dynamic customer segments that are unique to your brand. Make sure that you are focusing on the buying power of the segments and not creating any that are too small. Look over the common mistakes one last time to ensure you are not making any of the above-stated mistakes.

Test your strategy

Ensure that you have interpreted your responses accurately by testing it on your target market. Implement conversion tracking early. It is one of the best ways to determine the effectiveness of your strategy.

If you are not relating to your customers with the segments you have created, then you will need to relook at your survey methods and analysis. Be sure that the strategy you choose has unique characteristics from others in the marketplace so you can stand out among the crowd.

Conclusion

Market segmentation strategies are highly admired skill-sets for every marketing team. It proves to your customers that you understand them by providing a tailored message that resonates with specific facets of their lives. Knowing how to get a message across successfully will help your brand grow exponentially.

Just remember, your success will not last long if you are not testing your strategy constantly. To be competitive you must always be on top of your game.

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Tips for Managing Digital Events Using The Best CRM Software For Small Business And Startups

So now that you have spent money, resources, and time creating the impeccable marketing strategy for your business, you want your marketing message to resound well with your potential lead and customers-right? However, communication is a form of art and without the right moves, it is unbelievably easy for your messages to get lost, or shunned altogether as the size of your addressees grows with time. The larger is your audience, the broader are their needs, preferences, and opinions, which can put your marketing messages at risk of becoming irrelevant to the majority of the people that you are attempting to reach. This is exactly where market segmentation strategies come into play, as segmenting is a crucial factor to reach your target markets globally.

How do we use my best CRM software for small business for managing our digital events?

How can our present business CRM also aid in leverage the information and data that we are gaining from organizing free events?

Can we exponentially grow our mailing list be attracting the best speakers for our online webinars?

Now, if all these myriad questions are racing through your mind, read on for finding some of your answers.

Sales teams that are productive and have effective workflows are 81% more likely to use a CRM system consistently. Click To Tweet

It is a true fact that when these COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted, the event industry will once again see a beacon of light at the end of its dark tunnel.

Nevertheless, in the meanwhile, live events have been replaced by digital events during this pandemic, with so many proficient speakers now being available right at their homes and are ready to speak, which is making digital events find its way into the lives of so many professionals across the globe.

Hence in this article, let us see how we can not only save time but even find more conversions, achieve the highest engagement/attendance for digital conferences and webinars by using the best CRM software for small business for revenue growth.

There are many we have seen in the recent times as one of the most popular vendors of Salesforce Alternative CRM tools who says: “We are already having an event software of our choice, do we still need a CRM?”

The answer is – Yes.

Additionally, we would like to mention over here that you will also need a suite of software products to organize an online event that will not only provide you the necessary help before and during the event but also after the event has been completed successfully.

Now an event irrespective of whether it is conducted live or online is primarily a lead generation tool, which helps businesses to attract new customers, spread their brand awareness and add weight to your company’s authority as an expert in any chosen niche.

Hence, ideally, for achieving success through online conferences and webinars, your business needs an arsenal of event hosting software that includes:

– Event planning software

– Easy to use CRM solution

– Marketing automation apps

– Ticketing software

– Performance management solution

– Waiver software

Therefore, it is unneeded to say, that to make all these data flow impeccably from one solution to another, you will need tools like PieSync or Zapier which can help the free flow of information while including a CRM for small and medium business into your event management routine will not only optimize the process itself but also enrich your database for further marketing and ticket sale.

REASONS TO USE AN EASY TO USE CRM FOR DIGITAL EVENTS

If your business is already using the best CRM software for small business you must be knowing the value of email marketing.

Enrichment of an email list is one of the biggest priorities of any marketer for the promotion of their digital events.

Apart from this CRM also helps in task assignment which is another important reason to integrate a business CRM into your preferred technical stack while conducting an event digitally.

Analytics and reporting is another feature that calls for using a CRM for managing small and big events, irrespective of whether they are digital or live, which is specifically important when an event is recurring since the information of the past events stored in the CRM database can help provide insights into the ticket booking process and also optimize a lot of other processes that can cut costs for the next events.

This is how you can do it.

Put Marketing On Steroids

When you decide on using an easy to use CRM along with your event managing software, you can make your marketing more efficient.

This is because the best CRM software for small business CRM is a tool that allows the user of the software to send mass emails, monitor open rates, upload existing contact lists with just a few clicks, help create a series of automated emails, create different segments by assigning custom tags, and more.

It has been observed that drafting emails that are appropriate for the audience increases email open rates which ultimately results in more ticket sales.

For this, you can segment the profiles of your customers in the CRM software’s database based on their location, interest, gender, and any other custom parameters, and thereafter send personalized messages for higher conversions.

Use CRM For Team Management

You will always find that your team members are never on the same page unless they are using a business growth technology like CRM.

This is because team members for any event come from different backgrounds, whereby some might be new, while others might have done dozens of events with your company.

Hence for streamlining all processes, delegating tasks, controlling their execution, assigning teams to work on a project, it is only an easy to use CRM that can provide the overview of the progress of your teams easily in a dashboard, which can act as a mission control center for your live or online events.

Target Event Attendees By Location

Attendees are the raison d’etre of why brands and businesses organize live or online events in the first place.

Therefore using a CRM for SMB you can separate the locals from the non-locals and offer them different packages.

Using lead and customer segmentation in a CRM you can also market in different languages based on the country of origin of the attendees will participate in your online events.

Apart from it if you are using specific colors, fronts, or using a mascot for your branding, CRM is a tool that can even help in choosing the branding elements that will resonate with different cultural values of the selected audience that your business is addressing.

Know Your ROI

If the C-Suite executives of any organization want to know about anything- one of them would be ROI.

Hence having invested in an event, the management would always want to know:

– Was it worth doing it?

– Is it worth repeating the event?

Now, ROI is one of the most important metrics that can help answer these questions.

Therefore when you integrate your event management software with an easy to use CRM, not only it helps you to track the timeframe, efficiency, and costs incurred at every leg of the customer’s journey, but you can utilize this data forever, to perfect the patterns of your event workflows once the information is stored in a CRM.

Reduce Manual Workload For Digital Events

The best CRM software for small business is a tool that is popular across all industries since it creates efficiencies and saves time. This is also relevant to the event management niche.

Hence once you use a CRM with your event management tool, you can bid goodbye to sending guest invitations individually or keep remembering not to miss sending out reminders to all your prospective audience at the right intervals and on time.

This is because CRM is a tool that will easily ensure all routine processes for your online events are routine processes and are automated and scheduled in advance.

Moreover, business CRM can let you set up alerts if any deadlines are broken.

Take Charge Of Lead Quality

Understanding the journey of the leads, audience, or the customers is fundamental to the success of any business.

Therefore if you are conducting an online or even a live event, you must look into the quality of your leads at every stage of the conversion which can help to convert more leads and also understand better why any leakage has occurred whereby some of the leads have fallen through the crack.

Nevertheless, when you use a CRM and allocate your leads to the next stage of the funnel, marketing automation in a marketing CRM software is likely to start sending the content required respective to that stage of the customer’s journey.

Moreover, reporting based on data found around these activities can also provide actionable insights that have the power to advance your sales process now and keep it tight for the next events.

Measure Success Of You Digital Event

Finally, as reporting and analysis are a pivotal piece of the puzzle of any successful business, if your company knows how to read insights and translate them into actionable insights, you can easily use the completive edge of the analytical data stored in the best CRM software for small business CRM for boosting your event’s lead generation or work better with the attendee management features that are available in most event management software.

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Six Golden Ways To Boost Your Customer Retention Using CRM Software For Small Business

Customers in modern times do not buy your products; instead, they buy your services. Therefore, once you provide your customers with the right products along with world-class service, they will surely come back for more. Hence, in the present times, customer retention is the topmost priority for any brand to improve cultural norms, increase its value, and boost revenue, especially for startups and small businesses. According to a recent survey, it has been found that 90 percent of business strategists in major corporate industries agree that customers are the most important treasures for brands that they want to hold on for a lifetime. In fact, existing customers are not just mere customers but they are the true marketers of your brand.

Customers in modern times do not buy your products; instead, they buy your services. Therefore, once you provide your customers with the right products along with world-class service, they will surely come back for more.
Hence, in the present times, customer retention is the topmost priority for any brand to improve cultural norms, increase its value, and boost revenue, especially for startups and small businesses.
According to a recent survey, it has been found that 90 percent of business strategists in major corporate industries agree that customers are the most important treasures for brands that they want to hold on for a lifetime. In fact, existing customers are not just mere customers but they are the true marketers of your brand.
Therefore irrespective of what you are selling the right customer support policies help to build an amazing relationship with our customers, as to them by providing world-class support you do not remain just a seller, but customers trust you with their hard-earned money as you are capable of providing them value in return with your services.
There are even those customers who crossed your path once and never came back since there are chances that they might have found your service average or they may have been acquired by your competition, or they do not need your offerings anymore.
Now whatever be the scenario, return customers always brings the bulk of businesses, as your loyal customer and so here are six secrets by which you can encourage your existing customers to come back using tools like CRM software for small business.

65% of American consumers say positive personal experiences are more influential to them than great advertising - PricewaterhouseCoopers Click To Tweet

1. Boost customer service

As we mentioned earlier, the customer buys your services even more than your offerings. Hence customer service is everything that makes or breaks any business.
Hence complaints and feedbacks, both good and bad, are signs that your customer support department requires improvements.

Feedbacks are also important as it is a good sign that shows your customers want your business to be perfect.

Therefore by being open to improvements and by providing the best possible service, you can assure your customers of the gold standard of service which can be improved considerably by using easy to use CRM software for business growth.

2. Offer loyalty discounts

Offering discounts to your existing customers to fill up your customer pool is a true and tried way to get them back. You can also entice your customers by introducing shopping credit points and loyalty vouchers that may help your existing customers for their next purchases.
After spending a certain amount or making a purchase for a certain number of times you can even offer your customers an incentive in form of gifts (as per your policy)  to keep them happy and return for more.

For companies that are dealing in big consumer durable markets, like digital appliances or furniture, another option for retaining customers is by offering free service to them for an extended specific period of time, which is one of the best ways to encourage them to come back.

3. Advertise future deals

If you are using CRM software platforms like Salesforce, or even a Salesforce Alternative CRM mostly used by upstarts and small businesses, you can use marketing automation in the software to send emails to your existing customers on your upcoming deals or make them aware of future sales or promotions of your brand.

4. Utilize social media

The power of mouth advertising strategy has always proved its worth and therefore social media is a perfect tool to get your customers back or even retain the existing ones.

As in this present digital world, most customers follow their preferred brands on social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others you can post regular updates of your business news, testimonials from your happy customers, product updates and even promotional offers to get your existing and new customers and prospects in your loop.

Also always remember to include all social media links in every post to boost the chances of being followed to your lead generation page.

5. Respond to feedback

Responding to either negative and positive feedbacks or survey results provides your valuable customers a sense of your care and responsibility.

Therefore, thank your customers for those who leave positive feedback, for using your products and trusting your services and listen to the needs of customers those are facing issues and satisfy them by providing free services.

Doing this not only encourages your unsatisfied customers to provide your business with another chance, but you can also use this opportunity to mark your brand as a caring company by converting unhappy customers into loyal advocates.

6. Keep an eye on your competitors

The most common reason as to why most customers do not come back is that your competitor has taken them up with an edge.

Hence by having knowledge about your competitors’ activities, you can offer better deals to your customers and get them back within your fold.

For this analyze the gap in your market, play with your brand’s USPs (Unique Selling Points), and do not get caught up chasing the competition.

Wrapping Up

Be it in any business, retaining existing customers is never an easy task. This is because it is true that brands do not build their worth overnight.

However, if you have patience, a good team, and using easy to use CRM software for small business for building and supporting customer relationships, you can easily take your existing customers back to your brand.

For this, just figure out your customer’s expectations and needs and make your moves accordingly.

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How CRM Software For Financial Services Industry Can Improve Customer Experience Effectively

For most of us, the financial service industry is a deeply personal zone. This is especially all because, customers entrust their financial advisors, banks, private lenders, and investment firms to safeguard or grow their hard-earned money. Irrespective of whether the money is slated for a child’s education, or on a home, or for a dream retirement, the stakes remain high. Hence, a customer’s choice of a financial institution or advisor may always have a lasting impact on their ability to attain their financial goals. Additionally, many of us still struggle with basic and fundamental financial knowledge, which is exactly the reason why millions of people across the globe may make critical decisions about who should manage their funds without fully understanding their options to choose wisely in the financial marketplace.

For most of us, the financial service industry is a deeply personal zone. This is especially all because, customers entrust their financial advisors, banks, private lenders, and investment firms to safeguard or grow their hard-earned money.
Irrespective of whether the money is slated for a child’s education, or on a home, or for a dream retirement, the stakes remain high.
Hence, a customer’s choice of a financial institution or advisor may always have a lasting impact on their ability to attain their financial goals.
Additionally, many of us still struggle with basic and fundamental financial knowledge, which is exactly the reason why millions of people across the globe may make critical decisions about who should manage their funds without fully understanding their options to choose wisely in the financial marketplace.
Hence for people working in sales in financial services, this situation presents a dilemma, whereby they fail to understand how they can persuade their prospective customers to buy their services when in reality their customers have very little knowledge of their offerings.
Now, part of the answer to this question may be solved by using a CRM software for financial services industry, which can help the sales reps to log in customer data and interactions consistently into the software, which can help them to better identify their prospect’s and customer’s needs and thereafter provide relevant information that is not only persuasive but all better-suited for their customers.

You don’t close a sale, you open a relationship if you want to build a long-term, successful enterprise – Patricia Fripp Click To Tweet

The Value Of Customer-Facing Knowledge

As stated above being one of the leading vendors of Merchant Cash Advance CRM we know how the financial service industry differs from others.
Consumers in the retail industry can try on clothing and access them for style, they can even determine by themselves whether they can enjoy the services of an expandable cable package, but they cannot understand the benefits of buying a financial service.

Hence much like an attorney or a physician professionals working in financial services are considered trusted experts in their fields, upon whom a customer may rely on their perceived expertise and trustworthiness to evaluate the value of a financial representative.

Thus in this landscape customer-facing knowledge has as a result become vital, not just for communicating but even for understanding when it is the right time to communicate with their customers.

Now the risk of manual management of customer and prospect data can easily overwhelm the sales staff in the financial industry and so to streamline this process a financial services CRM is what is needed to manage inputs and thereafter also retrieve information from the customer-facing data, without the requirement of tedious up keeping.

Hence the adoption of CRM software for financial services industry aids the staff in the financial sector to tailor their customer-representative interactions that can build trust for closing a deal in a meaningful way.

How A CRM Organizes Customer-Related Data

In modern times CRM software solutions are a cutting-edge outgrowth of early customer contact lists found in paper-files, and Rolodex machines of the pre-digital era.

In fact, the CRMs that are available for modern-day businesses have made a vast stride over its predecessors.

So what kind of information can an easy to use CRM house inside its database?

The answer to this is- Customer information.

Now customer information is more than a phone number with a name since it can also include a plethora of contact point data (like an office, residence, and cellular phone), as well as demographic data such as age or gender and transactional data like last purchase made or service-related data and more.

Detailed financial services CRM tools can even include notes from customer interactions with any employee within the company and also perform lead scoring that can help to rank customers and prospects for the sales teams to prioritize their efforts.

For managers working in a financial organization this data stored in the CRM database, can provide crucial insights into performance- such as their progress towards individual sales targets, or identify factors that are most important for retention of their existing customers.

Connecting CRM Data And Sales

According to research done by a major CRM vendor of global repute, it shows that CRM can boost sales by up to 29 percent.

Now an increase in sales is not the only improvement that CRM software can offer to its users. As one of the most popular vendors of MCA CRM tools, we know there are also several studies done on this business growth technology that shows using a CRM sales forecasting accuracy of the sales teams can grow by some 42 percent.

This is because while using CRM sales reps can spend more time on accomplishing high-value tasks and less time entering or searching customer information, which ultimately translates to happier sales staff in an organization that can help improve the bottom line.

Take Away

Hence the four most important ways that a financial institution can find more value from a CRM software for financial services industry is by harvesting more opportunities through immediate connection to the past conversation and requests that are done by a prospect or a customer, identifying key interactions that help build trust with the customers, find the right type of prospects that is in line with the services offered by the organization, and finally, by providing improved customer service through enhanced customer knowledge, since modern easy to use CRM is a tool that is capable of disseminating up-to-date knowledge in real-time to everyone involved that can boost marketing and sales efforts and more importantly help retain the customers years after their first agreement with any finance-related businesses.

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