Tag: CRM Database Management

CRM Database and Blockchain: A Perfect Combination for You and Your Customers

Do you still believe that Blockchain technology starts and ends with Bit-coins? If it is so, then you must not have been paying attention in the way this technological marvel is rapidly gaining importance in the IT world, and it is very likely that this technology will get even bigger in the times to come. This is because Blockchain has opened up a completely new range of possibilities and has revolutionized how the present business processes and technologies work. As a matter of fact, Blockchain technology has the possibility to develop as one of the most technologically superior constructive tools for uniting and securing the CRM database in the coming years.

Do you still believe that Blockchain technology starts and ends with Bit-coins? If it is so, then you must not have been paying attention in the way this technological marvel is rapidly gaining importance in the IT world, and it is very likely that this technology will get even bigger in the times to come.

This is because Blockchain has opened up a completely new range of possibilities and has revolutionized how the present business processes and technologies work.

As a matter of fact, Blockchain technology has the possibility to develop as one of the most technologically superior constructive tools for uniting and securing the CRM database in the coming years.

Therefore, in this article let us find out how Blockchain and easy to use CRM software may be just what you require to bring up your business to the next level.

To ensure a successful Blockchain project, focus on the business problem, not the technology solution- Gartner Click To Tweet

Blockchain means improved security of the CRM Database

As the name “Blockchain” suggests, this technological wonder is nothing but a chain of blocks. Each of the blocks holds transactional records and stays connected to the blocks, which both precedes and follows the chain. In general, these blocks in a Blockchain remains cryptographically secured in a manner that the users of this technology are able to gain access to the chain if they have the access to the network keys that stands as a guard, for eliminating the possibilities of unauthorized entries.

In addition, thinking about how most of the CRM Database is hosted on the Cloud servers, security of the data in the Cloud remains a prevalent concern for many.
Of course, in the present times the Cloud protection protocols have been enhanced considerably, but all Cloud based CRM software platforms have an inherent solitary point of failure by virtue of being essentially centralized, and therefore, it could be wrong for a company to take unnecessary risk of sharing their critical data with CRM vendors of lesser market reputes.
This is exactly where coupling Blockchain technology and CRM Database of an online lead management system is the solution that comes into play.

Contrary to the Cloud systems, Blockchain(s) remains decentralized and distributed over synchronized P2P networks. Therefore, the chances of tampering the whole Blockchain is virtually impossible, since that would require a gigantic amount of computation power, which consequentially reduces the possibilities of fraud and repudiation to the bare minimum level.

Put an end to CRM Database tracking

Blockchain and easy to use CRM system can perform together to keep your CRM Database useful and clean. Right now, the user of cloud based CRM systems across the globe argue in different levels about the problems faced by users of easy to use CRM in matters of duplication or corruption of their customer information in the CRM Database.

Blockchain technology when coupled with CRM offers a unique solution to this ever-persisting data corruption problem by enabling customers to own a single block. Hence, this process offers a unified and accurate image of a user’s (lead, prospect, or customer) personal details, transaction history, and several other vital data.

Therefore, Blockchain ultimately ends up doing good for both the organization that adopts Cloud based CRM software platforms and the customers.

This inherent structure of Blockchain technology prevents duplication of CRM data or corruption of information from causing problems with the CRM Database. Additionally, once you wipe off all the inaccurate data, you will instantly notice a boost in the speed of your easy to use CRM processes along with greater improvements in customer behavior understanding.

Find the benefit of enhanced transparency   

As a decentralized process, Blockchain enables companies to deal with their customer base in a secured and transparent manner, without relying on a financial institution like a bank or third party broker to facilitate the entire process.
Therefore, once you are capable of eliminating these intermediaries, it is imperative that your dealings will speed up and can get your work done more efficiently, while at the same time all your private data will change hands less frequently and you do not have to worry about your information falling into the wrong hands.

Find the advantage of enhanced user privacy control

Security of private data has become one of the most crucial issues in the IT world with more cases of virus, breaches, and malware attacks being recorded each year more than ever before. Therefore, it is not surprising that the modern age CRM systems are expected to address these issues by modifying the way they deal with the private data of their customers.

Thanks to its decentralized and secured nature, Blockchain technology enables the CRM vendors to implement the concept of self-sovereign identity within the organization.

Now, users are able to encrypt and store their personal data and authenticate the same data upon inquisition without having to divulge any details with parties concerned, which is a great boon for easy to use CRM vendors in these trying times of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) data protection norms.

Escape the hassle of lead generation

Users of CRM can harness the power of Blockchain and Machine Learning to figure out, which businesses are most trustworthy in a particular area of interest. In the present times, the existing digital ad-space has its own flaws, and Blockchain is a technology that is capable of changing the way people connect with their brands.

Do you want to know how?

Well, primarily, with the advancement of Blockchain, a single business can no longer control various retail categories, as businesses will have to focus and select their specific search categories.

This implies that targeted marketing will no longer be the central focus and this will impact CRM-based lead generation strategies.

Apart from this, companies will be no longer forced to advertise for leads or purchase new database without the knowledge of where it came from.

Small and medium businesses using easy to use CRM software platforms will also benefit from this system, as they will be able to capture customer attention by earning trust.

Get rid of outdated information with data cleansing

All easy to use CRM users across the world must deal with outdated data at some points of time. Generally, this occurs because of negligence on the part of the users or for using the wrong kind of data importing tools. However, once you implement a Blockchain technology in CRM, you get the privilege of owning your own block that offers the most accurate and unified 360-degree view of your personal information.

Therefore, leveraging Blockchain and CRM technology lets you overcome the problem of storing outdated information, since cleaning out old data, and useless information and keeping an updated CRM Database, improve your customer insights and allows businesses to engage information in the CRM Database in a more effective manner.

Harness the full potential of loyalty programs

The key purpose of loyalty programs is to increase the profits of a business by adding value to the overall customer experience.

However, unfortunately, because of their variable mileage, volatile values, and privacy concerns loyalty programs becomes quite cumbersome for customers and therefore it yields a reducing ROI.

Nevertheless, in a way similar to different crypto-currencies, brands can utilize the Blockchain system to reimage and revitalize the entire loyalty program.

Implementing Blockchain with CRM systems will greatly benefit the customers as it offers a ‘single and decentralized wallet’, which is compatible with various brands. Effectively, the customer takes charge of the experience and companies must contend with one another by providing better deals so they can access their wallets.

The Bottom Line

Hence, in a gist, Blockchain technology will not only change how we approach a CRM system, but this newfound technology also has the potential to fundamentally alter business operation models and keeping in view all that Blockchain is capable of, we believe this claim is a justifiable one.

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CRM Database: Tips For Unlocking Secrets Of Your Customers For Business Growth

According to Search Business Analytics, 41% of businesses are currently struggling to tie customer data to business actions. Since there is little use of the information in CRM database if you do not make it work for you. If you are aware of what is CRM, you must be knowing that Customer Relationship Management is all about making the best use of CRM database to discover valuable customer insights about your leads, prospects, and customers and then turn those insights into successful business decisions. This is why CRM software is important for all businesses. In this article, we will look into some of the ways you can use CRM database to unveil your customer secrets.

According to Search Business Analytics, 41% of businesses are currently struggling to tie customer data to business actions. Since there is little use of the information in CRM database if you do not make it work for you.
If you are aware of what is CRM, you must be knowing that Customer Relationship Management is all about making the best use of CRM database to discover valuable customer insights about your leads, prospects, and customers and then turn those insights into successful business decisions.

This is why CRM software is important for all businesses.

15% of a business’s annual profits are misspent owing to bad data residing in their CRM database as CRM data degrades at a rate of 30% per annum. - Gartner Click To Tweet

According to Software Advice, more than 74% of business organizations state that an easy to use CRM software solution allows them to have greater access to customer data. While Accenture confirms that high-yielding businesses (those that greatly outperform over long-term) are 5 times more likely to use the information stored in their CRM’s customer database pitted against low performing businesses.

However, the big question is, what you need to look at to know who your customers are, or what they want, and lastly how do your business benefits from that information?

In this article, we will look into some of the ways you can use CRM database to unveil your customer secrets.

Use CRM Database for Personalization

As every customer is a different individual, hence they all have different preferences when it relates to their communication and their buying habits.
According to Digital Trends, more than 73% of consumers choose to do business with organizations that use their personal information to enhance their shopping experiences.

Additionally, according to a report published by Infosys, it has been established that 86% of consumers support the role that personalization plays in their purchasing decisions.

This is exactly where you can use the information stored in your easy to use CRM software, since this platform does not only stores names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers of your customers, but all your other interactions with the customers are also stored in the CRM database.

Therefore, take the advantage of using the customer information in your CRM database, which helps to address your customer by their names and incorporate the information that you know about them to show them that you are interested in treating them individually.

Personalize and shape your communications with your customers in such a manner that it suits the need of each customer individually and see how your customer’s perception of your brand starts to improve over time.

Discover Your Top Customers

As your customers are far from being equal, therefore, some of your customers earn you more profits than others, while there are also many that even waste your time.
According to the Pareto Principle – “80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers”

Hence, if you need to focus on this 20 % of your customers that brings you most of your revenue, your easy to use CRM software provides the analytical tools that can help you to spot your top purchasers by analyzing your CRM database.
Similarly, the CRM software can also identify the customers who are taking up most of your time and are top time wasters- customers that are not vital for your company.

Once you find this information, you can focus and treat your top hassle-free customers, provide them with more attention and uncover more business opportunities with this ever-growing selected few.

Become Trained To Win and Close More Deals

Have you ever thought- actually how you sell?

What are the steps that you unconsciously follow all the way to closing a deal?

More importantly, what are the things that you do to win a sale, and if they are really working?

Now if you start digging deeper, you will certainly start to understand which sales strategies are really helping you to advance the deals and which are those that do not.

However, to do this you need to look into the CRM database.
When every action that you take and every document that you send to the prospect is logged into the easy to use CRM system, you can view the major steps that you have taken in the sales process and the touch points that you have registered with the prospective customer. Data in the CRM platform also lets you understand how long the entire procedure takes, and how much time elapsed between each step in the buying process.

If you find some of the tactics that you have used generated higher closing ratio, or have made the sales cycles shorter, you can make that as a part of your every sales process, and stop doing things that did not.

So CRM database helps in making your sales reps follow successful sales processes ever time they are trying to close a deal.

Discover Upselling Opportunities

We all want to increase our revenue, and the best way to do it is to persuade your customers with products and services that they like instead of just bombarding them with random offerings.

CRM data helps us to anticipate the customer’s interests and needs and offer them opportunities to enhance their buying experiences. This is where an easy to use CRM earns its keep.

Converged CRM software like ConvergeHub (the best small business CRM software) provides a 360-degree view of the customers, whereby it helps you to analyze all customer information in the CRM database and pinpoint what the customer is likely to purchase as per their existing requirements.

For service-oriented businesses, information stored about your customers in the CRM database can also help you to send reminders to your customers before their contract is up for renewal so that you can upsell your customer at the right time.

Reduce Churn

Although there is always a lot of focus on increasing sales, however keeping the customer that you already have from leaving, is less talked about in the business world.

Nevertheless, the loss of customers, or customer churn, can crush your business goals.

According to a study done by Kini Group, it has been found that by just reducing customer churn by 5% businesses can increase their profits by 25-95 percent.

Now, if you evaluate the data in the CRM database between steadfast and broken relations with your customers, you can find valuable insights which can help you to evaluate what is working and what you should avoid in your customer relationship management to keep away from higher churn rates in the future days to come.

Moreover, access to these insights can also help you to resolve customer-facing issues faster and make your customers have a great experience with your brand, just by feeling that their pain-points have been understood.

Conclusion

Therefore, use your CRM database to develop an all-around customer experience strategy.

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Always remember, that the main benefit of having an easy to use CRM in place is to manage the relationship with your customers using information hidden in the CRM database, for now, and forever, in order to increase your sales and grow your business’s revenue.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

Proven Methods for Using CRM Database Driven Sales with Best Small Business CRM

Whether you engage with your leads through organic search, social media engagements, or your sales team prefer cold calling a list of prospects- there are multiple ways to drive sales through your best small business CRM. However, when we get down to the real fact, it all comes back to data. In fact, making use of data to facilitate sales is on the biggest foolproof methods for collecting leads and closing those deals. To understand how we collect data to boost our CRM database, here is what we do to create a data insight cycle for escalating sales.

Whether you engage with your leads through organic search, social media engagements, or your sales team prefer cold calling a list of prospects- there are multiple ways to drive sales through your best small business CRM.

However, when we get down to the real fact, it all comes back to data. In fact, making use of data to facilitate sales is one of the biggest foolproof methods for collecting leads and closing those deals.

As businesses will continue to increase investments in CRM solutions CRM sector is projected to become a $40 billion industry by the end of 2018- SuperOffice Click To Tweet

To understand how we collect data to boost our CRM database, here is what we do to create a data insight cycle for escalating sales.

Using the data insight cycle, you can not only track your data, but you can also analyze the CRM data in order to gain insight into the buying patterns of your leads. Therefore, this process can be effectively used to inform improvement in marketing, help in product development and even coach your sales team.

Here is a rundown as to how you can gather data to increase the CRM database in your small business CRM and how you can use it for the betterment of your business.

COLLECTING YOUR DATA EFFICIENTLY

Collecting data for your CRM database can be a cumbersome procedure. Fortunately, you can aid to streamline the discovery process by focusing on the metric that you need.

For example, if you want to collect information on what your prospects are willing to pay for. In this case, your sales reps can collect information you need by talking to them that can include:

  • Whether your prospects are willing to pay for quarterly, monthly, or annual payment plans?
  • How much they are willing to pay per seat?
  • If there are any training or implementation services they demand as an addition?
  • What are the values of those services?

However, for everything else you can use an automated system like the one that is found in most small business CRM software, to capture the data, which in turn aids in speeding up the data collection path. This way, sales reps do not have to waste much time on data collection for your CRM database and instead they can focus on their sales processes.

The automated system in your best small business CRM will capture things like:

  • Which industry vertical the prospect or lead is in
  • Their geographical location
  • The source of the lead (email campaign, marketing events, blog, eBook downloads, etc.)
  • Whether the leads came from your affiliates (sales consultant organization, referral partners, etc.)

CRM DATA AS A COACHING MECHANISM

Once you collect your data in your CRM database, you can use it to find trends around your product. You can use it to ponder at what is working, what you can do to improve your sales process, your product, and thereby your business.

For example, the data that you have collected can help you to implement better educational content on your business website. Similarly, the information gathered about your client’s locations can help you to identify trends related to where the leads are coming from, and so assisted with the information collected and analyzed in your CRM database you can better assist your sales team with optimized leads.

You can also use this data to take a look at your sales statics, like how many sales were closed over the month and how you can implement better selling practices. So that, by looking into each sales rep’s performance stats, you can create a better picture of how you can assist your organization and improve as a team.

BOTTOM LINE

To conclude, if you want to remain efficient with the CRM database that you have collected, make sure that it aids in identifying the pain points within your sales process, by recognizing your salespeople’s area of strengths and weaknesses.

CRM database in best small business CRM software solutions is also necessary to identify trends around your clients and make them make better investment decisions, which all lead to a successful closing of a sale.

Therefore, it is needless to say that CRM data is an extremely powerful tool, however, it is also true that you must understand how to use it.

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Now, if you are keen on getting your hands wet and explore more about how data-driven sales work in reality, sign up for a 14 day free trial of our ConvergeHub CRM software, which is one of the best small business CRM platforms in the Customer Relationship Management software industry.

How Data In Small Business CRM Can Improve Your Sales Pipeline

One of the greatest advantages of using a small business CRM system is access to a centrally located CRM database related to your leads, prospects, and customers. In fact, more than 75% of CRM users say that CRM system indeed offers enhanced access to customer data. In the beginning, sales reps can be resistant to small business CRM implantation, because using a CRM may seem like a lot of work, which can disrupt their current processes. Nevertheless, having an access to historical CRM data pertaining to sales, such as, contact details, buying patterns of the customers, past orders, implies that the key intelligence from your sales pipeline will always be available to your sales team.

One of the greatest advantages of using a small business CRM system is access to a centrally located CRM database related to your leads, prospects, and customers.

In fact, more than 75% of CRM users say that CRM system indeed offers enhanced access to customer data.

In the beginning, sales reps can be resistant to small business CRM system implementation, because using a CRM may seem like a lot of work, which can disrupt their current processes. Nevertheless, having an access to historical CRM data pertaining to sales, such as, contact details, buying patterns of the customers, past orders, implies that the key intelligence from your sales pipeline will always be available to your sales team.

How Data In Small Business CRM Can Improve Your Sales Pipeline Click To Tweet

This key intelligence found from the CRM database is also important because it improves customer experience and therefore allows your sales team members to follow up on leads and prospects, quickly armed with all relevant information.

Here are 3 ways in which you can use your small business CRM data to improve your sales pipeline:

  1. Lead Nurturing

Your small business CRM keep a record of all transactions that will make your sales reps remain informed about the communications with current and potential prospects. It has been found that business establishments that excel at nurturing of the leads generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lesser cost and therefore the opportunity to follow up on leads and prospects is crucial for the growth of any business.

However, for success in lead nurturing, some type of lead scoring criterion is by and large needed that allows the sales reps to prioritize leads relying on how hot or likely they are to close, for without lead scoring often a lot of time is wasted by the salespeople as they chase unqualified opportunities.

Therefore, look for the best small business CRM to fit your organization that will help in simplifying the lead prioritization process, particularly by using automation, to gain control of your sales pipeline.

  1. Accurate Sales Forecasting

Not all CRM platforms provide the same functionalities, so discussing with your CRM vendor about your specific requirements is a critical part of the CRM selection process.

When selecting your best small business CRM, choose a system that comes with reliable reporting options along with good analytics that can aid you to predict sales growth, illustrate conversion rates, and help you to get an idea on the prospect’s journey through the sales pipeline.

Customer data from your small and medium business CRM database is more likely to make your sales forecast reliable and accurate.

This is absolutely necessary if you want to motivate your salespersons to reach their optimal yet achievable targets consistently. Your small business CRM system can not only escalate a sales rep’s productivity, but it can also make your sales process more efficient and therefore contribute to the continued growth of your company.

  1. Smarter Working with CRM Integrations

Proper CRM integrations with other third-party software can go a long way in assisting a busy sales team by aiding them to focus on the right thing at the right time. For instance, calendar, mail, and marketing integrations can automate previously complex tasks, eliminating the requirements for manual CRM data entry across multiple software platforms.

It must be remembered, that small business CRM system like ConvergeHub and others, which can operate nicely on mobile devices is also an added advantage for your sales team.

Research indicates that salespersons those who have mobile access to their CRM are 24 % more likely to achieve their annual targets, where remote access to CRM data is the key to their performance.

As for sales reps, having data from the CRM at their fingertips even when they out of the office and on the go, means that they can follow up on time-sensitive leads and thereby stay away from missed opportunities.

The long and short of it?

The access to sales data in real time by using a mobile enabled small business CRM is really valuable for closing leads at the right time, which is why mobile CRM technology and integration capabilities of any Customer Relationship Management software are the most sought after functionality of all best small and medium business CRM systems nowadays.

Wait! If you have 2 minutes to spare… leave a comment below letting us know what your biggest takeaway was!

Signs That It Is Time to Switch from Spreadsheets to an Easy To Use CRM Software

Sales are up, your business is doing well, and your customers seem happy. Nevertheless, in the back of your mind, an itch is bothering you recently. It is your sales process. Ever since you have started your business, you have always depended on spreadsheets for managing your sales pipeline. Leads in one spreadsheet while your customers in another. If it is so, let us explore 5 signs in this article, which can show you that whether it is time to get off of your spreadsheet and adopt an easy to use CRM software for your business.

Sales are up, your business is doing well, and your customers seem happy. Nevertheless, in the back of your mind, an itch is bothering you recently. It is your sales process.
Ever since you have started your business, you have always depended on spreadsheets for managing your sales pipeline. Leads in one spreadsheet while your customers in another. You use your spreadsheets instead of an easy to use CRM software, even for tracking projects, tasks, and revenue forecasts.

You always tell yourself as an entrepreneur- “If it is not broken, do not fix it.”

However, sometimes in the back of your mind, you keep on wondering, do you have a broken sales process and somehow just do not know about it.

Signs That It Is Time to Switch from Spreadsheets to an Easy To Use CRM Software Click To Tweet

If it is so, let us explore 5 signs in this article, which can show you that whether it is time to get off of your spreadsheet and adopt an easy to use CRM software for your business.

#1. Your Staffs Perform More Admin Work than Engagement

“Keeping busy” at the office is never a guarantee for success. In fact, wasting too much time on doing wrong things can contraindicate success ratio and subsequently hurt your revenue. You must apparently know this, which can be evident from the growth and escalation of your business.

Nevertheless, as you impartially scrutinize your sales activities, it is possible that you can discover that your team is spending time on erroneous things- at the cost of customer engagements.

Now, if you are like many other companies that use spreadsheets, these administrative tasks are certainly consuming too much of your staff’s workdays:

  • Scrolling through innumerable rows to find the right record
  • Shifting close-won leads to customer tracking sheets
  • Keying in every new leads manually
  • Achieving or deleting closed-lost leads
  • Reformatting column and row sizes
  • De-duplicating overlapping records
  • Groping with chart wizards to find meaningful business intelligence
  • Troubleshooting formatting issues
  • Training new recruits on what to do and what not to do

Evidently, your team has good intentions and they are trying to make your spreadsheet system work, but they are spending less time on selling and more time on other non-sales activities.

Do you want your top sales reps to spend the majority of their time on data entry?

If it is not what you want, it is time that you need to move away from spreadsheets and invest in an easy to use CRM software for managing your customer database in CRM.

#2. Your Records are Always Inaccurate

All businesses rely on timely and accurate information. However as time pass by, do you find that your data is becoming less dependable. Well, although some of this may be a part of natural circumstance in today’s rapidly changing marketplace, but is it that some of this data-reliability issues are caused by your spreadsheet-driven workflow?

Do these common mistakes sound familiar?

Typos: With so many cells to update in so little time, spreadsheets are the breeding grounds for typos.

Accidental Overwrites and Deletions: The moment you share a spreadsheet on your network drive or via the cloud so that your entire team can access it, you expose your data to accidental overwriting and deletions.

Double Record Entry: As it is easy to add new rows to your existing spreadsheet, a double record entry is most common when a lead talks on the same day to two or more members on your sales team.

Issues With Formula: Not all in your organization is a wizard on spreadsheets. Therefore, although you may have built all kinds of display formulas and intricate tabulations on your spreadsheet, as your team adds, appends, and edits on the records, your formulas break, which creates disruption in your workflows.

If you are facing any of these issues, it is time that you should move away from spreadsheets and invest in an easy to use CRM software for managing your customer database in CRM.

#3. It is Painful to View Your Pipeline

In a perfect world, things such as seeing the open opportunities for your top performing products, broken down by city, states, sales representatives, is an easy task. However, the same chore may seem impossible while using a spreadsheet.

If you are wondering why, here are just a few reasons:

Data Overload: Consider your lead tracking spreadsheet, finding the right data point within so many rows and columns of data can seem like more of an effort than it is worth. Data fields that are really needed, such as the probability of sales close, projected close date and product interests of your leads and customers often get lost within a myriad of other data of your prospects stored in the spreadsheet.

New Sales vs. Upsells: Since your customer data is siloed in different spreadsheets, you have to merge multiple data sets to the get the answers that you seek. Spreadsheets can never deliver a 360-degree view of your sales activities, whereby you lose the opportunities of selling to existing clients, which is as important as winning new businesses.

Therefore, if you are facing any of these issues, it is time that you should move away from spreadsheets and invest in an easy to use CRM software for managing your customer database in CRM.

#4. Your Forecast is Always Wrong

No sales forecast is ever perfect, but surely as a business owner, you would always feel nice to get close to your sales forecasts once in a while. However, spreadsheet-based forecasts can be notoriously unreliable and wayward, since this inaccuracy involves accessibility of the spreadsheet itself.

Unlike an easy to use CRM software, which can be most often updated even from your mobile device (if your software has mobile CRM functionality), spreadsheet-based business processes require users to be physically present in an office and use a computer to update the file. Therefore, during busy weeks, several days may pass by, before your reps find time for making such updates.

#5. Everything Just “Feels” Disorganized

Even if you are capable of making your sales spreadsheet work for your business, there is one thing that it definitely cannot do.
Spreadsheets can never organize all your sales collaterals like:

  • Proposals
  • Invoices
  • Quotes
  • Customer business cards
  • Presentation decks
  • Technical drawings
  • Brochures and whitepapers
  • Email histories
  • Spec sheets etc.

Conclusion

Would not it be nice to have everything indexed by customer, prospects, or leads, build links between a contact and all its related correspondences and files?

Would not it be comfortable for your sales reps not to endure the harrowing necessity of digging through countless folders and inboxes but instead use a software that will help them find all the right information at their fingertips?

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If all these are true, then your spreadsheet-based system is definitely not holding up its end of the bargain and it is time to switch to an easy to use CRM software, a cloud-based CRM system like ConvergeHub, which makes it easier to find and organize your important sales information even on the go.

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A Dozen Ways to Grow Your CRM Database and Email List

We all know that email marketing is still in vogue and alive. Despite the steady growth of social media marketing and other types of marketing outreach to grow the CRM database, email marketing stands as the bedrock of most marketing strategies used in tandem with online lead management software. However, to build up a powerful email marketing presence, it is necessary to build up a continuously expanding customer database in CRM to expand your email list. Here are some tips that will help you to grow your customer database in CRM easily.

We all know that email marketing is still in vogue and alive. Despite the steady growth of social media marketing and other types of marketing outreach to grow the CRM database, email marketing stands as the bedrock of most marketing strategies used in tandem with online lead management software.

However, to build up a powerful email marketing presence, it is necessary to build up a continuously expanding customer database in CRM to expand your email list.

74% of users said their CRM system gave them improved access to customer data.-Software Advice Click To Tweet

Here are some tips that will help you to grow your customer database in CRM easily:

#1. Have an Opt-In Form

It is really laborious to collect fresh names for your email list if you do not have a way for your prospects to opt into your email distribution system. Therefore, create a simple web form to make it easy for people to sign up. This is the primary necessity of an effective email list management plan.

#2. Keep Your Form Simple

Ask only for names and email addresses- or just the email address if possible. You can collect more information later on after you succeed in engaging them.

#3. Place Your Opt-In Form on Your Site

Place your opt-in form to increase your CRM database around your website, to make it visible in several places. Remember to place it on higher value pages that get the most traffic. Make it a point to make the form easy to see, because few people will search for an opt-in form on their own.

#4. Reassure Subscribers

Write a line on your opt-in page that can reassure your potential subscribers that will not sell their email addresses or send them any spam. This assurance will go a long way in bringing new subscribers as distressful spam emails are so prevalent these days.

#5. Produce a Killer Blog

Write killer blogs with click-bait titles. Since people will always take notice of your publications if you upload a blog that delivers helpful advice covering pertinent topics. The main objective here is to provide insights to your audience that can make their life easier following your suggestions, ideas, and advice.
Always remember to include an option for the readers of your blog to opt into your mailing list at the conclusion of each blog post on your blogging website.
It is imperative that if your blog contents are engaging, your readers will want to sign up and provide you with their email addresses, which will ultimately increase your customer database in CRM.

#6. Write an eBook

Publish an eBook that can educate your readers on any topic of interest in your respective market. Get the eBook with a web form that collects contact information. So that each of your eBook downloads, will provide you a new address and expand the email-marketing database in your online lead management software platform.

#7. Develop a White Paper

If you have required expertise and the capacity to produce a white paper on your products or services, you must do it. Make sure that your white paper presents a solution to any common problem that your prospects or customers are facing. Much like your eBook campaigning strategy, upload the white paper with a lead capture form to find new email addresses for each download.

#8. Reward Them Who Opt-In

Offer a coupon, time-bound discount, or some other form of motivation for opting to your mailing list. You will be really surprised to see how successful even a little incentive can be in return for making people happy with your trivial gifts.

#9. Use Web Pop-Ups

Use an easy to use CRM platform that has marketing automation capabilities (like ConvergeHub) that lets you place web pop-ups on your business website. Use the pop-ups to display your opt-in forms with a simple message telling your website visitors that they can stay tuned and up-to-date with your corporate discounts and what is new happening with your brand by signing up to your mailing list.

#10. Offer Free Demos

Provide your audience with the ability to view a virtual demonstration of your products and services, through your website. Ask them to provide their contact emails in exchange for the demo to enrich your CRM database.

#11. Use Exit Intent Pop-Ups

When any visitor is about to leave your website, make sure that an exit intent pop-up appears and offer a discount or some other form of incentive to the visitor for sticking around. Inform the visitors that all they need to do to receive the offer is provide their name and email address before leaving your website.

#12.  Promote Items of Interest on Social Media

These could be new offerings, discounts, promotions or anything else that is likely to pique the interest of your audience. Share your information on all social channels like LinkedIn, Facebook and others to expand your reach, and of course, let them know that you require their email addresses to take advantage of the offer.

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Takeaway

Lastly, you can also expand your CRM database; by downloading our most popular free application- The ConvergeHub Free Lead Generator Tool, which can help you to captures leads from popular social media sites, email and more.

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Simple Ways to Build Customer Database in CRM

Businesses rarely start to build Customer Database in CRM software when they should. This means companies seldom start using CRM as soon as they start looking for customers. Therefore, by the time you actually get your CRM software, you have hundreds or maybe thousands of customer records that must be entered into your CRM. Here is a simple way by which you can build your CRM database.

Businesses rarely start to build Customer Database in CRM software when they should. This means companies seldom start using CRM as soon as they start looking for customers.

Therefore, by the time you actually get your CRM software, you have hundreds or maybe thousands of customer records that must be entered into your CRM.

30% of marketers say having disparate data sources is the main reason they cannot glean useful insights from customer - Cyber Sphere Security Click To Tweet

Here is a simple way by which you can build your CRM database:

Primarily, for businesses that are not yet using a CRM, make the spreadsheet the precursor to your CRM software. You new CRM system can replace the poorly maintained spreadsheet by your sales team, but then again, you need your sales team’s help in making the transfer, so help your salespeople to get their spreadsheets in order. Clean duplicate records; purge any images or other embedded filters or files out of the spreadsheets, and sort the columns to match the CRM software’s needs.

All CRM applications like ConvergeHub and others accept multiple formats for creating the Customer Database in CRM, but the spreadsheet is most commonly the first among all other choices. Hence, make the first column in your existing spreadsheet the unique identifier in your CRM. In general, this is the account or the company name. Else, you may also use your contact’s last name as the unique key.

Once you buy a CRM, the software will provide you a sample CRM database import template to follow. As spreadsheets are randomly customizable, none of the spreadsheets can exactly match the database structure provided for creating the Customer Database in CRM. Therefore rearrange the columns in the spreadsheet with the unique key field first, followed by all the remaining fields as instructed in your CRM. This order may be a company name, followed by a street name, street name #2, city, state, zip code, phone number, and company website address. Instruct your sales team members in your organization to arrange their spreadsheet’s columns in that order so that the heading across your existing spreadsheets database matches the CRM fields.

Many CRM applications accept the spreadsheet files in XLSX or XLS formats, while others require you to export the Customer Database in CRM in a text file. So, once you have the required file, go to the Import Data screen in the CRM, choose the file that you need to upload and click on the Upload button for transferring your CRM database.

Always remain prepared: It will not work right the first time. To purge this mess, go back to your spreadsheet, search for all the forbidden characters in the file. Like vertical bar (|), or angle brackets (<>), or double quotation marks or quotations in the file. However, after cleaning and saving the spreadsheet file, remember to keep the original file intact, just in case you need to backtrack further for uploading your CRM database.

Now once you have your hundreds or thousands of new records lodged inside the CRM software, you are just halfway done.

It has been often found that comments from the spreadsheets mostly do not make into the CRM, and even if they do it is utmost necessary that all these information needs to be verified and also cleaned up. The ideal way to get this task done (while building your Customer Database in CRM) is to hire an intern or a part-time data entry person to do this job.

You can always think, why is it necessary to hire outside help that your sales team members can input on their own? There are mainly two reasons for hiring external help.

Primarily, making your salespeople act as typists will affect your sales. Secondly, if your salespeople are forced to do the input themselves, they will add notes to the list of their present customers, meaning hundreds of previous records will never get transferred to your CRM. Hence, it is always worth the cost of hiring an outside typist to transfer all the customer notes from all customers off the spreadsheets into your CRM database.

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Conclusion

Now, that you have learned these simple ways to populate your CRM database, we are confident that it will take less time now to get your CRM database into the best shape possible for your start, as a better start always ascertains better results.

Following these simple steps mentioned above can transform your data into a driver of profits, as it has been often stated by many Customer Relationship Management stalwarts that your CRM is only as good as your database.

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4 Ways Dirty CRM Database Can Hurt Your Marketing Efforts

Like it or not, are you spending your marketing budget on programs that bring poor or no results at all? Researchers have revealed that on an average 15% of a business’s annual profits are spend (read misspent) owing to bad data residing in their CRM database. And it is not just the money that gets us worried. Dirty data in the CRM database, like duplicate information, often results in erroneous lead scoring. Here are how dirty CRM database is hurting your marketing efforts and what you can do to fix them.

Like it or not, are you spending your marketing budget on programs that bring poor or no results at all?
Researchers have revealed that on an average 15% of a business’s annual profits are spend (read misspent) owing to bad data residing in their CRM database.

And it is not just the money that gets us worried. Dirty data in the CRM database, like duplicate information, often results in erroneous lead scoring. For when scores are shared between duplicate leads, it implies that neither of the records gets a high enough score to proceed down the sales pipeline.

15% of a business’s annual profits are misspent owing to bad data residing in their CRM database as CRM data degrades at a rate of 30% per annum. - Gartner Click To Tweet

Additionally, pitiable marketing results along with time wasted following up with the wrong lead drastically lower marketing and sales productivity, increase CRM’s and other marketing software costs, and finally damages the reputation of the company.

Here are 4 how dirty CRM database is hurting your marketing efforts and what you can do to fix them:

#1. Duplication

Data of the customers are gathered through several sources, which includes tradeshow lists, web forms, webinars or other third party sources.  Hence, duplicates of records end up on most marketing lists.

Cloud-based CRM system and marketing software charges are most often based on the amount of data that is stored in its database. Therefore, retaining too many duplicates in your system inflates the cost of storage. Duplicate records stored in the CRM database also skew performance reports, making it complicated to base critical business decisions on inaccurate results.

The Fix:

  • Boost the performance of your system with CRM database duplication prevention tools.
  • Make sure that the likely places for duplicate entry, like manual data entry and data import, are duly covered.
  • Create a duplicate-free workflow for all teams in your organization, not just for marketing and sales departments in your company.

#2. Lead Scoring

There are several prospects who often use more than one email addresses or interact with your business in different ways (downloads, trail requests, email opens etc.) causing the CRM system or other marketing automation tools to create innumerable duplicates.

Duplicate entries in the CRM database affects lead scoring by:

  • Score sharing between duplicate leads, whereby neither of the leads scores high enough points to qualify either of the leads.
  • By treating each and every email addresses as a unique record in the CRM system, a score actually referring to the same lead can be split between two different emails of the same entity.
  • Shared email addresses, when they are shared between different members of the organization, all the addresses are saved to one unique lead.

The Fix:

  • Assess the quality of your CRM database and persistently track down all new duplicate records in the database.
  • Be thorough in cleaning your bad data and make sure that no duplicate records are left behind on a recurring basis.

#3. Inaccuracy

It has been found that CRM data degrades at a rate of 30% per annum. Hence, remember your CRM database’s quality always changes over time.

Outdated contact information, organizational changes, errors during entry, and also external data sources affects the quality of your existing CRM database.

Bad data unnecessarily stored in the CRM database, escalates storage costs, which results in creating a devastating effect on your marketing plans. This is because; multiple communications with the same prospect or lead and wrong targeting can have a crucial effect on the reputation of your brand.

The Fix:

  • Verify and then enrich all customer data.
  • Verify all third party data sources before adding the contacts or other related information in the CRM database.

#4. Limited Visibility

Most businesses depend on several systems for gathering their customer data, where CRM is just one of these sources marketers use in building the customer profiles that help them in targeting.

To access the customer information across, on-premise, cloud and also third-party systems, marketers need to be capable of finding data easily and quickly, regardless of errors or differences in form (like acronyms, nicknames, or misspellings).

The Fix:

  • Find a 360-degree view of your customers using a Converged CRM (like ConvergeHub) for creating more personalized campaigns resulting in better targeting of your customers.
  • Integrate every customer-based data into a unique workflow.
  • No matter where it resides, make data easy to be located in your sales, marketing, and support teams.

Conclusion

Are your campaign rates dropping?
Evaluate the current state of your CRM database with data quality report of your database from professional CRM data cleaning services in your city.

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How Small Business Can Manage Their CRM Database

Customer related CRM database provides an insight on the customer behaviors not only to enterprise users of the system but also is a vital piece of information for users of CRM for small business. Rather to say, the database is the foundation on which the CRM software strategies work. As for all businesses, the customer-related information base is one of the most important characteristics that impart the customer-based tactics and strategies needed for optimal use of this system.

Customer related CRM database provides an insight on the customer behaviors not only to enterprise users of the system but also is a vital piece of information for users of CRM for small business. Rather to say, the database is the foundation on which the CRM software strategies work. As for all businesses, the customer-related information base is one of the most important characteristics that impart the customer-based tactics and strategies needed for optimal use of this system.

Hence, the database is one central prerequisite that supports all types of best CRM solution that are available, such as CRMs used for Strategic, Analytical, Operational or Collaborative purposes.

What is the meaning of Customer-Related Database?

Be it a Server based or Web CRM, for all kinds of infrastructures, the customer-related database is the collection of customer-related information, which focuses on current and future opportunities along with historic sales data of an organization.

The maintenance and updating of this database are done by a number of functional departments in an organization, such as sales, channel management, product management, customer support, accounts, and others.

Information those that are stored within the CRM database are customer information containing fields like:

  • Name
  • Address
  • Contact details
  • Contact preferences
  • Age
  • Marital status
  • Birthday
  • Anniversary
  • Professional and social status
  • Purchase history
  • Customer support information and others

For example, a sales manager who is using sales CRM can ideally record past transactions, opportunities, product preferences, customer support issues, accounts data and others vital information using a Customer Management System platform. Similarly, channel managers can record online retail information, details of business-owned retail outlets and product managers may document product preference, and product category explored, products within a specific price band sold and others.

Types of CRM Database

Irrespective of whether you are using a Server based or a Cloud CRM, based on respective purposes CRM database is classified into two types:

  • Operational Database
  • Analytical Database

This means operational data of a CRM resides in OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) database, while analytical data of the system resides in OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) database.

How Can You Develop and Maintain Customer-Related Database?

The database in a CRM is a storehouse of a collection of files (or tables), which contains a series of records (which are rows of the table) that in turn incorporates a number of fields (which are columns of the table). In each of these files information such as of customer, products, sales, and others are stored within the CRM system.

Here is a visual illustration of the steps that are followed for creating and maintaining a customer-related database:

All best CRM vendors suggest that this database always needs to remain up-to-date for maintaining the accuracy of the data.

Types of Customer Data

Be it a Sales CRM or a Customer Support CRM meant for an enterprise solution or a CRM for small business, there are principally 2 types of CRM data:

  • Primary
  • Secondary

This ‘primary’ data in a CRM is the data, which is collected initially for the first time, while the ‘secondary’ data is the information that has been collected previously.

The users of the CRM generally collect the primary data by conducting surveys, inviting customers to subscribe to newsletters, holding a skill competition or while registering their customer’s purchases and others.

All modern CRM software works on Relational Database architecture that is composed of tables that incorporate rows and columns. In this, the tables are connected to other tables with the help of a unique identification number, which is named as the ‘primary key’ and is stored in the ID field.

Database Management for CRM

Several database management systems are available in the market today. Some of the most popular DBMS are:

– Oracle

– Microsoft’s SQL Server

– DB2 from IBM and others.

These systems help to administer and update the CRM’s database.

Hardware Needed For CRM Database

The parameters of the hardware platform on which the CRM database will reside is chosen based on the following criteria:

  • The existing technology used in the business
  • The size of the database
  • The location of the users of the CRM

Data Attributes

The CRM data stored in the CRM’s database must comply with the following attributes:

  • It must be shareable (as several people may need to access it from different geographical locations)
  • It must pertain to a given purpose and so must be relevant
  • It should be accurate (For this data should be reviewed in a timely manner while acquiring and entering data into the system)

Data-Warehousing (DW)

All CRM database consists of Data-Warehouses, which are a huge collection of customer-related data, which are received from several sources. The Data-Warehouse repository can be as big as a few Terabytes.

There are a plethora of global businesses operating from several continents and countries that generate a gigantic volume of data. However, this data needs to be converted into useful information for subsequent operations and analysis.

A Data-Warehouse does this work by:

  • Transforming the data into a required format before loading it into the database
  • Organize the data chronologically and according to the subjects of the business
  • Standardizing the data into a single format which are coming from various sources
  • Conduct periodic updates of the data (This is not performed in real time)
  • Provide updated data for the purpose of data mining, analytics, and reporting

Data Access and Interrogation

CRM is a system that allows users to interact with the database.

This data access and interrogation are performed in the following 3 ways:

Data mining

In the context related to CRM database, data mining is the application of predictive analytics that supports sales, marketing, and services. It finds an association among different datasets and classifies the customers according to their business value to answer the following questions:

  • Which customer your business should target?
  • What is the cost of your customer acquisition?
  • Which customers are buying and not buying your products?
  • Why some of your customers are becoming defaulters regularly?
  • Who are your low, medium, and high margin customers?
  • How can you segment your business market?

For organizations that use CRM for small business and even for large enterprises data mining is an excellent tool that can provide relevant data to the marketing and sales team of a company for marketers’ analysis, which is required for generating sales volume, and subsequently increase ROI.

Database Queries

The queries are tools that help you to access and modify your CRM’s database. SQL (Structural Query Language) is used as a standard language for relational database management system. These SQL queries come in the form of statements such as:

  • SELECT
  • ADD
  • DELETE
  • UPDATE
  • DROP, etc.

Reports

All Customer Relationship Management applications generate reports on a regular periodic manner for analyzing the quality and traits of performance, sales, and many other related activities. The management of an organization, for performance assessment, mostly accesses these CRM generated reports.

OLAP (Online Transaction Processing) technology used by CRM is capable of depicting data at the lowest levels that of a sales rep or of a complete region, which aids in assessing the performance of the champions and question the underperformers in a company.

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What is the position of the CRM system in respect to its Database?

While analytical CRM does work most strongly with the customer’s database, the strategic CRM do work furthermost from the system’s database.

Here is a visual illustration to elaborate the statement:

If you have found this article useful in understanding the CRM database structure, which works for your CRM for small business as well as for large enterprises, we would be happy to know of your comments below.