Tag: Easy to use CRM

6 Customer Management and Sales Strategies to Knockout Your Competition Flat

As a small business owner, you must be having huge plans for your business. The goals for your startup organization may include providing the best possible offers to your customers, sell more than your competitions, hire highly skilled employees, and someday make your organization be a part of the Fortune 500 company lists. However, regardless of all these dreams, you can only make your imaginations only come true if you employ the best possible sales strategies to beat your completion by using an easy to use CRM solution that helps businesses to gain more leads, find new customers and increase the customer lifecycle by managing the customer and their interactions with your company.

As a small business owner, you must be having huge plans for your business. The goals for your startup organization may include providing the best possible offers to your customers, sell more than your competitions, hire highly skilled employees, and someday make your organization be a part of the Fortune 500 company lists.
However, regardless of all these dreams, you can only make your imaginations only come true if you employ the best possible sales strategies to beat your completion by using an easy to use CRM solution that helps businesses to gain more leads, find new customers and increase the customer lifecycle by managing the customer and their interactions with your company.

Effective sales organizations are 81% more likely to be practicing consistent usage of a CRM or other system of record- Aberdeen Group Click To Tweet

We hope that with the help of these following tips, your business will be on its way to new heights by increasing sales and bringing in more revenue:

  1. Follow Through

This might seem obvious, but following through is often overlooked as your business grows with time. For example, if during your last meeting, you have promised to fax a brochure, send an email, or touch base with additional information, then do it. Remember in sales you are only as good as your words and therefore following through with your promises will give you and your company the credibility you need to secure future sales.
If you know what is a CRM platform, and has adopted one to help your business, using an easy to use CRM software always helps you to remember your commitments just in time, so that the promises that you made to your leads, prospects, and customers do not fall through the crack.

  1. Foster An Ongoing Relationship

Making a sale can be exciting both for you and for your organization. However, things should not stop over here. Repeat business from existing customers by up-selling and cross-selling your offerings, is an excellent way to build and nourish an ongoing relationship with the buyers of your products and services, increasing the Customer Lifetime Value of your consumers. If you are a user of a best small business CRM software, it can easily remind you to call your customers to see how things are going. It can also find out their personal preferences, a few weeks after your sale and then send automated and customized email campaigns to keep them aware of your new offerings as per their respective interests.

At times, the post-sales conversation with your customers does not always need to revolve around business matters. Per say, if you and your customer have a common interest in baseball, gardening, or movies, talking about such out-of-business topics helps in showing that you care for them and that you genuinely appreciated their social activities.

  1. Stick To Deadlines

Let us assume you have a sale going through this Sunday. A customer tells you that the person is interested in buying your goods or services; however, that individual cannot close the deal until next week. What do you do? Do you extend the sale offer to accommodate the customer’s needs?  No. We recommend sticking to your sales deadlines helps in building credibility and heighten the sense of urgency around the purchase decision-making process.
Nevertheless, occasionally this policy can be altered on a case-to-case basis, especially if after looking into the customer data in your easy to use CRM; you believe that the customer will not ask for a sale extension again, as the person has never requested anything as such before.

Therefore, talk to your sales reps about individual situations before taking actions to better understand your buyer’s needs.

  1. Do Not Rush For Referrals

Referrals are one of the most reliable ways to build and grow your business. However, it is important not to ask for a referral too soon. Therefore, before asking for a referral, get a pulse on how your customer is feeling about your brand and your company. Primarily, you need to understand that your customers are overwhelmingly happy with your product or service, and customer support before you request for the referral.

For this, try communicating with your selected customers on the phone a few weeks after the beginning of your post-sales relationship. Ask them how they are feeling about your organization and only if they respond favorably, you may consider it to be the right time to see if they know about someone who may be interested in your offerings.

Never be scared to ask for a referral, you will be surprised to learn how generous happy customers can be.

  1. Practice Active Listening

Think back to the last time you spoke with your best friend. Chances are good that he or she actively listened to how you were doing and subsequently for their attentiveness; you came back from the conversation feeling loved and refreshed.

The best sales reps recreate these same feelings by asking their leads and customers probing questions about their business and then let them tell their requirements in detail.

Active listening on your part makes the customer feel that you care for their needs and is not just focused on hard selling.
Make the conversation meander around what you can do for them and you will likely have a loyal customer, who will remain for a long time.

  1. Be Cordial When Discussing The Competition

Lastly, badmouthing the competition in front of a prospective customer is never a good idea. Although there is nothing wrong in discussing the competitors of your brand with your customer and explaining where your offerings stand tall, nevertheless, try to stay miles away from saying something outright negative about your contenders.
Actually, any sort of backbiting behavior will reflect poorly on you and your organization. Therefore, it is always best to tread the high road and be cordial when discussing the competition in front of your consumers.

Takeaway

We guess, entrepreneurs, small business owners who are users of easy to use CRM software platforms, and sales reps, those who use these tips to knock out their competitors, by showing that they are polished professionals are the ones whom anyone will be proud to do business with.

Try ConvergeHub For Free

Therefore, using these tips along with the best small business CRM software solution like ConvergeHub is sure to get you more sales and thereby help your small business to amass more revenue.

12 Most Essential QuickBooks CRM Buying Guidelines for Startups

Customers are the most essential element of any business. Therefore, it is equally important that we must look after them. Now, if you are busy guessing how you can do that, because it may seem to be a breeze in the beginning, but as your business expands the multitude of your consumer base springs up with time. Therefore, before you decide and square-up upon finalizing your favored QuickBooks CRM software, here are twelve best practices that according to him, small business owners should recognize before purchasing their first CRM solution that offers QuickBooks CRM integration free.

Customers are the most essential element of any business. Therefore, it is equally important that we must look after them.
Now, if you are busy guessing how you can do that, because it may seem to be a breeze in the beginning, but as your business expands the multitude of your consumer base springs up with time.
To shed some light on the subject, we are here to speaks in this article about some of the best practices small businesses should adopt when they look for a QuickBooks CRM platform to run their businesses.

Therefore, before you decide and square-up upon finalizing your favored QuickBooks CRM software, here are twelve best practices that according to us, small business owners should recognize before purchasing their first CRM solution that offers QuickBooks CRM integration free.

QuickBooks operates in the SMB market, sized at approximately 29 million businesses in the US, and it has more than 80% market share with small businesses that use financial management software. Click To Tweet
  1. Choose A CRM Vendor That Offers Support

No two organizations require the same functionalities while implementing an easy to use CRM software. This is why, it is so critical that you must select your QuickBooks CRM vendor who is capable of providing you with the right support your establishment needs. Finding the right kind of support for your best CRM software for QuickBooks can be as significant as the functions that constitute the solution.

  1. Think About The Set Up Time And The Ease Of Use Of The CRM

For startup owners and beginners who are in need of implementing QuickBooks CRM for their organizations, the last thing that they want is to face a complicated CRM system that will take weeks to install. Instead, think about adopting a CRM solution that requires limited set-up time and is easy to use for most employees in your organization.

  1. Grow With The CRM Solution

Instead of just adopting a QuickBooks CRM for sales teams , since it does not cost much or is free, ensures that you find a CRM solution for your business that is unlikely to outgrow your organizational expansion. Therefore, opt for a CRM solution that can help your business grow effectively, keep up with your employee performances, and make your organization grow with the program.

  1. Read Reviews On Various CRM Systems

Before you commit yourself to a particular customer relationship management solution, carry out in-depth research on your preferred QuickBooks CRM platform. As, the more information you have on different best CRM for QuickBooks online, the more informed choices you will able to make while purchasing your CRM solution with integrated accounting and invoicing module.

  1. Check If Your CRM Helps Throughout The Customer Lifecycle

Make sure that your selected QuickBooks CRM for sales teams is capable of offering support to every department in your business. Right from Marketing, Sales, Support, and Accounting team members, with what they need to help your leads and customers at every phase of the customer lifecycle with your brand.

Best QuickBooks CRM solutions, not only aids in finding prospects but also helps in turning them into loyal customers and keep them through the long haul, by providing them unflinching services and great experiences.

  1. Avoid Selecting Just for Big Names

It is natural that you can decide on big names in QuickBooks CRM as their reputation and credibility outreach others. However, always remember as each organization’s CRM requirements are different, so select the QuickBooks CRM tailored to your needs, rather than going for the “biggest names” other companies use and recommend online.

  1. Go Beyond Just Features

While choosing your best QuickBooks CRM for sales teams, pick the right CRM tool by “thinking ahead of just the features” in the software. Instead, look for other important aspects of CRM integration, like the amount of available data storage facility in the CRM and pricing flexibility of the solution.

  1. Go Mobile

In the present times, with more and more people using handheld devices, choose the best CRM for QuickBooks online , which can be accessed seamlessly across multiple devices over the Internet, including Windows Phone, iPhone, and Androids.

  1. Look for Personalization

It is important that your selected QuickBooks CRM is capable of providing the personalization that modern consumers crave. Buy a CRM that can send personalized emails and other individualized bespoke communications, which are based on the acquired customer data. Since doing so can significantly enhance your marketing campaign’s, click-through rates and further increase your revenue.

  1. Find who is accountable for Recovery, Backup, and Data Security

All businesses, be it big or small, can find themselves irrevocably crippled once they fall a prey to security breaches and cyber threats. Hence, it is absolutely critical to measure the security of the CRM software and understand the party responsible and involved for the software’s data backup, and information recovery.

  1. Check Policy for Regulatory and Compliance Requirements

Before selecting your CRM software that offers QuickBooks CRM integration free, make sure that your CRM vendor’s data policy and contact guarantee are compliant in handling customer information, especially, when you are buying a cloud-based SaaS CRM solution for your business.

  1. Consider API Calls

Modern day businesses mostly integrate multiple customer oriented business applications with their CRM. Therefore, make sure that you understand the confines on API calls into the easy to use CRM solution for integrating third-party business applications, other than QuickBooks such as Evernote, MS Outlooks, Gmail, RingCentral, Zapier, DocuSign, MailChimp, and others.

Try ConvergeHub For Free

Takeaway

For more information or for a 14-Day free trial on QuickBooks CRM software, call ConvergeHub the award-winning best CRM software for QuickBooks.

5 Unsurpassable Benefits of Using Cloud Based CRM Systems

A cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution is a vital tool for any contemporary sales stack. As your business grows, so does the number of customers and contacts you have to keep track of – which is where a robust cloud based CRM system comes into play. If you have not yet made the switch to a cloud based CRM system (or you have just not made the leap from spreadsheet to using an easy to use CRM at all). You could be letting down your sales teams and slowing down your businesses. Let us now explore the reason why more than 87% of modern businesses function better, with the help of a cloud based CRM system in their organization.

A cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution is a vital tool for any contemporary sales stack.
As your business grows, so does the number of customers and contacts you have to keep track of – which is where a robust cloud based CRM system comes into play.

87% of modern businesses function better, with the help of a cloud based CRM system in their organization- Marketo Click To Tweet

If you have not yet made the switch to a cloud based CRM system (or you have just not made the leap from spreadsheet to using an easy to use CRM at all). You could be letting down your sales teams and slowing down your businesses.

What is a Cloud Based CRM system?

A cloud CRM or a SaaS based CRM system, as the very name suggests, resides in that elusive place, which we in the technical term call the ‘Cloud’. Although we cannot view where a cloud CRM dwells, however, we can indeed see and experience the benefits it provides over the traditional On-Premise CRM software platforms.

This is mostly because the positive impact of a cloud based CRM system makes you feel the CRM solution palpable, real, and substantial in its appearance.

For instance, there are several sales teams that rely on ConvergeHub Cloud based CRM solution to streamline their workflow, that includes email outreach, cold calling, managing their contact lists, tracking sales opportunities and activities, as well as optimizing their process of sales.

Let us now explore the reason why more than 87% of modern businesses function better, with the help of a cloud based CRM system in their organization.

5 Benefits of adopting Cloud based CRM systems

  1. Hassle-Free Installation Process

For a small business or a startup to successfully adopt any new robust software, the primary thing is to get it started easily. After all, software that works seamlessly and moves quickly does not make you invest more time or efforts and resource on that application.

One of the greatest causes a business might fence sit and try not to use a CRM, is the imbibed fear that the installation of the software will be complicated and the onboarding of the business solution will be more of a trouble than it is worth its rewards.

Luckily, with a cloud based CRM system, installing the software is a procedure, which is as smooth as a breeze. As in a SaaS-based CRM software, there is no hardware involved in the installation process, you need not even set up your own server, and there is zero maintenance required for upholding the system.

This means you simply do not require an IT team to supervise the installation or data migration procedures since the CRM vendor will take care of all these aspects remotely.

In fact, as long as you have an internet access, getting started with a cloud based CRM system is an easy affair.

Sales teams admire and love cloud CRM solutions, as SaaS-based CRM is accessible from anywhere.

Most cloud CRM software like ConvergeHub and others are easy to use CRM software platforms that are mobile ready, which makes the sales reps access their important information they need about their contracts and deals on the go.

To access mobile cloud based CRM software, all you need is a Wi-Fi connection and the login credentials to connect with the software’s cloud base.

Moreover, since the CRM is hosted in the cloud, it also acts as a lifesaver on many instances, as the customer database in CRM is available 24/7- not just when you are at the office.

Per say, information stored in the CRM database is organized and accessible to everyone on the sales team from anywhere across the globe. Which implies your in-house sales reps can review the same data and information, as the sales reps meeting their clients on the road.

A cloud CRM is also a boon to the sales teams when anyone needs to make a last minute sales call while working remotely. Using this CRM platform, sales reps can quickly get the details they need for an important sales call or check up on a client whether they are on their tablet, phone, laptop or even borrowing someone else’s device.

  1. Ease of Use

Not only does a cloud based CRM system ensures that your customer data in CRM is always there at your fingertips, but is also extremely easy to use.

The process of onboarding is a different experience for every CRM platform, but ConvergeHub easy to use CRM solution, does not involve a steep learning curve. Thanks to our extremely simple onboarding process, our CRM is designed to be up and running within minutes.

Businesses can upload and seamlessly synchronize existing customer data residing in their previously used online lead management software, edit the details whenever they want, and customize fields and reports in the CRM software to fit into their sales processes.

ConvergeHub cloud based CRM system also allows you to easily generate new leads, send cold email campaigns, keep track of existing customer data in CRM and their communications, as well as send follow-up emails for lead nurturing.

  1. Scalability and Flexibility

Cloud based CRM software applications have the ability to keep up with any small and medium-sized business as it grows and thereby support your expanding team.

This agile and flexible nature of any SaaS CRM solution makes it perfect for businesses of any size, including startups looking for a software solution that can match their budget, size, and most importantly goals.

Because cloud CRM platforms can provide unlimited storage space and bandwidth without upgrading the system, cloud based CRM systems are more flexible than those On-Premise CRM software platforms that reside in the local servers.

This increased flexibility of cloud based CRM systems leads to a greater productivity and efficiency across the board.

  1. Integration With Other Apps

Any reputed cloud CRM in the market can be easily integrated into your businesses’ existing workflow. This is a great news, since adopting a cloud based CRM solution, you do not have to invest in software applications that do not cooperate with the services and tools your employees rely on, to do their job well at the office.

Once you adopt a cloud CRM, just make sure that your CRM software is fully compatible with the services your marketing, sales, accounts and support teams use, such as email client, accounting software, telephony applications and others.

Compatibility is a matter of such importance to any startup’s sales stack that we built ConvergeHub specifically to help you integrate our customer relationship management software seamlessly with other applications you use every day, which includes Gmail, Google Drive, DocuSign, Zapier, QuickBooks accounting, RingCentral, MailChimp and several others.

For viewing the full list of all our integrations, you can visit our Integrations webpage. We are sure with our exhaustive list of integrations you will be seeking nothing further anymore.

  1. Cost Savings

Small businesses and startups do not need to invest a lot to get started with a cloud based CRM system. Therefore, switching to a SaaS CRM is a low-risk business venture, with very high rewards.

The services offered by a cloud CRM software can save your sales team’s time and efforts by taking care of data management so that your sales and marketing reps can focus on selling and bringing in more revenue.

Additionally, a cloud CRM like ConvergeHub also requires fewer resources to maintain, so you do not need to hire a big IT team to manage your show.

Try ConvergeHub For Free

Endnote

Therefore, now that you are aware of the benefits of what is a CRM on the cloud, try ConvergeHub the award-winning cloud CRM for small business that helps you to take control of your enterprise.

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

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

Pipeline management is vital for any sales company using the best small business CRM software. Since, without pipeline management software that offers necessary features, your business will be left with a chaotic and bewildering mess of data that will not be useful to anyone in your company.

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

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

What is Pipeline Management?

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

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

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

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

These steps in a sales pipeline management include:

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

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

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

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

Common mistakes- what to avoid in pipeline management

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

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

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

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

Best practices for Pipeline Management using small business CRM

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

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

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

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

Takeaway

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

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

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

Try ConvergeHub For Free

 

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

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

Continuing our series on easy to use CRM, AI, and sales, let us now take a close look at Industry 4.0, which is more commonly termed as the 4th Industrial Revolution since the fourth industrial revolution will bring a profound effect on sales- and if done right, for the best.

Explaining Industry 4.0

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

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

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

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

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

The Trodden Path Through History

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

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

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

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

What Does Industry 4.0 Have For Salespeople?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Role Of Easy To Use CRM In Industry 4.0

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

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

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

 

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

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

No matter what industry they work in, sales people, do not use their easy to use CRM for the same reason everywhere. Therefore understanding this “why” is just one-step forward to choosing the right best small business CRM for your SMB.

To Love or Hate an easy to use CRM software?

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

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

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

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

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

#1. Salespeople do not want changes

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

Solution

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

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

#2. Salespeople do not perceive the value

 

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

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

Solution

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

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

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

#3. CRM software is too complicated

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

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

Solution

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solution

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

#5. No training or support

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

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

Solution

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

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

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

#6. CRM keeps them stuck at their desks

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

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

Solution

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

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

#7. No time is saved

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

Solution

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

#8. CRM has bad data

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

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

Solution

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

Conclusion

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

Do you use a CRM?

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

Try ConvergeHub For Free

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.

Try ConvergeHub For Free

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.

How to Create a Custom Facebook Audience from Your Easy to Use ConvergeHub CRM for SMB

Most small and medium business owners and users of CRM for SMB would agree that nowadays social media marketing is a very effective and important tool for advertising. However, many small business owners are not aware of all the existing resources and tools that are freely available to create a custom audience for the ads. For example, Facebook is one of the most accepted and trending platforms when we think about advertising on social media as Facebook provides such wide-ranging targeting tools. One of those tools found in Facebook is the ability to upload your self-created custom audience list from your Customer Relationship Management software or an easy to use CRM for SMB platform like ConvergeHub.

Most small and medium business owners and users of CRM for SMB would agree that nowadays social media marketing is a very effective and important tool for advertising. However, many small business owners are not aware of all the existing resources and tools that are freely available in social media platforms to create a custom audience for their ads.

For example, Facebook is one of the most accepted and trending platforms when we think about advertising on social media as Facebook provides such wide-ranging targeting tools.

Selling to people who actually want to hear you is more effective than interrupting strangers that don't- Seth Godin Click To Tweet

One of those tools found in Facebook is the ability to upload your self-created custom audience list from your Customer Relationship Management software or an easy to use CRM for SMB platform like ConvergeHub.

If you have a list of customers that have not been visiting your business page for a while and you are keen upon sending them a targeted ad, as a simple reminder to come and visit you soon, creating a list of the custom audience is a perfect way to do that.

There are a couple of ways to build your custom audience.
Regardless, of how you choose to create the custom audience, the first and foremost thing that you need to make sure is that you have a list of customers that contains their phone numbers along with email addresses.

Next, make sure that this list is saved as either a TXT or a CSV file.

Build a Custom Audience Through Facebook Business Manager:

1. Log into your Facebook Business Manager.

2. Next, underneath the Business Manager Button (located in the upper left-hand corner), click on the Audiences.

 

CRM for SMB

 

3. Click on the Create Audience tab and select Custom Audience in the drop-down menu.

CRM for SMB

 

4. Select Customer File in the list that appears on the screen.

5. Click on “Add Customers from Your Own File or Copy and Paste Data”.

 

CRM for SMB

 

6. Upload the TXT or CVS that you previously created and saved in the pop-up window.

 

CRM for SMB

 

7. To complete the uploading process allow Facebook at least 30-40 minutes and make sure that you name the list in the best possible way to describe its use.

8. Now, you can create a Facebook Ad that is exactly in accordance to your preferred  audience, using your CRM database, once your upload is completed.

OR

Build a Custom Audience Using Ads Manager:

1. Create a Facebook Ad by logging into your Ads Manager.

CRM for SMB

 

2. Under the Custom Audiences (once you reach the audience section) click on Create New Tab and after that click on Custom Audience.

 

CRM for SMB

 

3. Select Custom File in the box that appears on the screen.

4.Click on “Add Customers from Your Own File or Copy and Paste Data”.

 

CRM for SMB

 

5. Upload the previously created and saved TXT or CSV file in the pop-up window.

 

CRM for SMB

 

6. To complete the uploading process allow Facebook at least 30-40 minutes and make sure that you name the list in the best possible way to describe its use.

7.Now, you can create a Facebook Ad that is exactly in accordance to your preferred  audience, using your CRM database, once your upload is completed.

Try ConvergeHub For Free

Takeaway

As an add-on, here is a link to the CONVERGEHUB LEAD GENERATOR, which is a free lead generation software that lets you visit anyone’s social media page and lead generation websites (like LinkedIn, Facebook, Yelp etc.) and capture all information instantly without any manual typing.

Using this free lead capture tool you can save all your qualified leads from social media, Gmail, and even other websites with a single click of the mouse. It also allows you to create notes and follow up tasks to get a head start with that lead.

You can save all these captured leads in the application itself or save them in the ConvergeHub CRM for SMB platform and skyrocket your sales power.

So why wait any more, use ConvergeHub Free Lead Generator along with Facebook Business Manager and reach your targeted audiences seamlessly.

 

5 Things You Need To Do To Increase Your 2018 Revenue Using ConvergeHub The Easy To Use CRM For Small Businesses

Right now, the smartest leaders and many users of easy to use CRM we know of are thinking ahead. Since for them, 2017 is in the history books and their sights are set on 2018. We are sure, you must be having many objectives for next year, and one of them for sure is- “Growth”. So, how are you going to grow your revenue in 2018? Here is a plan to increase sales for small businesses, which we believe you will find suitable for your business.

Right now, the smartest leaders and many users of easy to use CRM we know of are thinking ahead. Since for them, 2017 is in the history books and their sights are set on 2018.

We are sure, you must be having many objectives for next year, and one of them for sure is- “Growth”.

So, how are you going to grow your revenue in 2018?

Here is a plan to increase sales for small businesses, which we believe you will find suitable for your business.

55% of CRM users accept that the most important CRM feature is its ease of use, and that is intuitive and has a user-friendly interface- Gartner Click To Tweet
  1. Clean up data

If your CRM database is in a mess, as in the end, even the best small and medium business CRM software is only as good as the data residing in it, plan to fix your customer data in your CRM database .

For this, ask every member on your sales teams to review all their contacts and clean up the basic information in the easy to use CRM database. Request them to email their prospects and customers to verify the information in the customer database in CRM . Double check the recipients of the emails who have opted in for the communication and then reach out to those that have not. Also, check for empty fields and out of data information.

Takeaway: Any easy to use CRM for small business is the central core for all good and successful marketing workflow, but without clean data, it is a useless tool.

  1. Choose a marketing weapon

Marketing in 2018 is not an easy task, as there several ways to spend your money now. You can Tweet, Email, send letters, advertise in print, make calls, advertise online, advertise on social media platforms…the list goes on. Therefore, even though you can maintain an online and a social media presence, focus on what that will provide you the most bang for the buck while promoting excellence.

For example, if you are in B2B business like us in ConvergeHub, you will find that your prospects and customers respond best to emails, so spend your marketing dollars on sending email campaigns. Test out different campaigns and monitor its results to find which campaign responds the best in your business.

Takeaway: If email is not the best marketing weapon for your business, find out what works the best.

  1. Create a quarterly content plan

This year discontinue doing things seat-of-the-pants and put into practice a quarterly content plan. For example, plan to choose a theme for your online publication every three months that will be of interest to your business community and your customer and then blog, email or post short videos about it. This way you can not only educate your followers but also establish yourself as a subject-matter-expert in your field.

Distribute your content on several social media websites, so that your customers and prospects view your brand as a trusted company to do business with.

Takeaway: Irrespective of how superior are your content, your audience, and followers need to read the information for a few time before they accept it.

  1. Sharpen the pipeline process

Do not let your sales pipeline be a mishmash of email messages and spreadsheets. In 2018, launch a new and detailed pipeline reporting system that you can directly generate from your easy to use CRM software system. If you are using QuickBooks CRM software like ConvergeHub that provides QuickBooks CRM integration free, any prospect or customer who receives a quote from your company will also land on your pipeline report.

Best QuickBooks CRM for sales teams help in tracking customers, responsible salesperson, sales value, product quotes, expected sales closing dates, and probabilities along with most recent actions on any prospect or customer.

This year create a report that will accurately reflect how your open opportunities will affect your cash flow over the next 90 days so that you can plan your ROI.

Takeaway: Be a great sales manager by creating a great pipeline report to keep your eyes on the ball.

  1. Follow the money

Finally, invest majority of your marketing dollars towards your existing brand following community and your customers- that is where the money is. If you are fortunate enough to build up a large list of active consumers of your products and services, maintain this information properly in your CRM database. Next, plan to hold training sessions, events, seminars, and provide other informational materials to your existing customers and fans so that they can use your products better and you can up-sell your products and services consistently.

The money is there in your existing customer database in the CRM- you just need to follow it.

Takeaway: Indeed, acquiring new customers is important. However, know the fact that you will be leaving a lot of money on the table if you do not nurture your existing customers who are already consumers of your brand.

Try ConvergeHub For Free

Conclusion

Regardless of your industry if you follow these plans, we are sure you will increase your revenue in 2018. Since we believe, you will find some of these plans certainly suitable for your products and services.

Marketing Automation Vs Easy to Use CRM- Where lays the difference

There are many among us that think the term CRM and marketing automation relates to the same type of software. Although it is true that there is some overlap in the kind of information each of these systems utilize, nevertheless, both these software systems are very different in terms of who uses each one and the tasks that these systems support in growing your business. Therefore, it can be said that marketing automation systems often work closely with easy to use CRM software, as there are several easy to use CRM solutions that have incorporated marketing automation functionalities, like ConvergeHub.

There are many among us that think the term CRM and marketing automation relates to the same type of software. Although it is true that there is some overlap in the kind of information each of these systems utilize, nevertheless, both these software systems are very different in terms of who uses each one and the tasks that these systems support in growing your business.
Therefore, it can be said that marketing automation systems often work closely with easy to use CRM software , as there are several easy to use CRM solutions that have incorporated marketing automation functionalities, like ConvergeHub.

Briefly stating, automation is more of a generic idea, which reduces the repetitive labor of communicating with the customers, for example triggering emails and others. Therefore, while marketing automation is characteristically used for nurturing lead, easy to use CRM software helps in looking after the resultant customers.
However, this distinction is no longer a helpful one, given the fact that marketing automation is getting more and more embedded with easy to use CRM systems.

Less than 10% of the total contacts stored in the marketing automation system are leads that are really set to be qualified- Forrester Research (2016) Click To Tweet

What Is Marketing Automation?

Marketing communication is all about effective, low-cost communication with customers and prospect, which implies email and social media communications. All marketing automation system starts primarily with email blasting and adds myriads of features designed to facilitate effective and beautiful mail sequences on an industrial scale. In order to improve the effectiveness of emails, the marketing automation system includes mail templates and campaign designers to provide a consistent and clear path for the customer as their level of interest and subsequent information evolves. The customer journey from basic awareness through curiosity for the brand to the desire for purchase and finally to action is explicitly mapped with call-to-action and contents that are tuned for each branch in the customer journey.

In the recent times, marketing automation platforms that link social media have many features to leverage Twitter, discussion-board interactions, and Facebook with email campaigns and the website.

Therefore, effective marketing automation systems are actually content management platforms in disguise, so that the system can manage its content assets through their lifetime. As these assets are typically stored on the website of the company, the marketing automation system needs to be able to quickly generate attractive registration and download pages. Moreover, since the behavior of the prospects cannot be anticipated in advance, marketing automation platforms need to have an inbuilt workflow management feature to facilitate “A/B split testing” that provides information to guide the campaign sequences and refine web pages for producing optimal results.

CRM and Marketing Automation: Are they better together?

 

Therefore, if the heart of marketing automation is blasting emails, the core of CRM is SFA or Sales Force Automation.
While both these systems operate on contacts, leads, and companies, they run on very different contexts.

To explain simply, marketing automation users are mostly focused on leads, while in contrast, the SFA users see leads important in the short term, as the sales teams will be working on deals (opportunities) and talk with contacts (leads that have been promoted or converted).

So easy to use CRM systems must support the following sales business processes:

  • Lead qualification
  • Early sales cycle (including call scheduling and demos)
  • Pipeline management and forecasting
  • Order configuration and quotation generation
  • Order confirmation and fulfillment
  • Contract establishment and termination
  • Ongoing account management
  • Renewals and repeat orders

Hence, the output of the marketing automation system is obviously the input to the easy to use CRM system. However, that lineage should be only for those leads that are really set to be qualified, which is typically according to Forrester Research survey below 10% of the total contacts stored in the marketing automation system.

Conclusion

Best small and medium business CRM like ConvergeHub subsumes marketing automation under its CRM umbrella, which aids in customer journey management, campaign management, email blasting, and several other features that are typically used by the marketing departments using the customer management software platform.

Try ConvergeHub For Free

Therefore, you can increase the number of leads you attract with a strong marketing automation system, and then nurture them through to conversion via your easy to use CRM system.
In addition, you can also increase the effectiveness of personal relationships with your leads and customers using easy to use CRM software, which results in more sales and higher profitability!

5 Time-Saving Ways To Use Your Easy To Use CRM For So Much More Than Just Sales

Your easy to use CRM can do tasks greater than just monitoring and managing sales. For most, typically you would use your easy to use CRM tool to manage your sales activities. Nevertheless, you should not just think of your small and medium business CRM as a tool designed for daily monitoring of your prospects and leads. There are so many ways you can use your best small and medium business CRM software! Therefore, whether you are looking for competition tracking, accounting and bookkeeping, HR support, or even any task as uncomplicated as making a content calendar- a proper CRM system can carry out all these jobs for you and more.

Your easy to use CRM can do tasks greater than just monitoring and managing sales.

For most, typically you would use your easy to use CRM tool to manage your sales activities. Nevertheless, you should not just think of your small and medium business CRM as a tool designed for daily monitoring of your prospects and leads.

CRM applications can help increase sales by up to 29%, sales productivity by up to 34% and sales forecast accuracy by 42%.- Nucleus Research Click To Tweet

There are so many ways you can use your best small and medium business CRM software!

Therefore, whether you are looking for competition tracking, accounting and bookkeeping, HR support, or even any task as uncomplicated as making a content calendar- a proper CRM system can carry out all these jobs for you and more.

Here are 5 other ways to use your CRM system to help you automate time-taking manual works.

#1. Integrate Email Marketing Processes

Any monotonous email marketing task can be automated and enhanced with the help of CRM platform. You can use an easy to use CRM like ConvergeHub to gauge the effectiveness of your email campaigns. Here is a snapshot of what you can do:

  • Fully sync your inbox to any major email provider
  • Send emails to your contacts directly from ConvergeHub, which will then be synced back to your inbox
  • Use customizable templates to save work time preparing recurring communications
  • Look at a specific deal or contact and see all emails associated with that deal or person at-a-glance

#2. Account Management

 

There are many who think that they can only track their primary preliminary sales in the CRM, but you can also use your small and medium business CRM software to up-sell or create stronger relationships with your customers over time.

Remember your job is not done once you make a sale or sign a deal. Churn is the enemy of sustainable growth in any organization. Therefore, you must use your CRM software to handle the customer’s complete buyer journey, to aid you in growing higher revenue per customer and keep up that ever-necessary average-lifetime-value of your purchasers over time.

#3. Accounting and Bookkeeping

By integrating QuickBooks Online with your best small and medium business CRM software you can use your CRM for allowing your employees to create new transactions (such as sales orders, estimates, invoices, and payments) in your CRM- without requiring direct access to an accounting software like QuickBooks.

QuickBooks CRM like ConvergeHub helps you to find a measurable increase in convenience, efficiency, and productivity, whereby users can view any customer payment status and history within the CRM platform.

Moreover, by creating QuickBooks CRM integration free with your CRM software you can get rid of dual data entry by linking payments, invoices, and estimates to opportunities, customer contacts, or projects.

#4. Deal and Commission Tracking

If you are using Merchant Cash Advance CRM software, which is customized for Alternative Funding industry, you can track deals from leads to underwriting, through collection. Support refinancing of existing funded deals and syndication of deals with individual investors and other funders.

Additionally, you can also administer commission payout to brokers and other funding companies. Easily compare scheduled amounts to settled amounts both within your organization and with external sources.

#5. Create and Store Files

Many CRM systems like ConvergeHub and others can create, organize, and store files for things like applications, contacts, briefs, and more.

Once these documentations are in your easy to use CRM, you can easily categorize and thereafter use them to suit your marketing, sales, and support processes. Storing files in the CRM help find any of the documents quickly without trawling through your computer or depending on your email service provider’s basic filing system.

Conclusion

This entire article is dedicated to helping you learn how you can make your easy to use CRM software your new virtual assistant since there are plenty of practical ideas to inspire you to use your customer relationship management software in more innovative ways.

Per say any business procedure that needs a well-thought-out series of actions, and steps can be managed and automated with ConvergeHub CRM.

Therefore, whatever be your business necessities, CRM is a tool that will be able to help you in making all areas of your business operations more proficient.

Just remember, your best small and medium business CRM software is not only for sales, but almost every department in your company can benefit from it.

However, the question is- are you making the most out of your best small business CRM?

Try ConvergeHub For Free

Step for Finding the Importance of Sales Force Automation User Adoption in Small Businesses

One of the most knotty and predominantly critical problems in implementation and finding the importance of sales force automation or SFA software system in business of any size is getting enthusiastic acceptance of the project. For without active participation and buy-in from the sales team members who will use and manage the CRM system, SFA will almost certainly fail. This is a vital problem since the very nature of sales force automation system and CRM software, in general, is so often based on change.

One of the most knotty and predominantly critical problems in implementation and finding the importance of sales force automation or SFA software system in business of any size is getting enthusiastic acceptance of the project. For without active participation and buy-in from the sales team members who will use and manage the CRM system, SFA will almost certainly fail.

This is a vital problem since the very nature of sales force automation system and CRM software, in general, is so often based on change. Customer relationships are not in the real sense of the term an IT project. Although, IT is important and all easy to use CRM implementations involves computer systems, but customer relationship management strategy and customer-facing business processes are much more deep-seated and fundamental than that.

The Global Sales Force Automation Software Market size is expected to reach $7.4 billion by 2023, rising at a market growth of 10.6% CAGR during the forecast period.- PRNewsWire Click To Tweet

In other words, best small and medium business CRM software strategies and the importance of sales force automation involves re-engineering business processes on every aspect, which touches the customers. This re-engineering of processes usually means a lot of changes in the way things are accomplished and this alterations usually produces anything right from sheer skepticism to out-and-out resistance from the employees in any organization at multiple levels.

Luckily, getting user acceptance of SFA process is a known challenge. Over two decades sales force automation of all sizes has delivered a chain of change management techniques to create, the much-needed acceptance for implementation of the SFA process.

All these techniques hinge on having active, involved, and visible support from the very top of the organization. It is a commonly known fact that if the highest levels of management are not is support and does not understand the importance of sales force automation, CRM selection or the value of your SFA project implementation, your chances of success will diminish consequentially. Therefore, the management of your organization has to accept the importance of sales force automation and buy-in before you even start implementing a customer management software solution in your company.

Nevertheless, beyond that all-important executive sponsorship, there are also several other management techniques which have to be woven into the sales automation implementation process for successful implementation of SFA system and CRM, as illustrated below.

#1. Listen To Your Stakeholders

All stakeholders in your organization, including the management and the sales force, along with your marketing team members and your customer support executives, need to put in their ongoing input in the SFA project.

This input from the members of these teams in your organization must start at the very initiation of the SFA software selection process, rather even before you select an SFA or an easy to use CRM package.

Your team must help you to prioritize and identify your company’s needs and provide suggestions for helping them to meet those requirements.

Try to identify lacunas and pain points in your current customer management system and sales process and then excavate the root cause for those sub-optimal performances. It is the combination of software automation and business process improvement, which will ultimately provide you with the best and the most lethal weapon in securing user adoption of SFA in your organization.

Now, listening to your stakeholders means more than just asking your employees for their opinions during the easy to use CRM software selection project.

Identify members of your organization who are ready to work with the CRM implementation team, provide continuous feedback to the management, and become champions for the project to their co-workers. Doing this will create an opportunity for change and provide an opportunity for tuning your work process when the system or its prototype goes alive.

#2. Meet the Stakeholders’ Needs

People working in sales can be very difficult to satisfy, and so if your SFA system does not bring success for the stakeholders it will most likely fail. Rather it can be said that there must be substance behind the strategy that defines the importance of sales force automation and its hype, for the new system must deliver measurable and tangible value for each stakeholder’s constituency.

Therefore, training in the new enterprise software system is most important to meet all the stakeholder’s needs. Everyone who is going to work on this SFA system, from the management to the sales team members, and the sales admin staffs, need to be thoroughly trained in the new system for understanding the importance of sales force automation in businesses.

This training should provide your staffs with necessary how-to guides, cheat sheets, and on-demand availability of support personals to make it easy for everyone to quickly learn and become adequately proficient in the SFA or automated customer management system.

#3. Sell It Internally

Even the best product or service in the world does not sell by itself, particularly if it means bringing something that is going to change the way people do things.

As in any type of sales job, focus on the benefits to the “customers”, understanding that different groups of stakeholders in your organization are going to realize different benefits while recognizing the importance of sales force automation implementation in your company.

For example, proper SFA implementation in sales is going to lighten the paperwork and help your sales team to sell more successfully. Likewise, the top management will be able to get a clear and comprehensive view of what is going on at the customer level and find accurate sales forecasts by proper implementation of SFA.

In other words, you need to clearly tailor your message to the end users of the SFA system for making them understand the importance of sales force automation implementation in your organization.

#4. Celebrate Successes

Once your SFA project moves ahead you will find several opportunities to stage your successes. Celebrate your success, however small they may be to build momentum and break down the resistance while implementing SFA and adopting the easy the use CRM for your organization.

One way to ensure early success is by implementing SFA systems for those parts that are most likely to be successful. Grasp the low hanging fruits for building a progressive support system for finding a successful SFA implementation journey.

This can be anything from making your salespeople get the message from their customers quickly to a process that escalates the ability of your sales team to constantly up-sell or cross-sell their products and services to their customers.

Look for the niggling little pain points, that can be corrected quickly.

Evolve a stepping stone strategy from ‘contact management’ to ‘account management’ to ‘activity management’ and ‘opportunity management’ for creating success stories with the SFA and easy to use CRM implementation in your company. Once the basics are covered by can advance to ‘sales quotation management’, ‘competitive intelligence management’, ‘mobile access’, ‘marketing automation’, ‘social media integration’, ‘partner relationship management (PRM)’ or various other capabilities, which can produce more excitement for your sales team by the implementation of SFA system in your organization.

#5. Keep Selling

One common reason for failure for SFA system projects is negligence in utilization after implementation of the SFA system. It has been often observed that for all unsuccessful SFA projects and easy to use CRM implementation the utilization of the system falls off from 90 percent down to 20 percent or even lesser in the course of the very first year after implementation of SFA system in the organization.

It must be always kept in mind that for finding the importance of sales force automation and customer relationship management once the software is finally live, you must continue using it although almost certainly you shall find things and features that will not work quite the way you want them to do.

Like the majority of big enterprise-software projects, most SFA and best small and medium business CRM software, need sharpening and tweaking as your co-workers actually start using them.

Try ConvergeHub For Free

Therefore, keep an allowance for customization of the SFA and CRM software along with your implementation plans, so that you can make changes to meet the end users and the stakeholder’s needs for finding the importance of sales force automation and customer relationship management in your small and medium businesses.