If you’re like most companies implementing CRM software for the first time, you have more questions than answers when it comes to exactly how to set things up.
It’s challenging to know how to properly configure your CRM software until you’ve used it a bit to understand the capabilities to some extent.
If you’re company has used other CRM software previously, you may have a clear understanding of what matters most for your business. Or you may have someone on the team that has prior CRM experience in another company. If so, your path to CRM success may start with strategic planning of objectives for the CRM software and then move on to implementation. Check out our Ideal CRM Implentation Plan here.
If it’s your first time to setup and implement a CRM system, you may feel paralized by your lack of experience. In that case, it can be best to simply begin the process of loading all essential information into your new CRM system. In the end, it will be difficult to judge the value of managing specific businesses processes with CRM by playing with an empty database.
Benefits of CRM Software
Access to customer information instantaneously.
Fast, efficient execution of marketing campaigns.
Visibility into lead flow, deal flow and status.
Improved customer service.
More effective sales management.
Increased security of information.
Road Map to CRM Success
Load contacts
Categorize if possible
Organize Contacts
Assign to reps
Categorize
Add emails, address, etc.
Add industry specific info
Add marketing info
Schedule and Complete Tasks
Follow Up Calls
Existing Client Calls
New Lead Prospecting Calls
Add Notes, Documents, etc.
Meetings, calls, etc.
Proposals, contracts, specs, etc.
Add Marketing collateral
Brochures
Specifications
Price Lists
Create Email Templates
For follow up after 1st call, after sale/order, existing client check in, etc.
For new potential prospects
For New clients
Add sales opportunities and sales history
Future sales opportunities
Past sales history
Create dashboards
For sales reps to self manage
For marketing to track leads by source, campaign, etc.
For management – track pipeline of future business, track ROI on marketing
With this information loaded into your CRM software, opportunities to leverage this vast trove of information will literally appear organically. Of course, you can also try applying the CRM software to certain business processes and begin to learn where the path of least resistance toward real business value lies.
CRM software, Cloud Computing and Written Procedures can protect your business from all of the most common disasters. If it hasn’t happened to your business yet, just wait… it will! No matter how hard we try to avoid it, life happens and it’s not always good.
There are a few things that can happen to a business that can be truly devastating. Unfortunately, they’re not uncommon. It’s also very uncommon for a business to be prepared for these types of unexpected disasters.
Your business may be among the lucky ones that hasn’t experienced any of these types of unfortunate events yet. After 20+ years of running businesses and working with thousands of business owners. I can tell you with certainty that one or more of these things will eventually.
The only difference among businesses that have survived for a few years is this: Some are prepared to minimize the effects of these unexpected disasters and some are not. This distinction can easily save any business $100,000 or more. For some larger businesses, it can save millions.
The categories we’ve put them in are:
Acts of God
IT Failure
Employee Theft
Unexpected Personnel Changes
Customer Disputes
Compared with Acts of God, some of the others may seem inconsequential but, the disruption and cost to the business can be equal if not greater.
I worked with a data services business in the energy industry that had an employee join their team, work there for 6 months, then leave to create a competitor, having learned exactly how their operation worked, copied their customer database and enticed a few employees to join him! Business Disasters
Their business suffered greatly for several months and even after they recovered from the initial loss of customers and team members, they had a strong competitor in the marketplace to face for several years.
Cloud Computing
There are several common themes that arise when recommending how to avoid the disastrous effects to your business. One is leveraging the cloud. When your critical systems and information are in the cloud, physical damage from a flood or fire can’t touch them.
In addition, it’s far easier for employees to copy or damage your critical systems and databases when they’re on your local network. No matter what your IT staff tells you, the cloud is more secure. Not to mention that cloud services normally have detailed access logs that can provide evidence of who logged on and deleted all that data, if they were able to.
I’ve worked with numerous customers who had just this problem. A sales staff member logged on to their CRM software in the cloud and downloaded their customer list. First, they could have disabled the ability of the sales staff to do that at all; however, theychose not to. Had that been an issue, your CRM provider can always able to help with legal proceedings by providing access logs including IP addresses, user account info, dates, times, etc. so they have the evidence they need to take action. Business Disasters
VoiP Phone Systems
VoiP (Voice Over IP) phone systems are another good way to reduce the damage from these sorts of disasters. If your office is flooded, your PBX won’t work and so, customers can’t reach you.
VoiP systems commonly enable the use of “soft-phones” that run on your PC and often have their own app to run on your smartphone. This way, when you have to relocate temporarily, the entire company phone system works exactly the same from anywhere in the world. Business Disasters
We’ve benefited from this when the Internet has been down in the office at various times over the years. Everyone can just go home and work there and there are no issues with receiving or making calls.
Written Procedures
Written procedures are one of the most valuable assets your business can have for countless reasons.
Potential buyers want to buy your customers and your revenue and your assets and they also want an operating manual that lets them run the business without you.
Expanding your team is far more efficient when managers and new employees have written instructions to follow, rather than relying on the “tribal knowledge” of a few key employees. Employees leaving unexpectedly can leave the business and customers without answers.
If their job description is in writing, then anyone on the team can drop in and take charge without missing important tasks. In advance of un-predicted business interruptions, it’s also a good idea to cross-train your team so that this transition, if necessary, is seamless and efficient.
Forbes sums up the importance of written procedures: “They maintain control, ensure consistency, enable training of your growing staff, avoid issues with legislative regulators and authorities, demonstrate due diligence and even keep you, your employees, and your company out of the press. In some cases, written procedures may even be a legal requirement.”
CRM Software
When things go awry, one of the most essential objectives is to keep communication flowing with customers. Even if your production floor is under water, an email or phone call to all customers with open orders to let them know to expect delays can be the difference between retention and attrition.
Not to mention the effect on future business if your sales team is unable to operate effectively for a few days. Most businesses have the most accurate information about paying customers in their accounting system.
However, accounting and ERP systems aren’t built for making communication easy. They have different purposes that are more about the operation of your business. You may have the billing contact in Quickbooks but often, only the salesperson has the email for the actual user or buyer.
Of course, if your salesperson goes to work for the competition or is just sick for a few days and she’s the only one with key customer’s info available, you’ve got a big, costly problem.
CRM software let’s you ensure the business has access to up to date info on customers. This should include email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, key contact names and titles. It should also include notes about recent conversations and meetings, copies of proposals and copies of all email correspondence with customers.
If your CRM software is in the cloud, then your marketing and sales operations are protected from Acts of God, personnel changes, IT failure and employee theft of customer information is far more risky and difficult.
In addition, with CRM software in place, mitigating disputes with customers is far easier and more diplomatic. Without a record of the email that a former employee sent to a customer about the expectations for their order, it’s just a “he said, she said” conversation. With CRM software, you’ll be able to provide copies of emails, date stamped notes and proposals and more to backup your side of the story.
The best news is that these types of things don’t happen all that often. Another piece of very good news is that implementing cloud services like file sharing, cloud computing and CRM software is relatively easy. There are lots of vendors to choose from at all levels of cost starting with FREE. Just don’t wait until it’s too late!
Are you nervous about how to on-board them and teach them the processes that lead to success?
Has your company’s past sales training process consisted mainly of a few days of product training and a list of potential customers and a pat on the back?
Have you decided it’s time to change your process for hiring sales people and launching them toward success?
First, you’re not alone. It seems that in many companies, the last thing to be boiled down to a process that can be repeated, managed and scaled up is the “art of selling”.
To build your new sales team successfully, it’s important to start with the end clearly in mind.
Put Yourself in the Mind of Your Newly Hired Salesperson
A new salesperson needs and probably even expects a few things that many companies fail to deliver, and this can cause them to stumble early in their ramp up process:
This is typically tough for businesses to do the first time. It’s not necessary to change the process that’s in place now, only to document what it is and begin a journey of ensuring that it’s followed consistently and measured. That way sales people can be managed based upon their execution of the process, not just their sales results. To create a sales process that works best, it’s helpful to think about your typical customer’s process for making a purchase of this type. How do they move through the stages of the process of making a purchase?
Awareness – the customer first becomes aware of an opportunity, need or problem.
Action – the customer decides to do something about it.
Research – the customer absorbs information about causes of the problem, and possible options/solutions., etc. Here they are primarily accumulating enough knowledge to confirm that they have a clear understanding of the problem or opportunity and the range of possible options/solutions.
Engagement – the customer starts to take action with one or more solution provider – filling out a form on the site, calling sales, contacting support, downloading a report, etc. Here they are beginning to consider specific solutions – options, pricing, terms, etc.
Purchase – the customer at least thinks they know what they want to buy, may attempt to negotiate and may or may not actually make the purchase.
Create a Management Dashboard for Newly Hiring Sales People
There are a few things that just have to be measured for all sales people. Having it in place when hiring new sales people is essential. Here are a few: Quota Attainment, Leads Generated, Qualified Prospects, Proposals, Sales Forecast, Calls Made. See our reccent post for more information on Essential Sales Management Dashboards.
Hiring Sales People that will Make Prospecting Calls
New sales people need to fill their funnel with new opportunities as quickly as possible and that’s going to involve getting on the phone and connecting with as many potential customers as possible. They’ve got to be motivated to burn up the phone line early on! This mainly depends on clearly setting expectations prior to hiring sales people, the measuring their performance and providing lots of feedback and lots of praise when they meet their goals for prospecting. This is the most stressful part of the job for most sales people, so getting sales motivation for prospecting calls down is the one thing you can’t focus too much attention on.
Lead Nurturing is a Force Multiplier for New Sales People
Young sales people just understand the importance of automating and reaching out to potential customers innately. They’re working hard every day to reach out to new prospects and of course, most they just leave voicemails for and a lot just don’t have the time or interest at the moment. But, if they’re calling the right target prospects, its mostly a matter of timing. Sales people don’t have the time to make 100 calls a day AND send follow emails to each one and remember to call them again in a few days and send another email, etc. Creating an automated process to keep in touch with leads via emails and remind the salesperson when it’s time to make another call lets them focus on making the calls and building relationships with the hot prospects and gives sales people the feeling that each attempted call has the potential to come back to them in the future as a hot prospect. Here are a few Lead Nurturing suggestions that can be implemented without too much resource or time required.
Before you start hiring sales people, be sure you have a plan to address all of these areas. Ideally, you’ll have specific plans in each of these crucial sales management areas prior to even beginning the process of hiring sales people.
The best sales people have worked in organizations that have all of this in spades. They need to see that you have these sales processes and measurement frameworks in place or they’re not going to be interested in joining your team.
You’re not alone, across industries and markets, new inside sales teams are growing and outside teams are shrinking or accepting completely new roles.
Undoubtedly, there is some friction between the old pros, the traditional outside sales people, and the new inside team and their management. After all, the old pros got you where you are. They’re the ones that brought home the big account that took you from tiny start up to established player. They have relationships with all the big players in your industry and referrals and big new opportunities sometimes just seem to appear in front of them.
How can a bunch of kids sitting at computers duplicate what they’ve done? Your top producer is probably an old pro and you’re having trouble teaching him new tricks, much less getting him on board with the new inside sales team. This is not an easy task. Sales Dog recently published an eye opening article about some of the fundamental challenges that come up when sales management tries to teach the old pros new ways to do things.
One powerful way to get the old pros on board AND give the new inside sales team the greatest chance for success is to make the old pros the model for the new inside sales team’s processes.
“How can that be possible?”, you ask… The old pros thrive by shaking hands, buying lunches, looking people in the eye, spending evenings out wining and dining with customers. How can your new inside sales team do that?
This is where sales managers can miss a crucial piece. Whether conscious on not, the assumption is that the new inside sales team will thrive through efficiency and volume. They’ll make more calls, use CRM software and marketing automation tools and just touch more customers in a given day. Often management fully intends to carve out the big customers and leave them in the old pros hands because they just don’t believe they can possibly get the attention they need and expect from an inside salesperson.
New Inside Sales Teams Can Excel At Relationship Building
In the end, strong relationships are based on trust. How can your new inside sales team establish the same level of trust without looking customers in the eye and spending thousands of dollars on lunches and beers?
Break Down the Old Pros Process
What’s their process? What are the steps they typically take? What is the purpose of each step? How can your inside team accomplish the same things without face to face contact?
For example, taking a customer to lunch is a common step in a big deal. What is the purpose? What does it accomplish?
Gets the customer outside of their work environment allowing more open communication.
Demonstrates that you value the customer.
Facilitates more personal conversation, getting to know the customer as a person. Hobbies, background, etc.
Creates a comfortable opportunity for the salesperson to ask the hard questions.
Can your new inside sales team accomplish these things on the phone? Yes, they can!
Duplicating the Effect, Not the Process
Sending valuable information or even gifts demonstrate the value you see in the customer. Are there educational books, whitepapers or videos that would be helpful to your typical customer in their job? These don’t have to be created by your company and they don’t need to be about your products at all. In fact, its best if they are completely unrelated to your product or service but, highly valuable to your customer in their job and will help them advance in their career.
One technique is to ask a prospect if they read much. If they do, have 2 or 3 books that you like to recommend and then offer to send them a copy. If they say they don’t read much, have videos or TED talks or something produced by an industry trade association that you can offer.
You can also send invitations to industry events. If your organization has local representation, one approach is for the new inside sales team to tee up appointments for the local reps for a sporting event, industry function or just lunch.
By analyzing your old pros’ process and coming up with creative ways to duplicate the effect of these steps on the customer, you’ll find that two very powerful things happen:
The old pros enjoy being the model for the new inside sales team’s process and become very supportive of the initiative.
The new inside sales team works closely with the old pros from the outset and are better able to leverage their relationships and add value for the old pros in return.
If you’re using custom or uncommon Accounting Software, having access to Accounting Information in CRM software can be difficult.
Giving sales and customer service staff access to credit limits, credit balance, YTD sales and other information typically only available in your accounting system provides a better customer experience and reduces errors, canceled orders and wasted time.
SalesNexus provides a simple method to export excel files from your Accounting Software and update customer records in the CRM software so that customer facing staff have immediate access to information to help customers place orders and manage their account.
Problems Associated with Lack of Accounting Information in CRM Software
Taking orders that are later put on hold due to high credit balance.
Costly collections operations.
Inability to respond to customer inquiries about account status without checking with Accounting department.
Inability to easily target customers that have previously placed large orders or who’s orders have declined.
In 25 years of helping sales teams implement CRM solutions, I’ve learned there are two main reasons that CRM projects get stalled. And believe it or not, that is happening to a LOT of businesses!
As a CRM vendor, we’ve studied the reasons that deals don’t close and by an overwhelming majority, the primary reason is that the customer just never makes a decision. In other words, a business starts looking for sales automation and CRM solutions, talks to vendors, gets demos, have internal meetings about important requirements, etc. and then just never decides on a solution.
Why is that? From my experience, the two most common reasons are:
Unable to Reach Consensus on CRM Requirements and Capabilities
Often, CRM projects start off as a tool the VP of Sales needs but, the requirements very quickly expand to include marketing and customer service functions and information exchanges. So, now there are multiple decision makers at the table each with their own list of priorities. Even within a typical sales organization, it’s difficult to find a CRM solution that has all the bells and whistles possibly needed for Lead Generation, Inside Sales, Outside Sales, Pipeline Management, Contract Management and all the other things that your sales team may want to do. If you take that list and add to it all the tools your marketing team might like to have and the same for customer service, the list becomes extremely long and you’ll find there are no “out of the box” CRM systems with all of these capabilities. So, either your project just got much more involved, with the need to integrate and customize several technologies, or everyone’s going to have to choose what they can live without.
This is where things stall. There may not be budget or patience for building an all encompassing system for the entire organization. And there may not be enough agreement among departments to reach agreement on compromises.
Lack of Executive Support/Leadership
Of course, when you’re marketing, sales and customer service departments can’t agree on priorities, that’s when executive leadership is supposed to make the decisions for you. But, technologies like sales and marketing automation are often a bottom up decision internally. Management closer to the sales and marketing departments recognize the need but, executive management can’t see how it directly impacts the bottom line.
So, the Sales VP and the Marketing Director pitch executive management on a project that is massive in scope, in order to accommodate all the constituencies. And that’s not likely to fly anywhere.
Or perhaps leadership is completely out of the loop, which as described above, leaves no referee to prioritize requirements and so, no vendor can be agreed on and everyone just loses patience and goes back to work with the tools they have at hand.
Believe it or not, a large portion of successful businesses in the US do not have a CRM solution implemented. And the reasons are above.
So, if you’re CRM dreams have stalled, the answer is to sell the concept to the C level first. Get them on board and get boundaries from the C suite and focus all requirements discussions and vendor demos within those boundaries.
If your CRM project has stalled for budgetary reasons, let a SalesNexus consultant tell you about our CRM Implementation packages that help document requirements and workflows and set things up quickly and affordably.
Of course, when we typically think about the ethics of our companies, we think of our values, mission statement, HR, accounting and even production. Shareholders, the board and management establish the values, HR communicates those values to the staff, marketing communicates them to customers and of course, customers experience our values and ethics directly in the quality of our products and services.
Sure, your sales people may be trained to talk about your company’s values and the quality of your services in discussions with customers but, most of us leave a HUGE loophole for ethical missteps by sales people and therefore your company.
That loophole is the gulf that can exist between customer expectations and the actual product/service you provide.
In every conversation with a customer, sales people hear questions that demand detailed explanation. But, for many reasons, that detailed explanation is not always forthcoming.
Don’t get me wrong… often in a presentation to a group of potential customers, the questions and answers are flying around faster than anyone can truly keep track of. And so, its inevitable that some customers will get unrealistic expectations about things both trivial and consequential.
Sales Ethics
Experienced sales people know the difference between the details and the important issues. Your sales team is truly representing the ethics of your company when they are trained and required to address those consequential issues thoroughly so there are no misunderstandings. If your sales team is free to keep on moving through their presentation when those issues come up, you’re guilty of unethical behavior, at least by omission, if not by commission.
Think of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. As the scandal unfolded, management first claimed the software modifications that allowed vehicles to falsely beat emissions tests where implemented by a few rogue software engineers without the knowledge of anyone in leadership. Of course, it later came out that upper management was well aware of what was being done.
VW management was pretending ignorance.
Now, you know how customers can get misled or misunderstand what to expect in a product like yours. It’s all very innocent. No salesperson is required to actually tell a lie. All they have to do is let the customer assume things that your customers often assume.
And that is your sales person and your company pretending ignorance.
Sorry to lay this burden at your feet but, it’s as clear as day once you consider the implications for your customers of making common assumptions about features, service response times, refund policies, etc.
Sales Ethics is the Road Less Traveled
The good news is that taking the high road is the road less traveled.
Train your sales team to listen for the comments and questions from customers that indicate they may be making a false assumption about what their experience of your products, services and your company will be.
Train the sales team to stop the conversation boldly when these issues come up and arm them with clarifying statements, slides, demonstrations, specs and articles.
Sales Ethics Example
“I’m sorry Mr. Jones, I need to stop us here. I heard someone on your team ask if the XJ9000 has this or that feature. I want to be sure I address that because frankly, it’s one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of our product. It’s my job to help you find a solution that fits you best and I want to be sure you’re as clear as possible about what to expect. Honestly, I’ve worked with a lot of companies like yours that have worked with our competitors and it’s pretty common that they’ve had a bad experience due to a misunderstanding about seemingly small details like this. I don’t want that to happen to you. So, let me explain how that really works…..”
Another good technique is to create a checklist in your CRM solution that’s easy for the salesperson to checkoff as they address each common misconception, etc. And, your marketing automation system can educate customers with easy to create content like “5 Common Surprises Your Product Buyers Don’t Like”.
Sales people are the ethical standard bearers of your company. Obviously, if they lie or are unprofessional, it reflects poorly on your company. Also, if they leave the opportunity for misconceptions, misunderstandings or false expectations to exist, they are leaving the door wide open to the same impression being created.
What is the buying process your customers goes through? It’s not because they saw an awesome presentation, it’s because they have a need or a problem that is affecting them on an emotional level. Even in business situations, people buy for emotional reasons.
Excerpted from Inside-Out Selling
We all have pretty basic emotional needs, and in the end, every purchase can be tied back to satisfying one or more of those needs. The business reasons for the purchase are just the rationalization of that emotional need. The technical reasons are just another way of rationalizing the need.
“Why did you buy those expensive new headphones?”, she asks me. “Because I’m editing all of this audio for our Youtube videos and those cheap ones didn’t have the frequency range to let me filter out the static properly.”, I say. When the real truth is that I have been watching Youtube videos about how to make awesome, professional videos and the “experts” all use these expensive headphones and I want to feel like and look like an expert.
Buying Phases
Many buyers cannot identify the real emotional reasons they’re making a purchase themselves because, they are not always conscious of it. This is why typical television advertising works so well. I want to feel and look like the people I see in the ad so I buy the weight loss product whose name you mention at the end.
Salespeople can best maximize their opportunity by developing a keen sense of where the buyer is in the process.
The buyer may not be able to say that they’re unhappy with their job and would like a trip to Vegas to blow off steam, but, when presented with an opportunity to do just that, which can be rationalized as making an investment in marketing at a trade show, they might move mountains to make it happen.
Most B2B sales discussions never touch on the emotional aspects. It can be perceived as inappropriate in a professional setting. There may be more than one person influencing the decision, and they’ll each have their own emotions of course. Typically, the conversation centers on the business and technical rationalizations for the purchase.
Company’s frequently agonize over defining their sales process for the purpose of measuring sales activities and tracking sales opportunities in their CRM software. However, creating a sales process before understanding your customer’s buying process can be a catastrophic mistake.
Every buying process goes through the exact same phases that may be at an emotional, business, or technical level (or all three).
Awareness – the customer first becomes aware of an opportunity, need or problem.
Action – the customer decides to do something about it.
Research – the customer absorbs information about causes of the problem, and possible options/solutions., etc. Here they are primarily accumulating enough knowledge to confirm that they have a clear understanding of the problem or opportunity and the range of possible options/solutions.
Engagement – the customer starts to take action with one or more solution provider – filling out a form on the site, calling sales, contacting support, downloading a report, etc. Here they are beginning to consider specific solutions – options, pricing, terms, etc.
Purchase – the customer at least thinks they know what they want to buy, may attempt to negotiate and may or may not actually make the purchase.
Here’s a breakdown of the emotional state of the buyer, and “do’s”/”don’ts” for each phase:
Awareness
Emotional State: Emotions high. Possibly scared or excited. Possibly not all that rational.
Don’t: Offer solutions. Quote prices. Be Aggressive. Start talking about yourself. Don’t fix.
Do: Be empathetic. Ask open ended questions. Get them talking about the story behind the situation. Keep the focus of the conversation on them. Help them process this new situation by listening. Use validating statements – “That must have been tough.” “I bet that made you angry.” “Were you scared?” “How did you feel about that?” “Tell me more about that.” Keeping them talking by using open ended questions helps keep them engaged and increases the opportunity of moving the conversation to the next stages. Keeping them talking is a great sign that the conversation is moving forward . Always use open ended questions, Not Yes or No questions.
Action
Emotional State: Resolved. Curious. Possibly jumping to conclusions.
Don’t: Jump to the purchase phase! Suggest solutions, and. Tell them what they should do.
Do: Help them rationalize the potential purchase and. Help them envision themselves in the future once the solution is in place. Ask questions like “What will you do with your time once this is over/fixed?” “How will you feel once this is all over?” Help them envision the realistic decision making process – “Who else will be involved in making this kind of change?” “Do you think they see the problem the way you do?”
Don’t: Quote prices. Provide spec sheets or brochures or contracts. Get defensive if they’re investigating options that aren’t in your sweet spot.
Do: Tell stories about other customers. Share case studies. Provide educational materials. Share informative but neutral content (not sales pitches or brochures).
Engagement
Emotional State: Ready to talk. Open to discussions, meetings, presentations, etc. Coordinating. Accommodating.
Don’t: Jump to Closing or Asking for the Order.
Do: Help them be sure they’ve thought of everything and are being thorough. Ask for written requirements docs, and offer to help them document the requirements. Revisit who’s involved in the decision. Ask about budget authority.
Purchase
Emotional State: Get it done mode. Open and honest. Negotiating.
Don’t: Assume you’re the only vendor they’re having this conversation with. Buyers often “pretend” to be in buying mode when they’re not. Don’t assume the person you’re talking with has the sole authority to execute the purchase.
Excerpted from Inside-Out Selling
Do: Qualify their readiness to make the purchase. “When do you need to have this up and running/in place/delivered?” “Are there others that need to be part of this decision?” “Are you still considering other vendors/solutions?” “Who will be involved in the implementation? What’s their availability for this
But, there much more to it than that. First, the study showed that reducing costs and improving IT infrastructure are also popular priorities amongst SMBs.
What’s more, lead generation can be anything from cost neutral to extremely expensive. And of course the methods and mediums are varied. The Great Online predicts that video, mobile and messaging will be top trends in 2017 within the digital advertising space.
For those new to it, producing videos may seem like a steep cliff to jump off. And after the last several years, what business has room to squeeze out more cost savings?
What if there were a way to attract and retain more customers, reduce costs and improve IT infrastructure all at once?
Let’s face it… The greatest challenge most sales teams wrestle with is prospecting. Lead Generation. If you’re sales team focuses 10 or 20 percent more time on finding new leads and getting referrals, how could that impact new customer acquisition? And the fastest way to keep salespeople focused on lead generation is setting goals and expectations and holding them accountable. Here’s an article on setting metrics for sales teams and how to measure performance.
One of the greatest challenges to implementing a CRM solution that generates leads, retains customers and improves infrastructure is that it crosses many traditional departmental boundaries and requires the expertise in several functional areas of the business.
So, most businesses will have more of a shot gun approach to achieving their goals in 2017. They’ll create a handful of distinct customer acquisition and lead generation campaigns and they’ll have a separate group that works on reducing costs and the IT team will focus on updating their infrastructure. All separate and distinct and more likely to conflict with each other than to enable or “synergize”.
The prescription for achieving everything you’re hoping for in 2017 might just be to invest the time to look at the overall customer experience and the workflows that support customers’ experiences, especially as they move from one department to another. In the course of as little as a few hours, the low hanging fruit will appear.
And the past of least resistance and greatest, most assured return will most likely be to do less, not more. To simplify workflows with automation and integration of systems and information and to help salespeople focus on the right customers at the right time.
customers and a pat on the back?
their management. After all, the old pros got you where you are. They’re the ones that brought home the big account that took you from tiny start up to established player. They have relationships with all the big players in your industry and referrals and big new opportunities sometimes just seem to appear in front of them.
