Craig began SalesNexus 17 years ago to help businesses reach new customers. In short, to manage customer relationships and grow scales. Therefore, SalesNexus implemented all elements of sales and marketing in one platform. In addition, SalesNexus also works with marketing automation and generate leads for companies.
Listen to Craig Klein talk about SalesNexus. The art of sales and more on this episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur above.
UpMyInfluence is an Influence Agency dedicated to turning thoughtful entrepreneurs into media celebrities. To increasing their authority, influence and revenue. To learn how we can help you, check out Josh’s free webinar.
Recently, Lori Jones of the Integrate & Ignite Podcast interviewed Craig Klein, CEO of SalesNexus to discuss the topic of How to Align Sales & Marketing through CRM & Marketing Automation.
Listen in on his conversation with host Lori Jones as they discuss email marketing, lead generation, and finding your perfect customer.
Using a free account with Zapier, you can integrate SalesNexus with thousands of apps that you use every day.
Today we’ll be showing you how easy it is to integrate with FullContact, a business card management Management App that allows you to take a picture of a business card and have it automatically be uploaded as a new contact into your SalesNexus CRM.
Imagine you, at an expo or trade show event, dazzling your new contacts when you whip out your phone to screenshot their business card and say “Once I get home, my CRM will automatically alert me to follow up with you.” How cool is that?
FullContact use does requires a paid subscription to Contacts+, however, for a limited time, contact sales@sn9.fifoma.com when you set your zap up, and we’ll give you a credit to your Salesnexus account to help out (limited time promotion).
How to Integrate FullContact (Contacts+) and SalesNexus CRM
Once done, Click “Make a Zap” in the upper right hand corner.
Choose the FullContact App and Trigger Event ” New Business Card Transcribed in Contacts+ “
Choose your FullContact account or “Add a New Account”
Enter Your Login Credentials for FullContact and click “Sign in”
Confirm that you want to allow Zapier to connect your FullContact account by clicking ” Yes, Continue” . You’ll have the option to add Teams or Tags. You can leave this blank and move on.
Once your FullContact account is synced, you will have the option to test, by automatically pulling in any business cards you’ve already uploaded through the Contacts + app. For now, you can click “Skip Test” to move to the next step and do this part later.
Now you want to set up what happens in SalesNexus once you snap a photo of any business card in the Contacts+ App.
Click the Blue + sign at the bottom to start the next step!
Under “Choose App & Event” search for SalesNexus.
Then under “Choose Action Event” choose “Create Contact”
Next, you’re on to Step 2!
Choose your SalesNexus account by clicking “Add a New Account” Or searching for your SalesNexus account.
Enter in your SalesNexus login credentials, and submit the information by selecting “Yes, Continue”.
Now it’s time to customize how the Contact will appear in SalesNexus!
Under “Customize Contact”, fill in the fields below as shown in the example images.
Almost done! Once you’ve clicked continue, Zapier will ask to “Find Data” and bring in a sample contact from the Contacts+ App to send to SalesNexus to Test your Zap.
To test your new Zap setup by sending a Test Contact to SalesNexus, click “Test and Continue” to move on.
Now, if you are on a paid zapier plan, you can add one final step. (Free plans don’t get more than one step). Skip this step if you don’t want to upgrade or aren’t on a paid plan.
This next part will create a task in SalesNexus for you alerting you every time a Contact is added from the app into SalesNexus so that you can remember to follow up after an event.
Your’re going to click the blue + sign one more time, choose SalesNexus as your app, and “create activity” as your action event.
Then you’ll fill in your SalesNexus account info again, as you’ve done previously. Now, under “Customize Activity” fill in the below information exactly, and under email address search for “work email”.
And done! This is how your finished zap will look.
Final Step
Make sure your zap is turned on by going to “My Zaps” in Zapier and ensuring your zaps toggled “on”.
You’re done! Congrats!
Snap a photo of a business card with the Contacts+ app, wait for them to transcribe the contact info, once it’s been transcribed, it will automatically add the contact to your SalesNexus account.
Plus, if you added the last step, it will add a task for you to follow up with that contact to your SalesNexus task list.
Login to your SalesNexus and check under Menu> Contacts > View Contacts to find your contact.
The biggest failure in sales is follow up. On average sellers follow up twice when they need to follow up at least 8 times.
What are some of the characteristics to automate follow up?
Lead nurture is a necessity for follow up. Automating the process demands having a CRM.
Use a drip campaign for the majority of leads who never get back to you.
Follow up emails should not be salesy. Instead they should share free advice similar to blog posts.
Simple little emails is the focus to automate Follow Up
KPIs Matter
We talked at length on what data to collect and when. The most important metrics are KPIs, Key Performance Indicators:
Every business is different. Don’t take the metrics out of the box, focus on data that make sense for you.
Number of calls, number of new leads are a good place to start.
Focus on little details e.g seller collected 100 qualified leads. But ask the question, is the target industry correct? Is the size of organization correct?
CRM Value to Manager and Seller
Configure the CRM in a way that adds value to both seller and sales manager. Make the CRM the source of all leads. Don’t forward the leads via email. The desire for new leads will keep sellers in the CRM. Inconsistency shows up when leads arrive all over the place. It’s a killer when you hope to automate follow up.
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Today we’ll be showing you how to automatically create a new task for a member of your team in SalesNexus CRM when an invoice gets paid in the accounting software Quickbooks.
This can alert them in real time when an invoice is paid, what it was for, and how much they paid, so that they aren’t waiting around to be notified, and can take the appropriate next steps.
Using a free account with Zapier, you can integrate SalesNexus with thousands of apps that you use every day.
SalesNexus wants to invite you to our Zap on the platform Zapier! Click here to accept this invitation: SalesNexus Zapier Invitation!
Once you click the invitation link and login to Zapier, you should see the following:
Click “Accept Invite & Build Zap
Click “Make a Zap” in the upper right hand corner
Choose the Quickbooks App and Trigger Event “New Invoice”
Choose your Quickbooks online account or “Add a New Account”
Enter Your Login Credentials for Quickbooks and click “Sign in”
Confirm that you want to allow Zapier to connect your Quickbooks account by clicking “Yes, Continue”
Once your Quickbooks account is synced, you will have the option to automatically test for new invoices/data. For now, you can click “Skip Test” to move to the next step and do this part later.
Now you want to set up what happens in SalesNexus once an invoice is paid in Quickbooks.
Under “Choose App & Event” search for SalesNexus.
Then under “Choose Action Event” choose “New Payment”
Next, you’re on to Step 2! Choose your SalesNexus account by clicking “Add a New Account”
Enter in your SalesNexus login credentials, and submit the information by selecting “Yes, Continue”.
Now it’s time to customize how the task will appear in your task list in SalesNexus! Under “Choose Account, fill in the fields below as shown in the example images.
Almost done! Once you’ve clicked continue, Zapier will ask to “Find Data” and bring in some sample invoices that were recently paid from Quickbooks to send to SalesNexus to Test your Zap.
To test your new Zap setup by sending a Test Payment Notification Task to SalesNexus, Under Customize and “Send Data” click “Test and Continue” to move on.
Login to your SalesNexus and check your tasks under Menu > Tasks > View Task List and boom!
An invoice created in Quickbooks, will create a task for you in SalesNexus notifying you of the payment, what it was for, and the $ amount.
Final Step – Make sure your zap is turned on by going to “My Zaps” in Zapier and ensuring your zap is toggled “on”.
Using a free account with Zapier, you can integrate SalesNexus with thousands of apps that you use every day.
Today we’ll be showing you how to automatically create a new task for a member of your team in SalesNexus CRM when an invoice gets paid in the accounting software Quickbooks.
This can alert them in real time when an invoice is paid, what it was for, and how much they paid, so that they aren’t waiting around to be notified, and can take the appropriate next steps.
SalesNexus wants to invite you to our Zap on the platform Zapier! Click here to accept this invitation: SalesNexus Zapier Invitation!
Once you click the invitation link and login to Zapier, you should see the following:
Click “Accept Invite & Build Zap
Click “Make a Zap” in the upper right hand corner
Choose the Quickbooks App and Trigger Event “New Invoice”
Choose your Quickbooks online account or “Add a New Account”
Enter Your Login Credentials for Quickbooks and click “Sign in”
Confirm that you want to allow Zapier to connect your Quickbooks account by clicking “Yes, Continue”
Once your Quickbooks account is synced, you will have the option to automatically test for new invoices/data. For now, you can click “Skip Test” to move to the next step and do this part later.
Now you want to set up what happens in SalesNexus once an invoice is paid in Quickbooks.
Under “Choose App & Event” search for SalesNexus.
Then under “Choose Action Event” choose “New Payment”
Next, you’re on to Step 2! Choose your SalesNexus account by clicking “Add a New Account”
Enter in your SalesNexus login credentials, and submit the information by selecting “Yes, Continue”.
Now it’s time to customize how the task will appear in your task list in SalesNexus! Under “Choose Account, fill in the fields below as shown in the example images.
Almost done! Once you’ve clicked continue, Zapier will ask to “Find Data” and bring in some sample invoices that were recently paid from Quickbooks to send to SalesNexus to Test your Zap.
To test your new Zap setup by sending a Test Payment Notification Task to SalesNexus, Under Customize and “Send Data” click “Test and Continue” to move on.
Login to your SalesNexus and check your tasks under Menu > Tasks > View Task List and boom!
An invoice created in Quickbooks, will create a task for you in SalesNexus notifying you of the payment, what it was for, and the $ amount.
Final Step – Make sure your zap is turned on by going to “My Zaps” in Zapier and ensuring your zap is toggled “on”.
Salespeople CRM Excuses – Salespeople can be finicky, but you don’t want them any other way. After all, they are the divas of your company, setting their own schedules and driven by results instead of sitting at their desk waiting for the whistle at the end of the shift.
That being said, you still want your sales staff to have access to the top tools designed to boost their closing rate. Of course, the top tool that any salesperson should be armed with is a CRM, formally known as a customer relationship management program. A good CRM works better than the sharpest secretary you can hire; it will remind you of when you need to follow up with a prospect or client, as well as offer you reasons to reach out to them and remain in their memory, such as birthdays and anniversaries.
So why wouldn’t your sale staff want to leverage their skills by automating aspects of work so that nothing falls through the cracks? Here are four excuses your salespeople will typically proffer, along with appropriate responses to help them get beyond their stubbornness and on to increase their closing rate.
1. It’s Too Complicated
Of course, a quality CRM program will be complicated! It is attempting to juggle and control a growing list of prospects and clients, with the intent of making sure that salespeople can keep their promises. Even the sharpest salesperson can be tempted to throw their arms up in despair at first glance of a comprehensive CRM program. It’s the sales manager’s job to change that despair to enthusiasm by demonstrating how that comprehensiveness will serve them better than a human assistant.
A good sales manager understands that salespeople want to be taking action, not inputting stale data, such as phone numbers, emails, and other pertinent data concerning their clients and their prospects. By showing sales staff how to import much of this information from their computers or phones, salespeople will quickly see how to get on board and running with little delay. Often, a little work on the front end will relieve tons of future tasks.
2. I Didn’t Have Input in the Purchase of the CRM
As mentioned earlier, salespeople are prima donnas and want to be treated specially. Sometimes their egos are easily bruised when they feel as if they have been overlooked or ignored, particularly in their area of expertise. To have a manager plop a new program onto their desk with the command to “learn it” as quickly as possible often ruffles their delicate feathers.
Of course, new sales staff coming on board are less inclined to complain about adapting to a system that is in place and used by other sales colleagues. However, when introducing a CRM to an existing sales staff, offering a heads up and asking for input prior to acquiring the software will help immensely and solidify their support and enthusiasm for the new software. In fact, the sales staff may suggest some excellent features that are worth including in the final software package.
Most importantly, emphasize that, as sales manager, it is your job to streamline their work; asking them to do the grunt work of researching and testing out different CRM packages would unwisely take them out of their sales game, which is their strong suit and why they were hired. In essence, stroke their egos and assure them that their worth is too great to waste on trying out different software programs, but that their input is highly valued and respected.
3. Management Can’t Help Me Through CRM Impasses
This is a valid concern and excuse but can be easily surmounted and dismissed by making sure that management knows the CRM inside and out. When a salesperson is firing on all cylinders, every manager wants all systems to be running smoothly and swiftly. If that salesperson is getting bogged down on what should be simple tasks, they will lose steam fast.
Over time, every salesperson will learn the ins and outs of their CRM, but if they know that their manager already knows the ropes they can tap into that knowledge without losing a beat in their sales efforts, thus learning practical applications on the go.
4. It’s Too Hard to Set It Up
Again, this is a no-brainer to overcome. Installing software is never that tricky and by finding the right CRM that will smoothly support the integration of existing data, your sales staff will be delightedly surprised at how quickly everything can be set up.
Most importantly, as manager, being by their side as they are being introduced to the new program can remove any discomfort or hesitation they may be feeling. Even more important, assure the sales staff that regular memos will be sent around offering tips and shortcuts that will help them get more out of their CRM, as well as tricks designed to increase their productivity and closing rates.
Once their concerns are heard and addressed, sales managers usually find their sales team quick to adapt to the chosen CRM system and often the first to sing the praises of automating their sales process, which both simplifies their lives and boosts their income.
CRM adoption is like the Holy Grail of sales teams. It’s crucial to the congealing of the team, strategic initiatives and processes and underpins every goal for sales growth, marketing success and customer service brilliance.
But, like Monty Python’s King Arthur clapping coconuts together to simulate the sound of horse hooves, sales managers often end up making parodies of themselves by preaching to the sales team about using the CRM.
“All I’m asking you to do is put your new leads into the CRM and add some notes about what happens next with them and where the lead came from.”, seems like a reasonable request. Not to mention that the marketing team is offering to send lead nurturing campaigns to every lead entered into the CRM.
Nonetheless, every time it comes up, the diverted glances, rolled eyes and whispered quips during the sales meeting tell the tale. The sales team seems to think the entire CRM effort is just another superfluous management initiative.
And thus, the sales manager feels like every effort to encourage CRM adoption takes the respect she commands with the sales team another notch downward.
After all, it’s impossible not to appreciate the point of view of the sales team. In the end, it’s the relationships they build with customers and the sales those relationships generate that matter. Documenting it all in CRM software is a secondary, means to an ends sort of thing…
But, do the ends justify the means? Well, of course in some sales teams they do… Just watch movies like Used Cars, Glenngarry Glen Ross or Boiler Room. There are certainly still old school sales teams like those out there in the real world, where anything goes so long as the revenue goals are met.
If your company is implementing a CRM solution, then it’s a safe bet that you have a more long term view. In a sales organization that values the length and strength of customer relationships, success with CRM adoption carries with it extremely valuable payoffs like…
Increased Revenue per Customer
Lower Customer Acquisition Costs
Greater Revenue per Salesperson
Improved Customer Service
Reduced Operational Costs
These are powerful objectives for any business to strive for. And so, the fight goes on.
In the end there is one silver bullet that any sales manager can leverage to encourage CRM adoption that works every time it’s tried.
If It’s Not in the CRM, It Didn’t Happen
Next time a salesperson strolls into your office to spin a yarn about the great new prospect they just uncovered, stop them and say, “What was the name of that customer? Let me look them up in the CRM so I can look them over while you’re telling me about this.”?
Of course, 9 times out of 10 the salesperson will say, “Oh, well I haven’t put them in the CRM system yet. I wanted to tell you about it first!”. And the sales manager’s response is then “If it’s not in the CRM, it didn’t happen.”
And in the weekly sales meeting when you review the team’s performance against those strategic measurements, “If it’s not in the CRM, it didn’t happen” is the response to every attempt at obfuscation by the sales team.
CRM Adoption Sales Team Excuses
“I made 30 calls from home after my doctor’s appointment on Friday but, didn’t log them in the CRM yet.”
“I got 10 leads at that trade association happy hour Thursday night but, left the business cards in my truck.”
“I sent 5 proposals out last week while I was traveling and just haven’t had time to put them into the CRM software yet.”
CRM Adoption Sales Management Responses
“If it’s not in the CRM, it didn’t happen.”
Clearly, these are real world situations that do cause some friction for sales people in CRM adoption. The solution is not to accept the excuses, thereby undermining the entire CRM effort. If having up to date customer and sales information is essential, then it’s essential.
The solution is the ensure that you’ve selected a CRM that is sufficiently fast and easy to use. The imposition on the sales team’s time should be minimized. Implement the CRM solution such that doing the critical data input is optimized for speed and ease and available where the salespeople are, not only in the office.
Are you able to say “If it’s not in the CRM, it didn’t happen.” to your sales team?
If not, we’d love to know why not? Working to make CRM adoption simple, easier and faster for sales teams is a core objective of SalesNexus. Leave us a comment about what’s making it challenging for you. We’ll use your input to try and lessen that challenge in the future.
action, not inputting stale data, such as phone numbers, emails, and other pertinent data concerning their clients and their prospects. By showing sales staff how to import much of this information from their computers or phones, salespeople will quickly see how to get on board and running with little delay. Often, a little work on the front end will relieve tons of future tasks.
simulate the sound of horse hooves, sales managers often end up making parodies of themselves by preaching to the sales team about using the CRM.