Category: CRM 101

What is Field Force Automation and How To Get Started?

Posted on March 8, 2021 by - CRM 101

Field force automation

Think about all that you can do if you could get in touch with your onsite technicians in real-time without necessarily being intrusive? You can easily schedule routine services, perform onsite issue fixes and installations, track work progress, and record every equipment movement from inventory to onsite with no added burden on your work force working hours.

Field force automation is the kind of technology that lets you achieve efficiency with all of your customer site-related operations. This technology enables universal access from different devices like PDAs, mobile phones, laptops, and more, letting your field technicians share real-time information with your core team. It combines the power of technology and manpower to provide an easily trackable and efficient onsite work process.

What Is Field Force Automation?

In a strict sense, field force automation helps create workflows and track them through the various stages of a work process lifecycle. The latest features field force automation includes onsite employee tracking in real-time through GPS, as well as advanced collaboration tools.

For instance, say you have deployed a sales representative to demonstrate a product to a prospective client. Using field force automation, you can let your sales team instruct the field reps efficiently and give them remote assistance to do their jobs correctly. Additionally, you can also track the movement of your product equipment for safe transit and on-time delivery.

Unlike regular enterprise applications tied to an organization’s intranet, field force automation software can be accessed from any remote location with the proper credentials.

Field Force Automation Benefits

Better Efficiency

Field operations are often meddled with too much paperwork that can eat up productive hours. It can also have many repetitive work and chances for manual errors leading to inaccurate work tracking.

An automated system inherently solves this issue by digitizing all your work artifacts. Field agents can clock in and out quickly, thus enabling you to track their work hours accurately. Inventory management can be efficiently carried out with minimal errors. All necessary documents and customer interactions can be duly recorded and stored in your secure cloud storage.

Information can also be shared with the back office teams instantly, reducing a huge amount of delay that is encountered otherwise. You also get intuitive dashboards that present information at a single glance, helping make quick and accurate decisions.

Automatic Task Assignment

Getting the right field agent for the job can be an absolute head buster moment. Each minute to onsite issue resolution counts in terms of revenue. Finding the right resources and assigning them to a task at hand can be automated with field force management tools. Some advanced tools also use workflow automation to optimize resource scheduling, which adds more value to your business.

Boost Employee Morale

Field force management software eliminates the need for micromanagement. With features like geocaching, real-time alerts, and updates, you don’t have to expend so much personal interaction to follow up on your onsite operations. Information is made available instantly, reducing friction and communication gaps between your field agents and back-office managers.

Both on-field agents and back-office teams are provided with access to common data allowing for better coordination and collaboration.

Better Customer Experience

This goes without saying as when your efficiency increases, the customer ends up feeling happy and satisfied. Field service automation allows you to incorporate business intelligence modules to improve your customer site operations.

Mobile sales force automation allows for accurate data reporting and faster time to issue resolutions, which helps with accurate billing and better service delivery.

Getting Started With Field Force Management

The first step is to educate yourself about the various field force management benefits and the possible capabilities it can bring to your business. Identify your business process needs and the spaces where field force automation can be applied for greater efficiency.

Evaluate your chosen tools against your needs and determine the business process changes required to implement the field force solution.

Determine the changes you need to introduce and establish the required policy changes across your organization. Identify the tasks that need to be automated like instant task allocation, lead management, route planning, geo-fencing, geo-tracking, and field attendance and payout management, the various reports required, and so on.

Try to adopt a phased approach to adopting your field force solution. Take time to train your employees and foster the necessary company culture that promotes collaboration and technology use.

💡 Takeaways

Field force management presents a huge potential to drive up your sales and foster better customer rapport, which every growing business can use.

So, are you all set to get started with field force automation, but the whole task sounds a bit overwhelming? Do not worry. GoCRM is here to help. Contact us and request your free demo today!

How to Use CRM More Effectively?

Posted on February 15, 2021 by - CRM 101

How to use CRM more effectively

Customer Relationship Management – the three words that can make or break a business. A CRM enables an organization to manage all the customer records, contacts, and other relevant information. When you learn to use the CRM software to its full potential, you will see that it can be a lot more than just a database of customer contacts.

There are many advantages to having an optimized CRM implementation. It provides enhanced customer experience, increases productivity, and equips you with better insights into making your business deals and sales more profitable.

Let us guide you into making an efficient CRM implementation and use it to reap all the benefits.

Understand the CRM terms

Before getting to learn the nuances of using a CRM, it makes sense to understand the terms used. For additional understanding of CRM basics, continue to our CRM 101 series “What is CRM software designed to do“.

Contact

Refers to an individual account that contains the necessary contact information such as email address, name, and, at times, additional information like company name, residential address, age, and more.

Lead

A lead could be a contact or a potential customer who is interested in your product. It could be a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) or a Sales-Qualified Lead.

Deal

Deal refers to a possible seal or an action that profits your company.

Source 

This refers to the origin of your deal and could be anything from a referral, a marketing campaign, demos, webinars, website, ads, and more

Activity

Any operation or action taken by your sales team or the customer can be referred to as an activity

Deal Stage

Every deal passes through different phases and states until it is deemed to be done.

Pipeline

Deal stages are structured into pipelines that help your sales team to track opportunities and activities currently in progress.

How To Use A CRM

CRM Strategic planning - stakeholders view

CRM Strategic Planning -stakeholders wants and needs.

Here are some steps to get started with using your CRM.

Define Your CRM Strategy

Define the work processes that will be altered with the introduction of the CRM and set up a clear roadmap on how you intend to implement the CRM. Communicate the CRM plan with your team and make sure everyone is informed of the changes to be made.

Add Your Sales Team To The CRM

Your sales team will be the prominent end-users of a CRM system. So start adding them as users once the implementation is complete to speed up your sales processes. Prep your team with the necessary training and mind-set induction to get them to accept and use the CRM system once implemented readily. You also need to assign a dedicated superuser and the admin staff who will take care of the CRM maintenance, updates, and bug fixing operations.

Customize Your Settings

Configure your CRM to reflect your sales process effectively. Integrate your existing data and map out the various stages each lead is taken through.

Take time to observe your existing sales process and know the marketing and sales funnel processes. For instance, some sales teams will group contacts into leads, opportunities, and finally, customers depending on their progress in the sales funnel. Try to customize your CRM software to include the custom entities that correspond to your sales process. Start tracking the unique properties that you consider are important for understanding user behavior.

Import Your Existing Customer Data

Import the existing data stored in your legacy systems into your CRM system. Look into the methods that allow you to seamlessly import data stored in different formats like spreadsheets, CSV files, and old database records.

Integrate With Your Existing Tools

Integrate your existing marketing tools and campaign builders like landing pages and form builders to optimize your sales process and customer experience further. Doing so will help you get a 360-degree view of your customer data and get access to better insights. You can seamlessly exchange information from one tool to another and make the best out of every data collected.

Set Up Dashboards

A CRM dashboard provides a comprehensive look at your data and team productivity with a single glance. You can customize your CRM dashboard to focus on your priority components and use visual representations to get a clear understanding of various customer insights.

Learn to make full use of your dashboard as a control panel and customize it to fit your needs. Specify the stats you want to be shown on the primary dashboard page and shortcuts to important operations to enable easy access.

Make Use Of Reports

Reports are a useful way to get a comprehensive understanding of your progress and monitor your operational efficiency. While data is essential, not everyone can make sense of huge loads of data. Reports present information in a meaningful way.

Reports save your sales team from hours of analysis work, which can instead be spent focusing on actual sales activities. Configure your CRM to automate the report generation daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly as per your needs so you can easily track your progress and get hold of emerging trends. You can also set up events to trigger reports and alerts.

💡 Takeaways

Make use of the insights gained to enhance your customer experience and incorporate CRM into your marketing activities. Contact us today for a free demo.

How Automation Improves Customer Service Response Time

Posted on January 18, 2021 by - Automation, CRM 101

How Automation Improves Customer Service Response Time

Customer satisfaction relies on prompt communication from businesses. Surprisingly, however, expectation often fails to meet reality when it comes to business’ ability to reply to customers within their expected timeframe.

According to one study of 3,200 consumers, 88 percent expected a response from brands within one hour. The average response time from businesses? More than 12 hours. Up to 62 percent of businesses never reply to customers at all.

Failure to promptly provide customer service has serious repercussions for businesses. You might think your company is managing customer communications just fine, but consider these facts:

  • Customers do more business with brands that respond quickly to them.
  • Customers are likely to abandon businesses that do not get back to them.
  • Leads often go cold within one hour.
  • Fast response time is the most important attribute contributing to customer satisfaction.
  • Rapid replies make customers feel important.

If getting back to your customers in a timely manner is important, then implementing tools that make that process easier is equally important.

Do not rely on time-intensive manual processes that make it easy to overlook customer communications or that slow down the response process.

Instead, implement automations that improve customer response time, improve brand perception, and maximize your revenue. Here is a look at some of the most important ways automation can improve the customer experience.

Improve first response time (FRT)

First response time, or FRT, refers to the amount of time it takes your company to send an initial reply to a consumer. Your company’s average FRT is the amount of time it took you to reply to customer queries within a certain time frame (e.g. A week) divided by the number of queries you received.

The lower your FRT, the better your customer experience is and the more likely you are to earn a lead’s business. Often, you have one hour or less (About a third of consumers expect a reply within 15 minutes), before your lead goes cold.

Your customer service team may not be able to reply that quickly to every inquiry, but GoCRM can. Set up automated email templates or SMS messages to be sent when consumers complete a certain action (e.g. Fill out an online contact form).

Anytime a consumer takes that action, your CRM will immediately send the pre-written message. Automation reduces response time from hours to seconds or minutes.

You can even tell GoCRM when to send the message: Right away or after a few minutes to make the communication feel more natural.

Your first response to a customer is important because it sets expectations for all future interactions with them. Consider including some of these messages in your responses:

  • Timeframe for a follow-up response
  • Your business hours
  • Access to relevant resources
  • A thank you for contacting you
  • Self-service options, such as directing the customer to an FAQ page or manual

Improve first call resolution rate (FCRR)

Your first call resolution rate (FCRR) is the percentage of customer inquiries you resolve the first time the customer contacts you.

With 34 percent of consumers considering a rapid resolution as the most important element of customer satisfaction (CSAT), maximizing your FCRR is critically important.

Use automation to reduce the time it takes to resolve customer problems. In particular, use the automation available in GoCRM to promptly gather and communicate all relevant data on a consumer before you interact with them.

For example, GoCRM integrates with hundreds of platforms, importing relevant data and storing it in a central database. With a single glance, your sales, marketing, and customer satisfaction teams can see a lead’s or customer’s entire journey with your business.

With relevant information at their fingertips, your automation can qualify the agent experience, allowing them to dispense with time-consuming data collection and focus instead on resolving the customer’s problem, leading to faster FCRR and happier consumers.

Create time-based, auto-generated responses

Automation through GoCRM can do more than generate automated first responses to customer inquiries. You can use pre-set workflows to deliver auto-generated responses for any number of customer actions.

All you have to do is build the workflow to your specifications and business practices, including emails, text messages, phone calls, and time intervals between communications. GoCRM will then automatically implement that workflow based on the parameters you set.

For example, set workflows to trigger based upon actions such as the following:

Prompt follow-up through automated workflows delivers important information to customers quickly. Because GoCRM delivers these messages from the assigned team member’s personal phone number or email account, a customer’s response reaches them immediately and allows them to seamlessly take over communication.

Time-based, auto-generated responses make it easy to quickly and accurately respond to consumers, improving your customer response time and success.

Track customer service responses

When you have to handle hundreds or thousands of customer inquiries every day or every week, it can be easy to lose track of some of those inquiries.

Lost inquiries naturally receive much slower responses, and those customers may never hear from your customer satisfaction team at all.

You can eliminate this problem by using GoCRM’s automation to help assign, manage, and track your team’s customer service responses.

For example, GoCRM can automatically assign a lead to a sales team member or a customer service representative. Anytime the lead or customer requires attention, the system can automatically send messages in that team member’s name, schedule phone calls and meetings, and follow up with notifications and reminders to the team member.

With the assistance of GoCRM’s automation, your customer service team will have an easier time keeping track of the customers they are in charge of and staying on top of the responses that are required.

Stop choosing speed over accuracy

You can improve customer response time without adopting automation, but chances are you will end up prioritizing speed over accuracy.

For example, a team member trying to write an email manually may forget important elements of the message (e.g. Sending someone to an FAQ page) in their hurry to get the message out. They may use a message template that does not apply to the customer’s unique situation, or they may send a message before they gather all the relevant data.

In these cases, the response may be worse than silence, if the message is inaccurate or incomplete.

With automation, you enjoy both accuracy and speed. GoCRM provides all the relevant data in one location, delivers personalized messages crafted for the customer’s specific inquiry, and connects customers to a real person on your team who is only a single message away.

As a result, you can deliver prompt and valuable communications to customers that improves their experience with your business, all while using less of your team’s valuable time.

Track essential KPIs

Finally, automation can improve the customer service experience by helping your business track KPIs that show how well your customer service team is performing.

For example, use GoCRM’s in-depth analytics to not only identify where customers come from and what their journey is, but how that journey is influenced by their interactions with your business.

When you can track FRT, FCRR, customer journeys, points of origin, and more, you gain a complete picture of your customer’s desires, interests, pain points, and interactions. You can then use that information to identify areas of friction, resolve issues in your team, and improve your customers’ overall experience with your brand.

💡 Takeaways

Automation can be invaluable to your customer response times. Reduce those times with a CRM that is designed to deliver information, automation, and personalization that keeps your customers and your team members happy. Contact us today for a free demo to learn more about how we can assist with your marketing, sales, and customer service needs.

CRM Process and the Impact on Business Performance

Posted on August 31, 2020 by - CRM 101

CRM business performance

CRM and Business Performance

Customer Relationship Management is a prime focus of sales and marketing. One of the most important questions firms must ask is how CRM improves business performance and whether it’s worth pursuing or not.

CRM is grounded on high quality customer data and enabled by IT. And all this happens when data, sales strategies, and technology come together.

Because the primary goal of CRM is to improve sales efficiency by prioritizing leads and opportunities likely to convert. It makes sense that CRM and business performance ought to be inherently linked.

What are the 5 beacons of CRM and business performance?

Managing a profitable customer relationship works in the following ways:

1. Create customer segments

Not all customers are equally profitable for your brand. The task of CRM is to find out the high-value customers. These shoppers display high brand loyalty and give you a lot of business. However, they are to be looked at as company assets instead of targets. Loyal customers are usually offered incentives. Firms can cut down on useless spending and channelize their funds to get higher returns this way.

2. Integrate technology, databases and related tools through CRM software

CRM software and automation takes the load off of tedious data mining. It consolidates all customer contact points, all channels of marketing, and the performance of different campaigns. With these data at hand, you can see how your funds are best utilized and where you need to cut down on spending. Well-designed CRM software is an invaluable part of any business.

3. Gain customer knowledge and interpersonal skills

Apart from technology, CRM also takes into account the human factor. To improve performance, businesses usually put in place highly trained personnel to maintain clear and positive communication with their existing and new customers. No amount of data is going to help if CRM executives are discourteous, vague, or unskilled in managing customer behavior.

4. Start, sustain and even end client relationships

CRM not only helps businesses build a loyal customer base but also trim it to keep it profitable. When you can see your client’s response, you no longer need to spend your dollar on non-returning or casual buyers. In order to keep the worth of your customer database high, you can downsize the database and pay more attention to a select category of individuals.

5. Knowledge of market position and competitors

To fully understand the CRM impact on firm performance, you need to understand your position and that of your competitor. Before adopting CRM into your everyday processes, you must gain a clear understanding of why you would want to invest and what’s in it for you. Your sales and marketing team and related departments have to work together to make it a success.

CRM process and its impact on business performance

CRM does a few things that impact your business performance, it:

  • Increases customer satisfaction through customized service. Loyalty increases and profit margins widen through made-to-order benefits.
  • Helps businesses cut down expenses on acquiring new customers. Getting new buyers on your list is an expensive step and not always reliable. But returning customers are like gifts that keep on giving. It is only good sense to maintain a worthwhile relationship with them.
  • Help businesses improve workflow. It brings together different departments and automates workflow. As a result, downtime is reduced and productivity improves.
  • Delivers high-quality service to its buyers. Since CRM follows buyer behavior closely, it is able to design responses that are highly appreciated and useful for them. This not only improves sales figures but also goodwill.
  • Helps companies align their workplace practices towards a customer-oriented approach. Unless the company work culture is geared towards a buyer-centric strategy, CRM alone cannot solve performance issues. Hence, companies must orient their policies and drives in the right direction.

The role of CRM software

Sales & Marketing Streamlining process visualization

In order to streamline customer communication, CRM is teaming up with information technology. CRM software applications and business performance are closely linked. This helps businesses record and store buyer information from various sources. This information is analyzed and interpreted to gain a better understanding of what the buyer wants and how far the brand is fulfilling that need.

In addition, data mining and analytical tools help you deduce the shelf life of your lead and whether it is worth pursuing. It helps you zero in on potential buyers and activate your sales force.

Not only do you manage each transaction more smoothly but have at hand a go-to solution for a host of different issues, for instance, managing conflicts between different departments.

CRM software gives you a clear picture of your sales pipeline, including sales channels, conversion data, and ROI. All these functions are performed by CRM applications that blend smoothly with your business processes.

CRM software is usually implemented in stages. Company size and levels of technological readiness also affect how soon they can implement CRM software. CRM takes time and effort to show results; it is no magic trick. Hence brands need to have a long-term vision to adopt and implement it.

So, you can see how CRM improves business performance by improving the business ecosystem within which it functions. It builds a business atmosphere where every customer is valued and tended to with personalized attention.

Software integration reduces the turnaround times of marketing and outreach programs. Automation lends flexibility and makes everything measurable. Hence using technology to boost CRM directly improves business processes steadily.

Digital Transformation During Covid-19 Times

Posted on August 17, 2020 by - CRM 101

CRM: Digital Transformation Covid-19 Times

Why CRM is Key to Digital Transformation During COVID-19 Times

Digital transformation (DT) is essential for businesses serious about connecting effectively with consumers. DT refers to the process of using technology to reach consumers when and where they prefer to connect.

For example, digital transformation might look like creating an active social media presence on the channels your target audiences prefer to use, implementing closed-loop marketing so you can track every single sale back to its source, or directing marketing spend toward online search marketing campaigns instead of toward offline efforts such as print advertisements.

DT is particularly important in the time of COVID-19, when people are increasingly spending time online rather than making in-person appearances at businesses.

However, the digital landscape is broad and diverse. Businesses that undertake DT need a way to identify the most effective approaches and integrate their efforts if they hope to succeed. That is where CRM software comes in. A strong customer management platform delivers the tools and data that enable a business to pursue effective digital transformation trends.

CRM identifies the right approach to digital transformation.

Businesses increasingly recognize the need to integrate digital approaches into their sales and marketing efforts, but they do not always know how to do so effectively. According to data by Harvard Business Review, an astounding $900 billion (70%) of the $1.3 trillion spent on digital marketing in 2018 was spent ineffectively.

Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of DT depends upon having access to information and tools that make it possible to pinpoint the right approach to technology integration. Otherwise, businesses are “flying blind” as they devote resources to initiatives and technologies that may or may not work.

A robust CRM can deliver the critical information and tools that drive transformative digital integration. Consider these insights available through a CRM:

  • Analytics on every marketing campaign’s performance
  • Data on the origins and pathway followed by every sale
  • Information on where and how prospects and customers connected with your business
  • Comprehensive data on sales/customer interactions and their results

Using these analytics and data, businesses can see where their customers are spending time online, how they are accessing information about the business, which digital strategies are earning engagement, and which approaches work best for ushering leads through the sales funnel. Based upon this information, businesses can craft powerful digital strategies that lead to sales.

CRM facilitates a multi-channel approach.

A customer’s pathway to conversion is rarely a linear process. Instead, consumers often use several channels over a period of time to complete a sale. A single customer, for example, may utilize social media, review sites, live chat options, text messages, online browsing, and even an in-person trip to the store before they complete a purchase.

As a result, digital transformation within an organization often includes embracing multiple digital channels in order to communicate with consumers whenever and wherever they wish, at whatever point in the sales funnel they happen to be.

While necessary, this multi-channel approach can lend itself to disorganization unless a robust CRM is utilized. The right CRM can facilitate a multi-channel approach by integrating all channels within a single, intuitive user interface so that no data or leads fall through the cracks.

For example, with GoCRM, every interaction with a customer is carefully logged within the system, thanks to the system’s ability to pull in data from hundreds of sources, including social media platforms, marketing campaigns, phone calls, emails, and texts. As a result, a prospect’s entire history appears in one location for easy access, evaluation, and follow-up.

In addition to facilitating a multi-channel approach, a CRM also enables a business to use all of these channels to deliver an exceptional customer experience. With customers expecting a response from businesses within an hour of reaching out, the ability to monitor and respond to any digital channel consumers use is critical, and available through a powerful CRM platform.

Integrating platforms and digital channels in one place simplifies the process of using multiple digital channels while allowing your sales and marketing teams to access the data they need. As a result, you can more effectively use multiple marketing channels to more effectively reach each target audience at each stage of the sales process.

CRM enables personalization of digital approaches.

Consumers expect personalized interactions with businesses. In fact, 75 percent of consumers report that they are more likely to buy from a company that knows their name and purchase history and offers product recommendations based on that purchase history. More than half of consumers want businesses to use their personal information to create relevant content targeted at them.

Clearly, digital transformation has to enable personalized communication with consumers. A robust CRM enables this personalized marketing and sales campaigns by 1) Gathering relevant data about consumers and by 2) Automating processes to deliver individualized content to prospects and leads.

Data Compilation:

By integrating a multi-channel approach and centrally locating all customer data, a CRM provides a comprehensive view of a lead, or even of an entire group of potential consumers.

Based on this data, you can craft campaigns directed personally at these consumers. For example, you may implement text messaging campaigns directed at consumers who filled out a web form, sent a message via social media, texted a rider sign, or click on an ad on Facebook, Google or YouTube.

Automated Processes:

Personalization is also easier through automated processes delivered by a robust CRM like GoCRM. For example, you can not only use the data in your CRM to craft a targeted email campaign, but you can also deliver those emails automatically through the CRM.

Similarly, you can automate processes such as text messages, phone calls, and drip campaigns based upon specific customer segments and actions. Add in the ability to incorporate customer names into those communications, and your automated processes reduce time and energy while increasing personalization for digital transformation that gets results.

The right CRM can support the digital transformation businesses need to adopt during the time of COVID-19. By embracing a targeted, personalized, and multi-channel digital approach, you can reach consumers even while they remain hesitant to shop in-store.

💡Takeaways

The key to digital transformation success is your CRM. This tool allows you to identify the right approach, facilitate a multi-channel strategy, and enable personalization. As a result, your sales and marketing teams can access complete information on consumers and campaigns and successfully craft strategies that earn more leads and more sales.

Get your Covid-19 CRM Free trial. Our full-funnel sales & marketing approach is designed to be both intuitive and comprehensive, with customizable features that can make it the ideal tool for your sales and marketing teams.

Why CRM Projects Fail?

Posted on August 10, 2020 by - CRM 101

Why CRM Projects Fail

Top 5 Reasons Why CRM Implementations Fail and What To Do About It

Customer relationship management software (CRM) provides exciting tools for marketing and sales departments as they seek to more efficiently and productively identify, earn, qualify, and nurture leads. Between 2000 and 2005, the potential of CRM drove spending on these platforms to more than $250 billion (paywall).

Purchasing a CRM system, however, does not automatically lead to improved sales and marketing success. In fact, the implementation failure rate of these systems is often quite high (as high as 90% according to HBR).

One evaluation from MIT Sloan found that 55 to 75 percent of companies fell short of their expected ROI from their CRM systems. CIO Magazine, in 2017, estimated that an average of one-third of CRM implementations fail.

The cause of CRM implementation failure can vary from business to business. However, 5 primary reasons drive why CRM projects fail. Here is a look at all 5 of them, and how to fix them.

1) Lack of Supportive Capabilities

A CRM is a tool. As with any tool, its effectiveness depends upon how it is used. In order to effectively choose, implement, and use a customer relationship management platform, businesses must first have certain capabilities in place.

That is, businesses that are positioned to make the most of their CRM platforms are those businesses that can effectively:

  • Generate revenue
  • Capture and communicate insights about customers, competitors, and markets
  • Build effective brands
  • Develop customer relationships

Without well-established organizational processes designed to meet these marketing goals, a business is unlikely to effectively leverage their CRM technology. CRM implementation failure occurs when a business expects its customer relationship management software to automatically generate revenue, deliver insights, build brands and drive customer relationships without a knowledgeable team applying proven capabilities to their use of the software.

A better approach for businesses that wish to use their CRM effectively is to develop those capabilities within their organization, and then to purchase customer relationship management software that can support and enhance those capabilities.

2) Lack of Effective Organizational Integration

In order to deliver the greatest possible benefits, a CRM platform depends upon effective integration into an organization’s workflows, sales team, and customer relationship processes. When a CRM cannot or is not integrated into existing and successful approaches to sales and marketing, sales teams quickly become frustrated, and the CRM itself becomes less effective.

For example, one study revealed that among the departmental responses to CRMs, the sales teams reported the highest levels of dissatisfaction with the software. Why? Because they felt as if they spent hours inputting information without receiving significant benefits in return.

On the other hand, a CRM that integrates into the workflows and, as mentioned above, capabilities, that already exist within an organization delivers a seamless experience for every team member who uses it.

Consider the difference, for example, between manually inputting customer data from a website contact form into a CRM and having that CRM automatically integrate that information into a central database. Imagine the possibilities available when the CRM automatically adds follow up phone calls to a sales rep’s calendar or sends out follow-up emails triggered by certain lead actions that fit with the workflows already set up by your business.

How does a business achieve this level of integration so that the CRM saves sales teams time and energy rather than consuming more of it? Through careful consideration of their workflows and the selection of a customizable CRM with a proven ability to fit within them.

The right CRM becomes the foundation for successful workflows. You know it is doing its job when it makes your team members’ jobs easier, enables your team to devote more attention to higher-quality leads, and develops greater efficiencies within your organization.

3) CRM Investment Without Planning

Why do CRM investments fail? According to MIT Sloan, the businesses most likely to experience a CRM fail are those that invest large sums of money into customer relationship management without spending time beforehand evaluating their institutional needs and how a CRM might meet those needs.

Why a CRM fails, then, often has less to do with the capabilities of the platform and more to do with the organization’s self-understanding.

A business whose customers prefer to discuss things over the phone or in person, for example, may experience a CRM fail if it invests in software that streamlines emails and text messages.

In order to avoid CRM failed actions, a business should take stock of its marketing and sales situation before making an investment into customer relationship management software.

Careful reflection and evaluation can allow a business to align a CRM solution with their customers, workflows, and unique needs to develop a platform that is truly effective.

4) Collaboration Failure Across Departments

Why does CRM implementation fail? One of the biggest reasons is difficulty getting departments to collaborate with each other regarding the use of the CRM. In particular, it is collaboration between marketing and sales departments (or the lack thereof) that drives (or undermines) CRM success.

Marketing and sales may have different roles to play in the capturing and nurturing of leads, but both are critically important in earning leads and converting them into paying customers. Marketing needs to identify target audiences, develop strategies for reaching them effectively, implement those strategies, qualify leads, and pass them on to sales.

Sales needs to evaluate leads sent to them by marketing, nurture leads through each stage of the sales funnel, and complete the sale when the lead converts. These tasks also require sales to identify prospects that do not provide a promising source of revenue and to keep track of interactions with each potential consumer in order to streamline their trip through the sales funnel.

A CRM can help marketing and sales with each of these responsibilities. However, the CRM is most effective when sales and marketing use it, together, to create integrated approaches to earning leads and customers.

For example, GoCRM delivers all relevant information about a lead in one centralized and intuitive interface. Using this interface, sales and marketing can work together to translate this information into effective strategies and materials that can win over customers and close sales.

5) Failure to Train CRM Users

If a CRM is only as effective as the people who use it, then the question of why a CRM fails and how to fix it can also be answered with employee training. Users who do not understand the CRM, do not know how to leverage its capabilities to achieve the greatest possible benefits, or do not feel comfortable utilizing its platform are not likely to see much improvement from the CRM.

In fact, team members who do not feel comfortable using a CRM are more likely to abandon its use or to use it improperly. For example, the loss of time that occurs when an employee spends too much time figuring out a function of the CRM can outweigh any benefit that function provides the business.

In order to prevent CRM failure due to lack of training, businesses should focus on CRMs that are: 1) Easy to use and 2) Training rich. For example, GoCRM uses an intuitive interface to simplify its use and provide easy access to all relevant data on all leads and customers. Automation of tasks also simplifies the use of the CRM and saves team members time.

Simultaneously, we provide comprehensive training in the use of the CRM. Every user receives instruction in how to make the most of GoCRM so that every employee feels comfortable using GoCRM to achieve your company’s sales and marketing goals.

💡Takeaways

You do not have to become a CRM failure statistic. When applied correctly, a CRM can be an invaluable tool for improving the efficiency and success of your customer relationships. Understand the potential cause of CRM implementation failure, and know how to avoid them. Then, find a customizable, flexible, and state-of-the-art CRM, like GoCRM, to match to your organizational workflows, capabilities, processes and goals in order to enjoy all that a CRM has to offer your business.

5 Reasons Why You Should Not Get a ‘Free’ CRM Software

Posted on August 3, 2020 by - CRM 101

Illustration of two people in front of each other with 'Free vs Paid CRM' overlay text

“Cheap is good, free is better,” as the old saying goes, but not when it comes to your CRM. With many customer relationship management platforms offering free versions, it can be tempting to sign up for a way to track and nurture leads that does not impact your budget.

What you may not know, however, is that these CRMs often come with their own costs. And they usually lack critical features that your business needs to really understand and manage your marketing campaign, sales workflows, and customer behavior.

Here are 5 reasons to avoid a free CRM in favor of a high-quality and customizable paid platform.

1. “Free” CRMs are rarely free

Most ‘free’ CRMs are stripped-down versions of more feature-rich paid platforms. You can enjoy basic functionality, such as contact management and some integrations. In order to enjoy additional features, however, you need to upgrade to a paid version of the platform or buy additional products offered through the company. A paid CRM, on the other hand, offers all the customization, versatility, integration, and reporting you want, with no need to keep upgrading.

2. Paid CRMs allow for more users

Most “free” CRMs limit the number of users on the platform to fewer than 10, and often to just 1. To add users to the CRM you have to upgrade to a paid version. For most businesses that utilize a team of marketing and sales professionals, these “free” versions will not be enough.

A paid platform, on the other hand, allows businesses to add as many users as they need, often through a flat monthly fee per user. With the option to customize the pricing to fit their needs and team size, these paid versions add value that is worth the cost. Plus, it won’t be necessary to retrain users in order to get them to learn new features from an upgrade or new CRM.

3. Paid CRMs come with a full set of features

“Free” versions that remove essential features rarely deliver the functionality required by robust marketing and sales departments. Paid CRMs stand out because they deliver a full set of features that allows businesses to perform all of the tasks they need to generate, nurture, and convert leads throughout every stage of the sales funnel. With no need to continue upgrading, many businesses prefer to choose a paid CRM over a “free” version that limits what they can achieve and adds costs every time they add functionality.

4. Paid CRMs are customizable

No two businesses are alike, and a cookie cutter CRM or a “free” CRM with limited features is unlikely to satisfactorily meet the needs of every business. When companies request additional functionality from a “free” platform, they also often find that they can only get what they need by upgrading to a paid account.

Instead, the best CRMs are paid ones that allow businesses to choose the features they want upfront. Being able to get all of the features you want, with no excess features and no hidden costs, is peace of mind that is worth paying for.

5. Paid CRMs integrate with everything

Businesses utilize many tools to generate, track, and nurture leads. Everything from email to phone numbers, databases, and cloud programs work together to keep sales and marketing departments running.

A CRM needs to integrate all of these tools into one easy-to-use platform. That way, users can see all of the relevant information about every lead in one place and easily complete tasks from within the platform.

“Free” CRMs rarely offer widespread integration. That means that businesses will either need to continue using some tools apart from the platform or pay for an upgrade.

Paid CRMs, on the other hand, integrate with every possible application and tool your business uses, with no additional costs or hidden fees. That type of functionality makes it easier to use the CRM and ensures that no lead ever falls through the cracks.

💡Takeaways

“Free” CRMs may look good upfront. However, in the end the vast majority of businesses will benefit from choosing a paid option instead. Paid alternatives allow for more users, deliver a full suite of customizable features, and offer total integration for one transparent cost. And, you never need to worry about paying for constant upgrades to your system.

Right now, with GoCRM, you can get the best of both worlds: A free trial when you purchase a subscription. As the only CRM that offers a full-funnel approach, you can enjoy everything we have to offer with no risk to you.

Request your free trial today!

What Is CRM Software Designed To Do?

Posted on June 26, 2020 by - CRM 101

Illustration of two business men sitting in desk with CRM letters in the background

Salespeople spend only 34 percent of their time selling to prospective customers. The other 66 percent of their time is spent managing the data related to the sales process. Improved efficiency in the collection, organization, and management of that data is the single biggest way to boost your sales and marketing team’s productivity.

Enter customer relationship management (CRM) software. A powerful tool with dozens of applications, CRM software automates tasks, creates efficiencies, centralizes information, and optimizes customer interactions for businesses of all sizes. With the right CRM tool, you can build a full-funnel approach to your sales process that nurtures leads through the entire customer lifecyle, all for less time, less effort, and (probably) less money than you are currently spending.

What is CRM software?

Sales and Marketing Streamlining process visualization

Simply put, CRM software is a program that gathers and organizes all data on every lead and every customer in a central location, where it can be used to forge strong customer relationships and improve interactions with leads.

However, CRM tools offer much more than centralized data storage. A good CRM is a powerful tool for streamlining your entire sales and marketing process so you can strategize, implement, and connect in a more effective and personalized way.

Imagine, for a moment, what you could achieve if you could automate email responses to initial online inquiries or automatically schedule a follow-up phone call 48 hours after an email to a lead. Would you be able to devote more time to closing the deal with your biggest leads? What if you could personalize your marketing to individual leads? Would you be able to close more sales more quickly?

Consider the efficiency your sales team could achieve if every email, phone call, meeting, contact form, and deal was automatically entered in one central location, rather than being spread across multiple platforms. Then, dream about what could happen if every team member could access this information at a single glance. And organize it and customize it.

If you are imagining new efficiencies, collaboration possibilities, happier customers, fewer missed opportunities and more sales, than you are imagining what is possible with the right CRM platform.

CRM Benefits

Football visualization of CRM software

A good CRM, efficiently customized and utilized, delivers a wealth of benefits to an organization and its sales teams. Here are some of the advantages CRM software can give your business:

1. Data Organization and Utilization

Your CRM software will pull in data from many sources, including phone calls and emails, and organize it in an easy-to-understand format within the program. Your team can then organize, segment, analyze, and view this data at will in order to use it to its full potential to serve current customers and convert new ones.

2. Communications Personalization

Any team member can see a customer’s entire history at a single glance, so communication is always streamlined and personalized.

3. Improved Customer Service

When your sales and customer service teams can see a customer’s entire profile, including previous communications, purchases, and activity, they can better respond to customer needs. Improved customer service leads to happier customers, lower churn rates, and greater customer retention.

4. Improved Efficiency

With a CRM that congregates every single interaction in one easy-to-read interface, leads no longer fall through the cracks. No more missed phone calls, follow-up emails, or forgotten meetings. No more repetitive contacts and fewer hours getting up to speed on a customer before heading out to a sales meeting. Greater efficiency leaves your team more time to do what they do best: Sell your products and services.

5. Improved Collaboration

CRM software does more than improve interactions with customers. It enables collaborations among your team members and among the different teams in your organization. Everyone can access the same information on customers, enabling everyone to see what others have done with a lead and preventing miscommunications and redundancy.

6. Increased Sales

When your team has to devote less time to organizational tasks like entering data about customers into spreadsheets or hunting for the latest information on a lead, they can spend more time closing deals and making sales. Plus, the insights that a CRM provides into a customer’s history and preferences allows your sales and marketing teams to personalize their approaches in order to win more customers.

7. Analytics Insights

CRM software can deliver critical information on every lead, such as business information, demographic information, and what ad or contact led them to your organization. Use these insights to craft personalized marketing, segment your leads, identify where each lead is in the sales funnel, pinpoint weak areas where customer churn is high, and more.

8. Task automation

Save your sales team hours of time and improve the percentage of time they spend selling by automating tasks, emails, phone calls, and workflows.

How does CRM software work?

A CRM software works by utilizing a wide array of features to automate tasks, emails, phone calls, and workflows, and to collect and organize data that you can then use to improve your sales and marketing efforts. A CRM program will also integrate other programs, such as email, phone numbers, texts, and even GPS in order to serve as a one-stop location for all sales and marketing related information.

Lead and Contact Management Cycle graphic

The specific features of a CRM will vary depending upon the platform you choose and the functionalities you need for your business. However, a good CRM will deliver powerful, streamlined, customized services in the following areas:

1. Data Collection

Your CRM software will work by pulling information in about prospects from every conceivable source, including phone calls, email, social media, your website, and more. Every time your sales team communicates with a prospect, that information will be added to the customer’s profile within the CRM.

2. Data Segmentation

A CRM can segment your prospects by many different fields, from geographic location to location in the sales funnel to industry or demographic information. Segmentation allows for personalized sales and marketing techniques.

3. Task and Workflow Automation

Your CRM will automate many aspects of your workflow, including scheduling appointments and phone calls to sending emails and incorporating information into a customer’s profile to save you time.

4. Analytics

A CRM’s analytics capabilities allow you to track leads, conversions, and marketing efficacy and even evaluate a lead’s importance so your sales team can focus on the most important prospects first.

5. Lead and Contact Management

CRM software enables the management of leads and contacts by displaying all communications and information about these leads and contacts in one easy to access location.

What’s a good CRM software experience?

This wide array of services and functionalities allows a CRM to deliver productivity-boosting, efficiency-creating benefits that advance leads along the sales funnel with less work and more success on your end.

When you choose a CRM for your business, you can expect to go through a process of customization that matches the CRM’s features to your business and your workflow. A good CRM like GoCRM should deliver the following experiences for your business:

Personalized Setup

A CRM should complement and enhance the workflows you already have in place so you do not have to completely change the way you do business. By integrating into your current workflow and processes, a good CRM software reduces the amount of training you need to complete and supports systems you already know work.

As a result, a CRM should work by enhancing the processes you already use. For example, if your workflow requires a follow-up phone call 24 hours after an email, your CRM should automatically schedule the phone call and add it to your customer’s profile, rather than changing the frequency with which the phone calls are made.

Customized Utilization

You can also expect customized access to your CRM. GoCRM is completely customizable to meet your sales and marketing needs, whatever they may be.

For example, add as many fields as you need into a customer’s profile in order to capture the information you need to effectively personalize communications and convert them. Segment your audiences based on your desired demographics. Here are just a few of the things that you can customize with GoCRM:

  • Lifecycles
  • Forms
  • Stages
  • Statuses
  • Analytics
  • All CRM Functions

💡 Takeaways

A CRM software is a powerful addition to any company’s sales and marketing teams because it enables the efficient, transparent collection and utilization of customer data. As a result, it drives greater customer engagement, interaction, and support.

With GoCRM, you enjoy all of the benefits, functionalities, and efficiencies of a CRM software, and then some. We are the only customer relationship management solution that takes on a full-funnel approach by combining powerful marketing and sales features. This means you get a robust platform that supports scalable business growth, streamlines sales processes, and enhances the overall customer experience.

Does all this sound like something your business could use? Request a demo today to find out how a customized, integrated, powerful CRM software can change your sales and marketing efforts for the better.

Business Texting 101: How and When to Use it

Posted on April 9, 2020 by - CRM 101, Marketing, Sales

Blog cover - How & When To Use it to Increase Conversion

How and When to Use Business Texting to Increase Sales & Conversions

Texting is now considered the most favored way of mobile communication, replacing calling and emailing among all age groups and genders. The open rate of texts is very high and it is also done very fast. Experts believe that 98% of all text messages are opened compared to only 22% of emails. On top of that, 9 out of 10 messages are read in just three minutes of delivery.

Mobile communication preferences by age & gender Chart

We have previously discussed why sales team should use texting.  Now we will discuss how and when to make the best use out of texting communication in business. Read on to find out how and when to use texting, as well as the best way to implement them in your sales process.

Business Texting Tips

How to Text Your Sales Prospects

While a CRM with texting feature will do the trick, you still need to follow certain rules for best results. Spam is spam and the last thing you want is to get your business considered as a spam and be totally ignored. 

Being a very personal way of communication, texting needs to be approached cautiously or you might lose all the benefits of this excellent communication method. 

So here is a list of business texting rules to keep in mind:

Ask for permission

The ideal way is to have approval from all your prospects to text them through your introductory call. Something simple like “would it be okay if I text you?”. Having your prospects expecting your text increases your chances in achieving the goal of your text.

Introduce Yourself

Whether you were successful in getting your prospect approval over a call or you never had the chance to get on a call with them, always introduce yourself and don’t assume that the prospect remembers you. Use something simple and clear like first name and your business name.

Be Brief

Texting is great because it’s short, the last thing you want is to have an email sent in form of a text. So keep your message short and interesting.

Be Professional

While texting normally includes lots of emojis, acronyms, and sloppy punctuation, it’s best to avoid these when texting your leads. Find your balance between a professional tone and a causal one. And adding a personal touch goes a long way!

Have actual value

So you wrote a short text with the right tone, but what is it that you are actually trying to say? Always have a clear goal and offer a value when texting your leads. You can either: Suggest a call time; Confirm a call time; Answer a question, or; Send a valuable resource.

Don’t be spammy

Too much of anything gives opposite results. Avoid mass generic messages without a clear purpose. When you send too many messages, your prospects will lose interest in actually opening them or going through them.

Consider the timing

If you have these text messages set in part of an automation workflow, always choose a suitable time. Avoid texting outside business hours and on weekends. Take the time zone of your leads into consideration. After all, you are looking for a reply or an action, and your chances will be really low if you text them at the wrong time.

When to Text Your Sales Prospects

GREAT! Now you are ready to start texting your leads and get sales numbers boosted! Here is WHEN to use texting in the sales process:

After the initial introductory call

As we have explained, at the end of your introductory call, ask for permission to text your leads. After the call send more information about what you have went through and some helpful links and resources. You can also ask to schedule to a demo or another call where another key staff member will be joining you.

To confirm a scheduled call/demo

Send a reminder of your call or demo and send a link of the platform you will be using.

To share relevant content

From time to time send your prospects some useful content that you have created on your blog or social profiles or some e-books or case studies that can offer them real value and direct them to your website.

For Following up

After each phase if you start to feel you are going to lose the leads’ interest, you can send a warm follow up with a call to action asking for “another call, demo to other team members”, or you can follow up thanking them for downloading your e-book or checking your latest blog. You can use something similar to “thank you so much for downloading our e-book about Sales texting! Are you available for 5 mins at 3 or 4 today to discuss the how GoCRM can help you get started with texting?

To Send Promotions

If you have a marketing campaign running with discounts or offers you can text your leads list and urge them to subscribe now and benefit from it. If you have a referral program, texting can be a really affective way to announce it and bring in many affiliates. Check out other promotional text message examples.

When Reaching out to Cold leads

A prospect who lost interest and stopped replying to your emails and calls, might take the time to open one last text message. Make it interesting and showing real understanding of their needs. Avoid generic templates, like just checking-in and take time to invest on writing a personalized message with clear call to action.

For Relationship Building

With simple automation and segmentation you can use texting to wish your leads and customers happy birthdays, holidays or use it to go the extra mile and congratulate them in a new job they posted about on LinkedIn or a new fund the company received etc.

💡Takeaways

Texting is a very powerful tool, it is the most used form of communication on cell phones, more than calls, emails and even social media messages. With excellent open rate up to 98% and great speed, you can utilize this tool to increase conversion and close more deals. All you need to do to achieve excellent sales texting is to write the right text message to the right person at the right time.

Ready to start with business texting? Start your GoCRM Free trial to optimize your sales funnel and start closing more sales today.