CRM+ Consulting Blog

1. Creates value by building credibility and initiating the trust necessary for a sale.
2. Allows you to keep up with both warm and cold leads consistently and effectively.
3. Integrates online and offline sales and marketing efforts. 
4. Removes repetitive manual tasks. 
5. Produces a consistent system from which you can improve and analyze from. 
6. Allows you to adapt to what prospects have done by seeing their actions and delivering an appropriate message as a result.

1. Software as a Service, or SaaS, made implementation easier and faster.
   We completely agree with this assertion. Patterson notes, “Traditional client/server CRM systems had a very high total cost of ownership (TCO) and a long, sometimes unsuccessful deployment process that required a high degree of involvement and investment by internal IT departments.” Virtually all CRM systems can now be deployed in a hosted environment that requires very little up front involvement. There are no servers or other hardware to install, the software is all managed off-site. We have seen Sage SalesLogix systems up and running in fewer than 24 hours within a hosted environment.
2. The Cloud made CRM more accessible.
   Salespeople are in the field each and every day. Now, more than ever, they are telecommuting and need an easy way to access information. “Today, cloud-based CRM systems are accessible from anywhere, on any device - including smartphones and tablets - and high-speed internet has become commonplace,” says Patterson. This is a major shift from the days of VPN tunnels and bulky laptops using a dial-up connection. Most salespeople are already outfitted with some type of mobile device with internet access. The CRM application simply becomes one more app accessible to them daily.
3. Analytics and Marketing Automation turned CRM data into Gold.
   “It wasn’t that long ago that sales force automation was primarily a glorified contact management system with some extra data tracking capabilities,” says Patterson. Now CRM systems are outfitted with advanced analytics that make the decision making process simpler. CRMPlus recently worked with a client, Unique Vacations Inc. (owner of Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts), who uses reporting to make sales projections. “In terms of forecasting, Sage SalesLogix has been able to provide us with good information to make good decisions,” shares Gary Sadler, VP of Sales Sandals Resorts. CRM provides companies with the power to leverage the data and find out how to best move forward.
4. Process Improvement Compressed Sales Cycles.
   CRM has always had the attractive feature of sales cycle tracking. This feature ensures that salespeople follow the processes defined by management. “This promise was rarely delivered on due to sales rep resistance and the trouble it took to modify the processes that were essentially hardcoded into early CRM applications,” says Patterson. While most CRM systems still come packaged with sales processes, companies can now easily manipulate and change the processes as the company evolves.
   
   These four improvements have not only changed the face of CRM, they are also making it an invaluable tool to sales, marketing and management teams.
   
   The CRMPlus Consulting team has also seen a significant change in the amount of collaboration that CRM systems promote. Rather than being only a “sales tool”, it has become a company tool that links with ERP, Business Intelligence and marketing. The entire organization can use CRM to view a customer or prospect’s status at any given moment, view sales projections and see pending marketing efforts. CRM’s evolution proves to be exciting and dynamic. How do you think CRM will progress in the next 15 years?
   
   Click here to read Laura Carlson’s original article, “SFA 15 Years Later: Now Every Rep’s Best Friend”.

While the back-office has Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to track payables and receivables, the front office needs a way to track customer and prospect interactions. That’s where Customer Relationship Management (CRM) comes in. CRM software is rich with features that record and streamline front office operations, but which of them is absolutely necessary to every organization? Here’s a simple list of must-haves to follow when you are deciding on a CRM solution:

If you counted all the activities for each of your users, what would you see? It would vary greatly. Some users don’t schedule anything. They just enter the results of calls, meetings or to-dos. Others schedule everything. The operative question, though, is how many users schedule something to do then don’t clear it from their calendar? Maybe they attended the meeting, but didn’t complete it in your CRM. That means they probably didn’t record what happened during the meeting. You are losing information. Other times, maybe someone scheduled a call-back and never actually made the call. They meant to make that quarterly call but were side-tracked getting that big proposal out. Now it’s time for the next quarterly call.

Most all CRM solutions, SalesForce, MS CRM and SalesLogix for example, include a customer support feature of some sort. These are traditionally used in software and hardware environments for tracking requests for support for customers. We’ve adapted the customer support features for many different environments, such as tracking physician issues for hospitals. Customer Support is a valuable feature for all industries.

Gone are the days of door to door salesmen that only track the encyclopedias they sell. Today we purchase lists with thousands of names then contact them in a myriad of ways. We call them, email them, invite them, send mail to them and, eventually, sell something to them. Sales Force Automation is a tool that helps us track all of these efforts so that we can stay organized and effective.

My! my! my! Look at all those opportunities. If you are like many of our customers (and ourselves), you collect opportunities. One thing all sales people hate to do is close an opportunity. Unless they won it, that is.

Market Segmentation is an age old marketing practice that helps businesses determine exactly who buys their product and how they go about doing it. Behavioral, demographic, psychographic and geographic data is captured and analyzed to learn every aspect of your current and potential customers. In the past, collecting that data often meant hiring a market research firm and spending thousands of dollars. Not so anymore. Business Intelligence (BI) in conjunction with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software have tools to help you to map the needs, wants and patterns of your potential customers so that you can effectively capture business.

In a recent article on the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch.com, Nucleus Research finds that The CRM investment is worth it even on second, third, and fourth-generation investments. Their research found that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications deliver a high return on investment (ROI), averaging $5.60 for every dollar spent. It also found that further investment throughout its life-cycle and deploying secondary applications greatly increases the ROI. With employee productivity increased, improved business forecasting and an increase in sales, investing in CRM is a smart business strategy.