Now let’s say you are a sales manager and have 10 sales people under you. You are looking to increase sales monthly but feel your team is maxed out in time spent during a typical day between sales calls, meetings, administrative items, travel time, and networking.
Identify Worthwhile crm Goals – Try to stay away from generic goals like, “grow profitability”. Success with CRM is in the specifics of “HOW” you plan to achieve each objective. So, once you have identified your institution’s specific crm goals, you must then examine an outline of each, discuss your expected benefits versus what you’re doing now…and consider possible road-blocks.
The first is communication. How do we communicate with our customers? And I don’t mean email or letter or telephone. What I mean is, do we really make an effort to get on side with our customer? Do we look at things from our customers point of view? Do we understand all the things that our customer is feeling, seeing, hearing, tasting and smelling? Do we communicate in ways that our customer understands? And do we listen? Really listen?
The big name CRMs are not the only ones out there. You can buy one of the big brands, and they do offer some great software. However, some of these programs are still too expensive, or simply too complex, to meet the needs of a smaller business. Luckily these days there are many smaller, yet still effective, CRM providers out there. Companies such as Zoho and Trackvia, to name a few, can provide free or low cost options. New Leading Free CRM Software is typically web-based, can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection, and are still customizable to fit your business.
Many years ago, back in the ’70’s, I worked for a firm that supplied M&S with clothing. It was the most successful company in its field, supplying M&S when it was at its height. Each week the boss would go into the stores and watch the ladies shopping. When one picked up a blouse, looked at it and put it back on the rail he would pounce and ask her “why”. And when someone decided to buy he’d pounce again. He knew what they were buying and why, and what they weren’t buying, and why. My boss didn’t do this just in the UK. Once a fortnight he and the head designer (there were over 100 people employed in the design studio alone) flew to New York on Concorde to see what the Americans were buying. He knew the customers and boy, did it show in our figures.
Fortunately, time has a way of changing things. A ‘no’ today doesn’t mean forever. So it is important to stay connected with ‘warm’ prospects who represent a potential goldmine. You know they have a need. You already invested money and time doing the hard work – capturing their attention and compelling them to call or visit. Isn’t it worth staying in touch to create future sales?
But this is just a fairy story. Why? Because CRM and the whole Customer relationship management idea has been hijacked by the database manufacturers. What was once the simple but highly effective philosophy of getting feedback from your customers is now just another computerised three-letter-acronym database being sold by the likes of Oracle and Sieble. The database lineage probably began with MRP (material requirement planning), which begat MRPII (manufacturing resource planning), which begat ERP (enterprise resource planning) with SAP on the side (and nobody even knows what SAP stands for). It’s a fairy story because a “CRM expert” would never suggest listening to the customers.
Obviously, with an online system no installation will be required on your part. All you will have to do is search for something suitable for your business and sign up to be ready to use it. No fuss.
We always offered some sort of sexy high tech gadget as a prize to attract people to our booth. Free iPods, Bose headphones, we offered whatever was the hot gadget that year, we promoted the drawing to drive more people to our booth. Now mind you, 90% of the people who stopped by our booth came by just to enter the contest. They had no interest in discussing our services, and they did not stick around to chat or even pretend that they had an interest in anything other than the prize.
There is lots of CRM software out there and they can all be used in your system but the question is, are they compatible with the kind of business that you are running? As a rule, the system requirements when choosing CRM software will have to be considered. This will help you know whether you will be upgrading your computers or not. After knowing what is ideal for you, waste no time and use it to improve the teamwork of your company.