CRM International Blog

Why predictive sales intelligence boosts sales results

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Companies can gain a definite strategic advantage with predictive sales intelligence. We will soon be integrating sales intelligence with SugarCRM. This is a powerful combination - the capability to take action on business intelligence results with sales and marketing automation. Click here for a superb blog post from Selling Power.

ibm adds resources to social business initiative

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Big Blue introduced a series of workshops and consulting offerings to help clients develop the skills, technical support and industry resources that will allow them to effectively adopt social networking capabilities. Click here

Facing the challenges of selecting CRM software

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

If you’re facing the challenges of selecting a customer relationrelationship management (CRM) software, this buyer’s guide will give you some valuable insights. It offers real life examples of what CRM vendors are doing to differentiate themselves from the competition through innovation. Areas covered are:Click her Click here to see this information.

Interesting information about Salesforce.com

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Click here for an Interesting article about Salesforce.com.

The Right Way to Implement Mobile CRM

Sun, 11 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

This report will help you understand diverse CRM users' roles, information needs, and daily tasks and then pinpoint the use cases where mobility solutions can drive practical business value. The report’s self-diagnostic tool helps identify your best opportunities for success and predicts the pitfalls to avoid. Written by William Band, VP and Principal CRM Analyst for Forrester Research. Cl;ick here for report.

SugarCRM has another record quarter

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

SugarCRM has another record quarter! Click here

SUGAR CRM CONTINUES TO RECEIVE AMAZING COVERAGE

Wed, 9 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

SugarCRM continues to receive amazing, positive coverage in the press. The editorial in the link below makes very interesting reading and just came out in the UK following an interview with Clint Oram, Sugar's co-founder and CTO. Just as with the recent iTnews report attached, Sugar comes through as the market leader and strongly associated with tier-one brands. Here is snippet for the editorial.

Clint is quoted saying, “I think this is probably the most exciting times in history of CRM…. 1st generation SaaS [salesforce.com] has been all about lock-in, about giving customers no choice in terms of where their software runs and where their data resides... we’re 2nd generation, and 100% open. 2nd Generation SaaS really takes advantage of cloud computing.” Click here for full article.

SugarCRM wins cloud copmparison

Sat, 5 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Australia’s leading source of enterprise IT and telecoms news, just published ‘Which Clouds Play Nice‘, a 44-page technical study of the integration and extension options offered by the largest 20 software-as-a-service vendors serving the Australian enterprise market. Click here to see the report.

Some Solid Accolades for Sugar CRM

Sun, 23 Oct 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Whether yours is a large enterprise with strict scalability and availability needs, or a small business with tight cash flow, deploying SugarCRM can help you grow by:

Organizing and sharing customer information
Analyzing, measuring and reporting on that information across your company
Collaborating with customers and employees

SugarCRM’s award-winning applications have been downloaded more than ten million times and currently serve over 850,000 end users in 80 languages. Over 8,000 customers have chosen SugarCRM's On-Site and Cloud Computing services over proprietary alternatives. SugarCRM has been recognized for its customer success and product innovation by CRM Magazine, InfoWorld, Customer Interaction Solutions and Intelligent Enterprise and received glowing reviews from many publications, including eWeek.

SugarCRM announces connectivity to constant contact

Sat, 8 Oct 2011 05:00:00 GMT

SugarCRM is now connected to Constant Contact. This integration combines Constant Contact's powerful email marketing program with SugarCRM's extensive CRM and sales and marketing automation functionality. Take a look here at a video describing this integration.

SugarCRM Wins 4 CRM Magazine Awards

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 05:00:00 GMT

We're proud to represent such a great product. SugarCRm helps us bring powerful CRM and sales and marketing solutions to clients at all levels.
Click here to read about 4 awards SugarCRM received recently from CRM Magazine

Goldmine integration with erp & accounting systems

Fri, 5 Aug 2011 05:00:00 GMT

CRM International is an authorized GoldMine CRM/SFA software reseller and we specialize in integration with GoldMine and many ERP and Accounting systems. We do this with our SalesRabbit SystemPlugin integration tool. The SystemPlugin tool currently integrates with Peachtree, MAS200 and QuickBooks. However, the tool’s versatility allows us to connect to virtually any system. Use an industry-specific ERP system? SalesRabbit can help there too. It offers out-of-the-box connectivity to four industry-specific ERP systems and can be readily integrated with other systems.

The benefits of integrating GoldMine with a back-end system are numerous. Target marketing projects can be easily created from sales history categories such as order date, monthly and annual volume and different product groups. All accessible customer/account related-data from the ERP/accounting system can be mapped over to GoldMine. A powerful use of sales history in GoldMine is triggering automated sales and marketing processes. This is high level marketing automation and results in our clients gaining a competitive edge.

sugarcrm partners with inside view

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 05:00:00 GMT

SugarCRM has partnered with "Inside View" to drive a very exciting social CRM program. www.insideview.com

Inside View provides information sources from within SugarCRM; sources such as, Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and blogs - along with editorial sources such as Reuters and NetProspex. A key feature is being able to use this vast level of sales intelligence to create targeted lists to reach the right prospects at the right time. It even helps you reach prospects through your social network connections. Click here for more information and a live demo of Inside View.

As a SugarCRM partner, we’re looking forward to bringing this solution to clients and prospective clients. With SugarCRM’s robust sales and marketing automation, information from Inside View can be used as the basis for successful lead development, as well as existing customer development.

How Top Salespeople are using social Media

Tue, 5 Jul 2011 05:00:00 GMT

I'd like to point you to a great article by Matt Heinz - "How Top Salespeople Are Using Social Media". CRM/and sales and marketing automation software works extremely well to help implement and monitor this tremendous strategic focus. Click here to get to Matt's article.

Cloud Changing how the SMB works

Sun, 3 Jul 2011 05:00:00 GMT

The cloud is rapidly changing how the smb works. Sales and marketing depts utiliizing CRM and marketing automation are the biggest applications.
Click here to see an excellent blog post on this topic from CIO Insight.

Sales & Marketing Automation Provides a System

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Michael Gerber, in his best seller, "The E-Myth Revisited", wrote the following powerful message:

“For ordinary people to do extraordinary things, ‘a system – a way of doing things’ is absolutely essential in order to compensate for the disparity between the skills your people have and the skills your business needs if it is to produce consistent results”.

Gerber published this book in 1995, but its message has strong relevance today-especially as it pertains to sales and marketing automation software’s role in helping sales people achieve at a higher level. Automated workflows are an example of what Gerber refers to as a “system”. Workflows provide consistent customer/prospect follow up at the right time with the right message. Not only is a disparity of skills a factor for reliance on a system, so is today’s competitive environment. Customers/prospects have more choices, and more access to them, than ever before. Even with strong skill sets, sales people cannot keep up. Sales and marketing automation software provides a system that is a key compensatory tool in today’s business environment.

Inbound Marketing Coming On Fast.

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 05:00:00 GMT

As many businesses keep working with traditional outbound sales and marketing strategies to find new customers, they need to take a step back and find out if it’s really working! They need to start measuring the return of the “old” tried and true tactics such as outbound cold calls, telemarketing from prospect lists, email blasts and trade shows. Most will find out that success rates are really down.

Prospects block out these tactics with tools such as caller ID, spam filtering and voice mail-to name a few. Cold calling in an office building in any city is now almost nonexistent! Sales people need to get by security-and they’re not getting by unless they have an appointment. Let’s face it-prospective customers look at these traditional outbound marketing tactics as an intrusion.

They want you to stop trying to find them!! They want to find you when they’re ready!!

Although outbound marketing won’t go away totally, inbound marketing is making rapid inroads. Search engines, blogs and social media put companies in a position to be found. When this happens, the prospect takes the initiative and they become a “qualified” prospect. Just ask a sales person about the value of a qualified prospect, and the high rate of conversion to a new customer. Better yet-ask them how many telemarketing calls it takes and at what cost.

SEO (search engine optimization) strategies truly enhance inbound marketing, helping dealers get found by search engines, social media sites and blogs that results in more leads. And it costs substantially lower than outbound marketing such as call centers or cold calling. In some markets the cost of an outside sales call is $150.00! Dealers really need to look at their outbound/Inbound marketing combination.

At Longbow Consulting Group we’re excited about how our GoldMine/SalesRabbit solution as well as SugarCRM adds another whole dimension to inbound marketing by helping clients “take action” on those incoming leads.

Each solution creates a contact record from the web, assigns it to a campaign and begins the sales process through automated workflow. Typical workflow can include an automated email response and a task assigned to a sales person for follow up. This is sales and marketing automation that includes dashboard graphics and metrics that dealers use to measure campaign effectiveness.

Lead acquisiion and conversion

Sun, 10 Apr 2011 05:00:00 GMT

As inbound marketing grows as a major strategy for lead acquision, the following dilemma plagues most companies: how to "take action" on leads most effectively and improve the ratio of lead conversion to paying customers. SugarCRM offers marketing automation that addresses this dilemma directly with powerful marketing automation. SugarCRM users can create web lead capture forms that will take website visitor information and populate a record in Sugar's lead module. Automated workflow takes over and automates tasks such as: alerting a salesperson for lead follow up while simultaneously sending an email response to the lead. When the lead becomes a customer the lead can be brought through the process of converstion to an account within SugarCRM. This process-driven strategy creates consistent lead follow up and prevents leads from falling through the cracks. The result is a high degree of lead conversion and more new customers! CRM Boston consultants help clients implement this process.

SALESPEOPLE-MEET YOUR VIRTUAL SALES ASSISTANT

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 05:00:00 GMT

By Neil Saviano - President, CRM International

Sales people out there amidst almost unparalleled levels of competition need to be cognizant of choosing their co-workers more wisely! Co-workers in this context, from a metaphorical perspective, relate to the role technology plays as a virtual sales assistant.
The technology (assistant) refers to a software suite that historically comprises a company’s ERP system together with business intelligence and CRM and sales force automation software. (An ERP system supports all the business processes within an organization, such as purchasing, sales and accounting.)

Sales people must work closely with their virtual assistant to manage, and take action on, the plethora of information available. They must do this within their sales process to address the following key strategic areas:

1. The penetration and retention of existing customers
2. The development of new customers.

Let’s look at the impact the virtual assistant has on the two strategic areas listed above:

The penetration and retention of existing customers:

Sales history from an ERP system provides information that tells the sales person a customer-by-customer story. This revolves around where they have been with a customer (past sales), where they are now (current sales), and where they would like to go (future sales) based on a calculation of annual sales potential. When this information is integrated with a CRM program, the capacity is there to classify customers based on their buying status and put them into customer segments for effective targeting strategies.

The virtual assistant plays a major role as the sales force automation component enters the mix to take action on selected customers with tactics such as: email marketing campaigns and powerful automated work flow. This entails a series of automated timed tasks such as, emails and scheduled activities. This is truly a “take action” strategy; hard to “pull off” without an assistant! This is especially true for top salespeople whose skills have helped to acquire many customers – customers who often present service issues that pull them away from the tactics needed to build and retain ongoing business.

The development of new customers:

Positive results in this key strategic area rely heavily on a virtual sales assistant! New customer development is reliant on consistent touching of prospects at timed intervals. Consistency of touching provides favorable conversion ratios and obviously more new customers. Automated workflow prevails here, as a key set of tactics within a prospecting process also includes automated tasks such as emails and scheduled activities. In fact, within the work flow the virtual sales assistant can literally command the sales person to perform essential manual activities like, “send a note”, or “send a postcard”!!

Since most sales people’s income comes from commissions, they are in essence running a business within a business. This structure prevails upon a sales person to maximize the return from every hour they are selling. In fact, it’s estimated that the median number of selling hours a sales person has annually is around 1000. The virtual assistant helps to assure each hour is maximized by providing the information needed to make sound strategic customer and prospect decisions. Not to mention almost taking over the all important consistent activities (touching) of customer and prospects to produce the ratios needed for success.

A key technology component of the virtual sales person’s suite is sales force automation. The vast amounts of information and analytics are obviously essential, but “taking action” on this information and driving campaigns and work flow is where it all happens. Company’s need to look at their technology mix and make sure their sales people have the help they need for success. Sales people need to take the technology mix, introduce themselves to their virtual sales assistant, and begin a relationship that converts to more business and more income.

Excellent video on the social media revolution

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Click here to see Erik Qualman's excellent video depicting the Social Media revolution.

Social CRM seminar by Neil Saviano

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Please see the u-stream of Neil Saviano's recent seminar on Social CRM at The Amoury Company in Nassau in the Bahamas. The Amoury Company is a CRM client of ours as well as an agent marketing CRM with us in the Bahamas. Please click here:

social crm - the next level of CRM

Sat, 9 Oct 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Social CRM: The Next Level of CRM
By Neil Saviano

Traditional CRM is going through changes that can almost be classified as a renaissance. The process of gathering, processing and using customer and prospect information is being augmented by the power of social CRM.
What is social CRM and how can companies use it? Explanations abound – but here’s one that helps to clarify it:

Social CRM is the use of social networking to connect and collaborate with customers and prospects in order to help them overcome business challenges. Through social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, You Tube and blog posts, companies can do the following:
• Create compelling attractive content that connects them to customers and prospects and helps them be found on line!
• Start and share in conversations with customers and prospects that identify business challenges, and offer content that induces taking action.
Conversations need not only be between companies and their customers. Social media sites offer the opportunity to share in conversations between customers and their customers, gathering valuable information to help companies make positive changes. All of this new interaction helps bring relationships to an entirely new level, and can result in a competitive advantage.

Here are some relevant insights from Boston-based social media and public relations consultant, Rachel Poor:
“Basically, I see Social Media as a powerful tool for companies to gain important insight into the needs and wants of their customers. When activated correctly, Social Media becomes a ‘push’ and ‘pull’ channel, meaning you can 'push' information about your company, services, products etc and you can 'pull' information from your customers and competitors. We've all said at some point ‘oh to be a fly on the wall’ social media allows us to do just that and there is valuable insight to be gained”. More from Rachel can be found at www.rachelpoor.com
Rachel explained that it’s important to for companies to make the distinction between personal and business social media. Facebook is a prime example, as one normally associates this media with the chronicles of personal daily activities.
Business Facebook sites are one example of social media in business that is exploding. In essence they are interactive websites offering a platform to talk about products and services while inviting interaction from customers and prospects. A good example of a business Facebook site that mirrors a website can be seen at www.facebook.com/dell
Activity by companies on social media sites not only form connections to customers and prospects and drive them to their sites, it also helps positioning with search engines to help drive even more traffic to their websites. Among social media sites, You Tube is emerging as one of the biggest search engines. Links from social media sites to You Tube videos, or even more viral videos on a company’s website, help to draw attention. According to Christina Skillman, President of Boston area based Skillman Video Group:

“Using video is becoming more and more common to help express ideas about your company-who you are-what you do-and how you are different from others”. Skillman goes on to say, “all social media sites are video friendly and it helps to draw attention and increase the number of followers”.

In fact, at Skillman Video Group they have a new approach called Social Video Marketing. This is another way for companies to help drive traffic to their sites through social media and strategic linking, and turn casual web visitors into viable prospects. Companies can find out more about this integration of video and social media at: http://www.skillmanvideogroup.com/wordpress/services/social-video-marketing.

It’s important, however, to point out that traditional CRM isn’t going away! Its strength in the following areas will remain and will always be necessary to drive sales and marketing programs:

• Managing activities to assure that sales and marketing tasks are being carried out.
• Building a database of information about customers and prospects for internal use to help drive sales and marketing programs.
• Making it easier to access customer and prospect information.
• Managing and tracking leads.
• Automating sales and marketing processes and campaigns.
• Increasing then accuracy of sales forecasts.

The synergy between traditional CRM and social CRM offers companies an exciting new level of interaction with customers and prospects; a level that will certainly result in deeper customer penetration and increased new customer development. CRM software programs are now including the capability to link to social media sites and blogs from customer and prospect contact records. The combination of information gathered from traditional methods, and the information gathered from social media sites help turn action to dollars.

traditional crm joins with social crm

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Traditional CRM is quickly being augmented with social CRM. This is will quickly evolve into a prime CRM strategy for companies of all sizes. We are committed to implementing this strategic process with our current and future clients. GoldMine version 9.0 receives RSS feeds and links to all social media sites. Click here to learn more about GoldMine 9.0.

The power of tradional CRM and sales force automation is enhanced significantly when integrated with information from customer's social media, as well as with information from customer-to-customer social media conversations.

Click here for an excellent article by Brent Leary on traditional CRM vs. social CRM.

CRM: IT'S NOT A TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:00:00 GMT

CRM: It’s Not a Technology Solution!

By Neil Saviano

The many benefits companies can gain from a CRM project begin with the ability to gather, store, process and use customer and prospect information most effectively. Historically, this information-driven model is almost always put in place to address the following three key strategic areas and perpetual company pain points:

• New customer/Client acquisition
• Current customer/Client penetration
• Current customer/Client retention

However, from the beginning it’s important for companies to recognize one fundamental point about CRM to help assure a successful implementation: CRM is not a technology solution—it’s a process solution.

In essence, implementation of a CRM project is far closer to the implementation of a strategic marketing plan than it is to any technology upgrade or introduction. And as with any strategic marketing plan, the project needs to begin with a clear set of objectives and a realistic appreciation of the sales and marketing and customer service processes needed to reach them.

Overall project objectives are built around the three key strategic areas listed above, but there also needs to be lower level objectives that identify the plan’s various activities and the sales and marketing programs and tactics needed for success.

The CRM software program chosen by a company must have the capacity to manage the plethora of information collected, as well as the capacity to store and monitor sales and marketing activities.

Additionally, the software program chosen should transcend typical CRM functionality and include full sales force automation. This additional level gives companies the capacity to take action on information and drive sales and marketing programs with functionality that includes:

• Automated sales and marketing processes and campaigns
• Market segmentation from filtering of information that results in unlimited levels of target marketing
• E-mail marketing
• Dashboard reporting

The planning portion of a successful CRM implementation is a crucial element. Though discovery will identify the strategic objectives listed above, planning must begin with answers to the following key questions:

• Who will be using the CRM software?
• Does the software include effective reporting?
• How seamless will adoption be?
• How will training be conducted?
• What will be the level of post-training support?

The following key considerations are important in addressing the planning questions listed above, and will help to assure maximum CRM project ROI:

All customer-facing personnel should be CRM software users. This not only includes inside and outside sales, but also customer service. Since maximum use of information has been identified as a key CRM benefit, sales and customer service have the most customer and prospect contact and are best positioned to get needed information easily and on an ongoing basis. It may also make sense to include other departments in the user pool as well. Accounting personnel, for example, often use CRM to manage information and contacts for receivables collection.

Detailed reporting is a key element of CRM software functionality. It’s crucial that sales and marketing activities tied to overall process, campaigns and overall objectives be monitored. Reports have historically been paper-driven. Newer, state of the art CRM software offers dashboards so that management is able to access graphical and analytical presentations of sales and marketing activities. They are able to drill this information down and extrapolate information that helps them keep sales and marketing people on course.

Seamless adoption of CRM software by potential users is very important. It is a responsibility of management to prepare users for the transition. Preparation is especially important for adoption by sales people mired in cumbersome paper-driven processes. It’s essential that management prepare these traditionalists by stressing the benefits of smoother organization and enhanced efficiencies to be gained that will result in increased income. Customer service personnel should be an easy sell. Historically, they do not have easy access to information to help service customers faster or exploit additional sales opportunities within the existing customer base.

Onsite training is essential for the first phase of implementation. Subsequent follow up training can be effectively conducted online and/or by phone, but it’s important in the initial implementation phase that trainers experience onsite the cultural aspects of a company and its personnel. This assists in adapting the training to the company and its people and helps trainers leverage any observed nuances that can correlate to successful training and faster project ROI. It’s also important for companies to choose a CRM vendor whose training is not based solely on technology, but approached from a process perspective. Every mouse click and key stroke taught must relate to effective use in the sales and marketing and customer service processes. CRM vendors who approach this phase from primarily a technology perspective often have sub-par implementations and lower ROI for the company.

Post-training support is vital, both for software training as well as technical support. Historically, six-months of post-training support helps to solidify and reinforce key areas of training. Technical support is relevant with on-premise, server-based implementations versus web-based cloud implementations. In fact, companies will need to decide on which environment they prefer—on-premise or “in the cloud.” Each has their place. Historically, on-premise solutions are less expensive long term and offer the security of the information being at the company location. Cloud solutions require no technical infrastructure at the company site and no need for technical support.

In summary, companies looking to implement a CRM project must remember to take a non-technology approach and approach CRM from a process perspective that incorporates the program into their overall strategic marketing plan. This approach will help assure maximum ROI, both short and long term.

Fulfilling Implementation at Boxer Brand

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 05:00:00 GMT

We are working with a very fulfilling CRM implementation at Boxer Brand in South Boston. Boxer Brand manufactures restaurant menu covers and hotel room products for distribution nationally and worldwide. We're excited about implementing strategic sales force automation to help Boxer Brand's outbound telephone sales people reach more new customers and manage sales to existing customers. We will work extyensively with automated sales and marketing processes and campaigns. We upgraded Boxer Brand to the new GoldMine CRM 9.0. http://www.boxerbrand.com/pages/menu_covers.htm

We Are Now Offering E-Mail Hosting

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Are you looking for a new option for e-mail hosting? If you are, you’re likely missing the following features:

• Advanced spam protection
• Direct whitelisting from GoldMine (preventing spam protection false positives)
• Anti-virus protection
• Online spam statistics
• 10 GB storage space
• Web-mail access
• Web-admin access
• SMTP access
• Alternate port configurations
• Ad-free!

As part of our ongoing services to current and prospective clients, we are now offering these features with our e-Mail hosting solution.
Please call us for pricing at 978-750-6882. Or sales@crminternational.com

GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0 is Here!!

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 05:00:00 GMT

GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0, the latest release to the award winning GoldMine CRM Solutions product line, is here!!

A Customer Relationship Management solution should provide you real-time access to your customer facing team’s processes, as well as an easy, quick view into the state of your client interactions. Static reports and analysis in the past were acceptable, but with today’s constant changing business landscape and the ever growing need for information, instant views into your data is vital for you to make those important day to day decisions. With GMPE 9.0, you can do just that!

New GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0 features are developed to help you better manage your business information needs with a complete set of visual dashboards across all CRM functionality. GMPE 9.0 has pre-built dashboard parts for marketing automation, sales force automation and customer service business processes, and, clients have the ability to configure their own dashboard parts that match their specific CRM procedures. GMPE 9.0 also supports robust integration into the worlds most commonly used activity and email management tool, Microsoft Outlook. Now, GoldMine users can visually analyze the state of their business for better decision making in addition to improved client relationship tracking and user productivity.
GoldMine Premium Edition supports all your sales, marketing and customer service business needs through powerful customer relationship management.features, including relationship management, marketing automation, sales force automation, and customer service and support administration.
Find out more about GMPE 9.0 by downloading the GoldMine Premium Edition 9.0 Product Brochure. http://www.frontrange.com/common/Files/Downloads/Product_Literature/SMRM_Literature/FRS_GMPE_SolutionsOverview_NA_EN.pdf

Call us for a demo at 978-750-6882 or sales@crmboston.com

Finders Fees For Accountants, Bookkepers and QuickBooks resellers

Sat, 1 May 2010 05:00:00 GMT

We are now offering finders fees to accountants, bookkepers and QuickBooks resllers who want to bring an exciting business solution to their clients. See our earlier blog entry at: http://crminternational.com/Blog/?ItemID=49&Summary=0&keyword-list=

Anyone interested please contact Neil Saviano @ neil@crminternational.com 800-782-1534

Also, accountants, bookkeepers and QuickBooks resllers in the following areas may contact the following authorized CRM International agents:

North Carolina: Fain Enterprises: David Fain david@myfain.com 336-724-0417 Ext. 101

St. Louis, MO: J&E Office City. Jerry Gibbs. jerry@jeofficecity.com 314-644-3213

Albany, NY area: Suprior Business Products: Ray Seefeld. rseefeld@superiorbponline 518-356-2480

Calgary, Alberta: Canada: Office Stuff. Rodger Moody. rodger@officestuff.ca 403-221-8888

Vancouver, BC, Canada: Costless Express: Calvin Johnson. calvinj@costlessexpress.com 604-444-4467 Ext. 301 Bahamas: The Amoury Comnpany.

Bahamas: The Amoury Company - Nassau & Freeport. Jonathan Cancino jcancino@amoury.com 242.322-2733

CRM/Sales Force Automation vital to the success of prospecting programs

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 05:00:00 GMT

The fact that prospecting for new customers is vital to the success of your sales and marketing program ranks up there with the best of business “no-brainers”! However, most companies tend not to treat it this way. Historically, prospecting takes a back seat to penetrating existing customers; and why not? For years the recurring theme you’ve heard from many marketing experts has been, “it costs more to acquire and sell to new customers than it does to sell to and grow existing customers”. This dichotomy is still very sound. However, the combination of accelerating competition and a challenging economy is forcing many companies like yours to take a hard look at how to increase your level of prospecting for new customers.
Once you determine prospecting must play a larger role, however, you will likely need to address the following dilemma:

• Existing customer’s needs consume a major part of my sales people’s time.
• Sound prospecting programs are time-consuming and require ongoing repetitive tasks. They require sound structure and organization as well as increased levels of sales person accountability.

Popular CRM and sales force automation (SFA) technology offers a strategic solution for this dilemma. With the help of automation you gain the time for your sales people to implement an effective prospecting program, yet not sacrifice the crucial time needed for coverage and penetration of your existing customers. This technology-assisted solution comes to the rescue by providing the following components needed to implement a successful prospecting program:

• A database to store prospects, and the functionality to classify them into market segments for targeting.
• A collection of prospecting processes to address various market scenarios, and the capability to automate them-lessening the need of sales person involvement.
• A system for monitoring your prospecting program’s effectiveness in reaching planned activity and business goals.
• A system for maintaining sales person accountability and be assured all prospecting activity is being done!
Let’s take a closer look at these components:

The database provides the storage location for your prospects. Lists from marketing services and other organizations, such as local chambers of commerce, can be imported directly into your database. Prospects can come from various sources and doesn’t preclude cold calling, field drop-offs or telemarketing. No matter what the source, this depository gives you the opportunity separate your prospects into workable market segments for targeting. An example of segments includes, but is not limited to, any combination of the following:

o Industry type
o Company size
o Level of interest
o Annual sales potential
o Competition
o Sales person assigned
o Geographic

Most importantly prospects are in one central location and ready to be assigned and worked according to well thought out targets. This effort helps to assure a sales and marketing effort consistent with the perceived needs of the various targets you’ve put together. Now you’re ready to get to work on your prospecting processes and start to acquire new customers!

Processes provide the real power to your program and require the most planning. These are the repetitive tasks required for effective prospecting. As an example, if the basis of one of your targets is the level of prospect interest, and you’ve designated those “not interested” as your target, you can plan a series of timed tasks to take place to overcome this objection. These tasks can comprise a combination of email flyers, scheduled follow up calls, or prompt other actions such as sending a post card or stopping by with a catalog. Most importantly the processes and related tasks are automated by CRM/SFA software; they take on the role of a virtual sales assistant to your sales people. This new “assistant” is the key contributor to the solution of the dilemma related above; automated processes help your sales people prospect while current customers are covered.

Overall the classification of the targets in your database provides the basis for the tasks you assign, and is a key part of process and task planning. Flow charts should be developed to help you visualize the events and tasks that will take place at the required intervals for each of your targets. Your rate of prospect conversions to customers increases significantly when you can target them with consistency based on classifications that identify their target status and levels of readiness.

Monitoring your prospecting program’s effectiveness is critically important. A program is only effective if goals are being reached. Prospecting goals need to comprise the number of new customers needed in order to produce the required dollars and margins, along with the commensurate activities (tasks) required. Since activity is historically portrayed as a major contributor of sales and marketing success, it’s crucial that you have a reporting system in place that logs completed activity. Reporting will also show you if expected ratios are being reached. Ratios can include the number of new accounts opened to the number of prospects targeted. Levels of activity and ratios are very important within a prospecting program when measuring sales person effectiveness. As an example, if you expect a projected number of sales person follow up calls per day, and a commensurate number of in person new customer presentations, it’s crucial that you have the capability to monitor this performance. It’s a key to sales person effectiveness, and identifies any additional training required.

Monitoring presents a typical “inspect what you expect” scenario. New customer prospecting and the ensuing additional dollars and margins are a direct result of consistent and structured activity. Most CRM/SFA software is able to both record and report activity. Sales person accountability is part of the monitoring process. Management must be assured that sales people are holding up their share of the prospecting program.
It’s important to visualize a prospecting program as a marketing program of its own. Since a marketing plan is an integral part of any marketing program, it’s evident that a solid plan for prospecting is vital. Start by identifying the number of new customers you need in order to satisfy your additional dollar and margin requirements. Identify your target markets and develop the processes that you feel will be successful in converting the required number of targets into customers. Place a heavy concentration on the activities that need to be completed and the ratios of success needed. As results ensue be willing to change your program, just as you would with any marketing program.

GoldMine Now Connects To QuickBooks

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 05:00:00 GMT

The ever-expanding versatility of our SystemPlugIn now includes GoldMine CRM/Sales Force Automation connectivity to the popular QuickBooks business accounting software. QuickBooks information coming over to GoldMine includes:

• Summary data, such as: Sales, hits, average order amounts. Summary data can be viewed in the following periods: YTD, LY, LYTD, Trailing 12 months.
• Sales Orders (as Invoices/Completed Sales)
• Sales Receipts (as Invoices/Completed Sales)
• Purchase Orders (as Invoices/Completed Sales)
• Invoices (as Invoices/Completed Sales)
• Credit Memos (as Completed Sales w/negative amounts)
• Estimates. Estimates can be set as a forecasted sale.
• Customer list
• Vendor list.
• A/R Information- includes the following balances: Current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91+.

QuickBooks’ users can take action on their accounting metrics within GoldMine with automated sales and marketing processes, as well as unlimited target marketing campaigns. Email marketing plays a significant role in these strategic programs. Of course, GoldMine’s powerful activity and contact management is included. The soon to be released version 9.0 will introduce unlimited dashboards for valuable analytics.

Companies using QuickBooks can contact CRM International for a demonstration at 800-782-1534, or at sales@crminternational.com.

Using CRM/SFA for Prospecting

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Using CRM/SFA for prospecting.

A feature article by Longbow Consulting Group President, Neil Saviano, featured in S.P. Richards On Point magazine.
http://www.sprichards.com/OnPoint/OnPointQ12010.pdf

How Well Do We Know Our Customers

Sat, 6 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT

This is an article by Neil Saviano for our niche office products industry-but it has relevance for any industry:

“How well do we know our customers”? This is a question dealers must continuously ask themselves as they strive to penetrate their existing customer base to receive higher sales volume and higher margins. The answer to this question is a direct function of a dealer’s capacity to gather, store and use unlimited amounts of customer information.

A good place for a dealer to start is to the answer the following question: “what do we need to know about our customers to drive higher sales and higher margins”? An answer that includes only cursory customer information such as, industry type, competition, and number of white collar employees limits the chances for successful customer penetration. A dealer must dig much deeper. This requires asking questions that get to the core of a customer’s business.

For a dealer, the answers need to result in a better understanding of a customer’s business process, their products and services and how they manage their deliverables. Most of this information helps to identify customer needs, and most importantly identifies how a dealer can address some of these needs by providing a wider array of office products, furniture and services.

For example, learning that a customer goes to market with a field sales force uncovers applications for products that can assist them in making more effective sales presentations. Products that come to mind include binding supplies and binding machines. Another example addresses more effective sales meetings with products such as the new high promethean smart boards, or better and more functional white boards along with newer and more powerful digital projectors.

The above example is just a microcosm of the opportunities that exist in every customer’s office. An effective way for a dealer to uncover unlimited opportunities is to develop a process for querying customers. For smaller customers this may be just a simple survey form with an incentive to fill it out. For larger customers an in person discovery session is essential.

As related here, it’s important for a dealer to know what they need to know about a customer and what questions to ask. It’s obvious that deeper customer information will result in the opportunity for office products beyond those that are price sensitive and very low margin; not to mention bigger opportunities such as upcoming furniture projects.

An ancillary benefit a dealer gains from this process is the perception of not being a just a reseller of office products. Increased information helps a dealer to offer customers suggestions in the more effective use of office products to help gain efficiencies that lead to better management of operating costs. Not only does this help a dealer stand out among competitors as a solutions provider, it helps to cement a relationship and maintain customer retention.The

information management process is not only for building existing customers’ business. The same querying can be part of a prospecting process. This helps a dealer classify prospects according to potential and place them in the most cost effective prospecting cycle. Once a prospect is converted to a customer the information helps to set up a system of coverage to drive the business.

It’s crucial for a dealer to have a solid database in place to for the gathering, storing and using of information as related here. CRM and sales force automation (SFA) software provides this platform.

CRM and SFA, however, go beyond basic information management. It provides dealers with the capacity to segment their customers and prospects into target groups and approach them with a sound strategic program that includes the power of sales force automation. An example is targeted e-mail marketing campaigns and automated sales and marketing processes.

From a marketing planning perspective, CRM/SFA technology is a way for dealers to monitor the entire customer and prospect information management process. This includes monitoring all required activity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: An industry veteran, Neil Saviano is the president of the Longbow Consulting Group www.longbowcg.com , an office products industry specific CRM and Sales Force Automation consulting company that helps office products dealers create and implement successful CRM programs. He can reached by phone at 800-782-1534 or at neil@crminternational.com.

CRM Deployment: Users Can't Set Timetable

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT

With most enterprise applications, the executive champions and the user community are typically measured and have manageable expectations. Think accounting. With CRM, it isn't necessarily so. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9146000/CRM_Deployment_Users_Can_t_Set_Timetable

The Rise Of The "Searchmercial"

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT

We live in a world where the company name Google becomes a verb if you need to find someone, a business, or information. If we don’t know something, we “Google it”. This concept was alien to most of us 5-10 years ago, and now it is standard operating procedure for consumers and businesses alike. Companies are constantly trying to figure out how they can use search engines like Google to their highest advantage. With the rise of YouTube and more advanced searching capabilities, Internet searches are involving video more than ever, and now is the best time to get your message across with a professional “searchmercial” video.

See this entire blog entry at: http://www.skillmanvideogroup.com/wordpress/inside-svg-blog

For Daring GoldMine Users!!

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Hey you daring GoldMine users!!

Ever wanted to add merge fields in an Email template that were not available in the insert drop down menu? You can easily do this by manually typing the field name in between << >> for example: By typing <<&key1>> - you would get the DDMS number <<&key4>> - you would get the salesman # For user defined fields below the tabs you will need to add contact2-> before the field name like this: <<&contact2->usrname>> So as long as you know how to find the actual field name you can add any field to merge in an email template.

Managing Information with Technology

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Gathering, processing and using customer information with varied technologies is, and will continue to be, a dominant contributor in maintaining company profitability and growth. A company's benchmark in their overall effectiveness in managing and using technology-based customer information should come from the answers to the following questions:

• How much do we know about what are customers are buying and not buying from us, and how they are buying?
• How much do we know about our customer demographics that influence buying?
• How do we use the information we have to implement effective and ongoing sales and marketing programs?
• How do we gather and use information that helps us to monitor our activities, namely the information management and sales and marketing processes being driven by sales and customer service?

     The answers to these questions strongly relate to a company’s use of the technologies currently available. Many industry back-end legacy systems obviously compile customer buying history, but technology is needed to relate this history to areas such as the level of current customer penetration and retention. These metrics are critical, as penetration and retention directly determines profitability on a customer-by-customer basis – both short and long term. Sales and marketing analytical tools are available to help dealers and their salespeople look at each customer and the level of penetration and retention on a one-to-one basis.
     Technology is also needed to help companies develop benchmarks such as, customer profiles and how it relates to the level of penetration and retention needed to assure customer sales growth and profitability. CRM and Sales Force Automation software provides a place to put this information for easy access and retrieval for sales and marketing campaigns as well as usage by CSR’s in their every day customer-facing activities. In essence it answers the question: The information is there – now how do we act on it to drive business and profits? Some examples of information compnies work with includes: customer size (as it relates to overall potential), various office equipment, furniture styles and colors, special product and printing needs, competitors, levels of contact, etc.
     The Sales Force Automation components of popular CRM software technology provide the functionality to efficiently and effectively “act on” this information. Customer classifications that identify, as an example, levels of customer penetration can be grouped together to form a target segment for a campaign. The campaign can be efficiently and effectively automated and contain a series of strategic calls, visits, e-mails and other promotional efforts.
     Managing information that goes beyond buying history and business potential also plays a key role in customer development; this relates to business demographics and other customer - centric information. Beyond some of the information listed above, some other examples are: type of vertical industry, location and number of locations, customer personal issues and any other customer information that is worth remembering, and used for semi-automated and automated campaigns along with individual customer targeting. This is the kind of information that helps companies make a value-added difference with a customer in a volatile marketplace. Products and services that address specific customer needs within their vertical and make it easier for them to do business with a dealer, and do business overall, can go a long way in building and sustaining relationships
      The use of information and technology isn’t limited to working with just customers. Prospecting programs and their success are tied to the efficiencies and consistencies that technology provides. Prospect information, as an example, is used to create prospect classifications using some of the demographic customer-centric information related above. Some examples of classifications are: Type (hot-cold, etc), contact frequency, status (interested/not interested), etc. This is another example of the use of CRM and Sales Force Automation software and the capacity to target and touch as the situation dictates.
     There is a strong need for companies to also have systems in place to monitor the information-centric activities and campaigns to assure that the work is being done. Reporting and push reporting (automatic reports sent to management and reps) programs to identify that the activities are taking place according to plan are available. Coded reports can show types of activities such as follow ups, cold calls, interested and not-interested, appointment/presentations. CSR issues resolved, etc. As in any company program that involves people working within a strategy and with systems, accountability is a must to assure staying on course. CRM software provides a place for activities and all of the related notes for each activity that can be accessed quickly. Calendaring is also included to show future activities and the information tied to each one. Each kind of activity is automatically posted to a report.
     There is no doubt that the proliferation of competition places a strong need for companies to have the capacity to gather store and use customer and prospect information in a way that is going to give them a decided competitive advantage. This entails making sure that the correct technology is in place. It means looking at the technology environment holistically beyond the back-end legacy system. Making sure the synergies are there with sales and marketing analytical software and CRM and Sales Force Automation software. Most importantly, it’s mandatory that personnel use this information and processes in place to monitor this usage. Technology and information are assuredly the way for dealers to emulate the processes and strategies of their major and bigger competitors. It can be labeled “the great equalizer”!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A sales and marketing veteran with more than 30 years’ experience, Neil Saviano is president of CRM International www.crminternational.com , a sales and marketing organization that focuses on helping clients combine proven sales and marketing techniques and strategies with state-of-the-art CRM and Sales Force Automation solutions. He can be reached by phone at 800-782-1534 or by e-mail at neil@crminternational.com.

Seven CRM lessons to take from 2009

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Analytics is top of the agenda for CIOs
Commercial marketers are learning a trick or two from social marketers
And other lessons from 2009

MyCustomer.com looks back at some of the major developments of the last 12 months and outlines what the CRM industry
has learned in 2009.

See full entry at:
http://www.mycustomer.com/topic/technology/six-crm-lessons-take-2009

GoldMine In The Cloud

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT

"GoldMine In The Cloud"

"In The Cloud" has become the phrase that describes hosted CRM programs. Thus far hosted CRM has eluded GoldMine users; that is
until now. Longbow now offers hosted GoldMine for clients! No longer do prospective users have to give up GoldMine's powerful sales
force automation and settle for less functionality with traditional hosted systems.

Why generating More Leads Isn't The Answer to Greater sales Revenue

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Today’s economy is tough, with buyers holding onto cash and taking more time to make purchasing decisions. This naturally creates anxiety in businesses that are trying to sell products and services. Most often, their response is to populate the pipeline with more leads in the hope that some will turn into sales. After all, this approach seems logical, since more leads equal more opportunities, right?

Unfortunately, the opposite often turns out to be true. Flooding sales reps with more leads — especially low-quality ones — can actually make the problem worse.
Go to: http://www.insidecrm.com/features/generating-leads-sales-revenue-061609/

Time For A New Perspective On Sales Training?

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT

     Since most conventional industry sales training focuses heavily on new customer acquisition, it’s not surprising that a key measure of success, both for new and experienced company sales people, is generally how many accounts they can open in a set period of time.
Unfortunately, the traditional emphasis on customer acquisition usually means that customer penetration—“harvesting” existing customers to their full sales potential and driving higher margin business—typically gets less attention, even though most sales and marketing experts agree that it requires five times more effort to open a new customer than it does to sell more to existing customers.
     Since most industry sales compensation plans are based on margin, it would seem to make sense for most sales training—both for in-house programs and for those offered externally by wholesalers or buying groups—to place a stronger emphasis on customer development. A training shift, however, needs to come from companies themselves for that to happen.
     Effective sales training needs to highlight the tactics and skills required to penetrate customers deeper and reach marketing plan objectives. One way to identify those skills is by examining the work habits of successful sales people.
     Star sales performers are primarily excellent business people. They run their sales job as a business, with a sound business/marketing plan that serves as a microcosm of their company’s business plan and defines a course of action to produce their share of their company’s business objectives.
     If reaching marketing plan objectives at both the company and individual sales person level is part of a sales training program, another key area must be emphasized. This area is sales intelligence.
     Business intelligence is simply all of the customer sales history that resides in a company’s ERP software system. Using this intelligence strategically provides both companies and their sales people with the information needed to identify opportunities to drive customers to buy a wider range of products and subsequently increase margins. At the sales person level this process is directly tied to higher compensation.
     Sales training programs need to focus on using business intelligence, and business intelligence software. Business intelligence software transcends the use of customer information provided by traditional ERP systems and gives sales people and companies the ability to track customer buying patterns at unprecedented levels.
     In conjunction with using business intelligence, sales people and companies also need to be taught to place greater emphasis on understanding higher levels of customer needs and behaviors.
     This business intelligence comes from information gathered at the customer level instead of the ERP system, for example, gaining a deeper understanding of a customer’s office processes, workflow and special product applications.
     This strategic focus goes beyond traditional areas of needs, such as delivery requirements or reduced back orders. Instead, it focuses on identifying opportunities for deeper customer penetration and higher margins.
     As sales people and companies are taught the expanded use of customer intelligence and information, penetration can be greatly enhanced by subsequent sales and marketing campaigns. For example, customer intelligence might reveal a certain group of customers have stopped buying a particular product or product category, suggesting the need for a focused marketing campaign to regain that lost business. Or, analysis of a customer’s business processes may uncover a previously unexploited need for audiovisual products or similar items.
     Campaigns are simply strategic sales and marketing actions that evolve from placing customers into categories or classifications. In the customer categories listed above, examples of campaigns could be a planned series of faxes, e-mails and customer calls or visits.
     Conventional sales force automation/customer relationship management (CRM) software packages have functions that can help a company not only gather and store sales intelligence and information, but automate campaigns as well.

Our New Solutions Partner Brings Video to CRM

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce our latest solutions partner, Skillman Video Group. We developed this partnership to work in conjunction with our CRM and sales force automation (SFA) solutions. The synergy with CRM and SFA with effective Internet Marketing for businesses of all sizes is growing rapidly. Today’s economy requires taking advertising out of the so called “box” and creating something truly effective that can produce results. The new and unique attracts attention, and using video advertising on the web, and embedding video into CRM and SFA processes, can effectively help a business truly stand out from its competitors. The award winning producers at Skillman Video Group will work with our new and existing clients to create effective video advertising campaigns in conjunction with their CRM and SFA programs. Video can truly bring a business to life! See more about Skillman Video Group at www.skillmanvideogroup.com

True Mobile Internet Making a Difference

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

This is a signifcant article on mobil internet by Bengt Nordstrom in CRM Daily. http://www.crm-daily.com/story.xhtml?story_id=112009BE27K0

INFORMATION = CUSTOMER PENETRATION

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Customer penetration is critical for gaining customer-by-customer profitability as well as overall company-wide profitability. Penetration means customers buying a wider range of products that relate to higher margins. Gathering, processing and using customer information is critical to maximizing customer penetration and higher margins. CRM and sales force automation software provides the resource to gather and process unlimited amounts of information and transfer it to targeted sales and marketing campaigns. GoldMine 8.5 Premium Edition CRM/Sales Force Automation software has superb information processing functionality. http://www.frontrange.com/goldmine-premium.aspx

Case Study: Davis Publications

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

    Gathering, processing and using customer and prospect information across the enterprise provides the basis for the benefits most companies realize from using CRM and Sales Force Automation software. This is truly the case for Davis Publications, an art education publisher in Worcester, MA. Davis Publications has been a GoldMine CRM software user for five years.
     Toni Henneman , marketing manager at Davis, (left in picture) is exuberant when she talks about what GoldMine means to their operation. “We love GoldMine”, Henneman said. “It keeps all of us in the company, from customer service to sales to accounting, on the same page as we communicate with our customers. Nothing falls through the cracks in our effort to build strong relationships with them and continue to earn their business.”    Lynn Babineau, sales support coordinator, echoed Henneman’s sentiments: “GoldMine is such a valuable tool. I have all of the information in front of me when a customer calls. I immediately have access to notes of past conversations as well as emails and other interactions. My customer’s needs come first and I have everything I need to address them.”

     Davis Publications provides art textbooks for grades K thru 12 as well as School Arts magazine, a publication written by art educators for art teachers. Davis Publications provides resources for educators all the way up to the college level. Thus, a strategic focus is current customer penetration across product lines. Henneman and Babineau both agreed that the proliferation and sharing of customer information enhanced penetration, especially by being able to identify needs ongoing and target customers accordingly. GoldMine’s sales force automation functionality helps to target customer groups at Davis by filtering according to roles such as teachers, supervisors and administrators. E-mail marketing plays a key role here, as well as automated processes; with automated processes Davis can schedule a series of repetitive tasks such as e-mail promotions and activities to be scheduled at whatever intervals needed.   GoldMine sends the e-mails and schedules the calls automatically; in essence, they have a virtual sales assistant!

Both Henneman and Babineau were quick to point out that GoldMine’s sales force automation wasn’t just used with current customers. They have a structured prospecting program to drive new business. As prospects inquire on Davis’s website to test drive an E-book, an automated process begins that alerts a sales rep by e-mail of the prospect and their interest-and three weeks later the sales rep is alerted that the test drive will be ending in 10 days and it’s time to follow up. As Henneman pointed out above pertaining to current customers – the same can be said for their prospecting program: “nothing falls through the cracks.”

Davis Publications is now looking to GoldMine for help in addressing the economic downturn. As Lynn Babineau summed up, “with the economy the way it is we are looking to save costs by marketing much more via e-mail than through conventional mail. We can quickly download prospect lists into GoldMine, create specific groups and have information in their hands – sometimes the same day. Since we can save considerable money in printing costs and postage, we’re looking real close at this as a way to go to market.”

Learn more about Davis Publications at: www.davisart.com

Email Marketing: Content Not That Different!

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Email marketing is no different in content then hard copy marketing (newspaper, flyers, direct mailings). The difference is the vehicle of delivery and the ability to drive the customer to areas which give you the ability for further marketing opportunities. With traditional or hard copy marketing the message is forefront when the customers looks at the ad, the same must be true for email marketing or "e-marketing." The customer must see the ad without having to click to open or download it.

Sales Force Automation Makes the Difference at Pro Windows

Sat, 7 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

One could call ProWindows, a 15 year old residential door and window company in Waltham, MA, a poster child for CRM and Sales Force Automation. Just ask ProWindows’ President Jeff Fisher if the label fits and he’ll quickly tell you: “we grew 20% last year in the height of the recession and there is no doubt in my mind that this record year is highly attributable to implementing GoldMine software.”

Fisher sights managing prospect quotes as the core of the ProWindows sales process. They’re the pipeline for future jobs, and the more the better! However, Fisher is quick to point out that more quotes don’t mean much if they can’t be managed and converted into jobs. “Before GoldMine”, he says, “we always had plenty of quotes but so many just fell through the cracks. We never knew where we were with a prospect in the process, and without good follow up many just went somewhere else; out of sight, out of mind”.

Enter GoldMine and Sales Force Automation! ProWindows truly leverages GoldMine’s filtering capability to break quotes down by various demographics and levels of readiness, thus following up accordingly - at the right time. However, Fisher was quick to point out that this only addressed half the battle. “We still had to find a way to use this information and do the actual follow up, especially during busy times when things are going well and we don’t have the time. Together with CRM Boston we looked at the GoldMine Automated Process feature and that was the answer”! Automated processes give ProWindows the capability to automatically schedule a series of timed events such as calls and e-mails. Fisher went on to say, ‘Now we’re able to automatically touch a prospect at the most opportune time, and always know where we are with a prospect in the process and know what have talked about and what e-mails they have gotten. In essence, we have a virtual sales assistant”! And not only is ProWindows touching at the right time and highly increasing their rate of success, they’re getting positive feedback from prospects at the same time. Said Fisher, “They commend us for keeping in touch; for helping them make what is usually a major expenditure at the right time-and painless”.

Concurrent with the effective use of sales force automation, ProWindows is building a database of information on current customers and prospects that is being leveraged ongoing. During slow times this information is the source of various target marketing campaigns around e-mail marketing. Dormant prospects are put back into the flow as well as targeted campaigns to current customers. “We really use our database” explained Fisher. “After all, past windows customers become the source for new doors, and door customers become the source for new windows.” And to add to the whole current customer penetration mix, Pro Windows has started a new kitchen company and all past customers are prime targets. “We are literally in our database all the time”, Fisher went on to say. “We even look at similar demographics of prospects to current customers and target accordingly. There’s just a wealth of information to draw from for all kinds of campaigns; I bet we average about 15 e-mails going out daily.”

In the end, however, Jeff Fisher is a strong advocate of back-to basics selling. “It’s a numbers and ratios game, always has been”, says Fisher, but with GoldMine and CRM and sales force automation we can certainly do a lot more with the numbers”!.

Take Action on Your Information

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Latest article by CRM International President, Neil Saviano:
http://crminternational.com/home/articles/articlebody.asp?id=53

Manage Sales People with CRM Software

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Are you using CRM software to truly measure sales person performance? The vast reporting capabilities, including dashboard graphics and analytics, can tell a story about salesperson activity that can lead to significant sales person growth- both personally and professionally. Not to mention an increase in salesperson ROI for the company overall. The number of activities are certainly a metric that needs to be monitored, but more importantly the ratios between activities that lead to achieving the metrics the company sets forth are likely the most important consideration. As an example: If market planning has determined that historically four proposals lead to one sale and three presentations lead to one proposal and ten prospecting calls lead to one presentation-there is a valid basis for measurement. CRM software can track and report on these activities, and provide both sales management and sales people the tools to measure actual results against projected, and the basis for making any needed changes to stay on course.

New CRM International Agent/Partners

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

CRM International is pleased to announce two new agents and solutions partners. They are:

Tammy Hegel in the Greater Seattle, WA area

Superior Business Products in Schenectady, NY.

See more information on these two new partners at http://www.crminternational.com/

Our CRM Canada division annouces the following new agent and solutions partner:

Office Stuff - Calgary, Alberta
See more information on Office Stuff at: www.crmcanada

CRM Vs. Sales Force Automation

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:00:00 GMT

Did you purchase CRM software and thought you were getting Sales Force Automation (SFA) with it? It's easy to make that mistake! Though most CRM software programs certainly helps to build and maintain customer relationships through managing contact and information, a missing piece may be the ability to automate sales and marketing processes. Process is an integral part of any sales and marketing program, and quite often day-to-day administrative tasks as well as "putting out fires" can take typical sales people away from the repetitive tasks necessary to prospect for new customers and penetrate existing customers. One key feature of SFA is the ability to automate these repetitive tasks-acting as a virtual sales assistant. Another major feature of SFA is the capability of filtering information at high levels of granularity in order to employ very robust target marketing. With most SFA programs targeted groups can very quickly attach to strategic tactics such as email marketing. As competition becomes more global and more intense, and profit margins decrease, SFA becomes an integral tool in staying ahead of all of this and helps to maintain ROI for both sales people and the company overall.