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If you have ever lead a dedicated, professional sales team then you’ll know that sales people are focused predominately on one thing… Sales! You’ll also know that as hunters, sales professionals can leave behind a lot of collateral damage in their wake and are notorious for not completing paperwork or sales processes.

But, you’ve employed them to do what they do best and that is to sell and often when you look at your process you have to ask the question is all that paperwork necessary? In some cases yes and in others the answer could be, well maybe not… One thing that does make sense is to look at your sales process, in fact; look at all of your processes and ask yourself the question. How much of this can be automated?

You may have heard me say before that in today’s business environment it is no longer a question of big vs small, but of fast vs slow. Workflow automation linked to a CRM system can greatly increase productivity and efficiency within your organisation. A direct spin off of this level of automation is that it also provides the business with a KPI measurement tool. Read more…

admin CRM Success Recipes, Workflow Automation Workflow Automation, Workflows

Forget the four P’s of Marketing and concentrate your efforts on the 3 M’s of Customer Relations as we head deeper into the global recession. What are the 3 M’s I hear you ask? Quite simply they are Manage, Maintain and Measure. Why? Because people, that is your market, are becoming far more prudent with how they spend their income.

In today’s market, referral and word of mouth mean more than slick adverting campaigns and promotional gimmicks. And although we are not advocating that you stop your marketing efforts, we are saying that it makes great sense and logic to reinvest in that one area of your business that has perhaps gone untapped for some time – Your past customers.

It may surprise you just how many businesses never go back to their past customers with offers and promotions. Bizarre when you stop to consider how much you spent to acquire these customers to begin with.

An essential tool in managing your current customer base is a robust CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System. A good CRM allows you to do far more than just store contact information and customer notes, it will allow you to manage sales campaigns whether they be part of your acquisition marketing strategy or your re-engagement strategy.

Once you have secured a customer you need to develop a long-term strategy to re-engage with them. This requires that you take off your ‘drive instant revenue’ hat and put on the ‘how to add value to my customers’ hat. Remember that your customers brought from you for a reason, now turn that reason into a compelling proposition for them to continue purchasing from you. Read more…

admin CRM Articles, CRM Success Recipes, Contact Management, Customer Service Systems CRM, customer relationshps, Customer Service, referrals