A unified CRM is what’s required to thrive in a competitive landscape. The tools and data integration that it provides enable all of the company’s teams to seamlessly achieve synergy. They enable you to gain more insights and deliver a better experience.

Let’s dive deeper into the ways Insightly’s unified CRM software can have a transformative impact on your business.

What is the CRM process?

The CRM process can be best described as a business strategy that enables companies to better identify and interact with current and potential customers. 

The idea here is to improve personalization for every customer interaction for enhanced customer experience and loyalty through data analysis and segmentation tools.

The same approach is also leveraged for prospects to convert them into paying customers. The five core steps of the CRM process signify a collaborative effort between the key departments in a company.

The 5 steps of the CRM cycle

1. Increase brand awareness

Typically the marketing team’s domain, the first step in the customer relationship management process involves introducing prospects to the business. It requires in-depth research on the audience’s demographics and interests.

Audience personas are created based on this market research to launch marketing campaigns that will theoretically have a greater chance of resonating with the audience.

2. Acquire more leads

The lead acquisition step is generally handled by the sales or marketing teams, or in some companies, both. This is essentially an effort to get prospects to engage with the business. 

For example, the marketing team might offer downloadable content as a lead magnet to website visitors if they provide an email address. The sales team could then pull that data from the CRM to proactively target prospects to convert them into customers.

3. Convert leads into paying customers

Reps nurture leads to get them to convert to paying customers in this part of the sales process. They usually rely on lead-scoring data in the CRM to identify prospects that may have the highest probability of a sale and follow-up diligently with the lead.

Converting prospects into new customers is more of an art than a science. Sales reps must be skilled at building trust to inspire confidence in the leads to convert them into paying customers.

4. Retain customers with customer support and customer success

The job doesn’t end when the lead converts into a customer. Providing them with exceptional customer service is key to ensuring that they remain loyal customers.

The most widely used metric in customer service is CSAT or customer satisfaction. This data is used to track trends and identify and fix any issues impacting customer service.

5. Extract more value per customer with upsells/cross-sells

Upselling and cross-selling are great opportunities to proactively meet the needs of your customers by utilizing the data in the CRM. Companies should be mindful of the fact that customers’ needs may change over time. 

This can be achieved by leveraging purchase data to provide personalized recommendations on the products and services that would provide further benefit to the customers.

Why the CRM process is flawed

Not all companies are created equal. The customer journey will always be different for every company. What works for one may not necessarily work for the other. This crucial fact tends to be overlooked by the CRM process. 

What ends up happening is that the data gets compartmentalized in different tools. It turns into a mess as data discrepancies inevitably occur when all teams are not entering data into the same system.

This causes friction between various teams, including sales and marketing, since they effectively work in silos with complex ad hoc data sync processes.

Employees thus end up not trusting the data as it doesn’t provide them with a holistic view to make empowered decisions. They come to question the integrity of the data because it doesn’t appear to be cohesive and comprehensive.

They also find it difficult to achieve synergy with colleagues on other teams. Alignment across teams is crucial to close more customers and to improve retention.

A real-life CRM process example

A legacy CRM is effectively used as a suite of apps by a company. All of the sales, marketing, and service data is collected and managed in separate silos. 

Thus, in reality, these so-called “integrated” CRMs are actually “assembled” CRM software where features and functionality were added over time in response to customers’ needs. 

These solutions don’t fit the customer journey, particularly for companies that offer multiple products and services. The many teams that work on them use different tools that all do the same thing but don’t allow for seamless data integration. It’s impossible to have confidence in the data when it’s scattered everywhere. 

There’s no continuity between the various tools in the CRM system, which prevents them from having an up-to-date and comprehensive view of the customer journey.

This will prevent, for example, the hardware and software sales teams in a company from leveraging the upsell/cross-sell opportunities that may exist with their customers simply because their data is all over the place. 

Trying to fully integrate the scattered data is an expensive and time-consuming proposition, often making efforts to achieve that futile.

A better, adaptive approach to the CRM process

1. Start with the customer journey

The customer journey is a vital part of any CRM integration. Most solutions go about it the wrong way by forcing the customer journey to adapt to the CRM process. 

Think about it, what works for a customer who wants to buy hardware might not work for someone who’s buying software. The same CRM strategy can’t be used for both.

It should be the other way around. The CRM process needs to be flexible enough to adapt to the customer journey. This increases the potential of converting leads and enhancing retention regardless of what stage of the sales pipeline they’re in.

2. Integrate with your existing tools

A single customer view that centralizes all customer data is a powerful tool to achieve synergy. Its integration with all of the existing tools that a business uses is also of vital importance. 

Insightly AppConnect is a tool that allows for integration automation. Companies can use it to link and integrate Insightly’s unified CRM system with the other apps they use in their organization. 

This allows for powerful new workflow automation between applications. AppConnect also features over 500 pre-built connections to popular business apps.

Even non-technical users can build seamless integrations by using its simple drag and drop interface without writing a single line of code.

3. Take a unified approach

Companies can both extract the most from their CRM implementation and improve customer service by adopting a unified approach that no longer relies on redundant tools and the compartmentalization of data in silos. 

They can achieve synergy and data integration by unifying the marketing, sales, support, and project management on a single platform. All of the teams work together with a holistic view of the customers’ needs and expectations.

​​One of the biggest benefits of a unified solution for teams is that they can complete many tasks in one single system. They no longer have to switch between multiple applications to use various tools just to access data, a task that unnecessarily slows them down. 

Insightly puts this unified approach at the heart of its CRM solution. Teams’ productivity increases through automation. With business intelligence built in, Insightly can also be used to create data visualizations and real-time data dashboards for unmatched visibility.

Insightly unifies your CRM process

Insightly empowers organizations and even small businesses to align sales, marketing, and support teams so that they have complete visibility over customer relationships. They can use that insight and knowledge to improve customer service. 

Automatic lead routing ensures that leads are routed to the right person in real-time. With workflow automation, companies can create complex, multi-step business processes to better serve their customers. It can even execute custom business logic to sync with external systems from the likes of SAP and Oracle.

AppConnect ensures that the ecosystem of tools that a company uses every day isn’t disrupted; rather it’s integrated seamlessly with the CRM. AppConnect comes with more than 500 pre-built connections to the most popular business software apps. This makes establishing seamless integrations between the CRM and apps very straightforward.

Interested in learning more about how a real single customer view can enable you to improve customer retention and to better connect with them? Try Insightly for free to feel the unified CRM difference for yourself.

The post The CRM process is flawed. Here is why. appeared first on Insightly.

That being said, trying to do too much without the right mix of people and technology can cause deals to go to waste.

To help sales reps elevate productivity in today’s “socially distanced” selling environment, many companies are taking a fresh look at workflow automation. When used properly, workflow automation helps reps get more done with less effort, and close more deals.

Here are six best practices for using workflow automation to streamline your sales pipeline.

1. Avoid automation (for now) & shore up your pipeline

Workflow automation is defined as the use of technology to reduce or eliminate the manual aspects of a business process. It is not a magical solution to fix all of your sales problems. In fact, when used in tandem with a poorly constructed sales pipeline, workflow automation may make a bad situation even worse.

To illustrate my point, let’s assume that a company’s sales pipeline for its ideal customer profile (ICP) consists of four stages:

• Needs analysis
• Value proposition
• Price quote
• Closed won (or lost)

The company’s sales reps reliably move opportunities from stage to stage, but deals consistently get stuck in price quotes. Seeking to accelerate deal velocity, the sales manager designs a complex workflow that involves numerous tasks and emails so that reps perform their necessary follow-up activities. Despite even the best intentions, this approach will likely fail because it does not address the root issue. Reps don’t need more emails crowding their inboxes. Maybe they just have a hard time differentiating between deals that are being quoted and those that are already quoted and require follow-up. In this case, simply adding another stage to the pipeline (i.e., “quote follow-up”) might be more effective and help reps structure their work with fewer distractions.

Key question: Does the sales pipeline in your CRM accurately represent your sales process? If not, it’s time to make a few changes.

2. Collect a list of your sales pipeline bottlenecks

Let’s assume that your sales pipeline is aligned with your CRM. Now the automation can begin, right? Maybe not. Here’s why.

Although creating workflows in your CRM should be relatively easy, doing so consumes scarce resources. With sales teams leaner than ever, you don’t have unlimited time available for configuring an unlimited number of automations. You must be selective and only build automated workflows that will deliver tangible value to your business.

Slow down and make a list of the current bottlenecks in your pipeline. If you can’t think of any, look for these warning signs:

• Processes that require significant amounts of data entry
• Things that consistently get “stuck’ in the pipeline
• Processes that require manual coordination with third-party systems
• Data silos

Key takeaway: Create a shared document or kanban board to collect your sales pipeline bottlenecks. Share the list with everyone involved in the sales pipeline and crowdsource ideas.

3. Know what your CRM can do

You don’t need to hire an expensive CRM consultant to understand how your CRM’s automation works. Spend time reading your CRM vendor’s automation documentation (for example, check out Insightly’s automation guide). Ask yourself these questions as you dive in:

• Which CRM records (i.e., leads, contacts, etc.) can be used to trigger an automated workflow?
• Does my CRM allow me to use multiple criteria (i.e., bid amount, deal status, etc.) when building automated rules?
• Can actions be scheduled to occur on a future date rather than occurring immediately?
• What are the different types of actions (i.e., send an email, update a record, etc.) that are available?

Reminder: Don’t forget to check if workflow automation is included in your current CRM plan level. If it’s not included, perform a basic ROI analysis to determine if the cost of upgrading is worth it.

4. Sequence your biggest pain points

Now it’s time to sequence your bottlenecks to decide what you should automate first. Remember, you want to identify the one thing that will have the biggest impact on your sales pipeline but is also easy to implement (given your CRM’s capabilities as previously discussed). There are numerous ways to do this, but I suggest keeping it simple:

Impact

Large = 1 point

Medium = 2 points

Small = 3 points

Size

Small = 1 point

Medium = 2 points

Large = 3 points

If you’re using Insightly, you might use tags to assign an impact and size rating to each item. Then use your project kanban board to drag and drop cards into a logical order. Use a golf-like scoring methodology to give preference to cards with low scores (i.e., large impact, small size).

Bonus tip: If there’s a tie between two or more cards, ask for feedback from other stakeholders in the sales pipeline. After all, you want buy-in on the automation that you’re building.

5. Automate one sales workflow at a time

Notice that the headline says one workflow—and not several.

Don’t be tempted to automate too many things at once, especially if this is your first attempt at automation. There are enough decisions to make in building a single workflow. Distributing your focus will only lessen your ability to think strategically and clearly.

For the sake of discussion, let’s imagine that you’ve identified inbound lead automation as the highest impact, lowest effort initiative. Your SEO and paid promotion is paying off and generating more inbound inquiries; however, you lack a scalable system to deal with the influx. You’re looking to automate the following steps to engage more inbound leads and reduce manual effort:

• Immediately send a welcome email to the lead
• Assign a task to an SDR for follow-up
• Send a second email a few days later

If you’re an Insightly user, check out this helpful guide, How to configure an automated workflow. Before you start making any adjustments in your CRM, however, it’s wise to diagram your ideal workflow. Use descriptive words to explain exactly what you want to happen. Here’s a simple illustration:

Use your diagram as a guide for implementing workflow triggers and actions that help you achieve your goal. Refer back to it often—especially if you feel like you’re getting lost in the weeds when evaluating workflow criteria.

Suggestion: Test your workflow in a limited scope before rolling it out across your entire sales team. During testing, you might assign automated tasks to yourself instead of to your SDRs. This approach allows you to make any final adjustments and ensure everything is working as intended.

6. Use data to measure success & plan your next move

Workflow automation should have a measurable impact on your sales key performance indicators (KPIs). In an example with inbound lead automation, you can expect to see a noticeable improvement in one or more of the following areas:

• Email response rate from inbound leads
• SDR appointments with inbound leads
• MQL-to-SQL ratio for inbound leads

Use data from your CRM to track desired and actual outcomes. If, after a few months, you notice very little change (or a change for the worse), perhaps it’s time to make a few adjustments. Ask users for their input, too. What seems to be working? What makes their lives easier? What, if anything, has created new challenges? Look for opportunities to improve and continuously refine the workflows that you build.

Insightly tip: Insightly dashboards can help you visualize your data so you know what to tweak and what to automate next.

CRM automation helps you scale your sales pipeline

Automated CRM workflows play a pivotal role in helping you create a more scalable sales process. Shore up your existing CRM pipeline, understand your vendor’s capabilities, and use data at every step of the process to build workflow automations that make an impact.

Continue reading about CRM workflow automation to see what it can do for your business.

If you want to learn about Insightly CRM’s advanced workflow automation capabilities, request a free demo and see how you can better equip your sales team.

Request a demo

The post 6 workflow automation best practices to streamline sales pipeline appeared first on Insightly.

How to identify sales-ready leads in your database

The majority of businesses rely on new lead acquisition for growth and pay little attention to existing leads. In many ways, that’s a waste of resources and effort, not to mention lost sales opportunities. Part of the challenge here is the separation between sales and marketing processes: marketing passes leads to sales and, unless a lead turns into a customer, is done with the outreach. With Insightly’s unified platform and a CRM connector you can solve this issue by easily moving “contacts” from the CRM side into Marketing as “prospects,” getting another chance to identify sales-ready leads and add them to nurture campaigns. You can set up customer journeys with a series of emails that include tracked links, so you can easily map your prospects’ interactions with brand content and determine their readiness to buy. More specifically, here are a couple of ways to identify sales-ready leads:

1. Engage leads with the right content, such as pricing information, vendor comparisons, data sheets, etc. and use responses to determine their readiness to buy.
2. Use secondary calls to action (CTAs), such “contact sales” button or links to resource and pricing pages and track clicks to identify your prospects’ exact stage in the funnel.

How to create a successful marketing campaign: the basics

Before introducing different marketing campaign plans you can execute with Insightly Marketing, let’s go over the four basic steps in developing any marketing campaign plan.

1. Define your goals. Make your goals specific, measurable, and achievable. Whether it’s a new product line, geographic expansion, or attracting a new customer type, make sure your marketing goals are driven by your business needs. For example, if your business goal is to bring in more mid-market companies, then your marketing goal might be to “generate 1,000 new marketing qualified leads from mid-market companies online in the first half of 2020.” Use benchmarks to ensure you’re on track at any given point in time and to motivate your team along the way.
2. Determine your audience. Your buyer profile, which includes basic demographic information, industry and company profile, business role, and specific pain points will shape your business strategy, outreach campaigns, messaging, content, and execution. Research your ideal customer’s daily content consumption habits and preferences. Which news or business sites do they visit? How frequently? What about social media channels? What type of content (blogs, webinars, podcasts) do they engage with the most?
3. Develop strategy. You’ve got your goal and audiences set. Now you need to identify campaign types to determine your course of action. What are you trying to get people to do? Download content, watch videos, browse your website, and/or talk to sales? If your goal is to drive traffic to the website, then share engaging brand content (like infographics, for example) across social and other content distribution platforms. Also, whenever possible, your sales reps should encourage prospects to visit your website.
4. Messaging. Make sure you create a central theme first and then develop different types of content for each stage of the customer journey. For example, you may use top-of-the-funnel content, like blog posts or ebooks, earlier in the journey and share product details and vendor comparisons down the road.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s review three types of marketing campaign plans you can set up in Insightly Marketing.

Getting started campaign

This is one of the most basic, easy to set up, and budget-friendly multi-channel marketing campaigns. Use your website, social channels, and email to reach your target audiences. Once you create at least one anchor piece of content, such as an e-book or webinar, you can repurpose it in various formats across these online channels as well as add it to your sales enablement toolkit. These simple campaigns are great for learning marketing automation basics and testing the effectiveness of your messaging and content.

Customer upsell campaign

In the B2B world, where sales cycles are long and complex, upselling and cross-selling can be a challenge. This campaign plan can help you organize your efforts and empower your sales team. The key component of an upsell campaign is educational content. Use your website, help center, and customer stories to provide prospects and customers with answers to their most pressing questions and best practices on how to make the most out of your product and/or service. Create email templates your sales and customer service teams can use for ongoing outreach. User groups are a great way to collect customer feedback and foster community among your customers.

Expansion campaign

This is the most complex and expensive plan and is often used for breaking into a new industry or market segment. Here you may add new channels, such as paid social and partner marketing. As you expand your business, you may find that partner network is one of the most effective ways to reach new customer segments, build trust, and establish relationships.

Whether you’re just starting out with your marketing campaigns or are a total pro looking for better marketing automation solutions and sales and marketing integration, request Insightly Marketing demo to learn how you can take your marketing to the next level and reach your business revenue goals.

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The post Tips on finding sales-ready leads & planning marketing campaigns appeared first on Insightly.

When a prospect asks for a follow-up, he or she is opening the door to future engagement.

Unfortunately, despite your sales team’s best efforts, such requests inevitably seem to slip through the cracks.

In this article, we’ll discuss why your reps forget to follow up with prospects and how to correct the issue. For the purposes of this post, we’ll use lead and prospect interchangeably.

Reasons why some reps don’t follow up

Everyone seems to be on the same page during your Monday morning sales meetings. Each deal in the pipeline is discussed thoroughly, next steps are agreed to, and the meeting ends. However, as the week progresses, you feel increased levels of anxiety. Why aren’t your reps following through on more of their promises? Are they intentionally ignoring certain leads, or is something else awry?

The answer is complicated, but it may have to do with a variety of factors:

Lack of structure & accountability

Maintaining a spreadsheet-based approach to sales management isn’t helping the situation. With no clear differentiation between leads and opportunities, your default sorting rule places too much emphasis on those deals further along in the pipeline. Granted, they’re important, but so are the leads that aren’t fully validated yet. In effect, spreadsheets artificially diminish the perceived value of your leads.

Poor record-keeping

It’s entirely possible that your reps are actually engaging with prospects. Perhaps they’re just forgetting to update your tracking documents. After all, your reps are great at selling, but data entry isn’t their greatest skill. Integrating their inboxes to a CRM would mitigate the issue. Unfortunately, everyone is far too busy with data entry to evaluate vendors. It’s a vicious cycle.

Too many other tasks

Setting aside twenty minutes each day to follow up with prospects sounds easy enough. In reality, every minute of the workday is jam-packed with proposals, quotes, and demos. Creating automated follow-up workflows would add efficiency and build capacity. But, sadly, with your current setup, automation isn’t feasible.

Misaligned goals

Your reps receive commissions when deals close. Everyone wants to push pending deals across the finish line, but at what cost? Aren’t leads important? Perhaps it’s time to revisit your compensation model to encourage a healthier balance of lead engagement.

As a result of these and other issues, you’re fairly confident that some leads aren’t getting the attention they deserve. Prospects are starting to feel unloved, which isn’t beneficial from a revenue or reputation standpoint.

How prospects interpret the silence

When prospects expect to hear from you, but don’t, they can interpret the silence to mean one of several things. None of the following interpretations are particularly helpful for forming lasting business relationships. (In fact, they’re very difficult to overcome once a perception has been formed.)

“I guess they just forgot.” No one likes to be forgotten. Sure, communication is a two-way street; the prospect could follow up just as easily as your sales team could. On the other hand, if your company can’t even remember to follow up during the sales process, what else will it forget to do in the future?

“We must not be big enough to get their attention.” Rightly or wrongly, business owners can be notoriously skeptical of sales reps — especially when his or her company’s size is an impediment to being taken seriously.

“They don’t have their act together.” Aside from your organization’s marketing materials and website, your sales force forms an initial impression to prospective customers. Forgetting to follow up leaves an unmistakable mark on the perception of your company.

“They’re not able to serve our specific needs.” It’s difficult to establish a value proposition without having a conversation. Obviously, conversations can’t happen unless someone from your team reaches out.

In short, prospects shouldn’t have to beg to hear back from your team. When a prospect and sales rep agree on a follow-up date, they’re essentially making a verbal pact that your company must live up to. Silence is a violation of that pact.

Using technology to effectively engage leads

So, how can you break the silence and give prospects the attention they’ve requested (and deserve)? For starters, I would recommend forming a transition plan to migrate off of your spreadsheet-based system and on to a CRM. Spend time identifying a well-integrated CRMs and/or vendors that provide convenient data import options, field mapping features, and informative step-by-step onboarding documentation.

Although there are dozens of CRMs you could potentially consider, it’s also important to pick one that delivers the right mix of lead management features and integrates with your marketing platform. If your goal is to engage more leads without overwhelming your sales reps, look for a system that at least offers these key features:

Task delegation & tracking

Create accountability by linking tasks to specific lead records. In doing so, you’ll help your sales reps stay better organized. You’ll also create much-needed visibility into prior and upcoming activities for your leads.

Email scheduling

Based on your sales team’s workload, they don’t have time to send lead follow-up emails during normal business hours. However, firing off a batch of emails at 7 pm on Friday evening won’t deliver the results you’re looking for, either. Identify a CRM that offers email scheduling, which allows users to queue up emails in advance and ensures leads are engaged at exactly the right moment. Who knows — you might even delegate this task to a sales assistant or fully automate it.

Bulk follow-up

Depending on your lead volume, manually scheduling follow-up emails can still consume substantial time. Some CRMs offer mass email capabilities, which help you engage multiple leads in a single step.

As your business grows, you’ll also need to better align your sales and marketing, ensuring a proper lead disposition and consistent messaging. In this case, a unified CRM for sales and marketing might be your most effective option for data integrity, user adoption, team alignment, and ROI.

Engage more leads in the pipeline

In summary, the vast majority of your customers started out as leads. With perseverance, your sales team nurtured these leads through the pipeline. Some relationships developed quickly, while others took time to fully blossom.

Either way, one thing is unmistakable: your sales pipeline depends on efficient lead management. It’s time to drop the spreadsheets and use technology to take lead engagement and customer relationships to a whole new level.

Want to learn how you can use a CRM to better manage leads? Request a demo to get a free needs assessment and see Insightly CRM in action. No commitment required.

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The post Why failing to follow up sends the wrong message to prospects appeared first on Insightly.

However, increasingly more sales and marketing leaders are choosing to leave the funnel behind, and instead view their customers in the context of a journey.

Abandoning the funnel isn’t easy, especially when departments, legacy systems, and data sets are misaligned. Let’s explore why this is the case and how your company can take steps toward a journey-first mentality.

Why the funnel is so enticing

There’s no question that the funnel is still a common concept in business. How did this come to be? What makes the funnel so attractive to business leaders?

Here are a few possible explanations.

Funnels are easily understood

Sales and marketing leaders aren’t paid to maintain the status quo. Rather, they are expected to develop innovative strategies for maximizing revenue and profitability. With this in mind, it’s understandable why the funnel became such an important element of many sales and marketing playbooks. Marketing to tens of thousands of potential customers is daunting, and the funnel offers a relatively convenient way to categorize an otherwise unmanageable list of people.

Funnel groupings seem nice and tidy

Although the specific stages of each funnel will vary between organizations, the basic concept remains the same. When a new lead becomes aware of your brand, he is said to be at the top of the funnel. As he progresses toward a purchase, the lead theoretically passes through several sequential stages. The very bottom of the funnel represents a sale.

From the company’s perspective, the funnel can seem very helpful for forecasting demand, allocating marketing resources, implementing promotional campaigns, budgeting for fulfillment and capacity, and countless other important processes.

Some customers actually make it through the funnel

It’s true that some customers progress through the buying process exactly as you would hope. They learn about your brand through paid advertising or organic search, download some whitepapers, ask for a demo, and then send their purchase order.

That being said, customers who follow your desired path to purchase are the exception, rather than a rule in today’s landscape.

Why funnel vision overlooks the customer

Funnels tend to have self-serving motivations. Of course, companies should seek to understand how customers interact prior to purchase, which is what a funnel attempts to represent. Unfortunately, in today’s world of social media, review sites, mobile phones, private browsers, and retargeted ads, categorizing a typical customer into any one particular stage of the funnel is increasingly complex, if not impossible.

Why are funnels increasingly unreliable in today’s economy? Here are a few reasons I’ve witnessed firsthand as a consultant.

Funnels aren’t actually nice and tidy

The funnel concept presupposes that leads advance from one defined stage to the next, inching ever closer to an eventual sale.

The problem with this line of thinking is twofold. First, as any marketer will tell you, it’s practically impossible to know (for sure) where any lead is at in today’s buying cycle. Web analytic systems typically report anonymous or semi-anonymous data, making it difficult to know where the leads in your CRM actually came from. As a deal transitions from marketing to sales, the process becomes even more complex as additional stakeholders and decision makers get added into the mix.

Second, the funnel seems to completely ignore those leads who do make a purchase. By its nature, a funnel only has two openings (the top and the bottom); yet, leads who fail to buy don’t exit through either point. It seems that lost leads exit through some type of “funnel osmosis,” creating a significant amount of guesswork for your CRM administrator. Should a disengaged lead be marked as lost? If so, when? The funnel mentality struggles to answer these questions, creating additional inaccuracies in your funnel’s metrics.

Department-specific funnels trump the larger funnel

Unless your organization is very strategic about sales and marketing alignment, there’s a good chance that informal mini-funnels will develop and trump your company’s overall funnel. For example, let’s assume that your acquisition funnel places customers in one of four primary (and somewhat generic) phases:

• Top of funnel: people recently acquainted with your brand
• Mid-funnel: people who have given you some type of contact information
• Bottom of funnel: people who have expressed interest in your product
• Sale: people who are ready to buy

These categories are so generic that your sales and marketing teams have to create their own department-specific funnels to perform their day-to-day tasks. For example, your sales team might have its own funnel that groups prospective customers as follows:

• Uncontacted marketing leads
• Qualified sales leads
• Negotiation
• Contracts
• Close-won

In this situation, the sales team comes to rely on the marketing team’s funnel for leads, and the marketing team comes to rely on the sales team’s funnel to keep their jobs. Trouble is, each funnel operates independently from the other, causing internal confusion and experiential gaps for the most important stakeholder – the customer.

Getting caught up in funnel misalignment is not an enjoyable experience. A few years ago I was shopping for a new(er) vehicle. After considerable research, I identified a dealership that advertised an amazing price on my preferred model. Prior to making the 45-minute drive, I called to confirm that they still had several in inventory. Their marketing funnel worked like clockwork, but, sadly, it was all an illusion. After arriving, the sales representative informed me that they had already sold all of specially priced vehicles. I felt duped and never went back to that car dealership. I also made sure to share my experience with everyone I knew. So often, like in this case, the cost of internal misalignment extends beyond the loss of one immediate sale.

Post-transactional interactions are often an afterthought

Perhaps one of the most glaring issues with funnel vision is that it completely ignores what happens after the sale is made. Assuming even a flawless funnel experience, the reality is that the customer drops out the bottom into an empty void.

Granted, many organizations have well-structured customer support programs that ensure a seamless transition. But do these programs fully capitalize on customer lifetime value? Do they keep the customer informed of new products or services that solve their latest challenges? Or, do they simply keep customers adequately satisfied until a better solution comes along? Outside of the context of a customer journey, it’s hard to know for sure.

Overcoming “funnel vision”

Don’t feel too overwhelmed if your company seems hopelessly stuck in funnel vision. Remember, overcoming funnel vision is a continuous process that requires an internal cultural shift. The good news is that there are steps you can take to accelerate change.

Learn from your existing funnel

Completely abandoning your funnel on day one is not a prudent decision. After all, it has taken years to develop into its current form and could serve as an excellent springboard for the journey map that you’ll soon develop. Despite your funnel’s flaws, it most likely contains valuable details about pre-sale interactions, common deal progression patterns, and key terminology that is highly relevant for understanding the customer journey.

Gather input from your teams

Ask your sales reps, marketing team, and success team to anonymously share their feedback about the customer lifecycle. What is working from an acquisition standpoint? What processes are broken? At what stage do most leads drop? Which systems need to be streamlined?

Don’t be surprised if you hear comments like this:

• “The lead handoff process is broken between marketing and sales.”
• “Sales doesn’t follow up quickly enough with web leads.”
• “Leads from social media are not ready to buy our products.”
• “Small accounts seem more likely to request support.”
• “Customer success feels left out of the planning process.”
• “There’s a disconnect between our CRM, marketing automation system, and support ticketing app.”

What is the purpose of this exercise? For starters, there’s a high certainty that the feedback will validate what you already know. That is, the funnel isn’t an effective way to structure your customer management process. In addition, you may discover key insights about how prospective and existing customers interact, where they interact, and why. All of this information is vital for pivoting to a customer journey focus.

Simplify your data structure

It’s hard to move toward a customer journey focus when all your relationship and interaction data is spread across dozens of disconnected systems. Although you may not be able to completely eliminate certain data silos, you can begin to simplify your data structure.

Take a fresh look at the systems that staff use to collect customer information and determine whether or not they’re actually necessary. For example, does your CRM offer built-in email marketing functionality? If so, consider eliminating one system and simplify around a single source of truth. Or, at least try integrating the two systems to achieve a more accurate representation of each customer’s journey.

Also, it’s important to periodically reevaluate the data that makes it into your systems. Do you really need thirty custom fields for lead records? Is this information helping you, or is it just adding unnecessary clutter and complexity to your system integrations?

Start aligning around the journey

As we’ve already established, shifting to a journey mentality isn’t an overnight process. An effective transition starts with proactive alignment at every level of the company, including at the operational level. Although change can be slow to take root, you can help accelerate change by framing customer conversations in the context of a journey (rather than continuing to perpetuate funnel vision).

Citing independent, third-party data (such as this report from Forrester Research) can help awaken others to the validity of the customer journey. Also, find creative ways to leverage your own firsthand analytics, such as customer churn trends and conversion rate data. Such metrics can bolster your advocacy of the customer journey concept, serve as an effective benchmark for goal setting, and help you track the impact of a “journey-first” approach.

Get visibility into your customer’s journey

I hope you’re enjoying this multi-part series about the customer journey. My next post will dive deeper into the customer journey and explore potential impacts to your business — both in terms of day-to-day operations and revenue performance.

Read part one of the series: What does customer journey mean?

*Take L2RM To The Next Level With A Pivot – From The Funnel To Your Customer, Forrester Research, Inc., December 18, 2018

The post Why you should abandon “funnel vision” appeared first on Insightly.

Managing data: Top 3 roadblocks to effective data use (Part 2)

Managing data: How to accelerate revenue growth with data (Part 3)

Data is rapidly reshaping business as we know it.

With the advent of scalable, cloud-based storage and compute technologies, intuitive CRM integrations, and robust APIs, the appetite and capacity for data has never been greater. Companies of all sizes — especially midsize companies — are turning to data to understand their customers, streamline operations, and build healthier relationships.

Drawing from the insights revealed in Insightly’s customer stories, my next few blog posts will feature real-world examples of how midsize companies are effectively leveraging customer data to fuel growth.

In this first article, we’ll explore why customer data is so important.

1. Data delivers a more complete understanding of customers

It’s difficult to serve customers without a proper understanding of who they are, what they need, and what is their ability to buy. Midsize companies often find themselves in a quandary: they want to better understand their customers, but they lack the necessary resources to effectively harness a limitless pool of data.

The good news is that some midsize companies have figured it out. Just ask PWG and VAe, Insightly customers, who are happy to share their experience and best practices. Let’s take a closer look.

PWG uses interaction data to personalize the experience for 200,000+ guests per year.

PWG’s 42,000 square-foot training and retail facility in Southern California is among the largest of its kind in the United States and attracts thousands of new visitors annually. The company aggressively promotes itself to customers via email, SMS text, and online channels, resulting in millions of demographic and interaction data points.

Without the right approach, making sense of so much data could seem like an impossible task. However, by centralizing its sales and marketing activity into a single, integrated customer database, PWG cuts through the noise and zeros in on the data that delivers results. In particular, PWG leverages out-of-the-box CRM integrations to automatically merge relevant data from other business systems, such as webform submissions, campaign analytics, and product interest information.

PWG’s point of sale integration enables the type of personalized cross-selling and upselling that will move the sales needle.

“As customers buy certain products, we’ll be able to recommend complementary products that meet their needs,” says John Phillips, President & Founder of PWG.

Learn more about how PWG uses data to understand and engage its customers.

VAe uses program data to accelerate veteran reentry into civilian life.

VAe’s innovative work training program helps veterans with service-related disabilities transition into meaningful civilian careers. The program’s proven track record coupled with its full-immersion format that mirrors active duty training has yielded rapid growth for the organization.

Before VAe can help, however, it must first obtain an in-depth analysis of each veteran’s needs.

“Understanding each veteran’s unique situation has always been a top priority for us,” says Matt Vargas, COO at VAe. Centralizing all veteran contact and background information under one roof is mission-critical for achieving this goal.

CRM pipeline management simplifies tracking of each veteran’s progress and streamline the collection of related information, such as certification documentation and job interview outcomes. With a few clicks, internal stakeholders gain real-time access to key business metrics, including job placement rates, average salary data, and interview success ratios.

Read more about how VAe harnesses data to serve more veterans.

Request a demo

2. Data streamlines the delivery of goods & services

Data should also play an equally important role in shaping (or reshaping) internal business practices. Reducing and eliminating internal delivery roadblocks creates a virtuous cycle, often resulting in happier customers, lower production costs, greater capacity, and, ultimately, improved bottom-line performance.

Here’s how two Insightly customers are leveraging data to do exactly that:

The Waite Company uses activity data to increase educational outreach.

Recognized as one of the top PR firms in New Mexico, The Waite Company was recently tapped by the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange to increase community awareness for the beWellnm program. Under the contract, The Waite Company is responsible for managing 26 outreach programs across more than 30 counties.

Engaging thousands of community leaders, nonprofits, and other constituents requires a seamless alignment between contact information and outreach activity data.

“Our team manages the outreach for beWellnm, which includes making phone calls, sending emails, and mailing packets of information,” says Jason Marshall, Program Director at The Waite Company.

All activity is logged securely in The Waite Company’s CRM, which fosters collaboration, standardizes the team’s follow-up workflow, and yields a streamlined delivery of services. Intuitive reporting offers transparency to the client, which demonstrates value and avoids potential discrepancies during invoicing.

See how The Waite Company is using data to engage more constituents.

HeroX uses pipeline data to ensure a seamless customer experience.

Large companies from across the globe are turning to HeroX’s community of 98,000+ “heroes.” The innovative platform brings new meaning to “crowdsourcing” by solving the world’s most complicated societal and business issues.

Interacting with major brands and corporations can be an intricate, time-intensive process that requires significant coordination and many layers of feedback. Dozens of contacts and hundreds of emails may be related to a single project, which can cause confusion during the handoff from sales to implementation.

HeroX avoids the confusion by using their CRM to convert opportunities into projects, delivering a 360-degree view of the customer’s entire journey. Key conversations, emails, linked contacts, project requirements, and other project-specific data points are easily accessible by anyone with proper access. Workflow automation and CRM Gmail integration accelerate the collection of data, freeing up more time to ensure total satisfaction.

3. Data is the foundation for healthy, lifelong relationships

“It’s easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new one.” It’s been said many times, by many people across the business landscape. But, is it actually true for medium sized business? With the right combination of data and IT systems, midsize companies can move beyond the cliches and test different strategies that boost customer engagement and encourage brand loyalty.

Let’s look at how Kimberbell Designs and Millers Music use data for long-lasting customer relationship building.

Kimberbell Designs uses merchant and event data to build a favorable brand image.

Quilting and sewing is more than just a hobby. For some, it’s a way of life. That’s especially true for the countless retailers and distributors who sell products made by Kimberbell Designs.

To help solidify long-term brand awareness in the industry, Kimberbell Designs sponsors quilting and sewing events throughout the United States. The events, which are hosted by certified merchants, require significant follow-up and outreach.

“Our events have a lot of moving parts and require close coordination with store owners,” says Brielle Lowry, Events Coordinator at Kimberbell Designs.

Effectively following up with retailers demands a rock-solid relationship management system, one that provides at-a-glance access to merchant contact information, store-level (organizational) data, employee information, and related correspondence. Email inbox integration, with email tracker, simplifies data collection, while relationship linking accelerates customer outreach, resulting in better events and healthier relationships.

Read more about Kimberbell Designs’ approach to relationship management.

Millers Music uses customer feedback to deliver elite service.

For more than 160 years, Millers Music has kept the joy of music alive and well in Great Britain. And, as Great Britain’s second oldest independently-owned music store, Millers Music understands the importance of creating lifelong customers. To stay competitive in an era of “big box” retail stores, Millers Music must continuously implement new business processes to ensure each customer relationship is healthy and thriving.

Over the past decade, the company has been particularly focused on refining its approach to data collection and use. “By collecting the right data early in the sales cycle, we’re able to better understand our customers, work through more leads, deliver higher levels of service, and be more successful,” says Simon Pollard, Managing Director at Millers Music.

Customer contact details, product interest data, financing preferences, and other relevant criteria (such as consumer vs. B2B) is collected and managed with ease by leveraging Insightly’s mobile CRM app, CRM Gmail integration, and web-to-lead forms. All of this information is tracked through pipelines, ensuring each customer receives the personalized assistance that he or she expects and deserves.

With a streamlined data structure and collection process in place, sales reps stay focused on building long-term relationships that keep things humming.

Check out Millers Music’s story for more tips on building healthier customer relationships.

Next Up, Data Bottlenecks

If you’ve enjoyed this article, stay tuned for the next post that focuses on common bottlenecks to effective data use.

Also, be sure to check out all of Insightly’s customer stories.

Ready to try Insightly’s customer data management and reporting capabilities?

Request a demo

The post Managing data: Why customer data is increasingly important (Part 1) appeared first on Insightly.

“No thanks, my spreadsheets are working just fine. Just look at my close rate!”

Spoken like a true sales pro.

And, apparently like most of his customers, you once again bought Joe’s pitch. After all, it’s hard to argue with Joe’s infamous spreadsheet – although, you would like to take a closer look at his calculations (but that’s another story).

Your gut tells you that total CRM adoption is a key component to becoming more agile. Unfortunately, Joe and his minions refuse to buy in. If you could convince Joe to make the switch, his direct reports would naturally have to follow suit.

Here’s a bit of advice: It’s time to stop talking to Joe about your goals. Instead, put things in his terms. You need to prove to Joe why becoming more agile will impact his personal bottom line. In other words, you need to make a compelling sales pitch of your own.

Here are three selling points to weave into your pitch.

1. More Prospecting Time

“Joe, what if I could get you an extra 90 minutes of prospecting time per day?”

Well played. Now you’ve gotten Joe’s attention.

Prospecting is the lifeblood of any sales function, and Joe knows that all too well. According to Joe’s own spreadsheet, each hour spent on prospecting typically yields him ten new leads. If your promise holds true, Joe could connect with an additional 75 leads per week. And, based on Joe’s self-proclaimed close ratio, he’d surely expect an even healthier paycheck.

Joe nibbles on the bait, but he’s predictably skeptical and demands additional information. Rather than extolling the many virtues of your CRM system, you take a more subtle approach. This time, you move into a series of questions, aimed at better understanding Joe’s exact needs and objections.

You: “Let’s talk about sales emails. What if we had a system to organize all of your sales email templates. Rather than copying and pasting, the system would send out personalized messages for you. You’d just have to click a button or two. You could also drill down and see which leads have opened and clicked your messages. Would a system like that be helpful, Joe?”

Joe: “Sales email templates sound interesting. A big part of any sales rep’s job is to send follow-up emails. I could see where that might be useful.”

Wow, that was easier than you thought. You decide to move on to more questions.

You: “I know that preparing for the weekly sales meeting creates a lot of administrative work for you. What if we could take reporting off your plate?”

Joe: “Sign me up!”

You: “OK, and speaking of administrative work, what if I could prevent the marketing department from ever bothering you again? I know they’re always asking you to provide updated contact lists for the newsletter.”

Joe: “I’d be interested in that, too. Marketing just assumes it’s easy for me to access that information. I have to create a pivot table, which takes at least an hour. For the record, I don’t think newsletters work, anyway.”

For the moment, you’ll focus on the positive and ignore Joe’s negativity about email marketing.

You: “Oh, and one more thing. I know you especially dislike coordinating post-close details. What if we could automate that workflow for you, too?”

Joe: “Handing that off would save me at least two hours each week…”

You’re making progress with Joe. He just doesn’t know it yet.

2. Better Visibility (& Less Friction)

Joe leads by example, which is, in some ways, very beneficial to your company. No one can pitch a deal quite like Joe, making him an excellent sales coach for new hires. Unfortunately, Joe’s uncouth reliance on spreadsheets trickles down to the rest of his team. Joe’s protégés want to be just like him, spreadsheets and all.

Although he routinely downplays it, you’re fairly confident that Joe has mixed feelings about his team’s performance. In particular, you know that Joe is annoyed by his millennial reps’ unwillingness to provide deal updates.

To confirm your suspicions, you start another line of questions.

You: “Let’s pivot for a moment and talk about your direct reports. I’m curious to get your thoughts on how they’re performing.”

Joe: “It’s really hard to say. Several have tremendous raw talent, but they consistently fail to track their deals. I’ve shown them a million times how to update our tracking sheets, but some just don’t seem interested. This makes it difficult to prepare for our weekly sales meeting. I usually have to track each one down individually and ask for a pipeline status update. Even then, I rarely have enough information to speak intelligently at the meeting.”

You: “What if I had a way to solve that? I’m thinking of a report for each of your sales reps that looks something like this…”

Pulling out your tablet, you pull up the Kanban sales view recently built by Joe’s counterpart, Steve. You point out that this view makes it easy to get a bird’s-eye view of every deal in Steve’s pipeline. No more guessing about what his reps are working on – it’s all right there, just a tap away. The view also makes it easy to filter deals by a variety of criteria, including deal owner or potential sale amount.

Joe pauses to examine the pipeline view. You can tell he’s intrigued, but now he’s on to you.

Joe: “I thought I told you I wasn’t interested in messing with a CRM.”

You: “I’m not trying to force you into anything. I’m just curious what you think about this type of deal view in general.”

You can tell Joe is torn. Time to move in for the close.

3. On-the-Go Access

As Joe struggles to conjure up any objection to Steve’s Kanban sales view, you pose a simple question:

You: “Joe, I realize change is hard. I really do. But, putting your objections aside, wouldn’t it be nice to have in-the-field access to customer information and deal notes?”

Joe shrugs, points to his head, and says, “It’s all right up here.”

Of course it is, Joe. Of course it is.

You: “Be that as it may, what about the rest of your team? You just admitted that they’re failing to track deals. Why do you think that’s the case? Clearly, something’s not working.”

Quite a predicament Joe has gotten himself into. On the one hand, he knows as well as you do that something needs to change. On the other hand, there’s his pride to consider.

A dramatic pause ensues. Then, Joe finally decides to speak.

Joe: “I’m a big person, and I’m never afraid to admit when I’m wrong. Just because something works great for me, it doesn’t mean everyone can pick it up quite as effectively. I can see where letting them use their smartphones out in the field could solve a lot of problems. Maybe it’s time we get these rookies set up in your CRM system.”

You decide to look past Joe’s epic ego moment and pounce on the opportunity.

You: “Let’s do this. For the foreseeable future, you keep using your spreadsheet to track your own deals. But, for your direct reports, let’s start the process of getting them into the CRM. We can use Insightly’s CSV import templates to get everything transferred over quickly. Ideally, I’d like to get deal status reports in your hands within the next 30 days. Do we have a deal?”

Joe: “Sounds good. I’m glad you’re finally starting to see things my way.”

Feeling good about the compromise, you exchange a chuckle and walk out victorious.

A few days later, Joe makes the big announcement at the weekly staff meeting.

Joe: “I’ve decided that it’s time to get you all set up in the company’s CRM system. We’re putting together a timeline now, but the goal is to have you fully transitioned within the month. I’ve personally vetted the system, and it’s definitely going to help you close more deals. You’ll be able to access everything you need from your smartphones, including the ability to provide updates on deals and contacts. By this time next month, there will be no excuse for missing or incomplete sales records.”

Wow, nice sales pitch Joe. Glad you had the idea!

Agility May Require Some Salesmanship

As we saw with Joe, achieving an agile sales force may require a little salesmanship on your part. It may also require some compromise.

Don’t assume that everyone on your staff will buy in on day one. Of course, as the business owner, your goals are very important. Perhaps equally important, however, are the motivating factors of your key team members. For those “Joe’s” of the world, you’ll probably need to peel back a few layers of objections – just as any good sales pro would do.

Happy selling!

The post Selling points for a more agile sales force appeared first on Insightly.

Unfortunately, for some companies, the sales process halts within moments of a deal converting into an account. Although there are many possible explanations for this issue, a common cause stems from the divide between sales and frontline operations.

In this post, we’ll explore a strategy for bridging the divide by turning your frontline team into your best sellers.

Why Doers Should Be Your Best Sellers

It’s 9:07 am, which means your implementation team should be knee-deep into an onboarding discussion with your newest client (a regional chain of coffee shops). As a well-respected web consulting firm, your company prides itself in providing rapid turnaround time, excellent coaching, and, most importantly, websites that deliver results.

As you take another sip of coffee, you can’t help but wonder what is actually being discussed. You own the business, so it’s certainly within your purview to pop into the conference room and listen in. Giving it more thought, you decide to just wait until lunch when you’ll see Dominic, your most experienced project manager.

Noon rolls around, and you stroll to the break room. Sure enough, there’s Dominic having his usual ham sandwich and pretzels. You pull up a chair and start a casual conversation. As the discussion moves toward work topics, you feel your blood pressure begin to rise.

You: “So, Dominic, how was your call this morning with the coffee shop chain?”

Dominic: “It went fine, but things have been moving slower than most projects. They’re still recruiting some graphic designers to help with the rebranding process. Their in-house IT staff is also trying to connect their analytics software to the new site, but they keep running into issues.”

You: “Did you mention that we could handle all of that for them?”

Dominic: “I did, but they never got back to me on it.”

As Dominic gets up to recycle his empty soda bottle, a flood of questions race through your mind. How much are customer-caused delays costing us in overhead and lost time? Why didn’t Dominic push harder for the cross-sell opportunity? What other opportunities are we missing out on? What, if anything, might have motivated Dominic to actually follow up again?

Clearly, frontline team members like Dominic have the most in-depth understanding of customer needs at your company. By the nature of their jobs, they live and breath the intricacies of each customer’s unique situation. Clients trust their judgment and (usually) listen to them, which puts them in an especially powerful position to make recommendations – including those that involve additional services.

Sadly, as we saw with Dominic, few team members ever fully capitalize on the opportunity.

Planning a Paradigm Shift

Back at your desk, you decide to log in to your project management system and create a new project called “Operation: Frontline Selling.” The goal of this project will be to explore and (hopefully) correct the situation uncovered in your chat with Dominic. In reality, you’ve known this has been going on for a while, but now is the right time to take action.

Using the project’s description as a virtual notepad, your first step is to gather everything that’s going through your mind:

• Designing a “house account” bonus program
• Company-wide CRM access
• Training for frontline workers
• Emphasis on reporting & KPIs
• New pipeline

At first glance, it seems like a rough list of random ideas. But hey, it’s a start. Before closing the project, you set yourself a task reminder to work on this again tomorrow.

Providing Access to the Whole Story

The next morning, you have a renewed spring in your step. Operation: Frontline Selling has been on your mind since yesterday, and you already know what your first move should be.

Wasting no time, you jump into your project and create three initial milestones:

• Coordinating an in-person meeting with your leadership team
• Providing frontline workers with CRM access
• Offering CRM training to new users

Scheduling the kickoff meeting can be easily delegated to your administrative assistant, which you promptly do. However, the other two milestones will require some additional thought. To make your project successful, frontline workers are going to need the same access to customer information as your outside sales team. But, how much information do they actually need? Should the company consider utilizing role permissions to find the right balance? These are all questions that must be answered.

At the kickoff meeting, you share your vision for this new program. You reiterate that your ultimate goal is to have everyone at the company – especially frontline staff – be engaged in the selling process. You’ve even outlined an intriguing incentive policy, which your operations manager finds particularly interesting.

After a healthy discussion with your management, everyone seems in agreement on the next steps:

• Finalize the program (bonus requirements, etc.)
• Scope out in-house opportunity tracking best practices
• Announce the program
• Work with IT to onboard and train new CRM users
• Define goals and KPIs

Luckily, you’ve already started a project in Insightly, which can be easily shared with each member of your leadership team.

A few additional milestones later, and the meeting is brought to a close. The team agrees to reconvene again in a few days and aims to go live late next week. It’s no doubt an aggressive timeline, but it seems doable.

Simplifying the Collection of Opportunities

Having volunteered to “own” the opportunity tracking milestone, you begin toying with several different use cases. The more you think about it, the more you’re convinced that the company needs a dedicated pipeline specifically for in-house deals. You watch a few refresher videos on how to set one up (such as this one).

Using Dominic’s aforementioned situation as the case study, you map out what appears to be the perfect pipeline for your internal sales process. Here’s a quick recap of what you’ve come up with:

Opportunity Creation: When an upsell or cross-sell opportunity presents itself, team members will simply find the person’s contact record, click “Add New Opportunity for Contact,” link it to the correct company, enter the relevant details, and select the in-house pipeline.

Opportunity Routing: Using a series of activity sets and workflows, you’re able to automatically assign and route new opportunities to the correct account manager. The sales team can then promptly follow up and work with the opportunity’s originator to advance the deal.

Opportunity Collaboration: By designing a pipeline that relies on both frontline staff and your sales team, you’re able to create greater accountability and redundancy – all of which is completely transparent in each opportunity record. Did a sales rep forget to follow up? Did the opportunity’s originator fail to provide useful information? Your new process gives you the information you need to move your company forward.

Celebrating Accomplishments

As exciting as pipeline automation might be, you’re also going to need a simple way to track the program’s overall success. After all, an automated sales pipeline is only useful if people are actually using it.

Since you’re planning on using a dedicated pipeline, it should be a breeze to track opportunity volume and revenue impact. Department heads can easily customize, save, group, and subscribe to the reports they need to push for results.

For example, let’s say you want to monitor how many opportunities are being identified by your old pal, Dominic. Just jump into your library of prebuilt Insightly reports and get customizing. Within a few minutes, you’re able to save a report that shows every opportunity that he has originated.

Better yet, Insightly can even be configured to email you on a predefined schedule or when a certain threshold is met. This helps you stay on top of Dominic’s productivity without having to manually log in, create new reports, and search for your answers. Insightly does the work for you, allowing you to stay focused on more pressing matters.

And, when the company finally closes its first $10,000 deal originated by Dominic, you’ll be ready to send him a personalized congratulatory message!

Your Doers Can (& Should) Be Selling

As we’ve discussed in this article, it is possible to integrate your frontline staff into the selling process. Doing so, however, requires a well-crafted vision from the top along with a decisive cultural shift. It also demands a nimble CRM that can easily accommodate an outside-the-box sales pipeline.

If your company is missing out on opportunities with existing clients, it’s time you took control of the situation. As the old saying goes, “It’s easier to sell to existing customers than new ones!”

The post How to convert “doers” into sellers in the sales process appeared first on Insightly.

For consultants (like me!), few sentences are sweeter to the ear than this one. In addition to boosting next year’s revenue forecast, new clients help you hedge against uncertainty. After all, you never know when an existing client will decide to unexpectedly change course.

As great as new clients can be, there are also a few tradeoffs to consider. In this post, we’ll discuss the costs and risks associated with adding new clients and how a CRM for consultants can help you with opportunity management.

Preliminary Sunk Costs

Before you ever bill your first hour, you’ve already dug yourself into a hole. Allow me to explain.

Let’s say that you own and operate a growing IT consulting business. Your company specializes in network and web security, and most clients are within driving distance of your office. About one month ago, a new prospect filled out a form on your website and requested a free consultation.

It turns out that this lead (a well-respected software company) represents a very large opportunity for your firm. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they’ve been putting you through the wringer – with no end in sight. You’ve already visited their headquarters on multiple occasions, pulling your top IT minds off important projects to attend the meetings. After several rounds of proposals, you feel no closer to a closed deal than on day one. To make matters worse, you have a bad feeling that even if you do win the contract, it’s going to be a very one-sided arrangement (in their favor).

The last thing you want to do is pass on the opportunity (especially this far into it), but you can’t help acknowledging your sunk costs:

Lost billable hours: Time is money. Had this lead never requested info, you could have freed up additional billable hours. Instead, your team invested substantial effort in preparing proposals, brainstorming solutions, and engaging with the prospect (for free).

Switching costs: Jumping from one thing to the next increases mistakes and decreases productivity. With so much attention being paid to a single lead, your team must work even harder to keep everything balanced.

Administrative costs: Each meeting brings the inevitable set of follow-up activities. You’ve smartly organized all of your contact records, meeting minutes, tasks, and project milestones in Insightly. That helps out, but there’s still a quantifiable amount of administrative work to go around. Things don’t get done on their own.

Legal review fees: A wise man once said, “The only thing worse than no deal is a bad deal.” Being the prudent business owner that you are, there’s no way you’ll sign something without having legal counsel look it over. That’s smart, but it’s also going to cost you something.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Yes, Matt. These are indeed sunk costs, but that’s just part of doing business. You win some, and you lose some.” I wholeheartedly agree with you. I’m not saying you shouldn’t pursue new business. I’m simply pointing out that there is a real cost that’s associated with any pre-sale process – especially when you’re doing complex deals. Surprisingly, some business owners never consider how much their sales pipeline is actually costing!

Ongoing Obligations

Finally, you receive the email that you’ve been waiting for: the software company is ready to move forward. Considering it’s Friday afternoon, you decide to take the crew out for ice cream and celebrate the victory. Everyone is very excited about the outcome.

Then, Monday morning rolls around…

As you stroll into the office at 8:02, you can immediately tell that it’s going to be a stressful day. You glance down at your phone, and you’re surprised to see several texts from various contacts at the software company. Your inbox isn’t much better. The first email is from the client’s accounts payable department, asking you to fill out a ton of paperwork. Another email, from their legal department, is asking you to complete something called a “new vendor due diligence packet” – before the close of business, of course. And, to complicate matters, your IT manager won’t be coming in to the office today – or the rest of the week, for that matter. His wife just went into labor a few weeks early.

The next thing you know, your office clock strikes 7:00 pm. What a day! As you walk toward your car, another reality hits you: this new client is already changing your company’s work patterns.

Incremental staffing costs: Your IT manager’s absence is a stark reminder of your team’s fragility. Should you hire additional staff to support new and existing clients? Doing so could be a wise move, but it also comes with a big price tag.

Non-billable requests: Some aspects of your client relationship simply aren’t billable. Submitting the vendor due diligence packet is the perfect example. On the other hand, failing to submit the packet would probably result in an unhappy ending for your firm. There’s an opportunity cost to fulfill these types of requests.

Other administrative “stuff”: If you want to get paid on time, invoices must get generated. Overdue invoices must be pursued by your accounts receivable team. Paid invoices must be reconciled in your general ledger. And, at year end, you hope that your 1099 will match up with your books. If not, there’s more work to be done. All of this has a cost.

Ongoing Risks

We’ve discussed the hard costs associated with servicing new clients. But, what about the unknown risks? Here are just a few to watch out for:

Nonpayment: Most customers pay on time. Some customers are forgetful and occasionally require a gentle reminder. Others aggressively push the envelope on payment terms in order to optimize cash flow. Remember, you’re not a bank. An occasional past-due invoice will happen, but a pattern of delinquency is detrimental to your own cash flow and stability.

One-and-done: The client’s work agreement has you locked in for a twelve-month period. That’s great for your current P&L, but what about future years? There’s no guarantee of renewal, which is all the more reason why you need a best-in-class CRM system. You essentially have a twelve-month window to lock in renewals and identify upsell opportunities. A tool like Insightly can help you manage such opportunities, reducing the likelihood of “one-and-done” clients.

Refunds (or worse): While most clients are very easy to work with, some can be quick to point the finger when things go wrong. You’re not planning on anything going wrong, but nothing is 100% certain in business – especially when it comes to the IT world. Until you establish a better relationship with the customer, refund requests are a possible outcome that you want to avoid.

Bad relationships: Consulting engagements are more than just the exchange of services and cash. Lasting engagements are built upon an interpersonal relationship between vendor and client. Like any relationship, however, some are better than others. Both parties must proactively work on the relationship. Otherwise, it’s destined for failure.

Balancing Cost vs. Reward

Clearly, there are many costs and risks associated with taking on new clients. In fact, at this point in the article, you’re probably tired of thinking about them all. I sure am.

So, should you dwell on all the downsides? Absolutely not! On the contrary, the smart consultant simply acknowledges them and creates systems to drive profitability. A CRM for consultants, such as Insightly, can be invaluable for doing exactly that. Here’s how.

Efficient Pipeline Tracking: The moment a new lead enters your pipeline, Insightly can bring clarity to every aspect of the sales process. How many team members (and hours of work) have been dedicated to closing the deal? Where is the most recent proposal deck? Insightly integrates with the industry’s most widely used document systems, allowing you to quickly attach and link cost estimates, tracking files, quotes, and proposals. The built-in opportunity tracker brings key dates and milestones into the forefront, such as the forecasted close date, time spent in each stage, probability and deal size, and much more.

Effective Service Delivery: Unlike some CRMs that only track the sales process, Insightly provides a seamless transition from sales to delivery. Converting an opportunity to a project ensures your pre-sales information remains intact throughout the customer’s journey. No more jumping between your CRM, project system, and document system. Insightly CRM for consultants brings it all together, ensuring a more cohesive client experience and effective opportunity management.

Upsell Management: Turn your “doers” into your best sales reps. As clients share their frustrations, challenges, and goals, your team can easily add new opportunities on the fly. They’re already using Insightly to coordinate tasks, projects, milestones – why not turn them loose to also identify upsell opportunities?

360-Degree View of Profitability: At the end of the day, you’re not a charity. You need to know if each client is contributing (or detracting) from your overall profitability. Insightly can help you get the answers you need. The library of prebuilt and customizable reports brings life to your CRM data. Pull together client project information, revenue forecasts, and booked business to make more informed business decisions.

Are New Clients Worth It?

If you find yourself routinely asking this question, it might be time to implement a more robust client and opportunity management system.

The post Measuring the true cost of new consulting clients appeared first on Insightly.

With your sales department playing such an instrumental role, you might want to consider giving them an extra special gift this holiday season. No, I’m not talking about a premium subscription to the ‘jelly of the month’ club. I’m talking about turbocharging your CRM. Give your sales reps the full suite of tools they’ve been asking for.

Here are a few CRM gift ideas that are sure to be a hit at this year’s company holiday party.

Gift Idea #1: Visually Appealing Pipeline Management

Sales reps spend most of their time following up on individual leads and opportunity records. To ensure that your sales team is always working on the most important deals, you’ve probably built custom views and reports in your CRM. This is a great start, but it’s easy for reps to feel overwhelmed. A never-ending list of names and organizations is hard to get excited about. It can also make it difficult (if not impossible) to see the bigger picture, which directly impacts their motivation.

A more engaging pipeline management could be exactly what your reps have always secretly hoped for. But, how can you deliver a more visually appealing pipeline? One option would be Insightly’s innovative Kanban-style sales board.

Unlike most pipeline management platforms, which offer nothing more than a “snapshot” of the status quo, Insightly’s Kanban view allows your team to create, edit, and convert deal cards on the fly. Instead of drilling down into each lead or opportunity, making adjustments, and then clicking “back,” records can be modified without leaving the master Kanban view. In addition, cards can be moved to the next (or prior) pipeline stage with a simple drag and drop.

A Kanban approach to sales offers several tangible benefits. At a practical level, record editing is significantly expedited. Perhaps even more importantly, it offers an at-a-glance overview of what should be worked on first. And, to be honest, it’s just more fun than a boring lead list report!

Gift Idea #2: A Conversion-Friendly Signature Line

Have you ever calculated the total number of emails sent by your sales staff each year? The numbers might be astounding.

Here’s a quick, back-of-the-napkin example. Let’s say that you have a dozen sales reps and each one sends 30 emails daily. Now, multiply this by 260 work days, and you’re rapidly approaching 100,000 emails. Check out my math:

12 sales reps

x 30 emails

x 260 work days

______________

= 93,600 emails

That’s 93,600 unique touchpoints with your best prospects. You’ve already invested significant effort perfecting your marketing newsletter templates – why not also give your reps a more consistent (and conversion-friendly) signature line for outbound sales emails?

Most CRMs offer customizable signature lines. For example, Insightly makes it easy for you to include staff photos, add custom hyperlinks, and modify the HTML code. Of course, it’s best to provide staff with a standardized template for making these edits (that’s where your gift comes in). If this sounds like something your reps would appreciate, think through these questions as a next step:

• Who would develop the HTML code for the signature line template?
• Do we need to bring in a professional photographer if we plan to use headshots?
• Is now also a good time to adopt an online appointment scheduling tool?
• Should we have a graphic designer mock this up before handing it off to be coded?
• Would incorporating our company logo into the signature line be beneficial?
• What special offers or programs (such as a referral program) should we link to?
• Which UTM parameters should we utilize so we can track signature line clicks?

Gift Idea #3: A Library of Vetted Email Templates

Working in sales can sometimes feel like the wild west. Everyone is digging for the same gold, and there isn’t a moment to lose.

Continuing with this analogy, your sales team wants to spend more time panning for gold; unfortunately, too much of their time is spent on other activities (such as responding to email and composing new pitches). How can you help them free up time and find more gold nuggets?

This gift idea might be the perfect solution for your situation: a library of vetted email templates.

Now granted, your longest tenured reps already have their “go to” email templates. But, what about the new hires you’ve onboarded in 2017? Chances are, they’ve had to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch.

With a CRM like Insightly, creating a library of sales templates is simple. Just click the big red button and add your template. Once created, each new email template is automatically shared with each user on your account.

For the sake of discussion, let’s imagine your team struggles to cross-sell existing customers. Give the gift of simplified cross-selling with an optimized series of email templates. Here’s how:

• Create a diagram with the optimal follow-up pattern.
• Identify how many emails are needed.
• Work with your top cross-selling team members to craft the ideal messaging.
• Run the content past your editorial manager or content team (grammar counts!).
• Create the email template(s) in your CRM (Tip: Use a logical category structure).
• Show your team how to make the most of your creative gift idea!

Want to know if your gift is being appreciated? If you’re using Insightly, you’ll be able to see how many times each template has been sent, delivered, opened, and clicked.

Gift Idea #4: Lead Assignment Rules (without Drama)

“Why does he get all the big leads?”

Ever heard one of your sales reps mutter something like this? It’s definitely an annoying question to deal with. You do your best to be fair, but there’s always someone there to question your judgment. Sadly, with a manual lead assignment workflow, it’s difficult to escape.

An automated lead assignment workflow can reduce turf wars and improve relationships among staff. As an added benefit, you’ll also remove one additional bottleneck from your sales pipeline. No more waiting on a manager to review and delegate leads. Let the power of AI (artificial intelligence) do the “thinking” for you.

For example, if you’re a Pro or Enterprise Insightly user, you can build lead assignment rules to immediately assign new leads. Mix and match (using “and/or” logic) a variety of criteria, such as:

• City
• State
• Zip code
• Company size
• Lead source

You could also go with a pure “round robin” rule that rotates lead assignments evenly over time. Either way, by automating your lead assignment rules, you’ll be out of the drama.

After all, who could blame a robot for being unfair?

(On second thought, maybe this gift idea is more intended for you!)

Gift Idea #5: Post-Order Automation

Your sales team loves selling. It’s what they do best.

Here’s what they don’t like: dealing with the many post-sale details.

Currently, after a deal closes, your order fulfillment team takes over and begins tracking delivery in a spreadsheet. This works to a certain extent, but your sales reps inevitably get pulled into countless internal discussions. Much of the information that is needed resides in your CRM, but your fulfillment team finds it easier to pester the sales staff.

It’s time to draw a line in the sand and expect greater post-sale efficiency. How? For starters, your fulfillment team needs to trade in its spreadsheet for a more robust project management system. If you’re already an Insightly user, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn that the system also offers a built-in project tracking tool. There’s no additional charge for using this feature, and, sales records can be seamlessly converted to “projects.”

Depending on your fulfillment model, your team can harness the power of milestones and pipelines to ensure an ideal customer experience. You could also consider mixing in workflow automation rules to further cut down on administrative back and forth.

Best of all, your staff will have access to the “full story” of each customer’s journey. Sales notes, emails, attachments, conversations, and other important information remain fully intact when the record is converted to a project. This allows your fulfillment team to get the answers they need – without bothering your reps!

Give the Gift of Efficiency this Holiday Season

Your sales reps have ambitious goals for 2018. To make this a reality, you must continuously find new opportunities for optimizing their time. Committing to a more streamlined CRM setup and workflow automation could be one viable path.

So, before you stock up on novelty mouse pads or coffee mugs this holiday season, consider the gift of a more efficient CRM. Your sales team will love you for it!

The post CRM gift guide for your sales reps appeared first on Insightly.