How Do You Know Your Business Needs CRM?

"I just need a Simple CRM"

CRM systems are no longer an option, they’re a necessity. Customer Relationship Management systems are now used by businesses of all scales and sizes. How do you know you need one? It’s simple, just ask yourself: Are you selling services or products? If your answer is yes, then you definitely need a CRM software. If you’re still not convinced, here’s why else you need a reliable CRM system:

You’re losing precious data

When you don’t have a CRM system you’re bound to store data in emails, Excel spreadsheets, paper files, and notes. The worst thing is that all that pieces of information are scattered, and as such they become meaningless because you can’t have them all at once when you need them the most. The process of storing customer data becomes laborious and even impossible.

You’re having communication problems

When you don’t have a centralized data system available to all your employees in real time, it’s difficult to communicate and pass on important information and decisions as they happen. The communication gets delayed and the results of that are missed opportunities and clients gone elsewhere.

Your sales team isn’t doing much

If you feel like your sales team isn’t making any progress despite their best efforts, then you know you desperately need a CRM system. Today, there are so many things you can find out about your potential customers that can help you transform your business into something more prosperous. The key lies in managing and using your data more efficiently.

Leads turning cold

When your once hot leads start to turn cold and there’s nothing you can to do reverse that, again, you know you need to get a CRM system. Sure, there will always be leads who turn cold for no apparent reason, that’s not the point. The point is that in the majority of cases you lack the knowledge that would make them change their mind. You lack the details about your customer behavior and their habits that you could use in your advantage.

You lack data access at all times

When your sales people are gathering information about the customers, if they’re storing it on their own laptops or even papers, you don’t really get to see that information right away. Plus, with a CRM it’s easier to keep everyone updated on all the changes and new data entries. The ability to access your data at any time can significantly improve the quality of your work.

Mom Did Know Best: Clean it up!

It has to happen every once in a while and this is the perfect time of year to face it. I’m talking about cleaning up your list.

This realization came crashing down on a client recently and it just serves to remind me that it is one of the last things busy small business owners are thinking about, but it is just so important.

photo credit: ginasanders @123rf.com

Is your list a mess?

This client wanted to establish a monthly email newsletter. One of the steps was uploading the CSV

file of his list into the app. When the CSV file arrived and my team and I took a look at it, we immediately realized that there was a lot of work to do before it could ever be uploaded.

First off, information had been entered into the wrong fields and we had first names like Quick and surnames like Order. Then there were company names entered where the contact’s name should have been. That was just the beginning. After reviewing the file, there were lots of other changes like who the contact for the company was now and outdated email addresses.

Hey, don’t beat yourself up because there are always changes and mistakes, it’s inevitable that your list needs to be cleaned up, sorted out and purged of all sorts of inaccurate information. But the thing you have to keep in mind is that your list of contacts is one of the most valuable assets you have in your business. So you need to keep it polished up and in good working order.

Make an update part of your regular maintenance.

The end of the year is a busy time and part of the busy-ness is sending “thank you for your business this year” greetings to your clients. Take this opportunity to review your list. Make it part of the process in sending those greetings. Schedule it for fall. That gives you time to actually remove any problem entries as well as request new, updated data.

In some instances, the email contact may be the only information you have. Sending out requests for actual postal mailing addresses via email will help you sift through outdated emails as well as provide an extra touch with the client and get more information from them.

AND, while you are doing that, remind yourself of all the contacts and potential clients that you haven’t connected with for some time. Out of mind means just that – out of mind, and out of mind means a big NO SALE on the cash register.

So cleaning up is not just cleaning up, but use it for bringing to mind potential clients that need a note, call or some other bit of communication from you. Use it to re-connect and update your records. The biggest benefit is that you are ready for a big push in the New Year.

To Your Success!

Jack

GrowYour Business™ Coaching founder Jack Klemeyer is recognized as a preeminent resource for business professionals. As a John Maxwell Certified coach, speaker, trainer and facilitator of Mastermind groups for business owners and professionals, his results-driven philosophy calls for action and accountability. He and his Grow Your Business™ team are dedicated to taking businesses and their owners to the next level. Jack can be reached at Jack@GYBCoaching.com or at 317-755-6963. Learn more at GYBCoaching.com.

Holiday Email Marketing Tips

Have you started sending holiday emails yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Holidays are that time of year when people shop the most, and chances are that your small biz can benefit greatly from that. Successful email marketing is an amazing tool to reach out to your target audience and turn them into buying cust0mers.

If done right, that is.

If you’re sending emails just to send them, it won’t yield the results you need.

If you really want to impress them, stick to these holiday email marketing tips:

Plan in advance

A good marketing strategy is the first (and perhaps the only) thing you need to generate sales. A large number of marketers who know how to make a killer email holiday campaign start planning as early as August. But it’s not late now either.

Email marketing should be at your to-do list if you want results. There is no excuse – make a plan and stick to it. Let’s take a look at some of the tips on how to grab the attention of your target audience through holiday emails:

Focus on mobile

The first practical advice is to focus on mobile, and for a good reason. More and more people are checking on their mail and viewing it from the mobile devices. To put things into perspective, it has been reported that in 2014 that more that 50% traffic was mobile during holiday seasons. Below are a few tips on how to make sure that your emails are mobile-friendly:

Use an email template that is mobile-optimized

Keep it short and snappy

Three sentences on your computer may look like 6 sentences on your mobile device. So, make sure there isn’t too much text, otherwise people won’t even bother to read it. You emails need to be catchy and a bit personal, something people can relate to. Something short but powerful that will make them want to know more. 

Make it simple

The best email promotions are simple with a clear layout. If you have too many colors or use 5 different types of front people may get distracted from the main goal. And that is – to take some kind of action. 

Run a social media promotion

Prior to actually creating an email campaign, run a promotion on Facebook, Instagram etc. If you want your customers to respond to your holiday emails, first you have to remind them of who you are. Just to get their attention. So that when they receive an email from you, they’ll know who you are and they will be more likely to take action.  

Make them engage with you on social media. Engagement is the best way to get closer to you customers and stay on top of their mind. Run a holiday photo contest to make your followers engage. Alternatively, offer buy-one-get-one-free promotions to spur engagement. 

Use proper CTA

A call-to-action is supposed to make people buy something, so you need to make it catchy and simple. For an eye-catching call-to-action you can visually emphasize it. Also, you don’t have to use CTA just once – use it several time throughout your email.

The paradox of choice – stick to one

If you want to lead your potential customers to one single action, make sure you lead them with one single thought in mind. Even though you may have several products you’d like to offer, stick to just one, or to several relatable ones. You need to hack into the psychology of a buyer’s mind. Sometimes less is more, and in this case it seems to be truer than ever. People get easily confused if they need to choose between several things. 

Pay attention to the subject line

Last but not the least – make a killer subject line. Since the subject line is the first thing people see when they get a new email it’s worth investing some thought into it. How many times did you not open an email because of a crappy boring headline? Probably more often than you can remember. The same goes for your subscribers. If it doesn’t spark their interest, they won’t open it. There will be so many emails anyway, why would they waste time on reading yours? Because you have to offer them something others can’t. So express that in your subject line. You can do that by asking a question – questions resonate well with customers. And, of course, add some holiday spirit to it!

The Power of Small Business CRM Software

Are you tired of storing your customer data in spread sheets, emails and who knows where? Are there other employees interacting with clients and you’d like a way to supervise the activity? Do you feel like things are slowly getting out of control? All is not lost. There’s a solution - Whether you’re a small or a mid-size business owner, having a good CRM software is no longer an option nowadays – that is, if you want to stay in the game.

What makes CRM so powerful?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software helps small and mid-size biz owners to increase their sales and customer satisfaction by sharing the customer information throughout the system.

With CRM software, biz owners are able to predict customer behavior while scaling up their services.

If you’re still not convinced, let’s see exactly what this software can do for your biz:

• Integrity of information: CRM software stores all the data you need at one single place. The data is stored in a consistent and user-friendly way so that everything is at your fingertips whenever you need it.

• Customer – Employee interaction: CRM software automatically keeps track of every interaction between the customers and company representatives. This is good for two reasons. Firstly, you can determine customer behavioral patterns, and secondly, you can estimate employee performance.

• Evaluation of marketing success: With real info at hand, you’re able to track the success of each and every marketing tactic you employed. For example, you can assess how many people were referred to you by being a member of Rainmakers or paid advertising, so you can know what to focus on in the future.

• Tracking the progress of your biz: Finally you can have real data at one place to evaluate the success of your business. This is crucial to business of all sizes. If you don’t have accurate data, how can you know what exactly is going on with your sales and ROI? Tracking the progress is a prerogative to business success.

Thousands of business owners have already embraced this amazing tool and they’re doing much better than before.

What’s your excuse? Do you want to get in control of your own business? Get ahead of the pack and sign up for our Simple CRM software today!

A CRM Might Just Save Your Business

Sending out a warning into the air just won’t work
 to provide your clients with urgent and important information.
Photo credit: alistair Cotton, www.123rf.com

This has been a really trying week here in our office. You see, we have had our website hacked. And we have been frantically trying to get it fixed. You might think that is because we don’t want to miss any potential clients, and it is. But even more important to us is that we don’t want to share any viruses or any bad digital thread with any of our existing clients and contacts.

And, we have several programs with open registrations, blog posts and other bits of information out on social media and in email communications that link back to our site.

Now, you might wonder why I am telling you all of this. Well, we have figured out the protocol for when bad things happen and we have to notify our clients urgently. We know we can’t just stand at our office door and yell out into the street. We have to be effective!

When it’s urgent to reach your tribe…be smart and use your CRM

It’s your CRM. Yes, once again a CRM is key to making business work. With all your contacts in a CRM like AddressTwo, you can very quickly send out an urgent message and reach as many people as possible. With a subject line that lets them know there’s a problem and you have an important message, your open rate (ours did) will soar.

This solution is not limited to letting people know your website is down – or is dangerous to their digital health – but also any time there is a problem, great news, or important information they need.

If you are making regular touches through a weekly email or monthly digital newsletter, your contacts expect to hear from you and your subject line should let them know you are sending a message for them. But when these random important communications go out, you have to let them know there is a special event, reason or warning that you are sending and your subject line is the place to do that.

Of course, you can put the information out in your social media, but social media connections are sporadic. The latest statistic I’ve heard is the only 7-10% of your fans see your posts on Facebook and tweets are swallowed in a blink of the eye. So using your email list makes sense. It’s fast, effective and easy.

The case for a contact list in a CRM

Sure you have contacts in your email and you may even have groups set up for emails, too. But building a contact and client list in a CRMmakes life really easy. You will recognize that when you have an urgent need. And the beauty is that it grows right along with your business. It’s not a fill it in and then continually have to update. No, you build it one person, one contact, one client at a time and before you know it, you have a herd, or a tribe, whichever way you want to think about it.

Choose the technology app that serves you best and can grow with you. Choose one and use it. Don’t get caught out with new somethings that are bright and shiny. Stick with one until it no longer serves your purposes. Learn all the features and utilize every tool inside it.

You’ll find your day-to-day operations and those random, urgent situations can both be handled quickly, easily and professionally.

-Jack Klemeyer

Grow YourBusiness Coaching

The Secret to CRM Success: Having a CRM Guru on Staff

Simply having access to a CRM system does not allow you to instantly reap the benefits of that customer database. With a simple CRM like AddressTwo, there isn’t much of a learning curve when it comes to understanding, but there are some important habits to form in order to hit the ground running.

Therefore, the key to receiving CRM benefits is the CRM Guru. This is your go-to CRM girl or guy who will drive your business to success through customer knowledge. You won’t want to leave home without them, but who are they and how can they help you succeed?

Your CRM guru is the owner, front desk person, sales manager, or head of IT (you get the idea). There are no limits to who the guru can be. As long as your chosen one is a hard working individual who is dedicated to learning the ins and outs of your CRM software, you can’t go wrong.

These Gurus play three key roles in your organization.

#1: They are your CRM user

One sole person can learn everything there is to know about using the CRM and pass on their wealth of knowledge to everyone who will be using the software. Forming habits in one person to pass on to many is easier than trying to form the habits in everyone from the beginning. As mentioned in our previous blog, it can be a pain in the butt to get started in your CRM. There is a lot of data entry, data management, and organization that goes into getting started in a CRM system. Having your CRM guru get you started will make the transition so much easier. They can also be in charge of data maintenance as your business grows.

This allows one person to be in charge of the start-up. This means your sales team won’t have to slow down their selling process in order to learn the new software on their own without help. Selling is already a process and it’s hard to break those habits. Having a CRM guru can help the sales people learn how to use the CRM system more quickly and efficiently and will help them to add it in to their already developed sales process.

#2: They are your CRM support

When employees have trouble figuring out how to do something specific in the software, they know exactly who to turn to. Your CRM guru will most likely know how to solve their problem. If not, they will know where to turn for the information you need, whether it be to the software support staff or to the posted tutorial videos on the website. Having one person deal with all of the support issues can streamline the efficiency of getting help in your CRM and may help the support staff work through any deeper problems much faster.

#3: They are your CRM advocate

These gurus know the ins and outs of your CRM. They are the people who will push to gain the benefits from the system. They can hold everyone else accountable for using the CRM software to its fullest potential. Your CRM guru will go to the end of the line defending the benefits you gain by knowing everything there is to know about each customer. When they defend your CRM, they defend your bottom line.

Your CRM guru will be a key to your success. Do not take this go-getter for granted. They play some very important roles in your CRM adaptation. Make them known, and they will make you proud.

ARE YOU THAT GURU?

If you are your company’s CRM guru and are looking for support help in your role, we have posted tutorial videos on our website and are always available to help through email at support@addresstwo.com. Feel free to reach out to us any time. We also offer free weekly training on our CRM software, which would be a great online event for you to attend, Guru. You will be the all-knowing power of your company’s CRM in no time. 

Breaking Down CRM- The 3 Keys to Better Business Relationships

Customer Relationship Management is as simple as C-R-M. Breaking down these three parts of a greater whole will help you to deeper understand how a CRM software system is the key to business success. Here are three videos that will explain each of the important aspects of CRM: Customers, Relationships, and Management.

1. Customers: It is important to maintain data on current and future customers of the business, but defining the term “customers” goes far beyond this scope. It’s about maintaining relationships with people who may never even intend to become a customer. Troy has a better way of explaining what I mean:

2. Relationships:

Relationships are much more than just knowing the permanent details of a person. It’s about learning and understanding more about a person through keeping record of the different interactions that you have with one another. In turn, it is important to adapt future interactions based on these records. So how can a CRM software help you to deepen these relationships? This is where video two comes into play.

3. Managment:

In business, we often need more relationships than any one person can manage on their own. In the final installment of “Breaking Down CRM,” Troy explains how a CRM system can help you manage and maintain your business relationships.

The C, R, and M of CRM software is only the tip of the iceberg. You can learn more about the benefits and usability of a simple CRM software by visiting the website for AddressTwo or by attending Troy’s weekly AddressTwo demo on Wednesdays at 3pm. Sign up here today!

Managing Your Simple CRM: Tips for Clean Data in AddressTwo

Duplicates and inaccurate data in your CRM can ruin your ability to properly market and contact prospects in your database. Use these tips for ensuring your CRM system is in tip-top shape.

Avoiding Duplicates

Regularly review your data for duplicates. The most fastidious CRM database user is bound to create a few accidental duplicate accounts. This can also happen after uploading contact lists without removing duplicates first.

When removing duplicates from your CRM, first choose your duplicate criteria (step 3). There are multiple ways to remove a duplicate and it is okay to run multiple searches.

Email Contacts to update

Emailing your contacts for updated contact information regularly will help keep your contacts current. You can send a verification email requesting they update their contact details or you can set up an email template to send out to contacts on an as-needed basis. 

Why You Need a CRM System

Writing a post on "Why you need a CRM system" feels a little like writing "Why you need a respiratory system."  It's not an option, a luxury, or an upgrade for your business.  It's vital to survival.  But, unlike the lungs you were born with, businesses don't often begin with a healthy CRM system.  Oh, they have a system, but it's on life support.

You see, every business has a CRM system.  Think about it.  "Customer Relationship Management."
Do you have customers?  I hope so.
Do you have relationships with those customers?  Healthy or not, you do.
Do you manage those relationships?  Effective or not, you do.

The problem is not that businesses need to be convinced to manage customer relationships (i.e. adopt a CRM system).  The problem is that businesses need to realize that a conglomeration of Excel, Outlook, iPhone contact lists, SIRI reminders, post-it notes, and chicken scratches on the backs of business cards is not a viable CRM.  It's an iron lung.  Sure, it works (kinda) but there will always be a sense that vitality and health are far off.

At it's core, a CRM software like AddressTwo might not do anything that you're not already trying to via other means.  So what's the difference?  Scalability and sustainability.

First, a CRM system like AddressTwo is scalable.  Try as you might, you cannot effectively share the data from Excel or Outlook across sales teams.  Even smaller--forget "sales teams"--do you have an assistant, or does your spouse help out in your business from time-to-time.  Your business does not have to be very large before the post-it notes stuck to your computer screen become obsolete. 

That simple realization accounts for over 75% of our AddressTwo's new customer acquisition.  That means, 3 out of 4 times that a company buys AddressTwo, two things were true: 1) we were their first ever CRM software; and 2) the catalyst for purchasing was a new hire or some other form of team growth.

But that's just the immediate pain that pushes people to finally take the plunge. And when they feel the next pain--the pain of learning a new software tool--what keeps them using it? Why would anyone opt to learn something new if it weren't absolutely vital to their business?

That's where the second half of CRM comes in.  A CRM system like AddressTwo is also sustainable.  The fancy terms are things like "data continuity" and "transition planning" but in layman's terms what we're really talking about is having information stored safely forever where you can always access it.  Eventually, the glue on the back of that post-it note gets covered in dust and then what?  Moreover, what happens when the person who really needs that sticky-note is your assistant, not you?

There are a million reasons I could tell you to buy a CRM--any CRM, for the love of God--but if you haven't yet reached the point of needing one, there's one simple reason: your business isn't there yet... and if you resist the efficiencies that technology can afford you, I dare say, it may never be.  What will you choose?

The Failure of Outlook as a CRM System

I expect there may be a few more objections to this premise from some who have successfully used Outlook as their CRM for years. To that end, I would say that it's also true that people have successfully used their car keys as box cutters, but it's less than ideal. Truly, what it boils down to is the fact that the box cutter was all the way in the garage and your keys were already in your pocket.

For a one-off job, this is acceptable. But in your business, we're not talking about a one-off job. We're talking about the lifeblood of a small business: your contacts and your relationship with those contacts. You wouldn't think it too wise to walk into a warehouse where all the workers have their keys out cutting box after box, would you? I didn't think so. So, without further adieux: the failure of Outlook as a CRM...

1. Easily corrupted PST files. Currently, I can no longer access the address book function in my Outlook because after 5 years of emails the storage file known as a PST where all messages, contacts, and settings are stored became corrupted. I was able to recover emails thanks to a slick $30 program, but contacts are gone.
2. Limited search capabilities. I could title this point, "reliance on manual grouping" because the basic point is that in order to build collections of contacts that have some commonality, you have to manually create distribution groups. This plagues business people so terribly that when they finally migrate to a true CRM system like AddressTwo, users often struggle to grasp the idea of queriable data as a means for building target groups.
3. Lack of history record. Sure, you can see any email history (in fact, to a fault... do you really need to see all email history when what you really want to know is, "have I quoted them once before or not.") but there is in fact no way to easily track date-stamped activities such as calls, appointments, etc.
4. The plague of standalone software. If you have a sophisticated network using Microsoft's cost-prohibitive server solutions, then you can finally take control as manager and see what your employees are up to, share calendars, pass data back and forth, etc. But if not, the discontinuity of data can become very aggravating as your company grows to that intermediate size where you cannot justify purchasing and implementing Exchange, but you can't stand that each user is a veritable data island unto themselves.
5. The singular focus on email. CRM should help you automate multiple aspects of your sales and marketing. Try giving an Outlook CSV file to your printer for a direct mail campaign and you'll likely end up paying for clean-up, or having to spend time cleaning it up yourself.

The bottom line is that Outlook was an email tool that then added an address book... and then bolted on a calendar... and then stuck in a notes tool. Before you know it you're driving 59,60,61... automobile (for all you Johnny Cash fans out there). It's great for what it does. In fact, I still use it for email and for my daily calendar. But CRM... c'mon, take control of your data and market smarter!