Sales Debriefing

Let's face it, as small business owners you have to be a 'sales person' whether you want to be or not. While you would rather be focusing on the bigger picture, if you want to be successful you need to engage in sales conversations on a regular basis. So, how did your last sales call go? Did you make the sale? Why, or why not?

Taking the time to debrief after a call can help you do a much better job the next time. So, what types of questions should you be asking?

• How did the prospect react to the information provided - People process information in several different ways; some need to ask a lot of questions, others just want the top line summary. Some prospects need visual examples, others need a hands on experience to fully grasp your offering/product. So, did you adjust the call to their style, or did you simply run through the same presentation as you always do?
• What was the mutually agreed "yes" - Was everyone clear on the purpose of the call? Too often people pick up the phone or drop by to chat, and at the end of the day they say goodbye with no clear next step. While it is helpful to keep your name in front of people, going into a call with a plan will help you move toward a desired outcome. Making sure the other person knows the outcome options on the front end helps as well. If you are hoping to get an invitation for an office visit, did your prospect know that at the beginning of the conversation?
• Did you provide a USP? - Be different. All businesses must have a Unique Selling Point. If you do not stand out from the crowd, why should a prospect choose you? Make sure to send a clear message as to what you offer that others do not. Focus more on what makes you unique, as opposed to simply what you do.
• What pain indicator made you relevant - Did you take the time to find out what they really needed? Or do you have a one size fits all solution you are trying to shove at every prospect, regardless of what they need? If you are unable to empathize or relate to your prospect, they will not see the relevance of you or your company.
• What is their budget? - This is a tough one. Most people don't like to talk about money, but it is important to get this on the table early in the sales process. Do they have the funds? Is this something they are willing to invest in? You don't have to nail them down to an exact amount in the first conversation, but you should have an idea if you are playing in the same ball park.
• What happens next? - After you hang up the phone, is there a clear next step? If not, review the list of other questions. Do a better job of getting these answers and the next steps will be obvious.

About the Author:

As Creative Director or Roundpeg, Lorraine Ball is typically at the center of the managed chaos that keeps this agency on it's toes. With more than thirty years as a marketing professional (lie, tell her she doesn’t look that old) Lorraine is a native New Yorker, and a Hoosier by choice, committed to fostering growth and entrepreneurship in her adopted city. 

When not at Roundpeg, Lorraine can be found sharing what she knows in seminars and presentations around the country. She has a BA from Queens College, City University of NY, and an MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas.

Follow @lorraineball | Connect on LinkedIn

Creating Quality Sales: Let's get SIIC

Sales is not only about selling; it is about experience, connections, and most importantly...relationships. Creating Quality Sales helps to nurture relationships, make them stronger, and in the end, last longer. There are many things we as salespeople do incorrectly, such as thinking only of the bottom line. Don't get me wrong, the numbers matter, but how you get there is important not only to your wallet, but to the reputation you carry for yourself and your company. 

There are four main steps, pieces of the puzzle so to speak, that I practice when it comes to selling and working with prospects and customers. Let's get SIIC! Selling with Sincerity, Intuition, Integrity, and Common Sense that is; when they come together is when the quality of sales increase. Let me define and break them down for you one-by-one:

Sincerity: The quality of being free from pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy; a mix of seriousness and honesty

In today's world, sincerity seems more difficult to come by. Social media, blogs, and the age of selfies tend to put a focus on me me me. Everything we do and post, we are more focused on our own wants and desires more than ever. In sales, we must put our clients and prospects first, and us second. Just as we want others to respect our time, we must respect their time in return. Be prompt, be ready, and avoid rescheduling as often as possible. I much rather have a client reschedule a meeting than me. After all, we are the ones that need them, not necessarily vice versa. When you are in a meeting put your cell phone away, not on the table flipped upside down. Allow the focus to be on them; this shows them that you not only respect their time, but their presence as well. You cannot be fully engaged with an individual if you are scrolling through emails or glancing at how many likes your lunch post is receiving.

Most importantly, care about who they are before you care about the sale. Business is great and all, but do not forget they are a person with a life outside of the office. Ask questions about their families, hobbies, where they are vacationing. Empathize with your clients and prospects. If you know their grandmother was in the hospital, send a note to ask how she and their family is doing. Find areas outside of a proposal and quote where you can relate with the client or prospect, such as similar hobbies. Knowing who a person is, is key to any lasting relationship, even within business. Not to mention, if you find out unfavorable facts about someone, their morals, and integrity, you can proceed with caution or kindly back away, and save yourself from hidden stressors down the road...and a potentially bad partnership!

Intuition: A feeling that guides a person to act a certain way without fully understanding why; something that is understood or known without proof or evidence

Some people are born with natural intuition. Some must work to understand the difference between intuition and individual perception. Paying attention to a prospects' body language and voice inflections are ways to help you to hone in on your intuition. If someone keeps looking at their watch, have delayed reactions, or are sitting with their arms across their chest, they are probably not interested. You might even be talking too much! If they are leaning in, nodding their head, and asking questions, they are engaged and their interest is peaked.

When all else fails, and you cannot read your prospect, do not be afraid to ask questions! Be upfront, ask them for their thoughts and if they understand what you are offering. People appreciate when you show you care what they are thinking, as opposed to assuming or guessing. You know what they say about assuming, right? Listening beyond your rationalizations (a.k.a. personal perception), and putting yourself in their shoes can help you better understand what is going through their mind.

Integrity: The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness

Keeping your personal integrity is not only important, it is key. Do what you say, own up to your mistakes, and make sure everything is on the table. At times we are tempted to say, "Sure, we can do that!", when you have no clue if it is even feasible. Being upfront with your prospects, even if they might not like what you have to say, is vital. The truth is always appreciated, and empty promises can easily break their trust in you and your company. If you make a mistake, which will happen, be upfront and make sure to apologize. We are all human, and mistakes are expected; however, how you deal with them shows your true integrity.

Avoid the sleazy salesman status! Pressure sales is a thing of the past, as should be little white lies. If you can't give a prospect everything they want, be clear on what you can offer and focus on the positives. If they say "no" do not try to push the sale on them, they will only become frustrated and annoyed. Not to mention, you can come across as desperate. "Do they need the sale THIS badly?!" Bad mouthing a former employer or competitor is also frowned upon, and can come back to haunt you. You want to sell by how good your product is, not by how bad other products or salespeople are. So, do not be tempted to talk down someone to talk yourself up, this reflects in poor taste and poor integrity.

Common Sense: Sound and prudent judgement based on a simple perception of the situation or facts; normal native intelligence

For me, Intuition and Common Sense are similar, but they do differ. Intuition is inference, whereas common sense is more factual and experience based. When is comes to common sense, listen for specific keywords and phrases. If a prospect is saying that their team is small or they do not have resources, you do not want to try to sell them something that is built for a large company; move to a more suitable fit. If a prospect is having a difficult time grasping what you are saying, your product is probably not for them. Again, step outside of your individual perception to understand what they are saying; reality vs. identifiable reality.

Know your industry. Know your clients' industry. This is where straight up factual common sense comes into play. A product built for insurance companies will not work well for real estate clients. The more you understand exactly what your client does, the better you can qualify your offerings. Doing your research is vital to generating quality sales. Learning from experience will help you time and time again. Set aside the needed time in conversation with your clients to ask relevant questions, as well as doing your homework ahead time, will help build the common sense you need for closing a deal.

Author: Erin Ahaus Contreras
Director of Business Development at AddressTwo CRM
erin@addresstwo.com
www.addresstwo.com

3 Simple Steps for Generating Leads with Social Media

3 Simple Steps for Generating Leads with Social Media

When business owners think of social media, they usually think of the process of building a brand image, and not so much of generating leads. But that’s where they are wrong. Social media can be a huge addition to your overall lead generation strategy, that is if you know how to use it to its fullest potential.

However, before you begin generating leads through social media, it is important to position yourself as an authority figure in your line of work. You can achieve this through your website, blog, your newsletter and by establishing good rapport with your customers. That means being responsive and attentive to your customers’ needs.

Once you’ve mastered that, it’s time to harness the power of social media for lead generation. Below are three basic ways to get started:

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#1: Join relevant Twitter conversations
Twitter can be a great source of new leads once you start searching. There are thousands of people who are interested in what you have to offer, you just have to find them. Luckily for you, Twitter has made it easy to explore conversation threads already in progress. Here’s how you can search Twitter conversation threads and dive deeper into your search for leads. In addition, you can also create your own threads and generate leads that way.

#2: Follow brand mentions and maintain a positive image
Maintaining a positive brand image is crucial when it comes to generating leads through social media. Brand tracking is important, especially across social media. With this method, utilizing special monitoring tools, such as Hootsuite, Mention, Social Mention, Topsy, Talkwalker, etc., is key.

Monitoring what others are saying about you on social media is important so you can respond to critics when necessary, and engage in relevant conversations. By doing this you’ll be able to keep your brand image positive and (relatively) untainted. This is crucial, as when potential prospects start researching about you, they can see negative comments which can discourage them from doing business with you.

#3: Create Facebook contests
Contests are huge on Facebook, and they tend to attract a lot of people. A Facebook contest is a great way to get tons of likes and comments, and collects email signups by offering a prize in return. The downside is that not all leads will be ideal, but at least you will gather emails which you can use later on for targeting.

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Don't forget to maintain and track your clients and leads within Client Relationship Management (CRM) software, such as AddressTwo's simple CRM and Email Marketing solution. Staying in contact with your prospects and on top of your sales efforts is crucial to generating sales. Don't allow follow-ups to slip through the cracks and miss out on potential business. Sign up for a Free Trial of AddressTwo, and see what the power of Two, can do for you!

Holiday Cards - Why the Direct Mail Touch Should Not be Lost

Tis the season!  

Well, tis almost the season, and you need to start thinking about…Holiday Cards! (Insert rolling eyes and sighs.) October is a few days away, so now is the time to begin thinking about your Holiday plan of action.

For many businesses, sending Holiday Cards can be a time demanding and fund draining activity. Because of this, more and more companies are opting to forgo the card sent via snail mail, and reach for the convenience of the computer instead. An e-greeting can be pretty and send a caring message, but more often than not, gets lost within the Holiday email shuffle or sent directly to spam. And let’s face it, opening an email is far more impersonal and leave many reaching for the delete button as soon as they begin rolling in.

Holiday Cards should be seen as an investment, and spending that time and funds to invest in your clients and prospects speaks more than flashy animation and sparkly graphics. Think of your clientele as family. They help keep your business home up and running, and if you’re doing your job right, they will have your back when the opportunity arises. Would you send your loved ones a birthday card via email if a CVS is not far around the corner? I’m guessing your answer is, “no”.

Printed Holiday Cards are a great way to thank your clients and partners for their support and loyalty over the past year, and to let them know how much you value their relationship. Most Holiday Cards are opened and displayed throughout the busy holiday season, keeping you at the forefront of your clients’ mind. If you keep up the tradition, those on your list will look forward to receiving your card year after year. There’s power in that; knowing you are important enough to make it on THE LIST.

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When you take that step to send out Holiday Cards via direct mail, make sure you do it right:

Personalize it. If you can’t afford to write a unique note in each card, create and print different messages per recipient. In other words, categorize your list into three or four different groups. A message to a client vs. a vendor or business partner should be different.

Leave sales at the door. This is a time of thanks for past and current business, not a time to generate more sales. Greedy Holiday givers who create expectations in return show poor taste.

Be sincere. If you send flowery words full of caring sentiments to a client you typically butt heads with, the message could come across as sarcastic. Always use kind words of course, but if you are generally a playful person, have fun with your messages. If you are a sentimental bird, allow your thanks to flow plentifully.

Design smartly. Catchy, yet simple, designs will stand out from the crowd. Incorporate your market niche within your design. For example, if your business is centered around fresh produce, use an image of a broccoli Christmas tree within the design. Remember to keep your logo small, perhaps even on the back of the card. This is about them, not you. (No business cards within either…)

Be a friend, don’t offend. Avoid including content, including words or images, that could come across as offensive or is inappropriate for the workplace. One would think this is common sense, but you would be surprised.

Time your sending. The first or second week in December is the best time to get your cards in the mail and in their hands. Any time after that, you are risking your investments to be caught in the mail rush, or lost in vacation pile for your recipients to shuffle through following the Holidays (embarrassing).

So, now that you have all of your contacts organized and in one location...take this opportunity to get them into a Simple CRM (Client Relationship Management) software, such as AddressTwo. AddressTwo was built for small-medium sized businesses who need a smart and cost effective solution for contact management, setting follow-up tasks, email marketing (drip campaigns), and pipeline tracking, to name a few features. Your clients are important around the Holiday Season, don't let the rest of the year stay quiet! Register for a free trial of AddressTwo CRM to see how it can streamline your sales and communication processes year round. Better yet, email your client list to A2, and have a trial created for you with your contact list imported and ready to go!

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Allow PostTwo to do your Holiday cards for you! Simple and easy solution for printing, stuffing, and mailing. Part of your friendly neighborhood, simple CRM, AddressTwo.

Discover what the power of Two can do for you! 

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.

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

Addy's Top 10 Things You Should be Doing in Your CRM Everyday

Day in and day out, you should be using your CRM to keep your business on track. Here are the top 10 things you want to do every day to ensure that you are getting the most out of your CRM software:

1. LOG IN
2. Review task list
3. Complete tasks
4. Schedule follow-up tasks
5. Enter new customer/prospect information
6. Record history entries in contacted accounts
7. Remember to BCC Addy@addresstwo.com on all contact emails
8. Update current contact information
9. Review email statistics
10. Review pipeline statistics

Completing everything on this list doesn't have to run your day. Forming these daily habits in our simple CRM will help you hit the ground running to customer management success. 

Happy CRMing!

How a CRM Can Help Relieve Small Business Growing Pains

View image | gettyimages.com

Small businesses have the reputation of being a more personal business experience. As a customer of a small business, you expect more intimate customer service than a big box business. The down side from a business perspective is trying to live up to expectations as your business grows. Having a CRM can help you to maintain that personal customer service experience even as your business expands. AddressTwo’s simple CRM for small businesses has three simple features to help relieve small business growing pains:

1. Personalized marketing, no matter your business size

There are multiple ways a simple CRM helps you to personalize your marketing. In particular, trigger email campaigns and history recordings are your best personalization tools in the system. With these tools, AddressTwo helps you maintain that personal touch with every customer of your small business.

*Triggered email campaigns

Email marketing has no doubt become a personalized norm today, but triggered campaigns (also known as drip campaigns) add to that personalization level. They allow you to launch a campaign of personally cordial emails triggered manually or by a formal event such as signing up for a free trial. These emails help to align the customer experience with your brand and make them aware that your company cares about their personal experience.

*History recordings

History recordings are a great way to personalize your messages to your customers. Any interactions you have should be recorded in your history so when a different employee takes the time to reach out to that customer, they are aware of everything that has happened in that customer account. This information allows you to relate to the past events your customers have experienced in your company.

2. Multiple users

With the ability to add more users to the system at any time, the owner isn’t the only person who can deliver a personalized message to the customers. With the click of the history button, new users can learn all they need to know before reaching out to different accounts. The ability to add more users also allows you to lighten the load of following up as your customer base grows exponentially. Tasks can be assigned for different users to reach out to certain customers within their department as well so that the right employee is taking care of the right customers.

3. Task list reminders

When dealing with multiple customers, it is easy to forget an interaction you had last week when you told them you would call them with product offerings. Don’t let your brain do all of the remembering, leave that up to your CRM and the ever-vast memory of the cloud. When tasks are assigned to a certain user, that user receives a task list in their email. In this way, both the CRM and the email task list will remind employees of their work load for the day. This helps to ensure that no customer slips through the cracks as your business grows and flourishes. 

Establishing and expanding your business is no simple task, but having a CRM can ease these business growing pains. With a CRM software, it’s not a question of if, it’s a question of when. The time is now to start maintaining and managing your customer database so that your business doesn’t miss another opportunity. Personalization is just one way a CRM will help you keep in touch with your customers past, present and future, giving our business that small business personality with a bigger business customer potential.

Start your 14 day free trial with AddressTwo today and find the simple CRM solution to personalizing your marketing while growing your small business. 

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. 

Why Moving to a CRM Can Be a Pain in the Butt

CRM’s promise to make your business life so much easier. Having all of your customer information in one place can really improve your sales and business efficiency, but that information won’t just appear. Whether your information is manually entered or uploaded from a comma separated value (CSV) file, it’s not always easy to get started in your CRM. Here are some cons (and pros) to really starting to use your CRM.

Contact Manager and Data Entry

To start in your CRM, you have to have the patience to enter all of your contacts.  

As mentioned before, there are multiple options for uploading information into your CRM. You may choose to manually enter all of your contacts from your paper and pencil customer management method, or you can upload your information from Excel using a CSV file.

If you have been using the pencil and paper method to keep track of all of your contacts, this can be a very timely process. Opening a business now a days, it is very important that you see the benefits of starting in a simple CRM system early because using technology like this will be beneficial from the start. This will avoid having to manually transfer data. But since there is no going back in time to the beginning of your business without your DeLorean handy, it is important to take the time to transfer this data**. As a note, when adding contacts into your system one must simply add all of the information they know about each contact. Getting yourself into this habit will keep you from having to use your very full memory banks to recall information about these customers later.

CSV files must be properly cleaned and organized before they can be uploaded into a CRM like AddressTwo. This method is riskier due to the nature of transferring data. Before you upload your CSV, you have to clean the file, this is called data cleaning or data scrubbing. Column headers, filled in values, and other important features of this file will affect how well it uploads into the CRM system.

For more on how to add comma separated customer information, click the link to view the AddressTwo tutorial video on uploading CSV data.

Old Habits Die Hard

It’s easy to write up a sticky note to remind yourself to call Frank back, but that isn’t how you’re going to get used to using your CRM. Your CRM will remind you to call Frank next month, but a sticky note can end up in the trashcan before then. Getting yourself into the habit of entering everything you do or need to do into your CRM will help you immensely; these features are called history and tasks in AddressTwo. After a week of forcing yourself to use these features, it will start to come as second nature. Additionally, with AddressTwo as shortcut on your phone's home screen, you can have all of your business reminders and upcoming dates in one place- your CRM.

The Facts

Starting to use a CRM can most certainly be a tedious task, but there are so many benefits to forcing new user repetition. CRM software helps to:

• Increase sales
• Increase leads and quantity of customers
• Monitor and maintain business success
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Improve quality of staff to customer interactions

It is important to get into the habit of using your CRM before you allow yourself to miss another customer opportunity. With small businesses, one opportunity can be all you need to get your business off the ground.

For more on launching into your CRM software, watch this tutorial video with 3 Simple Steps to Just Getting Started with AddressTwo.

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. 

Increase Your Facebook Fans Using AddressTwo in 10 Minutes or Less

Over the last few weeks I have been struggling with the fact that AddressTwo has several thousand users and yet we only have just a handful of Facebook fans.  I have tried everything; targeted emails to customers saying things like "Hey! Like Us on Facebook and We'll Like You Back!," or including our Facebook links in our monthly newsletters.  Yet, every time I would only see our Facebook fan number grow but a few likes.  Until I discovered, in ten minutes, a great way to use our Simple CRM and a few simple Facebook features, to add more than twenty new Facebook fans to our page.

Grow Your Facebook Fans with AddressTwo

Step #1

Log into your AddressTwo account and run a query on who you want to be your fans.  Personally I ran a query where I was the account manager and the people I wanted to fan us were my personal customers of A2.  Then hit search.

Step #2

Once your query is ran you will come up with your search results.  To the right at the top of your AddressTwo screen click on use this list.  From that drop down menu select Export CSV.  Your CSV will be downloaded to your computer.  

Step #3

Open up your CSV file and do just a bit of cleaning up.  The only fields you need to import into facebook will be First Name, Last Name, and Email Address.  Delete the extra columns (Red), keep the other columns (Green.)

You should be left with a CSV file that looks like this.

                                   

Step #4

Save this file as a CSV file on your desktop.

Step #5

Go to your facebook fan page for your business and look to the top right and click on "Build Audience."  A drop down menu will appear click on the link that says Import Contacts.

Step #6

A pop out window will appear that says "Invite Email Contacts." Select Upload contact list file, click on Invite Contacts.

Step #7

Next will come a window that says to choose a file.  Select the CSV file that you just saved to your desktop.

Step #8: Select Your Contacts

In this screen you will be able to review who you are sending this invite out to.  You can review and check them off one by one (see arrow on the right) or you can select all contacts you have imported by clicking the box at the top left of your screen (see arrow on the top.)  Once you have selected who is going to get this invite you will want to click on preview invitation at the bottom right.

Step #9: Preview Your Message

Here is where you will see what the message your contacts will receive.  Take note of how many people you are sending the message to at the top.  Then at the bottom right click send.

#10: Keep an Eye on Your Stats

You'll see in a little over 10 minutes my Facebook likes for AddressTwo have grown 23 Likes!

Any questions on other quick and easy ways to use the power of AddressTwo to grow your business we are here to help!  Oh yeah and don't forget to like us on facebook too! :)

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