How will you pick the CRM Tool that’s best for your Business’s needs?

By: Unknown on 04:06

If you’re a small to medium-size business owner, the term CRM, or customer relationship management, may initially be a bit of a daunting or overwhelming concept. CRM platforms can have a negative reputation, as many well-known tools can be tough to implement and customize for your business’s needs, making them even harder to use regularly and properly.

However, there’s no doubt that CRM platforms can help your business grow tremendously once you’ve found the perfect fit, and fortunately many of the tools created recently were designed specifically for SMBs. A good CRM platform for a SMB collects and organizes a TON of valuable information about your customers, ranging from rich contact data, interactions over email and social media, sales tracking and much more. When used correctly, CRM software allows your SMB’s team to work efficiently and productively while resonating more strongly with your client base.

via.blog.contactually.com

Read More

Thinking of getting a Customer Relationship Management application?

By: Unknown on 03:25

Thinking of getting a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application?  Below, I’ve described 11 terrible ones.  Sure, they are all popular, affordable and mature.  In fact, my company (full disclosure) sells and services five of them (Salesforce, GoldMine, Microsoft MSFT +0.65% Dynamics CRM, ZohoCRM and Nimble).  And given their features and functionality you’d think they’d be great tools for so many small and medium sized companies.  But they’re not.  They are all terrible.

Salesforce.com is arguably the most well known of these applications. And deservedly so.  The company pretty much invented cloud-based CRM and remains committed to its future.  Like the products listed below, Salesforce.com CRM -0.12% offers sales, marketing and service management capabilities to its small and (very) large customers.  The application is only available through the cloud and can range in price from $60 to $125 per month per user for the typical corporate version (although pricing can be less for very basic features or more depending on the added modules purchased).

via.www.forbes.com

Read More

CRM Makes Your Business Simple

By: Unknown on 03:28

A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is probably one of the most valuable systems that any small business can implement. It is as important as the people that are hired and will have a more significant effect long term than any one employee.

Recent studies show that companies with a fully utilized CRM system can increase sales by 29%. But, any system is only as valuable as the information that goes into it. How do you get everyone in the company to use it and provide real time data?

1.     Make it simple

The biggest mistake most companies make is they try to implement a CRM system that is too complicated for employees to use. They track too many pieces of information. Any CRM system only needs: Prospect information, when and what was talked about last, follow up date/reminder and action, which it is assigned to, and what is the dollar value of the opportunity.

via.www.forbes.com

Read More