Our Blog

Your customer lifecycle can be a huge source of inefficiency. If you don't do anything to shorten it, then you'll be wasting an opportunity. The longer the cycle is, the less frequently customers will place orders. 

You have to take control of your customer lifecycle and engage customers. By interacting with them, you'll establish customer loyalty and encourage them to place new or recurring orders. 

An important aspect is aligning your goals with your customers'. According to a recent Globe and Mail article, this will lead to a more efficient sales process.

"A sales process where the central feature is the buyer’s objectives and the seller’s subject matter expertise can lead to a much more productive discussion, leading to shorter cycles, more wins, and greater client loyalty, because their objectives would be the continuing focus."

It's well documented that marketing to new customers is considerably more costly than marketing to returning ones. Creating customer loyalty and convincing them to choose your business every time is a huge part of your long-term success. 

When you interact with customers after they place a sale, you increase your chances of them returning to your business. The better you are at doing this, the less you'll have to invest in other marketing efforts since you'll have a strong customer base. 

Depending on how well you engage customers, shortening your customer lifecycle can become a competitive advantage. Not only will you increase your business' sales, but you'll also take some activity away from your competitors. By using contact management software (ACT!, Hubspot, Salesforce, Zoho),  you'll find out the best ways to engage customers. 

Your sales process plays an important role in your business. We recommend trying to make it more efficient so customers will return to your business at a faster rate. Investing in your sales process usually has a positive ROI since it directly impacts your bottom line. 

To talk more about contact management software, or anything else, please contact us. 

Sales process improvements can help businesses increase their sales without spending any additional resources. In this blog, we'll discuss three aspects you can focus on to improve your sales process. 

Communication

Lack of communication is often to blame for lackluster sales performance. Whether your sales representatives don't communicate with each other or your sales team is closed off from the rest of your company, this is something you need to change. 

A recent Business 2 Community article explains how you can improve your lead scoring by getting sales representatives to communicate more: 

"Nobody builds a perfect lead process on their very first try but you can strengthen it and build a great one over time if you keep the lines of communication open. If you’re trying to get the most out of lead scoring and grading, make sure you’re communicating effectively with your sales team, as well as periodically evaluating and adjusting your approach based on that communication."

Technology

Sometimes, poor performance from sales representatives isn't the root cause of disappointing sales. If your sales representatives are already meeting expectations, then you should consider technological innovations as a possible sales process improvement. 

CRM software, like ACT!, HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho, has a big impact on the sales process. It records, collects, and organizes sales data. With this information, sales representatives can learn more about their clients and anticipate orders ahead of time. 

Collaboration

Sales representatives aren't the only ones responsible for a company's sales. There's a lot that goes into the customer experience that sales reps have nothing to do with. 

CRM software also helps increase collaboration within a company. Since multiple teams can refer to the software, they'll find it easier to work with one another.  

Businesses can improve their sales processes by focusing on communication, technology, and collaboration. To talk more about sales process improvements, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks. 

Implementing marketing software is one of the best ways businesses can improve their processes in terms of efficiency. In this blog, we'll talk about three important aspects concerning marketing software. 

Why businesses need marketing software

Why a business or an organization needs marketing software depends on their own specific needs. As a result, there are many reasons businesses cite for needing marketing software. 

A recent Advertising Age article reports the results of a survey which asked businesses why they need marketing software. Here are the results: 

• 27% said they need marketing software to improve lead management
• 15% said they need marketing software because they were unhappy with their current system
• 13% said they need marketing software for better/more features
• 10% said they need marketing software to increase company growth
• 9%  said they need marketing software for better integration
• 8% said they need marketing software to automate their processes
• 4% said they need marketing software to for an upgrade/update

Depending on your situation, one or more of these cited reasons may apply to your business. 

How marketing software improves your processes

Marketing software helps businesses to organize and improve their marketing processes. The idea is to automate certain aspects of the process and gain access to data and analytics. By using marketing software, you can identify possible areas of improvement in regard to your marketing strategy. 

Is marketing software right for your business?

First, you need to understand that any business can implement marketing software. There's no requirement in terms of size, sales, or your budget. 

The most important thing is that you analyze the aforementioned needs for marketing software and see if any of them resonate with you. If you need to improve your lead generation, automate your marketing process, or increase your company growth, then you should seriously consider marketing software. 

To talk more about marketing software, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks. 

Business owners are always looking for ways to improve their sales process and better target their marketing efforts. CRM software can help you achieve both of these things, as well as introduce continuity between your marketing and sales teams. Here are three things you can do with CRM software: 

Prepare for leads

Converting leads is one of the most important tasks in regard to the sales process, but sales representatives aren't always as prepared as they should be. With CRM software, they can inform themselves about specific clients before meeting with them. 

According to a recent Small Business Trends article, sales representatives can build deeper relationships by incorporating CRM software into their preparation: 

"For instance, if you have a sales call scheduled with a valuable lead, CRM software would send you an email in advance so you remember to make the call.  Whenever a customer has an upcoming birthday, you or a sales rep would be notified so you promptly send out birthday wishes. Consequently, you can make customers feel more valued and build deeper relationships."

Align your marketing and sales teams 

Moreover, marketing teams can also benefit from CRM software. In particular, they're more in touch with the sales team since both parties are referring to the same data. As a result, the two teams are better aligned and can work together, rather than compete against one another. 

Improve your future marketing efforts

Users often relate the data collected by CRM software to the sales process. But does information concerning your target market have other important applications within your business? Marketing teams can learn from CRM data to better target their next marketing campaign. 

By implementing CRM software, businesses can improve their lead conversion, align their marketing and sales teams, and better target their future marketing efforts. To talk more about CRM software, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks. 

If your business has not considered the transition to marketing software, you are now at the risk of being behind in the competitive race. You may be dealing with a boss who is a little hesitant about making the transition, or you are probably afraid at how much it may cost you to implement the software. You may also think that you already have enough resources to get the job done. 

Whatever the reason is for not using marketing software, you may need to think differently about it. Businesses that are using marketing automation or marketing software to develop prospects are seeing a significant increase in leads. It is highly important that you think about all the opportunities marketing software will present for improvements and growth.

If you are not quite convinced, here are some signs that your business may need to transition to marketing software.

You Do Not Have Enough Time For Anything

If your office has been using a disconnected set of tools and resources to try to accomplish something in your marketing department, it is highly likely that you probably feel the odds have been stacked against you. Well, honestly, they probably are.

The disconnection of putting information in and information coming out, having to learn new things just to remain proficient will take everything out of you. You will do this all day, and you will have missed opportunities to do other important things. With marketing software, you will have a tool that will provide you with all the resources and tools you need to be successful. 

You Have No Idea How You Got Those Leads

If you do not know which of your marketing platforms or efforts helped you get those leads, then you are definitely missing out on a huge opportunity to optimize and improve your traffic. If you have the right marketing software, you will never have to make guesses about leads. You will be able to quickly break down where everything came from. You will not have to feel like you are walking around in darkness. 

Knowing where your information is coming from and how you can improve from it is critical to the success and improvement of your business.

If you do not have the necessary insight to what is or is not working for your business, contact us today for help. 

When your business depends on making a sale, whether it is a product or a service that you provide, a lot of your time and attention is spent on the process of closing the deal. Sales Process Improvement can help your company spend more time building relationships with your clients and prospects, leading to increased customer satisfaction and repeat business, as well as referrals. One of the easiest ways to improve your sales process is by using CRM (customer relationship management) software.

A CRM system (ACT!, Salesforce, Hubspot) can help ensure that you are giving your clients and prospects more attention, while reducing the amount of time wasted by poor record keeping. By having all the client's or prospect's information in one place, along with your notes, tasks, and status of the deal, you are better able to focus on what you do best: closing the deal.

CRM software can also keep track of the number and type of deals in your sales pipeline, so that your company is better prepared to estimate the value of the sales pipeline, to control your delivery obligations, and to make sure that your customers' needs are met in a timely manner.

Depending on the system that you choose, individual orders can be tracked from lead through sale through delivery, sales tracking will also allow trends and purchase patterns to be analyzed for trends, again to better meet customer's needs and orders. Your company can also use the information to develop marketing initiatives and other forms of business development.

Sales tracking allows each individual salesperson's performance to be evaluated on objective criteria. Keeping this information in one place will also ensure continuity in the face of employee turnover.

Need more reasons to use a Customer Relationship Management system? To talk more about this, or anything else, please Contact us. Thanks.

An issue that many businesses face is how they can improve and grow. Businesses want to build relationships that will become profitable in the future. Communication is also a hurdle that some businesses have to figure out. Businesses and teams want to be able to manage their communications and enhance efficiency.

ACT! software can be used to help business owners and the employees increase their effectiveness. Their effectiveness can be improved by easily managing the contacts and all of the various relationships more easily. As a business owner or an employee, you will be reminded of any incomplete tasks and follow-ups with customers.

Your database can be organized with different keywords and categories that will make your client search much easier. You can complete your clientele search in a few seconds.

Why Should You Consider Purchasing ACT! Software?

Sales

ACT! software will help you keep track and manage all of your sales. You can focus your efforts and time on the best deals. As a result, you can shorten all of the sales cycles, while lowering the cost of selling.

Users can access details about all of their contacts from one interface.

As a result, you have time to focus on growing your business. You no longer have to waste time searching for information that should be readily available.

Contact management software should not be confusing.

ACT! software is not a difficult tool to implement. It is an intuitive application, and all users can easily get started with little trouble.

Your work day can be managed much more efficiently and effectively.

All of your managing tools, such as calenders and schedulers will help everyone stay organizing throughout the busy work day.

ACT! Software Is Cost-Friendly

Many database or customer management software want you to pay monthly or per use. When you implement ACT! software, you will only pay for the software one time. You will then own it, that is until you decide to upgrade your software.

If you are a business owner looking for a cost-effective customer relationship management software that allows you to record all of the customer's information, track all of the communication, and manage sales and marketing ACT! is waiting for you. Contact us for more information.

Part of your success as a business owner relies heavily on the files you keep on your growing customer base. You’ve managed to created a ‘customized’ spreadsheet linked to cells that link to other tabs with full profiles and product-purchase history; too, you use Outlook to keep track of suppliers, including those on your most-favored lists.

Do-away with silos of information...

But the many silos of information are making it difficult for your growing sales team to really provide good customer service, such as knowing when to cross-sell your wide range of products. After all, your records do show that is a source of growing revenue---when it’s performed by your sales people consistently.

Reach customers wherever they ‘hang out’...

Now with all of your customer data integrated through the ACT! Software platform, your sales team can not only reach their customers on their social media channels, send an em about a relevant product promotion as well as generate sales reports; this, without moving in-and-around and-out-of separate files or documents.

Mobile-access increases sales productivity...

What’s more, the sales team can access this info while they’re in customer’s lobby, or enroute to a client meeting; and furthermore users can still interact with Outlook, Office Google, Twitter, Facebook and even LinkedIn from inside the Act! module.

Use it for collaboration and hot-call follow ups!

Checking quotes, client/vendor payments and even collaborating with other stakeholders on a project is easily accomplished. Marketing departments can create more targeted campaigns by analyzing customer data to select groups of customers. Moreover, automated call lists can reflect those ‘hot leads’ to followup on.

For sure, Act! software remains one of the most productive tools for business today, providing the level of Contact and CRM features to make business more profitable.

Contact us to learn how this software can be customized to expand with your business.

When it comes to their function and use, CRM systems are very flexible. Their features could benefit businesses in several different ways. Innovative business managers will find ways to use their CRM software to its full potential.

CRM software, like ACT!, Hubspot, Salesforce, and Zoho, is also compatible with other software. It won't interfere with other applications and in some cases, it may even be able to integrate with them. This helps businesses stay organized with their software and applications.

In particular, CRM software works especially well with marketing automation software. The combination of the two be can the perfect link between customer service, sales, and marketing teams for small businesses.

A recent Tech Target article explains how CRM systems can be integrated with marketing automated software. According to the article, businesses can even motivate marketers to use the system:

“To drive home the use of CRM for a marketing department, create enthusiasm about its use by creating custom objects when necessary. A ticketing system that allows sales and others to make marketing collateral requests via the CRM system has had great success in not only improving marketing integration, but also user adoption. This enables marketing to track the requests it receives, how long it takes to answer these requests, and who handles them within a department.”

Marketers should be encouraged to use CRM software, but they're not always motivated to do so. If this is the case, businesses need to think of ideas on how to get them to willingly use the software.

To do this, businesses need to offer incentives and give marketers a reason to check the CRM software. As suggested in the article, businesses can implement a ticketing system to make marketing collateral requests. Marketers are then encouraged to respond to the requests on the software and interact with other employees in different departments. This strategy can help businesses organize their company through CRM software.

If you would like more information about CRM software or anything else, contact us.  Thanks.

Over the past decade, businesses have been investing more and more in customer analytics . This investment has been proven to be effective in improving communication with clients. CRM software can assist businesses with their customer relationships and has a good ROI.

New research shows that companies that invest in customer research outperform ones that don't. Here are the results of a recent report conducted by Aberdeen Group (the percentage symbolizes the year percent change):

19.7% customer win-back rate for users, 9.0% for nonusers
6.8% cross-sell and up-sell revenue for users, 2.6% for nonusers
6.2% customer retention for users, 3.6% for nonusers
3.7% improvement in average customer care costs for users, 0.7% for nonusers
3.3% revenue from customer referrals for users, 1.6% for nonusers
3.3% customer lifetime value for users, 0.9% for nonusers
As you can see from the statistics, customer analytics have a major impact on sales and customer relationships. In just about every major statistic, companies that use customer analytics outperform companies that use a more traditional approach.

If your business is considering CRM software, like ACT!, Hubspot, Salesforce, or Zoho, but is not sure if it's worth the money, then take another look at the statistics and compare it to the costs. If you're looking to increase customer win-back rates or up-sell revenue, CRM software can help you finish the job. For companies with these needs, CRM software will almost definitely have a positive ROI.

In addition, compare the cost of CRM software to other steps you would take to increase your customer win-back rate. Inbound and outbound marketing may be useful in this area, but they aren't free services, either. One way or another, businesses are going to have to pay to increase their win-back rate. CRM software may be the most cost-effective solution of the bunch.

If you would like more information about CRM software, contact us.