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Deciding which CRM software to purchase isn't an easy decision for businesses. There are many different kinds of software out on the market and it's not always easy to know which one is best for your business.

Two things that buyers always look at are interface and integration. A CRM software's interface is certainly important. It plays a major role as to whether employees will be able to figure out how to use the software. In general, the more simple the interface, the better.

Integration is the other side of the equation and is even more important. Before purchasing the software, businesses have to understand how it will be integrated with other programs and apps. Most CRM software, like ACT!, Hubspot, Salesforce, and Zoho, can be integrated with other software such as an email client. But you want to be sure before you make any buying decision.

A recent Enterprise App Today article explains why integration and interface are so important when it comes to CRM software. But according to the article, businesses should place more priority on integration:

And then there is integration, an issue that makes many user eyes' glaze over. Yet integration is essential for companies that want to leverage their CRM systems to offer a better and more holistic customer experience. Lack of integration is a particular problem for mobile CRM.

Put it this way: If employees don't like the software's interface, they'll eventually get used to it over time. This is really mostly subjective anyway.

On the other hand, integration has nothing to do with subjectivity. It's either the CRM software integrates with your other programs or it doesn't. This probably won't change, either. If your CRM software doesn't fit in well, then you're stuck with it.

Make sure you sort out your priorities before purchasing CRM software. Focus on integration rather than interface.

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

One of the most flexible and popular CRM software choices in the industry is ACT! software. This software has millions of users worldwide, across a variety of fields and industries. The CRM system comes with the tools and features your sales team needs in order to maintain and manage all the sales. Another wonderful thing about ACT! software is that it will not put a dent in your wallet. 

ACT! software's layout is simple and easy to figure out. Your employees will not have a difficult time staying on top of their sales, nor will they have a difficult time printing out their previous sales history. 

One of the best perks of this software is that it allows all of your employees to manage and organize the contact information in an efficient manner. All the information your employees need can be accessed from one page; this will save your employees from having to hunt down the information they need. 

ACT! software with some additional features will make sure your business will have a great return on its investment. You can integrate support tools and management into your software; this will especially be beneficial when you have a technical support team who does not work with your ACT! system. 

You will have customer service, support, and a troubleshooting-ticket system that can be created using additional programs from the outside. This will be a good choice because all of that information can be synced into the system. 

The versatility of ACT! software gives business and organizations the ability to use it for all their operations, regardless of the industry. The learning curve is not difficult, but if you want to become a master user, you will need to receive the right training that is offered for the software. 

If your business or organization wants more information about ACT! software or training, contact us today with your questions. 

Creating and keeping customer relationships should be one of the top factors in any type of business. If a business has negative relationships with customers, it will be very difficult to be successful, no matter what type of industry your business is in. This is why it so beneficial and important to have contact management software or a customer relationship management system that allows you to run your business operations effectively. 

Your Contacts

Contact management software like ACT!, Salesforce or Zoho, will allow you to add convenient information for every contact that you have. This will allow you to touch all of the bases when it comes to presentations, meetings, conferences, phone calls, and other things. This type of information will be placed with the contact's information. When you are able to pull up a contact and see all of this information, it is certainly effective and highly efficient.

Prepared For Conversations

If a customer or client unexpectedly calls you, you can quickly type in the person's name and see all of the information that you need. You will also be able to see any other calls or conversations that took place previously. When you can see why they have been calling, you can handle the conversation with ease because you will be prepared.

Every department in your office will be prepared for conversations with customers and clients. Once one of your departments receives a call and takes the order of a customer, the other departments in the office will also be able to see that same information. Your customers will be impressed and satisfied with the level of production and efficiency of your business. When you can improve the way you handle your customers and their needs, you will be able to keep those customers and receive recommendations for additional customers.

Even if you have the best technology skills, it may not always be easy to figure out how to use every feature of a new software or platform. You will not be left in the dark whenever you have questions. You will have a support team that will relieve you of any headaches that may come ahead.

Contact us if you are looking for ways to improve your business so you can leave your competitors far behind.

Data and analytics are the bread and butter of CRM software like ACT!, HubSpot, Saleslogix, and Zoho. They're what the software does best and are the reason why so many businesses now invest in CRM.

There's just one tiny problem. Some businesses don't check their CRM data for accuracy. It would be nice to assume the data is always 100% correct, but the reality is that errors can happen along the way. To stay on the safe side, you should regularly check and revise your CRM data.

A recent article by Smart Data Collective explains what happens when CRM data is inaccurate. According to the article, inaccurate CRM data starts a negative domino effect that can ruin the consumer experience.

"Without this data, the sales team cannot use the CRM to close deals. The marketing team cannot segment its data accurately. The customer is frustrated that they’re receiving multiple copies of marketing messages, complete with mis-spelled names and email addresses that should have long since been removed. The IT department is becoming irritated with the requests to fix the data it cannot change."

If employees are making the most of CRM software, they'll be using it everyday. Sales representatives won't even talk to a client before referring to the CRM data and reading the client's file.

This is great and it's what we encourage. But if you're going to base your entire company's operations off of CRM software, it makes sense to check the data for accuracy once in a while.

This isn't exclusive to CRM software, by the way. Accountants check their numbers and percentages from time to time. Engineers check their work to make sure there are no inconsistencies.

Chances are that your data is fine. But if you're reading this, don't just assume that every figure is accurate. Check them every now and again.

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

Before purchasing CRM Software, you should be aware of all of the potential costs. We try to be as transparent as possible when it comes to pricing, and we make sure that every client understands how much he or she will have to pay.

CRM software requires a one-time initial investment and occasionally recurring costs. The recurring costs depend on the client, the number of users, and what type of software they purchase.

A recent Tech Cocktail article mentions CRM software-related expenses. Here's a list of the potential costs of CRM:

One-time costs include customization, set-up and training.
Recurring costs include licensing per users. per month.
Potential add-on costs include data migration.
Don’t forget to estimate the projected gain from managing your database.
The overwhelming majority of the expenses comes at the very beginning. Businesses have to customize their software and train their employees. Depending on the business, it may have to train its employees from time to time to remind them how to make the most of the software.

Besides the cost, we also like to inform clients of the return on investment (ROI) of CRM software. In order to do this, however, clients need to first know how much they're paying.

It's sometimes difficult to calculate the ROI of CRM software because its impact isn't just limited to financial bottom lines. It helps align the entire company, specifically the marketing and sales teams.

Still, businesses should be able to calculate the increase in sales that comes with the implementation of CRM software. Sales representatives have more success because they have access to new data and analytics related to clients. Businesses can calculate how much sales increase and then compare it to the costs of CRM software.

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

CRM software and contact management software are often confused for one another. While the two software are similar, there are still significant differences between them. We find it important that business owners are aware of both the differences as well as the similarities.

Contact management software is perfect for companies who want to organize their client database. If you're having a hard time keeping track of names, phone numbers, and email addresses, then you should consider using contact management software.

CRM software such as ACT!, HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoho goes a step further. It's not only used to store contact information, but also to organize data relating to marketing and sales. Businesses can use CRM software to stay organized and align their marketing and sales teams.

A recent CRM search article talks about the differences between CRM software and contact management software. According to the article, CRM is a more complete solution while contact management software covers more basic functions:

"For some small businesses contact management may be sufficient, or may be a segway to a longer CRM journey. However, confusion persists in the tangible differences between contact management programs and CRM applications. The two program types are differentiated by customer strategy, application scope, business purpose and software utilization."

Just because CRM software offers more features and functions, however, doesn't mean that it's the better solution for every business. Your company may well benefit more from using contact management software.

But this is rarely the case. For this to be true, a company would have to have a truly excellent marketing and sales strategy. If not, then CRM software can help improve communication between your marketing team and sales representatives.

At the end of the day, both software will help improve your sales. But the effect of CRM software will be more direct and profound.

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

Businesses can integrate their CRM software to work with their other marketing programs and applications. One of the benefits of the software is that it will twist and bend to fit your marketing process, and not the other way around.

Marketing automation is now in just about every digital marketing platform. You can use marketing automation to access data and analytics about your target market, send personalized messages to a large audience, and take care of simple, yet essential marketing tasks.

Moreover, you can integrate marketing automation with your CRM software (ACT!, HubSpot, Salesforce, Zoho). For best results, businesses will use both of these aspects to improve their marketing and contact management.

A recent Business 2 Community article talks about integrating CRM software and marketing automation. The article explains how the two are separate but work well with each other:

"The more you understand your customer, the more targeted and strategic you can be in your communications. Tools provided by marketing automation can capture relevant data pertaining to your target audience, like how online visitors reached your website, which pages they visited (and for what duration of time), at which page they left, and where they went next."

Marketing automation provides businesses with a whole new well of data and analytics about their target market. Businesses can use this information to carry out more effective marketing campaigns.

In addition, they can also give this information to sales representatives to improve their customer relations. Sales representatives will learn more about their clients' behavior, interests, and purchase history.

Marketing automation is now a cornerstone of digital marketing. Many businesses already incorporate it into their marketing strategies to get data and analytics related to their target audience. To get even more out of marketing automation, you can implement it with CRM software and improve your customer relations.

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

When businesses evaluate contact management software, they typically consider its benefits. With contact management software, businesses can organize their client base, get access to new data and analytics, and give their sales representatives a better chance at finalizing sales with customers.

But there's one crucial aspect that businesses forget to consider all too often. Now, consider once more the fact that contact management software helps you tremendously by organizing your clients (ACT!, Hubspot, Salesforce, or Zoho). Who else would love to have access to that information? What would happen if your client list were to somehow get copied or stolen?

We're talking about security, or course. When you use contact management software, there's also a risk of someone else stealing that data. If your competitors get access to your data and analytics, then what was once a huge benefit would suddenly turn into a colossal blunder.

And that's why you should always ask about security before using contact management software. Here's what a recent Forbes article has to say about the level of security contact management software provides:

"Security is a much more complicated idea for contact management, and this is where many systems have gotten stuck. Do you advocate an open model – where everyone sees everyone else’s data – or something really closed, where you can only see someone’s data given the right combination of a public and private key or other multi-factor auth?"

This doesn't mean that you should avoid contact management software at all costs. The benefits are still the same, but you just have to make sure that the software has adequate levels of security.

Contact management software can have a big impact on a company's sales. But if that software is insecure, then it represents an alarming risk that could destroy a business. Before using contact management software, always ask about its security.

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

We often stress that how you implement CRM Software is just as important as the quality of software itself. You can purchase the best CRM software available, but if you don't integrate it with other applications and train your employees how to use it, it won't have a big impact on productivity.

We're drawing attention to this matter since we've seen it happen with so many companies. When there's no dramatic increase in productivity, business owners tend to blame the software. But oftentimes the problem stems from the implementation rather than from the software itself.

A recent LinkedIn article explains that implementing CRM software isn't easy. According to the article, if companies don't implement CRM software correctly, it will comprise its functionality.

"CRM implementation and adoption is not trivial and requires extensive engagement with all stakeholders to deliver the optimal result for the business and all stakeholders. I have experienced personally and continue to witness, CRM projects put at risk because initial functionality works then suddenly stops working – for a plethora of reasons."

There are two things you have to concentrate on when adopting CRM software. First, you have to integrate it with other applications. CRM software (ACT!, HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho), for example, is much more effective when it's used alongside social media and email platforms.

The other side is training employees so they know how to take advantage of the software. If sales representatives have access to CRM software but don't use it to research clients, they won't improve their sales process at all. Employees have to learn to incorporate the software into their everyday tasks.

In order for CRM software to be effective, you have to implement it correctly. If you've already purchased CRM software and are underwhelmed by its impact, then you should try training your employees or integrating the software with your other applications.

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

Before implementing contact management software, it's just as important to know what you shouldn't do as it is to know what you should do. Most businesses that purchase contact management software are happy with their decision because they take the time to implement it correctly.

Other companies, on the other hand, aren't so patient. Rather than training employees and teaching them how to use contact management software like ACT!, HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zoho, they just throw it at them. These companies never fully utilize the software because they never implemented it correctly.

A recent LinkedIn article explains what exactly businesses shouldn't do regarding contact management software. Here's a list of why some businesses don't have success with it:

Failure to define your customer experience strategy
Failure to design with sales, service and support staff being the primary internal ‘customers’ and users
Failure to integrate social selling and marketing automation
Failure to embed sales methodology and sales process.
Failure to configure to be a deal management and sales coaching platform.
Failure to integrate as the single source of truth for the entire customer lifecycle
If you've purchased contact management software and were expecting a bigger impact, then you might want to check the list above. More likely than not, the problem stems from one of these failures.

What most businesses don't understand is that contact management software affects the entire company. It's not just something that sales representatives should refer to before speaking with clients. Marketing teams and managers should also look at the software often.

Most problems that businesses face with contact management software are easy to solve. All you have to do is look back at the implementation of the software and see if you skipped any steps. Even if you're past that point, there's always time to go back and fix what's wrong.

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