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The Importance of CRM Customer Relationship Management

One of the primary factors in the success of any company is the liaison it shares with its customers. CRM or Customer Relationship Management designates all features of interaction a company shares with its customer. This includes everything from sales to service.

CRM is basically a business strategy designed to accrue gains, generate revenue and cater to customer needs and satisfaction. With the e-media picking up pace, the manner in which companies approach their CRM strategies has greatly changed. This has even altered the consumer?s purchasing attitude. So these days CRM too has become a web based effort as most of the customer relationship is handled electronically.

The web based CRM service is more effective. Web-based CRM services mainly covers three areas of service- sales force automation, management of customer relationships and customer services and automated marketing.

A web-based CRM software is a web-based system used for contact management, marketing and sales support, project tracking and other tasks associated with CRM. This software enables teams and departments to share a central and fresh database. The software facilitates its users with an online contact manager and a project-tracking tool, either over the web or within the corporate intranet. With the aid of the CRM software you can view and manage contacts, customer?s record, hot leads, projects and left-out work, from anywhere and with any web-browser. Moreover unlike the intervening and needed to be testified upgrades of an enterprise software, the upgrades to the web based software do not affect the organization?s regular operations in any manner. Due to these features more and more companies are driven towards this web-based software.

Siebel Systems Inc., HydraNet and Push CRM are some eminent names in web-based software service. Lately SAP has also blessed the market with on-demand Customer Relationship Management solution. A web based CRM has many names out of which on-demand CRM is one.

These systems provide agents with the most up-to-date information on all customer service transactions. The software adds to the strategic value and business of the organization by automating sales, marketing and customer service. For instance the SAP product specializes in providing core sales-force automation features for managing customers, contacts and sales pipelines.

The software runs and keeps a complete track of your data after it is downloaded or purchased and then installed on your server or web-host. Usually the CRM software runs on all significant platforms such as Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Novell (6.5) and so forth. Since the software serves many purposes at the same time, it is quite expensive. However an incredible competition in the market has enabled the software seekers to exercise their choice to a certain extent.

In choosing a web-based CRM software it is important that the user should firstly analyze his or her budget or the budget of the organization. Secondly also check your organization?s partner ecosystems. A user-friendly hosted CRM system, an on premise version or the combo of both should follow this and finally try to go for software that can fit any type of user, any size company and in any industry.

Mansi Aggarwal recommends that you visit Web based CRM
for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mansi_Aggarwal

CRM Customer Relationship Management is one of the newest innovations in customer service today. CRM stands for customer relationship management and helps the management and customer service staffs cope with customer concerns and issues. CRM involves gathering a lot of data about the customer. The data is then used to facilitate customer service transactions by making the information needed to resolve the issue or concern readily available to those dealing with the customers. This results in more satisfied customers, a more profitable business and more resources available to the support staff. Furthermore, CRM Customer Relationship Management systems are a great help to the management in deciding on the future course of the company.

As mentioned, there is much data needed for the CRM system to work. These fields include the customer name, address, date of transactions, pending and finished transactions, issues and complaints, status of order, shipping and fulfillment dates, account information, demographic data and many more. This information is important in providing the customer the answer that he or she needs to resolve the issue without having to wait for a long time and without going to several departments. With just a few mouse clicks, a customer support representative for example can track the location of the customer?s package or order. This is infinitely better than the cumbersome process of tracking shipments previously. Furthermore, the customer service representative will also be able to see the previous concerns of the customer. This is a great help especially if the customer is calling about the same issue since he or she will not have to repeat the story all over again. This results in less time in resolving the issue, thus, higher productivity of the support staff.

CRM Customer Relationship Management systems are also important to the top management because it provides crucial data like customer satisfaction and efficiency of service by the frontline crews. A piece of customer relationship management software will also be able to generate the needed reports for product development or new concepts. Furthermore, this system will also be a great help for the top management in deciding the company?s future course of action, whether it involves phasing out one of the products on the shelves or making adjustments to one of the products sold.

The reports generated by CRM systems are also invaluable to your advertising and marketing planners, as they will be able to pinpoint which ideas works and which do not. Because of CRM systems, you will be able to release advertisements or plan marketing campaigns more in tune with your target market. This will also lead to more responses to your advertisement and a more effective marketing campaign.

Successful integration of a CRM Customer Relationship Management system in your company, however, might not be as easy as it seems. The following might give you an insight why CRM systems fail in some companies? Most companies fail to prepare for CRM systems. By this, I mean that most companies fail to integrate all the departments that need to share the information for it to be effective. Furthermore, CRM units scattered all over the company?s departments is often more effective than just making one big CRM department. This will ensure that each department will get the information and data that they need.

A CRM system will also help you a lot in expanding your business. As CRM systems are capable of handling enormous amounts of data, CRM systems will help you a lot in coping with the increased numbers of customers and data. With a CRM Customer Relationship Management system installed and properly utilized, you can be sure that all data is maximized and used to ensure that your business will be successful and your customers a lot more satisfied than before.

Steven Taylor is a Marketing Consultant to http://www.Retronix.com
– one of the most innovative and effective suppliers to the electronics & semiconductor industries. Services include BGA Rework
and De-Bug Services.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_R_Taylor

Have You Considered Personal CRM?

At first glance Personal CRM seems an oxymoron, or at least terms put together by somebody who doesn’t really understand their meaning. After all, there’s nothing personal about ways companies implement Customer Relationship Management. The systems are intended to enforce control by accountants over sales and service functions.

But distill the concept of CRM to it’s fundamental elements – Relationships, Plans and Schedules – “Who” we know, “What” we want to do them, “When” we plan to do it – the potential for Personal CRM starts to emerge.

Firstly, we really should be keeping our own records of our business contacts, but in a “relationship” as opposed to “transaction” context. The fact that John Jones is CFO of Acme Inc and we have an appointment to discuss his renewal on the 28th is related to a transaction. Facts like he’s a member of Pine Valley Golf Club, enjoys classical music, his wife works for a children’s charity and daughter is studying medicine are related to our relationship.

These are different dimensions of the same contact. We need to be on time with a competitive offer if we’re to win the renewal. At the same time we need to know which of our contacts enjoys concerts when we have tickets for the symphony. If we can commit to knowing more of John’s personal interests we can deepen the relationship, opening up other opportunities. Maintaining that relationship will always be helpful when the going gets tough.

Secondly, we probably don’t need a reminder of our daughter’s birthday, but a reminder to find a gift a few days before might be helpful, as will a list of her close friends so we can invite them to the party.

Thirdly, in the natural course of things we meet people who aren’t, and may never be, clients, and also aren’t family or friends. They can be helpful to us in our business, and we can reciprocate. We need to know what their value add is so we can introduce opportunities to them, and build similar relationships to those with our customers.

We’ve just looked at three different types of relationship, but of course there’s only one of us. Having three different systems to record this information, and know how and when to use it, sounds like it might create more problems than it solves.

Maybe our own Personal CRM system isn’t an oxymoron. Maybe it’s an absolute requirement as the focus of business turns from transactions to relationships

Steve Reeves is Founder and CEO of Front Office Box, the Business 2.0 solution for helping smaller businesses manage plans, tasks, schedules and relationships. His passion is helping them exploit the Internet to increase opportunities and enhance capabilities.

Steve is a 30 year veteran of sales and sales management roles in the B2B space, primarily software, consulting and outsourcing.

Visit Steve’s blog at http://frontofficebox.ning.com

and visit Front Office Box at http://www.frontofficebox.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_S_Reeves

The Most Common Features Available Through CRM Systems

Customer Relations Management, or CRM, is more of a business strategy rather than a technology, although it is a software program that offer businesses better solutions in acquiring and maintaining relationships with customers. Companies who want to be successful are dedicated to finding ways to keep their most important asset, their customers, satisfied. That is why many businesses are turning to CRM technology to put their CRM strategies to work for them.

One exciting feature in CRM systems is the emergence of open source CRM applications that are more advanced than ever. They actually allow the customer to integrate the multiple business systems in support of the company’s business strategy rather than the company doing the integrating. Basically, the customer is doing the work that the business needs to find out what it is that satisfies their customer. These open source applications tend to be less expensive and support many different proprietary solutions. Yet at the same time these systems are presenting businesses with security, scalability, and many features that can be acquired by a business of any size because of their affordable price.

Common features

There are many common features in a CRM system that a company will find very useful in their sales management and their overall relations with their current and prospective customers. These features are:

? Management of sales leads and actual sales

? Marketing campaign management

? Help desk for customer inquiries

? Business process management to help a business design business practices to appeal to the customer.

? Collaborative project management, which allows those collaborating on a project to remain on the same page and integrate their ideas.

? Reporting and dashboards to acquire reports on those things that can make the business grow even larger.

? Enterprise content management

? Website authoring, which is important with the internet being responsible for a lot of the revenue now acquired by businesses.

When it comes to security, it is important for these systems to be secure so that unauthorized people cannot access very important customer information. There are security features put in place to ensure that unauthorized activity does not occur within the system or the information of customers is compromised in any way.

? Advanced encryption and authentication to prevent hacking and access by unauthorized people.

? Administration and logging for those who should only be allowed to access certain features and to keep unauthorized personnel out of certain files.

Then of course there is the communication factor of CRM. Customer relations cannot be successful without the use of the telephone. That is why most CRM systems employ telephone and mobile connectivity such as:

? IM integration

? VoIP integration

? E-mail

? Voice recognition features

? Web services

CRM systems are also supported by platforms such as Linux and Windows since businesses use various platforms for their computer systems in order to conduct business. These programs also run on a number of browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Mac’s Safari. They are rather flexible in what types of computers they are used on.

Other features

There are other features that businesses like to have included in their CRM systems because there may be a particular function they need that is not included in the default package. In this case, the company may pay a CRM software company to specially make a software program that integrates with certain business requirements such as seeing what the probability is that a customer will leave the company based on past interactions. This is a feature some companies use to know which customers to focus on. So as you can see, the possibilities of CRM are quite phenomenal.

Installing an accelerator application
onto your businesses computer system can be an excellent way to increase productivity and decrease waste.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Beth_Murphy

The World’s Most Popular CRM System

Without question, the worlds most popular approach to managing relations with customers will be paper based – files, folders, journal books, “stickie” notes.

But when it comes to using computers for CRM, the spreadsheet stands head and shoulders above all the others added together.

Excel, Numbers or Google Spreadsheets are not CRM systems. That doesn’t stop people using them for CRM applications, particularly lists. Lists of customers, targets, suspects, prospects. Lists of deals, sales, values, totals.The same applies to Plans.

There’s no sense to this, given the number of CRM systems around, some of which are free. Why would anybody use technology designed for calculating numbers, and with no integration or process, to manage the multiple dimensions of CRM e.g. Companies, People, Plans, Actions, Schedules, Assignments?

The answer is it’s simple to organize Outlook as a contact and task management system – (not great but can be made to work by somebody with too much time on their hands). This at least sits on the same computer so the spreadsheet lists and contact details are similar places. And of course most people are familiar with the tool set.

The other answer is it’s infinitely flexible. Any user can keep his, or her, information in ways that make sense to them. The tools become genuine enablers, helping, rather than hindering, users to do their jobs better.

Contrast this with typical CRM systems where there are lots of options to choose from, and lots of data to input, for somebody else’s benefit.

One approach is infinitely flexible, although time consuming and sub-optimally efficient. The other is rigid and mostly driven by what other people want.

Ask yourself whether you’d rather spend time finding and winning new business, or fighting somebody else’s idea of what your CRM should work like?

As VP of Sales and Marketing for the UK office of a US based server manufacturer, I ran a team of 50 sales and support people. The guys in Silicon Valley had a “CRM” system they used to collate prospect and forecast information from around the world.

To keep them quiet I had to put my data in their system, but for my own records I used spreadsheets.

Steve is a 30 year veteran of sales and sales management roles in the B2B space, primarily software, consulting and outsourcing.

Visit Front Office Box at http://www.frontofficebox.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steven_S_Reeves

Implementing CRM – What’s the Price?

As Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems move from being “nice to haves” to essential tools in keeping businesses competitive, their implementation is growing at a rate to match. And of course, price and cost play a vital role. However, the price of a CRM system is more than just the cost of the software and IT.

When budgeting for a project, assessing quotes from a solutions provider, or just trying to get a realistic idea of how much you’ll need to spend, here’s a guide to some of the key factors you need to consider.

1) Software Costs :

These usually consist of:

the price of software licences

the price of software maintenance.

2) Professional Service Costs:

Professional services refer to what you need to get done to get your CRM system up and running. They can include the costs of everything from scoping the project to software configuration, hardware and training. They include internal costs (such as the time of your own staff) as well as the price charged by your solutions provider.

3) Support Costs

Support costs generally refer to the price of assistance to keep the system going. They will usually include the costs of technical support, administrator support and user support, such as access to a help desk. Sometimes support costs include CRM software maintenance costs: it depends on wording and the vendor.

Building a system from scratch?

If you decide to build or implement a system yourself, you’ll need to include several other factors in the price. Probably the most significant costs will be developing or acquiring the wide mix of business, administration, management and technical skills. Do not underestimate how important these skills are to a successful CRM project. And if you go down this route, you’re well, quite literally, on your own.

So, assuming you intend to employ the help of a solutions provider, here’s a look at each of the three main areas of project costs in more detail:

The Price of CRM Software

Working out the price of software licences is usually straightforward. There will be a price for a single user licence, number of users or multiple user licences. Remember to allow for expansion with the number of software licences you buy: the number of users can quickly grow as the benefits of using it become apparent. It can also be useful to have extra licences on hand ready for new staff.

When buying CRM software there’s sometimes the choice between named or concurrent licences: most businesses prefer concurrent. Note some vendors only supply software licences in batch quantities, so you may have to buy 5, 10 or 15 etc.

Maintenance costs are to cover when the software manufacturers update, alter or modify the product to correct faults, improve its performance or adapt it to work under new conditions. This is usually charged as a separate line item per software licence, as a set annual fee (a bit like insurance). Some resellers make maintenance charges compulsory – meaning you can’t buy licences without maintenance. If it’s not a separate item check it is included in the licence or support price. Don’t buy CRM software without maintenance.

The Price of Professional Services:

Here’s where working out the cost of a CRM project starts getting more involved. Unlike software licences, which have a clearly identifiable unit price, professional service costs are not directly user-based. What’s more, professional services costs can be the largest expense – mainly because they encompass such a wide variety of different tasks. They also vary due to installation type, degree of customisation, business, solutions provider, level of integration with other office systems and so on.

A good starting point to estimating the price of professional services is by producing a project-scoping document. Once you’ve identified your business requirements, a project scoping document will help show what needs to be done to realise these requirements. It’s recommended that you use an experienced project manager or consultant to produce this, which may of course incur a charge in itself. However, you may be able to negotiate on this if you choose to work with the CRM solutions provider who produces the scoping document.

Depending on the nature and complexity of your CRM project, the project-scoping document may include:

Business process analysis

CRM project specification

Sales, marketing, and customer service systems design

Internal resources required (you’ll need high levels of input, and hence staff time, from several key areas within your company)

Project Management

CRM system design

System build and configuration

Data import

Data cleansing

System installation

Various levels of training

Internal procedure rewrite, updates

Hardware installation and upgrades

Additional software requirements

Depth of system integration to other office systems

There are identifiable issues that affect each of these elements, the complexity of a CRM project and hence the level of professional services you require.

For example, the price of your project will be affected by how much ‘out of the box’ software functionality you intend to use and the level of system configuration required. The sophistication of your reporting requirement will influence system design, while the number of staff, their existing skills and the system complexity will affect the levels of training. Existing IT infrastructure will dictate whether you need to buy additional hardware and software, and degree of change to your current customer facing procedures will also influence overall costs.

Data is also an important consideration when determining the price of professional services. Depending on what you do with it, it can take up significant internal resources. Usually your own staff are the best people to work on your data because they work with it day in and day out. You need to think hard about the value of existing data: how much of it will you use, what format is it in, how much reformatting is required and how much cleansing is needed. Data that’s taken years to build up may be heartbreaking to part with, but similarly it can also be over-valued, particularly if it’s going to take up skilled staff time to assess, cleanse and reformat. Do you really need to keep details of contacts from web-enquiries four years ago? Or even six months? It depends on your business. If you’re going to clean your data, a new CRM project is the ideal time, but don’t underestimate the work involved.

Once you’ve identified the professional services you’ll need, you can cost each factor – usually by working through the scoping document with your CRM solutions provider.

Costs of System Support

The price of CRM system and software support will depend on what’s offered by your solutions provider and the level you choose to take.

CRM solutions providers vary in terms of what they offer and how much they charge. However, most will be able to offer some level of support. If they don’t, or you prefer not to pay for a support contract, then if a support issue arises it will probably be priced as a professional service.

A typical support structure may include:

User assistance and support – ideally via a dedicated support line. Make sure it uses trained support staff who can answer questions from all levels of user: from ‘How do I…?’ to technical details.

Administrator assistance and support – again this should be via a dedicated support line to address issues connected with the running of the system.

Supply of software corrections and revisions (may be included as maintenance).

“Bug” reporting and control.

Remote intervention and remote diagnostics – web dial-in, with controlled access.

Self Service – some of the better CRM solutions providers offer 24/7 access to an online support centre. These will typically allows you to find out how your issue is progressing and provide access to a knowledge base.

Other CRM support costs to consider are system administration, additional user training, on-site visits, system developments and additional licence installs.

So How Much does a CRM System Cost?

It depends on your business requirements, what you want to do and how you’re going to do it.

Make sure you involve key staff from marketing, sales, customer service, IT and finance. The factors which need to be taken into consideration when pricing a project can be quite subtle, particularly because of the different requirements between businesses. This is where the input from experienced CRM specialists can be invaluable.

As well as costs, an independent CRM specialist can advise the best software to suit your business needs – what you want to achieve from it, your sector, your customer requirements, how it will fit into your existing systems and processes, how it will integrate with other business software, and of course your budget.

Concentrix is a leading UK Independent CRM Specialist
. Formed in 1999, Concentrix
provides a full range of CRM Software
and related services, working closely with key providers including Microsoft, Sage and FrontRange.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Elgar

A Real CRM Strategy or Just Tracking Customers?

Exactly what is CRM

The idea itself is nothing new; its roots have been around since trading began. The principle of looking after your customers so that they come back regularly is, after all, merely the basis of good trading. In an increasingly competitive commercial world however, strong customer relationships take on an increasing importance. With the cost of selling to a new customer being five times the cost of selling to an existing one you can?t afford to lose established business.

Yes, you still want new markets, and yes, for various reasons customers will still disappear. The important thing is to minimise this loss and make sure the reasons behind it don?t stem from something you are doing ? or more significantly something you are not doing.

Which is why good Customer Relationship Management is vital ? and why the process has now been refined to make it more effective than ever.

What does CRM Involve?

In essence, making your customer feel special by understanding his needs and fulfilling those needs in a personal manner which will keep him coming back for more.

Going that extra mile and providing service beyond that which was expected takes your customer to the next stage, where he becomes a ?raving fan? of your business – and you can?t have too many of those. Achieve this and your customer suddenly becomes part of your sales force, telling everyone he meets how good you are.

This can actually be achieved without computers and software. A good memory and a card index can keep track of customer?s preferences and buying patterns. Newsletter campaigns, post sale follow-ups and special offer mailings can all be organised – given time; except that this is where it so often falls apart. For most companies time is the commodity in shortest supply.

Identifying the Challenge

This is where you find the first steps into CRM. Contact Management or Personal Information Manager software can provide substantial benefits. A database of customers for envelope labelling, simple word processing and calendar functions can save an enormous amount of time. The latest breed of contact manager software can do this quite efficiently across small groups of people, an office based sales team for example. So what?s the point of moving to a full CRM strategy? Why not stick with a simple address book style contact manager?

The real secret of selling has always been to ?Think Buying?
So consider for a moment, the things that annoy you as a customer:

? Promised return phone calls not made, and information not sent

? Not being informed of possible delays or problems

? That call to tell you when your order is ready ? promised but not made.

? One department in the company having no idea what another department said to you in the last call or letter.

? No one bothering to call to make sure the goods arrived, or are satisfactory. Probably no calls at all ? until of course they want to sell you something else

? No one knowing what they last sold to you ? or when

? No one knowing enough about you to offer you items or services that would enhance or compliment your purchase. Frequently only one person in the company seems to know anything about you! And if they?re not available??

Overcoming all this takes more than just contact management software.

The Answer

What is needed is a change in attitude that extends from shop floor to boardroom. Not easy! It takes something special to initiate such a major change, but once up and running the change will feed on its own success.

The CRM solution provides a sophisticated but (and this is important) ?easy to use? computer system which monitors all activity with customers, current or potential. Phone, mail, e-mail and fax all link in. Give everyone in your company who deals with your customers access to that system. Link it to word processors, accounts systems, stock control and manufacturing Now you?re starting down the right road to achieving your ultimate goal – customers who become Raving Fans.

Your Information Bonus

The additional benefit to a company implementing CRM, is far superior tracking of sales and marketing activities. Suddenly it becomes easier to identify the most effective sources of business.
i.e.

? which Mailshots worked best

? which sector provides your best business

? how many leads turn into actual sales

All this information makes running your company so much easier. Your Sales Manager will also benefit considerably from being able to see sales activity and ratios more clearly. He will probably produce the most accurate sales forecast you have ever seen!

Conclusion

So, should you try to implement CRM or just stick with contact management? That depends on what you want to achieve. If your aim is to look after your customers to the best of your ability, keep those customers, and tower head and shoulders over your competitors, it has to be CRM.

The alternative is to stay with the pack and lose, on average, 50% of your customers every 5 years. Can you afford to do that?

Roy Gough

Alloy CRM

Helping you keep your customers away from the competition

Roy Gough has run and managed businesses for over 30 years. He has experience in finance, automotive, retail, high tech and ecommerce. He uses this knowledge to help businesses to improve their sales and profitability. He currently also sells GoldMine business contact management software, QuoteWerks quotation management tool and Mind Manager the brainstorming and planning tool.

His web site can be found at http://www.alloycrm.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roy_Gough

Measuring Customer Service Performance – CRM Metrics

The headlines scream about another CEO or CFO defrauding the company or being disgraced. Why is it happening so often? Believe it or not what you are seeing might be reflected in the Customer Service given by the front line personnel to the company’s clients.

Consider this. Executives’ compensation packages are often based on salary and bonuses which are paid out in stock options. The stock options are often so lucrative that the salary looks infinitesimal by comparison. The executive is then motivated to, above all else, see the stock prices go up even if it means alienating customers or even bankrupting the company. When the stock goes up the Executive sells it. Some companies have tried to curtail these practices by disallowing the sale of stock by employees. Of course then the motivation becomes to inflate the stock as much as possible, even temporarily, quit, then sell the stock.

So how does this reflect in Customer Service Performance? A company whose KPI are primarily incentive based will usually infuse that philosophy throughout the corporate structure. Thus Customer Service becomes as incentive based as the CEO’s stock options or the commission paid to the sales staff.

An order comes down from the executive offices that no call should take longer than 7 minutes to complete or that Call Center employees’ bonuses are based on clearing the maximum number of calls quickly and ?efficiently.? That’s fine until a major issue comes up that takes longer than 20 minutes and then, suddenly the previously helpful call center rep is doing everything possible to hustle the caller off the line. Soon the call center reps are hanging up on customers in order to inflate their calls/shift ratio.

As long as Customer Service Performance KPI are based on the quantifiable rather than the true level of satisfaction of the Customer, these scenarios will continue to frustrate the buying public. That’s why some companies have introduced more reliable systems of measuring Customer Service Performance. These new KPI more accurately reflect whether or not the Customer actually feels that they’ve received a level of service that meets their needs. These models look something like this: When the clients’ questions have been answered a series of questions are asked by the Customer Service rep. ?Are you satisfied with the responses to your queries?? ?Were your questions answered adequately and professionally?? ?Is there anything else we can help you with today?? Sometimes these questions are asked by the rep themselves and sometimes a follow up call is made by a supervisor or another rep. The Customer’s response to those qualitative questions becomes the primary Customer Service Performance KPI. By shifting the KPI from quantity to quality personnel are more inclined to leave a Customer truly satisfied.

If you are interested in customer service metrics
, check this web-site to learn more about CRM metrics.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_Miller

Lead Management – Turning Google’s Gmail Into CRM

Today’s internet is clear that Google plays a major role in developing some of the top software around. Google continues to distinguished itself as an innovator in software. If you are looking to accomplish a personal productivity task chances are Google has or is working on a solution. The growth of email over the years has brought out the good and the bad of features we like to see when using our e-mail. Google’ GMail is prime example of leading the way and being a top choice of many users today. Google’ GMail has taken a very mature technology in our email and made us look at how we process, manage, and retrieve our electronic communications.

Taking a closer look at a key feature that GMail has potentially touched on is it’s versatility in creating custom management strategies or processing ques. This flexibility is what makes GMail an ideal platform to use as a personal contact management system or as a simple CRM.

GMail as a Contact Management?

Contact management is fundamentally a system that helps a sales person quickly identify new prospects, make contact, and manage follow-up.

Inherently you get the communications tool, email. Leveraging the power of Google’s search, labeling, and filters you get the management of those communications. There is a good chance that you are using a CRM , such as ACT! or Goldmine you are using a lot of email-like features, but are still required to leave that application to use email also.

Time is money so you don’t want to be wasting time bouncing between multiple applications. So, why not stay in your email application.

Importing and Managing Contacts

One of the fundamental roles of your CRM is to capture and manage your contacts. Your sales system needs to easily get your prospects and clients into the system, reference them quickly, and efficiently manage updates.

GMail does each of these tasks exceptionally well. Whether you are exporting contacts from Outlook, Apple Mail, or loading a spreadsheet of contacts GMail makes it easy. If you already have your contacts in a Web-based mail or social network system like Yahoo! Mail or LinkedIn it is even easier just login and click.

Creating a Sales Prospecting System

Now that you have all your contacts in GMail, Google’s search becomes a powerful prospecting tool. Are you looking for a person in a particular company? Do you need all the SVP or higher marketing executives? Do you need everyone that is in the health care sector? All of these types of prospecting questions are easily answered and your database segmented using GMail.

What is most important, using GMail as a contact management system puts all of these prospects at your fingertips and ready to contact.

Managing Real-time Internet Lead Generation

GMail also has great features for managing real-time Internet lead generation. Combining the power of filters, labels, and actions you can immediately prioritize and queue leads as you see fit.

Filters allow you to create complex rule sets for specific types of emails. This can allow you to:

* Highlight (i.e., star) emails coming from lead sources
* Label different lead sources
* Filter them into specific groups for follow-up

You can take this contact management and prioritization system one step further by using GMail’s latest multi-inboxes to create sales pipelines and queues.

Prioritizing with GMail’s New Task List

Of course, no sales management system would be complete without a task list. GMail has a simple, but elegant task list. You can not only build your schedule of TODOs and you can turn emails and correspondence into task and follow-up reminders.

Also, don’t forget to use the Google calendar to schedule and track appointments.

Integrating Social Media Tools

Finally, sales is about engagement with people. Few technology concepts have helped sales to so directly engage customers as social media.

Using Google’s robust GoogleTalk, embedded in GMail you can bring in all of your social media streams as well as your email conversations. Again, turning all of this communication into a searchable prospecting database.

There is no question that what GMail features to use as users is far more than an email application. GMail can be your personal Google contact management or CRM software.

Increase your Conversion Rates on sales leads with Lead Management
Software. Learn the keys to managing sales leads with Google Gmail
.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Rice

CRM: Culture or Technology

I was recently asked to present on the impact of technology on sales, has it helped, in what way, or has it had a negative impact?

After examining the issue with some colleagues and experts in the field, it became clear that technology is an enabler, and as such amplifies what is already there, and what is not.

I don’t think that that there is anyone in sales today that has not heard of, used or been impacted by a CRM package of one sort or another, be it a simple contact management application with some added functionality, to a top of the line CRM that fully integrate with other enterprise applications. Many companies will tell you of the disasters they have encountered rolling out a CRM, in fact an article in the February 1, 2002 Harvard Business Review : Avoid the Four Perils of CRM, stated that “55% of all CRM projects don’t produce results” , and went on to say that “According to Bain’s 2001 survey of management tools, which tracks corporate use of and satisfaction with management techniques, CRM ranked in the bottom three for satisfaction out of 25 popular tools. In fact, according to last year’s survey of 451 senior executives, one in every five users reported that their CRM initiatives not only had failed to deliver profitable growth but also had damaged long-standing customer relationships.”

Yet by November 2004, one of the same writers in an article entitled CRM Done Right stated: ” Senior executives have become considerably more enthusiastic about CRM. In 2003, Bain & Company’s annual Management Tools Survey of 708 global executives found that firms actually began to report increased satisfaction with their CRM investments. In 2001, CRM had ranked near the bottom of a list of 25 possible tools global executives would choose. Two years later, it had moved into the top half. In fact, 82% of surveyed executives said they planned to employ CRM in their companies in 2003-a large jump from the 35% who employed it in 2000.”

While the piece went on to suggest a number of factors, we’ve experienced a number of key things in our work with clients that are worth noting.

First, we very much believe and have seen numerous examples to support the view that Customer Relationship Management is a way of doing business. Most of our successful clients have a consistent view on Customer Relationship Management.

To them CRM is part of their culture, part of their corporate DNA. They see CRM as the proper alignment between software and process to effectively manage their relationships with their customers. The alignment is based on objectives:

Corporate objectives drive the sales organization’s objective; which in turn are the foundation for regional/territorial objectives, and client objectives; when properly executed, these objective form the basis for each client/prospect interaction.

It is as much about process as it is about software. If you don’t create a balance and alignment between the two, you will fail to manage the relationship with you key customers, and not derive much benefit from your investment. In fact we are working with a company that has spent in excess of $13 million dollars over the last 5 years implementing a CRM software with little tangible results to show in improved sales, increased productivity or understanding of their clients and how to mutually improve their relationship.

A study I read recently showed that over 80% of the CEO’s surveyed said their sales organization had a process that was poorly defined or a process that wasn’t being followed. A sales process is like a good map or a GPS if you will. Used properly it helps you determine where you are, if you are in heading in the right or wrong direction, also helps you plan what your “next step” should be to get to your destination. A well defined sales process gives a sales organization the same advantage. It should have logical and defined steps that allow both parties to develop a better understanding of each other and a set of questions that help you qualify or “disqualify” an opportunity.

When we meet with a new client we always enquire about their sales process. A VP we recently met responded: “why yes of course, we use XYZ” (name change to protect the innocent, us). Yet he openly admitted that he struggles with forecasting, prospecting, and his people were spending too much time with unproductive activity, in the little activity he was able to glean from the system. (Unfortunately no software will pick up the phone and do a cold call, I’m working on it.)

The clients who do use the software to support their process tell a different story. Activity is focused on the client experience. It is still true that getting new business from an existing client, is much more cost efficient than from new prospects. No I am not saying you should stop prospecting, but don’t ignore those that have rewarded you with their business, show them some love, make it easy for them to deal with you, and hard to leave you.

A good CRM (software and process) provides you with a complete view of the client, allowing you to align your resources to best serve them. Reducing service calls, reducing time to respond, reducing the effort to take orders, reducing the cost of sale, increasing their satisfaction level and creating a mutual economical value add relationship.

The data available to you will also help segment your clients better, allowing you to decide where you want to put your focus, and which clients you may want to off load. Remember that some 30% or your lowest margin clients suck over 50% of your resources. A CRM done right can assure that you are retaining the right clients.

CRM system can also break down hierarchical communication barriers allowing everyone, not just sales to focus on the customer relationship, allowing top executive to get involved in meeting client expectation and driving revenue. Of course this will only work where the CRM culture is present. And in many companies that have rolled out the software without the process, with out the training, without the internal value proposition, it is not. As stated earlier it in fact diminishes the client relationship. Many companies are experiencing push back from the front line because they failed to show the ROI to the users. Like the clients sales reps want to know what’s in it for them. There is a lot, if there is a supporting process focused on everyone’s success, the company, the rep, the client. This can be achieved with a sales process that aligns around key objectives.

One last thing to consider, CRM systems are usually associated with sales organizations. But client satisfaction is the function of the whole organization. A truly successful CRM extends beyond sales to all groups with in a corporation, and as such, a key success factor is the alignment of the sales process with other processes impacting the client relationship.

Tibor Shanto , is a Principal with Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. , Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. enables companies achieve sustained growth, by focusing on critical aspects of revenue growth. By recognizing that an outstanding sales force is THE differentiator in today?s environment, our clients with our help, focus on the development of both strategic and tactical initiatives to foster a winning team that will out think, out sell and out perform competitors while consistently gaining market share.

Renbor?s Objective Based Selling (OBS) is a structured approach to delivering ongoing results and improvement by focusing the entire sales organization on a key set of objectives. The overarching objective for any sales organization is to achieve exceptional and sustainable revenue growth. This is accomplished by creating a culture of sales excellence built around the principles and processes adopted by world-class sales organizations.

For more information on helping your team sell better, write to: info@sellbetter.ca
, visit http://www.sellbetter.ca
or call 416 671-3555

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tibor_Shanto

Large Corporations Routinely Use Applicant Tracking Software and CRM

I was recently asked to present on the impact of technology on sales, has it helped, in what way, or has it had a negative impact?

After examining the issue with some colleagues and experts in the field, it became clear that technology is an enabler, and as such amplifies what is already there, and what is not.

While the piece went on to suggest a number of factors, we’ve experienced a number of key things in our work with clients that are worth noting.

For more information on helping your team sell better, write to: info@sellbetter.ca
, visit http://www.sellbetter.ca
or call 416 671-3555

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tibor_Shanto

Applicant tracking software assists companies in focusing on hiring the most qualified job seekers for the position by eliminating the use of paper with regards to the hiring process. A company’s efficiency and productivity is dramatically increased as human resource departments can spend their time on more important tasks and less time on administrative duties.

In today’s busy business world, it is important for human service departments to automate their recruiting and hiring process. A good applicant tracking system put into place combines applicant tracking with candidate resume search technologies that greatly simplifies the hiring process.

Large corporations are using applicant tracking and customer relationship management systems (CRM) that offers complete visibility into every step of the staffing/recruiting process.

The proof of an company’s success in its particular field is the company’s ability to bring clients back on a regularly consistent basis. Good service and outstanding customer relations are of the utmost importance to the long-term viability of any staffing firm. Staffing CRM software allows recruiters out in the field to receive immediate alerts once a new job order comes into the system and they also can view hot prospects at the same time.

Recruiters can begin to source or recommend candidates through the applicant tracking system immediately. This is a great advantage in regards to staying one step ahead of the competition. Many CRM programs can be customized to meet a company’s current as well as future software needs. CRM functions ensure that staffing customers get the best service at all times. The tracking module on CRM software allows recruiters to look over past correspondence and invoices to be aware of a clients’ ongoing needs before the customer has to ask.

In order to be successful in the corporate world, it is imperative to take advantage of the latest software that is available that streamlines work, cuts costs as well as keeping a company competitive. Applicant tracking software and CRM are being used routinely these days. There is no longer any need to waste a considerable amount of time and money sifting through resumes or applications when it can all be done electronically.
The cost of applicant tracking software and staffing CRM software is not cheap, but it will more than pay for itself in just a few short years. In order to remain competitive in the business world, large corporations are making the budgetary adjustments necessary to ensure that they have the latest and most up-to-date tracking software that is available.

Caitlina Fuller is a freelance writer. Large corporations are using applicant tracking
and customer relationship management systems (CRM) that offers complete visibility into every step of the staffing/recruiting process. The cost of applicant tracking software and staffing CRM
software is not cheap.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Caitlina_Fuller

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