January 2017 – Page 4

January 9, 2017

14 Tips to Stay Productive At Home

Working from home can be a little tedious, and it’s too easy to let distractions take the place of work. The start of a new year is the perfect time to take a look around and see what you can change to ramp up your productivity.

Let’s take a look at 3 key areas most people can stand to improve.

Spruce up Your Environment

Start with your office space. Is your chair comfortable? If it’s time for a new chair, get one. Find an ergonomic model with great lumbar support. Simple comfort makes a huge difference in your ability to concentrate.
Throw out all the stuff you’re hoarding. Be brutal, who really needs paper? Scan all your old records to the cloud and store the paper copies in the attic if you must. Anywhere but sucking up real estate in your workspace. Once you’ve cleared the clutter, rearrange your area so everything you need is close at hand.
Spruce up with some colorful art, flowers, or living plants. Decor doesn’t have to be expensive to be awesome.
Improve your air quality. Plants are a great choice. They’re cheery and help clean your indoor air of pollutants and allergens. If you can breathe better, you can work better.
Create ambient noise. If TV and music are too distracting, try working to the sound of rain. Ambient noise – some soothing sound in the background that doesn’t command your attention – will normalize other distracting sounds, like your neighbors doing yard work or school buses coming and going.
Get out of the house. Once in a while, take your laptop or smartphone and find a change of scenery. Take precautions when using public Wi-Fi, but get out there. Spend a few hours a week somewhere there’s scenery, greenery, and really good coffee.

Tighten up Your Routine

Get enough sleep. When you work from home, unplugging can be a real challenge. When you’re scheduling your time, set an end time…and keep it. Make sure you get the quality sleep you need to perform your best.
Set deadlines and keep them. You may not have to turn work in on a schedule, but putting things off can result in poor work habits, low productivity, and loss of income. Self-imposed deadlines are not as effective as external deadlines, but they do help control procrastination.
Tie your project milestones to your goals or budget. Make a realistic projection with an end goal. A concrete idea of how much work needs to be accomplished to meet a financial or professional goal will help you stay on track.
Break each project into steps. No matter how small your business, Insightly’s project management feature can help you manage your time and your tasks.

Harness a Psychological Edge

Get up, get dressed, get going. Some people need a psychological push to get their head in the game. Start the morning the same way you would if you’re going to an office. Have a shower, coffee, breakfast, and get dressed for work. Even if your work outfit is a clean pair of flannel jammies and fuzzy socks.
Have a morning meeting. If you work alone, enlist a friend to be an accountability partner. Discuss your schedules and what you plan to accomplish today. Check in at regular intervals to see how it’s going. Accountability is a powerful motivator. No one wants to report in that they are off-schedule, even if it’s just to a friend.
Take breaks. The positive effect of breaks was first noted by Lithuanian psychologist Bluma Ziegarnik in 1927. Many studies have been conducted since, and the conclusion is solid. Regular breaks results in higher productivity. The popular Pomodoro Method calls for 25 minutes of work followed by a 5 – 15 minute break, but other research suggests that 90 minutes of intense work followed by a 15 minute break is optimal. Figure out what timing works best for you, and make sure you grab some down time.
You’re a multitasking superstar, able to juggle multiple tasks at the same time! You’re switching between scheduling a meeting, talking to a client on the phone, writing a blog post, answering emails, and checking your web analytics. Unfortunately, science says you’re doing it all badly…but you feel good about it. Be more productive by doing one thing at a time.

We all get stuck in a rut now and then, and need to shake things up, jumpstart our productivity, and realign our goals. Whenever you feel like you’re spinning your wheels, it’s time to find new ways to get back on track.

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

January 6, 2017

10 Amazing Things About New York

10 amazing things you probably didn’t know about New York https://t.co/wmubVpikfU via @@TelegraphTravel

Read the full article at: www.telegraph.co.uk

January 6, 2017

Too Many Problems, Not Enough Solutions?

It’s downright frustrating when you feel as if you’re battling one problem after another without resolution in your company. Instead of moving your business ahead, you’re wasting time patching up problems. You need solutions, and a CRM just might be the fix you’re looking for.

Here are six common business problems that having a CRM platform can help solve.

Juggling (and Losing) Information

In business, there’s a lot to juggle. From incoming leads to outgoing customers and everything in between, you have a wealth of information at your fingertips. All of it is important, yet organizing it all is a struggle — especially when that information is coming in from various departments.

With CRM software, you can keep everything in one place. When a new lead comes in, a file for that contact is automatically created. As the sales team nurtures the lead, each person can make notes and updates in that customer’s file. When the marketing team needs to understand what’s going in the customer’s mind at the time of purchase, they can log in and view these notes. When the lead becomes a customer, the customer service team can continue to keep track of interactions in the customer’s file.

All of the information surrounding that one customer is stored in one place. Finding, managing, and organizing information instantly becomes simple.

Repeated Project Management Blunders

Customers need nurturing throughout their relationship with your business. From before the sale is made to after the product or service is delivered, your customers go through a certain workflow with your company. At each stage, they may be working with someone different in your company. And customers have different goals and different needs at various phases of the buying cycle. Addressing each of these different stages while delivering a seamless experience for your customer requires careful project management.

A CRM helps you stay on task so you never drop the ball (and potentially lose a sale) with your customer.

In your CRM, you can assign tasks to specific people. You can assign deadlines to each of those tasks. And you can use your CRM as a running log of what’s been done and what needs to be completed to keep the customer extremely satisfied with your business. Drill down to the details without losing sight of what the entire customer experience looks like from start to finish.

Unbalanced Budget

Is your budget off balance? You might be able to shave some money off your sales and marketing costs, while at the same time gaining more revenue with a CRM. Let’s break it down.

There’s a chasm between sales and marketing teams. These two teams rarely put their heads together to come up with new marketing campaigns or sales scripts. By working out of two separate silos, you’re losing money and customers by not communicating what works and what doesn’t between the two.

While both departments are busy working separately to get to the same goal, your customers are getting confused. Confusion while shopping is a surefire recipe for losing customers.

Bring the sales and marketing communications under one digital roof to bridge this gap. With CRM, both the sales and marketing teams can get access to the communication information they need to make better decisions. It’ll pay off because the customer will start to see consistent messaging, making it easier for him to work with your company.

Low Productivity

Ever heard the expression, “what gets scheduled, gets done?”

How about “accountability breeds responsibility?”

A CRM lets you schedule and assign tasks to specific people. It also lets you track who consistently follows through with tasks and who frequently drops the ball so you can hold your team members accountable. The end result? Boosted productivity.

Poor Customer Service

Customer service can make or break a relationship with your client list. If a customer feels well taken care of, he’s more likely to remain loyal to your company. On the flipside, poor service can cause your customer to bolt to your competitor.

A CRM platform improves your customer service levels by tracking customer needs in one place. If a customer has a complaint that the tech team needs to address, everything can be managed centrally in your CRM. The customer service agent can get updates on the progress toward solving the problem. If you need to loop in the accounting team to offer a refund, you can do that too. All of the players can collaborate in one area so the customer’s end experience is a good one.

Lack of Data in Decision Making

When it comes to making decisions about budget, marketing strategy, or sales cycles, are you shooting in the dark? Or do you have the right data to make informed decisions?

A customer relationship management platform gathers data throughout the sales process, while the customer works with your firm, and after a project is complete. This data can then be taken and put into reports that show why people didn’t buy, where you’re losing customers in the sales cycle, what’s causing your customers to leave, and more. The more data you have, the stronger decision-making abilities you’ll have.

Ready for CRM?

If your business is suffering from any of these — disorganization, high costs, low revenues, poor productivity and customer service, or a lack of data – it’s time to get a CRM system in place. Having a central place to manage all of your customer relationships helps streamline your business and improve the customer’s experience with your company, which ultimately leads to more revenues and growth.

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January 5, 2017

4 Reasons Why a Mobile CRM Helps You Increase Sales

While there are many reasons to use a CRM, few are more important than increasing sales.

Revenue growth requires a consistent attention to process improvement. To streamline workflows, many companies are turning to mobile CRM applications. Is mobile CRM right for your business? Would using one actually move the sales needle?

In this post, I’ll share four reasons why a mobile-friendly CRM can have a positive impact on sales.

Opportunities Often Develop Outside of the Office

Stop to think about your average day. Unless you work from home, there’s a good chance that a noticeable percentage of your time is spent engaging clients in person.

Without the right technology, it can be difficult to keep everything organized. Your trusty yellow notepad, while better than nothing, has been known to fail you. There have been times when you couldn’t read your own writing. Other times, your assistant overlooked important opportunities when manually keying in data. There’s also the inherent productivity drain associated with transcribing handwritten notes.

A mobile CRM, on the other hand, reduces the administrative burdens of your current process. New contacts, leads, company records, and opportunities can be easily entered (or updated) with a few taps.

Stop waiting until you get back to the office; rather, input new information as you receive it. You’ll save time, minimize oversights, and yield better CRM value.

Meeting Agendas are Already Pre-Built
It’s never wise to show up unprepared for a customer meeting. Unfortunately, you’re a very busy person and preparation takes time. Time that you don’t have.

A mobile CRM can prove to be invaluable for meeting prep. This is especially true if your CRM facilitates record linking.

For example, Insightly CRM allows you to link opportunities to contacts and/or organizations. Instead of digging through emails, documents, and project management systems for a coherent agenda, you could simply pop open the Insightly mobile app. From there, click on the organization’s name and view the associated opportunities. Now you have a real-time list of topics to discuss with customers.

Best of all, there was no extra work required by you!

Customers Appreciate Personalization

You’re in business to make a profit. That’s a given. However, before you can make a profit, you must first build solid relationships with prospects.

Mobile CRM technology can help you achieve this goal by delivering a more personalized experience. In addition to managing basic name and contact details, your CRM should also help you quickly capture and recall important notes. Having the following at your fingertips can lighten the mood and show that you care:

Names of spouse & children
Hobbies
Interests
Upcoming vacations
Service anniversaries
Community involvement
Pet peeves

Create close proximity to the customer tidbits you need most. You may be surprised by the positive feedback you receive.

Sometimes You Just Need a Cheat Sheet

There’s nothing worse than being unexpectedly pulled into a boardroom full of people – especially when you can’t remember their names.

Avoid this situation by carrying a pocket-sized CRM. Simply pull out your smartphone device, launch the app, filter by company, and browse associated contact records. No more scrambling through social media accounts or calendar invites.

Insightly users enjoy the added convenience of automatic photo matching. The system scours countless social media profiles, associating the person’s online profile pictures with the correct contact record. With Insightly, there’s no guessing which person is which. The visual confirmation you need is in the palm of your hand!

Take a Mobile Approach to CRM

If your current CRM system does not offer a convenient mobile option, it’s time you look elsewhere. Spend time researching which software receives the best reviews on the various app marketplaces. After a few days of testing, you might be surprised at the noticeable increases in productivity and customer satisfaction. In time, these improvements will most certainly lead to a more fruitful sales pipeline.

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

Matt Keener is a marketing consultant and President of Keener Marketing Solutions, LLC. Matt specializes in content marketing and strategic planning, having helped numerous Saas (software as a service) companies and other small businesses worldwide. Read more of Matt’s work, check out his book, or connect with him on Linkedin.

January 4, 2017

How To Optimize Social Media For Customer Satisfaction

As a small business owner, you know the importance of being on social media channels. Your customers are there, ready to interact with you. You tell them about your business, but are you doing everything you can to optimize your social media approach for customer satisfaction?

Always Respond

If you aren’t tracking brand mentions across all social media channels, you’re missing a huge opportunity to connect with your customers. People don’t tag your brand in their posts just for fun. They want you to respond, so do it. If you use software, such as Hootsuite, you’ll be able to track mentions and reply in the same place. It’s important to reply regardless of whether the post is positive or negative. Happy customers love to be acknowledged on social media. Unhappy customers must be acknowledged and, if possible, have their issues remedied immediately.

Forget the Robots

Only one thing is more annoying than being ignored by a business you’ve reached out on social media — getting a canned response from a reply bot. Don’t be the business who does this to your fans and followers. Replying to direct messages, brand mentions, and even business reviews is vitally important. A real, live person must create these replies, whether you hire a social media manager or do it yourself. Keep track of social media interactions with your customers in Insightly, so your whole team can see interactions in one place. Responses should be personal and representative of your brand voice. Wherever the message and whatever the tone, the end goal of your response should be total customer satisfaction (if possible).

Respond Immediately

This sometimes seems impossible for small businesses, especially when you’re managing your own social media channels. But the sooner you reply, the better. One survey found that 32 percent of customers expect a response within half an hour.

Don’t be tempted to use an automatic response in order to get that quick turnaround on messages, though. It’s better if your customers have to wait a few hours for a personal response from you than to get a useless response immediately from a robot. This is especially true for small businesses. You can supply personalized, helpful responses that deliver truly great customer service, just be sure to make them timely, as well.

Aim for Transparency

Social media is a public means of communication. Be as transparent as possible when conducting yourself there. Beyond simple customer service requests, your customers may want to know what kinds of charitable work your business is involved with. They may ask questions about your business practices or about the conduct of specific employees. It’s smart to approach potentially explosive topics with caution, but don’t avoid them entirely.

Be as honest as you possibly can. If you’ve screwed up, admit it publicly, as soon as possible, and follow through with rectifying action immediately. By displaying your honesty for all social media to see, your brand builds trust with followers and develops a reputation for authenticity. This kind of trust, which can’t be built with ads, is priceless.

Stay in the Same Place

If a customer tweets you a question, answer it on Twitter. If they Facebook message your business, message them back in Facebook, too. It’s frustrating to get a response from a business that reads something like, “We’d like to help you with that. Please call 1-800-redundant.” If they wanted to talk on the phone, they would’ve called your business to begin with. While sometimes circumstances arise that necessitate a different platform, it should not be your standard answer to request communication elsewhere. If you must talk elsewhere, explain why.

Using social media for customer service opens the door for you to give your customers exactly the kind of help they’re looking for. Exercise empathy in your replies and you’ll build trust and loyalty among your many satisfied customers.

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

January 4, 2017

4 Ways B2B Can Use Snapchat and Instagram : Social Media Examiner

Wondering if your business can benefit from Snapchat or Instagram? Discover four ways B2B can use Snapchat and Instagram.

Read the full article at: www.socialmediaexaminer.com

January 4, 2017

Are You Ready for the Top 2017 SEO Trends?

There’s a lot of buzz about SEO these days, and while the jury may still be out on the nuances, there’s no doubt that SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, improves your rankings and helps your content get in front of your audience.

SEO helps readers and searchers, a.k.a. your audience and customers, find you when they’re “Googling” (or Bing-ing) a topic you feature. With literally billions upon billions of landing sites on the Internet, you have to tailor your content to move up in the ranks and be sure you’re there

to answer the call! There’s an infinite amount of content on the web. Without SEO, yours will be lost in the shuffle.

With all the talk of SEO these days, plenty of “experts” will tell you ways to “trick” your content or try to use sneaky ways to move to the top of the ranks. Unfortunately, most of these tips and tricks are obsolete before you can even get them into place. The truth is, content is king, and well-written, relevant and quality content is always your best bet. Still, with millions of relevant hits out there, it’s definitely worth it to stay up on the trends you can take advantage of to give yourself a boost.

As we look forward to our marketing goals for 2017, you might be wondering how you can reach your audience more effectively. What are the latest trends and the remarkable things you need to know in 2017? How can you make sure your content is getting out there, being found and read and giving you the highest ROI on your human capital?

Here are the 5 most important areas to focus on in 2017:

Focused, Clear and Relevant Content

Google changed the face of web search in 2013, when it ran the Hummingbird update. The update was focused on returning the most relevant and best results for searchers. As Google’s web-crawlers improved their efficiency, they became more and more discerning. Keyword loaded “crap” content was instantly irrelevant, and in many cases, detrimental. Tricks were off the table. Relevancy and quality became the top priority. With each new update, link schemes and other hacks became useless.

Today’s top ranking sites must have content related to their business, the traffic searches and other content on their website. In other words you can’t load up your website with irrelevant content or flood your site with bait for the crawlers. While ranking for a single keyword or phrase isn’t impossible, it’s rapidly becoming outmoded. Even with long-form content and strong backlinks, natural, quality content trumps all.

The good news: It’s better for your site, your audience and your business’s integrity. We’ve all had the experience of landing on a “spammy” link-filled site or a site with content that was barely readable. Much of this content was put in place to fool web crawlers into and force Google rankings. Now that we’ve moved past that, we can get back to authentic content that moves organically through the Google ranks and hits its target audience.

Mobile Optimization

If your site isn’t mobile optimized, it’s time to get to work. Over the past few years, mobile optimization has gone from convenient for your audience to absolutely mandatory. In fact, today, more people use mobile search than searching from their PC. Google now favors mobile-optimized sites in their search rankings. So if you want to get to the top, you must be mobile friendly.

Don’t scrimp when it comes to the setup and technical aspects of your site, even if you’re a small business. Your website in general needs to have good technical structure in order to be crawled and indexed. If you’ve got a disjointed website, if it’s hard to navigate, or not mobile optimized, you will move back in the search engine ranks, even if you products are popular and your customers love you.

Your site should be easy to navigate, and have a landing page that tells your mobile customers what they need to know. Local results are key, and are what most customers are searching for. If you don’t show up on local mobile searches your customers might just head to the next town over rather than visiting you right around the corner. Put your NAP (name, address, phone) content right up front, and have a site that’s polished, fast and simple to navigate. Don’t overload your site with pop-up ads, links and content that can slow your users down.

Engaging Video Content

A look at the latest stats on video marketing, and it’s pretty clear—video is having quite a moment right now. Users love video. They love to share it, and search for it, and it will drive traffic to your site. Not only has Google’s partnership with YouTube strengthened Alphabet stocks, but it’s changed the way people search.

Video becomes the new way to answer questions. Rather than “Googling” for an answer, people now learn it by watching “Youtube”. Why? Because video is engaging, it’s entertaining, and online video is like an individualized television channel where the user gets to search out and control the content.

If you want to drive traffic to your site, video is a great opportunity to get in front of an audience. Even low-budget tutorials and grassroots video can be a great audience booster. Get your CEO to explain how your widget works, or film your FAQ’s.

Video boosts social media shareability, and audience engagement. Your customers are able to put a face with the business that they love, and video speaks to people in a way that text simply cannot do. If you can add video content to your site, do it right away!

Linking Up to Quality Sites

Old links and outdated information won’t help boost your site in search engine rankings. Once again, it’s another spot where quality should be valued way above quantity. While it can be a bit of a scramble to keep every link relevant and fresh on your site, you can boost your chances by using links from reputable sites you’re familiar with, and building in links back to content within your own site.

When you add links to your site, don’t set them to open up in new tabs, even though it can be tempting. Readers find the tabs disorienting and messy, and chances are, it won’t help them stay on your site (in fact, it disables their ability to use the back button to return to your page, so they can get even more lost).

When you curate links, do it carefully and deliberately. Look for content from recent sites, and sites related to your business. For example, if you use the term “run your business” you wouldn’t want to link to a site about running, even if it’s popular. It’s off topic, confusing to your reader and won’t boost your ranks. Instead link to other web content that’s just as high quality as your own content

Social Media, Apps and Other “Bonus Content”

E-Books, apps and other pieces of downloadable and streamable content can boost your SEO. Consumers want mobile apps, and in fact, apps now account for the majority of digital media consumption. People access content on apps and it keeps them visiting your site over and over.

When it comes to engaging with customers they want to reach you in a variety of ways. They want to connect with you via social media, they want to download an app and read your e-Book tutorial. Offering a variety of media and content helps you reach a wide range of audience members and connect in different ways. The majority of marketers are using social media to connect and boost their content and SEO.

It’s all about being creative with your content and offering a little something for everyone. It doesn’t have to be difficult or time consuming, but it does need to be quality, applicable and creative. It needs to be user-focused, speak to your audience and deliver the message they want and need.

Make it your goal in 2017 to avoid “tricks and hacks” to game the system, and instead to focus on quality content that’s engaging, relevant and fresh. The biggest secret to SEO is that it has to be done in a genuine, authentic way, and there’s really no fast-and-easy way to get around it. Focus on local customers and reaching your target market and you’ll have your most successful year yet!

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

January 3, 2017

Google Shopping feed optimization

Product titles are among the most important factors influencing the performance of your Google Shopping campaigns. Contributor Andreas Reiffen shares data on how to optimize them.

Read the full article at: searchengineland.com

January 3, 2017

Sink Your Teeth into the New Year

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 4 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, a tip on improving your sales, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

	Segment Your Lead List in Insightly
	There are many compelling reasons to use Insightly. Certainly, among these is the product’s flexibility. Unlike some CRMs that offer limited segmentation options, Insightly is somewhat of a blank canvas for your needs. You can slice and dice your data the way you see fit, rather than forcing your business model into something that doesn’t quite work. With regard to lead segmentation, Insightly presents a number of unique solutions. To illustrate how this can work, let’s imagine that your company provides web design services for a variety of industries. As your lead list grows, it becomes clear that certain sectors and customer types require slightly different sales approaches. To segment your list, you take the following actions: Create a filter for web leads – Your research shows that leads originating from your website tend to close faster than outbound cold calls. Creating a filter with the existing “lead source” drop down option gives your sales team a list of warm prospects to engage. Add a custom dropdown field for your products – On your website, you’ve published your standard packages and prices. Before your sales team reaches out, the prospect typically expresses an interest in one of your service products. Capturing this information upfront will help your team prioritize their efforts and identify upsell possibilities. Set up a tag for “hot” leads – Some leads need answers now, not later. A “hot lead” tag could help organize time-sensitive follow up actions that need to happen first. Try using segmentation today!
	Use Segmentation Data to Develop New Profit Centers
	There’s a wild card factor associated with lead and customer segmentation: the creation of new profit centers. By segmenting your CRM records, you inherently become more in touch with customer needs. Each new bit of data helps you better relate to the many challenges, goals, and frustrations of the people you serve. Armed with this information, you can begin to think more like your target audience and identify innovative solutions. How can you use segmentation data to develop new profitable products or services? Here are a few suggestions: Use the information in your CRM to identify common “personas.” For example, a customer persona might be a “community college IT director, who is satisfied with our entry level product.” A prospect persona might be a “university department chair, who is budget-constrained.” Huddle with your team and build out a more detailed picture for each persona. What makes each person tick? Are there ways your company could make them even happier? Review actual feedback from prospects and customers. Look for comments such as, “I wish your product did…” or, “Does your company offer…” If your team has been taking good notes in Insightly, exporting and synthesizing this data should be relatively straightforward. Create a backlog of product or service enhancement ideas. Evaluate each idea based on two factors: impact and ease of implementation. For those that rise to the top, develop a business case and gauge persona interest. If the business case makes financial sense, develop an implementation plan.
	Set New Year’s Resolutions (with Teeth)
	The infancy of another year is upon us. As with any new year, people feel compelled to set resolutions for themselves. “I want to lose 15 pounds.” “I’m going to finally write that book that I’ve always talked about.” “It’s time that I hired myself an administrative assistant.” “I will spend more time with my children this year.” Although admirable, most resolutions unfortunately vanish into the cold January wind. Don’t let yourself fall into this trap. Hold yourself accountable in 2017 by creating resolutions with teeth. Since you’re already an Insightly user, you can use the tool’s project management capabilities to avoid forgetfulness. Try setting up a milestone and assign a due date. Then, start adding related tasks as stepping stones toward the accomplishment of your goal. As new emails appear in your inbox, your conscience will be more likely to push you into action. Let technology be your accountability partner in 2017!
	Keep Your Customers Segmented
	You just won a new client. Congratulations! Many companies stop all segmentation activities at this point. However, as the old adage says, “it’s easier to sell to an existing client than to a new one.” Why not capitalize on this truth by maintaining tight segmentation of your customers, too? As you develop your customer segmentation strategy, there are a number of factors to consider. You might want to think through these questions before going much further: Are there any common patterns that our customers follow after the initial sale? Should we assign segmentation data at the contact or organization level? (or both)? Do we have a process for identifying cross-sell and upsell opportunities? Should we set recurring tasks for sales staff to regularly follow up on opportunities with existing customers? How should our sales team pursue additional opportunities without becoming an extension of our customer support function? Would integrating Insightly to our email marketing system streamline customer segmentation data and downstream communication? What will be our strategy for ensuring segmentation data is up-to-date and accurate? Should we implement an API connection between our CRM and our other databases? How do we avoid confusion between our lead segmentation and customer segmentation fields/tags? Once you’ve worked through such issues and begun applying segmentation data to customer records, you might be surprised at the many new revenue opportunities that present themselves.

About the author: Matt Keener is a marketing consultant and President of Keener Marketing Solutions, LLC. Matt specializes in content marketing and strategic planning, having helped numerous Saas (software as a service) companies and other small businesses worldwide. Read more of Matt’s work, check out his book, or connect with him on Linkedin.

January 2, 2017