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Got Leads? 5 Tips to Improve Lead Gen and Management

Lead-Gen

In a perfect world, your ideal customer would come directly to you knowing exactly what he needs and ready to purchase. However, this is rarely how it goes down. Instead, businesses must cultivate and nurture leads to the point of purchase. For many small businesses, there’s often no concrete process in place for attracting and managing leads, which can lead to lost opportunity and a less than ideal customer experience. In order to find and close the deal with customers, your team needs to have a streamlined process for bringing leads through the pipeline. Thankfully, there have been plenty of technology advancements over the years that make this easier than ever. Here are 5 tips to improve lead generation and management.

  1. Know your ideal customer

What problems does he face? What is he most interested in? On what channels does he prefer to be communicated? This will help you to create the most compelling content delivered in the most ideal manner, which will increase the chances that he will pay attention to you and what you’re selling. Segment your customers into profiles – there will be different buyer personas, all requiring a different approach.

  1. Create the right content

To attract attention and educate your prospects, you’ll need to create a portfolio of content – blogs, webinars, e-books, SlideShares. This is your shot to control how your company and products are positioned and hype up all the ways in which you can help alleviate the challenges your customer is facing. Even more compelling is that 54 percent more leads are generated by inbound tactics versus paid marketing. This can save companies an average of $20,000 per year.

  1. Build the relationship

Now that you’ve hooked your prospect with compelling content, it’s time to nurture that lead in order to bring him to the next step in the buyer journey. If he’s not ready at that moment, back off and make a note in your customer relationship management (CRM) tool to circle back at a later date. According to Smart Insights, marketing leads convert less than those that have been nurtured over time; so think about your personalized communication strategy throughout the sales funnel rather than one-off campaigns. Seventy-five percent of leads are not ready to buy! Another smart way to stay top of mind during a situation like this is to share relevant content without the expectation of a sale. It’s all about educating and building a rapport.

  1. Get feedback

This is a step that a lot of organizations miss. Whether you closed or lost the deal, you should always try to get feedback. If you couldn’t close, what happened? Where was the breakdown? Adversely, what did you do right that brought him to purchase? This information is key in order to improve your process and identify the winning approach.

Businesses can’t survive without leads and loyal customers. By following these tips, your organization is more likely to generate and convert leads more efficiently.

 

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

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Project Management: Are You Doing it Wrong?

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According to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession survey, 46 percent of organizations admit to not fully understanding the value of project management, even though they recognize project management boosts the success rate of strategic initiatives by 16 percent. Even more discouraging is that only 64 percent of projects meet their goals. Organizations want to quickly complete projects using fewer resources and with better results. But in order to do this, organizations need to have the most efficient processes in place, and more often than not project management processes fall short.

It’s impossible to predict exactly how a project will run or the obstacles that you may run into, but there’s plenty of planning that can be done to make sure that your team is equipped to roll with the punches and come out on top. These are our top recommendations for ensuring your projects run as smoothly as possible.

  1. Pre-plan

How well you plan will dictate the success of the entire project. Failure to identify tasks and establish a strategy for completing each step will undoubtedly affect the final product, be it a new software feature, a marketing campaign, or a client project. Before doing anything, take a step back and think about each thing that needs to be done in order to make for a quality end product. Then, break that down even further to identify each task that needs to be completed to support it. This will make for a more realistic view of what needs to get done and what the timetable will be for completing each task/component/phase.

  1. Identify risks

Even though you’ve done quite a bit of planning for deadlines, staying on a concrete schedule is unlikely. You need to be flexible and expect changes to happen. In your planning process, think of all the possible things that could go wrong and take those into consideration. Building in time buffers will help to soften the blow of changing circumstances.

  1. Define project expectations and milestones

Identifying key milestones is another way to help you and your team stick to a schedule. This will help the team stay motivated and avoid unexpected hold ups. Being clear about expectations and deliverables up front will ensure that everyone is on the same page as far as what needs to get done and when.

  1. Stay informed

Keep the lines of communication open. This is one of the most important elements of good project management. Regularly meeting with your team to discuss progress will help you identify potential issues down the road. Use a project management tool to stay on the pulse of what your team is up to at any point during a project. This way you and your team can instantly see what tasks have been completed, what’s up next and overall project progress.

Every project is different and every project manager works in different ways. These best practices will help you set the tone with your team, but understand that you may need to tweak the process to find that works best for your team. The bottom line and ultimate goal is to get things done the right way the first time around, regardless of how you get there.

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

 

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

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Insightly Speaks for Small Businesses at CRM Evolution

Evolution-Panel

 

Running a business in an increasingly digital world has both its challenges and advantages. From setting up a website and social profiles to sending email newsletters, there’s plenty of opportunities to be had. However, it can be an uphill battle for small business owners that may not be as tech savvy.

That’s the topic taking center stage at CRM Evolution, now underway in Washington D.C. The annual conference brings together more than 60 speakers and 40 sessions featuring the industry’s most respected influencers, analysts, consultants, and vendors to discuss the latest and greatest in CRM technology and strategies for improving customer relationships.

Our very own CEO and founder, Anthony Smith, will be sitting on a panel led by industry heavy-weight Brent Leary to discuss CRM and small businesses living in the digital world. Fellow CEOs from ConvergeHub, Nimble, and Zoho join Smith, and together they will discuss how the digital world is changing the ways in which small businesses interact and address customers’ needs. They will also discuss the technologies that can help them to meet rising expectations and increase sales.

Attending CRM Evolution? Come join the conversation at 9 a.m. ET. Otherwise, you can follow along on Twitter using the official conference hashtag: #CRMevolution.

 

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

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Get CRM, Close More Sales–Here’s How…

Sales-Rocket
Image courtesy of shutterstock.com

It sounds great on the surface. You have a new tool in your business to help your sales team inch the needle forward and grow your business. But how does it all work? How do these features translate into real dollars and cents?

Insightly is one of the easiest small business CRMs to use. It’s also one of the most robust. There are many features that will help you close more sales and help your company profit. Here are eight of the best ways to get more out of your CRM and see the profits roll in.

  1. Become a Magnet for New Leads

Leads are the catalyst to new business. Without them, your sales will flop. Still, in today’s digital age, it’s hard to know when someone is looking at your website. How do you reach them? How can you capture every lead landing on your website so you never miss an opportunity?

The answer is found in Insightly’s web to lead and web to contact form.

This unique feature of your CRM creates an attractive form to put on your website. When a customer fills it out, your CRM automatically collects all the pertinent information. All that’s left for you to do is determine if the lead is qualified and decide how you can convert this prospect into a sale.

  1. Move Leads Through Your Sales Funnel With Finesse

It takes finesse to turn a hot lead into a sale. You want to make it looks seamless as the lead inches through your sales funnel toward signing a final deal with your business.

Insightly makes this process effortless for your team. From defining the value of the new business to setting up the necessary activity sets, your team can take full advantage of incoming sales opportunities.

  1. Retain High Paying Customers

Congratulations! You signed a new customer. Now you can kick up your heels and celebrate, right? Not so fast.

Consider the signed contract the sound of the gun at the starting line of a race. You can’t sit at the starting line and not attempt to make it around the track. You still need to run the race and sail through the finish line to win.

Much of the sales process happens after the contract is signed. Customers are spending good money with your business and they want to feel important. It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain a current customer, so retention is vital.

Nothing helps retain high paying customers better than a strong relationship. Use your online customer relationship management tool to build the connection. Create a communication plan and have an account manager follow up with customers regularly. The more you reach out, the faster you can address any misunderstandings, nipping a potentially harmful situation in the bud.

More importantly, reaching out to check in with your customers shows you care. This isn’t something customers are used to these days. The more you communicate, the more your customers will feel appreciated and respected.

  1. Beat Expectations

Regular communication and outreach is great. Still, one of the fundamental ways you can retain your current customers is by exceeding expectations.

When your customer starts working with your business, he or she is expecting a certain deliverable, wants a seamless experience and wants to be impressed by whatoffer.. If you don’t that customer will go to the competition. If wowed by what you had to offer, he or she will become loyal to your company for the long haul.

Gather customer feedback in Insightly and use it to continue improving your product or service. Pay close attention with a goal of learning how you can exceed expectations.

Beating expectations can also lead to more sales. When a customer has a lukewarm response to what you deliverthey move on without thinking much about your business. But, when impressed by what you have to offer, that customer is more likely to tell a network of friends and spread the word about what you did.

  1. Dig Deeper Into Your Customer’s Life

People’s lives are more public than ever these days. Profiles on social networks expose the details a person is the most proud to show off. Tapping into these profiles is customer relationship gold.

With Insightly, you’re able to use your contact’s email address to detect every social media profile related to that person. See what your customers are tweeting. See what they’re posting on LinkedIn. Watch their Facebook newsfeeds to see what they find funny, interesting or infuriating.

By keeping a steady pulse on your customers’ public social chatter, you continue to strengthen the relationship and loyalty. When it comes time for your customer to renew with your business, you can bet you’ll win the contract without much effort because you’ve already built such a strong connection.

  1. Always Be Prepared

Sometimes, meetings happen when you least expect them to. You run into a customer at a coffee shop and need to show you’re tuned in to his world. What do you do?

Insightly’s mobile CRM is a lifesaver in these situations. Instead of fumbling through your brain before your first cup of coffee, you can take a quick glance at your notes. You’ll appear genuinely tuned into your customer’s personal and professional life without much effort.

  1. Train Your Team

All of this sounds great, but what happens if your team doesn’t jump on board as quickly? Change is hard. That’s why Insightly put together a team of customer success specialists. They’ll walk you and your team through the important steps of setting up your account, training key players on how to use these features and getting everyone up to speed on all of the important features.

The Insightly support team takes a hands-on approach so you don’t have to. Consider this your golden ticket to sail past the awkward introduction period and move straight into better sales and support.

  1. Get Detailed Reporting

These features sound great, but how do you know they’ll work for your business?

With Insightly’s data-driven SMB CRM, you can always get the reports and insights you need to see how well your sales and support teams are doing. Get real time snapshots of your business and break down insights about your customers. These reports help you keep a pulse on your current customer relationship status while also helping you identify new opportunities to attract more business moving forward. Advanced Reporting is now even more robust with the recent release of its connectivity with Microsoft Power BI, a suite of business analytics tools to analyze data and share insights. You can monitor your business and get answers fast through visually-detailed dashboards that are available across multiple platforms,

 

 

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

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I’m a Teacher, What the Heck is CRM?

CRM-Teacher

 

In education, as teachers we are faced with a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms. From STEM to STEAM, to the SATs, MAP testing, ESL, IEPs, GPAs, and the PTO, the last thing you probably want to hear about is CRM.

Here’s the crazy thing, though—using CRM software (unlike many of those other acronyms) can actually make your life easier and make you a more effective teacher.

CRM stands for customer (client or constituent) relationship management…and before you say, “but I don’t have customers, I’m a teacher,” think of the word customer a little differently. Customers can be defined as “those who give you money for goods or services,” OR customers can be defined as “a person you communicate with.” Think of students, parents, school board, funders, alumni and community members, and even your fellow faculty members as your customers.

Small businesses see the value in CRM. Large businesses have been using them for years and years. Higher education teachers and administration may already be using a CRM, and your district office, or private school business office, may be using CRM software in one form or another. Accessibility, ease of use and low cost makes it easy to get started, and now is the time to bring CRM into your classroom.

How CRM Works

CRM is simply software to help you manage your relationships. You probably use a calendar program already, and a grade book and report card software. You might have software to communicate with parents, and another type of software you use for your class blog. You might use social media for your class, and communicate with a school portal.

CRM can help you manage your calendar and tasks, track communication, schedule and streamline your lesson planning and keep track of important information about each student or family under your tutelage. The best thing is—you can do it all in one place!

You can customize workflows, to help with your lesson preparation and planning. You can prioritize your tasks (no more running to the office for copies at the last minute, or realizing you have scheduled not one, but two parent meetings during your 20 minute lunch break).

Insightly is integrated with MailChimp, which you may already be using to send out newsletters and parent memos. You can streamline parent communication and contact information, and save yourself from searching through student’s files when you need to reach parents quickly.

Insightly is also integrated with Gmail, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote and many of the other software tools you use already. Think of it as a one-stop shop to manage all of your communication with parents and students, as well as a way to organize, manage and prioritize your work.

CRM and Fundraising

One place CRM shines for all non-profits is fundraising. If you’re in education, you are probably constantly focused on the bottom line. How many of us have had to pay for student items out of pocket, or worked on a PTO fundraiser or event to bring in money for the school? What about grant writing?

With budget cuts in district offices, teachers are often tasked with writing their own grant requests and reaching out to community funders and businesses for donations. CRM can easily help you manage those deadlines, nurture your relationships, and keep track of past donations. It is vital for stewardship and continued donor outreach.

Selling ads for student calendars or programs, or helping your Booster club build up and keep track of their funding base is another area where CRM can help your PTO, staff and volunteers really keep track. Speaking of volunteers—imagine being able to quickly access the contact information for your volunteers, see when they last helped and what their areas of expertise are, and send them a quick message! It’s possible, and even simple if you have the right CRM software.

Alumni

Another area where CRM can play a critical role is when it comes to tracking and contacting alumni. In this day and age, even elementary schools are trying to keep a handle on the wonderful things their students go on to do after graduation. As a teacher, it can be rewarding to hear of their success, yes, but it can also be an amazing resource for your classroom. Imagine having a database of potential guest speakers, experts who have a tie a love of your school, and with whom you share a connection.

Alumni make great supporters, advocates, future parents and volunteers. Don’t let them leave your classroom and disappear. Instead, keep in touch to share updates and information. Connect with your alumni through social media and invite them to read your class blog. CRM software makes it easy to update past and present students you teach and inspire.

Teaching is a tough (and sometimes thankless) job. Make your job a little easier with the right tools to succeed.

Jennifer Huber is the Development and Community Relations Director for Milwaukee’s Hillel Academy. She also works as a writer, contributor and consultant for several companies, including Broydrick & Associates lobbying and public relations firm. She holds a BA in Community Leadership and Non-Profit Management from Alverno College. Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn.

 

A CRM system is nothing more than a database. And nowadays, that database is more than likely in the cloud. So instead of everyone having their own individual list of contacts in their email At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a huge variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

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jenpicnewAbout the Author: Jennifer Huber is the Development and Community Relations Director for Milwaukee’s Hillel Academy. She also works as a writer, contributor and consultant for several companies, including Broydrick & Associates lobbying and public relations firm. She holds a BA in Community Leadership and Non-Profit Management from Alverno College. Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn.

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From Widgets to Digits: How CRM Can Streamline Your Supply Chain and Boost Sales

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Manufacturing is a complex business. Coordinating your teams so all parts of your supply chain and the business continue to run like a well-oiled machine can be pretty tricky. A customer relationship management (CRM) solution can make a real difference on the operations side of things. By simplifying the information and communications process, you can focus more efforts on sales.

Integrate With Existing Systems

Your supply management includes three core flows: the product, the information, and the finances.

  • The product flows from the supplier to the consumer, and includes returns and customer service.
  • The information flow handles the ordering process, providing details on when the order ships, and then tracking the shipment all the way through delivery.
  • The finances flow handles the credit terms, payment schedule, and ownership arrangements.

The ideal online CRM will easily integrate with your existing systems to handle all the flows of your supply chain management. Integrated systems are not only simpler to implement as part of the operations process, but also a more cost effective approach. An integrated CRM builds seamlessly into the workflow.

Connect With Customers Throughout the Journey

Using a CRM makes it easier to engage prospects and customers about new opportunities. It gives you a central location to put all the customer requirements, and allows you to alert all team members involved, so everyone remains on the same page throughout the journey. 74% of Insightly’s industrial manufacturing customers who used the product at least two to three times per week reported improved internal collaboration and communication.

Customer service is a critical part of the customer journey: before, during, and after the sale. With CRM, when a customer talks to employee 1, 2, and 3, your employees can each leave notes in the system, to make any further communication more personalized. Since 73% of consumers prefer to do business with companies that use personal information to personalize their experience, this type of intuitive service is key. CRM keeps everything more organized, and your customer doesn’t have to waste time repeating the issues.

Data shows the customer service experience is paramount to building loyalty and increasing revenue. A 2012 study from American Express shows 66% of customers are willing to spend more with companies they believe provide excellent customer service, and 75% of customers say they have spent more with a company because of excellent customer service. By 2020, the customer experience is projected to overtake price as the key brand differentiator.

As time goes on, you’ll have a vast library of customer data you can use to fine-tune your product and service offerings to better suit the needs of your customers.

Make Supply Chain Management Easier

There are distributors and suppliers to coordinate with, and tons of data to keep track of along the way. As products move from the supplier to the manufacturer, the wholesaler, the retailer, and finally to the consumer, there’s plenty of room for error. Your CRM will make managing the information, materials, finances, and communication between departments much simpler with a central location for all data.

Your CRM makes it easy to keep track of the current availability of materials and pricing. You’ll be able to manage customer assets, inventory, subscriptions, and software licenses. You’ll even be able to keep track of customer maintenance needs.

Manufacturers are in a highly competitive industry, and need to make use of every available sales channel to offer clients highly personalized service to get the edge. CRM data helps ensure all clients get the level of personalized approach that fosters loyalty, trust, and reliability – which helps boost your sales.

 

 

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

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Post-Winter Storm Jonas: How to Keep Your Business Open When the Doors are Closed

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If you live or work on the East Coast then you most likely felt the effects of Winter Storm Jonas last week. The blizzard dumped more than 25 inches of snow in less than two days, and in areas like Washington D.C. and Philadelphia – cities unaccustomed to such weather conditions. The result? Travel bans on interstates, grounded planes and thousands of people stuck at home until the storm passed. The post-storm clean up is expected to take several days and maybe even weeks. Worse, that was just our first big winter storm. Here are our tips to help your business weather the next one.

Form a plan

First off, do you have an inclement weather policy? If not, it’s best to come up with a specific and concrete plan for how your employees will be notified of office closures and what their next steps should be. Employees won’t appreciate trekking all the way to work, battling the elements, only to find out the office is closed. Be clear about how and when employees will find out about a snow day and relevant next steps. Also, make sure to revisit your policies every year and reiterate protocol so everyone is on the same page.

Set expectations

A weather event can lead to unexpected work conditions that many employees may not be accustomed to. Before bad weather hits, talk to your team about expectations for working from home. Emphasize the need for professionalism and that even if they are working from the couch in pajamas, the workday will go on as usual. Snow days, unfortunately, don’t constitute a day off in the work world. Fortunately, with the technology available today, even when the weather causes you to shut down your office, business can still be done in a (semi) normal fashion.

Keep business moving

With the help of cloud-based tools, employees can stay connected and productive from any location. For example, video-conferencing can bring everyone face-to-face for meetings and brainstorms. A CRM will give employees access to customer records and documents even if they’re working from home. Additionally, a project management tool will allow the entire team to distribute, discuss and review materials with the same efficiency as they would in the office.

Winter weather can bring companies to a standstill if they’re not able to conduct business as usual, which means every minute that passes, is money lost. By planning ahead and taking advantage of the right technology, your employees can stay connected and productive even if your physical doors are closed.