Accelerating Growth Through Better Sales & Marketing Decisions

Email is Still One of Your Most Effective Sales and Marketing Channels

Most of our prospects are drowning in email messages, their fingers twitching above the delete key, but if your email messages are done right, their fingers will click on open. Open and read. You still only have a few seconds of their attention, but that is what it’s all about. You just need a few seconds. If your email program is efficient and your message effective, you stand a good chance of your prospects reading further. If they do, you stand a better chance of their contacting your company before they waste time reading your competitors’ emails.

To read some great information on your email message effectiveness, check out this article, 7 Hot Email Prospecting Tips, written by Jill Konrath, CEO and Chief Sales Officer of Selling to Big Companies. Jill is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and industry conferences. She helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten their sales cycle and win more contracts. For more info on Jill and how she can help your company, visit Selling to Big Companies.

And, for InfoGrow’s take on how to use email marketing to increase your sales and marketing effectiveness, I encourage you to spend some time reviewing our previous articles:

Email Content – Functions of Email Content

Combine CRM and Email Marketing to Grow Your Business  

E-Mail Marketing is Still a Powerful B-to-B Tool

I wish you success in your email sales and marketing efforts. Actually, I wish you success in all of your sales and marketing efforts, despite the channels used.

What’s the Price of Having No CRM?

Although we blogged about this subject four years ago, I haven’t seen much change in companies deciding if they need CRM. Four long years and, amazingly, still too many companies are just beginning to investigate the reasons they might need CRM, plus haven’t the slightest idea of what it is costing them to keep sitting on the CRM sidelines.   

So, to help those who are still questioning the need for CRM, we decided to run this post again.  Titled, A Simple Measurement for Determining if You Need CRM.

It begins with…”Our phone starts ringing the Monday after Thanksgiving.  The message – can you help us pull together our data for getting out the holiday cards?  Over the years I have come to believe that this question is the single best indicator of how much an organization needs CRM.

As companies pass around Excel files trying to organize the holiday card mailing or VIP list for the gift basket, one gets a pretty good idea of how information about customers is managed – it is not!” 

Read the full article, then think about the cost of having no CRM system.  If you decide to get on the CRM playing field, then check out our site www.InfoGrowcorp.com for more help. 

CRM is Different Than an Accounting System

Successful CRM Requires an Organization to Know Their Own Best Practices

I often see organizations install a CRM system and expect it to have the same self-maintenance attributes as their other installed software, such as an accounting system. While an accounting system comes designed with industry and governmental established principles, a CRM does not come this way.

For example, an accounting system requires a balance sheet. Each entry builds up to the balance sheet, requiring a debt side and credit side for it to be posted.  A CRM system doesn’t come with these types of pre-configured relationships established.  Users who approach CRM as just another technology project often fail.

 A CRM system is essentially a blank slate, requiring the user to know their own processes rather than follow pre-configured standards.  Users must first be able to define their terminology.

I recently visited an organization where every potential customer (20,000+) was called a lead. Everyone in the organization, sales groups and marketing, was using different terms for the segmentation, handling and qualifying of leads throughout their own process. The lack of common terms, without defined and organization wide accepted meaning, made it impossible for marketing to be supportive of sales, or sales to share any meaningful progress toward closing a sale. The concept of segmenting leads into suspects, prospects, or qualified was unheard of.   As a result, the organization was treating every lead the same, spending considerable resources both in shotgun marketing campaigns and sales efforts, with little to show. 

A CRM system will not fix these types of issues as it comes out of the box.  A user must know their marketing, sales and services processes and then configure CRM to match.  If a user can’t flowchart these processes on paper then you can only expect CRM to tell you a lot quicker that you have no processes or best practices.

 

Email Content – Functions of Email Content

When you plan the content of your email, are you just thinking about the words, or are you thinking about the functions. Do you know what you want the reader to get out of the email? Do you know what you want to get out of the email? You only have 7 seconds to make an impression; 7 seconds to draw the reader into your email.   

Here are 3 functions to consider when you are developing your next newsletter. Which of the following functions are you using to capture the reader?

1) Above the Fold
What will your reader see when they view the email in a preview pane or first open the email? The top 250 pixels of an email tell the reader whether it is worth accepting the image downloads. Basically, this means that all someone can see is the outline for your logo, the title lines or headers, and maybe a few lines of text. Make sure that there is key information in the first few lines.

2) Consider the “F” reading pattern
When people skim through an email, they follow an “F” reading pattern. This means that they read the first line of each paragraph and scan down the left side looking for interesting information.To get the maximum impact from your text, keep your paragraphs brief – 3-4 lines, lead with key information, and leave white space between paragraphs.

3) Use of Hyperlinks
    Hyperlinks serve 4 purposes in an email

• • Keeps your newsletter brief and to the point.
  • Sends your readers to your fabulous website.
  • Helps you figure out what interests your readers.
  • Helps you figure out who is interested.

First, providing a link to “more detail” allows you include only the most pertinent information in your email. Once you’ve captured their interest, the link sends the reader to the correct landing page of your website for more information. An important caveat: Make sure that the page they land on has the promised additional information. 

Second, the readers use of hyperlinks is recorded in your email Click reports. When no one clicks on a link, you know that the information fell flat.  On the other hand, if a very large group clicks on a given link, you will know to spend more time on that topic. Further, a well planned set of links may help you segment your list based on the links they use.

So considering the above information, you should be able to give me 3 reasons why a business would ask you to download a coupon rather than just print the email. If you’re not sure of the answer, write to me at: diane.merrall@gmail.com. Please visit my website at: http://www.softdocsemailmarketing.com/

E-Mail Marketing is Still a Powerful B-to-B Tool

What is the state of B2B e-mail marketing currently?  According to BtoB Research Reports, B-to-B State of E-Mail Marketing: Best Practices , E-Mail Marketing is a crucial tool that no B2B marketer should ignore. Read some excerpts below and check out how to gain the full report. 

On relevant content

Relevance has always been an important facet of e-mail marketing, and it continues to be a top priority for e-mail marketers, as our study bears out. More than half (56%) of respondents, who were asked which broad challenges and opportunities face the b-to-b world over the next 12 months, said delivering highly relevant content was on their to-do list in 2011. Of course, it's easy to say that you want to deliver relevant content. What's much harder is actually doing so. Companies can make sure their content is relevant by tracking their e-mail programs, which is one reason that measuring ROI on programs took the second spot on this question, with 44% of respondents citing that answer. Deliverability, which was cited by 34% of respondents came in third.

On tactical goals

One surprise, according to experts, is the focus on customer acquisition rather than customer retention or even brand awareness. Typically, b-to-b companies have smaller, more relevant lists that are used for nurturing. However, close to half (43%) of survey respondents said the most important purpose of their e-mail marketing program was customer acquisition – not customer retention, which garnered a mere 28% of responses. One analyst said this breakdown may be directly associated with the recession. “It may be because, after the recession, there was a large amount of customer churn,” said David Daniels, co-founder of industry research firm The Relevancy Group. “Companies are trying to backfill their lists and make up for all the people they lost.”

On budgets

There's good news for a significant majority of e-mail marketers, with 51% of respondents saying their budgets will remain the same for 2011, and 45% saying that budgets will increase this year. Only 4% said their budgets will go down. But this may not tell the whole story, according to one marketer. Bri Shaw, eBusiness Project manager at food re-distributor Dot Foods Inc. said her e-mail budget remained the same for 2011. However, the company actually added a new position – a customer marketing manager – who will work closely with her on the e-mail marketing program. “They are going to be very involved with e-mail, helping to figure out exactly how we can best target our customers,” she explained.

Also, the report showed that the price of sending mail is dropping, and marketers are getting smart. A program that cost $4 million two years ago is now only $2 million … These are not things (email integrated with social media) that cost a lot of money. It's a matter of planning and executing – man hours versus spending any additional cash."

In addition, for those of you using Microsoft Dynamics CRM, I invite you to review Combine CRM and Email Marketing to Grow Your Business.  Taken separately, CRM and Email Marketing are each vital marketing tools.  But, when tied together, they create a powerful sales and marketing tool that provides an integrated, cost-effective approach for maintaining customer loyalty and generating new sales leads. 

Successful CRM Requires Commitment by All Management Levels

CRM is not just another piece of software to be loaded onto your computer network or floating in the cloud.  It should be the backbone of your customer knowledge, customer service and sales.  If senior management, especially sales, isn’t committed to your CRM, then failure of the system is a given. 

In particular, sales management must concentrate on the implementation of their CRM, regardless of what system is being used. 

There is a great article, titled 7 Signs of an Epic CRM Fail (and How To Fix It) authored by Ken Thoreson, managing director of the Acumen Management Group Ltd. that provides some very valuable information on how to make your CRM effective. 

In it, he asks if you can identify with the following challenges:

1. Pipeline values and forecasting are neither accurate nor updated in real time.
2. Sales opportunities aren't properly updated to reflect the appropriate sales stage.
3. Outdated sales opportunities linger in the system.
4. Each salesperson uses the system differently.
5. Sales activity codes are redundant or not being used.
6. Marketing leads and their sources aren't tracked.
7. The database is not current or only partial information is recorded, ensuring that marketing can't use the system effectively for campaigns.

I will assume that most of us have faced the above problems.  Certainly, after more than two decades of working with my clients, all seven of the above are common issues. 

Take a few moments to read Ken’s full article to learn more about executing a successful CRM system.  Then, for more information take a look at one of InfoGrow’s older blog posts, CRM Should Be All About Success -- Not Failure.  

 

Lead Nurturing Effectiveness

We all know that some leads are not just ready to buy.  We wish they were, but since some aren’t, we can’t just let them go. Just like plants in our flower or vegetable gardens, we often have to nurture them.  In a few weeks, a month, or longer, they might turn into wonderful flowers or vegetables that we can enjoy for months. 

An article titled The Big Question -   What is the most important thing you can do to make your lead nurturing effective?, is something you need to read. Published in BtoB Magazine’s Lead Generation Guide 2011, this provides some insightful opinions by a number of marketing executives from some of our top organizations. So, read on for a few of these opinions, then read the article in full at http://www.btobonline.com/assets/pdf/CT74104524.PDF

“Because lead nurturing, by definition, is a lead in need of continued attention, I think the most important thing to ensure the success of growing leads is a good CRM solution overlaid with an intelligent marketing content distribution strategy. A prospect may say ‘follow up with me in six months,’ but passing along relevant content, orchestrated in a manner that builds awareness and confidence in your product or solution, will move your prospect further down the sales funnel with minimal intrusion, resulting in increased close rates.”

—Deborah Murphy,
VP-global marketing,
Zebra Technologies  

“Lead nurturing is all about delivering targeted information to prospects based on who they are, what they care about and where they are in their evaluation process. The most important thing you can do to make your lead nurturing program successful is to segment your database and keep it clean. It may not sound as cool on the resume, but a tightly tuned database with processes for updating and maintaining key fields (e.g., industry, company size, department, level in organization, competitive products, etc.) will ensure that your nurturing campaigns are seen as truly valuable and not just another email to delete.”

—Michael Evans,
VP-marketing,
Approva Corp.

“Do not paint every lead with the same brush. It is not about putting leads into a nurturing ‘bucket’ for follow up. It is about creating nurturing ‘buckets’ for specific nurturing strategies. This starts with a joint understanding between sales and marketing on what are the definitions throughout the lead funnel, associated lead scoring and the service level agreements at each hand-off point. Defining the types of nurturing streams is critical to ensure they are aligning to a specific business outcome. Content is a key cornerstone in developing successful nurturing streams. Keeping prospects engaged requires specific and relevant content as you mature the relationship with that individual. Listen to the digital body language of the individual, and tailor the journey for that prospect or customer.”

—Eduardo Conrado,
senior VP-CMO,
Motorola Solutions

And, when you finish reading, tell us what you are doing to nurture your leads.  Maybe you have some other great ideas!

Following Up On Phone Sales? Learn What You Need to Know!

Did you call enough? Too much? What’s the magic number?  How important is timing? 

If you have those questions, then don’t’ miss reading the following article written by a man who can help you find the answers and learn more about successful follow up calling.

The article is by Jim Domanski of Teleconcepts Consulting. Please visit Jim's web site at www.teleconceptsconsulting.com for additional articles and resources for tele-sales professionals.

But, for now, read this valuable article and learn!

 

What Every Telephone Sales Rep Needs to Know About Making a Follow Up Call      

 

How many times should you make a follow up call?

Answer: how long is a piece of string?

A piece of string is as long as you cut it. Follow up calls are as long and as many as you make them.  To be effective and successful in following up leads, you need to know when to cut the string. You need to know when to cut it short or when to cut it long.

Too Short

Bottom line? Most sales reps cut their string far too short.

Far, far too short.

They give up far too easily.

Studies indicate that anywhere from 68% to 87% of sales reps give up after their first attempt. Let's round it off a bit and split the difference and say 80% of sales reps quit after one follow up attempt. 

One!

One single, solitary attempt.

Too Long

Opposite extreme: can there be such a thing as too many follow up calls?  Can there be strings that are cut too long?

Ya, you betcha there can.

There are those out there who talk about persistence and how it is the key to getting the sale. They advocate follow up until the prospect says no.

How absurd! 

First of all, it can annoy...gravely annoy your prospect. Far from admiring your pigheaded persistence, you will anger them. You will NOT endear yourself to them.  

Second, and maybe this is more important, making a series of follow up calls is a waste of time. If I were a sales manager, it would scare the wits out of me if I found a sales rep making ten or twelve follow up calls to each of his prospects.   I would seriously question their common sense.

Granted persistence to the degree I am talking about can pay off. But the number of times you convert the lead is simply not worth the "opportunity cost." The opportunity cost refers to all the opportunities you forfeited while attempting to call a client who is clearly not interested.

The Magic Number for Follow Up Calls - The Rule of 4

So now we've put bookends on the issue and bracketed the string.  So what's the magic number?

I call it: The Rule of Four.

4
Quatre.
IV.
Quatro.

You make four follow up calls.

Why?

• Because as many as 90% of  sales reps give up after one call.
• Because about 95-97% of sales reps give up after the second call.
• Because four is a manageable number.
• Because four is persistent without being a pain
• Because precious few (the "vital few") make four calls
• Because it can pay off

That's why.

4 X 3 Timing

Your follow up 'string' is all a matter of timing. It is not just making four calls, it is knowing how far to space those calls apart.

Here's the formula.

You make four calls and space them 3 business days apart from each other.  So if you call Thursday and you haven't heard from the prospect, you make your next call on the following Tuesday and then again on the Friday. Use some sort of planning system - calendar, Outlook, Goldmine...whatever- to schedule the calls.

Why three days?

Because three days gives your prospect enough time to make a call back.  Three days also displays persistence without being overly annoying.  It's as simple as that.

Exception to the Rule of 4

Are there exceptions?

Of course there are!  If you have spoken with a prospect and it looks like a possible lead, you may want to persist in your follow up...make your string of contacts longer. But you can do so with other mediums to show persistence with some variance (see Volume 3 Issues 25 and 26).  This lessens the annoyance factor. But remember to spread your contacts out.  A daily call or two is the kiss of death.

Summary

There are far too many short strings out there.  Manage your string and watch your sales grow.

 

Jim Domanski is president of Teleconcepts Consulting and works with B to B companies and individuals who struggle to use the telephone more effectively to sell and market their products.

Jim has been featured in such publications as Selling Power, Advertising Age, Sales and Marketing Management, Profit Magazine and dozens of e-zines around the world. For over 17 years he has worked with companies big and small throughout the US, Canada and parts of Europe. Visit his web site www.teleconceptsconsulting.com for more information and to download your FREE Special Report "The 9 Voice Mail Blunders and What You Can Do About Them."

The Power of Dynamics CRM and Bing Maps

Mapping is changing the game in CRM.  In fact, it is putting companies ahead of the game. 

In a recent blog article by John O'Donnell, titled Integrating Mapping with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, John describes the combination of mapping and CRM as “It is the latest source of innovation adding value to the already value-stuffed Dynamics CRM 2011.”
 
In the article, he provides some great examples of how integrating mapping with CRM data will provide your business with the ability of getting ahead of the game. Some article highlights are:

How many customers are in a particular area?
Let’s say you are travelling to location X and want to also visit customers in a radius of say 10 miles of that location. If you have geocoded all of your customer addresses you can easily work out all of the customers nearby and visit then.

Display all of your customers on a map
Couldn’t be simpler, display a map of the USA for example and plot a point for every one of your customers. You might be surprised that you have not targeted companies in a particular area for example. Sure you could look at the data directly but displaying on a map makes it so much more visible.

Who is the nearest sales guy?
Perhaps you can use your CRM system to track your sales people in real time as they travel about the country. With a simple service on their phones they could be transmitting their position every 15 minutes or so. With that data you could respond when a new lead comes in and have the nearest sales guy reach out and perhaps visit in the same day.

Marketing
In a real world example I deployed CRM to an organization that did a huge amount of direct mail each month at significant expense. Using geocoding and mapping I was able to display not only a map showing all the addresses they targeted but also overlay demographic data such as income per capita showing they were targeting area where they had little chance of closing business and also missing areas which could be potentially lucrative. This was definitely one of those moments I wish I had a camera to record the reaction when the head of marketing saw his data presented in this way.

Well, John, I also wish you had a camera in that instance. I’ve seen similar reactions from marketing VPs and CEOs when I’ve presented their data via mapping. 

With everyone looking for new business, how does your company stay ahead of the game?

Combine CRM and Email Marketing to Grow Your Business

Taken separately, CRM and Email Marketing are each vital marketing tools.  But, when tied together, they create a powerful sales and marketing tool that provides an integrated, cost-effective approach for maintaining customer loyalty and generating new sales leads. 

There is an excellent, you-don’t-want-to-miss post on the Business Black Belt blog, titled How CRM and Email Marketing Can Help Grow Your Small Business which covers some of the most significant benefits that result from combining these two important tools.  Although, the title refers to “small business”, I believe the article is applicable to any size business.

Some of the most important benefits cited are:

• Helps Keep Track Of Leads And Customers – A growing business has a large number of new leads, as well as current and past customers. Often, Excel and paper-based solutions are difficult to manage and it’s easy to let opportunities and contacts slip through the cracks. A CRM system allows the user to keep track of this information in an organized and proactive manner. Integrate your email marketing system for even better results.
  
  
• Convert Leads To Customers – A CRM system when used properly will help ensure that every lead is properly moved through the sales funnel. From first contact to the sale and beyond, a CRM system will optimize a business’ established sales processes. Most systems can be customized to fit the specific needs of a business.
  
  
• Build Customer Loyalty – The often-cited statistic is that it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. CRM and email marketing systems help to build loyalty by staying in constant contact with prospects, customers, and other key stakeholders.
  
  
• Keep Customers Up-To-Date For Top-Of-Mind Awareness – With many companies competing for the same customer, it is important that it is your company or your brand that has top-of-mind awareness. New offers and important news are two items that companies can use to generate more awareness and increase sales. CRM and email marketing done right will improve brand awareness by keeping customers updated when the information can be most valuable.
  
  
• Cross-Sell And Up-Sell – Every customer has the potential to buy more of the same product or buy another product you sell. CRM and email marketing solutions help to identify and act on cross-selling and up-selling opportunities to increase your revenues.

For those of you who already have a CRM system but are considering adding an email marketing system, I hope this helps.  For those of you who have neither I hope this also helps. 

Last, but not least, for those of you who are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM, I invite you to review CRM2Emails. http://www.infogrowcorp.com/Services/Email+Marketing/default.aspx

Link Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Bing Maps for Free

Not to toot our own horn, but sometimes we must, especially if it will help our customers and prospects sell and market more effectively. I would like to make you aware of our recent launch of CRM2Maps for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011.

CRM2Maps is a powerful, visual, and easy-to-use tool, providing users the convenience of a map inside CRM for increased sales rep productivity and greater user acceptance of CRM.

CRM2Maps creates the ability to map leads, accounts, or contacts inside your Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 with Bing Maps. With just one click, you can convert a CRM record into a map with street, image, or a bird’s-eye view. You may also retrieve driving directions to the displayed location from any address.

So, if you are using Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and have been wondering how linking maps to your application could help you, then please visit CRM2Maps - Maps & Directions for CRM.

Vertical CRM or One Size Fits All?

When considering a CRM system, should you choose a vertical solution that has been exclusively created for your industry or will a standard solution, such as salesforce.com, be enough to meet your needs?
 
It’s definitely a tough decision, given the vast array of CRM choices, prices and features/functions.
 
There is help. Your CRM evaluations and ultimate best choice can be made easier by reading the advice provided by Jim Berkowitz’s recent post, Is Vertical CRM Right For Your Organization?

Jim’s article points out the issues you need to address while evaluating CRM solutions and deciding upon the choices that will be the most effective fit for your company.

The Increasing Importance of CRM for the Financial Services Industry

How important is CRM becoming for the Financial Services Industry? What are industry analysts saying about CRM and the benefits for the financial services industry?   To get a better understanding, read the following excerpts from SearchCRM.com then review the linked articles.

"Most CRM projects in insurance companies have been business-to-business (agents) but most are wondering how they can beef up their business-to-consumer side.”  Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, a vice president and distinguished analyst with the insurance industry advisory service at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc.   Read more

An October 2010 report found that the top two reasons corporate customers scale back their business with a bank were a poor  access to services and information/insufficient channels (46%) and inconsistent customer service across channels, regions and lines of business (also 46%).  Report by Finextra Research and Pegasystems .  Read more

"CRM means so many things to different companies, and there's still a lot of confusion, but what I think is emerging -- and financial services is in the lead, along with telecom companies -- is this new term of customer experience management,"   Richard Snow, global vice president and research director for Ventana Research's customer and contact center practice.  Read more

 "A lot of financial institutions in the 1990s made big investments, such as for Siebel CRM, or did some internal development. Now they're looking at the results they got and combing around again for more." Jeanne Capachin, research vice president with IDC Financial Insights. With the growth of hosted or software as a service (SaaS) CRM, it has become easier and less expensive to add capabilities.  Read more

"I see a deep focus on business process in CRM as an effort to standardize agent actions and to be able to ensure that you meet compliance guidelines, which is especially important in heavily regulated industry of financial services, where huge penalties can be incurred. Incorporating business intelligence into a CRM solution can be one of the more effective ways to gain tangible CRM benefits.” Kate Leggett, a senior analyst of customer service and call center processes for Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc.  Read more

Social CRM – Don’t Get Too Excited Yet

If you are currently using a CRM system (hereafter known as CRM1.0), you’ve most likely heard about Social CRM, which is often being billed by many CRM services providers as something akin to a CRM 2.0.  

Warning - Don’t jump on that bandwagon yet!  Many CRM users are still working on getting their CRM implementations working correctly, so it’s not a good idea to jump from CRM 1.0 before it is mastered and add the complexities of Social CRM.   

There is a fantastic article, posted by Paul Gillin on his blog Social Media and the Open Enterprise. Titled, “Social CRM: Curb Your Enthusiasm”, it provides some very enlightening information on this topic.

Here are some brief comments taken from his article – an article which might help you decide whether to engage in Social CRM.

• Customers are still struggling to get CRM 1.0 right
• Social CRM introduces potentially enormous new complexity to the process
• The fact that I’m connected to people has little to do with their influence over my decisions.
• If someone were to cold-call me to follow up on a stray comment I made on Twitter, I would be as likely to hang up as to ask for a proposal.

If you are still working on getting your current CRM system right, but also considering adding a Social CRM piece, I would suggest you read more about it in this article.
http://gillin.com/blog/2010/10/social-maps-may-be-better-left-unexplored/

What is the CRM-isphere?

In a truly customer-centric business, CRM is at the center. Things like marketing automation, business intelligence, lead management, social media monitoring, customer service tools, and even so-called back office applications like ERP are the electrons. They revolve around CRM, exchanging data back and forth in as close to real-time as possible.

To learn more about CRM being the center of your business, read on…http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/70931.html?wlc=1286053069

Your Best Shots for a Successful CRM Strategy

Fifteen years – at least – of CRM technology provides a heavy history and ample advice of best practices that will help guide you to successful CRM implementation and usage. 

Read some valuable excerpts from an article by David Myron, Editorial Director of Destination CRM, titled, “15 Years of Pocket Shots and Miscues”…

We’ve learned about and reported on quite a few of the best practices that have been developed since then. Some of my favorite time-tested tips, listed below, have appeared in many issues of CRM magazine.  He lists some of his favorite time-tested tips

1. Make a business case. Don’t simply buy a CRM system because your competitor has one. And don’t buy one because you think it will be a business panacea—it won’t. Be specific with your goals.
   
   
2. Get support from the top. If management doesn’t enforce CRM usage, then you’ll be relying on luck to increase user adoption.
   
   
3. Keep customers in mind. If your organization doesn’t think about your customers first when implementing a new process or technology, don’t expect your customers to return the favor when they’re looking to make a purchase.
   
   
4. Build a team. Create a group of stakeholders with representatives from each department that will use the system. Take notes on what their colleagues need the system to do for them. Make sure the system and/or processes address their concerns.
   
   
5. Take baby steps. Don’t try to do too much all at once. As Donna Fluss writes in her column, “The Siebel Effect—and Its Survivors,” “Complex projects should be broken down into manageable and measurable phases.”

More details on these great tips, along with other valuable CRM advice and articles, can be found in their July 2010 CRM Magazine issue, 15 Years of CRM,

In addition, read and download our guide, 16 Steps to CRM Success at http://infogrowcorp.com/ViewDocument.aspx?DocumentID=28.

Forgotten Features Could Squeeze Out More CRM Value

Instead of seeing CRM as a constantly evolving discipline, too many companies and users see it as a set-and-forget tool. Once it's running, and once managers are happy with the reports it generates, people stop thinking about it. The thought may be "we've successfully implemented CRM." What the thought should be is "we've successfully implemented CRM -- for now."

For those of you who have implemented a CRM system, a periodic review could be very beneficial for maximum benefits.  Read the full article published by CRMBuyer for some great advice. 

CRM Should Be All About Success -- Not Failure

I keep reading articles about CRM failure, so I thought I might change the slant a bit and point out how to make it successful.  

Of course, we all know that CRM technology is far from perfect.  That’s been proven time and again.  It’s definitely not an exact science and most studies have shown that the success of any CRM system depends on people and processes, both of which are not flawless.  But, CRM is essential … that is, if you want to effectively do such things as: 

• Track and stay in touch with customers
• Focus your sales on key prospects
• Share vital customer/prospect information between sales, marketing, customer service
• Remain competitive and stay in business

And, what company doesn’t want – actually doesn’t need, to do those things, and more?  If there is such a company left standing in this day and age, my advice is to get a shovel and start digging.  I’m sure you know what I mean. 

For all of you who are planning on CRM, or are in the beginning stages of CRM, or who have CRM, but beginning to see a breakdown in your system,  I am going to point you to several resources with some great advice (mine included, of course) on how to make or keep your CRM system successful, beginning with:

Your People Are Half the Battle 
For the past 25 years, I’ve suggested this mix for a successful CRM initiative: people (50 percent), process (30 percent), and technology (20 percent)—and still organizations often fail to devote the time and resources needed to address the inevitable people issues that come up. This shortcoming can lead to a less-than-optimal (or even failed) CRM implementation.  To read more http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Columns-Departments/Reality-Check/Your-People-Are-Half-the-Battle-66116.aspx

Top 5 Ways CRM Decision Makers Go Astray
An astonishingly large percentage of companies build the CRM selection team around the people least likely to use the system on a daily basis -- the IT director, the CMO, the CIO, and perhaps the vice president or director of sales. While the input of these players is critical, it's also vital to have input from the rank-and-file sales, marketing and service staff. To read more: http://www.crmbuyer.com/story/Top-5-Ways-CRM-Decision-Makers-Go-Astray-69618.html

Building Customer Relationships -- A Blueprint for CRM Success
Successful CRM solutions begin with a strong vision for how technology will deliver profits and customer satisfaction.  The following steps will provide sales, marketing, customer service executives, (and their CEOs) with a blueprint – a solid plan – for building a successful CRM system.  To read more: http://infogrow.typepad.com/sales_marketing_effective/2006/11/building_custom.html

Yes, you need to understand the most common reasons for a CRM failure, but once you understand those, you should be on your way to CRM success. 

What is your best advice on how to make a CRM system successful?

Lead Scoring and Data Quality: How Much is Dirty Data Costing You?

Qualifying, coding and ranking your leads so the hottest opportunities are the first to get distributed to your sales teams is vital to your company’s sales and marketing success. That’s a given.

Yet, what many companies fail to understand is that data quality is core to an effective lead scoring system.  

A SiriusDecisions study, “The Impact of Bad Data on Demand Creation”, shows that following best practices in data quality generates a 66 percent increase in revenue. 

The study summary cited in a CRM Magazine article, “Looking to Score”,  offers some key insights for B2B organizations, such as:

• 10 to 25 percent of customer and prospect records contain critical data errors.
• The amount of data doubles every 12 to 18 months.
• It takes $1 to verify a record as it is entered, $10 to cleanse and de-dupe it, and $100 if nothing is done, as the ramifications of the mistakes are felt over and over again.
• From inquiry to marketing-qualified lead: A data strategy that solves conflicts at the source can lead to a 25 percent increase in converting inquiries to marketing-qualified leads.
• From marketing-qualified lead to sales-accepted lead: Unifying the data, whether into one database or by using technology for virtual integration, can lead to a 12.5 percent uplift in conversion rates to the next stage.
• From sales-accepted lead to sales-qualified lead: Clean data can reduce by 5 percent the time spent conducting the kind of additional research that precedes initial contact with a prospect.
• From sales-qualified lead to close: Given that the average field-marketing function spends no more than 10 percent of its budget in support of this final conversion, accurate data is a must for applying the right tools and resources to the right audience at the right stage of the buying cycle.

Jonathan Block, author of the report and senior director of research at SiriusDecisions, writes, “A best-in-class data strategy is shared by marketing and sales, and is focused on quality from [inquiry] to close. Although it is a job that consumes both money and time, paying more attention to data quality is not only worth it, it is something that your organization simply can’t afford not to do.

I couldn’t agree more.  Have you reviewed the quality of your data lately? 

Is a Truism Holding True?

The software industry often expounds that you are 1st,  2nd or 3rd  in your category or simply out of business. The question I pose is whether the announcement that Entellium, makers of Rave CRM, has falled on hard times is an early warning of more fallout to come in the CRM space.

If you believe the numbers, that less than 20% of small and mid-size businesses are using CRM, you can understand the opportunity.  Yet, potential users need to show caution in their selection of a CRM product and vendor.  Another truism might be that the marketplace does not care about the “best technology”. 

A CRM project must be approached as a blending of strategy, process and technology for sales, marketing and customer service.  While selecting the right software that facilitates this blending is important, it is not the most important activity. 

Some pointers on the right way to approach CRM

A CRM implementation will have more chances of success if:

•  It is not considered a technology project

• There are clear and documented step-by-step processes for how you go to market, how you sell and how you achieve customer loyalty

• There is an implementation plan with clear, measurable, and phased objectives for each user group

• Management takes the time to determine the real ROI for a CRM implementation and evaluates each phase against the established ROI for corrective actions

• You don’t get overwhelmed by the features of sophisticated systems. Evaluate systems based on the features that will help you reach your current goals, plus potential for additional capabilities

• You consider hiring an expert for selecting and installing your solution and/or training if your company doesn’t have the necessary skills or resources

I cover all this, and much more, in an earlier posting “Building Customer Relationship – A Blueprint for Success” 

If you have not read that post, I encourage you to do so before venturing too far down the CRM selection path. 

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Why Some Companies Mismanage Their Sales Leads

In follow-up to my last post, “The Sorry State of Lead Management”, a big question remains.

Why, after spending huge sums on generating sales leads, do some companies mismanage those leads? Or, even worse, have no lead management system at all? 

My experience shows that, in many cases, faulty lead management stems from company confusion over the basic difference between sales and marketing functions. This uncertainty often results in sales and marketing being grouped together, with sales usually coming out on top and being put in charge of marketing.

When a company becomes sales-focused only, marketing is usually reduced to the role of marketing support. Actually, this equates to sales support, but most marketers won’t admit that.  Marketing then does little more than hand out literature, create ads, produce sales brochures and make list purchases.

Big mistake!  While sales and marketing need to operate both independently and in concert, for the good of the company as a whole, there is a critical difference between the two functions.  When that difference is not recognized, lead management suffers dearly or simply becomes nonexistent. 

At the most basic, sales and marketing functions differ in the following ways:

* Sales takes a short-term view: this month
Sales is focused on the present – today – what sells now.  Their jobs depend on reaching quotas for the month or quarter.  They need to be closing new deals, maintaining key customer accounts, and working on current customer cross and up-selling opportunities.  Anything and everything that helps them generate commissions and immediate company revenue.  Sales doesn’t have the time, resources or experience to create and oversee marketing campaigns, generate and qualify leads, or chase after tire kickers.  They need to sell now!

* Marketing takes a long-term view: this year
Marketing, on the other hand, is more centered on the longer view.  While marketing understands the importance of what sells now, they realize it is far more important to build on who buys now and later.  Their jobs depend on providing sales with the right opportunities and tools to sell now and in the future.  Real marketing - not sales support - position their companies to identify both current and future opportunities, and enable sales to convert those opportunities into profitable revenue in order to grow the company. 

Failing to make a distinction between the roles of sales and marketing, makes successful lead management next to impossible. 

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A Simple Measurement for Determining if You Need CRM

Our phone starts ringing the Monday after Thanksgiving.  The message – can you help us pull together our data for getting out the holiday cards?  Over the years I have come to believe that this question is the single best indicator of how much an organization needs CRM. 

As companies pass around Excel files trying to organize the holiday card mailing or VIP list for the gift basket, one gets a pretty good idea of how information about customers is managed – it is not!   

Rather than this task being as simple as filtering for those customers with the holiday card box checked, it becomes a Chinese fire drill, consuming considerable amounts of support time and sales reps’ time. I have even seen some companies give up and tell the sales reps to come in to address their own cards to mail.

If this simple task is not being completed in minutes, how well are you maintaining relationships with your best customers?  Are you satisfied with leaving that responsibility totally up to the sales reps?

The number one advantage of a CRM system is getting sales, marketing and customer service on the same page with every customer. It is not just getting out the holiday cards.  CRM is all about customer touches.

Is marketing reinforcing the sales message?  Does sales know it? Is customer service easily sharing issues with the sales reps?  Is the president aware of the good and bad things regarding a key account before they call?  After the basic communications are taken care of,  then you are ready to analyze the data and know who to cross-sell or up-sell and who else should be your customers. Any value in that activity for your growth?

Just run the time numbers required for getting out the holiday card, times it by the other 12 months of little issues that come up and ask yourself how much is it costing me not to have a CRM system. Well, how much?

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When a Customer Becomes Your Major Competitor

How often have you spent tons of sales and marketing dollars working on closing a highly qualified deal, only to find that the customer or prospect decides to do nothing?  Probably, more often than you’d like to admit.  It happens to all of us, at one time or another, and more often than it should.

Yes, the customer has a severe pain, you can provide the solution to alleviate that pain  and help them effectively grow their business.  You’ve spent a fortune on providing them with sales, marketing and ROI analysis, doing on-site and on-line demos, attending numerous executive meetings, they say they’re ready to begin, but, at the end of the day…they decide to do nothing.  Nothing, except to stay with the same outdated ineffective processes and systems they’ve grown used to. 

So, what do you do when a customer or prospect’s inaction becomes your biggest competitor?  When they decide to stick with the old pen, pencil and index cards, or a prehistoric contact management system they define as CRM?  How do you show them the cost of doing nothing? 

I’d like to hear your opinions, but I would also like to direct you to a great article titled, Competing against Mr. Do Nothing, authored by Sridhar Ramanathan / President  of Pacifica Group.  The Pacifica Group Management Consultancy, Inc. specializes in driving revenue growth for technology firms.  (though, I think their guidance would fit any type of company)  The article provides invaluable advice on how to successfully deal with these types of situations. 

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Why Do CRM Projects Fail?

Shamus McGillicuddy, News Writer for SearchCIO.com reports in CRM PROJECTS FAIL BECAUSE USERS SAY 'NO THANKS' that “Nearly one-third of customer relationship management (CRM) software deployments end in failure, according to new research from AMR Research Inc.”

The Boston-based research firm recently surveyed 190 IT and line-of-business executives and found that 29% of CRM projects fail. That's slightly better than the 31% failure rate AMR Research uncovered in 2006.

The article provides some good learning tips form executives who have failed and some from those who have turned around projects. It is always nice to see that what we have been saying for 18 still holds true for successful user adoption:

     1. There must be value for the end users – CRM cannot have a “big brother” is watching goal. How does it help the sales reps do their job better, and do they recognize the value?

     2. CRM cannot be a technology project – Yes, you need IT involvement, but the ownership and direction of the project must be driven by sales or marketing.  I have stopped counting the number of moans I have heard from sales mangers saying “We were forced by IT to put in XYZ and everyone is ignoring it. Maybe someday we will be asked what we need”.

    3. Software selection, surprising, has little to do with project success – Documenting your marketing, lead and sales process must be your number one concern.  If you cannot show how your processes work on paper, don’t expect that a computer system will magically figure it out or sales reps to help.  Users will sit on their hands until you get it right.

    4. Phased plan with measurements at each step – Know all that you wish to accomplish but set priorities and rollout a system in phases.  What must users know how to do in the first 30 days?  How do you they were successful? How do you let them know that they were successful or support them in becoming successful?  Build on success for the next phase.  A full day training program covering every aspect of the system is a receipt for failure. Rather plan three-hour sessions, every quarter for the next year and consider a weekly, one-hour, webinar - user group session. 

Finally, with sales managers, necessarily, focused on hitting their numbers each month, do they have time to drive a CRM project?  I suggest that they do not.  If the goal of CRM is to breakdown the silos between marketing, sales and customer service, maybe marketing is better position to bring up the system.  Often a deterrent to a successful rollout is data conversion from other systems, everyone’s Outlook and purchased lists. When the CRM data is incomplete, users have another excuse for not using the new system. Marketing has a stake in getting customer and lead information complete.  Let them drive the project and phase in sales and customer service.  This approach also provides you with a base of user to call upon for one-to support.

To be successful, it must be remembered that a CRM implementation is not a one-time event. It is an on-going process. You will never do business the same. You will change the culture within the organization with every sales and marketing meeting looking to the CRM system for knowledge and ways of using your customer informational asset better to sell more.

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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. What Describes Communications Between Your Sales and Marketing Teams?

We all keep hearing about the age-old, never-ending, finger-pointing disputes between sales and marketing departments over lead management. 
     - Sales – “You send us lousy leads.”
     - Marketing – “You can’t close any leads.”
Sounds like a bunch of bickering children.  Will the arguments ever end?

Current tech tools have greatly improved a company’s ability to effectively generate and qualify sales leads, distribute the hottest leads to the right reps, nurture the cooler leads, track follow-up efforts, plus grow and maintain great customer relationships. 

So, why in the world is this still a problem and generating so much discussion?  In my opinion, what we have here is “a failure to communicate.”

Sure, we have the best tools but the problem has never been about the tools, but rather processes. In this case, the communication process between sales and marketing.

Sales and marketing need to start communicating now!  Begin with the basics, covering such topics as:
     - What exactly is a lead
     - What are the steps in qualifying a lead
     - How should marketing track the leads they distribute
     - How should sales provide feed back on the leads received
     - How do they both best close the loop
     - How long should this process take

If your sales and marketing departments are like many others, you have room to grow in your communications.  A recent destinationCRM.com reader poll asking companies how they would describe communication between their sales and marketing departments showed these results:
     * 5% - Thorough and seamless
     * 15% - Sufficient  (I think this should go along with Needs Improvement)
     * 54% - Needs Improvement
     * 27% - Poor

Think about it.  How would you rate communications between your company’s sales and marketing teams on something as basic as lead management?

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What Do CEOs Consider the #1 Growth Strategy for the Next 3 Years?

Building customer relationships!!!!  Is that a surprise or what? 

A recent Gartner survey, http://www.gartner.com  of CEOs showed that building closer customer relationships is the top revenue growth strategy, not just for next year, not just for the following year, but for the next 3 years.  That should tell us all something. 

1to1 Media, a fantastic group with a constant eye on the important news and events in the world of sales & marketing for all industries http://www.1to1media.com, wrote an excellent post on this - http://www.1to1media.com/weblog/2007/09/are_you_ready_for_2008.html

There is absolutely no sense in trying to write it better.  Their post says it all and I urge CEOs, Sales & Marketing VPs, CIOs, CFOs - well, any people involved in customer relations, which should be everybody in all companies, to take the time to read it, (along with 1 to1 Media’s other materials, which are all great.)  It will be well worth your time. 

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What Costs More? CRM Or Not Having One?

I recently visited the president - a very worried president - of a company whose lead sales rep left and took along $2M dollars worth of business.  That is a hefty chunk of change for any business. 

The company had no CRM system in place. The president had decided it was too expensive to allocate .03% of their budget to purchase and be trained on a CRM system.  However, it was okay to let 8% of their $25M annual sales walk out the door.  I wonder if he would feel the same about if a $2M piece of machinery was stolen overnight from the shop floor.  I am always amazed at companies that do not consider their customer/prospect information as important of an asset as their equipment. 

Without an effective CRM system, each rep maintained their individual account information and customer relationships the way they saw fit.  The sales rep owned the relationship, not the company.  In addition, without a CRM system there was no opportunity for sharing or leveraging the information throughout the company.

Just imagine what a president with CRM could do when senior rep departed:
? Drop an email to every customer thanking them for their loyalty and assuring them that the transition to their new account manager would be short and that he/she would be available during the interim
? Call every account with an outstanding proposal to let them know that he/she would be handing their account personally
? Reassign prospects at the qualified stage to in-house sale reps for follow up
? Have marketing increase communications to these accounts
? Monitor the accounts for any signs of defection

As you evaluate a $2M hit in lost business, be sure to add in the cost you paid to acquire and retain those customers over the years.

How well are you protecting your customer/prospect informational asset?

What costs more? Having, or not having a CRM system?

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When Was the Last Time You Reviewed the Completeness of Your Data?

I’m amazed how some companies still consistently ignore the quality of their customer and prospect data. If your database isn’t effectively updated and maintained, why have one?  How will you understand who you are selling to or who to target? Might as well have an extended “Going Out of Business” sale. Without accurate data and consistent quality updates, chances are you are slowly losing customers and prospects.   

Some of the most frequent missed opportunities for better understanding your customers and targets are:

No contact role type - Who are you targeting? The CEO, CMO, CSO, COO, CIO, or just whoever answers the phone? 

No sales rep assigned - Who does this account belong to?  Anybody, everybody, nobody, don’t know?  If everyone is responsible, then really nobody is responsible for maintaining the relationship. 

No Business or Industry Type - What industries are being targeted, or are you just selling to every type company, everywhere?  Good luck with asking for that budget!

No Lead Source - If you don’t know where the leads are coming from, how can you possibly hope to know where the quality leads are generated?  In a world of limited budgets, do you need to know which trade shows or campaigns work?

Current, inactive customers and with prospects all coded the same - If you are treating these groups all the same by sending them the same general email, direct mail, website link or advertising communications, plan on losing many from each group.

No basic customer or prospect profiles - Fundamental data, such as: number of years in business, annual sales, number of employees, SIC codes, Headquarter location, number of locations, is missing.  If you don’t have that data, do have much to work with for target campaigns?

No company background or pre-sale research information - What exactly do they sell?  What industries do they target?  What are their current industry challenges?  Who are their major clients, partners, competitors and affiliations? If you don’t know this information before you call, don’t bother picking up the phone. How can you deliver a voicemail with a value statement that prompts a call back?

No dates or notes of last contact - Have they ever been contacted?  When?  By which rep or customer service technician?  What were the results? It would be professionally embarrassing for 2 or 3 different reps to contact the same account.  Not to mention, having your president walk into the customer’s office and right into a buzz saw of open customer service issues.  What do you think the car ride back to the office will be like? 

No next actions noted - What’s the next step?  Send lit, call back, schedule an online demo or a personal appointment?  When? Who are the right contacts?  If you don’t have a detailed next step, you shouldn’t have bothered with the first step.

No customer ranking - Obviously, we all realize that not all customers are created equal.  How do you, and everyone else in the organization, know which deserve the most attention and when? Just a “sort of know” who to call method is a great way to lose the relationship to a competitor. 

When is the last time you really looked at the empty fields in your customer and prospect data? It might be time to dust off your sales process outline and ask if you are collecting the right information.  The next question should be, “does everyone who interacts with the customer know what is your must have information”?

I look forward to your experiences and comments. 

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B2B Lead Generation – Best Advice Ever

Whether you’re new to B2B marketing or an old pro, this report, The One Piece of Advice You Can’t Generate Leads Without, produced by Rain Today,  features advice from ten of the world’s best lead generation experts, will prove invaluable. 

What is the one piece of advice you need to successfully generate leads?  There is a good chance you will find it here. In this report, each expert brings a fresh view to the lead generation process, based on their years of experience, covering aspects like lead definition, lead nurturing, lead value and measurement, plus lots more. 

There is nobody in the B2B Marketing world, who won’t find some of, if not all, this collection of expert advice beneficial to their lead generation efforts. 

So, download, read on, enjoy and make the most of this great advice.   

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Following The Leads

If you’re looking for some solid advice on how to improve your lead generation and follow up efforts, then the following article, 9 1/2 Ways ... To Follow the Leads, is a must read.

In this article, marketing and technology writer, David Ward, offers some great tips on developing a more effective lead generation process. I encourage you to take a few minutes and check it out.  It will definitely be worth your time.

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