All posts by John Paul Narowski

I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
Sales and Marketing

Ten Sales Tools You’re Missing Out On

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We’re big fans of using the right tools at KarmaCRM. In a new digital era, that means embracing new digital tools in unforeseen ways to increase sales.

One of the best things about technology is the various uses to which it can be put, some of them beyond their creator’s thoughts. This is the case with each one of the tools we’re going to present to you now. All of them are very good at what they are intended to do, but they are surprisingly versatile once you apply the right (sales) mindset to them.

We’ve done all of the hard work of thinking how these great tools can help you close sales. Use them throughout your process and enjoy your results!

1) Canva

Have you ever wanted to give your clients something nice as a gift like a virtual thank-you card, or have you ever needed that extra boost to your signature? Maybe you don’t have Photoshop, but you’d love to present yourself the best way forward no matter where you are. Nothing beats an offline meeting, but when you’re online, the equivalent of wearing a nice tailored shirt is being associated with great design.

When you look good online, it becomes much easier to advance your goals. Have you ever gone to a poorly designed website and left right away? Make sure that doesn’t happen to you with Canva, your Photoshop in the cloud.

Go from design neophyte to having your email signature and everything you ever wanted designed looking right with an accessible tool that costs nothing and takes minutes to set up. Mock up product screenshots with great typography or make sure your social profiles on Linkedin and Twitter are sparkling with pixel-perfect pictures.

2) Pixabay

With your new-found design skills, you might want to pair your newly tailored digital shirt with the equivalent of a well made digital silk tie: great photography. Pixabay offers you free stock images you can use for commercial purposes in case you wanted to communicate visually in a pinch.

3) Boomerang

How much of your time is stuck in email? You don’t want to be there forever, yet there always seems to be a need to follow up with somebody in your inbox.

If you live in your email pursuing sales leads and closing them, you’ll love Boomerang. The tool will help you push old emails back up to the top of your inbox, and it will help you make sure you follow up on conversations that trailed off to nothing a long time ago.

4) Rapportive

Have you ever wondered who you were really talking with? Did you need a quick visual cue to make sure your online communications still feel human? Rapportive brings all of the information you have on a sales lead into an easily accessible format within your inbox.

It’ll give you a quick view into who you’re talking with, their name, the position they hold at the company, and any notes you or your company might have taken on that lead. Most importantly, you can easily access their social profiles so you get a deeper sense of the person you’re talking with.

5) Tweetdeck

Are you tracking leads through Twitter? Make sure you don’t miss any messages there with Tweetdeck, and stay on top of industry news and influencers in your space by grouping curated lists of your favorite people on Twitter.

You can make sure to engage leads when they’re posting on Twitter and you might even be able to find new ones with the simplified view of Twitter that Tweetdeck presents.

6) KarmaCRM

CRM is the bread and butter of sales teams, but you need to make sure you’ve chosen the right one for your business. We don’t want to toot our horn too much, but we think you’re going to find our reasonable pricing, customizability, and

7) LinkedIn Invites

We’re sure that you’re on LinkedIn (who isn’t these days?) but have you been using it the right way? LinkedIn is often viewed as a repository of exclusive contacts, but that’s not the only use to which it can be tailored to.

You can use LinkedIn as a search engine to see people who fit your lead profile. Target by company and position and don’t be shy to reach out to people when you can add value to their lives.

8) LinkedIn Publishing

Make sure you stay engaged and present with the leads you have on LinkedIn. LinkedIn Publishing offers you the option of writing content and sharing it with people in your network. Share the advice you have and show that you’re on top of the knowledge in your field, and re-engage with people who you connected with along the way.

Every time you publish something on LinkedIn, it pops a notification to each one of your LinkedIn connections, and they’ll be able to view, comment and upvote on your new piece of content. Nowadays, the best way to provide continued engagement and build strong relationships is to provide continual value to everybody that you interact with.

9) Trello

Sometimes sales can be broken down to a set of reminders and a list of tasks. You need to go heads down and get things done, while putting down exactly what you need to get done.

Trello is the task management system you’ve always wanted. Put through exactly what you need to do and get that extra feeling of satisfaction when you move things from “doing” to “done”. Consider it like a visual reminder and task list that will keep you sharp and focused on what needs to be done to close sales.

10) Evernote

Ever wanted to have a “virtual” brain to keep track of everything that was happening around you? Jot down any notes you might have from conversations and make sure that you can transfer any knowledge you’ve gained from in-depth conversations and meetings right to where you can refer back to it.

We hope you enjoyed our list of sales tools you’re missing out on. Sometimes, all it takes for innovation is to think of new ways of using old tools. This list should serve as both guide and inspiration for that. You can get started now.

John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
CRM Software, Sales and Marketing

From Lead to Loyal Customer: How CRM Software Helps Find, Nurture and Win Deals

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Do you know how CRM systems are actually used? When you are acquainted with all of the benefits that CRM brings to your company, it is the right time for you to understand how you can use this software in order to convert leads to loyal customers. Today, our focus will be on how great CRM software helps businesses find, nurture and win deals.

Find Leads with the Help of Twitter

Twitter is a great source, where companies are able to find many leads. In most of the CRM systems, like in the one of karmaCRM, it is possible to integrate Twitter to make this process much easier. With the help of search streams, it is comfortable for marketing reps to filter tweets and create lists that contain interest-related keywords. For example, if a marketing rep from a fitness center wants to find some leads, he should create a list which will include keywords like “fitness center”, “workout”, “healthy lifestyle” and so on. When there is a tweet with these keywords, that indicates potential interest toward their company , marketing reps can easily transform that lead into their CRM system. For instance, one could ask such a question on Twitter: “How fitness centers can help me get healthy?” In this case, this lead should be automatically transformed to the CRM system.

Nurture Leads to Create Interest

Just because the tweet mentioned above has a potential interest in finding the benefits of fitness centers, it would not be right to immediately open with a sales pitch. First of all, it is important to get the user acquainted with all the benefits of fitness centers, with the help of some blog posts. When you find the right content that would answer to the question of your lead, you need to share it with a tweeted reply.

Qualify Leads and Pass Them to Sales Reps

Now, when the lead already knows about the benefits of fitness centers, his interest is transformed into desire. In order to keep him interested, it is important to send him some other educational and promotional content. Now, marketing reps should examine that lead and send them some qualified information about their fitness center and benefits that would bring it to him. To keep him engaged, marketing reps should continuously send them some nurturing emails. After qualifying that lead, it is the right time for sales reps to start their work.

Contact with Leads

Now, when the lead is qualified, sales reps should do everything in order to make them close the deal. To do so, it is important for them to review all the past communications and interactions with that lead, which is present in CRM system. Among these interactions are included past tweets, email exchanges and other engagements with that lead.

After examining the past interactions with that lead, now it is time to contact them by making a phone call. First of all, the sales rep should introduce himself and explain how and why he contacts that person. Secondly, he should present all the benefits that the lead can get if he uses their services. Finally, sales rep should organize an appointment, which is the next important step in the sales process. When the appointment is set, now it is the right time to get prepared for that meeting. To get all the things done, sales reps should create a project in CRM system and assign small tasks to sales team members.

Follow Up Regularly and Win the Deal

When the appointment is over, of course, the potential customers needs some time in order to make decision. During the time when the lead is making his decision, sales rep should continuously follow up with him. To help in finalizing decision, during that period, sales reps should send him some product demos, testimonials which is a great chance for convincing that potential customer and winning the deal.

Accept Payments

When the deal is won, it is the time for accepting payments. Here, CRM systems come to help as well. Sales reps are able to accept payments with the help of the system. Even if the amount is payed in monthly installments, there is no problem, as CRM system sends reminders to customers and all the payments are automatically tracked.

CRM system is a great tool that helps marketing and sales reps throughout the whole sales process. With the help of it, it becomes much easier to convert leads into loyal customers and make sure that all the things are done at the right time.

John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
CRM Software, Productivity, Sales and Marketing

How to Use CRM to Better Manage Collaborative Teams

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In any organization, whether it’s an audit, health care or inbound company, collaborative teams play a huge role. However, managing these teams can be quite difficult, as it is not enough to just tell everyone to work together. According to research done by Cornerstone On Demand, 40 percent of employees think that there is not enough collaboration in their company. There are many ways that would encourage team collaboration, such as positive recognition of input shared, encouragement from senior staff, easy communication among departments and so on. However, it is proven that CRM software is a great tool which helps to manage teams more effectively and reach goals more easily. Here is how you can use CRM to better manage collaborative teams.

Create a Plan

One of the ways that managers can use to facilitate collaboration is to make sure that expectations and requirements are clear for everyone. There are some CRM systems, like the one of karmaCRM, that have project management integrations. With the help of this, you will be able to create step-by-step guide to make it clear for everyone which steps should be undertaken. In each step of the process, you can make some notes, add tasks and due dates. It’s a great chance for everyone in your company to see what is already done, what needs to be done and everything else connected with that project.

Use Tags

If you want your collaborative teams to be effective, it should be clear for everyone  who is responsible for the project and who are the main employees who work on that project. It’s more than easy with CRM systems, as there is a chance to tag anyone from your employees, groups or company on a given project. It will make the planning and implementation process much more convenient and there won’t be any misunderstandings.

Use Calendars

Do your team members know when is your next meeting? Are they familiar with their monthly activities? All these things can be done without any difficulties, if you use calendars during your projects. KarmaCRM has calendar in its system which is integrated with Google Calendar and Microsoft Exchange. For your collaborative team, it means that everyone can work according to the same schedule and, as a result, be more effective. In addition, there is a chance for your employees to sync their own calendars with the project calendar to fully access their daily, weekly, monthly activities.

Automate Some Processes

What are the main activities of your team during a day or a month? Are there some things that can be automated? In this case, you will free your team from doing the same things all the time, and they will have a chance to spend more time on teamwork, pursuing a common goal. In a CRM system, you can create some activity sets, where you just need to put all the activities that you want to be automated. You will be able to tag any employees that are responsible and connected with that part of the project.

Share Important Documents

If you want your team to be effective and successful, you need to provide them with any important information that they would need. Instead of letting them search through websites, documents or apps, try to share all the important documents through CRM system. In most of the systems, it is possible to sync documents with Dropbox, Google Drive and so on. Once the documents are uploaded in the system, your team can access them whenever and wherever they need it.

When you provide your team with the best tools to work with, it becomes easier for you to manage them and help them work toward a common goal. So, here are the main tips that you should take into account if you want collaborative teams of your company to succeed.

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John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
CRM Software, Sales and Marketing

Bridge the Gap Between Your Sales and Marketing Teams Using CRM

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Sales and marketing are considered to be two sides of the coin, because one cannot exist without the other one. These two teams are the most important departments that generate profit for any company. To put it simple, the main responsibility of marketers is generating high quality leads with the help of effective communication, meanwhile sales team is responsible for converting leads into customers. Just because these 2 teams are crucial for any company and are connected to each other, sometimes they trespass each other’s area. In an ideal situation, the synergy of these 2 teams has a positive influence on that organization, however how do you reach this goal of synergy today?

In reality, the gap between these two teams is sometimes too big. The reason is that marketing team often judges sales team for not doing enough to convert prospects from the campaign they have launched. Sales team, in turn, accuses marketing team for not creating the right marketing campaign, that would catch people’s attention and would generate quality leads. However, these 2 team should work together, because there are many activities that cannot be done separately, for example product positioning, marketing campaigns and as well as market research.

Just because the connection of marketing and sales team is so important, companies should facilitate their effective collaboration. One of the best ways to do it,  is use CRM system, as some features of marketing management in a CRM software can help do this work at the tactical level while also meeting the strategic goals.

Marketing Campaign Management

The success of any marketing campaign may be evaluated based on its overall effect on the company’s revenue. CRM systems can help marketing teams in this venture, as with the help of this system they can establish a relationship between a campaign and the opportunities created from that campaign. This can be a great guide to understand whether everything is going in right direction, or there should be some updates.

Opportunity Management

In a similar way, sales team can also evaluate their activities with the help of opportunity management features that are available in most of the CRM systems. This can help understand what opportunities are more likely to become customers, which, in turn, will help them optimize their resources in a better way.

Sales Process Management

During the sales process, there are many points that influence the buying experience of customers. With the help of CRM system, sales teams will have the chance to examine buying preferences of customers, like how they prefer to pay, how they want products to be shipped and so on. After each sales cycle, new preferences and needs of customers can be updated in the system, which will result in better customer service. Whats the goal of  better customer service? Of course, increased loyalty.

Brand Management

Some PR activities, like distributing brochures, data sheets or some web content are usually implemented by marketing teams. However, it’s important that  sales teams involve in collateral design processes. This can be done by including some sales representatives in order to increase their contribution in the process. In this case, sales team’s members will give some advice and increase chances of attracting new customers.

Activity Management

Any interactions with customers outside the sales process are usually managed by CRM systems. In this case, sales team members are the ones who respond to any complaints, suggestions or queries about the product. Though these are activities that should be done by sales team, the marketing team can also benefit from this chance by analyzing the market response to their products, services and create much more effective campaigns.


The right CRM system with effective marketing management features can be a great way to exchange useful information between sales and marketing teams, improve collaboration and, as a result, bridge the gap.

 





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John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
Sales and Marketing

The Future of CRM: Smarter Technology Means Stronger Customer Relationships

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John-Paul Narowski, Founder of Karma CRM, was a recent guest on the TechnologyAdvice Expert Interview Series to share his insight on the intersection of sales, marketing, and technology. The series, which is hosted by TechnologyAdvice’s Josh Bland, explores a variety of business and technology landscapes through conversations with industry leaders.

In this episode we discuss building the product from scratch, the importance of managing customer relationships, and using data properly.

Below are a few highlights from our conversation:

TechnologyAdvice: What trends do you see in the industry right now and how does KarmaCRM tackle them?

John-Paul Narowski: One big trend across the board in the CRM industry is people starting to understand that it’s not about data logging. Traditional CRM has been the bane of sales rep’s existence, because it requires half a day just inputting data.

CRM is getting smarter about automating data entry, making sure emails are in the system and phone calls are logged, streaming in social information, and simply understanding the variety of ways in which salespeople interact.

That’s one thing I see happening, and something we’re actively working on too. It’s definitely a big task and project to do properly. But just automating more and getting people typing and logging less and in front of their customers more.

TA: Definitely. And right now CRM is very hot, very popular, and has one of the highest increases in adoption rates out there. What do you think is causing this?

Narowski: First and foremost, people are becoming a little more comfortable with web-based products. And maybe this isn’t specifically to answer your question, because there is some offline stuff available too. But there’s this push to have everything accessible to everybody everywhere, and have your team potentially be distributed.

There’s more people working from home as well, so enterprise in-house CRM system is not accessible via the web. Or there’s no system. In either case, you’re very limited in what you can do. People are on the move now. People are working from home more. There’s a need for everybody to have a collaborative platform to organize information.

TA: What are some challenges with CRM?

Narowski: Education is still the biggest one. When I say education, I mean understanding that CRM isn’t going to solve your sales needs. It’s just a tool. You still have to know how to use CRM. You still have to be able to generate leads outside of the CRM in order to make your business run.

I see a lot of people asking questions such as, “What’s the best CRM for small business? What’s the best CRM my industry?”

Realistically, until you really define what you want out of the CRM system, there is no one size fits all platform. More education in the onboarding process to decide what’s important to you — even before you look at any software — I think is a big one. As I alluded to before, getting all the different variety of sources where people communicate into a format that’s easy and dissectible is the goal. It eliminates a lot of the tedious data entry.

TA: One of the core components of a CRM is the relationship. How do you see relationships between companies changing in the future?

Narowski: Big data has a big part to play in this. There are a number of services, such as FullContact or Clearbit, that basically gather information about various people. Their company, their social profiles, and so on. Then they give you a lot of information about the person prior to you even reaching out.

The ability to gather all that information and simplify it into a format is powerful. At the end of the day, when you’re reaching out to the person you already know where they’re located. You know what they like. You know they tweeted about their kid the other day, But basically the future is just streamlining the information that a person needs to build a stronger relationship.

This podcast was created and published by TechnologyAdvice. Interview conducted by Josh Bland.

John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
CRM Software, Productivity

5 CRM Productivity Hacks That Help You Get More Done, with Less Work!

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CRM is a great software, which helps businesses increase their overall productivity by collecting data in one place, providing statistics about customer history, automating some actions, making customer service better and so on. Today we focus on 5 hacks that help you get more done, with less work for CRM productivity improvement.

1. Create Specific Lists

One of the productivity hacks that you can do with the help of CRM systems is to create lists, which will make it easier to find and categorize records based on some criteria. With CRM, a company’s sales manager will have the chance to create several lists for different target groups and various purposes, for instance, a list for the customers in a specific area, a list for high priority customers, a list of marketing campaigns and so on. These lists are created with the help of custom filters of the CRM system. The filters can be saved in the system and the lists can be edited and viewed anytime.

2. Tag Information with Keywords

In order to find the right information in less time, try to tag records with some keywords, which will make it easier to do some searches, and, as a result, will lead to CRM productivity improvement. Imagine, that you have created a filter that contains all email marketing campaigns which you implemented during the last month. Suppose that your manager now needs to find all the leads and contacts from a specific campaign to create a similar marketing campaign for the next month. If your employees have tagged every lead and contact from the last campaign, it would be much easier for the manager to identify the right personas and create the right campaigns for them.

3. Determine Prices of Products with Price Books

To generate more revenue, companies sometimes use variable price methods based on supply chains and other important factors. The reason is that different customers are willing to pay different prices for your products based on their region, date of purchase, etc. For example, in a region where there are no competitors for you, your products can be sold for more money. For such cases price books are available in CRM systems. These books contain price lists of all products and services of your company. There can be various price lists, for example one for international customers, one for local customers, one for wholesalers and so on. This is a great way to ensure that your salesmen will sell your products with the right price.

4. Keep Track of Payments

Payment modules of CRM systems make it easier to track invoiced receivables, request payments and apply them to invoices. For example, if you sell a product of $5000 and your client should pay it over 5 months, you can use payment modules of CRM systems to send him/her requests. Any payments made by customers are applied to their invoices, showing the remaining amount that should be paid.

5. Send the Right Emails at the Right Moment

Another great hack that will lead to CRM productivity improvement is to use the autoresponders of CRM systems. Imagine that you want to create different email campaigns for different groups of people. For example, you want to send discount information only to those users who have clicked on a product link and want to sent another lead nurturing email to those who have not clicked that link. In this case, you need to implement autoresponders of CRM systems, because whether you try to reach 1 person or 1000 people, autoresponders will ensure that you get these people engaged with the right message at the right moment.

Here you have the most effective 5 CRM productivity hacks which will help you in your everyday business activities. Keep these in mind, as it is a great guide for you to achieve CRM productivity improvement.

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John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
CRM Software, Small Business

7 Astonishing Ways Small Businesses Can Benefit From Cloud-Based CRM

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Customer relationship management (CRM) is considered to be one of the most useful software trends in the business world: everyone talks about it and almost everyone knows about its benefits. It really does not matter whether there are 150 people in your company or just 10, CRM is a great tool that helps businesses build good relationships with customers, offer excellent customer service, develop selling processes and grow their businesses.

While big companies spend less time on making decisions about purchasing software or investing in new technology, small businesses, in general, are more concerned about what they are investing in. Small businesses take into account all of the advantages and disadvantages of the software: whether it is affordable, helpful,easy to use, compatible with their needs, accessible and so on.

To help small businesses make their final decision, today we introduce 7 astonishing ways that cloud based CRM for small business can be beneficial.

1. Ease of Use

Cloud based CRM makes the CRM strategy of your small business simpler and helps you save time and energy. There is no need for you to order the software and install it by yourself. The vendor provides a software at a fixed price and manages it for you. In addition, vendor also makes necessary upgrades, to free your employees from these activities. If some technical problems occur relating the software, all you need to do is to contact the vendor. Sometimes, they also offer some training materials which makes it easier for employees to use the system.

2. Centralized Data

With cloud based CRM, small businesses can have the data about their customers centralized in one place. The benefit here is that if your data is centralized, you will be able to view it anywhere, anytime and from any device that has an Internet connection. In addition, centralization also improves the ease of sharing data with the people that you would like. You just need to assign permission to some people you want to view the information or make any changes.

3. 24/7 Accessibility

Cloud based CRM is accessible anytime you need it . This means that you do not need the computer of your office to access it, all you need to have is the Internet connection. So, you can view the data anytime and anywhere just  by having the software access and internet accessible device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet or laptop.

4. Affordability

Another benefit cloud based CRM for small business can bring is affordability of the software. In general, small businesses do not put a lot of money on one-off purchases, as they prefer smaller and regular payments. Cloud based CRM is beneficial for small businesses, as it operates on the pay-as-you-go model, which requires minimal upfront payment, which, of course, lowers the risk. Moreover, there are no additional payments, such as license fees. All you need to pay are fixed monthly fees.

5. Reliability of Operations

You probably get stressed when you imagine that the system you rely on may crash one day, don’t you? Especially if you have a small business, it can bring huge financial problems. However, it is the case with cloud based CRM. Just because all the parts of Cloud are backed up, such situations almost never occur. So, if something goes wrong and fails, the problem will be automatically solved and the system will not be disrupted.

6. Flexibility

Sometimes when adopting CRM systems, small businesses choose only those features and options that are suitable for their current needs and activities. However, as the company grows, it is likely that needs can be different, for instance, you may need more capacity, new features and solutions. Cloud based CRM has no problems here, as it can be immediately updated to satisfy all your needs.

7. Mobile Integration

Imagine that your salesman has 4-5 meetings with customers a day. In this case, how is he/she going to remember all the details and information relating each customer? To remember everything and show individual approach, he/she needs to write down all the notes. However with cloud based CRM, this is not a problem anymore, as mobile CRM apps are available. Employees will be able to do business faster and more intelligently.

 

Cloud based CRM for small business becomes a must nowadays, due to so many benefits. The 7 benefits mentioned above are the most important ones, but there are other ones as well. If you have some other benefits in your mind, please share them with us in the comments below.

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John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
CRM Software

5 Reasons Why You Need a CRM System

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Customer Relationship Management(CRM) system is one of the main tools that every kind of company should have to be more organized and successful. CRM systems are there to assist businesses to track and analyze all of the interactions they have with their current and potential customers. It’s a wonderful tool that helps to centralize, simplify, secure and scale the customer engagements. If these arguments are not enough for you to have a CRM system, check out the top 5 reasons to see the importance of CRM systems for small businesses.

1. Be Organized

You might think that you do not need a CRM system in order to be organized, as you are able to manage your business with emails, task management and calendar systems, but in this case, you are going to miss the whole picture of your business. CRM assists you in getting that big picture by integrating emails, tasks, notes, calendars and more in single, organized fashion. There is a chance for you to access any data that you would like from anywhere, anytime and any device you want. This is the key to success of a business organization and CRM systems are created to keep all the necessary information in one centralized location.

2. Have Access to Metrics

Have you counted how many successful projects you have had recently? Can you say how much is your conversion ratio or can you explain how effective were your recent marketing campaigns? All these are called metrics, which are crucial for your company’s development and success. You might think that all these things can be figured out with common sense or with the help of Excel sheet formulas, but do you really have so much time to do that? Your time is, of course, more important and it should be focused on company growth in the first place. Besides, the odds are high that you are going to make some small mistakes in your calculations.

If you do not want to go on like this, then CRM system is what you really need, as it gives you the opportunity to get immediate metrics on most important metrics of your company’s activities. This is another reason why CRM systems for small businesses are so important.

3. Implement Customer Intimacy

Customer intimacy is all about matching your products and services with your customer’s interests and preferences. For many businesses, especially small and middle ones, it’s a great way to stand out in competitive and ever-crowded markets. CRM gives a great chance to catch detailed information about your customers, their interests, preferences and behaviors. With this information available, businesses can implement targeted marketing and create a personal touch with every customer. Just think for a moment: Do you really think that your mobile operator remembers your birthday when they send you congratulations? Or do you think it is a coincidence when Google ads show you some products you are interested in? It is all about having CRM system, as it collects the most important information about customers, and helps businesses interact with them in a more impressive way.

4. Be Flexible with Mobile CRM

Imagine that you want to find some contact information about your customer when you are not at the office. Is it impossible? Of course, it’s not impossible with CRM systems. For those people who work in service industry, mobile CRM is a must. Besides the fact that it gives the benefit of accessing data anytime and anywhere, it also helps salesmen be prepared and effective 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. So whether you want to meet someone at the airport, or want to update sales meeting while travelling in a car, mobile CRM is there to help you.

5. Make Less Reports

Do you keep track of your business? Do you see how your business is striving? If you think that monthly or annually prepared reports serve the purpose for you, think again. Reports are sometimes painful and tedious for employees to make and this is the reason why facts in reports can be tampered with. However, if you use a CRM system, there is no need for you to worry about reports, as CRM systems track the number of open opportunities, show the closing ratio in every stage of sales process, calculates the expected revenue for you and so on. This is a great chance for you to have access to reports anytime that you want.

 

CRM systems for small businesses are important to make sales processes more efficient, increase revenue, analyze current situation, evaluate the risks and so on. So here are the most important reasons why you might need a CRM system for your business. Are there any other reasons you would like to share with us? Please leave them in the comments box below.

 





Ebook-How-to-Grow-Your-Small-Business-with-the-Right-CRM




John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
CRM Software, Small Business

Cloud Based CRM for Small Business: Pros and Cons

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Cloud based CRM – is this something your company needs? According to Gartner, which is the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, about 48% of the companies surveyed are going to move to cloud based CRM software in the next 3 years. Though cloud based CRM has many advantages that can put your company in a better position, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s applicable for everyone. Applying cloud based CRM for small business can be revolutionary, but before doing so, it’s really important to take into account the size, nature of data, necessary level of security, mobility of the staff, their need for data access and resources of your company.

To help you in making smart decisions, today we will focus on introducing the pros and cons of cloud based CRM for small business.

PROs of Cloud Based CRM

 

  • More Accessible Database

24 hour accessibility is probably the biggest advantage of cloud based CRM. Imagine that you must make a phone call on the go, send a quick email to a lead, or just find some information about a contact when you are not at the office. Cloud based CRM allows you to have access to the system anywhere, anytime and from any device, whether it’s a smartphone, laptop or tablet. All you need to have is internet connection. So, by always having access to data, cloud based CRM enables you to do everything you need at every moment.

  • Flexibility

When small businesses adopt CRM software, they choose only the features they need in their current jobs and which are relevant to their current needs. However, as the company continuously grows, sometimes it becomes necessary to have more capacity, to adopt some new features and new solutions. Cloud based CRM offers flexibility as it can be updated to better fit your needs. There will be no need for you change your working style on any processes that are already doing fine; pick those that you need a change.

  • Ease of Use

Using a cloud based CRM for small business is easier than ever. First of all, you should buy the software package for a fixed monthly fee. After that, all you need to do is log in with the passcodes provided and make sure that you have strong and fast internet connection. There is no necessity to spend hours to install the software in your system, as all these things are done by the vendor. So, the ease of use is one of the biggest benefits of cloud based CRMs.

  • Cost Effectiveness

Cost effectiveness is the main reason why so many small businesses prefer having cloud based instead of on-premise CRM. The good thing is that in this case, your company is charged per user and you will be able to pay annually or monthly, depending on your preferences. This is a great chance for businesses that have limited budget.

CONs of Cloud Based CRM

 

  • Security

Security is an important concern of cloud based CRM users. Just because businesses can’t be responsible for the security of their data and it relies on the CRM solution provider, means that there can be some objections concerning this point. However, it’s worth to mention that most of the cloud based CRM providers pay tons of attention to security and confidentiality.

  • Vendor Company Longevity

Another thing that concerns small businesses is: What if the CRM solution provider goes out of business? In this case, your data can be at risk. This depends on many things, the most important of which is whether the provider suggests you escrow agreement or an arrangement to that effect. In this case, you can be safe, as you will be able to access your data when your provider gets out of business.

  • Migration of Data

Another problem related to cloud based CRM solutions can be the migration of data to cloud, from one cloud to another and so on. The reason is that there are some operating systems and apps which are not compatible with one another.

 

Selecting the right cloud based CRM for small business is essential. Customer’s data is the most valued asset for every company and it should be stored in a system that works best for your business needs. Make sure you evaluate the pros and cons of each option before making the final decision.

 





Ebook-How-to-Grow-Your-Small-Business-with-the-Right-CRM




John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com
CRM Software, Productivity, Sales and Marketing

10 tips to Boost Sales Productivity with CRM Software

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It does not matter which type of business you own, customer relationship management (CRM) software is there for you to make your sales processes much easier. We all know that CRM is a great way to establish and maintain great relationships with clients and improve customer service. However, if you think that this is the only benefit of CRM software, you are missing an important part of it. CRM software is great tool to increase sales productivity. Below we present 10 tips for sales directors to boost sales productivity with CRM software.

1. Control the Sales Processes

Whether you have a 2 step, 5 step or 10 step sales process, sales automation software (same as CRM) is there to help your staff gain leads and close deals. It’s a great monitoring tool, which helps you make sure that your team follows the sales process. Now, when your team says that all the steps have been accomplished, there is a fast and easy way for you to check the work done.

2. Organize Sales Activities

CRM is very useful when it comes to organizing your activities. We have all been in a situation when we received several phone calls from the same company. It seems that employees are not aware of their coworkers making the same calls and their activities are unorganized. Would you do business with them? Of course, no! So, you, as a sales director, should also use sales automation software to share information among your team members and coordinate the activities: who is responsible for the task, when is the deadline and so on.

3. Make Reporting Easier

CRM software simplifies many parts of sales teams’ job and that includes also the reporting part. There are some mobile CRM applications which automatically control and keep track of all activities. For instance, these apps record how many calls were made during a day,  how much time the calls took and so on. Tools like this make it much easier for sales team members to report all the activities they have done during a day.

4. Use GPS in Your CRM App

Besides the fact, that CRM apps give salespeople a way to make reporting much easier, they also help them be closer to leads and potential customers. GPS enabled CRM applications can lead salesmen right to the client’s door. Face-to-face meetings are much more effective than phone calls or emails. So, try to enable GPS in your CRM software and it will be easy for you to see how many prospects are there near you and how you can organize a meeting with them.

5. Let Your Team Members Know Where They Stand

It is, of course, very important to know where your team stands as a whole, however it’s equally important to understand on which level are the members of your team. Each member of the sales team should clearly know what his/her position is and whether he/she meets the goals or not. It’s said, that the best way to self-improve is to analyze your progress. CRM software gives salespeople the opportunity to view their performance, understand where they stand and strive for development.

6. Better Allocate the Resources

Clients are very different and their needs are different as well. One thing that is useful for one client can be completely useless for the other. So, there are some clients that need more resources from your sales team than the others. This means that you should be very good at allocating your resources. CRM software allows to easily make your choice on how to allocate your resources . By having access to this information, it becomes a lot simpler to make clever decisions and give your clients what they want.

7. Add “Web to Lead” System

“Web to lead” is a great system which creates a form on your website and captures leads. After capturing the lead, this system routes him/her right to the person in your sales team who is able to make a connection with him/her. With the help of this system, there won’t be any hot leads missed.

8. Follow Your Potential Customers

In order to always be in contact with your potential customers, you need to keep track of them. You should identify the people you need to reach out to when it’s the time to make the next sales call or send an important email. Sales automation software can help you here as well. You will be able to monitor changes in social media networks, like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and get notified whenever there is a change related to that lead.

9. Make Sharing Materials and Documents Easier

To increase sales productivity, you need to simplify some activities for your sales team to do, such as sharing documents and important materials. In this case, there will be a win-win situation, as it will be easier for your team to work and their performance will be improved. If you have a sales team that is geographically spread out, this is a MUST for you.

10. Pay Attention to Alerts and Notifications

Just as you should follow your potential customers, you should also pay attention to alerts and notifications. Sales automation software provides you with important alerts relating your potential customers, for example that you haven’t connected with them for a long time. If you follow these notifications, you will be in touch with them and won’t miss the chance to keep good relationships.

 

Utilizing your sales automation software to its full capacity will increase the productivity of your sales team’s efforts and make your life much easier.  Make sure to follow these 10 tips in order improve your processes and stay one step ahead of competition. Are there any other tips that we have missed? Please share them with us!

Ebook-How-to-Grow-Your-Small-Business-with-the-Right-CRM

John Paul Narowski
I’ve been hacking at various business ideas since I was 16. I’m a full stack developer and love crafting user experiences. I’ve been nose deep in code since I put the legos down, and built several successful businesses in the process. I’ve lost some hair, gained some experience and throughly enjoyed the journey.
http://www.jpnarowski.com