Why your business needs CRM in 2016

We've been taught that our business is only as good as the customers who patronize our brand. It's true. Without people buying, using or subscribing to our service, we'll be out of business before long.

That said, you obviously need to utilize all the tools we can use to boost customer engagement,

Without the right tools to nurture your customers, you're in danger of missed engagement and lost sales opportunity.

You don't want that.

What your business needs is an all-in-one management software that features marketing automation, sales and project management.


What's the deal with CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process of storing, tracking, and analyzing all of the interactions you have with your prospects and customers. A CRM tool helps you simplify, centralize, secure and scale your customer engagement.


Explain it to me softly

Let's say that you need to give gifts to 5 of your nephews this Christmas. Now, instead of just knowing their favorite toy, you also know their hobbies and favorite color, you also know the exact model they want at the exact store they saw it. With this information, you'd be able to give them personal gifts that they'll truly cherish.

Luckily, we have things like address books and calendars to remember important details. But what if you have 100 nephews (as if 5 isn't enough headache). This is when everything becomes a burden. Favorites are forgotten, presents and cards become less thoughtful, relationships become strained the once uncle-worshipping nephews has placed you into the black netherworld of forgotten people.

Now imagine this in your business. See what I mean?

I'm interested in this CRM, how does it benefit me?

While CRM can be a big investment, it's understandable that you want  to be absolutely sure that it's something that your business really needs.

Here are the 10 signs that you need a CRM System.

1. There’s no clear-cut way to see how your sales team is communicating with your leads and clients.
2. You need to go around and ask your sales who they’re contacting and how calls are going to get an idea of how each person is performing and if they’re meeting benchmarks.
3. There’s limited insight into what kind of conversations are converting leads to customers and what kind of conversations are costing you leads.
4. When you lose someone from your sales team, you also find that you lose some of your leads, too.
5. There isn’t an established way to nurture or track leads, so each sales rep just tracks what they personally deem important.
6. You want to save some of your contacts’ data in specific formats that aren’t supported by your main contact management database, so you end up saving some in different programs and then make a note of that in your primary database with a connection to the other documents. This results in data for one lead in at least two different locations.
7. There isn’t an established way to learn what worked well for nurturing a lead and what didn’t.
8. When a contact’s record is updated, often times the wrong information is changed (and this is realized after the file has been saved).
9. Because data are kept on office hard drives, in emails, and in random documents or files, data is lost frequently.
10. Your hard drive has crashed twice, taking all your data with it. Bummer!

Any of these situations ring a bell? Unfortunately, many companies still function this way... but yours doesn't need to be that way.

STOP THE MADNESS!!!

Sign-up for a free CRM demo today and see how this new technology can boost your business's productivity and sales.

E-commerce Solutions In Action

Electronic commerce (frequently called e-commerce) refers to the purchasing and selling of merchandise or services via electronic systems like computer networks and the Internet. E-commerce is dependent on technologies like automated data compilation methods, systems that watch over inventory, EDI or Electronic Data Interchange, online transaction processing, internet marketing, supply chain management and electronic funds transfer. Modern e-commerce procedures normally take advantage of the Internet during business transactions, but it may also cover a broader array of technologies like the telephone, mobile devices, and e-mail. Here are some fine examples of e-commerce solutions in action:

 Image Courtesy of http://www.purenet.co.uk/ecommerce-solutions

Constant flow of new Clients

Those technologies which make starting a business trouble-free and inexpensive are also the reasons why more potential customers are looking for merchandise over the Internet. Thanks to the advent of broadband internet services like cable internet and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), surfing the World Wide Web on personal computers has never been faster (Thanks to the growing number of companies that manufacture cheaper computer units). These elements also make more individuals computer savvy, widening the age bracket of people who can efficiently surf the Internet. It is interesting to know that anyone can manage their path through cyberspace, regardless of their income bracket or lifestyle.

 Entrepreneurs can take advantage of this advancement in global technology and faster lines of communication. A decade or so ago, a tiny retail store could only entice customers to visit and purchase via a road sign. Nowadays, online retailers are able to sell even without a storefront, using only credit cards and delivery carriers like DHL, FedEx or UPS to distribute purchased goods to people across the globe.

Product Diversity

The popularity of the Internet allows everything to be virtually sold and bought. An example is the famous auction site known as eBay. Visitors can find, on sale, almost any used item there is in any category. Cyberspace serves as a big virtual mall or open-air bazaar. E-commerce websites can sell furniture, collectibles, financial services, insurance, artwork, jewelry, yachts and real estate. This includes patches of land, timeshares, condominiums, apartments and houses, and automobiles.

Whether it serves a positive or negative purpose, e-commerce transactions can be anonymous. This can be applied to those products that buyers discreetly buy. Companies also use e-commerce to legally sell and protect music and software against counterfeiters.