Segmentation is Magical but no Mystery
Breaking up your customer and prospect contacts, your mailing list, by attribute — that’s segmentation. It allows us to craft and tailor messages that will resonate better with the audience. Imagine that you are the VP of Sales for a mid-sized manufacturer. You received a promotional email about an expense tracking app. Think about how […]
Can you see your sales cycle in your CRM?
If you look at your deal or opportunity record in your CRM system, you’ll see a field for the sales stage. Typically, CRM systems use this field to help sellers express the odds of closing business. For example, you’re more likely to get a deal that you’ve quoted than a potential project that you’ve just identified. It’s intuitive and helps the system build an estimated pipeline value. It […]
Communicating the Value of CRM Data
In a recent post, we talked about common objections that salespeople have for CRM activity entry. We talked about them because CRM only works if our salespeople are using it. The only way to overcome objections is to confront and challenge them. There was an assumption in that post — we value the data that we’re […]
Overcoming Objections to Activity Entry
Call them activity reports, call reports, after-action memos, or encounters — activity items are a vital part of Client Relationship Management (CRM) software. They are also one of the most significant resistance points for users of all kinds, especially salespeople. That resistance is informative for leaders and managers. Salespeople offer a lot of arguments against […]
CRM, Changes, and Zombies
I started this article like I do most, by Googling what I’m going to write about. This time it was “Fear and CRM.” After the ads, the first result was about The Walking Dead. The AMC show about zombies and survival in a post-apocalyptic world. I’m not much of a horror person, so I don’t […]
Forgetting Is Expensive – 5 Tips to Remember
As humans, we can’t avoid forgetting things. It’s in our nature. Forgetting, though, has a high price — often more than the reward for remembering. We think that we have good memory, when we don’t. Research shows that our short-term memory lies to us, a lot. It could be a dangerous blind spot. Systems are aides to memory. When we […]
6 Secrets to Finishing an Implementation
Setting up a Client Relationship Management (CRM) system isn’t easy; many never get off the ground. CRM systems work. The challenges an implementer faces are numerous: dirty data, complex design, resistant users, and, in some especially difficult situations, unenthusiastic leadership. No matter the challenge, the leader of an implementation has to keep the project moving. […]
