Automating Operations: A Candid Analysis of CRM Marketing and Sales Operations Choices

Automating Operations: A Candid Analysis of CRM Marketing and Sales Operations Choices

Jose A. Briones, Ph.D.SpyroTek Performance Solutions@Brioneja

Softletter's SaaS and Cloud Applications University 2014Austin, TXMay 13, 2014

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Agenda• Key topics that will be covered include:

• The ongoing migration of CRM systems to the cloud and the most popular choices available.

• How some products are popular simply because they have been in the market longer, but no longer reflect state of the art in usability, UI and UX.

• How some products have developed a strong position catering to large enterprises but are not the best solution for a small business.

• Recommendations on which features and capabilities to explore and evaluate depending on your company’s needs and requirements.

Twitter: @Brioneja www.Brioneja.com

Background• CRM software automates such tasks as contact

management, communication tracking and scheduling, and sales forecasting.

• The size of the CRM industry is now over $10 billion with hundreds of competing offerings.


Background• Choosing a CRM is unfortunately not a simple

task. The most fundamental issue is the balance of features/capabilities with ease of use which will determine success or failure for the implementation.

In this presentation we will discuss the most important aspects to consider when choosing a new Sales/Marketing management system for your company.


Background• Some products are popular simply because they

have been in the market longer, but no longer reflect state of the art in usability, UI and UX.

• Some products have developed a strong position catering to large enterprises but are not the best solution for a small business.


Why Use a CRM System?• You use multiple methods to communicate with your

customers (e-mail, phone, face-to-face, direct mail, etc.) • You want to be able to target specific customers and prospects

and personalize communications • Your customers’ demographics vary • You want greater visibility into your sales pipeline • You’re duplicating efforts within the company (i.e. two

salespeople call the same prospect) • It’s time-consuming and difficult to generate reports • You want to be able to track marketing and sales trends and

identify opportunities

• Source: Brad Hoffmann, Socius


Benefits of a CRM System• 1. Generate More Leads: Pretty simple. You can turn information into leads

by understanding conversations and uncovering needs that you can fill. • 2. Qualify Prospects Faster: It’s what you and your salespeople are

struggling with, right? To quickly evaluate contacts and leads and uncover needs or issues you can sell into. Stop wasting time where you have no chance of success.

• 3. Close More Deals: A key to growth – more deals more often! Because you actively manage the sales process and have unique insight into customer needs, your sales team will increase its success at closing more deals.

• 4. Higher Average Invoice/Deal Size: Getting more dollars every time you sell. Through customer and product/service insight your business will be in the unique position of being able to more effectively cross and upsell your products/services.

• 5. Margin Preservation: Virtually eliminate discounting or leaving dollars on the table. Each sales engagement and customer can be evaluated to discover nuances and needs that allow you to solidly position and defend your value and price.


Benefits of a CRM System• 6. Improved Customer Service: Having the right relationships, processes,

and capabilities ensure that you can capture and resolve small issues before they become big ones.

• 7. Tighter Customer Loyalty: Through closer relationships, better customer service, and anticipating needs, your customers will choose to do more business with you, more often.

• 8. Business Customer Continuity: An historical customer relationship ‘memory’ is always retained in the business, should salespeople leave or be replaced within the company. And new salespeople get up to speed more quickly, minimizing customer relationship or service interruptions.

• 9. Increased Marketing ROI: Quit throwing good money after bad. You’ll know how each marketing piece, campaign, or promotional item – from placement to revenue – contributes to the business.

• 10. Profitability: This is what really counts – more profit to your business. The business becomes more ‘intelligent’ when it comes to the most important and expensive drivers – sales, marketing, and customer management.

• Source: NextCorp, Ltd.


Match the CRM Solution to the Problem


Cloud CRM vs. On Premise• More accessible database-

Tapping into a cloud network makes your data more accessible to your employees across large distances.

• Third party service provider- Having an outside vendor can ease the stress involved in routine maintenance. They can oversee instillation and testing, as well as manage your application data.

• Environmental impact- Using a cloud CRM system is a much more energy-efficient method of storing information. Storing data on an internet sever uses less energy than on a private one.

• Cost-effectiveness

• More control over your database- On-premise CRM systems gives your company the highest level of control over its client information.

• Higher security- If the company's information is private or highly regulated through Service Level Agreements, an on-premise CRM system may be required. Healthcare providers, for example, deal with sensitive customer data that shouldn't be trusted with an outside server.

• Directly involved with business decisions-

• Might not actually be cost effective- Less susceptible to outside issues


Capterra’s Top 20 CRM Solutions


Capterra’s Top 20 CRM Solutions


TOP 5 CRM Solutions


Gartner Quadrant for CRM Lead Management

Lead management integrates business process and technology to close the loop between marketing and direct or indirect sales channels, and to drive higher-value opportunities through improved demand creation, execution and opportunity management


Gartner Quadrant for CRM Customer Engagement Center

The CRM customer engagement center (CEC) refers to a logical set of technologies and business applications that are engineered to provide customer service and support, regardless of the interaction (or engagement) channel.


Recommendations When Selecting a CRM System

• I strongly recommend to use a 100% cloud-based product. 40% of the CRM products sold in 2012 were cloud based. These systems have no cost of installation and can be used by your sales staff from any location via the web.

• 2. Main user screen should be welcoming, simple and intuitive. If it is not, your salespersons will not use it and the project will die.

• 3. Test search capabilities extensively.

• 4. Is the product capable of doing mass e-mail or direct mail marketing campaigns? Today’s modern CRMs are far more than simple contact management.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/04/26/2013-crm-market-share-update-40-of-crm-systems-sold-are-saas-based/


• 5. CRITICAL REQUIREMENT FOR B-B MARKETING: Does the product have a simple way to segment your contact database. • Consumer marketing does not worry too much about this since they can’t quite

segment customers by needs and requirements, only demographics. • In B-B segmenting is a must, and a CRM that cannot segment your contacts

into, for example, drilling companies vs. refineries it is useless for marketing. • Infusionsoft uses Tags for this which can be used to generate reports, segment

different emails, etc.

• 6. Does the product offer a way to edit the steps in your opportunity pipeline? Many products do not.

• 7. Must have a way to connect with your email system, either Outlook or Gmail to easily record outgoing and incoming email communications.

• 8. The newest CRM trend is to facilitate integration with social media networks like Facebook or LinkedIn. Zoho CRM has a great feature that connects the Facebook and LinkedIn profiles of your contacts based on email address. Features like this will continue to increase in importance.

Recommendations When Selecting a CRM System


Quick Cloud CRM Assessments

• Salesforce is in my opinion too overloaded with features and not very easy to use.

• Highrise is the other extreme, easy to use but you will quickly outgrow it and need something more powerful.

• Infusionsoft has developed a great position as the system of choice for small businesses. It is in my opinion a good balance of features and ease of use but it is not inexpensive.

• GetBase has a cleaner and even simpler user interface and should also be a good candidate.

• Many Zoho CRM users have very good things to say about it. Furthermore they have a free starting package for 3 users that is not as limited in capabilities as other CRM free packages.

http://www.zoho.com/crm/free-edition.html

CRM Adoption Case Study

• Users of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems face an adoption and usage challenge. • 50% of all CRM implementations fail.

• Badgeville implemented a “Big Game Hunter” program for Salesforce.com to increase usage and engagement with the system.

• Sales people started out at “Chicken Hunters” and worked their way up to bigger and bigger game statuses, as they utilized more and more of the CRM system’s features.

• For one customer, compliance increased over 40%.www.Brioneja.com

Twitter: @Brioneja


Conclusion

• Selecting a CRM system that best fits the way your company does business is not a decision that should be taken lightly

• You should devote the necessary time and effort to ensure a successful transition.

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Contact Information• Jose A. Briones, Ph.D. (Brioneja)• Twitter: @Brioneja• [email protected]• www.Brioneja.com

Automating Operations: A Candid Analysis of CRM Marketing and Sales Operations Choices

Business

customer needs

business customer continuity

customer management

small business

better customer service

improved customer service

sales trends

tighter customer loyalty