CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
B2B Sales is really a timely flow of information from supplier to customer, and that communication starts with the first interaction. Increasingly that flow of information needs to be on-point and timely.
If you're not operating one, your customers could be suffering and likely your sales leads too.
Many small businesses are great at providing great value for their customers, but often less so with their sales leads. Leads, no matter how generated need between 5 and 7 touches to become customers. Sadly, many are abandoned after one. That's a chronic waste of resources, sales leads are expensive.
An effective CRM can manage all of your sales leads, contacts, automate repetitive tasks, prompt critical follow ups, and make organisational what used to be individual knowledge and relationships.
CRM's do not need to be expensive, there are a few great CRM's for a couple of $1000's per year, not month.
Be aware that there are thousands of CRM's. Only entertain a system that is well supported with good online and customer success support. Too many CRM providers have great marketing, get your attention quickly but their products rarely deliver.
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CRM's we frequently see and use with clients
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HubSpot
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A marketing focused CRM that has very powerful tools. It can function as an inexpensive sales tool too but the pay walls are nearly invisible and the billing can jump to the $1000's per month quickly. When we find clients that are already operating this successfully, they can perform sales growth very if the marketing is integrated in one place properly.
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Sales Software to Grow Your Business | HubSpot
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Dynamics Sales
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Dynamics Sales is for medium to enterprise clients who use Dynamics ERP functions operationally. It allows detailed integrations with other Microsoft apps and platforms. Dynamics delivers all of the marketing integrations and has excellent sales management tools. Clients have had great success using this platform for generating sales.
Dynamics 365 Sales | Microsoft Dynamics 365
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Zoho
Zoho CRM is an effective sales tool and is a part of Zoho One, which is an ERP for small business. If you are looking for a platform that can integrate sales with every other part of your business in a small business friendly manner, then Zoho is an excellent option. Bigin, the Zoho small business CRM has many competitors that do it better.
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Zoho CRM | Top-rated Sales CRM Software by Customers
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Active Campaign
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Active Campaign has an email marketing focus but also has strong sales management functions. The basic plan which is a few $100's not $1000's per month allows for three users. Clients starting out on their CRM journey find Active Campaign effective and with some help it can revolutionise their sales results. The support from Active Campaign online and customer support is very good.
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Marketing automation for any business | ActiveCampaign
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Pipedrive
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A simple, sales focused CRM that allows small business to operate an effective sales CRM with basic automation and marketing functions for less than $100 per month per user. A great place to start with a CRM, with great support and lots of online resources to help new business owners get up to speed quickly.
Sales CRM & Pipeline Management Software | Pipedrive
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Top Tip
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If you're new to CRM's it is probably a good idea to have an expert help set it up for you. But, as with any system you need to know and understand the processes first. Software implementation is a process of integrating people with software, not just and upload with tweaks.