[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]CRM (customer relationship management) technology is growing in popularity in small and midsized companies, especially among their sales teams. CRM is essentially a system that’s deployed to manage the interactions of a company with clients, customers, and sales prospects. CRM software can help a company’s sales team organize, automate, as well as synchronize processes to help the company find, attract and get new clients, as well as retain the existing clients. There are many good reasons why companies may need to deploy this business automation tool.

Building stronger relationships with customers

One of the main goals of a company’s sales team is to build strong relationships with customers. By adopting a CRM application, the productivity of a sales team increases, which enables them spend a bit more time with clients. A CRM solution not only enables a sales team to spend more with existing customers, it also enables the team to spend more time with potential customers. Ultimately, spending more time with customers increases the number of deals that can be sealed, building a larger, stable customer base.

Increases the productivity of a sales team

Implementing a CRM solution can greatly increase the productivity of a sales team. It can streamline the company’s processes by completely automating order processing, pricing, and other sales assignments. Adopting CRM software will give a company a competitive advantage by lowering its production costs, boosting sales revenue, and expanding market share.

Reduces cost

It can be difficult for sales teams to reduce costs. Errors and additional time spent on order processing costs a business extra money. A CRM solution provides the tools a company needs to improve accuracy and effectiveness. Reducing errors with orders will save the time spent fixing those errors. More importantly, CRM solutions are available on demand so companies don’t have to waste time with solutions that slow down their processes. This effectively minimizes time wastage and reduces costs.

Helps companies get organized

Organization can make or break any company’s sales team. Organization is easy with CRM technology though. Adopting this business automation tool will help a company prioritize its tasks and responsibilities. CRM solutions enable a company’s sales team get more organized in following up leads, thereby saving time spent on following leads that are at various phases in the sales process. This gives businesses more time to attend to other responsibilities.

Automates client feedback

Although it’s not always great news, the feedback that a company receives from clients can be extremely valuable. Product returns or complaints, for example, are direct signs of problems that need to be solved; while requests for product or service improvements could create new development opportunities. Not all businesses, however, have the means to automatically record feedback which affects the entire organization.

CRM solutions allow businesses to set up a process which enables the feedback to be sent to relevant personnel in the company and allows lessons from the feedback to help improve the organization’s operations.

Enhances communication

Communication within a company’s sales team is vital when it comes to dealing with customers. There are many opportunities for mistakes and confusion to occur when a company doesn’t use solid communication tools. CRM software is an ideal way to improve communication within a sales team. A CRM application allows members of a sales team to quickly share information about the sales in progress. This may help make the whole sales process more efficient and therefore help businesses close deals and help sales teams get commissions faster.

Increases customer satisfaction

Customers are the main concern of any business. A CRM solution can help a company improve customer satisfaction by analyzing customer feedback. The feedback can be analyzed to create data and reports which may then be used to develop a product or service that meets or exceeds expectations. The CRM system can also be used to help clients more expertly. Customer satisfaction increases company loyalty and helps increase profit margins. Essentially, CRM software can give a competitive advantage to a company’s sales team.

CRM software may not seem like essential for small and midsized companies, but its advantages should be seriously looked at before it is ruled out. CRM solutions can help streamline a company’s sale process, enabling a sales team to forge strong relationships with customers and enhance efficiency.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

6 ways your sales rep could be doing more harm than good

And how your business might be paying the price.

The most important role in any business is sales. Without someone selling it, nobody is designing it, making it or getting paid for it. Sales reps are unquestionably the lifeblood of any business. It’s not to say that everyone else in your business, regardless of their role, isn’t important, but without sales reps hitting the streets, making the calls and bringing in the bucks, everyone else might not have a job.

Like most, during the lifetime of my career, I’ve seen great sales reps and not so great ones. In fact, some people I’ve seen in sales roles were real head-scratchers as to why they even chose sales as a career path, simply because they were so bad at it and never showed improvement. Hiring the right sales rep is a topic that can fill a library on its own. There are plenty of resources that can help you find the right person for your company. But make no mistake, it does start with hiring the right person, which is something you can address in your next recruiting effort.

There are a variety of circumstances in which you might find yourself dealing with underperforming sales reps. Sometimes we hire people that work out in the beginning, but things change for one reason or another and it impacts their sales performance. Other times it’s as simple as the person hired was just not the right person for the job. Regardless of the reason, when looking at the role of a sales rep based solely on their performance, this is often cut-and-dry and you can choose to address the issue accordingly.

But what about your sales reps that do meet their numbers, and perhaps even outperform the rest of your team? Could they be holding your business back and stunting your growth? Sounds odd, right? But this situation is more common than you might expect. Believe it or not, there are performing sales reps that prevent their company from achieving greatness, and not dealing with them might cause you greater harm than good.

The self-serving opportunist will put their best interests before those of the company. If you can’t see or do anything about it when you know it is happening then you’re contributing to a dangerous problem that will cap the company’s growth potential. Here a few examples of circumstances that can have severe impacts on the growth of your business.

Sales reps camping on their accounts

In the online gaming world, the term ‘camping’ refers to players who situate themselves in overly advantageous positions and don’t move from that spot, because they are safe. In these circumstances, the other opposing players usually don’t have a chance, because campers repeatedly ambush their opponents. In most cases, camping is often synonymous with cheating.

Sales Camping is similar in that a sales rep works a limited amount of accounts that are generally responsible for 90% of their sales revenue.  While that’s great for their sales, in the long term it becomes a high risk for the company if those accounts were ever to be lost. There are a variety of scenarios that could jeopardize an account, including relationships with the customer changing or falling apart, competitors gradually penetrating opportunities with your customer, and your sales rep leaving the organization and taking their customers with them, just to name a few and none of which are far-fetched. When things are going great for the company, Sales Camping goes virtually unnoticed or nobody feels the pressing need to address the issue even if it is obvious. It’s when customer purchasing slows down considerably or when unforeseen circumstances show themselves, such as layoffs, budget cuts or mergers and acquisitions, that the problem hits-hard and could have a major impact on your revenue. It’s not impossible to see your number one sales rep end up with single-digit results.

Business Owners and Sales Managers should consider implementing sales models that make it beneficial to transition top tier accounts to house accounts over a period of time, while still rewarding their reps with a lesser commission for the accounts. Models like this help keep the rep hungry and potentially adding similar new accounts to the company’s portfolio. In the long run, they can increase their earnings considerably.

Servicing instead of prospecting

Companies that spend less time overseeing their sales teams are the ones that put themselves at the greatest risk of not meeting their sales goals. Most sales reps want to make sure their customers are well taken care of, especially right after the deal has been awarded. While that’s a noble gesture any customer is sure to appreciate, spending too much time with the customer after the sale will quickly sandbag future sales opportunities. Sales managers and business owners should implement hand-off processes that give the customer the support they’re needing while allowing your sales reps to do what they do best and pursue new business. Account Managers and Project Managers are ideally the right positions for servicing customers, not Sales Reps. A process like this supports sales enablement, and the more able you make your sales team, the greater the chance you have of doubling the size of your sales and growing your company, faster.

Develop a sales model that encourages growth and new business. Consider higher commissions on initial sales and rewarding sales reps for the number of new accounts they bring to the company over a period (quarterly, yearly, etc.). Incenting sales growth will keep sales reps hungry, resulting in greater sales revenue and company growth.

Straying from the processes

Even if you only have one sales rep, it’s essential that they follow the rules, and more important, they work within the parameters you set for them within your sales process. While it’s perfectly fine for people to contribute to the improvement and evolution within any processes, the processes need to be respected. If your sales process determines that proposals of a certain amount need to be reviewed by a senior consultant or manager, then they need to respect the process. If travel budgets are set for sales reps, then they need to travel within the guidelines stipulated. If sales reps are required to use the company’s CRM, then they must stop adding new contacts and email addresses to  Outlook or their Apple Address Book, or tracking their leads in spreadsheets.

Having a solid sales process is critical to your overall success. It’s a road map that both your employees and customers travel with during their business journey. While there are circumstances that can possibly require a few adjustments, any adjustments are only the exception and not the rule. A maverick sales rep who cares little for structure and doesn’t follow the rules of the organization can do more damage to your business than good. As an example, when working in a silo, tracking leads in spreadsheets while everyone else is using a CRM is undoubtedly causing the rest of the team more work, including unnecessary double-entry. An unstructured sales process will be proceeded by a broken delivery model, and each will have a negative impact on your bottom line.

Having your sales reps follow your process and procedures, while not running-off along their own path, will also set an example to the rest of the team, not to mention new hires. Cavaliers who don’t follow the rules and become obstructionist to the greater good are bound to have a negative effect on your other personnel, which is a formula for building a toxic work environment with a chaotic, cumbersome workflow.

Know how much your sales reps cost you

Sales are great. Being profitable is even better. You should always know how much your sales reps cost you. When companies hire sales consultants the expectation is that the individual will be consistently closing profitable deals. Aside from the obvious margins and markup on the sale, the cost of a sales rep and the cost they can incur throughout the sales process can exceed their profitability and in some cases add more red to their ledger than black. Line items like travel and lead services can easily add-up, especially if these types of expenses are abused, overused, or simply don’t lead to winning the sale. Just because people are busy, it doesn’t mean they are profitable or breaking even. The world is filled with busy people working for companies that are broke and in debt. Watch the costs. A good rule of thumb to live by is for every dollar you spend, sell three.

While keeping costs in-line is everyone’s job, it’s something that has to be most scrutinized within your sales force. They are the one position that comes with ad-hoc and sometimes unpredictable expenses. When you hire a sales rep with grand expectations wrapped-up in a blanket of entitlement, it’s a good idea to keep close tabs on their cost vs. their performance.

They resist using a CRM

Depending on their age or technical acumen, some sales reps in your organization might not be comfortable around technology, which will be great for your progressive competition, but not so much for you. When hiring new sales reps you should quiz them on their technology comfort zone. Find out what they are used to using in their sales position, why they use it and how it’s helped them. You might even get a few pointers even if you don’t hire them. If they aren’t comfortable with using the kind of technology your business depends on and that their peers are using, then pass. While there is a reasonable amount of training that comes with every new hire, teaching life skills that include tools of their trade that they should definitely be comfortable with is not one of your educational responsibilities. As for the current sales reps who are resisting technology (and your processes), make it an ultimatum. Either way, it will become a situation that will resolve itself one way or another.

Responsible Sales Managers and Business Owners alike are always paying close attention to the sales activity within their organization. CRMs not only make this possible in real-time but they exponentially reduce the amount of time required to manage and aggregate sales data across multiple channels, not to mention all the added benefits including mobility, automation, and compatibility with other software, making the sharing and transitioning of data seamless. Sales reps who exclude themselves from contributing to your CRM data are costing your company time in data processing, more lost opportunities and revenue. When sales reps manage their own data outside your CRM, they’re withholding valuable information that your company owns, in addition to compromising customer service by neglecting to update and share client information.

Teaching old dogs new tricks all depends on the dog and the trick

Everyone is always learning on the job. Imagine the changes you’ve seen in a decade and consider the impact they might have had on companies and their employees. The straight reality is that not every employee can adopt or embrace change regardless of how amazing your training programs are. Sometimes it’s generational, sometimes it behavioral. Teaching an old dog a new trick depends on the dog and the trick, so choose who you want to invest in. Invest in employees who are invested in the company. Everyone gets a fair shot, but in the end, time is money. The longer it takes to train an employee or even worse, selling them on what they’re being trained-on, the further you are from seeing an ROI. And at some point, that becomes a negative number for your company.

Conclusion

Business leaders and managers set the rules. Whether it’s managing expenses, ensuring that goals are met, or keeping the company culture in check, successful businesses are run by disciplined leaders. You can have discipline and a great work environment at the same time. That’s how respect is built.  It’s all about setting expectations with your employees and your teams. The more people that play by the same rules, the stronger the links in your chain. People who can’t see that or resist proven methods in your organization aren’t making you money; they’re costing you money. Tolerate that long enough and it will cost you dearly, including the potential loss of better employees who lose faith in their management’s ability to make the right personnel decisions.

Jumpstart your Sales and Marketing initiatives with Mothernode CRM.

What does the fourth quarter typically look like for a business? In most cases this quarter falls in-line with the holiday season. As a result, the majority of the focus remains in boosting sales and current revenues.

While this is an important time for any business’s bottom line, could this laser-focus toward sales serve as a mistake for leadership teams and executives? In many cases, management and executive teams set themselves up for failure at the end of the year by not effectively planning for what’s next.

Instead of simply focusing on the holiday rush, the final quarter should also serve as a time for leaders to step back and let their teams drive the business. While they’re a step back from the action, effective businesses are evaluating their year-to-date performance while planning for the future.

For example, McDonald’s recently deployed an all-day breakfast model to expand their fast food competition. While this is an important change that is creating quite a reaction, now is the time for corporate to evaluate the results of this change.

Additionally, Apple’s recent OS update to their Apple Watch has their perspective focused far beyond the flagship iPhone release. Their team is also currently assessing this performance to better understand how the road will proceed ahead for their business operations.

As these examples show, the importance of Q4 planning and analysis is critical. Here are five important components of that analysis that every team should follow. This list can ensure that any firm is better prepared for success in the next fiscal year.

1. Year-Over-Year Comparisons

Comparing current year data with previous years is one of the most important metrics a business can measure. This helps showcase performance, trends, growth and other critical areas of business operations.

Using reporting tools to compare key performance indicators can show how current sales and forecasts look within the market. Additionally, market reports cross-referenced with this data can help to better forecast what to expect for the next quarter within business.

In most cases this type of data measurement is easily accomplished through an integrative CRM platform. This type of data can be reviewed as a general overview – or more specifically within quarters, months and even the year-to-date. Both positive and negative trends can be better identify when compared within this context. Additional planning can be undertaken to help prevent ongoing negative trends – or to better address positive growth potential.

2. Cost Evaluation

Cost evaluation is one of the most challenging areas of any business analysis. After all, it’s the costs across a business operation that inevitably leech into revenue when left unmanaged. Subscriptions, term agreements, unchecked contracts and other factors can quickly add up to excessive costs against a company’s bottom line.

By remaining proactive in the analytics, businesses can better identify these costs. And they can devise solutions to reduce or even eliminate expenses that may be unnecessary.

One of the most common areas where costs can be reevaluated occurs within company health insurance. With the marketplace becoming increasingly competitive, more and more insurance packages are becoming available for businesses. In many cases, alternative plans with similar features and lower costs may be available for a switch.

Additionally, contract renegotiations may help to reduce spending. It’s important to remember that these companies are competing for business. Hence, a management team’s job is to leverage contract offers against one another to find the most competitive rates possible.

ISPs and other telecom service contracts are a prime example where costs can likely be lowered. By reviewing current plans, needs and available options, many businesses can reduce these costs by a significant margin. Even essentials such as rent or janitorial services can be reassessed to find cost-saving measures.

3. Product & Service Evaluation

Right alongside overall costs, planning for the future must also encompass an explicit evaluation of products and services. The goal of this phase is threefold:

• Make improvements.
• Make changes.
• Make cuts.

A company must stick with its mission and plan while holding true to the strengths that have contributed to success. If cuts are necessary, ensure that they are made with company strengths in mind.

While seeking out new opportunities is always great, it’s important that a company not spread itself too thin during the process. This stage can allow for planning – and exploring potential market opportunities. By planning ahead for analysis, a business can better set itself up for success. And they can readjust their business focus to remain more aligned toward their goals in the next year ahead.

Remember, making necessary cuts and spending adjustments does not show that a company is having financial trouble. Instead, it shows that they’re preparing for even more success in the future.

4. Employee Evaluations

The best employees to any organization are an investment to the company’s success. Accordingly, it’s important to measure each employee’s ROI and their direct contributions to a company’s potential future.

While layoffs and terminations are never an easy step, the truth is that performance is important within an organization. Without the right team in place, a business will never reach its greatest potential.

In many cases, employee evaluation comes down to assessing current workforce as well as investing in future growth. This could also include investing in fresh talent within new business areas to facilitate this type of growth.

5. Budgeting

Now that the planning has encompassed the major areas of operations, a realistic budget can be developed for the next year.

Utilizing a CRM or ERP software suite should come as no surprise within any organization’s operations. This software simplifies all the above-mentioned steps by compiling data and developing customizable, intuitive reports. This information can be used to quickly develop budgets that address all areas of a business – and plan with future market trends in mind.

Getting Ahead of the Curve

While this list contains many of the important steps a business should take in Quarter 4, it certainly is not exhaustive. There are all sorts of additional options that should be looked at for success. However, these five represent all the essentials any business management or executive team should address.

No matter a business’s size or scope, utilizing a CRM platform can enable even better analytics for improved fiscal performance into the future. These software packages help to compile data into intuitive reporting. That way, management can better forecast the business climate – and the best path forward.

“Bad habits are hard to break” may be better known, but the saying “bad habits are like a comfortable bed – easy to get into, but hard to get out of” should be a mantra of every sales manager. Often, bad habits come from the ease of a certain approach. In other cases, a lucky (or unlucky) success gained through a non-desired approach may cause an individual to stubbornly stick to it. Whatever the reason, bad habits can be a main cause for poor sales. To avoid them infiltrating your sales team, it’s important to recognize them and nip them in the bud. Here are 10 of the most common ones to spot.

“Camping” on an account.

A well known term amongst online gamers, “camping” refers to players who camp in a single location waiting for the easy kill, without having to apply much effort. It requires very little skill and is often frowned upon in the gaming community. Similarly, in sales, this refers to the habit of a sales rep “camping out” on a single, presumably large account, devoting all of his or her time and resources to it in hopes of a big payout, all the while eliminating the possibility of acquiring new and perhaps even larger customer accounts, and severely limiting growth opportunities for both the sales rep and the company. In the worst case scenario (regarding prospects still in the sales process), the sale could fall through, resulting in countless wasted man hours and zero revenue. In the case of an existing account, the customer could finally reach the inevitable end of the big sales and the overall need for his or her services, reducing any remaining requirements to maintenance or small re-orders. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is an excellent way to guard against this as it can keep track of the time and resources being dedicated to each client.

Spending too much time talking and not enough listening

Sometimes, the desire to convince a customer of a product’s value can translate into a one sided interaction – which is definitely not in the best interest of the sale. Every customer wants to know a sales rep has their best interest at heart. This requires listening carefully, so that at the end of a conversation, a rep can recap what they’ve learned about the customer and his or her needs. Not being able to identify the customer’s true issues and desired results leads to shoehorning a partial or inadequate solution that is sure to include painful and costly consequences after the sale that will leave your customer unhappy and could even threaten your company’s reputation.

Selling a product when they should be selling a solution

A sales rep should know everything about the product and all of its advantages. After highlighting these, however, they now must directly address the problem the customer has challenged them with and present the product as the one and only solution rather than simply an object. A product is something that may be useful and a customer will consider purchasing. A solution to their problem, however, is invaluable and almost guaranteed sale. When you sell a solution, you’re adding value to the sale and exhibiting yourself as an expert in your field. You earn a position of trust. The results are much more reassuring than suggesting a purchase by pointing to a page in a catalog.

Failing to understand the customer’s needs

In many cases, a failed sale is not due to the rep’s inability as a seller. Rather, it is because a very capable sales rep has failed to understand the customer’s needs. Perhaps the rep has approached a prospective customer about purchasing your company’s flagship product. In refusing, the customer may very well have expressed what his or her true needs are – needs that another product offered by your company will perfectly address. Every sales rep should always be on the lookout for such information – and to keep track of each customer’s particular needs, CRM software is again the perfect tool and can provide you with data for existing sales to customers with a similar profile or needs. Tracking the performance of your products and services in your CRM is a good way to predict how they will be received in future sales, giving you a upper hand when it comes to better understanding your customer’s needs.

Not taking control of the sale

A sales rep should always be empathetic and connect with the customer. However, under no circumstances should the customer take control of the process. When this happens, a customer can begin to derail the sales rep’s delivery model and can quickly become distracted when listening to your message. A successful sales rep has a formula for closing the deal, a proven path they take their customer down toward the close, regardless of how long or short the sales cycle. Directing your prospect down this path has a much higher probability of closing the sales than following customer’s often random, erratic lead.  A successful sales rep is sympathetic to a customer’s problem, but confident in his provision of the solution, thus keeping the customer in his process throughout.

Acting Desperate

Few things will shut a sale down faster than a seemingly desperate sales rep. When a rep begins to beg a customer for a sale it completely transforms the purpose of transaction. It becomes transparent the sale is no longer about the customer’s best interest, but those of the sales rep’s. This is a circumstance even the most naive customer would be quick to run away from. In the end it becomes more damaging than just losing the sale, it reflects poorly on your company and could even suggest the business is in distress.

Forgetting to follow-up

With each follow-up your sales rep is showing dedication and an interest in their customer. Well worded approaches such as “I wanted to ensure we’ll be able to solve your problem together” can quickly turn a maybe into a resounding yes. An added bonus is that it shows the customer the kind of service and loyalty they can expect when dealing with your business. The attention you give to your customer in the sales process is often perceived as the kind of service they can expect after the sale. This is an area where CRM technology truly shines. Follow-ups can be automatically scheduled, or reminders for manual correspondences given. CRMs can also be particularly handy if multiple people are involved in the selling process, so every interaction, plus future commitments, are available to anyone participating in closing the deal.

Being Too Pushy

It’s the stereotype that makes businesses avoid even using the latter word; that of the ‘pushy salesman.’ If acting desperate is the largest blunder a sales rep can make, being too forceful runs a very close second. Confidence is a sales rep’s greatest power. Pushiness is his kryptonite. Depending on your product or service, some customers may need time and even a consensus to make the right decision. It’s important to move the sale along, just know when not to push to hard.

Not knowing when to walk away

The phrase “anything to complete a sale” should not be taken literally – there are many things you should not do or commit to during the sales process. A sales rep who is unable to recognize that point where it’s time to end a sales pitch may find themselves in a position where they cannot deliver what they promised – or if they do, they might be negating the profitability of the sale altogether. Learn to assess and reassess the sale throughout the process. Does a potential customer seem exceedingly difficult from the beginning? If so, this may be one to avoid. Additionally, indecisive prospects can unnecessarily prolong your sales cycle, wasting your time and resources along the way until the sale fizzles to a loss.  Remember that time kills all deals. The longer the sales takes compared to your average closing cycle, the less likely it is that you will close the deal. Know when to walk away and focus your attention on opportunities that have a higher probability of converting.

Failing to eventually ‘ask for the no’

This may seem counter-intuitive, but a great sales rep knows that there is always the real danger of becoming hung up on an account where the potential customer will neither commit nor clearly reject the ongoing sales pitch. If things do not begin to tilt noticeably towards a sale, the representative must skillfully get the customer to admit he has no intention of buying before valuable resources are drained into this tenuous type of account. There is no harm in requesting updates on where the customer is in their decision making process. Always know where your prospect stands in the sale.

As a consumer aren’t you always impressed when the vendor you are buying from has made your purchasing process convenient, by offering online merchant services? Whether it’s ordering from your favorite pizza shop, booking a weekend getaway or shopping for the holidays, buying made easy gets you want you want quickly and is easy money for the vendor, creating a win-win for everyone. In fact in this day and age you would expect nothing less than e-commerce from vendors, and might probably think less of any vendor who didn’t offer the convenience of online transactions.

But not all business is transactional, meaning you can’t always order, pay and get your product delivered. Sometimes you need to request a quote, because your order has too many custom or unique elements. We often experience this when ordering products that require complementing services as well, like custom setup or installation for products such as kitchen cabinetry, flooring services, painting and so on. In these cases, each require estimates based on variables in your home that are unique to you.

These instances are consultative sales as opposed to transactional sales and require boots on the ground to provide accurate, custom pricing. One of the disadvantages of this kind of sale is it takes a time commitment for the vendor to provide pricing and estimates to the customer and more often than not, the customer is shopping multiple vendors to get the best pricing and services possible.

As the consumer, there are observations you’ll make in the buying process when selecting a vendor. Price and product quality and options are certainly at the forefront. What about the company’s image? The look of the truck outside the house or the salesman’s appearance and professionalism. They also play an important factor. I think we’ve all been discourage enough times by poor representation that it cost a vendor losing the opportunity to earn our business.

As the vendor, when competing for business, you need to do anything and everything you can to differentiate yourself from the competition. Time kills all deals, so as the vendor you’ll need to consider what you can do to shorten your sales cycle, especially in a bidding situation.

We already agree and appreciate the convenience of order automation, however, we’ve also determined that electronic ordering isn’t a solution for every business and industry, because not all transactions can occur online. But what about electronic quoting? Wouldn’t that be a valuable asset that could differentiate you (the vendor) from the competition and even shorten your sales cycle in come cases?

Providing accurate pricing options, quickly to your customers (even on the spot) in an electronic format could just be the advantage you need to win the sale. Here’s a few considerations.

• Automating your quoting process is the first significant differentiator in your sales process .
• Because the quote is a PDF document, prospects can share the document with other decision makers by simply forwarding it in an email.
• The customer has everything they need in a clean PDF format in order for them to review.
• Customers have the convenience of approving the document online.
• Throughout the sales process you can review how many times the customer has viewed the document or be alerted if they have even viewed it at all. This can help you gauge their interest and you can follow-up accordingly.
• Signed documents are automatically archived with the original quote and the customer profile.
• Your complete selling process is electronic and everything, including your customer’s approval is incorporated into your workflow.
• Your business is participating in an environmental conscience process.

Examples

These short tutorials provide you with an overview of 2 types of electronic quotes you can prepare for your customer in Mothernode CRM and ERP.

Download

The download option lets you send the quote electronically with a link to download. Once the document is downloaded, the viewing activity is recorded in the quote. The feature is also available for other types of transactions in various Mothernode editions, including Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, Change Orders, Work Orders and Invoices.

Approval

The approval process allows your customers automatically approve the quote and proposal in addition to downloading it. Customers will receive a copy of their signed transactions and Mothernode users will also be alerted to when the quote was approved and a digital copy will be archived with the quote.

Want to learn more about how Mothernode CRM and ERP can benefit your business? Schedule a demonstration for your business today.

http://www.mothernode.com/mothernode-demo/

Delivering quotes to your prospects in a timely and professional format can be an important influencer in your sales process, even more than you may think. It can demonstrate your company’s ability to quickly deliver results, even before the sale is made, which can have significant impact when it comes to winning business over the competition. Offering premium services to prospects and customers alike is a key differentiator, especially when you combine those services with competitive pricing.

But your customers aren’t the only ones who benefit from quote automation. Automating the quoting process also means streamlining and simplifying your own workflow. The ability to generate and deliver quotes faster means you can manage more business opportunities, with less effort. Essentially, Mothernode Quotes help you increase your close ratio and win more business in less time.

Here are a few Mothernode Quote features that can help you produce and deliver powerful, profitable quotes in record time.

1. Products and Services

Products and Services is a ‘light’ inventory feature available in all Mothernode products that allows to quickly add items to new quotes. This will save you time when adding common line items to your quotes by automatically populating item names, descriptions, price, markup, and even lets you determine if it is taxable or not. You can also configure select products and services to be added in to all types of transactions, like Purchase Orders, Sales Orders as well as Quotes. Other modules will depend on your Mothernode Edition.

2. Advanced Inventory

If you want more features for your goods and services and pricing needs, Mothernode’s Advanced Inventory Module gives users the ability to add multiple items with ease. You can add related and upsell products, set multiple pricing levels for each product, keep track of stock levels, create sales bundles and more. Using Mothernode Inventory is a great way to save time when adding items you sell to quotes and other transactions.

3. Line Item Notes

Add notes to each of your line items with the option to communicate special information internally or to your customer. When reselling goods and services from vendors, you can also notate your original pricing source for your internal records.

4. Margin Watch

Mothernode helps users stay on task when it comes to pricing by giving them the tools they need to make sure markups and margins are carefully guarded, so your business can maintain the profitability you expect. This option feature let’s Sales Managers and Business Owners alike determine their baseline margin options.

5. Sub Items

Mothernode users have the ability to combine one or more line items together and roll them up into a single item and cost. This is ideal for complex pricing needs or in situations where you don’t want to reveal costs associated with particular products or services.

6. Electronic Delivery

Mothernode gives users the ability to submit quotes to their customers and prospects electronically via email and downloadable link. Mothernode automatically let’s you know via notifications each time the recipient receives and downloads their quote. This fantastic feature helps users gage their recipients’ interest and confirms their proposal was successfully transmitted and received. Electronic delivery is also available to communicate other transactions, such as Purchase Orders, Invoices and Work Orders, in applicable Mothernode Editions.

7. Electronic Signing

Simplify your approval process by giving your customers and prospects the ability to electronically sign their quotes. Mothernode gives you the option to send your prospects an electronic version of the quote they can approve on their desktop, tablet and mobile device. They even have the option to sign with their finger. All signed proposals are archived with the original quote for quick and easy reference, and all parties are notified when documents are approved.

8. Collaboration

Users can interact with their colleagues when creating quotes. Social media style collaboration lets users request pricing assistance and communicate important decisions to people on your team. Notifications communicate necessary actions and updates to everyone involved.

9. Discounting Options

Global discounts are neatly communicated to your customer at the bottom of every quote. Users can also offer discounts for each line item, when needing to provide more aggressive pricing.

10. Tax Exempt Quotes

Users who often deal with Tax Exempt situations can easily include Tax Exempt IDs into quotes, which will automatically remove any applicable tax charges from quote totals.

11. Resorting

Add line items quickly and resort them for proper presentation when they’re completed. This time-saving feature lets you complete your work quicker and worry about format at the very end.

12. Multi-Currency

Whether you have offices around the globe or have a client base around the world, Mothernode lets you assign currency settings to your customers and vendors, so payment information is clear on all your Quotes, Invoices, Sales Orders and Purchase Orders.

Buying a CRM: Topics that will make CRM Vendors uncomfortable discussing and help you make the right decision in the process

Selecting the right CRM platform for your business is a critical decision, and one that most every company would agree; you won’t want to make more than once, at least not for a couple of years. Implementing a CRM into your business takes time, effort, commitment, resources and most importantly money, so at the end of the day it’s in your best interest to educate yourself when evaluating the right vendor for your long term CRM needs. Implementing the wrong CRM will bring unnecessary expense, create new challenges for your team and a host of new bad habits. There are hundreds of types of CRMs on the market today, the question is; which one is right for you?

You’re really the only person that can answer that question, but there are some useful criteria that you should consider to help you decide on a CRM vendor that will increase your ROI and provide you with a lasting solution that can grow your business and equally important grow with your business.

Once you narrow down your selection of CRM vendors who immediately meet your most pressing needs, these are 5 useful discussion points you should engage in that will help you shape your final decision.

Scalability

Right now you’re most likely shopping for your immediate needs, but what about your growth? Adding users licenses, extending solution requirements, or integrating with third-party applications are essential considerations that shouldn’t be overlooked, regardless of your CRM solution. Understanding the full breadth of your CRM’s capabilities, and the costs associated with your growing pains should be a fundamental criteria in your buying process, because regardless of the solution you choose, you should expect one time costs and efforts associated with setup and implementation. These are costs you don’t want to have to repeat because you’ve quickly outgrown your CRM and need to get into a new one sooner than later. When determining your growth needs it’s a good idea to segment your priorities from the must haves and nice to haves. If the CRM vendor cannot provide a complete solution ask for their suggestions for the vendor(s) who they recommend as compatible integration points with their software. Although there may not be an immediate need for third-party integration you should still consider including the price of the solution in your overall costs if you anticipate the need to include those capabilities at a later point, to make sure you are comparing apples to apples when pricing out your CRM options.

• How far can your CRM vendor take your business without adding additional costs?
• How flexible is your CRM vendor when it comes to application integration or APIs?
• What kind of customization is required for your specific needs?
• What are the additional costs associated with your growth expectation (i.e. adding users, etc.)
• Are there pricing breaks or discounts for volume licensing?

Total Cost

Are you sure you know how much this is going to cost you? Sounds easy, but there are enough CRM vendors out there who have muddied the waters when it comes to pricing. Beware of complicated pricing models, they’re complicated for a reason. You need to understand what all of your costs are upfront. Your monthly subscription rates are obvious, but what are the costs for services like implementation, training, support, integration, customization and so on. In many cases to win your business implementation services are often reduced or downplayed by CRM vendors that require total subscriptions paid in advance. Once they have your subscription dollars paid in full (number of users X monthly subscription X 12) they could care less what your experience is with their product and will be ready to swipe your credit card when you need any of the other aforementioned services. They know there is a 50/50 chance you’ll renew for another term, and for most vendors like Salesforce.com and Sugar CRM, that’s a good enough statistic form them, especially when there isn’t any effort required on their part to keep you as a customer if you depend on their product daily. Know what those costs are upfront and always be prepared to pay them, even if all may not apply.

If a vendor is eliminating implementation services from their pricing proposal to you, their not doing it to save you money, they’re doing it to win your business in a bid situation. Requiring these services after you begin using their software could increase your implementation costs significantly. 

Understanding all the costs will give you a better perspective when comparing vendors. Be sure to get an itemized list of all costs and potential costs.

Considerations

• When it comes to implementation services statistics will validate that companies who engage their CRM vendors for these services have a higher success rate in adoption and overall ROI with the CRM subscription. If you’re committing to term agreements and/or prepaying for a 12-month period, then start right, implement based on your vendor’s recommendation – they know something you don’t; their product and their customers’ experiences with and without implementation services. Customers who opt to follow implementation plans have a higher ROI on their CRM than those who attempt to do it themselves.
• Ask about pricing increases. All too often CRM vendors tend to increase their subscription plans with existing customers that force them to pony up or shop elsewhere. Salesforce.com is notorious for drastically increasing their subscription prices after year 1, especially on low cost incentive plans that were solely introduced to lure their customer in. Shopping for a new CRM one year after you purchased and implemented your existing CRM is a process nobody wants to engage in and something that could have been avoided had the buyer familiarized himself with the long term cost. If you want to maintain your pricing get it in writing. If the vendor won’t do that for you, then you know the answer.
• Make sure you are pricing apples to apples. Comparing services for services will give you the most accurate and honest pricing. If a service appears on one vendor’s estimate (and was and justly explained) ask your other vendors why they don’t include a similar line item in their pricing, and what the cost would be for the same service if not included. Remember, once you sign a 12-month agreement or pay for 12-months in advance, you’re stuck. So get familiar (and comfortable) with all the potential costs, even if you never use them.

If you’re looking at budget software then expect budget results.

Make sure that every CRM vendor can provide you with pricing and information for the following services and costs:

• Total cost of user subscriptions and if they’re required upfront or can they be paid monthly?
• Standard Implementation services, including costs, requirements and duration.
• Training services. What kind of training options are available and what are their costs?
• Customer Support. What kind of support plans do they offer and what are the benefits?
• Customization services. What can you do and what you will need the vendor to do?
• Third-party integration. What’s available now and what are typical costs associated with integrating to third-party applications?
• What are some of their pricing differentiators compared to the other vendors you are considering?

Support and Customer Service

What happens after the sale? Moving forward you’ll have questions about the features and functions as well as practical questions that help you understand how the CRM can be used in real-life scenarios, above and beyond your standard tech support services. Who’s going to be answering those questions? How qualified is the support team above and beyond tech related questions? Will you have a dedicated account manager who can assist you or are you calling and 800 tech support number each time and have to explain your problem from scratch when asking for an update? What kind of experience can you expect after the sale? The kind of customer services and support offered for your CRM will play an integral part in your adoption process and overall success, so know what’s available.

Get an understanding of your vendor’s support process upfront.

• Are there different support plans? If so what are the benefits and cost for each? What does basic support cover?
• What are their hours of operations for customer service? Will timezones be a contributing factor to your response time?
• Who will be supporting you? Is it a dedicated account manager or will each of your cases be assigned to general tech support?
• What are the response times? Every issue is different and may have unique resolutions, but what are the general response times from opening a new support case to resolving the issue?

References

Before you’re ready to buy you should always ask for references from existing customers to help you understand someone else’s overall experience with the vendor, from the buying process through implementation and after sales service. While it’s ideal to compare yourself to an customers with exact needs, within the same industry as you, it’s not always relevant, necessary or possible. What does matter is comparing yourself to existing customers that have similar requirements or challenges. That can include number of users, offices, and usability needs. Though implementation and setup are a one time service, existing customers with integration needs will provide tremendous insight as to whether or not the vendor was capable of meeting their customization requirements and doing it on budget. You can always research customer experiences online, but nothing is more insightful than calling existing customers with a list of questions you’ve prepared in advance.

Here are some questions you can ask your vendor’s references.

• What was your previous process or solution, prior to selecting the CRM vendor?
• Who else did you evaluate and why did you choose this vendor over the others?
• How long have they been a customer? In terms of annual agreements have they renewed before and/or do they intend to renew?
• What was the implementation experience like? How long did it take? How much effort did they have to commit to? Were there any additional costs incurred?
• Were there ever any price increases? if so, were they expected?
• Was the product easy to adopt? How much time did it take for users to become comfortable with using it? Was it difficult to learn?
• Did the implementation stay on budget?
• Are there any corners that you cut to save money that you regret?
• Has the vendor continued to provide you with quality service after the sale that your expect?
• Did you have to integrate with any third-party applications?
• What kind of customization did you elect to do, if any?
• In what ways do you use the vendor’s product?

Price (Get ALL the numbers)

When searching for the solution that is right for your business, try not to shop on price alone. Sure there needs to be a threshold for your CRM costs, but before you worry about price, focus on solving the problems your organization is suffering from. As with everything in life, you get what you pay for and when it comes to economy products, CRM is no exception. Buying a CRM is much like buying a car in the respect that it has a term life cycle. If you need a minivan for your household of 7 and buy a Mini Coop to cut corners you’re making a costly mistake that you will continue to pay for in both hard and soft costs for quite a while. It’s important that you understand your full range of needs (immediate and long-term), but be sure to first find a CRM solution that will solve the immediate problems and challenges your business is facing, with the ability to address long term requirements. If you cannot solve the most essential problems with a new CRM, then you’re paying money to create new problems, like in the Mini Coop example. Set honest expectations; it’s rare that you’ll find an affordable all in one CRM that will accomplish everything you want, but make sure it does the basics and does them well. Remember, you’re trying to improve your business processes, not trade existing dysfunctional workflows and problems for new obstacles and challenges of equivalent or greater proportion. If you’re looking at budget software (low cost CRMs) then expect budget results and it won’t be long before you’re back on the market again for a richer product.

When it comes to price, make it a consideration, not a distraction. Bottom line, be an educated buyer.

As a CRM Vendor I often find myself not only selling software but offline solutions as well; mainly consultative services that help a business establish best practices in front of the keyboard and in front of the customer. It’s part of the value we have to offer in order to really help our customers improve their operations. After all, software alone isn’t the single solution that will save the day.

A natural part of providing solutions to your customer is discovering their philosophies and current processes. We do this so we can tailor a solution that complements and improves upon the workflow their already familiar with. Over the years we’ve had a chance to speak with thousands of people from a variety of industries to learn about sales needs and ultimately their sales process and find out what’s important to them in a CRM. While almost 95% of them had common needs in a CRM solution, like improved collaboration, calendar sharing, ease of use, mobility, tracking leads and opportunities, etc. we found the way CRM users are managing their sales teams and the metrics they were recording could be broken down into two categories; those who focus on their sales reps’ daily activities and those who focus on their accomplishments (usually on a monthly basis). In other words, micro sales management and macro sales management.

Why do we hire sales reps? Simple. To grow revenue. Growing your customer base and increase sales is the end result you’re looking for. Period. It doesn’t matter how they achieve that result either, by the way, as long as the results meet or surpass your expectations (and legal of course).

When you employ a sales rep, you hire them for a service; “Selling” and compensate them for a result; “Sales”. Lose sight of this and will cost you lost revenue, be an expensive mistake and could even bankrupt your business if not dealt with.

Sales can take time, and how much time all depends on your industry and where your prospects (or customers) are in their buying process. There are a variety of reasons (in fact too many to count) that can impact a company’s sales cycle. Far too often micro sales managers invest their time reviewing the wrong matrix. They get too lost in looking at their sales rep’s daily activity log an equating of the volume of activity with successful efforts. There’s a false feeling of comfort that can come from viewing activity analytics, like the number of calls made or emails sent during a given day. I’ve seen plenty of organizations in a variety of industries with sales reps who had greater sales results with fewer calls over a monthly period than their peers, mainly because they knew where and how to invest their time.  It’s true that sales is a numbers game and the more touch points you have, the more chances you have of closing a deal, but there is also a multitude of factors that are required to support that activity like experience, technique, personality, demand, price and so on. Setting expectations on HOW your sales rep sells boxes them into your process and not theirs. Sales is a talent, much like art. If a person had artistic abilities wouldn’t you let them work using their unique skills that make them successful rather than stand over their shoulder and instruct them on how to paint?

Keeping with the art analogy, you judge a painting on the end result, what the picture looks like when it’s completed, not how many brush strokes or colors it took to make it.

Volume of calls doesn’t necessarily mean quality calls.

On paper, Frank makes an average of 50 calls per day while Kelly only makes 10. A report like this offers a single dimension perspective and basically indicates that Frank makes more calls than Kelly and is probably a better sales rep. In reality, all of Frank’s calls may last an average of 2 minutes, while Kelly’s 10 calls could average 15 minutes. In this case, because Kelly is spending longer with her prospects on the phone, she’s actually advancing them further into the sales process by qualifying her prospects, determining their needs, identifying key decision makers, buying motives and so on. When you look at it from this perspective and understand the details, it becomes a little clearer that sometimes less can be more. But even in this example, the details in the duration of the calls are irrelevant from a sales management perspective because Frank and Kelly need to be measured on their results, not the details of their conversations. Face it, sometimes those details could be exaggerated and thus makes the details irrelevant to measuring their success. They need to be measured on one single criteria; the revenue they generate for your business. The number of closed deals, actual sales that they make in a given time period. Successful sales managers focus on the big picture; the results of their sales reps.

The Devil is in the details.

The details are still important, but usually best observed in postmortem to help you identify why someone is either more successful or less successful in their sales activity. They should be used to uncover relevant symptoms that can lead to an accurate diagnosis. Remember, there is a multitude of reasons why one sales rep can outperform others in your organization; experience, specialty, territory, technique, approach, product knowledge, geography, lead sources, number of existing customer relationships, just to name a few. Understanding the details by analyzing your business intelligence through reports and KPIs will give you a broader perspective of why and where you are seeing success and help you standardize these elements throughout your organization where and when possible. For some, finding the formula that works best could take years. This is particularly common in startups.

Measure your reps monthly, but keep on top of their weekly progress. Familiarize yourself with the activity they have in their pipeline and work towards closing those deals as well as growing your sales funnel. Give your sales team the flexibility they need to deliver the results you expect and make sure they have the support they need to succeed. Don’t get lost in reporting micro details that are insignificant values, stay on track with the big picture and keep your eye on the ball; making sure your monthly, quarterly and annual revenue goals are being met. Set your expectation on revenue, not activities. If you expect call quotas to be met, you’ll achieve call quotas. If you expect revenue goals to be met, you’ll achieve your revenue goals.

Ease of use is the key ingredient when combining technological infrastructures with your business workflow

There are a few criteria that will make or break your CRM adoption process, such as executive sponsorship, user attitude, ultimate necessity and so on. But  CRM ease of use has always been the fundamental tipping point, because without it, expecting a positive outcome with the other areas mentioned will be impossible to achieve.

CRM Ease of use comes in two forms. First (and in general terms), how simple the application is to use and adjust and second, how simple the customer’s workflow actually is. A complicated workflow and CRM packed with drop-downs, check boxes and custom fields that demand attention can be even more frustrating than a poorly designed interface. When CRM ease of use just isn’t there, then you can expect poor adoption, resistance to change, diminished use and enough buyer’s remorse to make your investment a bust within only a couple of months, if not weeks.

When considering CRMs, most businesses are looking for a technology solution that can facilitate operations, supplement manual methods and automating (or expediting) common procedures. But they’re also trying the gain greater visibility into their organization, so they can gain real-time clarity through reliable business intelligence, including, but not limited sales performance, revenue forecasting and pipeline activity. While both perspectives are important, CRM ease of use will need to be addressed in order to achieve the latter. If the first experience is too much of a challenge, then don’t expect the rest of your CRM requirements to be any different.

“Solving your problems of today with a product filled with limitations is certain to catch-up with you tomorrow.”

First time buyers, new to CRM in general, usually have a long list of need to haves, they often overlook the basics; what are the core requirements? The ones they can’t live without. Narrowing down the requirements to the base essentials will align buyers with the right product and a greater probability for a successful adoption. This doesn’t mean buyers need to ignore features and capabilities they can later grow into, so understanding a CRM product’s full potential is something that shouldn’t be ignored; solving your problems of today with a product filled with limitations is certain to catch-up with you tomorrow.

Focusing on the essentials will yield compounded positive results in your adoption and use. Make the user’s experience quick and painless and you’re on your way to achieving the expectations you’ve been looking for. Once they get the basics, and utilize minimal record keeping practices (ie: maintaining pipeline advancement, etc.) then you can graduate them to other expectations that may evolve in your business processes. Positive, sustainable results begin with successful adoption, and this all begins with CRM ease of use.

Related:

Watch this discussion amongst CRM Vendors as they share their observations in the CRM adoption process.

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