There's no better time than now to get ahead and stay on top of business essentials. Not doing so could result in continued losses or eventual failure. Everyone wants to win, but the only way to do so is by confidently moving forward without hesitation or fear. Even if your last computer class was in high school, there are plenty of resources to guide you where you need to be. There's no need to get lost trying to understand modern technology. Every business needs organization, timing, an up-to-date website, knowledge of current trends in technology in order to survive and thrive in today’s competitive world of blaring ads and incessant marketing ploys.
One of my favorite childhood memories also happens to be an excellent analogy for success in business (and in every area of life). My great-grandmother loved playing a game with me and my younger sister by hiding a thimble among her many accumulated trinkets. In order to find the thimble, she would tease us as we searched by saying, “Getting warmer.” Or, she would exclaim, “You’re so hot your hand is on fire!” Business success is similar to that tiny-hidden-thimble-game, and getting warmer becomes simpler with a few tools and skills to speed up the hunt. The following accessories and strategies are geared toward heating up your business and setting your sales—not your hand—on fire.
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Having the organizational power of a CRM is essential for orchestrating complex and sensitive touchpoints. CRM's allow for the creation of dynamic marketing campaigns that contribute to building better relationships with your existing customer base. Every business needs a CRM, because this flexibility allows data to be more accessible and maneuverable. In addition, centralized, searchable data saves time, and time is money. Believe it or not, many business owners continue to manage their inventory with pen and paper! With a combined integration, a CRM or ERP (enterprise resource planning software) could handle that task as well.
According to research by George K. Amoako, Emmanuel Arthur, Christiana Bandoh, and Rachel Kafui Katah from the Central Business School of Central University College, there are seven primary advantages to utilizing a CRM.
With a CRM, contacts can be placed in categories according to their phase in the sales cycle. If the contact is not currently a customer, then they can be designated a lead status. Or, if they are an existing customer, then they can be labeled with a “closed deal” status or tag. By using these tools marketing and relationship management become super-charged.
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For example, leads can be sent automated marketing emails at specified times, or they can be contacted based on their actions or reactions. For instance, a lead opens an email but doesn’t respond, then another email or process can be triggered for that exact scenario. For existing customers, emails can be sent after one or two weeks in order to follow up after a sale. Then, three to six months into the relationship an email can be sent to your new customer in order to up sell services or products that correspond to what was already purchased.
These methods are essential to creating a high-touch experience for customers. Such steps are important, because the average consumer is no longer satisfied with simply buying a product and moving on. Now, customers expect companies to build a relationship with them, including interacting with them via social media. Without having a CRM, businesses can become “disorganizations” rather than finely tuned, income-generating machines.
Did you know that the appearance, loading time, and user experience will either cause your site to sink or soar? The 90's were great, but let's leave our nostalgia here and here. According to his 2014 Time Magazine article, Chartbeat CEO Ken McCarthy explains that 55% of people will spend a mere 15 seconds or less on any given site. So, this means that your site has one quarter of one minute to capture the attention of an average visitor to your page. Perhaps it’s a symptom of an over-stimulated generation that was (and is) bottle-fed technology and gaming, but it is what it is - capturing the attention of the modern audience requires engaging, interesting, and lightning-fast websites.
Not only are websites important for capturing the attention of potential leads in the sales process, but they are also great tools for capturing data such as email addresses, names, phone numbers, and company information. Any website can become a lead-generating tool that constantly refreshes your list of prospects. This causes a great website to become a key step in the sales process, because it can fuel sales better than buying a list from a lead generation company.
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