Author: imageconcepts

Do you want to unify your sales team? Unify your remote sales team. Here’s how you do that.

52% of employees work from home at least once per week. Working remotely comes with many different benefits as well. To begin with, you may find that you are able to get more work done while also giving your team an outstanding level of flexibility regarding their working hours. That being said, you have to remember that you also need to unify your team properly. If you don’t, then you may find that nobody is able to achieve their full potential and that you are not able to push past your competition. If you want to make sure that your remote team is working like a well-oiled machine, then this is the guide for you.

Encourage Healthy Competition

You have to make sure that you are fostering a competitive environment and that you are also encouraging participation as well if you want to unify your remote sales team. This can be done through weekly meetings that are done remotely. When you do this, you can make sure that the top efforts are being celebrated while also ensuring that you give people the chance to share their practices when it comes to securing sales too. If possible, you also need to try and encourage people to speak up when they are struggling as well as this will give them the chance to get the help they need to achieve their full potential.

Celebrate Wins

It’s vital that you recognise good work. Even when you do not see any of your team members in person, you should never overlook the power of incentivising. You have to make sure that your team feel important and that they also feel included. It may be that you recognise someone on a group chat when they make a large sale or when they close a deal. You can then have other team members join the chat and offer their praise. This is a simple exercise but at the end of the day it can help to boost morale and it can also help people to keep on selling too.

Create a Slack Channel

You don’t have to use Slack, but it’s one of the best programs out there for team communication. In-house offices tend to be bustling and busy, and a lot of sales executives often say that they thrive on a noisy sales floor. When you have your team working remotely, you may find that things end up being quiet. If you can open a dedicated channel, then this will help you to discuss progress and you can also give everyone a place where they can share in the miniature wins that they get. This can help them to stay motivated when it comes to pursuing big sales.

Support your Reps

The biggest tip that you could hope to take from this post to unify your remote sales team would be for you to make sure that your reps are supported. Your project manager should have a good relationship with every team member, and they should also feel supported in every way. If the sales team do not feel supported, then efforts can easily diminish, and you may find that your pipelines are impacted as well.

Don’t Micromanage

When it comes to managing your sales team, you have to avoid micromanagement. Keep everything focused on goals and how you want to achieve them. Sales team members tend to be motivated by their own success or through things like customer interactions. When they get motivated, you can then get out of their way and let them do their job. You will soon see that the results speak for themselves.

Offer Coaching

If you want to try and unify your sales team, then you also need to try and offer them coaching where possible. You need to make sure that you are always providing them with the appropriate guidance so that they can increase their set of skills. Your staff should have enough direction to help them generate even more leads on a day to day basis, and this is ideal if you want to boost your sales.

Set Good Expectations

You have to make sure that every single member of your sales team has very clear expectations. If you can do this, then you will soon see that it is all about communication. If possible, you need to step up how often you communicate. If you work in a traditional office, then you may find that it is easy for you to bump into team members from time to time, but if you work remotely you can’t do this. If managers set concrete and easy to achieve goals for their team, then you will find it easier to unify your team. You may also find that they are much more engaged and focused overall. Using a CRM software, like the one provided by Purple Potato is one of the best ways for you to ensure that your team are meeting their goals. It will also help you to ensure that each team member knows their responsibilities.

Are you looking to improve stagnant sales revenues? Find out our top 7 tips for increasing sales durably in small and medium-sized businesses.

As a small or medium-sized business, you know that sales are crucial for your survival. For SMEs, the priority of increasing sales is to create a stable financial situation for growth.

Unlike large companies, you can’t afford to hire a celebrity to promote your brand on TV. Similarly, time is of the essence, and the longer you wait, the more difficult it can be to maintain your operations. Therefore, it’s essential to consider cost-effective strategies that can impact your sales figures rapidly.

Focus on new sales training trends

The global pandemic has dramatically affected the way people choose to communicate and buy. As a result, your sales team needs to be trained to handle the virtual sales process. Remote sales activities can be difficult: Over 4 in 10 sales reps struggle to manage virtual sales effectively and find the process more challenging than traditional sales. In the long term, the sales shortfall can affect the business.

Virtual training methods have been growing in popularity even before the pandemic through e-learning and online workshops. It becomes essential to arrange for dedicated digital training for your team to boost their confidence for increasing sales in a post-pandemic, remote environment.

Maximise upsell & cross-sell opportunities

According to statistics, cross-selling and upselling strategies increase revenue by up to almost a third. Upselling and cross-selling opportunities can be highly effective as part of the offline sales journey and for digital businesses. SaaS, e-Commerce, and other online ventures can increase their revenues through strategic upselling and cross-selling.

What does it look like in practice? Cross-selling focuses on promoting related products or services, such as pairing socks with a pair of trainers on an online retailer site. On the other hand, upselling promotes a better model or added features to the product or service chosen. Both strategies increase sales revenues.

Encourage customers to turn advocates

Satisfied customers can turn brand promoters for the business. Indeed, satisfied customers are more likely to recommend your brand to friends. According to figures, 92% of people trust personal recommendations over advertising. Therefore, businesses that fail to encourage advocacy are missing out on a significant opportunity to increase sales. How do you best turn a customer into a brand advocate:

• Reward customers for referrals
• Create a loyalty programme to keep customers on board
• Encourage user-generated content
• Create a customer-centric culture
• Build brand ambassador programmes with popular social media users

Build your influencer marketing strategy

Popular social media users are social media influencers. They have a large and loyal follower base. Partnering with influencers can promote brand awareness, visibility and increase sales. You may not have the budget to work with an international influencer. However, local influencers can be not only more cost-effective, but they also have a more significant sales increasing impact for small businesses.

A local influencer is a popular social media user, blogger, vlogger, or Instagrammer whose influence is localised in a city or a small region. Because they have a smaller follower base, local influencers have high engagement rates with their audience, maximising sales potential.

Improve customer experience

Two types of customer experience will leave a lasting memory for your customers: an excellent experience or a bad one. Customers are more likely to leave a negative review if they are disappointed by the experience with your brand. Unfortunately, negative reviews are harmful to your business.

A positive experience can help turn satisfied customers into advocates and attract influencer partnerships.

Run special offers

Small businesses lose 5% to 10% of their customer base every year. Offers and incentives can stimulate repeat purchases from existing customers and attract new ones, effectively replacing churn out.

Some of the most effective offers to contribute to increasing sales are time-focused and bring more value to the customers:

• Buy one, get one free
• free delivery
• x% discount for existing customers or a specific demographic
• free product or service when you buy X
• Bundle offer
• competitions

Diversify inbound marketing

Your inbound marketing strategy is designed to bring visitors in, aka drive them to your website or your shop. Diversifying your inbound strategy means you can use multiple channels and best practices to reach a broader audience.

SEO is a popular marketing tool to increase online visibility and web traffic. However, you can also consider additional campaigns, such as paid search engine presence through PPC.

Social media advertising and management can drive brand awareness to your audience outside of search engine platforms.

Video marketing can be highly effective on specific social media channels such as YouTube and Tiktok, but it can also increase brand engagement for a broader reach.

The bottom line: Not everyone uses the same platform, so make sure to be everywhere your audience is.

How we can help

At Purple Potato Software, we are a dedicated team providing cloud CRM services to SMEs in the UK and the US to help them track their customers and manage their sales.

We empower you with the tools to track existing sales and implement strategies for increasing sales.

Looking to improve your customer relations with a modern CRM package for SMEs? Learn how to unlock the full potential of your software with this simple guide on Getting Started with a CRM.

Whether you’re about to launch a startup or want to take your business to new heights in 2022, keeping your clients happy will be a priority. Integrating the right CRM software will be one of the most beneficial steps to make it happen.

When used efficiently, CRM for SME packages can completely transform the way you interact with your clients to deliver a plethora of benefits. Here’s how you can get started with your CRM software in style.

First Up, Why CRM Software?

Customer Relationship Management is a concept that has dominated the business arena for generations, even if the term wasn’t coined until recent times. It defines the way you handle client interactions to inspire positive responses and increase engagement.

CRM software allows companies to track, store, and analyse all relevant data from interactions across all platforms and devices. This can include emails, phone calls, social media, in-store connections, and more. Here are just six reasons why companies need it in 2022 and beyond;

• Studies show that a huge 74% of consumers are influenced by customer experience.
• 52% of consumers would happily pay more for a better customer experience.
• Customer experience (45.9%) is the most common priority for business makers.
• Poor customer service costs UK businesses £37billion every year.
• 88% of customers read reviews, which can have a big influence on their opinions.
• There is a revenue increase of 80% for firms that master customer experience.

CRM for SME packages make it a lot easier to record and review all client-based data. In turn, this can boost everything from conversions to loyalty.

Five Steps to Starting Life with a CRM

Now that you appreciate the importance of using a CRM, you’ll be eager to get up and running in style. Focus on the following five steps and you won’t go far wrong.

Select the Best CRM

Naturally, the first step is to complete your market research and find a winning CRM package for you. The industry has witnessed an exponential rate of growth in the past decade and there are now hundreds of solutions available. To find the best option for your business, answer the following questions;

• Is it a CRM built with small businesses in mind?
• Does it suit your industry – such as being a CRM for construction firms?
• Can it be used across multiple devices and user accounts – if required?
• Is the software priced well and able to upscale with your need?

Purple Potato is a brilliant solution for the majority of SMEs across the UK. Get in touch to find out what it can do for your company today.

Understand the Dashboard

Once you’ve installed your CRM for SME solutions, you must focus on becoming familiar with the layout and navigation. Every CRM is unique but a host of universal tools and features have been central to the success of a sector that’s set to hit $80bn by 2025. Some of the key issues to consider are;

• Learning the navigation from the main menu to switch between sections like accounts and tasks.
• Becoming familiar with notifications and where they appear so that you can respond quickly.
• Understanding widgets, particularly customisable ones where you can choose the data you wish to show.
• Becoming familiar with using search features that help you find what you need far sooner.

The best way to get started with your CRM is to spend time using it. Everything from the colours and layouts to making sense of the available data will soon become clear.

Import Data

CRM software is ultimately designed to help businesses use data more effectively. Adding accounts is a crucial step, and possibly the most time consuming of the initial phase. You can add accounts from the navigation menu or complete a bulk data import if you already have the details stored elsewhere. But you must remember to;

• Confirm that any manually added data is full, accurate, and follows a structure.
• If importing data, be sure to convert the spreadsheet to a .CSV file.
• Delete the demo accounts that were showing on the software.

You cannot record or track data from leads and customers if you do not first have their data uploaded to the CRM. Once it is, you’ll be set to keep data from future interactions too.

Add Tasks

As you get more experienced with the CRM for SME system, you’ll probably start to create custom charts and use customer reporting to help understand data and client behaviours. For now, though, setting tasks will be the key feature. This allows you to assign jobs to team members, manage workflows, and close more sales. Examples may include;

• Offering a 3-month follow-up call to a client after completing their project.
• Sending notifications to clients that their service is due to expire.
• Using the direct email system to message leads who have requested info.

A completed task will be filed correctly while overdue tasks and incomplete tasks will be flagged up. You can quickly see which team member is responsible for each task.

Train the Workforce

Perhaps one of the most important things to remember is that you won’t be the only person to use the CRM. Customer support teams will need daily access while you may find that marketers and other employees will utilise the available data to spot trends or determine how to enhance the business. Training your staff can occur through;

• Following online tutorials on how to use your CRM software.
• Encouraging them to use the demo account before you integrate the full CRM.
• Hire an expert to actively visit your team.

Ultimately, the key is to ensure that all team members use a consistent approach and feel confident with the software. More work will follow, but this should put you on solid ground.

Final Thoughts

Getting started with a CRM may seem daunting, but it is a process that will begin to deliver almost immediate results. And by laying the foundations for better customer relationships, the software can be a wonderful tool for boosting your bottom line.

Increasing sales and customer relationships

Increasing sales and customer relationships as a business are more effective with CRM strategies. Although they are useful, there are some things about them that can be quite frustrating. Let’s take a look.

Increasing sales and profits is every businesses aim. Although money isn’t everything, it certainly helps a business attain greater success.

With CRM’s, it is made more possible to increase and enhance customer relationships with existing and potential customers.

Although they prove to be effective, there are some things that business owners will likely hate about CRM’s. Of which, most people will have these dislikes in common.

On that note, let’s take a look at the top 5 things we all hate about CRM’s.

What is a CRM?

A CRM is a customer relationship management system, which works to manage interactions with existing and potential customers. Its main aims are to manage sales, points of contact, and enhance productivity in a business.

A CRM works by utilizing tools that can help to build customer relationships, which will work to grow a business. There are various CRM tools that businesses can use to support customer relationship management. It all depends on your type of business and what pros you are looking for.

Speaking of pros, there are also some cons to CRM’s that we can all agree are pretty frustrating.

5 things we all hate about CRM’s

CRM’s can be highly beneficial to increase and maintain customer relationships. However, they aren’t always great. Here are the 5 things that we can all agree to hate about CRM’s.

When it isn’t connected to your email

When a CRM isn’t connected to your email then you will lack communication with your customers, which is the whole purpose of using CRM’s. They are designed to build customer relationships and make them easier. Therefore, when they are not connected to your email properly, there will be a lack of communication, which can hinder your customer relationships.

Around 60% of CRM users claim that the poor email connectivity process can make the tools a complete failure. After all, they are designed to make email communication much more seamless for a business.

When the system isn’t user-friendly

Some CRM’s are simply not designed to be user-friendly. Therefore, there offer a poor user experience, which opposes their aim.

Nobody wants to waste their time with a slow or confusing CRM tool, especially a customer. Therefore, it is reasonable to deem a CRM a failure if it doesn’t provide your customer with a good experience.

When you have to input excessive data

Using CRM’s in your business is useful to manage your time better and improve your productivity. Therefore, when you have to input excessive amounts of data into the CRM system for it to be effective, it opposes what it is designed to do.

The extra work will hinder your productivity and impact how much time you can spend on sales.

When it doesn’t cooperate well with other sales tools

Every business will likely use multiple sales tools in order to maximize the sales potential of their business. Therefore, if a CRM doesn’t cooperate well with other sales tools, then it will hinder your sales potential. It will create conflict in your business and increase your manual work, which isn’t fun.

The purpose of a CRM is to streamline your sales process and maximize your sales potential. If it doesn’t work well with other tools then it will make the sales process much more challenging and slow.

When they are difficult to use with complicated reports

Seeing as the purpose of a CRM is to make a business run more smoothly, it can be frustrating when the reports are complex and difficult to understand and learn from.

A complex CRM report can take a person hours to run through and understand, let alone use it to tweak the business in order to maximize sales. Therefore, it is understandable to hate CRM’s when they offer complex reports.

Moreover, when a CRM is difficult to use from the business side of things, it is even more so frustrating. They should be easy to implement and use so that you can go about your other business matters. They are designed to make processes easier and quicker, not slow them down. Therefore, it is best to use simple CRM’s that offer visual and quick to understand reports so that you can maximize your businesses potential.

Want to know more about your customers and be sure to make the right responses time and time again. Discover the benefits of a CRM system by contacting Purple Potato today.

Customer Relationship Management software, also known as a CRM, has become a hot talking point for business owners across multiple industries in recent times. Given the importance of the relationship between a brand and its clients, it’s not hard to see why.

A CRM helps SMEs build stronger business models by enhancing customer services, generating new sales, and generally increasing the company’s conversion rates while simultaneously using data-driven decisions to adapt the company to meet growing client demands.

Modern CRM systems provide far greater capabilities than human customer relationship strategies. Here’s all you need to know about what they do and how they do it.

What Does a CRM Do?

CRM software serves to strengthen the bond between a brand and its customers, covering existing clients and prospective leads alike. It collects valuable data throughout several key stages of a user’s interactions with the company before subsequently analyzing this data to predict client behaviours and adapt the path to conversion accordingly.

Advanced CRMs track interactions across media, email, VoIP, and website channels. The information can then be collated to help SME sales teams make calculated decisions regarding follow-ups. For example, if a user has shown an interest in a particular product by clicking the associated webpage and requesting more information, you may want to make a call.

In addition to the insights for manual follow-ups, CRMs can use machine learning and user-led triggers to automate responses. For example, if someone adds a product to their basket and then leaves the site, it can trigger the CRM software to send an email reminding them to purchase. Thanks to A.I., the possibilities for potential trigger responses are near endless.

How Does a CRM Do This?

CRM software can be integrated with a website CMS (content management system) or other tools used by the company. Once it has been successful installed, it can track various key data metrics including but not limited to;

• Voluntarily left user details (name, address, telephone number, etc.)
• IP address and on-site behaviours (such as pages visited) or social media usage
• Purchase history or current pipeline stage
• Demographical data including age bracket, gender, company size, and more
• Type of customer and detailed reporting

The CRM tracks information across multi-channel interactions and can additionally track contacts made with customer support teams. This gives businesses a clear and detailed contact list that includes data-driven insights that allow you to (manually or through automation) split customers into demographics or pipeline stages before making the right responses. The data tracking also shows what reactions or triggers yield the best results.

In turn, SMEs can also use CRMs for A/B testing or adjusting webpages to prevent bounce rates and other problems.

Why Choose a CRM?

The value of a CRM is clear. It ensures that all actions are tracked across multiple channels while guaranteeing that every lead or client receives a fair response that is backed by valuable data. The fact that it uses statistical data and machine learning to automate processes or encourage business owners to make the necessary adjustments should not be ignored either.

Choosing CRM software over spreadsheets or manual tracking will lead to;

• Increased organisation
• Reduced waste of time and money
• Tracking across all channels, thus removing ambiguity
• Trigger-based reactions meaning faster sales funnels
• Visual and demographical representations for clear details

CRMs will help you build a better relationship with the most valuable assets in your organisation, the customers. To learn more about implementing a world-class CRM app for your business, sign up for a free 7-day trial today!

CRM is a valuable tool that should be in every company’s arsenal. Here are 5 benefits of integrating it within your business:

Did you know that the CRM market is expected to grow exponentially? It is expected to hit $43.5 billion by the year 2024, so now is the best time for you to be investing in it. CRM is a powerful tool that allows you to accelerate your business growth while eliminating friction from your commercial procedures. It gives you the power to run your business no matter where you are with the ability to collaborate with your team, synchronise data, automate tasks and track performance. Want to find out more? Simply take a look below.

Centre Your Growth Around the Needs of your Customers

In business, empathy is key. When your business starts to grow rapidly, it can be incredibly easy for your leads to fall through the net. You may find that you are not able to give your customers the focus that they deserve and selling yourself short like this can be frustrating for both you and your customers. Using a CRM platform can eliminate a lot of the friction experienced with growth. It gives you the power to do more, with less and allows you to grow your company with customer experience at the forefront.

Aligning Your Teams

If you have multiple teams, then you will understand how important it is for you to align everyone properly. If your team members collaborate properly, then this will allow you to share critical data, ultimately streamlining your customer’s experience. Customers want an experience that is seamless and consistent, and if you want them to stay loyal to your brand then it is imperative that you integrate an effective CRM system within your company.

Synching and Sharing Information, Made Easier

CRM systems allow you to streamline, otherwise time-consuming tasks. You no longer have to worry about manually updating your contact records, you don’t need to worry about your team not having access to certain customer files and you don’t need to wrack your brains for what should come next. Your CRM will be a single source for everyone, so your team can offer a personalised, professional and polished experience from start to finish.

Automation – Paving the Way for the Future

CRM systems automate various day to day tasks. Allowing you to accelerate your output, while eliminating unnecessary tasks and overall boosting your company’s productivity. As a result, your company’s capacity will increase, and you will be primed for growth. The cumulative effects are exponential.

Creating a Workflow

The best CRM system will provide a way to regulate and manage your workflow. Workflows help to co-ordinate your sales effort and allow you to monitor your marketing and commercial procedures. It is very easy for you to create a high level of workflow by simply using the right CRM system and a near certainty that the ROI you will get for integrating a CRM system within your company will more than outweigh the cost of the investment.

CRM really is paving the way for the future, and it is remarkable to see how much the industry has grown in recent years. If you have never explored the idea of using CRM before, then now is the time for you to change that, by investing in a quality CRM system that more than meets the individual needs of your business.