You’re looking to automate and better manage your marketing and sales operations.  So its natural that you’ll be looking closely at the features that will get you there.  Plus the fact that your prior experience with software vendors of all stripes has probably taught you to keep your expectations pretty low regarding help desk or support services provided.

The SaaS CRM and web based contact management marketplaces are full of companies making it seem as easy as possible to get started.  If you believe the demos, you just sign up, logon and suddenly your sales process is automated and dashboards start showering you with insightful metrics.

In fact, most online CRM providers simply email your logon credentials as soon as you put in your credit card and point you to various online training options and you are on your own.

You’re expected to import data, customize fields, lists, processes and reports.  And by the way, you’re a sales person.  Odds are figuring out how to configure software and databases is not one of your strengths.

This is why there are so many CRM consultants running around.  ACT! Certified Consultants, Salesforce.com VARs, etc.  They’re all in business because you’re not likely to get the help you need from the CRM software provider.

So once you sign up, you find yourself struggling to get things working the way the sales person told you they would and meanwhile you’re spending time on the computer and not in front of customers hitting your sales quota.

And here’s the kicker - when after hours of frustration, you reach out to the software company for help, you spend hours on hold or wait days for a response.  If that’s not fast enough for you, you’ll learn that you can get faster service if you’re willing to pay for it.

Premium support will cost your $150 to $300 additional per year per user.  Here’s an example - Salesforce.com commits to respond to your request for support within 2 days.  If you need it faster, you’ve got to pay for their Premier support.  Here’s a link to the particulars on the Salesforce.com site - https://www.salesforce.com/services-training/customer-support/

You’ll need to factor in these costs or allot much more time to configure things and get users trained.

The biggest challenge in implementing a CRM is getting the sales team trained and using the system consistently.  Ask yourself - is your typical sales person going to take the time to figure things out on their own?  when they have questions, is waiting two days for an answer going to work for them?

Here are a few things to check into before you sign on the dotted line:

• Data import - who will do it and how much of my data will make the transition?  Notes, reminders, information that’s unique to your business…
• Customization - who’s going to do it and how much time will it require?
• Training - how will you teach the sales team how to do the specific things that you want done in this new system?
• Response time - when you need help, how long should you expect to wait for it?

The good news is that there are some exceptions!  In fact, at least one online CRM company publishes their typical support response times on their website for you to review before you buy - http://www.salesnexus.com/support.php

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In the previous three chapters, we’ve discussed the blocking and tackling of email marketing.  How to stay on the right side of the law, how to create emails that won’t annoy your customers, how to provide valuable information to your contacts via on-going emails and how to engage prospects so that you’re the one they buy from when the time is right.  Click here to read the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd chapters.

We’ve all heard how much more profitable it is to sell to your existing customers compared with acquiring new customers.  Its true of course.  And if it makes sense to engage and nurture prospects with email, then doesn’t it make even more sense to strengthen your relationships with existing customers?

Best of all, if creating a campaign that’s truly engaging to prospects can seem daunting, providing useful information for your customers can be downright easy.  After all, you’re an expert at doing what you do.  There are countless tips and tricks that can help your customers get more value out of what they’re buying from you.  These are a great place to start.  You probably have documentation that you’ve spent lots of time and money preparing to guide your customers through the use of your products and services.  Of course, your customers probably don’t read it all.  They wait to need a specific piece of information, then go looking for it.  A well timed email campaign can highlight crucial tips at just the right time.

First Post-Sell

The art of the “post-sell” could be a book unto itself.  In short the idea is to help your customer avoid “buyer’s remorse”.  The natural human process of questioning one’s decision can be an opening for canceled orders.  The most important objective in post selling is to express your gratitude for your customer’s business by reconfirming your commitment to deliver on your promises to them.  A simple thank you email is a good start.  However, you can assure the customer that they’ve made the right decision best by reminding them why they bought.  Detail out how they should expect to benefit from their purchase and ensure them that you’re going to be there to guide them through the process of realizing these objectives.

While you may have focused on the intrinsic qualities of your product during the sales process, it makes sense now to highlight the services you offer to help customers use your product.  Let them know what challenges are most common for new customers and how you can help with those challenges.  Tell them how to reach customer service and when they’re available.  Direct them to set up guides, training programs, etc.  Help them see the road forward more clearly.

Up-Sell

Of course, selling more to existing customers IS very profitable.  There are surely additional options or upgrades to what has been purchased.  You may feel that you reviewed these options with the customer thoroughly during the sales process but, don’t assume that their decision not to purchase those options at the time meant they don’t want and need them.  Very often, it just means that the initial purchase was enough of a leap for them.  They don’t know what they don’t know.  Now that they’ve purchased the basic product and are beginning to implement or use it, they’re seeing more clearly how your additional products and services could benefit them.

You can weave your up-sale into your post-sell if you stay focused on the objectives the customer has.  What are they trying to accomplish with your product or service?  If there are additional products and services that will help them get there, its completely appropriate to bring them up.  Of course, some of these things will be installation, implementation or training services.  These can all be highlighted in the “we’re here to help” spirit.

In your business, you may have supplies and replacement parts that customers will need.  Start letting them know when they should expect to need their first new supply or replacement and how to get it.  Customers may frequently out grow entry level models or services and need an “upgrade”.  Help them understand the things they should look for to recognize its time to upgrade.

Another opportunity is to identify additional needs for things you sell within the same organization.  Find ways to let your first customer in a large organization connect you with their colleagues.  At a minimum, give the customer an easy way to “invite” others to receive your emails.  These may simply be the actual users of the product.  More points of contact are extremely valuable.  You may want to evolve to having different campaigns for different roles with in the customer organization.

Retain

Of course, whether you sell your customer anything else or not, you want to keep their business and ensure they’re pleased with their purchase.  A great way to strengthen a customer’s bond with your company is to let them have some input.  A simple survey can be very valuable in showing the customer you care about their opinions are experience with your company and helping you improve your company’s offerings.

In addition, just as it makes sense during the initial sales process, providing useful information that helps your customers do their jobs establishes your expertise and causes them to look forward to your communications.  Continue to keep customers engaged using industry news and educational content even after the sale.  You can be more specific now because you know they are the proud owner or user of a certain type of product or service.  Safety tips are easy and appreciated.

News about your company should be part of the mix.  They depend on you now and they want to know where you’re heading.  Upcoming developments in your business should be of genuine interest.  Planned improvements to your products or services - new models, expanded service hours, etc. - are all things that customers want and need to know about.

If you have subscriptions or contracts that renew periodically, create a sequence of emails that alerts them to the upcoming renewal early, so they can plan for it, then walk them through their options step by step.

One of the most valuable ways to strengthen your customer’s relationship with your company is to ask for referrals.  Again, they have come to depend on your company and therefore, its in their best interest to help you grow and remain strong.  However, asking for referrals is a great “gut check” on the relationship.  If there are hidden frustrations, asking the customer to recommend you to a friend or colleague will generally bring those frustrations to the surface.  Better to know now while there is still time to address the problems.  Take any negative feedback very seriously and take aggressive action to remedy the situation to the customer’s satisfaction.  By doing so, you can turn a minor frustration into a major bonding moment between your customer and your company.  More often though, you’ll be surprised at how willingly customers will provide you with referrals.  Be clear and specific about the kind of contact you’re looking for.  Help them help you.

Overall, building a series of emails to nurture, retain and up-sell your existing customers may be a great place to start your email marketing efforts.  Its often more familiar subject matter and you can ask your customers what they’d like to see.  In any case, it should not be over looked.  Nurturing clients should be on-going throughout the customer life cycle.

In our next installment of “Email Marketing – The Only Bailout Your Business Needs”, we’re going to focus on building your list and taking the first steps to get your campaign underway. Register to receive the entire eBook here.

“Getting Started” will appear here at Sell, Sell, Sell! on June 22.  So stay tuned!

Special thanks for contributing to this installment go to Steven Greene.  Steven’s written and managed lead generation and nurturing campaigns in industries from banking to boating.  His input on email marketing is invaluable.  To learn more about Steven click here.

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The entire 5 part series is now available for immediate download as a complete e-Book!

Double Your Sales in 2009 has been more popular than any other article, whitepaper or e-Book we’ve ever released, by far!

Stop listening to the doom and gloom in the news. You can take charge of your own destiny in these challenging times and super charge your sales engine!

These are simple steps any business can take immediately without spending a dime!

Here’s a summary of the Double Your Sales in 2009 e-Book:

Qualify Early and Often - define questions that indicate the "qualification" of any lead and ask every lead right up front before you invest lots of time and money in them.

Timing is Everything - create guidelines for what makes it worthwhile to take each step in the sales dance with each prospect.

The Law of Attraction - teach everyone on your team to say no to prospects unless they are sure that the investment of their time and your money will yield the desired result.

Set the Mustangs Free - make it easy for sales reps to track what happens with each lead, the answers to your qualification questions and the sales activities invested in. Hold them accountable for following the process by sharing the results of this tracking with the team.

Pour in the Jet Fuel - track the source of each lead and redirect marketing efforts and investments toward the lead sources that generating the most frequently qualified and close-able leads.

This process does not have to take months. If you start today, within 30 days you’ll begin to see improvements in relationships with the most valuable sales prospects and you’ll begin to see where your marketing investments should be realigned.

There is no reason that 2009 can’t be the best year you’ve ever had. Your selling process is about to turn into a high performance selling machine. Wasted time and money will be minimized and your sales team will be focused on the best possible opportunities more often.

Download the entire "Double Your Sales in 2009" series as an e-Book here.

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Lots of money being spent!  Well over a trillion dollars by my count, not including the real losses in equity values of homes and stocks.

In the aftermath of Ike, I saw people driving through my neighborhood in Mercedes Benz automobiles to get in line to receive free ice, water and MREs.  In my area, there was running water but, many did not have electricity for up to 17 days.  Stores were open.  Businesses were open.  Yet, the local, state and federal governments were all there with free stuff.  And unbelievably long lines of people to load up on their goodies.

Then politicians start talking about handing out billions of dollars to bankers to “free up credit”, then rush in to “rescue” huge banking and insurance institutions that are “too big to fail”.  Then we learn that executives from some of these institutions paid themselves huge multi-million dollar bonuses only weeks before they announced the dire financial condition of their companies.

Now the two presidential candidates just can stop talking about buying up real estate and handing out more “rescue” money to bankers.

Who’s money is it?  At this point its really our childrens.  The money is borrowed and the repayment will come years later.  But its every taxpayer that will end up with the bill.

In particular, its small businesses that will get the bill.  We are already carrying more than our share of the load.  Funny thing is the politicians claim its us they’re rescuing while they borrow against our future with our money.  How about letting us save ourselves?

Clearly the motivation in all this is for politicians to make themselves look good and keep their billionaire benefactors in business.

Have you ever read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged“?  I’m not sure I see the difference anymore between the world Mrs. Rand described of “producers” and “looters” and this world we’re living in.

Its enough to make you pretty darned disillutioned isn’t it?

Well, never fear!  I have not lost heart nor should you.  In Atlas Shrugged, the protagonist leads essentially a tax revolt by the producers.

In our world, small businesses are the producers.  Small businesses are responsible for 70% of the job creation in the U.S.

I always knew I was destined to run my own business and my entire career has always been in small businesses that grew bigger.  Today, SalesNexus caters to small business people.

I love small business people because there very little room for error in a small business.  Small business people endure such stress to make payroll, ensure the quality of their product and risk their cash on marketing experiments.  The list of people with the desire to take on this role and stick it out through the lean times is short.  But the list of people that dream of running their own business is long.  Because there is no mistaking the achievment of making a small business successful.

The difference between a Fortune 500 CEO and a small business owner, other than the Harvard education and the difference in income, is the level of accountability.

CEOs at banks and energy trading companies can pay expensive lawyers, bankers and accountants to play games with the books to make things look better than they are and their cash flow is always based as much on PR as it is on sales results.  If your sales aren’t getting it done, then go raise some more cash from bankers and investors.

Small business owners have one option - sell more than you spend.  Sure, you may take out loans to finance expansion, etc. but, the home your family lives in is the collateral on the loan.

There’s no mistaking a small business owner when you meet one.  They don’t have time for chit chat.  They get to the point and when its time to decide what to do, they don’t hesitate or call in a consulting firm.  They are also incredibly consistent in their ability to hold everyone involved accountable for their actions.  They know they will be and their success depends on their employees, partners and customers.

SalesNexus is in the business of helping small businesses be more efficient and effective and measuring the team’s achievements so that the accountability they demand is a click away.

At this moment in history, I could not be prouder to call small businesses my customers and my passion.

Thank you to every small business owner!  Whether you’re struggling or growing, you are the engine of freedom.

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Things Ike taught me
Coffee and frozen pizzas can be made on a BBQ grill.

I can walk a lot farther than I thought.

A skateboard and a sheet make a great “sailboat” before the rain starts.

You can never have too many gas cans!

If you fill the bathtubs with water, the water will not go off.

Neighbors are much more sociable when they are sharing a generator.

Two-year-old canned beets taste better than you’d think.

Just because it is dark and you are in the privacy of your bedroom doesn’t mean we can’t hear what you are doing in there because our windows are open too.

What looks acceptable by candlelight in your bathroom will scare you when you look at yourself in the mirror at the office. 

Coffee is possible without Starbucks. 

Rather than campfires, you find families huddled about tiny battery-operated televisions to watch The Simpsons. 

Peanut butter and jelly is a perfectly acceptable meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner in the same day. 

That neighbor who knows how to use a chainsaw is your new best friend. 

You run out of things to barbecue after Day 2. 

Hair can dry without a blow dryer, but it may not look the way you planned. 

The storm treasures your kids are finding really belong to your neighbors. 

Baseball caps go with any post-hurricane ensemble. 

Grapes taste better in the dark. 

You can’t train yourself not to flip on light switches when entering a room. 

Lukewarm is the new cold. 

You have neighbors. 

A new opening phrase when seeing someone: “Got lights yet?”

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I’ve been a resident of Houston, Texas for 40 plus years and I have to say that Hurricane Ike was the worst I’ve ever been through personally.

My family was extremely fortunate.  No damage or injuries to speak of.  Most of my SalesNexus colleagues came through fine too.  A few of us have even had power since Saturday or Sunday!

When there are 80, 90, 100 mph gusts of wind sweeping around your home in the dead of night, there is only one thing to do.  I did a lot of it.  It works.

For the citizens of Houston and all of southeast Texas, here’s a little treat that I’m sure you’ll enjoy! We’ve all had our hands on some plywood in the last few days - putting it up, taking it down and most of all, hiding behind it praying for our lives. Yesterday evening, a nice neighbor named Loreta Kovacic stopped by as our kids were playing outside. She recorded “Plywood Love Song” a few month ago. It sure is timely today! Enjoy!

I have to give credit to Houston Mayor Bill White, Harris County Judge Ed Emmit and the various state and federal officials for managing the preparations for the storm extremely well.  We avoided the traffic nightmare of Hurricane Rita and it appears that people were as safe as they could be.

The aftermath is teaching us a few things about distribution of food, water, ice, fuel and restoration of electricity.  There will be those who cast judgement on various authorites but, from my comfortable position in my office, with AC and Internet, I see success.

Mostly I see a community coming together to help each other rather than waiting for help from outside.  That makes me proud to make Houston my home.  People contributing what they have to contribute to others in need.  For some its ice, for some its help with a downed tree, for others its just a hot cooked meal with friends and neighbors.

At SalesNexus, we had some nice comments from customers about how our online contact management system allowed them to relocate their personnel for safety but, continue to operate their businesses.  That’s been nice to hear.

I may be a touch early on this but, my sense this morning is that the city is trying to get back to work.  I’m glad to know that our customers can sit down where ever it is that they’ve found a place to work today and pick up right where they left off.  No servers to replace, no software to re-install, etc.  I’m proud of our team for maintaining our service and our support presence at normal levels throughout.

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In my last post I talked about how some of my competitors are hitting their customers with surprise charges after they’re signed up.

When I say “service”, I mean it in the sense that you learned in Church - Giving to others without regard for your own interest.

Yeah, I know, we’re talking about business here so, it is by its nature about my own interest.  However, I’ve learned that Customer Service shouldn’t be managed strictly by profit and loss.  We’ve all heard the cliches - “going the extra mile”, etc.  It still amazes me that my company’s approach to “serving” its customers is so unique in our business.

..and yes, I’m proud of it.  Here’s a quote from a client emailed to me today:

“What I am most impressed with is the support and attention I get from all departments I’ve dealt with so far, training, tech support and billing.  This is the kind of company that gives you the feeling that they really care about each customer.”

Man, that is good to hear!

Stay tuned to read how unusual this approach is in the online CRM and contact management business.

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Todd Miechiels, a Web Marketing guru that I know and trust, just posted a great article about an experience with a client who’s phone system was turning off prospects.

Todd’s article also highlights the value of track-able phone numbers that enable recording the calls.  If you’re spending big bucks on lead generation, these are things you should consider.

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You know the feeling.  We’ve all been there.  On hold, wading through phone menus, wasting time.  The most frustrating thing is when you tell your story to one rep, then they decide they need to hand you off to a different department, and so on.

Well I must give credit where credit is due.  Yesterday I had two truley surprising customer service experiences.  In a GOOD way!

First the webcam on my Dell notebook wouldn’t work.  I went to their site and noticed a “chat with a technician” button and went for it.  The technician responded quickly, asked the right questions, diagnosed the problem and posted a link to a download, then used GotoAssist to install and configure it for me.  I was back in business in 30 minutes. 

The best part was that during the entire chat, my cell phone was ringing off the hook and I was able to take every call and take care of business while the Dell rep was taking care of my computer.  It was as painless as it could have been.

Then the same evening I had a rare opportunity to pick a pay-per-view movie of my choice and relax.  The kids were having a sleep-over and my wife was out with her family.  But, the Comcast Movies On Demand service was giving me an error.

This time I just called the number on the screen and started wading through the phone system, and got disconnected, twice.

So I hit their website and noticed the Chat button again.  I tried it again and within 10 minutes, my movie was on.  Again, the best part was that I wasn’t chained to a phone.  The pizza guy came while I was chatting with the Comcast technician, I let the dog out, a phone call came in, life continued uninterrupted.

One note - I asked both the Dell and Comcast reps where the actually were and they were both here in Texas.  I think that makes a difference.

SalesNexus has been using Chat for support users of our online, hosted contact management system for a couple of years and its definitely been a win-win.  Its more efficient for us and our customers find it quick, easy and convenient.

I have to give Comcast and Dell Customer Service Grades of A+ for the way they leveraged chat to do an excellent job taking care of me.

The great news is that its also easy to set up in any business, even the smallest of businesses.  If your business has a website, you can set up a chat button within a day, or less.  Boldchat and LivePerson are two that we’ve used and have been pleased with.

No matter what business you’re in, chat can be a real win for you.  There are always going to be times when you’re team is tied up on the phone and the next customer ends up on voice mail or on hold.  Chat can be another answer.

Now, imagine that you have a Chat button on your site AND you have a good contact management database available to the Chat attendant.  A client initiates a chat by entering their name or email, your attendant looks them up in the contact management system and sees the history of their relationship with your company and now your client is really getting treated like a king!

I know I’m going to be finding new ways to leverage chat.  You should too.

BTW - I watched “I Am Legend” with Will Smith.  Pretty darned good.

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I’ve tried to encourage her to use various time management and organization techniques and systems in her Real Estate business over the years with almost zero success.  Its just not her style.  Its her style I love, not her organizational proficiency…

In these moments of gentle suggestions or outright brow beating, I’ve become educated as to why and how some people resist “getting organized”.

Its just not their style.  If you’re even mildly successful at what you do, then you don’t want to mess with a good thing.

If you’re in sales and you make hand written notes on business cards, napkins, scraps of paper and your hand, it may be working for you.

So when someone says you ought to get a contact database going, you see a bunch of keypunch work and a change in your methods.  Both inspire discomfort, fear, sweating, fidgeting and occasionally a “Hell No!”

When your friends, colleagues, boss or spouse encourage you to get your client list into some sort of database system, the benefits they extoll are usually things like scheduling call reminders so you don’t forget a follow up call or an appointment, keeping notes about key clients and even things like using the list for email blasts and direct mail campaigns.

In today’s totally connected world, these things are more valuable than ever.  You’re computer can’t help you connect with someone that’s not in your computer.

But here’s the nugget my lovely wife has taught me…

Your “style” of doing what you do is part of the very essence of you.  If you’re not the keypunch, organize it type, then your strengths probably have much more to do with your people skills.  People LIKE you.  That’s your biggest asset.  No way you would want to mess with that.  If you start killing yourself typing names into a computer, you might not be quite the happy, jovial, friendly person you are today.

But all this still comes back to a foundational truism of sales…  Greater success lies in maximizing the time you spend interacting with prospects and clients.  If your people skills are your strength, then its even “truer”.

Then there’s also the way success begets success.  Its true on a macro scale.  Close your first really big deal and somehow more big and bigger deals seem to start showing up.  Its also true on a day to day basis.  When you have a good promising call that gets your juices flowing, you’re going to be totally glowing on your next call.

So, all this is what I think makes using a contact management system so cool for EVERY sales person.  Instead of spending several minutes between each call shuffling through papers, cards and notes to figure out who to call or what you need for the call, anyone can get their call list into Outlook or any “real” contact management system and get into what I like to call “Smile and Dial” mode.

By having all the contact information (phone, title, email, etc.), and just maybe some notes or detail fields about each client, in your contact management system and your call reminders all queued up in a “Task List”, you don’t have to search for info before each call.

The result is you minimize the time between dials and between actual conversations.  This let’s you stay in “on mode”.  Its like when you’re at a party and every-one’s attention seems to be focused on you.  You turn on your charm naturally.

So you dial the phone and leave a message, then dial again and talk to a secretary who tells you when to call back, then dial again and get a prospect on the phone and have a constructive conversation, then leave a couple more messages within a minute or two, then get another prospect on the phone and you’re still buzzing from the first call.  And this builds and builds.

Plus the fact you’re knocking out your follow up calls in an hour or two where they currently take half the day and seem sort of like a distraction or hassle in themselves.  They’re not a hassle or distraction and shouldn’t feel that way.  They’re the most important part of your sales pipeline.

More calls means more business.  More enthusiasm and “on-ness” in those calls means a LOT more business.

OK, that’s enough.  My wife’s getting that look!

To see how to get into Smile and Dial mode, join us any Wednesday at 2pm EST here.

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