Certainly my competitors aren’t!  In my webinar this Wednesday, we hold one each Wednesday at 2pm EST, one of the attendees mentioned that our response to her request for information via our website was “super fast”.  That was a nice comment to hear in a webinar like that!

She also mentioned that she had filled out web forms requesting information or free trials from a few of my competitors on the same day.  She still hasn’t heard from any of them – a WEEK later.

If you have leads coming in via your web site, you HAVE to set up a process that allows your sales team to know about that lead instantly and contact that lead immediately!  If you don’t, your odds of selling something to that lead go down tremendously.

You may say, “What I sell isn’t bought on impulse, its a high ticket item” or “I don’t want to waste my sales people’s valuable time on tire kickers that visit my web site” or “I like to take a look at the leads and hand the out to the sales people individually as an incentive or based on which accounts they manage” etc.

Well, I can tell you from first hand experience that SalesNexus wins business every day because we’re the first to respond.  When our prospects request a demo or free trial from us, they almost always do the same thing on a competitor’s site.

We call immediately. We can because we use our own technology that pops the lead into our database and alerts the sales rep instantly.  Its easy for the sales rep and the prospect is always impressed with our promptness.  We use this to take control of the research process or buying process the prospect is in and to make the point that SalesNexus is different from its competitors in the attentiveness we pay our customers.

If you can’t see a way to do this for your “web leads”, then you shouldn’t be spending money on them.

BTW,  the worst offending competitor is Salesforce.com.  They typically take a week or so to call the lead.  You may think I’m crazy divulging this competitive advantage.  The fact is that Salesforce.com won’t care.  They’re not that interested in the types of small and medium sized businesses we are.  If you only have 20 sales reps, you aren’t big enough to get top notch sales response from Salesforce.com.

I’m not bragging here but, I highly recommend that you put it to the test!  Request a SalesNexus Free Trial and a Salesforce.com Free Trial.  Watch what happens next.  If you’re willing to try this, let me know your thoughts afterwards.

Related posts:

1. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!
2. Your business is hitting the wall!
3. High Quality Leads You’re Probably Missing

I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with a few customers recently who are currently using popular online or web based CRMs or contact management systems.  You would be amazed at what they WEREN’T told by their sales rep about what they would have to pay for in order to really get things working for their business.

Maybe I’m crazy or naive…

I cut my teeth in business in the energy business.  My list of potential clients that could afford to buy what I was selling was about 20 companies in the entire world.  In that environment, the one thing you can’t afford to lose is the trust of your customers.  I had to go back to them year after year to make my numbers.

So in the hosted, subscription based, online CRM and contact management business, why wouldn’t you see things the same way?  You need your clients to continue their subscription right?  If you hit them with surprise charges after you “hook” them in on the subscription, they’re not going to feel real good about renewing are they?

Wow!  It blows me away.

You can’t argue with success right?  These guys have certainly done well.  Maybe these unpleasant surprises aren’t that big a deal to many customers compared to the value of having a good CRM…

I’ll tell you what though, you can’t tell me that its good business to never mention to prospective clients that when they want to STOP doing business with you, you won’t be able to get all of your crucial client data back in a useful format without spending thousands of dollars.

Well, that’s enough.  We’ve learned enough to know that what small and medium sized businesses are NOT being told by most online, web-based CRM and contact management vendors is significant and costly.

That’s why I’ve decided to write a new article entitled, the “7 Hidden Costs of Online CRM”.  Its going to detail out the unpleasant surprises that many businesses are finding after they sign up.  Its also going to include specific questions to ask the vendors before you buy.

At least this way small and medium sized businesses will be able to go in with their eyes wide open.

Stay tuned for the upcoming release of “7 Hidden Costs of Online CRM” very soon!

Related posts:

1. You Can’t Automate What You Don’t Understand
2. Make Sending Sales Letters and Marketing Pieces Easy
3. Getting Contact Management Implementation Right Takes a Bit of Time