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Maximize Your Sales with Three CRM Reports | Encaptechno

Maximize Your Sales with Three CRM Reports

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Maximize Your Sales with Three CRM Reports | Encaptechno 

At the time when you are busy analyzing the sales objectives of your team, it always helps to go back and see which methods were responsible for maximizing the sales. When you really think about all these questions, you will also end up pondering multiple questions so that you can eventually work on creating a sales strategy.

You will think about the average time taken for the sales cycle to get completed, the number of leads that get converted into customers, star performers in your sales teams, and the regions that promote business. It is also possible to not know all of these things at once but you must try to keep looking for accurate answers to these factors.

An online CRM system helps significantly in understanding the figures that affect the sales process. Using the CRM solution, you can generate and analyze CRM reports with filters that can give you the information that you need. These reports can help you gain insights to effectively manage the sales processes and sales team as well.

In this blog, we will see three major reports that Zoho online CRM system offers to analyze and strategize the sales processes. These categories of Zoho reports offer immense value to the business. In addition, these reports also help in identifying the metrics that drive more sales so that time and effort can be spent in the right place.

What are CRM Reports?


What are CRM Reports?
CRM reports are like an organized document that is capable of telling us what is going on with a business. These reports can be as simple as a document that analyzes sales calls or it can be a document as detailed as the one that analyzes revenue numbers and customer feedback required for understanding a company.

There are many different types of CRM reports and honestly, all of them are important. You may want to think about which report relates to your goals or see these reports as tools that help in understanding how the sales process is working in a company.

The use of CRM reports is often limited to sales and marketing. However, if you wish to go a step beyond and have the correct data then you can gain valuable insights from the CRM reports. These are official documents that help in taking strategic business decisions beyond sales and marketing. The key is to find the best online CRM system that can help in generating and analyzing these reports.

Zoho is one such CRM system that generates accurate reports that can ramp up sales operations. Some of the reports that Zoho offers include

1. Time-Based Reports


There are hundreds and thousands of leads that do not guarantee increased sales. The key to converting qualified leads into sales is called lead nurturing which is something that is effective only with a detailed understanding of the lead nurture process.

Oftentimes, sales teams have stagnant leads in their pipeline that do not actually move ahead without sales monitoring. The best way to handle those leads is to identify them while taking extra time and effort to convert these leads successfully. This is something that can be easily done with the use of time-based reports.

We have all heard countless times that time is money but the main question is that do we really understand what this means? In terms of business the adage “Time is Money” means that every second counts when you are facing a customer.  When you are in the process of converting a lead into an opportunity, timing is literally everything.

The sales team has to decide the value of their time. Using the CRM reports, it is possible to understand the lead nurturing cycle with comprehensive analysis. There are some time-based reports that can be helpful in calculating your valuable time and its effectiveness. These reports are “Sales Cycle Duration across Lead Sources/Potential Type”, “Overall Sales Duration across Lead Sources/Potential Type”, and “Lead Conversions Across Industries/Owners.”

2. People-Based Reports


Measuring the regular performance of sales representatives is important for business success. There are different metrics that can be used to measure the success of sales representatives. However, knowing the right sales metrics and getting important information can be helpful in understanding the strength and weaknesses of sales processes.

Another set of CRM reports that can be helpful in understanding more about the sales process is called people-based reports. These reports enable the managers to know which representatives are doing well and which reps are the ones who can do better.

It is important to understand that the reports that give us a comprehensive insight on the goals achieved by an individual alongwith the activities performed to achieve a target are considered important while calculating the monthly sales target.

Zoho is an online CRM system that offers different performance-based reports that eventually help in measuring the progress of an individual working in a sales team. Most importantly, these reports help in checking the overall quality of service offered to the customers. Some of the reports include “Sales Person’s Performance Report”, “Sales Cycle Duration Across Owner”, “Lead Conversion Count Across Owner.”

3. Revenue-Based Reports


Yet another factor that gives an insight into the sales processes is the amount of revenue that a business is making periodically. The sales managers must have clarity about each line of product or service contributing to the overall profit. It is possible that the sales processes can be great in one region but not the same in another.

When the sales managers know everything about the sales revenue, the percentage of targets achieved, and the lead sources that give more business, it becomes easy to keep a tab on the revenue. Understanding who the profitable customers are can be difficult unless there is a detailed report of everything that a customer purchases in a life cycle.

Measuring the revenue and growth of an organization is very easy. With the Zoho CRM reports, you can know exactly where the revenue of a company is going and the factors responsible for it. Some of the reports that are revenue-based include “Sales by Lead Source”, “Pipeline By Profitability/Stage”, and “This Month Sales.”

Benefits of CRM Reporting


Sometimes, sales professionals think that creating a sales strategy based on CRM reports can take your time and energy that could be spent somewhere else. However, this is not the right thinking. Below mentioned are some of the benefits that will make the benefits of CRM reporting very clear to you.

1. Insights


Insights | Benefits of CRM Reporting
Sales is a lot about understanding how well you suffice the needs of your customers. The detailed insights that you can see based on your customers help in improving the sales pitch.

Let’s say that you are looking for clients that are easily approachable, do not cause any troubles, and continue to be profitable for you for a long time to come. Now you can find these clients by creating CRM reports that can find patterns in your customers. You can study these reports and understand which clients are likely to be ideal for you.

2. Sales Funnel


The entire process through which a lead becomes a customer is considered important to the health of your sales process. There are many sales representatives that do not realize that they have a problem that their sales funnels can be improved.

The reports generated by an online CRM system can help in underlining all problems that are present with the funnel so that the sales process becomes smooth. Once you see where the problems are, you will solve them immediately and the final result will be favorable.

3. Streamlined Time

The sales professionals must be clear about the way they are spending their time if they wish to achieve the goals in the right time frame. With minimal effort, the result can be considerable.

The sales representatives can also increase this time to have a bigger impact on the sales record. The online CRM reporting can be extremely helpful because the CRM reports help the representatives to find revenue-generating activities that maximize the time spent with the right leads.

For instance, sales representatives can find an ideal customer profile to spend time with prospects that can use a product or service or find leads at a profitable source. The reports can ensure that representatives are only spending their time where it genuinely makes a difference.

4. Making Suitable Changes


The process of creating sales strategy, monitoring, and changing it periodically is not an easy process. It is always changing and representatives who do not keep up with the changes can fall behind easily. The key is to find just where the changes need to be made and to focus on making those changes timely.

The CRM reports help us in identifying where the changes must be made. The reports are useful in finding problems or seeing patterns that are leading to lost sales. Once these patterns are understood, it is possible to offer key insights into what must be changed.

5. Seeing Issues Early


The sooner salespeople can see a potential issue, the more they can eliminate them. This enables the sales representatives to take corrective measures and put in strategies that can help in meeting goals.

Using CRM reports can help in pointing patterns more quickly than humans in many cases. It is important to understand the problem so that creating a sales strategy becomes easy. This way, obstacles can be seen and solved at the right time.

Conclusion


Using the CRM reports can help in generating better revenue and it can also boost team productivity. The reports come with an ability to streamline complex manual duties which ultimately ends up saving a lot of precious time.

In case you have not been using the CRM reports in a powerful way then it is time to start exploring data so that you find and maximize more opportunities. Irrespective of the kind of business you might be in, the CRM reports can be helpful in making your sales operations much more organized.

 

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7 Benefits of Integrating CRM with LinkedIn | Encaptechno

7 Benefits of Integrating CRM with LinkedIn

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7 Benefits of Integrating CRM with LinkedIn | Encaptechno
LinkedIn is one of those social networks that can enable you and your business to become very well known professionally. Particularly, if your company has just started using it or it is about to target new markets in unknown lands then LinkedIn can be really helpful. One of the main benefits of LinkedIn is that it brings together people involved in a business together. You can keep in touch with business partners, potential employees, and customers.

Among the other benefits that LinkedIn brings on the table, the CRM integration is yet another one that can work wonders for you. The customer relationship management tools are evolving continuously. The CRM integration with LinkedIn can enable a sales team to explore new ways to expand and nurture business relationships.

In this blog, we will see some of the benefits of integrating CRM with LinkedIn. However, the fundamental thing to understand here is what the importance of this integration is?

CRM and LinkedIn


CRM and Linkedin
Customer relationship management is one of the fastest growing industries. When it comes to CRM options available in the market today, the options are endless. From large and comprehensive systems with so many integrations and tools to industry specific software applications focused on start-ups and small B2B businesses, there are many CRM options in the market.

It does not matter which B2B industry you may be in, the CRM integration with LinkedIn must be done so that the tools can be maximized to their potential. It is important to understand that using the power of LinkedIn along with the CRM means that more leads and better outreach campaigns can be developed for the sales teams.

A customer relationship management or CRM integration done with LinkedIn will enable you to get all the important information such as names, job titles, organizations, website addresses, etc. This information can be extracted and sent directly to the CRM system. Sending this important data automatically saves many hours manually as the input data for leads is used for outreach campaigns in boosting replies and sales.

Why is it Important to Integrate CRM with LinkedIn?


No matter which business it may be, time and strong professional relationships are two of the important elements that help in achieving the desired results. Sales teams across all industries work hard consistently to generate more sustainable relationships. Even though all these relationships have multiple components, the sales conversions and mutually benefitting situations must encounter one another.

The sales process becomes much more streamlined and effective when CRM is integrated with LinkedIn. What must be kept in mind is that the traditional sales activities are anyway provoking the loss of many business deals. The decision-making processes have turned complex and business reports assert that more people should be included in the process.

Basically, it can be said that it is no longer sufficient to just focus on the important within but it should become important to multi-thread a targeted network. There is an immediate need to apply digital strategies in the sales process. This is a process that entails personalizing content, teaching something new to people, and changing how the digital strategy can impact a business. The CRM integration with LinkedIn brings all this and more.

Benefits of CRM Integration With LinkedIn


1. Easy Leads Prospecting


Easy Leads Prospecting | Benefits of CRM Integration With LinkedIn
The CRM integration with LinkedIn helps immensely in lead prospecting. LinkedIn is a social platform that is created for professional networking. It helps the sales team to find their target audience precisely. There are two important types of LinkedIn profiles including company profiles and personal profiles.

The fact is that B2B businesses can gain many benefits by finding out about a company that they are targeting, their needs, wants, and even an insight into an existing process. After this, they can also target specific decision-makers within a company through personal profiles.

Basically, LinkedIn is a place where professionals can connect with multiple like-minded professionals and organizations. They can store valuable data and make all of it available for the sales team and marketers so that much better CRM profiles can be built.

The CRM integration with LinkedIn will give the sales team a wide room to make the most out of all untapped leads without wasting any time searching the whole pool. The integrations are such that they let a salesperson have an advanced search option of the lead, prospect, or the customer directly from the CRM.

One of the best-added benefits is that all additional information can be provided by LinkedIn to understand and strategize accordingly. This does not just help in saving a lot of time but it also helps the team to provide a value addition while eliminating any unwanted research of non-prospects.

2. Saving Time


Saving Time | Benefits of CRM Integration With LinkedInA valuable and rather limited resource that all sales teams have to use is time. To ensure that the sales goals are achieved, it becomes important to engage and interact with the prospects and generate qualified leads. Think of a situation when you have created sufficient conversations on LinkedIn that they are all ready to be transferred into a CRM system.

When LinkedIn will be integrated with an online CRM system, it will become easy to save the leads from any conversations that you may have with a prospect. In another scenario where you have been using LinkedIn for a long time without knowing that there is a possibility of integrating CRM, you will again be able to save a lot of time.

You can import all of your saved leads from LinkedIn to the CRM system without thinking about transferring them manually. This is a great way to save time. In addition, the new version of LinkedIn also allows you to include the latest features that help in improving communication and speed of updating modifications in the sales pipelines of opportunities.

This way, you will end up saving time and also ensure that you don’t miss track of the buyer’s needs. Any alerts and insights will keep you up to date in real-time about all the important information that is needed to take the best action towards building a sales relationship.

3. Better Relationship Building


Better Relationship Building | Benefits of CRM Integration With LinkedIn
The integration of LinkedIn with an online CRM system ensures a seamless lead flow and an ability to build better relations with the customers. All of the email contacts and the important information related to them can fall in perfect sync.

The integration can show the sales team a clear direction of working on the prospects by facilitating a smooth introduction with the information that is obtained from LinkedIn. This can be done with easy networks, predefined communication templates, information sharing, and using updates about prospects.  

The sales team can get detailed information about the profile of the leads which further plays an important role in the process of relationship building. The kind of information that you can obtain about the leads turns out to be highly useful for making the lead feel comfortable.

Sales teams anyway do so much and go out of their way to get information about the customers so that better sales pitches can be made. The CRM integration with LinkedIn serves as a perfect resort to this because it helps the sales team to make things very easy.

4. Targeting the Right People


Focusing on just one person is not enough to generate business opportunities. If you want to ensure that you achieve your sales objectives quickly then multithreading is something that you will have to pay sincere attention to. It is something that allows much better communication and conversations with the right set of people.

The CRM integration with LinkedIn can help in giving you the wide possibility of leveraging the data that gets collected from sales preferences. A consistency in the way you approach the leads can also allow you to learn who you may be interested in. As you synchronize LinkedIn with CRM, you can retrieve important information from your CRM.

One of the easiest ways to find the right insight is to look at the recommended leads. These profiles are generally within the targeted account or they are similar to the potential lead. When you find the right people, you can focus on reaching a constructive decision while uncovering other profiles that are included in the decision process. This way, you will save time and stay focused.

5. Improved Sales Intelligence


The CRM integration with LinkedIn has the ability to improve sales intelligence to a great extent. You can easily get all the important sales insights with regular updates, information, and connections. Moreover, you can also save a lot of time in finding the right people and hence get your business a true value addition.

The ability to access information from any time and from anywhere will never let you lose on any prospect. While you continue enjoying the ease of building connections seamlessly, the customers are also somehow empowered to deal with the right person which is a benefit to both ends.

With so many sales representatives and business development professionals using social tools, it makes sense to access the information on one screen. The CRM integration with LinkedIn enables all the prospects to view the CRM window. All users can research the prospects before contacting them while pulling up information through LinkedIn.

Sales intelligence is also empowered because this integration saves a lot of time and expands the overall accuracy. You can get to know your prospects well in advance and you can ascertain if you have something in common. The system also shows a list of related leads and people while matching them to the profile that is being viewed.

Most of all, we all know that most of the buyers are always involved in the decision-making process so it becomes all the more important to access leads. The users can actually communicate with all the parties and make it extremely easy to close the deals.

6. Much Better Outreach Campaigns


After you have become successful in creating a list of potential leads and information about the professional life of a person, the outreach campaigns can become personalized and effective.

It becomes easy to create high conversion email campaigns that can plug in all important data that the CRM integration with LinkedIn has scrapped with accounting targeting and automating the entire lead generation process.

The final result is always a constant stream of new customer inquiries each month that come from the automated system. These inquiries have a great potential to turn into your leads while helping you do much better in the business with an expanded clientele.

7. Detailed Demographic Information


Detailed Demographic Information | Benefits of CRM Integration With LinkedIn
LinkedIn is an excellent source to get relevant data on the customers. You can know their job title, seniority, professional achievements, and much more. This knowledge will help in personalizing your outreach campaigns.

When you know more about the potential leads, there will be a much better opportunity to stand out and show everyone that you have done your research properly. More people are likely going to respond if you connect with them on a personal level.

The detailed demographic information also helps in a lead generation which becomes as simple as finding a suitable lead and hitting a button on their profile. All of this public information can be collected and sent to the pipeline so that it appears on the dashboard and helps in saving time that is otherwise spent on inputting the data manually.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is most definitely one of the most powerful business networks that you cannot ignore. It has a wealth of information and by making complete use of it, businesses can gain so much. Ensuring that the CRM software is compatible with LinkedIn can help a sales team to become way more effective.

One of the biggest benefits is the ability to use the information and foster communications with the prospects. Customers are anyway not prepared to respond to the sales and marketing literature that are not related to them. They look for immediate value and something that should be provided with what they are looking for.

The union of a CRM with LinkedIn helps in ensuring powerful sales and marketing processes. All businesses that wish to see real results from prospecting must make the most out of CRM integration with LinkedIn. If you also want to do the same, get in touch with our CRM consultants of Encaptechno who can help you achieve the best results.

 

 

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Benefits of CRM Integration With Google Analytics | Encaptechno

Benefits of CRM Integration With Google Analytics

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Benefits of CRM Integration With Google Analytics | Encaptechno


Google Analytics enables the measurement of the effectiveness of all marketing channels. It is a great platform that stores the online behavioural data of visitors. Now, if we integrate Google Analytics with a CRM then the overall productivity increases manifold. This is because CRM has additional data stored about the customer’s offline activity.

The CRM integration can help in getting data that can further be used to run different types of campaigns such as SMS, calling, emails, etc. for tapping the warm and hot leads. These are the traditional campaigning strategies that can be used by almost everyone while making a product or a service offer a tough battle against all competitors.

In the case of online marketing, the first party cookies are used for exclusively reaching out to the visitors of a website while they surf other websites on Ad Networks such as Double Click, Amazon, Google Display Network, etc. In the case of lead generation and e-commerce websites, in case we combine the CRM with Google Analytics then a platform can be created for user segments for carrying out online remarketing.

Why Integrate CRM with Google Analytics?

 

The Google Analytics integration with CRM helps in creating custom reports, remarketing audiences, segments, etc. This is because of more comprehensive customer insight. In other words, if Google Analytics gathers general audience patterns, CRM binds some user peculiarities to a specific User ID or Customer ID.

In addition, the CRM system stores detailed data on selling some products. For instance, you can classify some items by a supplier and transfer the indicators to a Google Analytics account while widening some specifications of the marketing performance reports and simplifying the process of comparing the key performance indicators between two systems.

The implementation of Google Analytics alone cannot be used for tracking some purchases and transaction data which can affect the final figures as well. However, the system in tandem helps in avoiding this problem because factual reports can be received on the marketing and business effectiveness.

Google Analytics helps with demographic analysis, traffic sources, visit duration, location details, product views, session numbers, technical aspects, etc. On the other hand, CRM helps with sales, lead nurturing, customer age bracket and gender, products returned, email survey feedback, user loyalty, etc.

With the Google Analytics integration with CRM, the immediate features that can be availed are:

  1. No requirement for data structuring which largely simplifies the work of executors and the cost of the implementation as well.
  2. Preliminary verification can be done which reduces the occurrence of problems in the future. You can check before loading to prevent any errors.
  3. The system gets notified in case of any failures as it takes into account the specifics of Google Analytics Management API. In case it is necessary, support can be provided for troubleshooting.
  4. There is immense flexibility in using data which means that it is possible to use information from internal databases for generating GBQ reports.
  5. The integration does not require any involvement of specialists in the IT field. This functionality can be intuitive.

The CRM integration with Google Analytics can open new opportunities for working with new clients. With this integration, targeting will be as precise as possible. In essence, this integration enables remarketing, segmenting, and building custom reports.

Benefits of CRM Integration with Google Analytics

 

The overall benefits of using data from a CRM can be talked about limitlessly. There is a wide range of data that can open up new opportunities for further advancement. The main difference from Google Analytics, familiar to all of us, is the binding of information to the users.

Below, we will see the benefits of CRM integration with Google Analytics one by one.

1. Improved Monitoring

Improved Monitoring - Benefits of CRM Integration with Google Analytics


You can know all about a user and how that user has previously interacted with a company. In addition, CRM integration helps in forming an analysis that allows for more monitoring.

Buyers can be segmented by the frequency of purchases and the average check while uploading information to Google Analytics for getting maximum results. This also makes it possible to create audiences that can be later used for remarketing.

It must be noted that it is best to start the integration process by ensuring that both platforms have a common data key, particularly when the integration is being done for remarketing. You can either display a CRM ID on your website or shift this to Google Analytics in a custom dimension form. In addition, you can also shift each customer ID produced by Google Analytics to your CRM.

Most people choose to display a CRM ID because of the simplicity that the option offers. This is a small ID setup modification that does not take much time. After the creation of a common key, you can transfer the CRM information to Google Analytics using the Data Import function. Another option is to create measurement protocol hits.

For receiving the CRM data in the Google Analytics account, you can create segments. Find the desired number of customers and pass the list to AdWords. You can also run a remarketing campaign when the synchronization gets finished.

2. Analysing Ad Performance in Detail

Let’s say that you have a part of users who make purchases from your brand continuously. Now the integration of CRM and Google Analytics can help you in preparing individual offers for these users which will further increase their loyalty towards your brand as well.

You can also stimulate consumers who have not been using services for a long time by using the targeted marketing strategies. For shoppers with a low average bill, you can offer them to purchase related products. Basically, the system stores information that can allow you to track the effectiveness of some products.

There is data on product margin and sales that can be used to create reports that demonstrate the detailed benefits of certain items in the assortment. This way, it can be understood which advertising activities are profitable. It is not possible to do something like that with just Google Analytics.

3. Cost Per Lead Metrics

Cost Per Lead Metrics - Benefits of CRM Integration with Google Analytics

Regardless of the business they might be in there are some ways that companies approach digital marketing. They either spend a fixed budget on digital marketing hoping it will bear results in increased leads or they count how many leads they receive per month from different campaigns while optimising the average cost per lead.

On the other hand, there is an evolved way of doing this which is adopted by some other companies. There are some companies that count the number of new customers received per month from different campaigns and optimise the average cost per month.

In addition, they also calculate the lifetime value of a customer versus the initial investment on getting that customer and optimising for a maximum peak. Businesses that adopt the last two methods are the ones who can succeed quickly above their competitors while overcoming any storm since they have an upper hand in business intelligence which can be easily maximized with the Google Analytics integration with CRM.

4. Analyzing Reaction on Content

Another reason why it is important to integrate Google Analytics with your CRM or lead management tool is that the integration helps in segmenting and analyzing the target audience reaction to the content.

To put this simply, the Google Analytics engagement and conversion metrics such as pages per session, bounce rate, attribution, times on-site, etc. can help in the segmentation of data by channel for seeing which content provides the highest engaged audiences. In case you use tracking URLs, you can even trace back to which piece of content performs best.

Even though not an explicit measure of content value, bounce rate can be combined with the time on page metric to understand the content value. In case a page has a high bounce rate and low page time then that denotes a poor value. However, if a page has a high bounce rate and a high time on the page then that means the content was engaging and solved the needs of a user. 

By the integration of Google Analytics with the CRM, you can combine the data with your lead data to see how the different segments of the target audience respond to the content. This knowledge can be accurately used in adapting your content to more accurately targeting the audience that you went to.

5. Tracking Revenue From All Sources

In case you are like most other businesses then your CRM system does not show you the source of your web leads. This can be causing you to spend a large part of your budget on low-quality leads that do not convert.  It is important to understand that you need more than just form fills and goal completions for making important marketing decisions.

It will not be enough for measuring your form fills because different traffic sources attract customers of different quality. There is a possibility that one channel may be capable of generating high converting long term clients but many times the other one can generate nothing but unqualified leads. One of the best ways to evaluate a marketing approach is to track the revenue it generates.

Google Analytics does not track offline revenue and as a matter of fact, most sales do not happen online. A maximum share of sales gets closed either on the phone or in person. By default, Google Analytics does not have access to these sales which means that you have no idea how much revenue was generated by a certain approach, ad, article, or even a keyword. This will result in spending money on leads that do not purchase anything.

6. Cross-functional Insights

Data is an important part of a growing business in a digital-first economy and it is available through Google Analytics easily. However, until the CRM integration happens, it is mostly not sorted, cleaned, analyzed, and made actionable for multiple teams who have a single and shared view of important information shared by a customer.

For instance, businesses of all sizes use Google Analytics for relying on digital marketing metrics and monitoring their website traffic. However, these businesses can learn quickly that the tools alone are not so useful for providing recommendations. In addition, marketing analytics do not translate across other departments.

With the integration of the CRM system, a comprehensive analysis of the customer’s online activity can be attained that paints a holistic picture of their needs. When a company is designed to maintain clean data in this way, the CRM can be used for collaborating, tabulating, and customizing data in a report for unique department needs.

The important differentiator lies in all reporting centres around the customer needs that eventually enables all teams to make decisions while keeping them at front and centre. Businesses can empower their teams with a single and unified view of the customer which serves as one of the biggest benefits of a CRM system integration. This also extends to other benefits once you have usable data.

Reports can be run to see where the opportunities are, how well they interact with leads and customers, sales trends, customer service efforts, and more. This informs each experience delivered to customers including all the online features.

Conclusion

All the team members in a business can gather important data and insights with the integration of a CRM system with Google Analytics. This helps in working together to provide exceptional customer-centric experiences.

Moreover, the data can be easily organized and presented by a CRM platform while leading to a better understanding of customers. This leads to better messaging and outreach which can be done with automation and further helps in an efficient customer service processes. As a result, the teams collaborate easily and reduce any siloes.

Out of all the benefits, using CRM integration for powering a more efficient company is one of the biggest. It can help in managing better customer relationships and better businesses.

In case you wish to have your Google Analytics integrated with a CRM then reach out to Encaptechno for immediate support. Our CRM consultants will help you get the best results with the integration.

 

 

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How to Maintain a Clean CRM Database? | Encaptechno

How to Maintain a Clean CRM Database?

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How to Maintain a Clean CRM Database? | Encaptechno

In running a CRM database system, a commonly challenging task is to ensure the precision and validity of data stored in it. When the data maintenance by an organization is not at par, the activities are slowed down, reports become inaccurate, and it becomes difficult to verify details of each record manually because there are other important activities to deal with.

An Example

Let’s consider an example. If a sales representative A from an organization makes a follow-up sales call to a customer and finds out that another sales representative B had already made that call, then the entire situation can be a little embarrassing for rep A. However, the question is where did the confusion arise and why exactly did the rep. A make that call anyway?

Now let’s say that representative A went on to cross-check the data and found that there was no previous record of a call being made to the contact. On further investigation, representative A discovers that there was a duplicate copy of the same contact assigned to sales representative B. Hence, the conclusion, in this case, was that two representatives in the sales team had a similar contact and both of them did their job by making the follow-up call to the client.

This is a classic example of the fact that the CRM has inaccurate data which is why it hampered the sales process in the case of the organization mentioned above. Since this data is not managed, sometimes this can also lead to the contacts being not managed and their phone numbers or email addresses being changed.

Maintaining a Clean and Organized Data Set

Maintaining a Clean and Organized Data Set

In the example mentioned above, we noticed that a case of data duplication led to an embarrassing sales follow-up call. In addition to the duplication, there can also be a chance of difficulty to manage the validity of the data in case the CRM deduplication is not done.

Hence, there is a need to maintain a clean, organized, and valid data set in the sales database so that the data can get updated regularly. Otherwise, the sales reports can be full of errors which can eventually lead to much bigger problems.

For instance, let’s say that an organization only enables a 10% discount on its products according to the policy, and some of the representatives may not be aware of this policy or they can get careless with it and enter a higher discount for some of their deals.

In case this happens, there will be a need to manually attend to the exceptions and set things right. This can be time-consuming for sure and unnecessary as well. Moreover, the representatives will have to be quick in catching the errors so that the sales are not affected.

Thus, all of this comes to one simple fact and that is the deduplication of databases. Using the Zoho CRM by taking the assistance of a CRM consultant can help in maintaining and cleaning the database. Some of the effective ways in which this can be done with the Zoho CRM are mentioned below. We will look at them one by one.

Managing Duplicate Records

The use of Zoho CRM can be helpful in offering a prompt and effective solution to the problem of duplicate records. We will see how to do that in two ways and an example.

  • Arresting Duplicates before Creating Them

    When you make some field a unique field, the creation of a duplicate record is stopped immediately. This is an effective way for maintaining a database.

In case you have marked “Email Address” as a unique field in a module, the CRM can alert you to create a new lead with the same email address just like an existing lead. For making a field unique, you just have to select the “Don’t Allow Duplicate Values” option under the field’s settings.

  • Merging the Duplicate Records

    Regardless of creating the unique fields and double-checking the data, there might still be some duplicate records in the CRM. In this case, the deduplication tool of Zoho CRM can be used to merge the duplicate data.

When the user runs a de-duplicate check, the CRM can automatically merge the records that are the exact copies of one another. In case there is a conflict, a Master Record can be chosen so that the duplicates can be merged into the chosen record.

Other than the deduplication tool, the Zoho CRM also comes with a special “Find and Merge” option that duplicates features. You can use the Find and Merge Duplicates option in case you know which record in the module got duplicated and should be merged.

For example, in case you know that a contact called Sanjay has duplicate copies and you wish to merge the copies then you can go to Jame’s page and click Find and Merge Duplicates. You can select the records, set the right record and merge the duplicate copies.

Validating the CRM Data

Validating the CRM Data

Other than clearing up the duplication of the data, one must also be proactive in ensuring the CRM database does not accumulate junk data in the first place. This also means that one should find out ways to validate the data that comes in the CRM account.

The Zoho CRM comes with some features by which you can easily ensure data validity. This also includes various efforts such as putting a process in place, setting some access restrictions, and having automatic record submission for manual approval.

  • Automatic Record Submission

Being a sales manager, you will often not have the time to look at and verify each piece of information that enters the CRM database. Regardless, you will want to have an eye for some important details such as the product discount percentage.

In case someone enters an unacceptable discount then you would wish to be notified of it. The Zoho CRM comes with a reliable solution for addressing this requirement where the records created by the sales team can be automatically submitted for approval of higher-ups based on customized criteria.

Hence, this is a way in which you can stay informed about the sensitive data that gets in the CRM in case that is a cause of concern. The simple configuration of the workflow approval process with suitable criteria is enough for submitting records automatically for approval.

  • Data Validation

When a record is added to the CRM, sometimes there can be a situation where you cannot fill all the fields of the record in just one go. For example, while adding a lead, you can see a field called Interested In.

Now at the moment, you might not be very sure but once you call up the lead and ask them what they are interested in, you will be able to fill in this field. In this way, you can also fill in a discount percentage for a deal when you have had a discussion with the sales manager.

In this case, you are following a detailed process. The details can only be entered at different stages of the process. You might be encountered with stages such as lead qualification, negotiation, discount approval, contract stage, etc.

If this is a situation that sounds similar then you can place a process in the CRM and at different stages of the process, you can have the system mandate while validating the information as needed. As the record progresses, the CRM will prompt a user to enter the details in the right context. When the record exits a process, you can have complete information for the record.

The Zoho CRM can be used to create a business process with the help of Blueprint. It helps in designing and executing the process in a systematic manner. With the help of Zoho Blueprint, each stage in a process and its associated people with each stage can be defined. You can also guide your teams through the process execution. You can validate and mandate information while automating routine actions as well.

Customize Fields

Customize Fields


The Zoho CRM can be used to customize a field based on the below-mentioned strategies. We will look at them one by one.

  • Mandate Sales Information:

The first method is to mandate the important sales information by marking the fields as mandatory. A major problem that comes with unorganized data is that many fields are incomplete.

When you send the legal documents by email, you will often see that the street information is missing in the address section which is an inefficient way of doing things. This situation can be avoided by marking the fields as mandatory in the Zoho CRM. Once this is done, a record cannot be saved without filling in all mandatory information.

  •  Setting Maximum Character Limit For Fields:

Many times, you can feel the need to fill a field that is unique to your organization. For example, a unique ID number that comes with 10 digits. What if someone enters 9 digits? In case the system accepts the number then the data will be inaccurate.

When you customize this field in the Zoho CRM, you can set a maximum character limit allowed for text fields and the maximum digits allowed for number fields to avoid this problem.

Maintaining a Style Sheet

There is no doubt that automation does a lot of work. However, there is also no denying the fact that human efforts are important for ensuring data quality. An effective way to ensure that the data entry is easy and consistent is by introducing naming conventions.

For instance, sometimes a country might be referred to with different names and in different formats. The United Kingdom is known as the U.K., Britain, and the United Kingdom. This is why a standard format for data helps in generating precise reports while filtering the records based on the criteria.

You can follow a style sheet with a list of abbreviations and standard data entry formats for addresses, company names, email addresses, designations, etc. The predefined drop-down values also help in eliminating a part of the problem in this case while making the de-duplication of database possible. 

Using Roles for Security

The data comes in from many sources and multiple users access it at one time. This means that the maintenance of a clean CRM database is not so easy. However, one of the best and proven practices to achieve this task is to restrict access to data in the CRM account.

You can define the roles that will help you control the access rights of users while working on the CRM data. In this way, the users will modify the records that are relevant to them. The access is limited only to those who are responsible for it.

Conclusion

Making sure that the CRM data is clean is the responsibility of everyone and the benefits of doing the same include a much better understanding of the customers along with an ability to communicate effectively.

In case you need any help in getting started with the CRM data cleaning and maintenance strategy then Encaptechno is a CRM consulting partner that can be at your service. As CRM consultants with a wide range of experience, we have helped many businesses succeed with technology solutions.

Get in touch with us today so that we can clean your data and create a process to keep it like that while going forward.

 

 

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Future of CRM in the Gaming Industry | Encaptechno

Future of CRM in the Gaming Industry

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Future of CRM in the Gaming Industry | Encaptechno

The gaming companies are a large part of a huge and vibrant multi-billion-dollar industry that enjoys great growth while showing no signs of slowing down in the near future. There are billions of gamers all over the world which offers the gaming industry to maximize unlimited opportunities for game development and distribution. However, the ability to drive innovation also leaves many gaming companies with a challenge.

The gaming industry is full of publishers who have millions of players but out of those millions, only a few are actually active and playing. In the present time, building a game, marketing it initially, and giving the entire process a sales unit target is not enough. If the gaming publishers wish to secure a customer base and their organization’s future then going a step ahead is important in regards to customer satisfaction.

Leveling Up in Gaming Industry

 

Leveling Up in Gaming Industry
If the gaming publishers wish to stand a chance of being heard in this competitive and crowded market, there is a need to level up and be completely connected with the players at all times without any exceptions. It is necessary to watch the players and analyze their journey using CRM tools so that an exceptional experience can be offered at each step. This is where the role of CRM in the gaming industry comes into play.

Forward-thinking is helping some of the digitally mature companies to adapt their businesses by changing them the way in which most customers would love. Adoption of the best CRM platforms helps the digital companies to connect more closely with players all through the product life cycle starting from the first moment a player signs up to the time of retention.

It is about building trust with the audience and making them feel immensely supported and rewarded and this happens when players feel valued in the sense that the bottom line sees the benefit.

CRM in Gaming – The Present Scenario


The present gaming market is noted with very few large companies prevailing over the major market revenue. The fact is that the gaming market is maturing at a good pace with each passing day and a majority of gaming players frequently show up at two or more venues. The overall cost to acquire and retain gaming players is increasing.

Some of the things that affect the present gaming scenario in India are:

  • Demographics: Oftentimes, there is not a holistic picture of the players, and every member must be researched in isolation and pieced together for insights.
  • Customer Intelligence: So many gaming firms accumulate a lot of information on their players who actively use their loyalty cards. That said, this information is soiled all over various disparate systems without any efficient mechanisms for centralization and consolidation.
  • Segmentation: Only a small amount of segmentation is undertaken while players are being grouped on the basis of age, gender, membership status, communication, interests, hospitality balance, gaming spend patterns, etc. The campaigns get organized around these fundamental topics.
  • Machine Learning: Sometimes, the problem is in the way in which machine learning functions in CRM systems. More often than not, machine learning identifies a direct relationship between large data sets. It just offers a large number of correlations without actually offering some real insights about why something is happening. There is a need for consolidating the customer data into a single storage point.

CRM Best Practices in Gaming

CRM Best Practices in Gaming
In CRM, the entire customer lifecycle gets planned from start to end with each important touchpoint being mapped and proactive communications being planned and automated. It is possible to measure a player’s life cycle in months while dividing it into stages such as early life, retention, in-life, etc.

Regardless, there are some best practices that can win the hearts and minds of players from the moment they log in to the time they spend gaming. Let’s look at them one by one.

1.  A Welcome Message

If a player has signed up and has given your game a green signal then there shouldn’t be any option to leave the player on radio silence. As a rule of customer satisfaction, you can start by simply sending an email in real-time, i.e., in case the email lands in the inbox right when the player opens the account.

At the same time, you can also send an in-game welcome message as well. In case a player uses a two-step validation process then you can tell them to check their inboxes. You can also email to offer important information needed to get up and running without any hassle.

There is another option to include relevant links to player tutorials, guides, FAQs, and important community forums. Take out the time to thank your players and make them feel like they are a part of your community straight away.

2. The Initial Period

You can send your clients a “Getting Started” email in the first 24 or 48 hours. This is a fun way to give them access to more resources where they can learn how to level up, hook up with their friends, get rewards and also make in-app game purchases.

You can also track the progress and use behavioral data analytics to work out when they look like they are losing interest while sending reactivation messages. This will lead them to come back and spend more time on the platform.

3. Generating Loyalty

Generating Loyalty | CRM Best Practices in Gaming

The key to success is to safeguard the loyalty of clients and prolonging the length of their subscriptions. By coming up with new ideas, you can get them to stay for in-game animation, new content, and competitions. You can consider this similar to a brand that comes with a new collection to renew the interest of customers.

If the game is designed while keeping the community in mind then customer satisfaction will follow automatically. This is the way to ensure that the gaming community becomes supportive. The gaming publishers can also be active on forums, provide tools whenever possible and slowly move into massively multiplayer online games. 

With the implementation of some of the best CRM platforms, game development can be supported because CRMs can offer methods and tools that have proved successful.

4. Rewards

Playing for rewards is something that all gamers consider seriously. In fact, it is one of those things that encourage the gamers to keep coming back while being immersed in the play and making the most out of a fun gaming session.

If there is a lack of rewards or an inability to see how the gaming session impacts their enjoyment then the gamers lose interest. Hence, CRM can be used for focusing more on offering rewards. The gamers must be clear about what rewards are, what they can do, and how the gamers can use them.

5. Community

Community | CRM Best Practices in Gaming

Creating a community is the most important step for all online game developers. No matter what the game is or what the product is, all communities work in a similar way. All they need is a subject for discussion and a place for exchanging ideas.

Taking steps such as launching a game site where the gamer can come across screenshots, interviews, and artworks with development team members along with regular updates on the development of future games is something very important.

There are things such as newsletters that help in giving the players regular boosters by sending more information on the game. Things like these eventually help in keeping up the interest of the player until the new release comes up.

6. Social Aspect

It is common to find that most gamers love to play for the social aspect, so the game developers must make the most out of it in all ways. If the game is a multiplayer module then the ability of players to build a community with strangers or even friends is an important component in the enjoyment.

It can be beneficial to use in-game and other messaging tools to remind the players that their teammate is waiting for them. This will lead the players to come back quickly and progress at their game with the help of others.

 

Future of CRM in Gaming Industry

Future of CRM in the Gaming Industry


The future of customer relationship management needs simplicity and sensibility. Without the benefit of predictive analysis, looking for customer information is the same as looking for a needle in the haystack. With the use of predictive analysis and AI, it can be easy to analyze customer sentiments and intent, score important leads, recommend products, and upsell.

One must realize that the customer demands are changing quickly and gaming companies must keep up with them. Using the best CRM platforms can yield accurate and actionable behavior models that deliver much better content and real-time processing based on historical data and in the moment behavioral data that provides a personalized customer experience.

The role of CRM in the gaming industry can be used to its maximum capability by gathering data insights from human analysis for spotting opportunities that improve sales processes. The back to basics approach of combining convenient automation with a human touch can change the face of CRM for gaming companies.

The CRM capability of gaming companies can be used for the better by developing and maintaining a centralized data storage point for guests. One can use more efficient and effective processes for gathering customer intelligence reports while moving beyond market retention to market the growth.

CRM can also be used for detailed segmentation analysis based on common characters while making use of an increased understanding of how segments respond to marketing tactics. With the use of CRM, the gaming companies are looking for a unified view of the customer journey from the time when you know the customer to acquisition, retention, and upselling. In the coming years, the increasing competition amongst CRM providers will lead to a shift in the way gaming companies work with CRM tools.

If a gaming company has a sound CRM system in implementation then there is a good chance to increase the market share and total share of players. The key is to operate with pre-defined objectives, detailed segmentation, and a great understanding of characteristics.

Conclusion

Attracting and retaining the players is the key to success in the highly competitive online gaming industry. The ever-growing multimedia communications offer the game developers an opportunity to make the best use of CRM. Ever since there has been an emergence of online multiplayer games, there has been an opportunity to reach a massive audience of young and motivated fans.

The process of attracting and encouraging them to come back requires effort which is right where CRM comes in. Given the benefits of CRM, the game developers are very much aware of the opportunities and are also keen to make the most out of the benefits of CRM platforms.

CRM is about offering an exceptional customer experience in an efficient and automated manner based on the habits and preferences of the player. When this is done properly, CRM offers an ability to identify and engage with players to create a fully immersive and engaging experience within the first few hours of signing up.

If you need any support in maximizing the value of your gaming platform, get in touch with CRM consultants at Encaptechno for assistance.

 

 

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Why CRM System Fail

Why CRM Systems Fail?

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CRM – A brief

CRM holds true potential to be a game-changer for many businesses. However, while selecting, be aware that most CRM system implementations may fall short of the desired objectives, and it could be argued that many fail in entirety.

SCOTT K. EDINGER, founder of Edinger Consulting Group, is recognized as an expert in helping organizations achieve measurable business results. Coauthor of The Inspiring Leader, he blogs for Harvard Business Review and Forbes. He has rightly quoted “In my work with clients, when I ask executives if their CRM system is helping their business grow, the failure rate is close to 90%.”

What is CRM?

 

What is CRM

According to Wikipedia, “Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is an approach to managing a company’s interaction with current and potential customers. It uses data analysis about customers’ history with a company to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention and ultimately driving sales growth.

One important aspect of the CRM approach is the systems of CRM that compile data from a range of different communication channels, including a company’s website, telephone, email, live chat, marketing materials and more recently, social media. Through the CRM approach and the systems used to facilitate it, businesses learn more about their target audiences and how to best care their needs”

Irrespective of your designation CRM’s today assist ranging from an executive in Sales, to Marketing, to HR, to the Customer Relations Department, to Operations Team, to the Productions Team, to the Accounts Department etc. and finally ranging to the Top Management and the IT Department.

If anyone who is using the CRM and not utilizing the data optimally, there is no incentive to keep up the data- the data quality deteriorates and becomes less reliable as time passes. For any company Sales is the center of revenue and Sales department must be happy and in total alignment with the CRM. If they are not, it is imminent that CRM failure is looming.

How do we avoid this disaster? Let us understand the common reasons why CRM project fail.

How CRM projects become a disaster?

 

Why CRM System Fail

 

1. Not knowing the goal from the very beginning 

Know Your Goals

There’s no rule that says CRM system objectives must include revenue improvements. However, by definition, if you can’t measure revenue impact, you can’t calculate CRM ROI. A successful software implementation, especially CRM, begins with understanding your desired business goals. What are the important success indicators or KPI’s for my business and sales teams? How do you wish to see your business to look like in the coming 12 to 24 months?  And 5 years from now & 10 years from now. You need a clear horizon.

Take your time to invest in your vision, and document it.

How do you foresee your success?

What are the targets you wish to achieve?  Make sure you are specific about them in planning which will reap great returns in your CRM implementation.

A few key pointers of CRM objectives that are easily related to improve the ROI are:

  • Increased customer acquisitions
  • Decreased customer acquisition cost
  • Shortened sales cycle
  • Increased revenue per customer

In addition, it is important that your CRM objectives align with and support the company’s business strategy. Your CRM strategy needs to show how strategy, people, processes and software are doctored to directly impact the business customers, team coordination, effort, performance and contribution of each employee in achieving revenue objectives. By setting quantifiable objectives and having a clear strategic vision of where your company should be after successful implementation, you will have a clear guide to follow.

2. Poor User adoption

Most of the times, it’s in a human tendency not to accept the change. We are so used to working in the style we have been working traditionally. At times the team members feel they are being spied, there performance is under continuous surveillance

A new CRM system brings new processes, automation, information, roles, responsibilities and control. Notably, a new CRM system oftentimes brings an actual or perceived loss of control. There might be a few people who feel they will lose their jobs and some staff may not understand why a CRM is needed in the first place.

Poor user adoption will create an unpleasant atmosphere where management drive adoption but CRM is resisted by the team members. Resistance to change is in human nature and it is a given situation in most CRM implementations, but it needs to be managed effectively.

When it fails to be quickly and properly addressed resistance will result in a less than 100% productive CRM. Wrong data entry is highly expected in these cases; a majority of the CRM failures happen due to wrong data entry.

3.Not Selecting the Right CRM Solution provider

Ensure your Solution Provider can train your teams on the tools he is offering and the ongoing support, he can offer if you need it. And chances are that you really will because after the switches are flipped, your teams need to be ready to go.

Your solution provider is well equipped to provide you with the support which is crucial when taking into consideration the plan for your CRM and your business goals. Have you selected the right software and the right solution partner?

It cannot be stressed enough: CRM implementation shouldn’t be considered a one-off project. Look for a partnership that aligns with the right Solution Provider enhances your business.

Know your internal champions and whether or not you have executive support for a CRM project is paramount to its success. In your planning phase, identify internal champions keeping in mind you may have more than one depending on the complexity of your business and the teams who will use your new CRM.

Additionally, executive support will be indispensable when it comes to your implementation. Strategy and execution – can make or break an implementation. And 50% of the CRMs fail due to signing a wrong choice of selecting the solution provider.

To implement a CRM system on a lower budget, and blinded by an attractive price point, businesses often make the mistake of not doing proper research on the vendor. In addition, businesses sometimes err on the other side and over-spec’ the CRM by paying for features that they don’t want or even need.

Key features one should look forward while designing the tools

  • What is the total years of experience of the solution provider?
  • Which other businesses like ours have you supplied with a similar CRM tool?
  • Does it need complex training?
  • How much help will you provide to us within the price?
  • How easily does it integrate with our existing tools?
  • Can we get started easily?
  • What is the support the solution provider extends after sales?

4. Unorganized Data

Organize data

In case your data is not well organized or largely incomplete, just because you put it into CRM doesn’t mean you’ll get great results. Knowing what data your business is tracking and why will help you understand the best way to organize it.

Knowing what you wish to reap out of a CRM tools will be an absolute impact of what needs to go in, both in terms of the implementation and the data you input in itself. CRM is often expected to be a single source of truth. This means that all of your resources must be on board within the standards of governance that should be deployed, and training is an essential part so that all of your teams be in sync of the data being entered, and how the data is intended to be used. It is rightly said Garbage in, garbage out. When you have data integrity, your CRM implementation and results will shine even greater and in case things are not organized nothing would help you.

Keep the CRM simple and only buy into features that you really need. There is a large temptation during the vendor selection process to deliver to the vendor an exhaustive list of features that covers a range of departments and functions at the business. Don’t make this mistake.

Define the business outcomes before you begin to meet with CRM solution providers.

Go for the most user-friendly and intuitive interface. Hitting your team with a new CRM tools, and with a difficult to use interface all in one go – much of which is not required – will only put them off.

5. Does your Solution provider really know what you wish to achieve? 

CRM Consulting Partner

Have you found the right vendor for your CRM implementation? Each industry be it construction, manufacturing, warehouse, suppliers or a retailer has a different parameter, and a different set of requirements to meet.

Does your solution provider understand and is the solution provider sensitive towards your language? They will use their time getting to understand your unique business needs even better. Here are some things to look for (and avoid) in a partner:

  • Avoid solutions providers who won’t take the time to meet and understand your standard operations procedures.
  • If planning isn’t a priority for them, buyer beware.
  • Be sure to ask your software solution providers for references from businesses in industries like yours. Contact them, take a feedback about their experience with the solution provider. Get the hang of the after sales services support of the solution provider from the past clients.
  • Select a partner who wants to celebrate your growth and successes. Going through your CRM solution provider selection process get your senior management involved. Don’t do it alone. Involve the various departments, users since it will be needed to drive the adoption across the various departments.

Conclusion

Implementing CRM system is a challenging task. Doing it without expert guidance can lead to a chaotic situation in the future. You need to plan the objectives and goals before you start CRM implementation. It is suggested to hire a trustworthy CRM consultant who can understand your goals and help you with best possible solutions.

Related Read – Why do you need to Hire a CRM Consultant?

Encaptechno is a recognized Salesforce and Zoho certified CRM consultant has globally delivered more than 500 solutions globally. Share your CRM requirements and let our team do the CRM Implementation for you.

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