In the world seemingly on a rudderless course steered by automated ‘personalized’ marketing; we are inundated with the latest and greatest sales behavior predictions using social media, networking, blogging, video platforms… a digital cornucopia of the ‘it’ factors pointed at customers that will buy.

Beware of sales behavior predictions.

Some of the statistical data is downright poor and maybe that’s because simple statistics rely too much on buying habits under a limited number of situations, markets or conditions that bear little resemblance to what you sell. Few experts are willing to debunk these easy and simple hypothetic links e.g. a social network platform that works for selling Pepsi may have little relativity for selling houses.

Yet many a marketing guru would have your company totally revamp its selling process based on these statistics; worse yet with relatively ‘green fielding’ methodologies in lieu of tried and true methods.

Social Media Sales Stats: Does this mean the end of Wal-Mart?

Even when demographic and econometric modeling is added, a statistic hypothesis of a certain sales behavior doesn’t necessarily mean anything. For example, Twitter touts 200 million users. Even with such screaming growth, does this new wave of internet marketing spell the end to Wal-Mart? Hardly, for many solid reasons, not the least is new internet platforms are a figurative drop in the bucket. The 176 million living and breathing customers that visit Wal-Mart stores weekly and ‘stay’ awhile and ‘buy’ vastly outnumber Twitter and MySpace.

Stats tell you what customers aren’t buying.

Car crashes killed 34,000 people in 2009 and in 2008 there were six million accidents, about a one in five chance it will be your time. No one could possibly sell cars based on these statistics alone. Car manufacturers avoid the poor statistics and replaced them with items that do not change the statistical facts: zero interest loans, free this and more that. They have used poor stats to their benefit: ignore what customers aren’t buying.

Great stats can fail to sell.

Airlines can statistically prove air travel is many times safer than traveling by car. However, many a travel plan is based on a perceived and intense decision not to fly for safety reasons. As infinitesimal as the risk may be, the buying decision for air travel is not based on favorable safety statistics. So airlines ignore statistics that won’t sell: a hugely favorable safety statistic is something they can’t sell because many passengers aren’t buying it.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner
Maximize your statistical edge: “Sell a ‘Trend”

Even with exposure to the unlimited ‘customers’ on the net, selling a trend is possibly the only edge over blanket numerical statistics. What makes a trend is selling to good markets and ignoring weak markets, niches or products with proven methods and options that accentuate your edge.

At MosaicCRM we rely on tried and true statistics, particularly in the two vital areas of activities and sales opportunities.

• Market Analytics show aging, margin, unit volumes and revenue distribution is a single step
• Track Stalled Opportunities as an indicator of competition, sales programs and sales cycles
• Identify Customer Buying Cycles to minimize the selling cycle and maximize personnel deployment

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Protocols for Measuring and Optimizing Activity Results

Helping organizations and their users achieve their activity objectives is the hallmark of MosaicCRM. Our business processes offer a unique and important approach to measuring activity ‘results’.  This differentiation is particularity valuable when it comes to Account Retention and Acquisition: our activity protocols are vital to optimize activity effectiveness and success.

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When business was flying and financing was easy, getting the sale was sufficient enough and adopting a strict CRM protocol, along with a lot of other ‘protocols’, usually went by the wayside. Fast forward a couple of years into a deep recession to upset that status quo: Account Retention and Acquisition protocols are absolutely vital to success, mainly because nobody has the money or enough runway to wing it or buyers who have money or time to chance it.

1: Break the Outlook habit to optimize sales potential.

CRM users always gripe it is time consuming to enter data. Well, in comparison to what, Outlook or a spreadsheet? Outlook is pathetically inefficient and like cigarettes, has everyone addicted to it and a habit that needs to be broken. There is no possible way a contact manager or excel can be more efficient and effective than CRM to optimize sales.

• Use CRM to maintain a customer relationship e.g. manage all things related to revenue

2: ‘Vital’ information minimums.

As a company, detail exactly the vital information needed to acquire and maintain a sales relationship with the customer. You don’t need a record of every voice mail message, or the type of dog the contact has. Yet typically vital info is ignored e.g. full names, telephone numbers, email addresses, decision making authority. The lack of vital communication factors makes for a crippled CRM database that can only reference historical data and not the future.

Warning: The Social media craze might be killing your efficiency. So much of the contact/account data included in these programs is useless to your mission. Rarely will it qualify or add to a sales opportunity. Be very wary here of value versus results.

• Set out the required info
• Insist on 100% compliance

3: Monitor Results, not Activities

It is simply all about the results and not the volume of activities. The value of recording activity numbers with non-result actions e.g. leaving a voice mail message or sending a generic email is negligible.

• Your CRM must be monitoring next step ‘results’ of activities.

4: Ratios

What is working really boils down to ratios: how many calls develop how many appointments that result in so many proposals etc. Sloppy activity management will come home to roost in a big way.  Measuring results is the only way to can find out e.g.

• Power Caller User: 100’s of calls and low appointment results are telling in so many ways
• Least Resistance User: Low Calls-High Email is this opening opportunities or not?

5: Get Maximum Activity Coverage

Scheduling one activity at a time by ‘opportunity’ is a really hard way to plan ahead. You’ve profiled and rated accounts right? Good, then sort your database and start scheduling en masse. Plus, dedicate a given time every week for scheduling.

• Insist there is a scheduled activity at all times for every Key Account, Pipeline Opportunity Account and Qualified Prospect. It is impossible to argue this from a sales person point of view… even harder to explain why not to management.
• Monitor activity ‘results’ associated with Opportunities: what’s open, closed, lost, a maybe… this is the most important criteria with which to measure activity efforts.
• Add another activity when completing one.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

Helping users achieve their activity objectives and making each one count is the hallmark of MosaicCRM. Here are a few built in systems we deploy to manage customer retention  and acquisition activities:

• Automatic Reschedule: Past due activities are automatically rescheduled by the system
• Mosaic ‘Marvel’: This tool pre-configures any number of specific activities by specific users in one click. Superb for customer retention routines, lead nurturing and prospect hunting.
• Daily Activity Manager: One simple screen for adding and completing all activities
• Dynamic Activity Objectives: Set number goals for Calls, Appointments, Presentations and Email and get instant monitoring by day, week and month
• Activity Results: Monitor results achieved by activities across the board or by individual
• Comparison Results: Activity comparisons for scheduled, completed numbers and overall database coverage
• Priority Alerts: All activities affecting accounts are profiled  and instant alerts issued

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Mastering Simplicity

At MosaicCRM we try to imitate a paper clip: master simplicity and keeping it simple. The traditional paper clip is a wonder of simplicity and the essence of form follows function. For over a century, it still works in spite of the fact that a lot of imitators have come and gone. Seemingly everybody’s got a simple this CRM or a simple that CRM to sell. The reality is there’s nothing simple about selling. Making CRM look simple, however, is the mark of a professional.

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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The numbers game is dead. Long live strategic ratios.

The business climate in 2011 is projected to be brutal with less money, tighter budgets, fewer sales people and scarcer customers. In spite of this many companies will thrive. How? By changing the way they view prospects and the selling process.

Method 1: High Volume Low Results

The traditional approach to sales activity has been volume gets results. In other words, given enough volume, anyone can reach the desired results. The approach to the high volume is often too costly or too many factors skew the results. Take for example, simply adding more telemarketers to make more calls. If they are poor quality personnel with low skill levels, two things occur: The number of calls goes way, way up. The quality of the prospect goes way, way down.

A point of diminishing return becomes apparent.  Processing tons of prospects doesn’t guarantee more sales. Worse, numbers game activities can eat up valuable runway space and results in closed opportunities that carry a terrible, even unaffordable, price. It’s no longer sufficient to say any organization can sell (or manage) to the tune of just numbers.

Method 2: Regulated Volume – Strategic Results

The key management factor here is to regulate the volume to better qualify the prospects before engaging the costly sales process. With fewer resources or even with the same resources but higher quotas, defining the prospect, managing the prospecting process and inspecting what you expect are time- tested actions.

+ Don’t allow prospects into the pipeline (or prospecting channel) that don’t fit simple yet concrete parameters.

+ Deal with the ripe bananas, only the ones that can take advantage of a limited window of opportunity.

+ Deals won will increase because you have much fewer distractions and more on top of your game.

MosaicCRM Experts Tips – Looking at an improved management role for CRM

Allocating resources is critical, so is monitoring results to optimize these resources. Our CRM platforms provide a number of methods that go beyond traditional ‘activity measurement’ reports.

• Manage Call Ratios & Results: The key analytics determine how good the prospect demographics are.
• Monitor promotions with ‘Opportunity Source’ analytics: From Prospect to Customer can be a tricky course. Analyzing what prospects become customers  reinforces the call ratio and delivers a ‘success’ criteria blueprint to copy

• Aging Analysis: Tracking the time periods through the sales stages provides data to modify promotions/sales processes to shorten the sales cycle.
• Measure Deals Lost Analytics: Lost Deals tell a lot about customers, competitors, pricing, timing and more that will enable you to fine tune the next offering.

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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In a recent conversation with a prospect, he lamented that Free Demos concentrated more on how fast you can copy over what you are using now e.g. an excel spreadsheet and declaring it done and a success. Identifying the objectives and processes he needed to drive results was far more valuable but missing. That begs the question: CRM changes everything: without changing your process and updating objectives is this the reason for the epidemic of such low CRM success rates?

1. Don’t limit your CRM vision.

A thirty minute ‘here it is show’ and how to master menu lists won’t exactly make you a CRM pro. I haven’t met an organization just starting out with CRM that knew their way around CRM better than I do. Its equivalent to reading a book on driving and letting you go with the keys. I wouldn’t give the car keys to anyone without extensive and professional instruction. Same for CRM: I care about our clients especially when their CRM is certain to benefit from our deep sales and programming experience.

• Make sure you get adequate time on the bench with the pros.

2. Check lists won’t get you there.

You’ve spent months, maybe years, musing CRM concepts around. During that time you have created a mighty list of wants and needs. Unfortunately most organizations ‘want lists’ are not clearly defined objectives or ways of measuring progress and results. Our expertise and the time we take to peel back the onion skin to find out exactly how things tick in your organization can make shorter sales cycles and identifying customer buying cycles a breeze. This, by most accord, is way more valuable and measurable than how it syncs with a Blackberry.

• Know where you want to end before you begin trial CRM programs.

3. How does it really perform?

Just like test driving a car, a CRM test drive you get the look and some of the feel but sadly zero data on exactly how it will fit your business, sales culture and processes on a long term basis. A month will get you even less concrete data on business process improvement measurements.

• To be fair to yourself, it often takes two or more months to get it right so you can actually see what your CRM really has to do and how it does it.

4. Part time learning is weak at best, and flawed throughout.

You need feedback so you set a couple of bright and eager bodies into the program, maybe even an office. They are busy, haven’t been guided through the real objectives and probably have an hour or two of generic training. So they take a stab at it here and there and trying this and that. Then declare it doesn’t work or doesn’t work how they need it to. That is not at all surprising.

• At MosaicCRM we first question and rationalize every single step of your processes. Then we get joined at the hip so to speak and help you set out the objectives, business processes, and measuring programs unique to your needs.

5. A month is generally not enough time to customize it to your true needs.

CRM always adds a whole new dimension to sales and marketing business processes. Simply copying over your spreadsheet doesn’t make for a better sales system… anymore than your excel spreadsheet did when you left yellow ruled pads or Outlook.

• The pros at MosaicCRM know how to move a field here, change a report there and modify an alert system…. small but knowledgeable things that can totally and dramatically change how you view CRM. This takes time and effort on both sides.  But it’s worth it.

Who Benefits?

There are some benefits to a free trial period. Frankly I feel the only guy who benefits from free demos is the CRM salesman. He gets to add you to his pipeline and with an active demo and moves ahead to an assumptive close position. You get a barrage of email and calls and pressure but not solutions.

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

First and foremost, get a firm grasp of the results you want to achieve and know where you will gain the most. What you really need is a partner that adds to your knowledge and experience base. It does take more time but if that works, there is no need for a high pressure ‘close’ or a rushed implementation. Our expertise and the time we take will allow the both of us to evaluate and prioritize exactly what has to be done.  One thing that you will notice right off the bat: we won’t simply copy your spreadsheets into a CRM program. That is a prescription for disaster.

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Written by

Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Pre-CRM Planning Tips for SMB’s

I’ve put together this slide presentation that covers a number of key elements that can help in your CRM Plan or Re-Start program.  Some of the topics include Beware of ‘Quick and Easy’ CRM promotions, The Human Factors, Competition Applications, Abilities, Resources and Sales Process Design, Budgeting and more.

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Word of Mouth had gained our trust.

As consumers, we’ve all experienced and usually welcomed ‘word of mouth’ information from our friends, family and peers. Long ago the marketing guru’s declared you will live or die on the word of mouth reputation of your company or product; and for the past millennium it was a personal experience, often face-to-face and it became a natural extension of our conversations wherever we shared a common interest. It is precisely this long social history and deep relationship we have with word of mouth that social network marketing imitates.

For many consumers ‘caveat emptor’ applies here.

When it comes to social media, technically speaking, it’s no longer word of mouth and it’s never face-to-face. Social Media has the feel of something personal but to a great degree it is entirely manufactured. The big stars and entertainment shows that promote some networks are paid, yet you think it’s personal. It’s an ad but doesn’t look or feel like one. It has little to do with what’s real or who is real and the lines get really blurred. So just when you thought you were following your favorite movie star, guess what: there’s an ad masking as his or her personal favorites.

Word of Net Marketing is often a poser.

The problem is that a lot of online viral marketing that poses as social media is really aimed at creating a ‘buzz’ about the product. Instead of customer’s opinions, you are likely to get skillfully crafted hype by marketing ‘posers’ that, more often than not, stresses what you should think.

In this world you don’t need satisfied customers to promote your product by word of mouth: now all you need is a powerful spin (real or imagined) and away you go! Want to make millions using Social Media? Join the masses of promoters with the fast and easy way to make a killing using social media. Their premise: From toilet paper to elixirs, there’s a surefire way to get your message in front of millions of customers who are eager to buy the product. All you need is their special brand of social media marketing and you’re all set.

Social media does work.

For legitimate social media organizations it works because the ‘buzz’ is real and real customers support the value. On a personal level you can exchange your thoughts about a product easily and usually you are sharing this among other interested users. Perhaps social media marketing is best served up to compliment the traditional word of mouth conversations, calls and personal emails. Just to be sure, I’ll check out anything I learn online face-to-face at the water cooler with my homies.

Will it last?

The life cycle of any latest and greatest media tool is unpredictable for most of the stuff floating around the Internet. I suspect it lasts right up to the time something else replaces it. But based on SM’s ever growing popularity, there’s no end in sight for the magic of social media networking.

MosaicCRM Experts Tips – CRM & Social Media Integration

If relationship marketing is important to your organization, managing and collecting social network data and transposing this into your CRM program is radically different from the traditional historical based ‘interaction-transaction’ type recording. There’s a lot of talk about ‘Social CRM’ but hang on a minute, adapting traditional CRM with all the tools that work is possible, even preferred.

• Social networking requires you to adapt CRM to recognize the instant real time data and transpose this into live response data

• More than ever customer centric response models are vital: Re-engineer your CRM to optimize this closed loop marketing process
• Evaluate the type and degree of customer information needed to assist sales efforts in this medium

• Use CRM to spread the results of the customer experience within your organization

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Written by Bill Noonan, Founder and CEO of MosaicCRM.

I welcome your inquiries, questions and comments.

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CRM Adoption: What makes for long term CRM success?

CRM adoption is a topic that has been around from day one and has seen many iterations of the good, bad and ugly when it comes to what adoption factors work.

The reality is that people still sell to people so it goes that the human interaction with CRM can’t be ignored or swept under the rug. So rather than focusing on what the technology will do, let’s look at how to make CRM more in sync to how people sell,  and what they need to sell, to improve adoption success.

Sales Personnel:

The job of modern selling now demands a number of practical skills, CRM is one of them. If sales personnel are resistant to CRM, they are simply not a good fit for the organization.

• They must like to use and are comfortable with selling in a technology enabled environment and the efficiencies CRM brings
• They are wholly invested in the value of and the work needed to maintain the customer relationship, and not just a sale
• The CRM is designed so that they learn from the data, make a profit with it and not just input data

The Company:

From a company perspective, it has to wring out the inefficiencies and excuses with not using CRM.

• Insist that CRM is essential to meet their objectives, no exceptions
• Company must be focused top down on maximizing the customer relationship, not spreadsheets or historical transactional data
• Have a definitive plan and objective with each part of CRM and how it benefits the sales personnel
  
• Make CRM clear, concise and profitable e.g. what will be gained at every stage

MosaicCRM Experts Corner

We have learned that if the sales personnel and company are doing their part, it is essential that the CRM be designed to compliment that business process and structure.What this means is that each CRM program must exemplify usability and value:

• Apply only the tools that make the result more effective
  
• Ignore anything that doesn’t improve sales/profit
• Eliminate, table and squash any distractions
  
• Make pipeline design and management clear, concise, easy
• Design CRM to cultivate the customer relationship e.g. focus on the individual
• Automate everything that assists in customer buying cycle  and sales cycle management

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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Does your CRM do this and this and this?

How much for this many users? Can I integrate my accounting system? Can I use my Blackberry? These are good examples of the first questions of a CRM prospect.  Notice something missing: the lack of emphasis on how they are going to apply CRM to meet defined objectives. Without a solid Pre-CRM strategy and identified objectives, CRM nirvana becomes an elusive dream.

Understanding how your organization will use CRM will help to define your CRM objectives.

Organizations are driven to automated sales solutions for a number of reasons: Why? Because sales provide the lifeblood to every business and it’s the most critical of all business operations. Every organization uses a CRM methodology in one form or another: whether it’s an excel spreadsheet, yellow pad or ball point pen and a shoe box full of business cards, a CRM process is being used. Here are a few points of discussion to at least set out a part of your overall CRM strategy:

1. Start with the ‘Buy In’
If the CEO isn’t interested in CRM, then stop everything you’re doing. No CRM program in history has been successful without the top-down support.  Obviously the extent of the CEO’s hands-on involvement depends of the size and nature of the business. But at the very least the CEO should be actively involved at the top level in supporting the CRM role.

2. Pre-CRM: Articulate how your organization sells.
Few organizations new to CRM have well defined sales and marketing processes. In fact, there is every reason (i.e. revenue, profitability and survival) why they should be…and must be if CRM is going to return the ROI and deliver the performance promises.

Marketing whether it’s a separate department or integrated, needs to play in the same CRM sandbox, with the same objectives and structure. Geez how did marketing get into CRM? Good point. Somebody usually forgets to invite that department, in particular, the digital marketing gang.

3. Define the sales process.
Adapting automation to a sales process is not a simple matter of designing drop down lists and presto you have CRM. Today the common wisdom is to focus on the buying-cycle selling ‘the customer’s needs wants and timing’ and this takes more doing than menu lists.Systematizing the sales process consists of defining, then automating, these three principal components:

• A comprehensive understanding of ‘the numbers’ e.g. the ‘Strategic Plan’ and the corresponding objectives for Account Retention and New Account Acquisition
  
• The step-by-step articulation and implementation of that sales strategy
• The measurement and analysis needs of the plan

4. Data Management: Manage the data explosion.
Beyond the transfer of existing data into CRM, it’s impossible to keep up with the data explosion without an automated data management process. To be ultimately useful for the sales process, CRM should be a dynamic repository of instant and current information. Rather than an afterthought, question and budget for what and how sales and marketing data is acquired, distributed and updated.

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MosaicCRM Experts Corner

Sales and marketing is now a multi-skilled activity involving people from all parts of the organization. How you set up your sales opportunity design and management must correspond to a system wide strategic ‘Account’ Management’ system that’s articulated and all the dots connected before any CRM solution can be objective oriented.

I see a lot of CRM set ups force users to work in the old style ‘products and features – 1950’s’ methodology. No wonder users gripe that the CRM system doesn’t work for them: the ‘relationship-solution sales’ system that made them successful is missing or difficult to use.

If the objectives, sales organization and company culture are not sufficiently articulated in the Pre-CRM planning process, not surprisingly it won’t be in sync with the CRM program. That is a problem and one you don’t want.

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Pre-CRM Planning Tips for SMB’s

I’ve put together this slide presentation that covers a number of key elements that can help in your CRM Plan or Re-Start program.  Some of the topics include Beware of ‘Quick and Easy’ CRM promotions, The Human Factors, Competition Applications, Abilities, Resources and Sales Process Design, Budgeting and more.

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Written by
Bill Noonan, CEO MosaicCRM

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