Our top 5 tips for making CRM work in your small business – CRM is an amazing tool, when you use it properly, it can be a game-changer for your business. However, when you don’t, it becomes another repository of contacts that doesn’t add any value. That’s why I wanted to share with you the top 5 tips / behaviours we see in people who use our platform and get great results.
1. Activity:
The most common reason for success with any CRM or system is using it regularly. Initially, it might be challenging if you’re not used to it. Start by logging in each morning to review your notes and reminders for the day ahead. Then, spend 10 minutes at the end of the day to update any new information. Ideally, keep it open throughout the day and update notes and reminders as they happen. This ensures everything is fresh, accurate, and up to date. Remember – Companies that use CRM are 29% more likely to exceed their sales quota (99firms).
2. Notes:
Regularly adding notes is crucial for success, but what you add is equally important. Avoid adding everything, as it takes time to input and read through. Instead, summarise information into simple bullet points for quicker processing. Consider integrating your emails, accounts, and Fathom Ai Notetaker via Zapier for automatic syncing to Popcorn.
3. Reminders:
Utilise reminders to increase the value of your CRM. According to InsideSales, 80% of sales require 5 or more follow-ups to close, yet 48% of salespeople neglect follow-ups (Invesp). Add or update contact reminders after every interaction to ensure you never miss an opportunity, regardless of when it may occur. Top tip – if a contact asks you to call them back in 6 months, schedule your follow up for 5 months, so that you can check everything is still on schedule, and that way you will be fresh in their mind when they are doing their research and before they start talking to your competition.
4. Pipelines:
Pipelines offer a brilliant and visual representation of your sales process, providing insight into prospecting health and avoiding the annoying peaks and troughs most small business have in sales. Keep pipelines clear and simple, focusing on stages prospects go through to become customers. Start with basic stages like New Enquiry, Following Up, Meeting, Post Meeting Follow Up, Awaiting Decision, Won, and Lost. Expand upon these as needed, but always maintain simplicity for ease of management.
5. Prospecting Tools:
Automation / Email Marketing: Once you’ve implemented the above strategies, leverage automation and email marketing to streamline processes. Implement automation gradually and remember the importance of personalisation in sales. Companies using automation for sales follow-up see a 10% increase in productivity (Hootsuite). Similarly, optimise email marketing by varying formats to increase engagement. The optimal number of email messages is five, and the optimal number of call attempts is six (Marketing Donut and Inc).
And finally…
Review your sales and marketing activities for any improvements, as continual review and adjustment wil lead to you converting your prospects, faster.
If you’d like to learn how Popcorn CRM can assist with any of these strategies, please visit our Onboarding (CRM & Prospecting) and FAQ pages.
