Following the pre-launch event, Simon Washbrook (Founder of popcorn CRM) wrote a thought leadership article on how CRM can help small businesses to scale up, covering 5 practical tips that any small business owner can start to use.
5 tips on how CRM helps a small business scale up
We’ve all heard the saying ‘CRM’s are only as good as the data put into them’ – well, I strongly disagree.
A small business that is scaling up, typically does not have the time of desire to take on a new system, and of those that make the jump to systems like HubSpot, 72% typically give up, because they are too complicated and too expensive, costing them on average £7,000 each month in lost sales and missed opportunities.
So me me a it’s about a keeping CRM simple, so that you can focus on what you do best, not making a system fit around you and your business. Here are my top five tips on how CRM can help a small business scale up
Tip 1 – Keep it simple
There are loads of CRM’s out there and choosing the right one to suit your organisation it critical. To do this write a list of all the features you want in it, then separate them out into two lists – ‘Need’ and ‘Want’. Base your decision on the ‘Needs’, that way it won’t become overloaded with features and complexity that prevents you aand your team from using it.
Tip 2 – Everything in one place
Bring all your prospecting together in one place, so you see the bigger picture. That means every single opportunity you get, whether that is a conversation in the pub, a conversation on social media or an enquiry on your website, you should always put them into your CRM, along with simple notes and reminders to follow them up at the appropriate time.
Tip 3 – See the bigger picture
Add all these prospects to a visual pipeline that matches your sales process, that way you or anyone on your team can see exactly where al your prospects are at a glance, and why they are there.
When creating your pipeline, keep it simple and ensure that it matches the practical steps in your sales process – this should include columns for when you need to do tasks or stages when you are waiting on the prospect. Doing this, will ensure you never miss a sale or forget to follow up on an opportunity.
Tip 4 – Nurture
Not every prospect you speak to is going to be ready to buy from you now. We all know that stuff happens, and prospects can move forward and backwards in your sales process. Join up your CRM with marketing tools like Automation, Email Marketing and Website Tracking; from your perspective, you can easily see a bigger prospecting picture by joining up online behaviours and your teams notes in one place. From your prospects perspective, you can then target them with the specific messages to nurture and educate them on what you can offer and your brands values, that way when they are ready to buy they will be ready to engage with you faster.
Tip 5 – Convert, faster
Now that you can see all your prospects in one place, you and your team will always know exactly what is happening with each person, where they are in your prospecting cycle, when they need to be contacted. And, more importantly if they start engaging with your marketing, they will be flagged up as a Hot prospect, so you can convert them into customers faster.
Bonus Tip – don’t forget your customers
More often than not a small business will put all their effort into winning new business, and forget the opportunities that lie with existing customers. Try setting up an email marketing campaign to nurture them post sale, ensure that initially, they get all the support from you and truly value the product/service you have provided to them. Then educate them to ensure that they understand every service that you offer – it is 60% easier to sell to an existing customer than a new one.
If you choose and use your CRM based upon these 5 (and a bit) tips, you will develop a simple CRM that works for you and your team, and you will increase your sales conversation rates, save loads of time and more importantly – everyone will love using it.
Written by Simon Washbrook, Founder of popcorn – the Multi Award winning and official Partner of FreeAgent – CRM Made Simple For Small Business – www.popcorncrm.co.uk
