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What is CRM?: The Only Definition That Matters to Your Customers
The acronym CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Many associate CRM with the supporting software systems. However, at the most fundamental level CRM is a business strategy that seeks to develop and maintain on going business relationships with your customers. An account management team plays a large role in an organization’s CRM strategy. Choosing whether to meet with a customer on site, to go out to lunch, and setting expectations with a customer of when a product will be delivered are all elements of CRM.
The software system (such as Salesforce.com) that ties this strategy together is more commonly referred as a CRM. The system is usually a cloud based database where a company can have all interactions with customers, the different products they’ve bought, information with any issues, etc. While a CRM system is a prerequisite for success, it does not guarantee success. Training on the “human side” of CRM is often neglected. Users are trained on how to use a CRM system, but rarely given the necessary training on “soft skills” required to manage a customer relationship.
At the end of the day CRM boils down to:
- Doing what you say you’ll do
- Doing what you say you’ll do when you say you’ll do it
- Doing more than expected in a way that is noticed and relevant
Tutorial: How to Use ActOn Software with PowerDialer for Salesforce
1. Install ActOn’s Salesforce.com app by visiting the AppExchange. 
2. After installing the app, set up automated information pushes between Salesforce and Acton. The frequency of the pushes should depend on your current campaigns running, as well as, how many API calls you have available in Salesforce (API restrictions in Salesforce).
3. Install InsideSales.com PowerDialer from the AppExchange. After installation, create a new dialing list by going to the InsideSales.com tab, and the selecting create new seek list. 
Note: Seek lists are only available in Enterprise edition of Salesforce. Professional Edition will still work with domino lists.
4. Filter what lead score you want your sales people to be calling on by setting up the appropriate filter in the filter fields (see below screen shot). These can be changed at anytime. In addition, in the bottom specified sort choose ‘Act-On Behavior Score’ descending to ensure your sales people are calling the hottest leads first.
5. Save the initiative, and you’re finished! Have your sales people launch the PowerDialer list, and let them dial away!
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Happy Valley’s Heating Up: A Recap of Utah’s 10 Hottest Tech Companies in 2012
1. Dubbed tech’s hidden gem in Utah Qualtrics entered 2012 with guns blazing by securing $70 M in investment from Accel Partners and Sequoia in April. The ease of use coupled with their happy customers left competitor SurveyMonkey wondering how to stop hemorrhaging market share in the marketing research arena.
2. Happy Valley’s software kingpin Josh James is at it again. First it was Omniture–now it’s Domo, a business intelligence solution that delivers critical data in real time. Named BI start of the year by BI Group Domo took another round of venture capital worth $20 M, this time from Institution Venture Partners.
3. InsideSales.com took its first round of funding totaling $4.2 M from Hummer Winblad and Josh James. The company has captured a large segment of organizations using Salesforce.com looking for a way to make more sales. At Dreamforce InsideSales.com released gamification and social selling tools into the PowerDialer platform. With the high ROI of inside versus field sales, InsideSales.com is hedging its bet on the growth remote sales to fuel their growth.
4. Fishbowl has arrived. It took them a bit to get here, but now that they’re here they’re not going anywhere but up. They specialize in inventory automation, an extremely narrow but deep niche of small and medium size businesses who can become more profitable through tighter inventory management. Co-CEO David Williams also started writing online for Forbes this year.
5. 2012 was make or break for Pleasanton-based Workday, and they made it in a big way. The human resources software company was the second major IPO after Facebook flopped. Investors got very rich with the stock popping 72% on the first day of trading and has only gone up since. It’s competitors, SAP and Oracle, have competing products, but they are like tortoises on their backs and it will be way too late when they finally are able to turn over. Most recently, Workday has opened a sales office in Salt Lake City.
6. MoneyDesktop racked up awards this year taking home Finovate’s best of show. The company’s new PFM app launched November 2012 gives consumers greater visibility with their money. They are making banks too–with customers changing banks to use the app. A quiet year on the investment front MD’s last investment was in just shy of 200K in 2011 from founders Dave Jaynes and Ryan Caldwell according to an SEC filing.
7. Salt Lake City based Experticity hit it big at the Citi/Bain Capital Advanced Retail Technology Conference in June. The online retail training platform company helps sales reps become experts on different products, driving sales. While no investment round this year is on the SEC website, it is rumored the company is expected to take $10M from Bain in the near future.
8. Fan based sales chat Needle snagged $10.5M in funding in June, postering on TechCrunch with the headline, “No More Call Centers: Needle Grabs $10.5M To Turn Your Fans Into Customer Service Reps.” Adding to additional $2M earlier in the year founder and former HP Logoworks-er Morgan Lynch is betting on fanatic fan bases to be more knowledgable and credible than internal customer support and sales departments.
9. Elearning company MasteryConnect makes a snap of online assessments. Think Khan Academy resources with Smart Board and Bubble Score Technology. Watch out Instructure!
10. Attask raised $13M in August and made a few key executive changes this year. In addition to the investment this year the Lehi-based project management company continued to build out their sales department with eye on corning a few new verticals including healthcare and high-tech.
3 Best Practices for CRM Data Hygiene
The Why: Accurate business intelligence and information translates into making good business decisions. Inaccurate or incomplete forecasts and information pose a significant liability to companies when they have to rely on taking a stab in the dark, or worse, making decisions based off of inaccurate data.
The Tradeoff: Requiring accurate and up to date information from your sales department requires greater effort and time on their part. It usually requires a more in depth training than what may be provided in on-boarding. The case you have to make is that accurate information gives management a clearer picture of what is working and what isn’t. A clearer picture means more money and commission in their bank accounts. Helping sales people understand the why in each step in your process is critical to data integrity.
1. Required versus Preferred Fields
A CRM administrator’s natural instinct is to make ignored data fields required. While this may be a solution in some cases, it usually an indication of a larger problem. For example, say would you like to collect the cell phone numbers so that automated text messages can be sent out before an appointment. The natural instinct would be to make the cell phone field a required field before the record can be saved.
The above solution neglects practicality and the user experience completely. A customer may not feel comfortable giving out their cell phone number or the sales person may forget to ask for it. In either case, the user is forced to put in bad data to save the record. An appropriate solution would be to make the cell phone field a preferred field, highlighting the background of it yellow to remind the user of the importance.
2. Role Specific CRM Training: Keep it Simple, Stupid!
Because a CRM or ERP can span through different organization functions it is crucial to utilize different layout groups and profiles for these users. Determining the scope of each profile is very important to balance complexity, security, and accuracy of information. While on-boarding programs might help employees hit the ground running, role specific training is critical to create and preserve data integrity. Model your role specific training around different layout groups or profiles in your CRM.
3. Red Flag Reports
These reports can help recognize problem areas in data integrity for your organization. The two most telling reports to include are employee start date and employee role. If your company is moving the the right direction employees with more recent start dates will more hygienic data than employees with earlier start dates. Additionally, data check reports segmenting by role and territory can identify shortcomings by certain roles or departments.
Executive Briefing by InsideSales.com Research Team at Dreamforce 2012
Salesforce.com Apex Data Loader Basics
The Apex Data loader is designed for managing, updating, and deleting large amounts of data (greater than 50,000 object records), with support for files up to 5 million records. It can be used to schedule regular nightly imports or exports for backup purposes. Exporting data through the loader is only supported in Enterprise, Unlimited, and Developer editions of Salesforce. 
Mass updating is as easy as exporting the data you wish to update, and choosing which fields you want to include. A general best practice is to always include the unique system identifier. It is safer to include only the fields that you need to update. At the very least, if you pull more fields than you are updating delete them when you upload the updates. That way you don’t overwrite any changes that could have taken place in the meantime.
The middle step is to write a query specifying what data you want to pull using SOQL, the Salesforce object query language (see http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/soql_sosl/index.htm for help). The user interface is fairly intuitive and helps you make your query.
Finally, open your exported file in Excel. If you are updating a field based on values in another field you’ll have to write a formula. For example, if I have 10 different lead sources – 5 from different tradeshows and 5 are from webinars you can write a formula that reads the lead source, and displays whether the lead source was from a tradeshow or webinar.
Upload your data back into Salesforce using the Data Loader. Click Insert if you are adding new records (note: create permissions required) or update if you are adding or updating fields on existing records. If you are doing both select “Upsert.”
Stay tuned for my Salesforce tips and tricks, and post your questions below!
Other data loaders: Force.com Excel Connector, Data Loader for Mac OSX, GitHub Loader, Import Wizard in Salesforce (<50K records)
I bet Your ‘Predictive Dialer’ Didn’t Predict I’m Hanging up on You!
You’ve gotten that call–the one where you answer the phone to five seconds of dead air with the telemarketer saying, “Hello, hello?” If you are a patient person you might then hear them saying something like, “May I speak to the head of house hold or person that makes the decision regarding your Quest phone bill?” Click.
That is the old world of sales and it is dead. The new world of sales exists in a world of mass customization, immediacy,and hedonism. It emphasizes experiences, engages the senses, and neglects personal relationships (to a point). Business deals are now closed over the phone, not on the golf course. You might want to sell your private lifetime country club membership while you can.
Sales is social, but only social in the sense that there is a common business purpose or value proposition. Don’t ask me about my family, the weather or an replaceable noun that you don’t really care about anyway.
So why do sales people still sell with outdated strategies and technologies? They either don’t know better, know but don’t want to change, or are lazy (which is really a symptom of item 2).
On the flip side companies that adapt fast to the changing landscape of sales outperform their competition. They are able to successfully increase and solidifying market share. For example, insurance provider Aetna doesn’t uses outdated predictive dialers like their competitors. They utilize a PowerDialer that has zero lag, and optimizes contact rate by displaying local area codes to their prospects. Aetna provides an experience consistent with what modern consumers demand: customization, immediacy, and a pleasurable experience. Now that is sales 2.0 in action!
7 Twitter Tips – How To Use Twitter Best Practices for B2B Prospecting
Twitter is the second most popular social networking website. With over 250 million unique visitors every month 
chances are your prospects are on Twitter. Twitter provides a unique way to connect with prospects. It is a more passive way to prospect than sending messages on Linkedin, and provides unique information you might not find from sales databases like ZoomInfo or Data.com.
1. Complete Your Profile – This should be a given. Grab your twitter name, upload a picture of yourself, and write a brief summary specific to your industry. You might mention a hobby in your summary as well.
Including company website, full name, and location is essential to completing your profile.
Keep your Twitter account politically neutral (or if you don’t I recommend noting in your summary your opinions are not that of your company). You can link to your company or any other twitter account in your summary by typing @ “account.”
2. Correctly Utilize Hashtags – Hashtags are one of the most misunderstood and underutilized features on Twitter. They index your posts and make them easily searchable to a Twitter user searching for a specific topic. Simply type in #topic. There is a bit of a science when choosing what your topic will be. I recommend using Google’s keyword tool to see the what word people are searching for a on Google. If they are searching for it on Google they will be searching for it on Twitter too.
3. Follow & Retweet Interesting Posts by Prospects and Customers – Following your prospects and customers is much more valuable than simply receiving updates from them. When you follow prospects Twitter sends them an email notifying them that you are following them. This can result in them viewing your Twitter profile. By strategically deciding what and when you post along with when and who you follow it is easy to craft a targeted post to your prospect.
Leverage Info on Twitter to Increase Contact Rates
4. Gather Unique Sales Intelligence Prospects post information on Twitter that they do not post on Linkedin. If you’ve been calling a prospect for a while with little success consider leveraging this information to earn their interest and make an introduction. I had been calling a high level executive over 5 times with no response. I found on his Twitter summary that he was a Reebok Classics enthusiast. I left him a voice mail asking him for advice on Reeboks. He called me back and helped me pick out some new shoes and I helped him out with his sales department. 30 days later I had a new pair of shoes and he was making more sales with the PowerDialer.
5. Post links and Articles of Value Specific to Your Niche – Post links and information that prospects would find interesting (press releases, blog posts, research etc). Utilize a link shortener such as bitly so that you can comment the post and track the number of clicks.
6. Space out the Timing of Your Posts – Don’t make many posts in a short time frame. Spread out your posts by hours or days. Some Twitter users I know recycle content if they have nothing new to post. This is a grey area, but if this is something you decided to do consider changing up the comment or hashtag for broader exposure.
7. Thank People When They Retweet or Mention You – Thanking someone that retweets or mentions you on Twitter is proper etiquette. It shows the person that you are flattered that they liked your post enough for them to share it with their network.
Thanks for taking the time to read, and be sure to follow me on Twitter @PaulFischerSaaS for more tips!
Why (Even) Hubspot Makes Outbound Prospecting Calls
A lot has been written about inbound marketing this year. Hubspot defined the space as earning the attention of prospects, making yourself easy to be found and drawing customers to your website. Google put an exclamation point on “inbound” with the release of Penguin algorithm that prioritizes search ranking based on social media such as Google+. This paradigm shift away from outbound marketing (cold calling, direct mail, tv advertisements) and toward inbound have left marketers and sales people left asking “Is there still a place for sales calls?”
A quick visit to Hubspot’s website reveals the answer to this question to be an unequivocal yes. Just look at the position they are hiring for:
You’ll notice Hubspot describes that their business development reps will make between 60 to 80 outbound calls per day. There still is a place for making sales phone calls in business. However, the terms in which these calls are conducted have changed.
Here’s how:
People know what they want, when they want it, and how they want it. The advent of the Internet has enabled buyers to do much more research before they ever talk to a salesperson. This is where the importance of inbound marketing comes in. Your business needs to be searchable and earn the attention of prospects. The Hubspot software suite is one of the best on the market to accomplish this goal with numerous lead scoring and content management features.
When your prospect finally makes their decision to learn more about a service you it is crucial to have a salesperson available. At this point the prospect has opted into the sales process (either by filling out a webform on a website or requesting additional information in some way). After they opt into the sales process it is appropriate 
to have a sales person call them. InsideSales.com has one of the market leading sales communication software that allows sales people to call leads within seconds of a webform being filled out or when a lead reaches a certain score.
In closing inbound marketing and outbound calling are not diametrically opposed models, but instead two different models that can compliment each other when executed correctly.
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From Junk Lead to Major Account: A Lesson for Inbound Sales Consultants
In my previous position at InsideSales.com one of my primary responsibilities was to respond to marketing generated leads. These came in the form of interested parties filling out web forms to access white papers, downloading a trial of our award winning PowerDialer for Salesforce, and viewing our inside sales research. Often times people would fill out junk information into the web form to avoid our team from contacting them. I remember one lead in particular that falsified a name, phone number, and company information, but the email address was correct. From the email address I was able to track down the company website, and from there I was able to track down the phone number. After a brief conversation with the receptionist he pointed me in the right direction and I was able to get in touch with the original person that filled out the web form (and was able to do so while they were still on our website). Two months later they were one of our biggest accounts at InsideSales.com
The moral of the story is to treat every inbound lead like gold. Look for clues when the information is not correct. Get to the lead fast and be persistent. Do not accept what you are given, but nurture a lead with the vision as to what it could become. If you do, you might just land your biggest account!
Paul Fischer 