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 
  

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)

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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