When we discuss B2B CRM processes, it is important to know some terms. I wanted to go back to basics but, this time with some screenshots from an actual web-hosted CRM product, Salesgenie CRM++. Whether we discuss CRM 1.0 or CRM 2.0. For a basic understanding of CRM, please visit my previous posts on CRM in the blogroll where all my articles on CRM for small businesses are posted.
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.. a unique solution to a universal problem for startups
When we set out to build Salesgenie CRM++, we were actually onto our second inspiration.
We had set out to build a different product/ service and as we were creating the specs, we started thinking of marketing it. The challenges and the process of overcoming those.
Lead generation was key. We were confident of closing business if we knew who to talk to, but, not on a large scale, we did not.
So, we abandoned the idea, well, not quite. It is still there and probably some day we will give it a go. But, we got together to crack what we consider fundamental to any startup success.
1. What are sales leads?
2. How do you generate them?
…and
3. How do you prioritize on the ones to follow up so that you maximize the returns on your efforts and time spent?
It was clear to us that visiting cards were poor leads. Most people we called hung up on us. If the folks who had willingly passed on their calling cards on us could be so unreceptive, what would be fate of phone numbers obtained from purchased mailing/ phone lists? We knew the answer, and did not even bother.
Think of your own situation as a buyer. Other than daily essentials, how many times and how many minutes (not even hours) do you spend in a year in actively purchasing something (figuring out that you need something, figuring out what you need, researching the market, talking to others, comparing alternatives, technologies and prices and so on)?
Very few times, in a full year or even years, on any single class of product. And, when you are not buying, you could not be bothered.
When we think as marketers though, we think we and our product is all our customers think about. All the time. Let’s get real. They don’t. Unless you are in the business of selling pipeline valves. And, then, it may not be good news, if your product is always in his mind!
In a B2B product category, you want the customer to keep you in mind when they are actively considering a purchase.
The challenge is to stay engaged in the long interim period between two purchases.
Another challenge, is to court a first time purchaser through the entire pre-sales consideration period.
And, consider that the customers have little time to spare when they are not ready to buy.
With our CRM product, we take a crack at the first problem: how to stay engaged with your installed base, nurture them, read their signals before your competition does. Which is why, we have a automatic lead scoring algorithm, that identifies a lead based on what you, an experienced sales manager would have called a lead, when the evidence piles up, in terms of customer actions, that the customer is actively seeking a solution.
Often, these are subterranean, seemingly disconnected events that point to an inquiry on its way. Salesgenie logs these signals, connects them up using our unique and smart algorithm, and alerts you to the possibility of a lead and the contacts to follow up to bring that lead to fruition. This leaves your salesmen free to sell, not worry about which are the contacts he must chase to create or nurture an opportunity. We think, this is the single biggest contribution that Salesgenie CRM++ makes today among all the other competing products in its class. And, for a small business, unable to invest in large-scale “lead qualification” processes to separate the wheat from the chaff, this is a boon.
As for the second problem? How to engage with a first time buyer?
Watch this space!
PS:
If you have a startup, you will run into brand-building soooner or later. Here’s a nice post, to get you started.
Get customers first. Investment in CRM systems can follow.
CRM softwares are great “farming” tools. The deeper your engagements are till date, the more insights you have in his needs.
Among engagements, the best ones to base your judgement on are the paid ones. So, a customer may have attended seminars and responded to emails and asked for quotes. But, the only time she has actually backed her actions with money is when she has paid money for goods and services. As the electorates vote with their finger on the button, customers vote with their money.
When we target customers for our marketing messages, we tend to rely on profile based targeting. That is, we use information related to her department, seniority, industry, size of the company and so on to tailor messages for her. While this will continue to be used, the need is to make far greater use of behavioral data (related to actions the customer may have taken in the past) to target her. Actions speak louder than words. And, among actions, as I said earlier, actual purchase in the past is a great validation of what her profile or other behavioral history is leading us to believe.
CRM systems are only as good as the data you log about the customers: their profiles and behaviors and engagements in the past. Their true power is the ability to harness the past data to build compelling marketing campaigns for the installed base. So, couple your investment in CRM systems with robust processes for logging customer interactions and keep the profiles updated. And, ensure you have a sound analytics and reporting engine coupled with your CRM to drive action based on all that data.
If you are in the market for a CRM solution, you will ignore Salesforce.com at your own peril.
Salesforce.com has an awesome product; flexible, customizable for many uses and markets. Salesforce has a plethora of add-ons you can pick from their partners (Appexchange); to enhance the product functionalities.
Salesforce changed the way we think of buying and using enterprise software, particularly sales and marketing automation products; all others who have followed Salesforce in that space have been largely following the same model of configuring and pricing their solutions. You pick what you need and pay as you go; what can be better than that?
I am not so sure the actual experience will match the expectation though; especially if you are a relatively small business with less than 20 sales/ marketing users. You see, most small businesses are, well, small. You are assuming that a surfeit of choices in the configurations, menu customizations, add-ons, license-choices etc work to their advantage. Nothing can be farther from the truth. I looked through the list of features from a few leading CRM vendors and I am sorry to say, I could not understand the relevance of many of the specs in a small business environment. See Sugar, Salesforce and Zoho. All the SAAS CRM offerings seem like the small business focus is an afterthought; so, the tendency to over-profile, over-log (have a workflow for everything) and offer an abundance of choices for customization.
What an SME or its employees want is to focus outside and not spend a substantial amount of time on logging the daily grind everyday. None of the CRM systems I have looked at, offers a respite from this workflow induced drudgery.
Let me use primarily Salesforce as an example of how the configuration and pricing works in the SAAS based CRM landscape.
An entry level package is offered for virtually no price at all (Salesforce offers one for USD 5 per user licence per month) with little better functionality than Outlook contact manager. Okay so, it is cheap. It is not apparent to me, however, if it does anything useful.
This is available for 1-2 users; more than that and you need to move to a higher priced license, costs 25 USD per user per month but will not add much to functionality except integrate with a webform for lead capture, tracking sales opportunities and running sales reports. Upto 5 users only. Hmm..
You want to add email marketing and a facility to send unlimited emails and remove restrictions on the number of users? No problems. There is a package at 65 USD per user per month. This also does Campaign Management (though, this seems to be a limited time promotion valid till 31st Dec, 2009).
Let’s not worry so much about the Enterprise (USD 125 per user per month) and Unlimited editions of Salesforce (250USD per user per month) as I do not expect small businesses to be interested.
Now, each of the above packages come with severe storage limits. When you pay USD 65 (Rs 3200/ approximately) per user per month; you are allowed only 20MB of usage space per user. Pay more to upgrade storage as your contact bases increase. How does your storage needs increase? Everytime you use a CRM system, you store details of the transaction including, call logs, literature, quotes.
And, what do you get for the money? Confusion. A list of features you are never going to use; a bunch of workflows which will ensure that you spend all your day on the software rather than meeeting customers and getting the job done. Bah!
