Stop Dropping the Ball! A Better Way to Manage Leads

A common mistake I run into when speaking with business owners is that they do not have an efficient method for managing their leads. Their systems range from using Outlook to Excel to coffee-stained napkins and they quickly run into limitations and are not able to process and contact their leads in an efficient, timely manner – a fatal mistake.

Often the ability to follow up with a prospect’s inquiry and track the correspondence that has already been made and then share that information between departments will determine the success your sales team has. Keeping a thorough record of all pertinent information about the prospect, the product(s) they are interested in and the avenue by which they found and contacted your company are vital to dealing with them effectively. Using the right tool can keep your sales and marketing departments in sync and greatly improve their ability to close sales and generate new ones.

But even when business owners realize the value in having an effective way to manage their leads and the impact “dropping the ball” can have on their success, they usually still have the misconception that a program designed specifically to manage their leads is out of their reach.

Fortunately, that is no longer true. Competition among Client Management Relationship solutions has driven the prices down and technology, specifically the Internet has made them more effective than ever. Salesforce, the industry standard CRM does several key things:

1. All of a lead’s contact information can be stored including their full name, phone number, email address, etc.
2. Demographics about the lead can be stored including the industry they are in, the company they are a part of, the size and annual revenue of their company, the number of offices and their geographic locations.
3. Vital marketing information can be captured; the product of the lead’s interest and the marketing campaign that referred them.
4. Leads can be processed. All correspondence between the sales person assigned to the prospect and the prospect can be sent and recorded within the platform. Template emails can be created to expedite and standardize communication and leads can be given statuses showing whether they are hot, warm or cold and have been contacted.

The power this system gives a Salesperson is profound. They can easily run a report of all open warm leads that are interested in XYZ product and then send them all the same template email that is individually addressed to each prospect in minutes.

Having the entire system online allows the company to share the information internally and modify it in real time. A lead can call, inquire about a specific product, the person answering the call can note that and then place the lead on hold and the note can be seen by another employee who specializes in that product and picks up the call. The Salesperson can pick up knowing whether that lead has ever called in before, who they have spoken with in the past and what products they have expressed interest in before ever speaking to them.

To increase the value further, Google and Salesforce have integrated their products. Google Apps offers a free and low cost version of their services for small businesses including email, a calendar, documents, and a slideshow presentation comparable to Microsoft’s PowerPoint – all of which can be seamlessly integrated with Salesforce.

• Contacts can be imported..
• Calendars can be synced..
• Documents can be stored..
• Emails can be sent..

..And everything can be logged and managed by anyone designated in your company to do so.

Watch a video made by Google explaining how their solution integrates with Salesforce’s by clicking here.

We asked Betsy Moyer, a CRM expert and the owner of Adapt On Demand, a business process consulting and CRM implementation company about the benefits of integrating a CRM solution into a business’ process and she passionately quoted Al Pacino’s film, Glengarry Glen Ross, “A-B-C. Always-Be-Closing. Always be closing. It may not need to get much more complicated than that for a Salesperson. But for a business owner… gaining executive insight into your Sales Cycle is invaluable. A robust CRM like Salesforce.com will allow you to track sales patterns and aid you in making the best decisions for your Return on Investment.”

The bottom line is that there are a ton of tools at your disposal to help. We can help you figure out which are best for your business based on your budget, staff and needs. Please contact us with any questions. We can also help you integrate both Google Apps and Salesforce with your website so that anyone contacting you through a form or a PPC campaign is automatically placed in your lead management system.

We welcome any feedback you may have!

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Quick Tips: Improving Conversion Rates – Tip 3

Marketing consistency.

The rate at which people find your site and take the leap of faith of contacting or buying from you is based highly on the trust they place in your company. Since you are not standing before them, pleading your case, the vibe your site gives off coupled with your marketing consistency is one of your biggest assets in building trust.

By marketing consistency I mean maintaining continuity between what you are advertising and the actual product or service you are selling. While misleading visitors with deceptive verbiage in an ad might cause a spike in traffic, it is ultimately ineffective because you have failed to deliver on the promises that initially piqued your visitor’s interest. Although they have come to your site, they are likely leaving with a negative impression and future sales could be jeopardized.

Choose the words in your ad carefully, being mindful of their context and implications and the impression the imagery your advertising creates. Every aspect of your ad should be in line with what you are actually selling. Apple’s stock fell 5% the other day because of a rumor claiming that their new laptops would be sold at $800, a lower price point than any of their other models thus far. When CEO Steve Jobs corrected the rumor at the unveiling of the laptops and announced that prices would start at almost $500 more, the reaction was less than enthusiastic. Even though Apple did not deceive anyone in any way, the situation reveals the importance consumers place on expectations, regardless of how they are created.

Advertising something remarkable and then being able to deliver it is a proven way to generate sales and increase the effectiveness of your site, build customer loyalty and create consumer-driven buzz.

For more on this subject, I recommend reading The Anonymous Ad Guy’s insightful article that covers this principle and many others in more detail.

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Quick Tips: Improving Conversion Rates – Tip 2

Less is More

There is one constant mistake businesses large and small make that continually reduces the effectiveness of their websites:

Their websites are about too much.

As hard as it may be to swallow, people are only visiting your website for a small number of reasons. At Blue Sky Online, our clients come to us to improve the conversion rates of their websites, not in search of religious advice, marriage counseling or an exercise regimen. And although I’m confident that we can help our clients in a variety of areas, our business and website are only built around one:

Helping our clients make their websites more effective.

So where do you start?

The home page!

• Does the design showcase the primary reason people are visiting the site?
• Does the design highlight the advantages of doing business with you versus a competitor?
• Does the feel of the site promote a sense of professionalism, authority and trustworthiness?
• Does the functionality engage your site’s visitors?
• Does your site identify and promote the core products that propel your business?
• Is it easy to purchase / get in contact with you?
• What is unnecessary? What can be removed / reorganized?

Time and time again, companies dilute their greatest strength by trying to be everything to everyone but overlook the fact that in doing so, they fail to be anything to anyone. It is vital you find your place online as you have likely done in the brick and mortar world.

“Do only what you are best at.” – Raymond Aaron

Guidelines to Streamline Your Website:

1. Limit the different sections your site has, restricting them to just your core business; everything else is a distraction.
2. Make the navigation of your site self-explanatory, straight-forward and clean. Use drop down menus to organize extensive content more effectively. Group the navigation together rather than having multiple sets of buttons / links.
3. Design the site to immediately address the concerns a prospect has about your product / service / company. Any questions you continually receive from your customers add to a Frequently Asked Question page that is easily accessible and read.
4. Use imagery instead of lengthy explanations whenever possible. A picture is worth at least 2,000 words online.
5. At every point where you are providing information, give the user an exit to purchase your product / service or contact you immediately.
6. Keep your site simple. If a chat, blog, RSS feed or MySpace pages does not directly help you sell more, consider eliminating it even if it reduces your popularity among Web 2.0 “gurus”

The underlining concept is a simple one: find the simplest, most direct solution to the problem your customers are attempting to resolve by buying from your company. The onus is on you (and your web designer) to find the most efficient answer to the problem your prospect is facing. Focus solely on the answer to that problem and not other questions that you may know the answer to.

Shoot us an email if you would like Blue Sky Online to assess areas of your website that can be improved and for a vigorous workout routine we recommend CrossFit – even though you didn’t ask.

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Quick Tips: Improving Conversion Rates – Tip 1

Respond quickly!

Websites often feel so cold and impersonal. The sense of trust that a customer needs to feel before buying from a company they are otherwise unfamiliar with can often be hard to convey through a website. Warm photographs of smiling grandparents lovingly pushing their grandchildren on a swing on a sunny day might not be appropriate for your business. But you can create trust by being accessible. In addition to making your contact information prominent, a prompt response to your visitors’ questions will go a long way to reassure them that they are safe spending their money with you.

That being said, I rarely see chats on small business websites that are effective. A chat is like a blog in the sense that it is only valuable if it is regularly being attended to and chats can be a definite draw on resources. One trick I personally use is to set up filters in my email to weed out spam and “non-vital” emails and then have the rest forwarded to my cell phone via SMS. Set up is easy and guarantees that I’m notified when important emails come in, regardless of my proximity to a computer.

I get around having an expensive data plan by having my emails forwarded as text messages. Almost all major carriers have an email address you can set up as a forward from your inbox:

AT&T
[10 digit phone number]@txt.att.net

Boost Mobile
10 digit phone number@myboostmobile.com

Metro
10 digit phone number@mymetropcs.com

T-Mobile
[10 digit phone number]@tmomail.net

Verizon
[10 digit phone number]@vtext.com

Virgin Mobile
[10 digit phone number]@vmobl.com

Source

You can also sync your website to a CRM solution like Salesforce to create a log of every contact a potential customer has made through your website. Having a record of all the incoming and outgoing correspondence will allow you to review the frequency and the details of the contact being made to ensure it is timely and processed in an efficient manner. Pre-drafted emails can be sent automatically and email marketing services like Constant Contact can help you keep in touch with your customers, but nothing beats a friendly voice on the phone that is one toll-free call away.

Effective Online Advertising Options Other Than Google

The shift away from traditional print advertising to the Internet has been decisive, rapid and with good reason. We recently spoke to our friend over at Anonymous Ad Guy, a top executive in the advertising industry regarding the change and he said, “Put yourself in the shoes of the typical Marketing Director who has to justify every dollar spent. With online [advertising], he or she can track the results of each placement, and optimize on the fly. You can’t do that with any other media. And with the economy tanking, it’s more important than ever to show you’re getting your money’s worth.”

Advantages to Advertising Online:

• The reach of an online advertisement is comparable to if not greater than a print ad. Journalism.org estimated that almost 70% of Americans were online in 2005

• Online advertisements can be targeted to users based on their age, gender, interests, political affiliation, geographic location, socioeconomic status, level of education and more.
• The recipients of online ads are often more qualified because they are being exposed to advertisements that are relevant to them. And ad relevance increases an ad’s effectiveness by maximizing conversion rates and advertiser’s ROI.
• Adjustments to online advertisements can usually be made in real-time, allowing advertisers to tweak their ad to further its effectiveness.
• Detailed reports about the type and frequency of interaction with an online ad and the profile of the people who engaged it are delivered to advertisers, often as it happens. This type of data is not typically available in a traditional ad campaign and therefore is often estimated.
• Advertising online is usually far less expensive. There are no raw materials being consumed and the space being used by the ad is virtual, reducing the cost to the advertiser.
• Advertisers can elect to pay for their ad only when it is seen and / or clicked on. They also have more control over the amount they are willing to pay per click and can end their campaign when their budget for that month has been spent.
• Advertisers have control over where consumers are directed after clicking on the ad, reducing the distance between the advertisement and the actual product or service being sold.

An Emerging Community

The abundance of people online and the seemingly impersonal nature of the Internet has created a social dynamic much like we are seeing in the “real world.” People are gravitating away from companies and towards other like-minded people to provide them with their news, entertainment and consumer advice in an effort to seek genuine value. This dynamic has contributed to the success of blogs, YouTube, and all of the social sites that let people network based on similarities and voice their unedited opinions to their network and / or the entire internet.

Social Networks

Yesterday, MySpace.com, the #1 social network with an estimated 180 million registered users launched a new platform that allows small businesses to easily advertise to the users on their site. The platform titled, MyAds, lets business owners create or upload their ads directly to MySpace and specify the age, gender and geographic location of the users their ad will be displayed to. Advertisers do not have to have a MySpace page, can have users directed to any location online after clicking the ad and can start a campaign with a minimum of $25. Like Google’s AdWords model, advertisers are unable to decide on the exact placement of their ad, but can increase their ad’s longevity by increasing the cost-per-click.

Facebook boasts over 100 million registered users of its own and also offers a similar tool to business owners that allows them to target ads based on political affiliation, interests and level of education in addition to the user’s age, location and gender.

Public Opinion Sites

CitySearch.com and Yelp.com command a strong following. Both sites have been embraced for their effectiveness in providing every day people with an outlet to rate and detail their experience with a business. People online are increasingly relying on the opinions of others to help them decide where to spend their money and are shying away from previously established authorities on such matters. The quality-rating of a company has been democratized.

Advertising on a search engine result page has been so successful for advertisers because users are actively seeking information about the same topic being advertised to them. In their search, they are more receptive to relevant ads because it is viewed as a source of information rather than an advertisement. Advertising on a public opinion site takes advantage of the open mindset of the user searching for information and then reinforces the ad with the public’s unbiased opinion (provided they are in agreement).

For an example of this, let’s look at CitySearch’s page for Fronteras Mexican Grill & Cantina in Alhambra, California. The restaurant is receiving 4 1/2 out of 5 stars from 8 users and directly below the rating is a high-quality video ad produced for the restaurant. The video is engaging, provides a quick idea of the feel of the restaurant and most importantly, the claims of quality are confirmed by people unaffiliated with the restaurant but have rated it favorably.

Both Yelp and CitySearch let you list your business for free and Yelp allows registered business owners to feature a review at the top of all the reviews, helping you create a positive impression of your company. Advertising options on Yelp include listing your business at the top of a search for similar businesses and appearing on competitor’s pages. CitySearch offers similar services as well as videos like the one on Fronteras’ page to give your audience a more dynamic idea of what your company is about.

Do you need Google’s AdWords?

Google’s AdWords advertising campaign is a viable solution for most businesses but understanding your demographic and their online tendencies will help you craft an effective, often multi-pronged approach to reach them. AdWords is extremely effective in terms of the immediacy and quality of its results and ROI, but Google’s pricing and targeting model has now been replicated by other companies. It is in your best interest to consult with your marketing expert to determine whether AdWords is the most effective solution for your business or whether it is better replaced or used in conjunction with a comparable one.

We are always interested in hearing what is working for you and welcome any questions you may have. Please reply to this article or contact us directly.

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