If you are working from home, you may be finding lots of value in your customer and prospect database, or you may be coming to the realization that it is a mess. One of the fastest ways to make a mess of your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is to create duplicates.

If you are a Microsoft Dynamics 365 user, you have multiple options for using your CRM. If you are entering lots of data, diving into dashboards and reports, or needing to use multiple screens to have several views at once, then you’ll want to use your CRM on a laptop or desktop computer.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) has gained significant acceptance among business executives. Some are using it to measure improvements in their business operations – even to the extent of tying compensation to it. But what is NPS exactly?

Net Promoter Score is a metric used to measure the loyalty of a customer or an employee.

Google Maps and I are good friends. Sometimes I ignore Google Maps advice, because I think I know better, only to find myself in a traffic jam that Maps was trying to help me avoid. Consequently, sometimes even when I know where I am going and how to get there, I’ll check Google Maps to make sure I am not headed toward a traffic accident or a long construction delay.

I work with a lot of new entrepreneurs, because I love their passion and enthusiasm! I also want to see them succeed. They generally have a great idea about their products and/or services, but they don’t always know how to put the building blocks in place to get their business off to the best start.

Last week I was reminded of a simple and basic rule of selling: follow-up on your leads! It sounds simple, but all too often Marketing generates leads with email campaigns, events, tradeshows, advertising, etc., and Sales doesn’t follow-up. They often make excuses:

I don’t have time.

I recently had the privilege of attending a Dale Carnegie class called “Sales Advantage”. It was an eight-week course that met for 3.5 hours each Wednesday evening. The instructor guided us through the sales process with lots of examples and role-plays.

Sometimes jumping into something new can be daunting unless you take a measured and thoughtful approach. Here at TopLine Results, we like to minimize risk for our clients by taking a sit, stand, walk, run approach to CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

Sit
We like to sit with you and understand your processes for sales, marketing and/or customer service.

With great data about your business, you can mine it for intelligence, use it to predict outcomes, and provide that feedback to your business to improve your strategies and tactics. This feedback can be transformational. It can be used to:

Better engage with your customers – ensuring your messaging is relevant and timely
Increase the value of your products and services – transforming them to better meet needs
Optimize your operations – investing in processes that make the biggest impact
Empower your employees – giving them a voice and helping them make a bigger difference.

Recently I worked with a client who has a “best in class” sales process. I was super impressed with the level of thought and detail that went into their process document. On paper, they include sales stages, steps within each stage, milestones for their customers, activities to be completed, team capabilities needed, and a success rate probability assigned to each stage.