Tag Archive for: CRM

The Wonders of the Hybrid Workplace

These past few years have changed the way we view work and its importance in our daily lives. Many workers have realized that work is not all there is to life and that spending all day in the office was not exactly their ideal scenario. There needs to be a work/life balance, or else we face the same burnout that we encountered when the pandemic struck. And with those seeds, the idea of a hybrid workplace — something that had existed, but wasn’t widely implemented — grew roots.

What is a Hybrid Workplace?

A hybrid workplace is a method in which the work module is divided between working remotely and in the office. There are different methods to do this: A worker can be assigned which days they need to go to the office by the managers or the employee can choose which days themselves. Sometimes hybrid work means a worker goes to the office in the mornings and works from home in the afternoon.

Why is it important?

Because it gives employees flexibility and shows you care about them and their lives. Not every workplace lends itself to being hybrid but the ones that can definitely think about it. The benefits far outweigh the adjustment period needed to adapt to new circumstances.

Here are some reasons why hybrid work can lend itself to success:

Increased Productivity:

One of the highlights of the hybrid workplace concept has been an increase in productivity. Before the pandemic, there was an assumption that because people were working from home meant they were less productive. But studies have shown that it’s the other way around. But one of the neat factors in a hybrid workplace is that no commute and no water cooler talk can make a person more productive and get more work done in a more petite time frame. There can be exceptions of course — as with everything — but overall it seems like a positive side of the hybrid workplace has been an increase in productivity and efficiency.

Commute Times:

One thing that no one missed while we were stuck at home was the commute to work. Having to wake up at least one or two hours earlier to go to work and losing one or two hours on the way back. It all depends on traffic. When you work from home, you can avoid the commute and be more productive, because those 1-3 hours are actually yours to do as you like.

Worldwide Potential:

Hybrid workplaces have an extra ace up their sleeve. If you don’t have to go to the office, your office can be anywhere in the world, and your team can work from anywhere in the world. You have the option of having coworkers from Madrid or from right across the street. The potential is limitless.

Work/Life Balance:

One of the most important aspects is the balance of work and life. Balance is important in every aspect of life. It’s in every fantasy or sci-fi movie. Anakin Skywalker was supposed to bring balance to the Force, the Karate Kid needed to learn balance. So why wouldn’t our lives also need balance? If we have a full work/life balance, we can live full lives and avoid the dreaded burnout. It means that you can go to a doctor’s appointment without missing a half or full day of work. You can spend more time with the family, rather than being stuck in an office all day long.

Health:

One of the main things the last few years have made us aware of is our health. The truth is that the pandemic is still ongoing, and some people are still anxious about returning to work in an office. Hybrid work helps those who are anxious about returning to work and those that have loved ones who have medical issues. It helps them be able to work without putting anyone they love at risk.

What does a hybrid workplace need?

Now that we’ve analyzed the what and the why of the Hybrid workplace let’s look at the how. How can you make a successful transition? Technology is the answer. First off you have to invest in video conferencing software. This is what is going to allow for the interconnectivity in your team to flourish.

You could also invest in a CRM to have your information in the cloud and centralize it so all your teams can access it. Take it a step further with Commercient SYNC, the #1 data integration platform for sales, by connecting your ERP (accounting and operations) software and your CRM.

It might seem like too much work, but sometimes progress requires work. It requires commitment and dedication. And while not all your employees might want to do it, the ones that do will definitely appreciate it and be happier for it. And if they’re happier they are more productive. If they’re more productive then your business will soar. It seems like a no-brainer.

After all, a happy employee makes for a happy business.

Commercient Is Proud To Announce Their Partnership Agreement with App Solve That Provides Salesforce Implementations

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Commercient and App Solve Partnership

Commercient whose SYNC App is the fastest, simplest, and most flexible app for ERP & CRM data integration signs a partnership agreement with App Solve. They are a Certified Salesforce Implementation Partner that has over 500 Salesforce implementations and consulting projects based in Toronto, Canada. 

With more than 25 apps on Salesforce’s AppExchange, Commercient actively works with ERP and CRM consultants to provide hassle-free, fully supported integrations that successfully connect their customers’ systems. This helps to avoid late-night support calls, or too many hours spent resolving technical problems.

App Solve is a Certified Salesforce Implementation Partner that has provided over 500 Salesforce implementations and consulting projects. App Solve truly cares about the future of your company and that’s why they strive for business transformation by providing Salesforce solutions such as implementation, consulting, and integration. Their core values include providing the best experience through innovative services while making it fun for App Solve and its clients.

“Our commitment is to assist businesses in making the most of the Salesforce platform to drive ROI and achieve extraordinary results,” said David Brabrook, CEO & Founder of App Solve. “After years working with hundreds of customers, we’ve helped businesses of all sizes in integrating their ERP data with their CRM system, allowing them to become more productive. With Commercient, we are able to make ERP and CRM data integration simple, quick, and efficient.”

As a company leveraging the newest and most functional tech trends, Commercient’s fast-track plan will SYNC data in a short amount of time, and integrate transactions bi-directionally so that ERP and Salesforce will communicate effectively with each other. Commercient features VR technology to provide personalized, interactive support to enhance customer and partner experience. 

“The team Commercient is excited to be partnering with App Solve,” said Dave Bebbington, Head of Partnerships. “They have great strategies and implementations for their prospects and clients towards the Salesforce platform. Since they are certified in Salesforce implementations and consulting, we believe integrations with Salesforce will be seamless and bring great success.”

Now, you may be wondering, why should we become a customer of App Solve or Commercient?

Customers choose App Solve because customer service teams struggled to maintain customers relationships by not having a proper CRM and capturing the right data. App Solve resolves this by helping their clients to become their own manager of  Salesforce features, tools, and automation that was not previously available to maintain relationships and to use data efficiently.    

Well, Commercient will ensure your synchronization is done within a few short weeks instead of months of work. Using Salesforce to integrate data from your ERP system streamlines tasks like creating sales reports, sending order status updates, and keeping track of ERP financial records, among other things. The best aspect is that it can all be done in the cloud.

If you are looking for a Salesforce implementation or consulting partner, App Solve is the right solution for you. Click here to find out more. 

Are you looking to streamline your processes by integrating your ERP with Salesforce? Choosing Commercient comes with many benefits for your data integration Click here to enquire.

6 Decisions Most Companies Overlook When Implementing A New CRM

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Introduction

Making use of a CRM could be one of the most important decisions your company can make. With that being said, it can be quite a daunting task to do, and decisions can be overlooked when a company implements a CRM. That is why Commercient and Roycon have teamed up to make their customers aware of what can be overlooked when implementing a CRM and to ensure a successful implementation.

Here are the top 5 decisions that are overlooked when implementing a CRM.

1. A CRM Team

When implementing a CRM, companies may overlook the fact that when implementing a CRM you need a team to do so. This is to ensure that the CRM is used correctly. To avoid this happening, make sure you put together a team that includes the following:

  • An Executive Sponsor: The executive sponsor is someone who strongly believes in the power of the platform, and knows the value it will bring to the organization. They should be influential and be able to champion and support the project from conception through go-live, and beyond.
  • System Administrators: Your system administrators will be at the heart of your implementation. Not only will they need to have enough knowledge and understanding about Salesforce, but they’ll also need to have an in-depth understanding of your business processes, as well as the requirements from your managers and users.
  • Project Manager: A project manager will be a helpful resource to make sure that your project stays on track.
  • Power Users: Your power users will be helpful because they’re thinking about the end-user. They’ll make sure that the needs of the end-user, as well as management, will be met. Power users can also help with troubleshooting issues, and testing out solutions. Their feedback is very valuable in the process.
  • Trainers: Whether it’s a team or a singular trainer, they’ll be responsible for documenting processes and gathering and creating the appropriate materials to distribute to end-users. They’ll want to be thinking about adoption, how they will support your users, measure adoption, and encourage adoption.

2. Ongoing Maintenance 

You will want to have a plan to handle the ongoing maintenance  of the CRM after the project has been completed. (Salesforce post-implementation plan) Who will be the internal Product Owner responsible for training new hires and existing employees, regularly answering questions, building reports, and handling ongoing administrative tasks? Business processes change, strategies evolve and companies evolve, it’s important that you and your business have the resources to ensure your CRM can evolve with them.

3. Determine Expectations 

Before implementing a CRM, you have to ask yourself and your team, what are the expectations for using a CRM? Take the time to research and discover what you want to achieve and what your end goals are. It’s also worth considering the amount of work that needs to be put into the CRM implementation to ensure all of the processes are defined. In addition to that, requirements need to be clearly and concisely outlined, and all internal team members need to be aligned on the overall goals and scope of the project.

Your goals to achieve with a CRM can also include:

– Understanding your customer’s journey, to make better decisions.

– Improve your sales process.

– Making use of analytics to help gain insights

– To improve lead management

4. Importance of Data Quality

The data quality within a CRM is underestimated by many companies because of the work it’s going to take to transform the data.  This means it is going to require time and work to import old data into the new CRM as well as, how the new data will relate to other applications (if integration is included). If you need to clean your data, take a look at this article on best practices for cleansing Salesforce data.

5. Success Criteria

Without clear success criteria, it is hard to determine the primary areas to focus on during the build phase, in the event that requirements change or budgets shift. Therefore, when you are implementing Salesforce or any CRM you will want to have a clear way to measure the impact and ROI the project will have on your business.

6. Budget

This is to ensure that there is a proper budget for both licensing and implementation costs for a proper build-out. While allocating a budget can seem like you are putting in guardrails, it is meant to keep service implementations in line for expectation setting, and for validations to meet deadlines.

If you’re ready to start your Salesforce implementation be sure to download this Salesforce implementation checklist to make sure you’re set up for success.

Commercient is a leading data integration specialist, SYNCing ERP and Salesforce data with ease, giving companies a complete picture of sales, customers, and marketing. Roycon, a Salesforce implementation, and consulting partner has teamed up with Commercient to help educate businesses on decisions that can be overlooked when implementing their CRM. 

Contact Commercient or Roycon for a consultation today!

Why Your CRM Implementation Feels Disconnected From The Rest of Your Company

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Introduction

CRM software (customer relationship management) makes your business objectives easier to achieve. They provide the best outcome for your customers through your sales, marketing, and customer service departments. However, it’s good to be aware that there are risks involved when it comes to implementing a CRM in your business, and there are steps on how to overcome these challenges.

There are several reasons why your CRM feels disconnected from the rest of your company.

Why Your CRM Feels Disconnected From Your Business

1. Customer records are missing important information

When a file is opened to start integrating data, vital parts of information are missing which can include names, history, or even an email address. This is problematic because then customers cannot be contacted to rectify the issue.

Sales or marketing representatives can prevent this from happening by asking all the right questions to ensure that the correct information is there. Using an ERP could work alongside your CRM so orders and invoices can complete the customer data you need.

2. Using the wrong vendor

It is easy to choose the wrong vendor to implement your CRM because of different marketing and sales strategies. Consumers get caught up with the wrong information to make an informed decision that suits their company best.  But, to avoid this here are a few questions to ask yourself:

  • Does your company have the right CRM tools to use to implement?
  • What reviews does that vendor have?
  • How long has the vendor been in practice for?
  • How does the pricing work for the vendor and what is included?
  • Is the vendor flexible enough to customize what the customer needs?
  • Will your company outgrow the vendor?

3.Complicated CRM

Some CRMs can be more difficult to implement than others, especially if you choose a vendor that does not provide support during your implementation phases. Keep it simple, and implement a CRM that has a powerful and user-friendly interface.

4.Users are Suspicious 

When we talk about users, we mean employees, whether it is in your marketing, sales, or customer service teams. Once your CRM has been implemented, you will expect instant results, right? Not always, because your employees need to get used to using new software which is why your CRM implementation can feel disconnected from the rest of your company. If you want to get your team on board, you have to demonstrate value. Mention how using a CRM causes fewer mistakes and saves them on time by spending less time with manual entry. 

5.Lack of Training

In order to use a CRM well, training has to be provided on how to use it otherwise employees will avoid it. With the right amount of training, employees will engage at a higher usage rate. But, without the correct training, it will lead to lower user adoption rates.

6.CRM Champion

When implementing a CRM, they are sometimes assigned to the wrong coordinators such as a CTO or COO. Your company can feel disconnected when not enough time is spent on the implementation to make it work. Therefore, it is advised to choose a CRM champion that has passion, the ability, and the time to work with the implementation.

7.Thinking CRM is Just a Technology Solution

Implementing a CRM is not just about technology but it is also used to improve customer relationships. So, users have to use it the right way. By thinking the CRM does not need to be utilized correctly, it can lead to your CRM feeling disconnected from your company. This means having trained staff, the correct workflows, and the right management to use the CRM to its fullest potential.

Conclusion

Commercient and Aptitude 8 have partnered to help businesses use their CRM to its fullest potential, and to avoid time-consuming and costly errors saving time and money. By choosing Commercient SYNC, we guide your ERP and CRM data integration with 24/7 support to ensure a successful integration, enabling you to carry on using correct data to achieve daily tasks.


Commercient can integrate your data in an affordable and seamless way while making use of their data integration experts. By Commercient integrating over 85+ ERPs and 5-star reviews, this shows Commercient has the experience and knowledge to implement your CRM the right way. Contact us today!

Closing More Deals With Effective Lead and Opportunity Tracking With a CRM

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In today’s world, with more employees working remotely — including sales, marketing, and customer service teams — keeping track of leads, opportunities, and sales can be a challenge. CRMs are designed to assist employees to keep track. There are numerous CRMs a business can choose from such as Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Zoho CRM, Pipedrive, and more.

With a CRM up and running, leads and customer data are available for anyone that needs it, no matter where they may be working (from home, in the field, traveling, etc.) This is especially beneficial for companies with a remote sales workforce, such as Miller Plastic Products, that worked with Plus+ Consulting and Commercient to connect Salesforce Professional with their ERP, JobBOSS. 

“To have that JobBOSS data in Salesforce via SYNC makes a world of difference for us trying to find things and comment on jobs,” said Tim Zeliesko, COO at Miller Plastic Products.

Read the full customer success story here.

To enhance the CRM experience, Commercient SYNC connects the CRM with more than 85 ERPs (Sage, Epicor, Infor, JobBOSS, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, and others). This way, the sales team has access to ERP information such as orders, invoices, customer data, and more.

That’s why Plus+ Consulting and Commercient joined forces to help more companies to increase sales and provide outstanding customer service. 

How can a CRM help your sales team to keep better track of leads and opportunities, and close more deals? Read below.

Leads and Customer Data is More Accessible

When your ERP data is integrated with your CRM, it becomes easier to track, since it is stored in one place. It can be easily accessed by your sales, marketing, and customer service teams from any place, on any device, and at any time.

This helps to avoid lost time and increases productivity, as no employee will spend hours digging through redundant files to look up opportunities and close deals. The sales teams will be able to find information quickly, helping to build better customer relationships.

With the partnership between Commercient and Plus+, their mutual customer Miller Plastic Products benefitted from having access to their JobBOSS data directly in Salesforce. They can spend more time growing their sales.

Quoting Process Made Easier

Once your ERP data is integrated into your CRM, all the necessary information is there to effectively create a quote. A CRM can help your sales teams by creating quotes directly from opportunities, and can automatically be added in as a document that assists in streamlining your sales process.

In your CRM, each quote can be modified according to the opportunity, and once completed, it is then sent to the prospect or customer via email. Quotation management can also assist in keeping a history of quotes made, to keep a record of that data, in case needed in the future. Once the quote is completed, it can then be converted into an invoice to close a deal.

“It really helps when it gets down to the quoting aspect to quickly be able to pull up information from previous jobs and similar jobs,” explained Zeliesko. “Or if a customer ordered something a few years ago, and we want to see that historical data, we can get that pretty fast, as well.”


Communication

Good communication is important, in order for your business to grow, and having a CRM to track interactions between customers and employees will help achieve that. Allowing your CRM to track tasks can help with communication, linking departments, and helping everyone stay on the right path. It can result in improved sales, customer relationships, customer satisfaction, and efficiency.

But how does communication work in a CRM? First, it can track conversations that have attachments and messages in an accurate way, preventing mistakes. You will be able to discover any errors and/or adjustments that need to be made within your sales process. 

Second, employees are able to access the data in the CRM at any time or anywhere. This allows communication to take place over projects instantaneously.

And finally, communication in a CRM can improve customer experiences by seeing historical data, and finding leads to close deals.

“It’s definitely going to increase the efficiency of our sales, and increase communication and contact with potential customers and current customers,” said Zeliesko. “I see a lot less things slipping through the cracks with Salesforce.”

Projections and Forecasting

Having a CRM like Salesforce is especially important in order to have accurate forecasting and projections, since it can pick up on opportunities in order to close deals faster. In addition, forecasting can help a company or a sales team determine what is going to be sold in a week, month, or year, as it helps with identifying risks that can be handled before it is too late.

But how does a CRM do this? By using historical data within your CRM, it can help build trends to provide an accurate picture of what your business looks like. From there, sales strategies can be created with the given reports and a salesperson can provide quotas to their managers based on the projections from the forecasting.

In addition, historical sales data SYNC’d from JobBOSS to Salesforce helps the sales team at Miller Plastic Products to quote customers better. It also assists the company with projections and forecasting.

Conclusion

Commercient can close the gap in your CRM to assist your sales team by using the SYNC ERP and CRM data integration platform. Leads and opportunities will be easier to track and clients will get the most out of their data.


If you found these guidelines helpful, please contact us today to find out how we can help streamline your business.

Tips to Convince the Owner of your Company to Buy Salesforce

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Do you find yourself constantly spending time doing tasks that you feel could be automated? The truth is that if you feel certain tasks could be automated, they probably can be, you just don’t have a system set up yet to assist you with those automated processes, but you can with the power of Salesforce. It can help your organization store, measure, and divide data across different teams since there are only so many hours in the day. Now that you know you need a more powerful solution to streamline your daily company activities, how do you go about persuading the owner of your company?

Here are 3 Sure-Fire Ways to Sell the Owner of Your Company on Salesforce.

1. You Don’t Have Complete Visibility Into Each Department

Do you find yourself constantly looking for key data to make critical decisions? Then you don’t have true transparency of your team’s activities and need a system that can support that type of overview. That is why by having Salesforce, it will provide you with a 360-degree view of your accounts, customers, sales, opportunities, and contacts. Which in turn will help make better decisions by providing your business with the full story as your key data will be in one location. 

Do you have the reporting you need? And is the reporting updated constantly in a way that makes sense for your team? With the use of Salesforce, your teams will be able to make their own reports in order to establish what tasks have been completed and what has been missed. Their reports will be able to create dashboards to weigh their performance. 

You need a system with a true bird’s-eye-view not only on the company level, but also at the departmental level. Without true transparency, you’re going to keep making decisions that affect the entire organization without the full story and without the full story, are you really making the best decisions? Salesforce will centralize data, which will help teams collaborate with one another, and they will be able to assess what is the best decision to make for the organization at the time.

2. Everything Takes One Too Many Steps To Complete

Do you need to get approval from your boss for a discount on a sale? Did you know you can automate that approval process? By having a manual process, it is time consuming for you and your managers. Salesforce will be able to automate these approvals making it simpler for your boss to grant them.

Do you often have the same three tasks that need to happen after an SOW is signed? You’re wasting time when you carry out each of those processes manually. You can simply set up the automation one time with Salesforce, and all those steps are happening in the background as business chugs along as usual. 

3. The Cost Of Implementing Salesforce Ts Way Cheaper Than Hiring Multiple Team Members 

Once you set up your Salesforce instance with the right team guiding you through the process, your automation is set. You’ll have seamless business processes that can save your team countless hours. You have the initial implementation cost, which for many teams will satisfy their Salesforce needs. For teams that need ongoing support through managed services, plans are usually customizable and built to fit technology budgets of all sizes. 

Alternatively, to get the same work you need done you’ll need to hire, train and employ multiple staff members, just to do manual administrative work that could be easily automated. And the more customers your business gains, the tougher it is to keep data organized and make accurate decisions. By continuing to spend time doing things that otherwise could be automated, you’re wasting valuable time, and incurring more expenses for your team by spending less time on your core responsibilities.

When it comes down to dollars and cents, there truly is no comparison: You will considerably save money up front with a Salesforce implementation versus hiring new full time staff to take on the responsibilities.

Are you ready to talk to the owner of your organization about the power of Salesforce? 

Conclusion

Commercient is a Salesforce integration expert that can focus on migrating your data into Salesforce without hassle. Additionally, Abelian has teamed up with Commercient, as a trusted Salesforce implementation partner, to guide you through the process of automating your Salesforce instance to your team’s exact specifications.

Ultimately, you’re going to save money when you implement Salesforce and move away from your legacy business processes. Additionally, your team will save time with Salesforce and get the insight into the company they have been craving to make actionable and well-thought-out decisions that will not only benefit the current team, but future team members for years to come.

Stop wasting time and start boosting your team’s productivity. Reach out today to Abelian, a certified Salesforce Consulting partner, or Commercient, your favorite Salesforce integration expert, for a free consultation.

How HubSpot and Commercient Work Together

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The world we live in requires constant innovation. HubSpot and Commercient took a leap and became partners to help companies welcome innovation by connecting HubSpot with their ERP. 

For instance, Humatics implemented Commercient SYNC to connect HubSpot with their ERP, NetSuite. “Before, the team had to enter sales orders by hand” said Samantha Busby, Applications Systems Analyst at Humatics. “The process is a lot quicker now.”

Amazing, right? How does this integration work? Here’s the answer:

Business integration with HubSpot

There is no doubt that innovation and growth involve digitization. One of the many ways that HubSpot and Commercient work together is through business and data integration. This means that through our partnership, we work together on digital strategies, which involve, marketing, processes, automation, integration, transactions, and optimization. One of the reasons why this is essential is because it allows us to exchange information at a rapid pace and increase productivity. Not only that, but with strategies, in place, we can gain visibility and ensure operations perform smoothly.

How the integration works between Commercient and HubSpot

When Commercient works together with HubSpot on data integration, they can use their product called SYNC with a third party (our customer). Commercients developers review SYNC by bringing valuable ERP data from their customers to HubSpot.  They have to check that their customer information does not already exist in the ERP and HubSpot system. Once that is checked, Commercient creates the customer’s company with all the necessary details and those details are then brought over to HubSpot.

Next, in the HubSpot system, users will see all of Commercient customer’s information that was integrated. Commercient carries on their business activity and  HubSpot users continue to add information like customers, new companies, new contacts, and closing deals. The next step is to then take that HubSpot data back into the ERP. By using this process, Commercient protects the integrity of the ERP data. 

Click the link to find out how data integration works for HubSpot and Sage 100 with Commercient SYNC.

What makes Commercient different?

“Our integrations with Commercient allows us to unlock support for up-market customers and complex use cases. This is a major focus on HubSpot’s journey to move farther into the enterprise space. Commercient also has a foothold on supporting international customers which is also a major focus as we grow our customer base. Commercient’s integrations help provide a powerful and valuable use case for our customer’s needs.”

-Jake Morgen, Partner Manager at HubSpot. 

What makes HubSpot stand out?

HubSpot is a full CRM platform that allows businesses to manage their sales, marketing, help desk, and content management platform in one place. Their marketing and sales automation features stand out in the market, and now, with Commercient SYNC, companies leveraging HubSpot can bring the data stored in +85 ERPs into HubSpot right away. 

Among the ERPs businesses that can connect with HubSpot through Commercient SYNC are NetSuite, Sage 100, Sage 50, Sage X3, Epicor, Infor, and more.

“Our Developer Ecosystem allows any company to create a developer account to start passing data back and forth to unlock more functionality for joint customers (and net new customers looking to adopt new technology),” said Jake Morgen, Partner Manager at HubSpot.

Commecient Apps on the HubSpot Ecosystem

The third way Commercient and HubSpot work together is through collaboration on the HubSpot Ecosystem. On the HubSpot Ecosystem, there is an App Marketplace where partners who specialize in technology, can share their integrations for customers to have a better experience with Commercient and HubSpot. 

Conclusion

The pandemic changed the world, and businesses need to adjust to this “new normal.” With millions of people working remotely in every part of the world, leveraging technologies such as HubSpot and Commercient SYNC is crucial to give remote teams access to the data they need, when they need it, regardless of where they’re working at.

If you want your business to experience the benefits of HubSpot and connecting it to your ERP through Commercient SYNC, contact us now to get a free demo.

How To Automate Tasks in Your CRM to Make Your Sales Cycle Shorter and Easier

As businesses grow, it is harder to keep track of information and data. Leads fall through the cracks. Salespeople don’t have access to updated customer information. By automating tasks in your CRM, sales reps avoid unnecessary manual entries, enhance their performance, and streamline workflows.

That’s why Commercient and Plus+ have joined forces: Together, we help businesses to successfully implement Salesforce and other CRMs, enhance their sales processes, and automate tasks flawlessly with a simple and cost-effective solution such as Commercient SYNC.

Plus+ is known for assisting their clients so that they can reach their goals through transformative solutions by closing the gap between business outcomes and the unknowns of technology. They have been operating for over 20 years providing in-depth expertise who delivers IT solutions that relate to Microsoft, Salesforce, Cybersecurity, Strategy, CRM, and Staffing.

The Plus+ experience goes beyond the implementation of technology: They provide consulting services to improve the sales process from many facets. Commercient SYNC is often recommended to their clients when the client’s sales team needs access to leads and customer data from the ERP and wish to improve quoting and sales process, just as it happened with Miller Plastic Products: 

“To have that JobBOSS data in Salesforce via SYNC makes a world of difference for us trying to find things, and comment on jobs.”

Tim Zeliesko, COO at Miller Plastic Products

Jacob Guertin, Applications Consultant at Plus+, shares some of their best practices to automate tasks in the CRM:

Scenario

When approached by customers looking to either implement or enhance their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, the conversation often centers on tracking the daily activities of their users. While you may be thinking, “Isn’t that the point of CRM?”, organizations often struggle with finding a balance in how to manage activities.  

How often should reps create activities? What should they capture? Are they doing enough to move the sale along?

These questions can sometimes result in monitoring activity frequency or setting quotas.

Most organizations implementing or currently using CRM have mapped a process with stages that adhere to their Sales cycle. However, managing the daily activity within the stages is often left to the Sales reps. While reps should use activities for managing their day-to-day activities, and a lack of resulting records can be cause for concern, focusing only on the number of activities can produce misleading results.

Incorporating your activities into sales process planning can increase productivity by providing a foundation for automation. Automating activity management allows users to focus on the most important actions while closing those that are no longer relevant.

Plan

Prior to logging into CRM for the first time, it’s important to plan for what you build. This provides a roadmap, as well as a baseline, for the system. You can always add more, but undoing poor design is often more difficult than an actual build.

Once you have your high-level sales process mapped out, analyze your existing data (if available) and/or engage your sales team to identify the types and timing of touchpoints that lead to closed opportunities.

Consider factors such as:

  • Are there any initial actions sales reps need to take upon the creation of an opportunity?
  • Can activities be scheduled at any specific stage?
  • Are you quoting? How long do customers need to review your quotes?
  • Do you use approvals? Do users need to take certain actions following approval? At specific
  • steps of approval?
  • At what point do we “lose deals”? Early in the process? Late?
  • Do other users need to take action on opportunities?

There are certainly others, but this thought process should result in the identification of key points creation of activities.

Automate

Once you identify the activity creation points, you must define specific criteria for triggering the action. This can be a stage change, the population of a field, creation of a child record, or any other change in relation to the object.

At this point, you can determine the appropriate automation tool and the automation cheat sheet is always a great starting point. Below are a few points I usually consider:

  • While workflow rules do have the ability to create tasks, I generally use Process Builder for the future in case I get requests for additional logic or actions.
  • If an activity should be created as a result of an approval process, they can also create tasks via workflow actions
  • Flows can always do the job but have a higher learning curve. For our purposes, you shouldn’t need a flow, but if you require complex logic or need to create/update a record then reference that record, you may need to look at using a flow.

I recently worked with a manufacturer who was implementing CRM and integrating their ERP. Their ERP provided quoting functionality and they had a well-defined process up to the point the quote was sent to a customer. From there, it effectively disappeared. There was no tracking, no assigned follow-ups, no understanding of why deals were lost.

Once we integrated the ERP, we synced the quotes with their opportunities and created a process to generate a task three days from the current date upon a stage change related to quote delivery.  The process looked like this:

We automated a few other tasks at a critical point, some based on incoming quote data from ERP.

To prevent tasks from remaining open if an opportunity was closed (regardless of win or loss), we created a process which set all tasks related to the opportunity to Completed when the opportunity IsClosed field changed to True:

Monitor

When people hear “monitor” they often think of managers looking at reports, then communicating with their reports. While oversight is necessary, giving reps the tools to manage the tasks you’re now generating is just as important. The following actions can put key touchpoints in front of sales reps where they are most:

  • Configure and train users on the Salesforce mobile app
  • Enable the Outlook or Gmail integrations and train users
  • It has Today’s Tasks built-in out of the box
  • Configure home pages for users
  • Teach users how to update their app navigation
  • Configure types (and record types) of activities
  • Engage users on a regular basis regarding task effectiveness

Conclusion

Activity management is an often-overlooked component when developing a strategy for CRM implementation. Incorporating these tools into strategy and automating their creation/closure can increase the effectiveness of your sales team while diminishing the all too common tension with leadership.

What do you think of these tips? If you want to start automating workflows and improving processes, Commercient SYNC and Plus+ are here to help! Contact us today to discuss your needs.

Technology Trends Driving CRM Software

Technology Trends Driving CRM Software

In a world of fast pace moving technology, we might often wonder if there are faster and more secure ways of keeping your customers information in one place. There is a variety of software designed to keep up with customer relationships and their data, and this is when Customer Relationship Management (CRM) comes in handy.

You might be wondering what a CRM is – it is software designed to assist in improving business relationships by overseeing the interactions between potential customers and customers. CRM is there to accommodate processes within an organization, that can lead to increased sales and profitability, building strong relationships with customers and improving customer services. By having a CRM, all customer data is stored in one place in which you can see all their personal information, history, orders, or any obstacles they are experiencing.

CRM’s include many benefits such as:

  • Reliable reporting
  • Improved contact management
  • Teams across departments can collaborate more efficiently 
  • Improves customer loyalty
  • Optimizes marketing 

Since CRM and technology have been growing, there are certain trends that are driving the software to expedite daily business operations and make customer’s journeys flawless. What are the technology trends driving CRM software?

1. Using data strategically

When a company gains potential customers, numerous data is produced in the sales or marketing department, by having CRM the data is unified and stored in one place making it easier for employees to access the data to satisfy the customer’s needs.

2. Artificial intelligence 

Artificial intelligence with CRM is a necessity as manual tasks can become automated which will free up a sales department time. Chatbots are also implemented through artificial intelligence and are equipped to handle service requests by capturing the customer’s important information needed to handle those requests. Not even that, usage patterns of marketers can be identified and data can be collected, then analyzed for leads and to predict customer trends.

3. Making CRM Mobile

Salespeople are always on the go and by having a CRM, they can access the information anywhere and at any time they need to. They can access any leads or opportunities that can result in customer interactions being dealt with faster. This can assist in boosting productivity since all the data is organized and in one place, which means a salesperson can respond to requests straight away. It will also increase sales since a salesperson won’t have to spend time searching for information.

4. CRM Becoming Social

CRM allows interaction in real-time and having CRM that is social, customers can be engaged with on any social media platform. Since social CRM operates on social media platforms, there are techniques and technologies that allow businesses to supply real-time feedback and programs to support customers. In addition, brands can use social CRM to identify customers buying patterns and behavior.

5. Workflow automation

CRM’s are useful in helping businesses automate their workflow as it helps determine whether certain tasks should be done by a machine or a person to provide the best customer service. In a CRM there is task automation that provides guidelines on what actions to take for an employee to assist the customer. The task automation functions are based on information received from the profile of the customer, and the circumstances surrounding the business. Not only that but, by having task automation it assists in distributing work amongst employees or machines. It, therefore, assists salespeople in reducing their time on tasks,  duplications of work is avoided and each stage of the sales process is looked at to make sure the correct steps are taken.

6. Data integration – Third-party systems and IoT

CRM’s are designed to deal with large amounts of data from different platforms, the data is able to integrate more easily through third-party systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). Third-party systems operate through web services as it delivers, for example, cellular services, subscription services, or GPS’s. Since CRM operates in the cloud, there are protocols in which data can be retrieved through the web services. This type of cooperation provides seamless communication with other sources of information in order to provide efficient customer services. IoT also plays a role in the trend for CRM as there are devices that will be able to detect and send issues about products, maintenance issues, or inappropriate usage. 

7. Technology – ease of use

Since data can be stored in one place with CRM, it will be easier to find and analyze, as well as, it can connect with other technologies making the process of interacting with customers easier and more efficient with no data duplication.

Commercient provides an app called SYNC that can integrate your data between your ERP to your CRM or your CRM to ERP in real-time with no mapping, coding, or ETL. Since there are technology trends driving CRM software, Commericent can provide a 360-degree view of all your data within sales and marketing to satisfy your customer’s needs in an efficient manner. Using SYNC to integrate your data, it will all be stored in one place which prevents salespeople or employees from searching for data in numerous places in order to perform tasks according to the customer’s request, and duplication of work is prevented.

Contact us to start reaping the benefits of digital technology!

Five Factors to Consider When Choosing a Small Business CRM

There comes a time when managing your client’s databases via thousands of spreadsheets, hopping from one system to another to find leads or customer data, or navigating amongst sales opportunities by checking scribbles on Post-it notes is no longer an option.

In order to effectively handle business operations and to improve the efficiency of your business, you need a robust customer solution where you can capture customer data, track incoming leads, segment customers into meaningful groups and create a structured workflow. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems work best for small businesses to maintain strong relationships across the board. In a CRM, all employees can record customer interactions with the company, create personalized messages for a targeted audience group, implement lead nurturing and lead scoring techniques, automate work processes, and much more.

Let’s take a look at factors to consider when picking a CRM software:

  • Define your business needs
  • Do I need to increase lead generation? Look for a CRM that delivers strong and agile lead generation software.
  • Are deals getting stuck in my pipeline? You’ll want a CRM with strong sales reporting, so you can identify the bottleneck.
  • Do I need to better access my contact data? Purchase a CRM that provides easy access to a 360-degree contact view.
  • Do I need to increase efficiency across my teams? Look for a CRM that can automate as many manual processes as possible.
  • Do I want easier access to insight around my results? Your best bet is a CRM that provides customizable dashboards.
  • Is my sales team unable to convert leads? A CRM that provides lead scoring so that you can qualify leads and identify the most sales-ready prospects will help.
  • Price of CRM for small business

Most CRM software providers offer a free trial and offer per-user pricing. Before making the final selection, it is advisable to take advantage of the free trial and consider the price your organization can afford on such a plan.

  • Ease of use/learning curve

Will your team be able to easily use the system? User-friendly CRM software is what your small business needs, so having to spend money on training might not be a great idea. Research reviews and find out if the CRM is easy to use and novice-friendly. 

  • Availability of customer support

You might have technical questions that only the software provider can answer-finding one that offers customer support without any delay is the key to success for any business. Your business needs complete and unhindered access to support that doesn’t allow geographical boundaries or time zones to come between you and support.

  • Marketing features

All-in-one CRMs include marketing automation software. The capabilities coming out of such software will let you do things such as:

  • Email marketing
  • Build landing pages and web forms
  • Score and qualify leads
  • Run multichannel marketing campaigns
  • Track the results of your efforts
  • And much more

An all-in-one CRM eliminates the need to spend more money on a stand-alone marketing automation solution, making it a great choice for small businesses.

It’s more than likely that you’re already using other software systems in various departments of your small business. Commercient SYNC, the #1 data integration platform can help you integrate your existing systems, such as your ERP and CRM solutions. A systems integration will ensure the right information is available to your organization.

Your sales team will have access to ERP data directly in CRM, such as customer information, sales history, invoicing, serial numbers, inventory, multi-ship to addresses, and much more. With two-way sync, new accounts and orders are integrated from CRM to ERP. This gives you a 360-degree view of sales and marketing.

Revolutionize the way your organization does business and expedite all processes by getting an advanced CRM system.