CRM For Dummies. Helgeson Lars

Is it easy for your team to access the data they need to get their jobs done? If your sales and support teams are talking to clients, do they know enough about those clients to provide great service?

      ❯❯ Outbound communication: Are you using all the right channels (for example, email, print, pay-per-click ads) to reach your leads and clients? Are you measuring performance?

      ❯❯ Funnels and conversion: Are you tracking how people progress through the process of purchasing from you? If they’re leaving, why? Are you following up with them? How long is it taking for people to make the purchase decision? Are you able to automate and/or personalize any of these interactions?

      ❯❯ Access to relevant information: Can your salespeople track what their leads are doing? Do they get alerted when their leads show signs of wanting to buy? Does your customer service team see how your clients absorb the information you send them? Does your marketing team have access to sales- and support-related data that could help them segment their communication?

       Measuring “effective”

      The word “effective” can have many different meanings, so it’s important to take the time to make sure what it means to you. At an organizational level, it often translates to “efficient,” meaning fewer resources to accomplish tasks the company needs done. At an individual level, it can mean giving people the freedom to do their jobs well.

      

Take time to think about your overall goals, both as an organization and with your CRM, as those goals relate to being effective. When you know where you want to go with both, and what it means for you to be effective, you can check whether you’re on the path for accomplishing both.

      In all cases, measuring and reporting lets you know if you’re moving your organization in the right direction. An effective Complete CRM means you do more with less, with the data easily accessible to back that up.

Finding Your Success with Complete CRM

      Beyond a self-help cliché, success can also have many meanings. This section covers several ways you can apply metrics to gauge how well you are doing.

      

Everyone defines “success” a little differently. It’s important that you take the time to write down what it means to you, both personally and to your business.

      If you have a lifestyle business, your goals may be more driven around giving you free time. If you’re growing a for-profit business, your goals may be centered on maximizing top-line revenue or profit. If you manage a non-profit, you may be focused on donations and/or maximizing how much you can deliver to your cause. In every case, success is unique to you, so take the time to be clear on what benefits the CRM can offer both you and your organization.

      You can use a few metrics to determine your level of success. These metrics are examples and are suggestions for you, but it is important you consider all these when laying out your plans for your CRM. Your strategy – and therefore the way you set up your Complete CRM – should focus on driving you toward the success metrics that mean the most to you.

       Growth

      Whether you’re measuring over a short time span, or a longer history, you should be able to see numbers that indicate improvement on a large scale:

      ❯❯ Top-line growth (total revenue): Revenue is usually measured through actual dollars received, but if you’re on an accrual-based accounting system, it can also include total amount of business booked. Your CRM should attach revenue to contacts and companies, and should track each individual buyer journey and what drives that revenue.

      ❯❯ Number of customers: If your customers are mostly similar or you sell a limited number of similar products, you may use the raw number of customers as a good metric for measuring success. Your CRM holds all your customer data, including groups of customers to help you segment them for analysis, automation, and marketing.

      ❯❯ Average revenue per customer: When you sell a wide range of products or services, you may want to measure the amount of revenue you’re collecting from each individual customer. This metric indicates whether you’re capitalizing on cross-selling or up-selling opportunities. Your CRM reports show this information and help you see which segments of your market are more valuable to you.

      ❯❯ Marketing reach: This metric is usually related to awareness of your brand. The number of brand impressions, the number of followers or likes in your social media networks, the size of your email list, or the number of contacts in your CRM are all metrics you can use to measure your reach.

       Revenue

      Revenue goals measure raw dollars coming in the door. Total top line revenue may not be indicative of how well you’re doing, or where you may be able to improve. You may want to dive deeper and look at such key metrics as:

      ❯❯ Revenue by channel: If you sell through different channels (distributors), you can see which bring in the most business. Your CRM tracks revenue by grouping or by campaign IDs, so you can measure which channels have the greatest impact on your business.

      ❯❯ Revenue by salesperson: Evaluate the performance of each salesperson. Are they meeting quota? Is their average deal getting bigger? Your CRM follows every client, including which salespeople the client worked with, so your sales managers can easily see their top performers and those who need more coaching.

      

CRMs come with a leaderboard to keep track of your salespeople’s statistics.

      ❯❯ Average revenue per user: Oftentimes, average revenue per client indicates the type of client you’re closing. If this number goes up, it may indicate you’re selling to larger clients, or you’re selling at a high rate to your target market. If you have multiple clients within an organization, you may also measure how much each client within that organization is contributing to your top-line revenue. Your CRM gives you the ability to dive into details about clients, so you can extract metrics and valuable insights about them.

      ❯❯ Revenue by region: If you sell your product in different regions (local or international), you want to see how much is coming in through each area. Because your CRM stores regional information about each contact and company, this filter is easy to run.

      ❯❯ Revenue by demographics: Knowing whether certain demographics make up your revenue sources help you focus your marketing resources on the markets that demand your product or service. Look at gender, income, preferences, family status, homeowner status, and more for better insight. CRM platforms store an unlimited number of fields you can use to find which demographic characteristics impact your business. With included predictive analytics, an advanced user can apply this knowledge to help focus on leads most likely to convert and provide more revenue.

       Profit

      Profit is usually very closely related to efficiency, which is discussed in the next section. There are a few more variables related to financing and vendor costs, some of which may be impacted by effective use of your CRM.

      Many people think CRM is for sales and marketing. But it can also track interactions with vendors and partners. By setting up your CRM and automation around all aspects of your business, you can measure and control variables that contribute to your costs.

      

If you have labor that contributes to your cost of goods sold, you can measure how long it takes your operations to complete a task. Deviations highlight inefficient procedures, vendor mistakes, or lack of training for employees.

      On the sales side, Complete CRM makes your team better at what they do by arming them with more information. Their conversations with leads are more efficient and targeted, which increases their close rates. It also can contribute to improvements in their ability to cross-sell