Create a Uniform Workflow Standard:

Create a Uniform Workflow Standard:

CRM And Company Wide Sales Policies

by  Eliteseo4u

Business that wish to create a uniform workflow can find a CRM solution to their problems.

Keeping all employees on the same page and enforcing a workflow standard can be a nightmare for a growing company.  As the number of employee’s increases, managers and business owners are not able to spend as much time overseeing the work of their employees as they could when the company was smaller and some little things begin to fall through the cracks.  Over time the little issues can become bigger issues until the company reaches a critical point.  Without oversight employee standards begin to drop and the company can find itself in serious trouble.  A CRM system can provide workflow solutions that enforce a uniform work standard.

Why is a uniform standard important?

Uniform standards ensure that employees are all using the same process when dealing with customers.  The process makes sure that employees follow company approved steps and that all sales team members file the same reports for each sales call or meeting.  This reduces the number of variations in reports, and allows management to focus on the data.  One of the standards protocols that many companies use is the approval of all contract proposals over a preset dollar amount before the proposal is sent to the customer.  Without a system in place to make sure that employees are following the company’s guidelines, employees can get lazy and not seek contract approvals.  This can lead to problems when a customer is quoted a price that is lower than the company can afford, and if the customer approves a contract only to have that contract revoked by the company at a later date, the customer may choose to find another vendor.

How does CRM enforce the uniform standard?

CRM enforces the uniform standard through a guided pipeline approach to sales.  The guided pipeline has checkpoints that employees must meet before moving on.  At every step of the sales process team members are required to update the status of the job.  In the situation requiring approval for contracts, when the salesperson changes the status to “In Negotiations”, the CRM system can refuse to allow any more movement in the pipeline until a manager has updated the contract status as “Approved” in the CRM system.  This keeps management informed about the status of customer interactions at critical points in the sales process.

Doesn’t CRM limit creativity?

By forcing the sales team to adopt a uniform sales process it may seem that creativity is being stifled, but the reality is that workers are being more productive.  A uniform standard creates a set of easy to follow guidelines that are the same for every sale, so that employees know how to progress through the sales pipeline in the most efficient way possible.  With the guided process, employees waste much less time trying to remember what they have already done for the customer in the sales pipeline and what the next step might be; all of those decisions have already been scripted.

CRM solutions can help generate better sales leads and increase revenue, but there are other benefits as well.  Using a CRM platform to create a guided workflow standard for a company’s employees allows the employees to be more productive and more efficient.

My name is Elington Brown and I work with a CRM solution on a daily basis.  I feel qualified to write this article, because I control the CRM system for our company and that is all I do and have done for 5 years now. I hope this helps everyone who reads it.  Thanks for readi

Your Friends on Facebook Don’t Like You

A few of my younger or newer entrepreneur clients who are working on their social media, lament that they can’t turn their facebook contacts into real time connections. Or they can’t get their facebook friends to go over to their fan page and like the fanpage. There is one thing they overlook. Facebook is really good at naming parts and groups. They call the users of Facebook “friends” but the reality is, most of those people are not people who are a friend. They are an online-aquaintence.

Client A says, she lives in the same city as Person X and the person for the last 6 months has not agreed to meet for lunch or even a cup of coffee in person. However this same person had not problem making a phone call to try to sign up Client A for a workshop. Client A was a little put off. Clearly the person only had time for them when there was money to be made. Client A was interested in created a ‘REAL-Ationship” as The Career Enginner – Francina Harrison likes to say.

Sometime we have to face it. When you reach out to people who are never interested in creating an offline relationship you might have to face the fact that they are not a friend. They may not even LIKE you. In some cases they are people who “can’t stand you”. But if they can use you to make money off you, they’re in. Figure it out and walk away.

Client B says, he contacts person Z on Facebook and they never ever respond. Once again, it’s not a friend if the only way you have to reach them is Facebook. If people don’t respond to a message, then they probably have someone else posting for them. It’s not them or they have no interest in connecting with you. Take the hint. You won’t miss anything if you are no longer in their stream. They will never like or share your posts. Are there a few people on Facebook who don’t know they should answer messages? In theory yes, but if you are using Facebook for business, common sense would tell you it’s a 2-way street of communication. No one is looking for a billboard on Facebook. We have enough ads on there already.

Facebook should have online acquaintance segments. Just so people won’t get confused. Facebook is great for people to friend you and then watch you. If you read 5 articles on how to grow your business using social media, almost all of them will say, friend your competition and see what they are doing. Some of your Facebook “friends” are doing just that. All your plans are there. All your creative thoughts are being spelled out as you think them through and use Facebook as your personal diary. People are planning to knock off your products and events as soon as you post them. If you in business, the way you post is important. My friend Mark Mikelat says “Facebook is a conversation in a bar, people can overhear, join in, comment and get into the conversation. No expectation if privacy is implied or expected.” If you have something important and private to say, then say it in PRIVATE.

Can’t get your close Facebook family and friends to get to your business fan page? No problem, realize they are not a customer, so they don’t want to LIKE your business fan page. You want people on that page that WANT to be there. These same friends and family who won’t switch over have also never bought your product or service either. Get the pattern? Stop looking for support in the wrong places.

In conclusion, I just want remind entrepreneurs that you have to get out with real people and mingle. Everything can not be done online. You still have to connect. Instead of obsession with people you “met” online that would not give you a glass of water if you laying on a dessert road dried out and they were driving a full potable water bottles, take the hint, create real off line relationships that move your body closer!

I don’t rant often, but I had to get this one out!

Revamping your email systems- part 1

Upgrade your email system- here is how…

Email can be controlled. If you want it to be. As a business owner, before you hire someone to deal with your email, you need a system they can follow. There are a lot of systems, I just want to share the simple one I use to clear my inbox every day that I work. I don’t clear it daily because I take days off. Even if I am behind in work or behind in my goals. That’s a post for another day.

There are 5 things that need to happen with email

Delete- just delete the stuff you dont care about and are not going to read. Remove yourself from an email list that you find you are not really reading what they send over a month. It saves you the visual garbage and its saves THEM money, not paying to email you when you no longer wish to get them or read them.

Delegate-  There are things that other people need to handle for you. Assistant, virtual assistant, whoever you delegate to, just send the email over to them. If you have prepared them well, they can handle it. Don’t micro manage, just ask them to handle it and unless they make a huge mistake, understand they will not handle it the way YOU would. They are not you, however, their solution can work and leave you free to do the things you can not delegate

Respond- answer the question, buy the thing, add it to your calendar, read the email and get the update…whatever the response is, do it and then archive the email

Defer- this is for things you do not have time to deal with. You must also have time on your calendar each week to go through what is Deferred or risk dropping the ball on business activities and thereby losing money.

Do- Some email mean taking an action, do it right then and there.

if an email has been handled, then delete or archive it.

You email box will be empty after practicing this for about a month. Teach it and delegate this to an assistant and stop sweating about your email. Be efficient, get rid of spam and live a normal live. Nothing is great about having a huge number of emails sitting around.

It used to be a sign of how busy you are, now, it’s a sign of how inefficient you are. If I want to work with you and hear you an a huge overflowing full email box— ALL THE TIME– Then I am going to think again. If you can’t handle your email, you might not be a good match to work with me. There is a point when you need to upgrade your systems.

If you practice this s

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