Friday, February 20, 2009

Sales Management With Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is a comprehensive customer relationship management software package that helps business to improve all aspects of customer service and improve marketing and sales performance.

Integrating with Microsoft Office and Business Solutions as well as third party applications, Microsoft CRM is available through the web and from Outlook.

Sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is effective and easily achieved with the modules provided, and duplication of data entry is avoided through the use of a single centralized database which can be accessed and edited by all relevant departments. The database can be maintained in real time so that all information is current and up to date.

An important feature of sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the provision of a comprehensive view of customer data, ensuring efficient sales service and immediate access to updated information. Your service personnel can track enquiries from initial request to fulfillment, and the customizable rules of all major processes allow the creation and automation of most sales activities, which significantly improves the acquisition of new customers.

Due to rapid response to customer enquiries, they are never allowed to fall through the cracks, and every stage is followed through and supported to ensure satisfactory conclusion and completion of the request. The whole sales cycle is shortened, closure rates are increased and customer retention is improved.

An important aspect of sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is its comprehensive communications system including e-mail, fax and telephone with auto response and synchronization with Outlook. Access to all reports and customer information is instantly available offline and online and sales personnel are provided with the ability to answer any customer enquiry instantly through the use of a laptop or PDA system. This remote access to all relevant customer data is a prime feature of sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM which not only promotes a high degree of customer service and satisfaction, but also job satisfaction to sales personnel.

This is of extreme importance in situations where customers tend to be loyal to their regular sales contact rather then to the product or company. Such situations are common and customer retention is generally improved in companies with a low sales personnel turnover.

Another important feature of sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the automated identification of trends and opportunities according to customized rules. Reports can be designed to forecast sales and other trends, which allow accurate budgeting and planning of future sales campaigns and expenditure.

Sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is easily installed with expert help on set-up and initial training. Training costs are minimal since the user interface and work tools are similar to those used in Microsoft Office and Outlook applications. Online tutorials and web-based support are available for all modules of Microsoft Dynamic CRM.

Your business will be able to increase capacity without increasing staffing levels due to the degree of automation available, taking over many of the repetitive tasks of sales and marketing staff. For small to medium businesses, sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an essential option, with a rapid return on investment, which can give you a positive advantage over companies without it.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

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Monday, February 16, 2009

Mobile Crm Sale Team Management

In today?s competitive marketplace, customers have come to expect excellence in service and immediate provision of information. Personal contact at the customer?s site has become of extreme importance, and the provision of immediate communication with head office has become essential for the modern sales representative. Mobile CRM solutions can provide this.

Your company must be perceived as being customer friendly, customer orientated and able to provide whatever your customer requires when your customer requires it. Customer service can create or lose sales. Create or lose profits. Orders can be won or lost through the time delay between an enquiry and a quotation; between an order and its execution. This requires an efficient communications system that far exceeds anything a sophisticated telephone system could provide.

A good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can provide this, and many provide the mobile CRM solutions required.

Customer service takes up a large slice of your company?s budget, which is why the management of your mobile sales team should be regarded as a priority and the tools required for a professional job be provided.

There are many mobile CRM software systems available, but it is difficult to escape the fact that most companies use Microsoft applications in their business, from Microsoft Word and Outlook, to Access for their database management requirements. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 interfaces seamlessly with these applications to provide a peerless customer relationship management solution that is not only simple to integrate with your existing IT system, but provides the mobile CRM sales team management answer you are looking for.

Your sales team can use palm computers or laptops to provide quotations instantly on-site, together with product availability and delivery dates. No more need for endless phone calls or emails flying back and forth. Your field staff will have full PC access from mobile equipment using a system that supports most PDA, laptop and palm devices to give screen displays providing any information necessary for instant communication to the customer at his site. Modern mobile CRM systems even come with mobile printers and scanning devices can provide instant hard copy to the customer without the need to use HIS fax or HIS printer ? and how important and impressive is that!

Nothing is more important to a company that a customer. Without customers companies would not exist. The way to provide customers with the best possible service is to ensure that they have instant answers to any question or query they have, whether from the person in the office, or the rep in the field.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 will provide this capability: you look after your mobile sales team management, and mobile CRM will look after the information they require to respond efficiently and effectively to all customer needs.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

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Increase Sales With CRM

A key factor in increasing sales is the speeding up of the total sales cycle and more rapidly and efficiently converting leads into sales. This is where a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can demonstrate its full potential. The benefits provided by a CRM system such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 in speeding up the whole sales cycle from the initial lead to order and improved close rates render the system totally affordable to companies of any size.

Customization is the key: with customization you can increase sales with CRM very rapidly by the use of rules which allow automation of lead management and routing and sales process management which, when combined with fully targeted competitor tracking, enables you to keep ahead of the pack until the order is closed.

All of this is completed automatically and extremely rapidly, thus minimizing the possibility of counter bids and competition reaction. This speeding up of the sales cycle not only improves customer satisfaction but increases staff productivity and your profitability.

The automated systems allow analysis of specific leads and their allocation to the relevant product or account managers. Flexibly customizable rules allow automated tracking of these leads throughout the sales cycle, analyzing and tracking opportunities, constructing quotations or tenders from given rules, converting them to orders and closing the sales.

When operated with the assistance of the associated comprehensive reporting systems covering every aspect of the complete sales cycle, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 allows your sales force to achieve a lot more in a lot less time, increase overall sales and hence generate revenue at a faster rate. You can increase sales with CRM at a considerably faster rate if your CRM software integrates seamlessly with the office software used by your company.

The benefit of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is that it is accessible from Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft company intranets allowing staff to work interactively in accessing all relevant customer data either directly or remotely, so that sales staff can respond immediately to urgent requirements and emergencies. This saves valuable time in the accessing of existing quotes and orders and the execution of any modifications required prior to closure. All information can be shared between departments throughout the organization: we have all experienced the frustration of delays due to breakdowns in the transfer of pieces of paper between departments, and misunderstood phone conversations.

All transactions and communications can be carried out electronically and hence instantly. Not only this, but communication can be made remotely to wireless systems such as hand held palm computers, laptops and mobile phones, thus providing information rapidly at the point of contact with the customer. You not only impress the potential customer with your ability to react instantly to enquiries, but demonstrate your investment in, and command of, the modern technology required to stay ahead of the game in an increasingly technological environment.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 gives a very high return on investment, and is very easy and rapid to set up. The customization available allows it to be tailored precisely to your requirements, and you will very rapidly be able to increase sales with CRM.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

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Thursday, February 12, 2009

How To Retain Customers For Life With CRM

While you are working hard to attract new customers in order to maintain growth, your existing customers expect the same personal communication they had when you first attracted them.

If you want to retain your existing customers for life, you will have to develop a means of utilising time efficiently so that communication with your original loyal customers can be maintained, while your sales force is concentrating on attracting new ones. The answer is Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It is not a coincidence that CRM can also stand for Customer Retention Marketing!

Using modern CRM software you can hold all of your information on each customer in a central location so that it is easily and quickly accessed by all relevant authorized employees. All of the information required to maintain the good and effective communication that makes your customer feel valuable is available immediately in a single location to whoever in your company needs it.

A rapid response with instant answers to an enquiry shows the customer that he is important to you, a vital factor in retaining loyalty. Studies have proved that product satisfaction, while important in initially attracting customers, is not so important in retaining them. Customers like personal contact, which shows them that they are important to you.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is able to send personalised e-mails to customers to achieve this personal contact. The Small Business edition (SBE) is a powerful tool that allows small to medium businesses keep in touch with existing customers, while managing marketing campaigns designed to attract fresh ones and expand the business.

It is well known that many customers are more loyal to their contacts within your organization than to the company itself, and prefer contact only with their regular sales representative or account manager. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 enables these individuals to have all customer data at their fingertips through mobile or portable communications devices. Retention of customers for life is promoted through CRM enabling personal communication with their contacts who have all the information immediately to hand required to deal with their query, irrespective of its nature.

In cases where smaller businesses do not have the resource to allow this degree of service, Microsoft CRM provides data and reports which enable the company to use Pareto principles to identify the more profitable customers. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of profits come from 20% of the customers. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 SBE allows small businesses to identify these 20% and work to preferentially retain these customers for life. Although the other 80% of customers are important, and should also be made to feel important, it makes sense to focus restricted resources to ensuring loyalty from the most profitable customers rather than spreading them thinly and satisfying none.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is a powerful set of tools which integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft Office software and is therefore not only easy for employees to use, but can be customized to fit in with their existing working practices. This allows thin resources to be spread more widely by increasing their effectiveness by automating many repetitive tasks.

The loyalty of customers to their personal contacts can be so strong that it is not unusual for customers to move with their contacts. It is important to develop loyalty of your own employees to your company to avoid customers moving to your competitors when your sales personnel do. Microsoft Dynamic CRM 3.0 helps build this loyalty through the provision of powerful tools enabling your employees to provide customer satisfaction quickly and easily without having to learn too many new skills. This promotes job satisfaction, and hence loyalty.

Customer Relationship Management systems, therefore, enable you to retain customers for life by promotion of loyalty, not only of the customer to your company, but of your employees, allowing long-term bonding to cement relationships between customers and their contacts within your company.


Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

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Thursday, February 5, 2009

CRM Software That Works The Way You Do

How often have you had to change the way you work to fit in with the latest software needs? It?s a nuisance and disruptive, and frequently breeds resentment against a software solution requiring employee cooperation to achieve the desired result. Training is difficult and the implementation frequently results in failure.

This is as true with CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) as it is with any other. Fortunately, Microsoft have come up with their Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 package that works the way you do. The way your employees work and the way your business works. If your business currently uses Microsoft Office and Outlook then Microsoft CRM software will slip seamlessly into your existing systems without any changes at all to your standard procedures.

Information can be transferred from the Microsoft CRM software to other Microsoft applications, and the mobile support is an extremely useful tool, allowing customer information to be obtainable to employees in the field through a PDA, palm computer or laptop. Employees have access to all the customer data they require, when they require it, and specific preferred views of data can be saved and reused with the elimination of all unnecessary information.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 can easily be customized to suit your current documentation style and flow, and will fit the needs of your business perfectly without disruption. It will work the way your business does, but do it efficiently and effortlessly.

This easy integration into existing business practices overcomes one of the major reasons for CRM software implementation failures: resistance to change. It is difficult to persuade employees that time-proven methods have to be modified to suit new systems. They will resent the change, and rather than strive to succeed, and will find excuse for failure.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM software is not subject to these problems since it not only fits in ideally with employees existing work methods, but also is also simple to plan and implement. Because it employs proven Microsoft platforms, training requirements are easy to understand and the software will be well received due to its ability to be moulded round your existing procedures.

Users will like the Microsoft Dynamic CRM software package since it will make their life easier, not harder. They will find that tasks that were once considered chores, such as sending out multiple emails or carrying out customer analysis, are now easily automated giving them more time to use their skills where they are most needed.

The major pitfalls in CRM software implementation can be overcome through use of Microsoft Dynamics communities technical chat, blogs and webcasts which is a major reason why any company using Microsoft Office and Outlook should opt for Microsoft Dynamics CRM if it want to implement an automated customer relationships system.

Many industries, from the smallest to the largest, focus strongly on their processes and pride themselves in excellent consistent products. Not all place the same emphasis on the processes they use to track their customers and their requirements. By focussing on the customer, a company can make more money. By adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 software, all of the various processes and procedures involved in customer relationships, whether lead management, quote generation or management of a complete sales force, can finally be brought under the umbrella of a single software solution.

Integration is the name of the game and Microsoft Dynamics CRM software solutions provide it.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

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Monday, February 2, 2009

Automation With CRM

Sales and marketing personnel are best employed in sales and marketing rather than carrying out repetitive administrative tasks. This is particularly true of small and medium sized businesses with limited personnel resources and the need to focus on customer contact in order to maintain and expand the customer base.

Automation with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can be invaluable in such cases and provide very rapid return on investment. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 in particular is eminently suited to a high degree of automation and allows employees to more easily and more effectively use existing customer and account data to integrate marketing and sales efforts.

The automation tools provided by Microsoft CRM automate routine tasks such as direct e-mails, communication management and the management of a variety of sales processes. Such processes include account and contact management, qualification of leads and opportunity management and the maintenance of a database of customer and account information. This is available to sales personnel online or offline either in the office, at the customer premises or in transit through portable communications devices such as PDAs, palms, computers, mobile phones and laptops.

Automation with CRM achieves this and brings the benefits of instant communication and information retrieval, which promote customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Automation with CRM can analyze factors such as the proportion of time spent by a sales force between administrative task and direct sales-related work and hence the effectiveness of the sales force and any remedial actions required to improve this. The performance of individual employees against targets is also analyzed and reports prepared. In this way not only is efficiency measured, but resources can be deployed to their greatest effectiveness with an overall reduction in costs and improvement in customer service.

The marketing automation in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 enables analysis of the efficiency of the marketing department and provides integration of all aspects of marketing, sales and service so that a single company image is presented to the customer. This allows a more professional image to be projected, increasing customer confidence and loyalty.

Automation with CRM allows the generation of lists of contacts, accounts and leads which can be used by sales personnel for the generation of campaigns for execution at a later date, with automatic analysis of responses and outstanding actions required.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 uses the sales and customer data you already have and makes it easier for employees to use that information to improve service to customers, integrate more effectively between departments, and improve efficiency with resultant overall cost reductions. Automation with CRM promotes productivity improvements and better use of personnel resources, the overall result being a more profitable company with more satisfied and loyal customers and a marketing and sales force that is being used at maximum effectiveness.

Automation with CRM is the way forward for any progressive company that is seeking maximum employee involvement in directly promoting sales and marketing with automation of the daily repetitive tasks that can be so labor intensive. The adoption of Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows sales and marketing personnel to be fully effective in the main objective of the company, which is to make money.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

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