CRM Software Blog

How to get leads for free?

Manny — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:10:00 +2000

One of the biggest challenges in most business is increasing sales. To increase sales you need to increase customers. The following are a few tried and tested methods that can be used to generate more leads which then we convert into customers.

LEADS, LEADS and More Leads.....

The Challenge: How to get more leads for Free? (or as close to free as possible)

1 Tool that I have come across which is worth its weight in gold is Internet Business Promoter. Not only is it a great tool to optimise your web site to achieve better position on Google (and other search engines) natural search results; it also can be used to find leads.

http://www.ibusinesspromoter.com/linkbuilding/link-builder.htm

This tool enables you select specific search engines and specific keywords and it will build you a database of leads you can then later market to.
e.g. Imagine you want to find all real-estate agents in Sydney. You simply type in real estate Sydney select the search engines you want to search in type how many records you want it to find and presto, a few hours later you have a list of email address, names, addresses, phone fax etc. You then can export this list in to excel an then import into 3GB or your mass email marketing solution.

Its as easy as that!

You can also purchase lists which usually are better quality or find them in White Pages, Yellow Pages and business directories.
Use IBP with a variation of keywords to build your databases, keep in mind that most business will have an up-to-date listing either in White Pages or Yellow Pages. Enjoy!

Once you compile a list of leads you need a lead mangement system to market and manage those leads, 3GB provides numerous tools to market and auto manage these lists.

For more information contact 3GVision

In my next article I will publish "How to set-up IBP to build Marketing DB" for a step by step guide on how to use this simple and cheap method to get FREE LEADS....

How to Increase sales whilst reducing costs?

Manny — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:39:00 +2000

One of the simplest and most important formulas in business is Profit = Revenue – costs. Most business focus on (Revenue) constantly increasing sales by acquiring new customers and pay little no attention to maximising existing leads, selling to existing customers and reducing the cost of sale. The reason, “It’s too complicated!” I agree, it is complicated if you have the wrong tools.

20 years ago if you wanted to send a customer a message you had 2 choices write and mail or write and fax. The late 90’s brought a great change to business, PC’s, Internet, Email and numerous software applications. This was great improvement; we could print letters easily, save templates edit and print, mail merge and instantly email any corner of the globe. Yes these were substantial improvements but have we made it easier for business? With these new systems, tools and applications we find ourselves today spending more and more time Copying & Pasting, Updating this & Updating that, Reminders for this and Reminders for that, Looking for this and trying to find that.

Today’s businesses are demanding simpler systems that will nurture their Leads, maximise sales to existing customers whilst reducing the total cost of doing business. Business and their staff are demanding systems that do away with the repetitive mundane tasks. They are saying “We don’t want to waste time on admin, we want more time to spend with customers” and quite frankly I agree with them.

The only way to meet all of these demands is thru systems that provide business automation with convergence.

"Future business systems will not be about putting new technology into business it will be all about putting your business into the technology."

One system that delivers customisable business automation via a single converged system is 3GB CRM, a complete business system that leverages its Automation Engine, the latest Generation CRM and Advanced Business Management into1 single solution.

No need for: Separate systems such as: Outlook, Word, Fax, Email, SMS and document templates, separate lead management systems, costly web integration, reminders, storage, multiple email accounts, other messaging systems, multiple servers and expensive integration plus much more... Built on 3GB Enterprise CRM which is one of the most innovative Customer Relationship Management System, you will immediately realise the benefits with the Automation of Emails, SMS, Letters, Appointments, Sales Reminders and Administration. 3GB CRM enables you to work smarter not harder.

Improve your business overnight by:
* Increasing sales – Simplify & Automate Sales
* Work smarter not harder! – Clever Automation
* ALL apps in 1 database & 1 database in ALL apps
* Connect web, email, fax, sms directly to your database
* Build and automate business workflow and messaging
* Auto Emails, Faxes, SMS, Letters, Appointments…
* Web enquiries automatically create customer files
* Auto response email, fax, sms and letter responses
* Auto appointment and bookings creation & confirmation
* Auto customer and process management
* Minimise Costs, Maximise Productivity & Maximise Sales

"Automate your business, Minimise your costs, Maximise Productivity whilst Maximising your Profit."

How to automate your Clinic Business?

Manny — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 03:06:00 +2000

How to automate your Clinic Business?

I am writing to inform you about one of the greatest developments in the skin/laser clinic industry called 3GB Clinics CRM. 3GB Clinics CRM was designed to help you automate your business and sell more products and services by leveraging its Clinic Automation Engine, the latest Generation CRM, Clinic Retail and advanced Clinic Management.

Improve your clinic business overnight by:
* Increasing sales – Simplify & Automate Sales
* Work smarter not harder! – Clever Automation
* ALL apps in 1 database & 1 database in ALL apps
* Connect web, email, fax, sms directly to your database
* Build and automate business workflow and messaging
* Auto Emails, Faxes, SMS, Letters, Appointments…
* Web enquiries automatically create customer files
* Auto response email, fax, sms and letter responses
* Auto appointment and bookings creation & confirmation
* Auto customer and process management
* Minimise Costs, Maximise Productivity & Maximise Sales

Automate your Clinic: - Imagine how much better your Clinic Business would be with Auto Resource Management, (Auto Management of: Rooms, Machines, Machine Capabilities, Products/Treatments, Bookings and Appointments). Upon generating a sale, 3GB Clinics CRM automatically generates all the Treatments within the Treatment Management System. With Multi-Clinic Accounting and Auto Booking and Appointments, Auto Quotes, Auto Invoices and Auto Receipts directly linked to your accounting package 3GB Clinics CRM will prove to be your most valuable clinic business resource. Built on 3GB Enterprise CRM which is one of the most innovative Customer Relationship Management System, you will immediately realise the benefits with the Auto Emails, SMS, Letters and Auto Administration. 3GB Clinics enables you to work smarter not harder.

"Make it easier to sell and you will sell more!"

Add CRM to your Clinic:- How well does your clinic manage customer relations? Are you providing world class customer service? With automated business process management 3GB Clinics CRM will automatically remind your staff; when to call your customers, when to re-book, when to collect payment. It will also automatically email and sms your customers based upon numerous events, which will enable you to automate your customer service and greatly improve you custmer relationships. Combined with the ability to automate the numerous mundane repetitive admin tasks, 3GB Clinics CRM will largely free up time enabling you to spend more time on existing and new customers which will generate further sales.

"Do more business with 3GBusiness!"

One System for ALL: - 3GB Clinics CRM is one system for all your clinic needs, it is a complete clinic management system that brings together CRM, Advanced Clinic Booking, Clinic Retail and Clinic Business Automation into a single solution. No need for: Separate systems such as: Outlook, Word, Fax, Email, SMS and document templates, separate lead management systems, costly web integration, reminders, document storage, multiple email accounts, other messaging systems, multiple servers and expensive integration plus much more... If you’re frustrated by appointments, bookings, treatment tracking, resources, client data, confirmations, sales, leads, marketing, payments, pictures, emails, sms, reminders & accounts.

"Automate your business, Minimise your costs, Maximise Productivity whilst Maximising your Profit."

Imagine how much better your Clinic Business would be!

What is Application Convergence and will it be a Technology Revolution?

Manny — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:06:00 +2000

If we look at every technology revolution it brings about a number of common benefits which can be summarised as:

Cheaper
Faster
Better
Easier
Smaller

Application convergence will be no exception, it will need to deliver most if not all of the above benefits, after all we only purchase new technology if it’s cheaper, faster, better, easier or smaller.

What is the main driver for application convergence (3^rd Gen Software)?

The main drivers for application convergence are productivity, the cost of INTEGRATION and the cost of maintaining 2^nd Gen systems. Most businesses evolve by step by step investment in technology and eventually end up with multiple applications, which store data in multiple locations and they suffer from:

Copy and Paste
Update this and Update that
Do this and Do that
Reminder for this and reminder for that
Save this here and look for that where
Etc...

The reason they tolerate the above is either they don’t know there is a better way or the cost of integration is prohibitive.

What are the issues with Integration?

The word integration will be a yesterday technical word the same as digitisation, we had to go through the phase to learn better more efficient ways of doing things. Don’t get me wrong integration will and to a certain extent live with us for some time but in certain areas it should not exist. For example if we take a look at the front end part of a business Sales & Marketing, all the tools and applications used by these departments should be CONVERGED not integrated. Because they are NOT we ask ourselves the following questions everyday:

Why can’t my email access data from my database?
Why do I have to perform so many repetitive tasks?
Why do I waste so much time searching for stuff?
How can I focus on the customer when I have so much damn admin?

Along with the above the reason most companies resist change is that they; already have purchased 3 to 4 servers (or more) which they also have to maintain, they have numerous applications and s/w licences, in fact they have spent a small fortune purchasing all the h/w and s/w, and they have to continue spending due to keeping them up and running. They see 2^nd generation systems as Expensive, Complex and a question I get from customers is “Why do I need so many servers” and with the price of electricity going up I believe this question is even more valid.

The issues with 2^nd generation systems can be summarised as silos of chaos, they are:

Complex expensive to Integrate
Multiple Applications
Multiple Servers
Expensive to buy, own and maintain

What is Application Convergence?

Application convergence is the convergence of multiple applications that read and store data in 1 database with a single user interface.

“ALL applications in 1 DB and 1 DB in ALL applications”

For the technical audience: The application layer comprises of 4 sub layers Presentation, Business Logic, Data Access and Storage. Application convergence is when you have multiple applications with 1 Presentation Layer, 1 Business Logic Layer, 1 Data Access Layer and 1 Storage Layer. The key in business is to apply application convergence to entire sections of the business like sales and marketing. This will eliminate the need for multiple non productive processes, tools and applications.

Why will Application Convergence bring about a technology revolution?

If we consider all the above benefits along with intelligent automation application convergence will bring about a technology revolution because of:

One system for all
- All apps in one DB and one DB in all apps
- One system for ALL Faxes, emails, SMS, quotes, letters, documents, brochures, customer data, pictures, product data, calendar items, actions, tasks, activities, appointments, sales data and accounts.

Minimise costs
- 1 Server instead of several
- 1 Application Instead of Several
- Cheaper to Buy, Run and Maintain
- Customize yourself no need for expensive Engineers

Increased Productivity - Next Gen Intelligent Automation
- We can show from 50% to 300% productivity gains
- Auto Admin, Emails, Faxes, SMS, Letters, Actions, Notes & Workflow

Maximise Sales
- Automate and Simplify Sales – “Sell More”

Maximise Profit

Min Costs + Increased Productivity + Max Sales = Max Profit

Like all other technology revolutions Application Convergence WILL be Cheaper, Faster, Better, Easier and Smaller than 2^nd generation integrated systems.

What is the Next Technology Big Thing?

Manny — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:07:00 +2000

Having spent many years in the technology corporate space working with mobile operators, mobile vendors, computing hardware & software providers and as a business consultant has enabled me to look at technology from a different perspective.

If we consider the main drivers for the evolution of technology being Information, knowledge and intelligence what it is and where we are, we are best positioned to understand what will evolve technology, business and in some cases how it will impact current and future business models.

What is Information, Knowledge and Intelligence?
Having asked myself this question many years ago the following are the definitions that I created:

Information: Generic raw data, news, radio, internet etc
Knowledge: Accumulated topic specific, segment specific information
Intelligence: Knowledge with ACTION

If we consider the above definitions and where technology has been and where it currently is, we quickly come to the following conclusion:

Up-to early 2000’s
- Telephony, the internet, 1st Gen Software = Information
Up-to early 2010’s
- Specialised segment specific web sites, CRM systems 2nd Gen Software = Knowledge
2010 – and beyond
- The Dawn of Automation, knowledge with action, 3rd Gen Software = Intelligence

What will evolve technology and business?
If we look at how we have managed both the buying and selling processes over the past few decades there has been numerous advances in technology that enables us to SERIOUSLY improve how we serve our customers.
Currently we hear numerous companies talking about AUTOMATION, automate this and automate that. The key is Intelligent Automation, if I know (knowledge):

When my customer wants to buy?
What my customer wants to buy?
How much they are willing to pay for it?

I can automate all the mundane and repetitive stages in sales process whilst (not forgetting to maintain the all important human contact at the critical stages in order to maintain rapport and a good relationship with my customers) delivering total customer satisfaction.

Ask yourself does your business have or is working towards creating a knowledge base system that houses ALL your customer information in 1 SINGLE DB that enables either a human or automated process to better serve your customers?

By understanding how and when to offer intelligent technology automated solutions alongside THE ALL IMPORTANT human contact will bring about the new winners and losers in the new Intelligence market place.
The future businesses and business models will be all focused on Intelligence -

“Knowledge with Action”

What is the next technology BIG THING?
If we look at technology per se and the OSI model, the main technnolgy BIG THING milestones can be summarised as:

1980's - Transport Convergence – Optical Fiber
1990's - Network Convergence – TCP/IP
2000's - Platform Convergence – Win, Mac, Web
2010's - The only one left is Application Convergence - ??

So the Next Technology Big Thing will be how to deliver ALL Applications in 1 Database and 1 Database in all applications that enables either a human or automated process to better serve your customers, an intelligent base system via -

“Application Convergence”

3GB CRM is one of the first Application Converged Systems.

Customer web enquiries should automatically generate personalised emails

Elizabeth — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:49:00 +2000

In the recent years, a large number of businesses today work online. Online and web based businesses rely extensively on emails, txt messages and other such technologically advanced communication methods. For such businesses, it would be necessary to send out, read and respond to hundreds of different emails on any given day. With such a large number of emails as well as txt messages to handle every day, it would be necessary for them to use a system which would allow them to generate personalized emails automatically.

Web based enquiries handled better

Normally, businesses that have their own websites would have a web based enquiry forms. Whenever a visitor visits the website, he/she can fill up that form and submit it to get more information about the products as well as services that are offered by the company. When the company receives this enquiry form, an employee in the marketing or the customer service department would need to reply to the enquiry form in the right manner. However, with so many hundreds of enquiry emails as well as txt messages coming in every single day, the employees would be spending a majority of their time managing their emails.

Creating personalized emails

For those who are still new to the web based business model, you will realize that using an autoresponder would be very important for your business. With a service like this, you would have a particular email address which would be set up automatically so that it would send out a message whenever an email or a txt message is received. This would save a lot of time in typing up and sending out emails individually to each enquiry.

For example, if you offer subscription services on your website with a form which the visitors can fill up on the website, then you can use this service to set up an automated email system. The visitors checking your site will see the form and submit it after filling it up. You would be able to get the details automatically through this autoresponder service. With the help of this service, a personalized email would then be automatically sent out to the subscriber. The details like the name, email address as well as contact names would also be saved in a database. This would also be a good way to have a database for all the leads that you can use at a later point.

Almost all types of internet based businesses today use a system like this which would respond to customer web enquiries automatically. This would be one of the first things that you would need to do if you are interested in making your website search engine optimized. When you send out personalized emails to your prospective clients at the right time, you would be able to maintain good relationships with your clients. There are a lot of opportunities that you can tap by using a technology like this.

Should CRM manage email?

Elizabeth — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:45:00 +2000

Quite a lot of businesses rely on CRM today in order to increase the efficiency, cost effectiveness and productivity of their business. Since emails and mobiles are used very widely in businesses today for communicating with business clients, customers, employees within the organization, CRM should also offer email management services. In fact, one of the first areas that you should automate using CRM is the emails since a large number of emails are sent and received each day at work which makes it important for you to ensure that you should manage your corporate emails well.

For business organizations, the most important consideration is productivity. Since there are so many employees that spend hours each day ensuring that they send out emails to the customers as well as read and respond to the emails within organization, CRM should offer a particular management system which would ensure that the emails are sent out automatically whenever needed. With a system like this, all you would have to do is write out the templates, set up a schedule and ensure that it is saved. Once it is done, you would not have to do anything else at all. All the emails would be sent out automatically at the set schedule.

Data management made easy with CRM email management

CRM can offer not just email management services but also mobile message automation services. You would be able to automate the faxes, text messages etc. Data management is quite important for any business. For this reason, it is important to ensure that you use a system with the help of which it would be easy for you to save, categorize the emails. Through automated email system, you would be able to not just send out the emails automatically but also save the names and the email addresses in a database.

This would be a good way to have an automatic lead database so that you would be able to have more client base to tap into. It would also be possible for you to gain access to any email account you want, a particular email message that you want at any time so that you would not have to face any problem at any time possible in the future. Every CRM system should offer email management services since it would help you save a lot of employee time.

For businesses that have to rely extensively on internet based clients, it would be necessary for them to ensure that they receive the maximum benefits from automating emails as well as mobiles and ensure that all of their email correspondences are well managed. Each time that a particular visitor fills up an enquiry web form on your website, your CRM system would automatically create the customer file and would be able to automatically respond to the email enquiry. To realize the maximum possible benefits, your CRM system should definitely manage your emails.

Email management with CRM

Elizabeth — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:41:00 +2000

For every business, the right type of workflow design is important if they want to ensure that their business runs in an efficient, cost effective way. There are no businesses today that can work without using the internet. In fact, when it comes to businesses, emails tend to be one of the most used business tools. Emails are used not just within the organization but are also very widely used when communicating with clients as well as customers and third parties. In larger organizations, email management tends to be one of the most difficult tasks since on any given day there are hundreds of emails that are exchanged

Considering the fact that the number of emails that are exchanged within the business are quite high, it is necessary to use a system that helps email management. With the help of CRM, email management and workflow design can be simplified. In any company, most employees spend at least an hour and sometimes even three hours managing, replying and reading their emails. If these hours are utilized in an area that would offer better productivity, the business would be able to gain better benefits.

Why is email management important?

There are quite a lot of problems that businesses face when it comes to managing emails. There are too many emails that need to be managed. The emails are all stored in different accounts so it would be quite difficult for the organization to gain access to each mail account. Finding a particular email message can also be quite difficult since there are always so many sent and received mails in an account at any time.

Also, employees always have a lot of emails that they need to reply to at any given point. Since emails are becoming increasingly formal today, employees have to ensure that each email is sent out at the right time and has just the right content. This results in a lot of time being spent behind a single customer in which it could have been possible to tap quite a lot of potential customers is the right kind of email management system and workflow design had been used.

Email management simplified with CRM

The reason so many businesses today rely on CRM is because it offers very effective email management systems. Emails can be sent out automatically, individually or to a group without having to do anything at all. Access to the messages becomes easy since all of the received as well as sent emails would be automatically saved as well as archived. The employees would no longer have to spend their time storing, attaching documents, shifting mails to the right folders or moving emails since it would all be done automatically.

You would also be able to create templates for letters, SMS, fax, emails etc. with the help of the right tools. You would be able to create messages that are personalized without having to spend too much time on it. CRM offers effective and time saving email management services.

Email is one of the most used business tools

Elizabeth — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:29:00 +2000

Email or electronic mail is a system through which the user can compose, send and receive message electronically. Almost everyone today knows how emails work and how they can be used. With the internet developing rapidly over the last few years, the use of emails has drastically increased. In People would be able to communicate to anyone they want in a matter of moments. The sophistication, reach and the power of emails is such that it is one of the most effective, sophisticated, inexpensive and efficient way to communicate. This is especially true when it comes to businesses

Email can be quite useful for businesses

Almost no business today can work without using the internet. Any business that you can think of would be using the internet and would be relying quite heavily on emails as well as text messaging as a part of their work. Whether it is for communicating with the customers, clients or within the organization, emails serve to be one of the best ways to do that. The reason why all business organizations rely on emails as well as text messaging today is because of the large number of benefits that it offers. Given below are some of the ways that using email can help your business:

With the help of emails, you would be increasing your visibility in the world. People would be reminded of the company, would be notified of your existence and would be able to get in touch with you easily. It would be a good way to build your brand image. People would definitely forget about your business after a while which is one of the reasons why you would need to rely on emails to remind them.
Emails are also known to be quite effective when it comes to bringing traffic to your website. With the help of email, you can have more prospective customers and clients visit your website. Without the right amount of traffic, no business would be able to function for a long time.
One of the best things about using emails for businesses along with text messaging is that it would be able to alert your users, clients and customers about the services and the products that you offer. Other than the email alerts that you can send out through emails, you can also use it to build up awareness about new services, products, technology etc. in the market for educating your clients.
Sending out regular emails to your customers is one of the ways in which you can bond with them. You would be reaching out to your customers and follow up with them which can help you build confidence and trust of your clients in your company. It would only be with confidence and trust that you would be able to get more sales and subscriptions for your services and products.
Even within business, emails are always the medium through which important information is shared and circulated.

Considering all of the benefits that are offered by emails, it is not so surprising that emails are the most used business tools.

Your business processes should automatically send out emails

Elizabeth — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:20:00 +2000

In order to maximize profits, every business today would need to be automated at least till some degree. Also, with the large number of internet based businesses that exist today, business automation has become a basic necessity. If your business involves sending out a lot of emails and text messages on a daily basis, then you would definitely need to get help from a system that would be able to send out emails automatically. A large amount of time of your employees would be currently spent in writing and sending out these emails to your customers as well as clients. If you have a good automatic email responder, it would be easy for you to contact the target group that you have in mind and send them out emails automatically.

What can an autoresponder do for you?

Quite a lot of business that need to send out a large number of emails and text messages on a regular basis use autoresponders today. This is a remote service that can help you automate email management. You would be able to save a very large amount of time when you use this service since all you would have to do is to write a reply or an email when you set up the system and then the technology would send out those emails on its own as per the schedule that you set up. Since this technology is so efficient, it would allow you to use your time on other more important areas of your business. Those who run an online business rely extensively on the use of this technology so essentially their business runs on an auto pilot mode.

Why should your business process send out the emails automatically?

In this competitive environment, you would need to make the best possible use of your resources so that you can maximize your profits. If your employees spend a large amount of their time sending our emails or text messages, then your business efficiency as well as profitability would definitely suffer. You should set up a system in such a way that most of your mails would be sent out automatically. Whether it is a welcome mail, a company update, a reminder for payment or an informative mail, you can automate your system to send out these mails on its own.

If you have a company website, then the visitors that might be visiting your website would need to fill up a short form in order to get more information about your product or your service. With an automated system, each time a web form would be submitted, an email or text messages would be automatically sent to the visitor. The best thing about using this service is that the details and the contact addresses would be captured by the system and would be stored in the database. You would have very valuable leads which you can use later on. There are also quite a lot of functions that that a program like this can provide you.

Almost every type of business today needs to send out emails automatically. This would be one of the first essential steps that you would need to follow if you want to enjoy the best possible efficiency and profitability for your business. This is especially true for the businesses that are heavily dependent on email based businesses.