With the growth the AppExchange and Salesforce, the company and it’s surrounding ecosystem is continuing to grow and become an influence on the world economy.

A newly released report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) says that worldwide, “Salesforce and its ecosystem will enable the creation of 1.9 million jobs within the Salesforce customer base from the use of cloud computing between the end of 2015 and the end of 2020,” and more than 2.8 million jobs indirectly.

Importance of Employee Productivity for Economic Growth

According to the IDC report, the biggest return percentage from Salesforce comes from operational improvements (39.7%), but the second biggest is employee productivity (26.6%). From the perspective of Cirrus Insight, this is huge and affirms our mission of helping salespeople and Salesforce users be more productive.

We’ve been excited to contribute major productivity gains to our customers over the years. Everyone from big universities to small startups have been able to increase their revenue and accomplish more each day thanks to the combined power of Cirrus Insight and Salesforce.

One of a our customers, Gusto, a startup focused on revolutionizing how payroll is done, took their sales processes that required 15 clicks and reduced it down to two thanks to Cirrus. That small increase in efficiency led to them saving 75 minutes per employee each day.

Over the course of the week, they saved 6.25 hours of time. That’s almost a whole another work day! Imagine being able to increase your team’s whole productivity by 20%.

That’s the value of employee productivity that’s helping the Salesforce ecosystem create $389 billion in new business revenue over the next five years.

How the AppExchange Helped Us Get Here

We’re excited to see the huge growth of the AppExchange platform. The AppExchange was an essential part of our growth when we launched in 2011. It was our initial go-to-market and how many of our initial customers were able to discover us. Without the support of the AppExchange, Cirrus Insight would not be the app it is today.

Our customers have supported us, and left over 1,400 reviews with an average of 4.7 out of 5 making us one of the most and highest reviewed apps on the platform.

We want to thank both our customers and the AppExchange for their support over the years.

Where We’re Going Next

However, we’re not done yet. We want to make sure Cirrus stays modern and in-line with the new Salesforce Lightning. A new version of Cirrus Insight is on the way to make our app even more efficient and useful for bringing Salesforce to your inbox.

We’ve completely updated the look and style of the app while staying true to our ease of use.

If you’d like to learn more about what’s coming, you can see and enter the public beta for Cirrus Insight 5.0

We look forward to seeing all the growth that we and Salesforce can bring to our customers in the coming years.

The post How 4 Million AppExchange App Downloads and Cirrus Insight are Driving Growth appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

We've created a presentation with everything you need to know about what's changed and how to try it out.

The post Join the Public Beta for Cirrus Insight 5.0 appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

But what knowledge and skills can we learn about in-person sales that we can transfer and apply to e-commerce? As it turns out, there is a lot of applicable wisdom to be gleaned; here are some of the main things that digital sales professionals can learn from door-to-door sales.

1. Training and Recruiting

We now exist in a work environment where many believe that all it takes to recruit the best salespeople is with a quick posting on LinkedIn. And while social media and online recruitment services have made things quick and easy, there is something to be said for the techniques that door-to-door sales recruiters use to hire top talent; quite a lot, actually.

Door-to-door sales cannot work without a really solid group of sales reps. Recruiters know this, and will often use aggressive hiring techniques to woo and hire the best candidates. While throwing a posting up online is an adequate way to get recruits, if you want the best success rate, more care and attention is required.

The same goes for training. Stringent new hire training is necessary in both fields in guiding sales reps and bringing out that potential that led to their recruitment in the first place. You can hire the very best talent, but they will need to be coached with the best methods if they are going to become the very best sales reps.

2. Perseverance

There is a mentality in door-to-door sales that should be replicated in any discipline, all centered around one important concept—perseverance. Specifically in door-to-door sales, lesson number one is very simple: get in the door. Your chances of making a sale will skyrocket the moment you step foot in the door.

What knowing this does is direct your actions very deliberately. When people are in their homes, they are going to be guarded and careful about who they let inside—and people are no different on their computers. Understanding your intended audience is vital, and over-aggressive tactics should be avoided at all costs. Perseverance is key, but not pushiness.

3. Smart Decisions

Door-to-door sales reps also become very good at reading a situation. They know when to cut their losses and move on. They know when to try a little bit harder, and when there is a firm no that will do nothing but waste their time. They also become experts at getting to that “no” faster.

This seems like an odd thing to laud as a talent, but some people are simply too polite to say no, and as a result you can end up wasting valuable time for both of you. Knowing when a person is a definite no—but just isn’t saying so—can help you get to that “no” and move on to the next opportunity quicker.

4. Course Correction

Furthermore, they can also tell when something is not working. Door-to-door sales can be filled with monotony and familiar patterns, and it can be easy to fall into a rut if you are not getting any results. But because so many are working on commission, they figure out ways to target where things are going wrong, and get better results. The same goes for e-commerce, or just about any profession. If something is not working, swift course correction is essential.

Sales might be changing, but the concepts behind it are not. Whether you have done door-to-door sales yourself or not, there is a lot that you can learn from it, and apply to digital sales. The biggest lesson however, is this: if you put in the effort, you will succeed.

The post 4 Things Digital Salespeople Can Learn from Door-to-Door Salespeople appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

Submit your own admin hacks or advice to be featured on our blog.

“I don't know if you'd consider these 'hacks' but here are a few things I try to live by:

1. Set reminders to review your workflows/approval processes/flows/ etc. Business changes and what made sense at one point may not now or could be done better. Also, sometimes for random reasons you end up with a workflow that is inactive.
2. Schedule sandbox refreshes. You never know when you're going to need a clean sandbox in a hurry!
3. Involve your users. All levels should be involved in building or changing what is ultimately their tool. People get buy in when they feel they've contributed to the whole.
4. Don't be discouraged with low adoption at the onset. Change is a gradual process and often frightening for some people. "Slow and steady wins the race." One or two new regular users over a week is a win!
5. Don't be afraid to experiment with new functionality after releases! Evolve with the platform. See sandbox comment in number 2.”

The post Admin Hack: Rules to Live By appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

Inc. magazine ranked Cirrus Insight #41 on its 35th annual Inc. 5000, the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. Cirrus was also ranked the #3 software company on the list and #5 in Los Angeles. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment— its independent small businesses.

Companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Domino’s Pizza, Pandora, Timberland, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees of the Inc. 5000, and we’re excited to join their ranks.

“Thank you to our amazing customers and team for helping us get to where we are today,” said Brandon Bruce, COO and Co-Founder of Cirrus Insight.

The 2016 Inc. 5000, unveiled online at Inc.com and with the top 500 companies featured in the September issue of Inc. is the most competitive crop in the list’s history. The average company on the list achieved a mind-boggling three-year growth of 433%. Cirrus was fortunate enough to reach 5,903%.

The Inc. 5000’s aggregate revenue is $200 billion, and the companies on the list collectively generated 640,000 jobs over the past three years, or about 8% of all jobs created in the entire economy during that period.

"The Inc. 5000 list stands out where it really counts,” said Inc. President and Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg. “It honors real achievement by a founder or a team of them. No one makes the Inc. 5000 without building something great – usually from scratch. That’s one of the hardest things to do in business, as every company founder knows. But without it, free enterprise fails.”

Cirrus Insight will continue working to bring a better integration between the inbox and Salesforce (get a preview of what we have in store), and looks forward to exciting, new growth in the coming year.

The post Cirrus Insight Ranks No. 41 on the 2016 Inc. 5000 appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

However, playing to a global audience isn’t as simple as only marketing your brands to your home country. Different strategies should be utilized if you want to be successful. With that in mind, below are seven ways you can reach a global audience.

1. Tailor Your Product

The preferences of different countries can vary wildly. This is much more so the case than simply comparing the tastes of different regions in the United States. Pizza Hut in Hong Kong offered a pizza with cream cheese and fish roe as ingredients. While that is unlikely to water American palates, the preferences in other nations can be quite different from our own.

2. Implement International Talent

If you want to expand globally, you need to expand your talent base to other countries. In most cases, executives running foreign expansions should either be native to those places or have years of experience living and working there. If you simply rely on the people you already have, you will likely run into problems. Dealing with the intricacies of a foreign culture, marketplace and government certainly requires specialized firsthand knowledge.

3. Overcome the Language Barrier

However, being a global brand means dealing with more than a few countries with different cultures. It means being able to market products to nearly every country with an open market. There are as many as 7,000 different languages. Being able to market your products in all these languages may seem impossible. However, you can lighten the load by taking advantage of translation software.

4. Focus on Internet Marketing

The great thing about the web is that every single country on earth connects to the same internet. In the past, companies had to pay for foreign ad space in newspapers, TV programs and the radio. This was extremely expensive, but without it, there would be no knowledge of the products in those markets. Today, however, a company can craft an internet ad targeting a specific foreign country for just a tiny fraction of the price of using other mediums.

5. Take Culture into Account

Above all else, you need to adapt to different cultures to launch your company globally. What may be okay in the context of one culture may not be okay in another. For example, advertisements in Arab nations probably shouldn’t include images of people and animals since this is actually against specific Islamic teachings. Similarly, you should be aware that the population of India is largely vegetarian and considers the cow to be a sacred beast.

6. Understand Foreign Economies

Similarly, dealing with foreign economies can itself be a quagmire. Not every country has a completely open market. You may have to work very closely with the government to actually get your product to stores. You also have to understand how foreign currencies fluctuate. If the foreign currency drops in value after you have reached a deal to export your products there, you could end up losing a lot of money.

7. Learn Foreign Laws and Political Landscapes

The laws between different nations regarding how products can be sold and marketed can differ wildly. Researching how to conform to those laws will take some effort. However, it will be worth it if you can produce a strong profit out of those markets.

You should also study the local governments and how they operate. Exporting your products there will likely require forging relationships with local leaders and politicians. Playing ball with politicians is unfortunately part of doing business in many places in the world. You shouldn’t overlook this element of global business or you may not be allowed to enter those markets.

Overall, expanding a company internationally takes a lot of work, knowledge and expertise. You will certainly have to grow your operations significantly to accomplish becoming an international brand. However, if you do, the possibility for how far your profits could grow is nearly limitless.

Jennifer Livingston is a  business consultant and writer who's passionate about career success and business management. When not writing she loves traveling, cooking and hiking.

The post 7 Ways to Reach a Global Audience appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

Cirrus Insight’s Calendar and Email Sync service for Salesforce enables Office 365 clients the ability to automatically sync their emails and calendar events from Exchange online into Salesforce.

“We’re very excited about the partnership with The SMB Help Desk, Inc,” said Sue Fernand, VP of Channel Sales for Cirrus Insight. “This gives Salesforce and Microsoft customers an easy way to get the data they are already managing in Outlook and Office 365 into Salesforce where it can be used for valuable reporting on sales cycles and sales activity.”

The SMB Help Desk plans for the relationship to help customers automate and simplify their processes.

“Partnering with Cirrus Insight to roll out a brand new solution enabling Office 365 customers with the ability to sync their emails and calendar to their existing Salesforce.com records, is a perfect match,” said Marvin Korves, President for The SMB Help Desk, Inc. “Our customers’ executives can now track the activities of their teams in real-time inside Salesforce without requiring their employees to do anything more than send an email or schedule meetings.”

The strategic relationship with Cirrus Insight and The SMB Help Desk makes it easy for Microsoft’s clients to move to Office 365 while leveraging their current investments in Salesforce, and even improving on their Salesforce adoption.

About The SMB Help Desk, Inc.

The SMB Help Desk, Inc. is an award winning IT consulting organization specializing in delivering innovative cloud-based technology solutions to small and medium sized businesses. The SMB Help Desk, Inc. provides consulting services on Salesforce® solutions, Microsoft solutions including Office 365 and Azure, Infrastructure support, and a full service managed IT services offering.

Headquartered in Chicago, IL, with a second office in Austin, TX, The SMB Help Desk, Inc. has been named to the Nation’s Best & Brightest Companies to Work For in 2014 and 2015. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and a Salesforce® silver consulting partner, The SMB Help Desk, Inc. provides unparalleled experience to customers both locally and nationwide. For more information, visit: http://thesmbhelpdesk.com/.

The post New Partnership Between The SMB Help Desk, Microsoft and Cirrus Insight appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

Scheduling meetings with prospects and customers is essential for almost every business. You schedule appointments with prospects to understand their needs and introduce your product through demos and consultations. You meet with new customers to develop solutions and sign contracts.  And you meet with current customers to provide on-boarding, training, and support.

It’s easy to see why you want the process of scheduling meetings with your customers to be as frictionless as possible. Phone and email tag too often lead to frustration, lost deals, and wasted time.  

Since last year, customers have utilized Cirrus Insight’s Book Meeting feature to eliminate the back-and-forth of scheduling meetings with prospects and customers. You can simply insert your calendar availability into an email in Gmail or Outlook or mobile, and the recipient can click a time in the email to instantly confirm a meeting with you.

Today, we’re taking the Book Meeting feature a step further to help you schedule even more meetings in less time. You don’t want to lose hot leads or existing customers to frustrating email and phone tag. You can now enable them to easily connect with you.

Introducing the Book Meeting Public Calendar Link

Now you can share a personalized link to your calendar with your prospects and customers.  All they have to do is choose an available time, and a new meeting will be booked on your calendar and they’ll automatically receive an invitation.  No more back and forth.

The link works the same as any other website link, so you can share it through email, in your email signature, on web pages, on your social profiles or posts, or anywhere you want to reach prospects and customers.

The Book Meeting Public Calendar Link is available today for both Gmail and Outlook users. It simply requires that you be on the Closer plan of Cirrus Insight.  (Trial users will have access to the feature during the free 14-day trial.)

Here’s how it works:

Setup

Step 1:  Go to your Compose window in Gmail or Outlook and click on Book Meeting like you normally would if you wanted to insert your availability into an email message.

Step 2: First-time users will see the following introduction screen. Click the blue button to “Set It Up.”

Step 3: Click on the blue “Set It Up” button.  

Step 4: You can choose a URL for your calendar link. For example, a combination of your name and company is a popular choice.  Example: https://meet.ci/David-Loomis-CirrusInsight.

Simply enter the calendar name you want, and we’ll check to see if it’s available.

After you have your custom link, you can select your working hours. You can also enter a default meeting location if you want. For example, you might use your custom GoToMeeting, WebEx, Join.me, Uberconference, or conference call information.  

Note: The default meeting location is optional so you can leave it blank. If it’s blank, you can simply add a location to a meeting in Google Calendar or Outlook after a customer has selected a time to meet with you.  

You’re all set up to share your calendar!

Sharing Your Calendar and Scheduling a Meeting

Step 1: Now that you’re all set up to share your calendar, we’ll walk you through how to insert it into an email to a customer.  (Note: You can use your calendar link anywhere – in emails, signatures, social profiles and posts, web pages, etc.)

You can type your calendar link or copy it into a new email message, or simply click the “Book Meeting” button when you’re composing a new email. Then click on the white “Insert Link in Email” button to copy the link into your email.

Step 2: When your customer receives your email with the calendar link, they can click on the ‘View Calendar’ link button. (Note: Cirrus Insight checks your Google Calendar or Office 365 calendar or Exchange calendar for conflicts, so you're never double-booked.)

Step 3: Your customer will then go to a web page where they can select an available time on  your calendar to schedule a meeting. Your customer will automatically see available times in their local timezone. And they won’t see any information about your other meetings – only whether you’re available or not.

Step 4:  Your customer will then simply enter their name and email address, and they’ll need to click on the box to confirm ‘I am not a robot’. (That is to eliminate calendar spam.)  They can also suggest a meeting location and meeting title. The last step is to click the blue “Book It!” button.  (Or they can click the link to Select a different time if they change their mind.)

After your customer clicks “Book It!” the meeting will appear on your calendar.  Meanwhile, your customer will receive a calendar invitation.  Your customer will be listed as “Tentative” for the meeting until they have accepted the meeting invitation.

Step 5: Your customer will see a confirmation web page after booking the meeting:

Step 6: You and your customer will both receive confirmation emails.  All your customer has to do is accept the calendar invitation to lock the meeting on their calendar.

You’re now all set up for your meeting!  No back and forth. No more email and phone tag for scheduling appointments, calls, demos, interviews, support, etc.  Just more great meetings with your prospects and customers.

How Does Cirrus Insight Compare to the Rest?

	Cirrus Insight	Schedule Once	Calendly
Live notifications for booked meetings
Set availability blocks
Personalized calendar link
Cancel and reschedule meetings
Support for time zones
Manage calendar settings
Schedule events for team members
Sync meetings to Salesforce
Update calendar events after scheduling
Insert available times into the body of an email
Schedule meetings from your mobile device
Book meetings from Gmail
Book meetings from Outlook
Track email interaction with your book meeting link

The post Introducing the Book Meeting Calendar Link appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

We recently had a webinar with Zenkraft to show you how our apps work in sync to help you handle and view your company’s shipping orders from your inbox.

Watch Jason Hubbard, VP of Marketing at Cirrus Insight, and Jame Lumb, CEO of Zenkraft, guide you through the whole process.

They’ll give you an overview of how both apps work, and how they can be combined to provide shipping info where you work.

The post Watch How to Access and View Valuable Salesforce Shipping Information from Your Inbox appeared first on Cirrus Insight.

Submit your own admin hacks or advice to be featured on our blog.

“You can easily customize the fields that display in a 'hover' detail view, visible when you mouse over a link to a related record (lookup field). For example, on an Opportunity record when you hover your mouse over the Account Name to see more information.

To add or remove fields from this hover view, edit the page layout/s for that object, click on 'Mini Page Layout' and choose the fields you want to display.”

The post Admin Hack: Customize Fields in Hover Detail View appeared first on Cirrus Insight.