Save time, save money, and grow your business with more effective CRM CRM For Dummies is the small business leader's guide to managing customer interactions. Customer relationship management is a critical part of any business, and it encompasses everything from business strategy and HR to sales, marketing, events, and more. Solutions exist for businesses of any size, but how do you know which one is right for you? What features do you need? Do you have the people and processes in place to get the most out of whichever one you choose? This book is designed to help business leaders better understand effective CRM and identify the right solution for their business—but it's about much more than software; effective CRM requires appropriate team structures, intradepartmental collaboration, and process efficiency. Packed with tactics and strategies that will save your company thousands of dollars and man-hours, these chapters answer the most pressing questions that will make the biggest impact on your sales. Building relationships with current and future customers is the critical point of business. This book helps you bring sales, marketing, and operations together to work toward that common goal, and shows you the tools and techniques that make your efforts more effective. Define your market segments, buyer personas, and voice Build an effective internal structure, and choose the right CRM solution Optimize leads and conduct effective email marketing Streamline processes, automate where possible, and employ analytics Your customers are the lifeblood of your company; you need to reach them, engage them, and retain them—without wasting precious time or money. CRM For Dummies gets you up to speed on the latest, most effective CRM tools and techniques to help your business succeed.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Icons Used in This Book 2 Where to Go from Here 2 Part 1: Laying the CRM Foundation 5 Chapter 1: Embarking on Your Journey to Complete CRM 7 Bringing the R in CRM to the Forefront 7 Extending CRM to Your Entire Business 10 Knowing the Buzzwords 11 Using Strategies and Tactics 19 Finding Your Success with Complete CRM 21 Chapter 2: Gearing Up Internally for CRM 27 Overcoming Resistance to Change 28 Encouraging and Facilitating Innovation and Collaboration 33 Creating a Consistent and Effective Brand Communication Strategy 38 Working with the Gatekeepers in IT 40 Adopting a Data-Driven Mindset 43 Applying Your Culture to CRM 46 Chapter 3: Choosing the Best Software 49 Choosing between Software as a Service (SaaS) or On-Premise 50 Evaluating Software Vendors 52 Testing CRM Software 60 Making the Final Decision 63 Educating Users on Responsibility 64 Installing the Right Data Security Tools 64 Training Your Staff 65 Part 2: Setting Up Yourself for Success 69 Chapter 4: Organizing Your CRM through Segments and Personas 71 Segmenting Your Market 72 Identifying Buyer Personas 79 Developing Your Best Brand 81 Testing Your Brand 83 Delivering the Right Content 86 Avoiding Content Saturation 90 Chapter 5: Creating Story Arcs and Buyer Journeys with CRM 93 Building Brand Awareness 94 Improving Brand Perception 96 Making the Best Contact the First Time 99 Qualifying Leads 101 Getting Your Leads into Your Funnel 102 Using Workflows to Engage with Your Customers 105 Designing Workflows 109 Closing Leads with Effective Process 113 Using Opportunities versus Consumer Sales Funnels 116 Implementing Process Abandonment 120 Following Up after the Sale 123 Chapter 6: Defining Process and Your Data Model 125 Applying Management by Walking Around 126 Outlining Key Areas 127 Moving from Whiteboard to CRM 127 Defining Contact Data Fields 130 Scoring Your Leads and Clients 132 Part 3: Implementing Your CRM 135 Chapter 7: Setting Up Your CRM Elements 137 Contact versus Account-Based CRM 137 Defining Users and Their Roles 139 Using a Group-Centric Architecture 140 Setting Up Custom Data Fields 144 Storing Files 146 Signing Documents Automatically 148 Bridging Your Online Store and Your CRM 149 Integrating Billing, Quotes, and Invoices 151 Connecting Legacy and Related Software 153 Importing Leads by File 155 Chapter 8: Capturing Leads to Build Your CRM Database 157 Finding the Best Lead Capture Methods 158 Buying Leads from Third Parties 162 Bringing Leads in with Your Website 164 Tracking Sources with Campaign IDs 168 Deploying Signup Forms 170 Deploying Ticketing Forms 172 Appending Data 174 Building Automation into Forms 177 Chapter 9: Capturing Leads with Other Methods 181 Interacting with Chat 182 Interacting via SMS/MMS 184 Interacting over the Phone 186 Meeting over Web Conference 188 Interacting over Social Media 189 Meeting Leads in Real Life 190 Integrating Inbound Leads through Zapier 193 Chapter 10: Communicating Effectively with Email 195 Avoiding Spam 196 Adhering to Legal Requirements 199 Employing SPF and DKIM 200 Choosing the Right Email Service Provider 202 Managing Your Lists 205 Gathering New Leads 207 Designing Emails That Work 209 Tracking Email Marketing Campaigns 211 Personalizing Your Messages 217 Triggering Email from Actions 218 Chapter 11: Joining the Marketing Automation Revolution 219 Defining Automation 220 Designing Your Campaigns 222 Setting Up Triggers 226 Encouraging Leads to Activate Triggers 227 Automating Workflows around Lead Scoring 229 Designing Workflows 230 Chapter 12: Managing Your Knowledge Base in Your CRM 235 Knowing What to Put in Your Knowledge Base 236 Building Access Levels for Information 237 Structuring Knowledge for Internal Consumption 239 Sharing Knowledge with Leads and Clients 240 Chapter 13: Managing Projects with Your CRM 241 Setting Up a Project 242 Leading Your Project Team 245 Measuring Important Metrics for Your Team 247 Tracking resource utilization 247 Viewing overdue tasks 248 Budgeting projects and tasks 248 Chapter 14: Managing Events with Your CRM 249 Bringing People to Your Brand 250 Driving awareness with events 250 Educating leads and clients through conferences 251 Hosting Events 251 Establishing benefits of membership 252 Matching attendees by interests 253 Setting Up Registration Options 253 Determining what to ask for 254 Using logic to show only relevant options 255 Automating Responses and Follow-Ups 255 Connecting with Calendars 256 Part 4: Analytics and Improvement 257 Chapter 15: Measuring Business Performance with CRM 259 Constructing Funnels 260 Tracking sales progress with conversions 260 Defining the stages of a conversion 260 Measuring time and dropout rates for each stage 261 Activating workflows for stages 262 Analyzing Website Visitors 263 Measuring unique visitors and page views 263 Tracking referral sources 265 Measuring bounce rate 266 Keeping a tally on devices that visit your website 267 Watching where your visitors come from 267 Measuring time on site 268 Analyzing individual pages 268 Comparing your website properties 269 Comparing and contrasting campaign performance 271 A/B Webpage Testing 272 Setting up split percentages 272 Determining the best criteria for a split 273 Adjusting split percentages automatically 273 Managing Affiliates 273 Connecting campaigns to affiliate codes 274 Defining tiers for payment 274 Measuring Email Marketing 275 Watching read and click rates over time 275 Comparing performance to benchmarks 275 Measuring conversions from email campaigns 276 Tracking Social Media 277 Measuring impressions and actions 277 Calculating influence and lead qualification 279 Taking a Global View 279 Chapter 16: Gathering Feedback and Supporting Customers 281 Sending Surveys 282 Applying surveys to the right situations 282 Developing the questions people answer 283 Building logic into survey structure 283 Scoring survey responses 284 Triggering workflows from surveys 285 Connecting survey responses to your CRM 285 Supporting Clients with Ticketing Forms 286 Posting forms on your website for customer service 286 Automation with ticket forms 287 Setting standards and goals for your support team 288 Measuring important metrics 289 Chatting with Leads and Clients 290 Chapter 17: Using Analytics the Right Way 291 Defining Your Key Performance Indicators 292 Knowing what to measure and why 292 Setting reasonable standards 294 Reporting your KPIs 294 Developing policies for exceeding standards or failing to meet them 295 Sharing performance with investors and employees 295 Analyzing Your Website Traffic 295 Assessing SEO and PPC performance 296 Comparing campaigns and their impact 296 Scoring Your Leads and Clients 297 Predictive Analytics 297 Building a data model from behavior 298 Applying your predictive model to leads 300 Applying your predictive model to your business model 300 Sharpening your team’s skills 301 Part 5: The Part of Tens 303 Chapter 18: Ten Top-Notch Software Review Websites 305 Expert Market 305 G2 Crowd 306 SaaSGenius 307 GetApp 308 Technology Advice 309 Software Advice 309 Capterra 310 Finances Online 311 TrustRadius 311 Marketing Automation Club 312 Chapter 19: Ten Common CRM Mistakes 313 Not Getting Buy In from Your Team 313 Believing CRM Is about Software 314 Not Doing Your Homework First 314 Not Listening to Expert Advice 314 Not Going through Vendor Software Training 314 Not Setting Up DKIM and SPF 315 Buying Lists 315 Relying Only on Cold Calling 315 Not Journey Mapping First 316 Focusing on One Requirement 316 Appendix A: CRM Decision Matrix 317 Appendix B: Self-Assessment 323 Index 325