Pipeliner CRM Truly Unique

What Makes Pipeliner CRM Truly Unique?

Pipeliner CRM departs considerably from the traditional concept of CRM applications. As we have said over and over, Pipeliner is the most efficient and, at the same time, unique CRM in the market. Why do we say that? Well, here are the precise reasons.

Focus On Salespeople

Right from the beginning, we focused on the salesperson.

To start with, the salesperson is probably in the most underappreciated profession in the world. An example I use is that if someone had a choice of potential spouses that included a doctor, a lawyer or a salesperson, most parents would likely advocate strongly for the first two and against the third. Or, you’re at a networking event, and there are several successful professionals there, a Chief Marketing Officer, a Chief Financial Officer, and a very successful salesperson. The common perception of that salesperson, despite their success, would be that they were somehow not really on par with the “C” levels. Being in sales means they probably didn’t have the ability or skills to ascend to the executive level—despite the fact that there are many instances when a top salesperson can out-earn some executives.

Salespeople have, over the years, had somewhat of a tainted reputation. They’re pushy. They’re dishonest. They’re only in it for the money, and the material things it can buy like cars, boats etc.

But the reality is that roughly 5 percent of the world’s population is in a sales-related job Despite some prognostications to the contrary, salespeople are more in-demand and more critical than ever. When you’re shopping at the mall, who do you turn to for help? Salespeople. Or (my favorite example) when you go to an Apple store, and a helpful, friendly employee assists you—yes, that’s a salesperson. My local Apple store employs almost 400 of them.

Despite being somewhat ignored, and cursed with bad reputations that most don’t deserve, salespeople are vitally important to an economy. No company that deals with customers could exist without them. I consider the salesperson to be an “entrepreneur within the enterprise,” and even coined a word to describe this phenomenon:“salespreneur”. And don’t forget, that describes approximately 350 million salespeople around the world.

This is why I have a focus to help, support and change the public perception of salespeople.

The changing and elevating of the salesperson was our motivation for the creation of our online multimedia magazine, SalesPOP!. Salespop now has over 1,000 contributors, with more contributing every day. This motivation is also why 14 universities (and counting) are working with us in formulating their sales education programs.

Pipeliner CRM

B2B salespeople are a subgroup of sales professionals globally, and number in the tens of millions. This is the group we have designed Pipeliner CRM for—and for this group of salespeople, Pipeliner is the only really effective tool.

I used the analogy a short while back of the difference between using an ax and using a chainsaw to cut down timber—the chainsaw is far more efficient. Pipeliner CRM is the most efficient tool for sales, as the chainsaw is for felling trees. This is because Pipeliner CRM goes well beyond other tools.

What are the facts to back up such a bold statement? Here they are.

The Obvious Intuitive UI

Right from the beginning, we set out to empower the salesperson (and other users) with a very obvious, intuitive and visual UI. Easy to understand, easy to learn. The UI is the same from one end of Pipeliner to the other so that there’s never confusion as to how the application works.

A primary factor in the UI design, and one which makes it incredibly intuitive, is the fact that our navigation is always visible right within the UI frame, at the bottom. It remains visible at all times. We’re the only CRM to do this—most others have navigation at the top, which means that as you use the CRM, the navigation disappears off the screen and it’s easy to get lost.

In this way, Pipeliner CRM is very similar to the UI of an operating system. This is why we believe our CRM is the “operating system” for sales.

Multiple Views

We are the only CRM that offers the user multiple ways of visualizing data.

People may not only be different in backgrounds, languages, cultures—they can also be different in how they like to consume information. Therefore we provide a choice of views:

• Pipeline view
• List view
• Compact view
• Bubble Chart View
• Labels

Our Dynamic Target—another feature exclusive to Pipeliner CRM —also has 5 different ways with which you can view your target: unweighted, weighted, ranked, balanced, and real target. Plus, the target is always visible to the user.

Tangible and Intangible

In my last blog, I spoke of the difference between the tangible and intangible. Tangible means the things we can see and feel. Intangible indicates our thoughts, goals, and decisions. The majority of human experience is intangible, and it is the intangible that guides our lives.

Sales is not only facts and figures. It is the strategy and decisions that guide the way through opportunities, which are intangible.

Pipeliner CRM brings the intangible into a tangible form.

Sharing of Data and Best of Breed

Today it is impossible to run any kind of an automation system in which data is not easily shared. For that reason, Pipeliner CRM is programmed with two kinds of API: Rest API, and GraphQL API.

Not only do we offer the very latest in API to enable data sharing among applications, but we also have an Automation Hub, which contains the best of the breed of all kinds of applications. These applications can be connected through our API.

The bottom line is that data flow between Pipeliner and other applications must be seamless so that the user can do their job efficiently.

Powerful data sharing is also utilized in our mobile version—the best mobile CRM available today—and our add-ons for Microsoft and Google products.

Ease of Use

While “ease of use” is so often casually thrown about that it has almost lost its meaning, it is an incredibly important factor for CRM. That is why we have made it a top priority in our development.

When a CRM is easy to use, that means salespeople actually enter the data vital to running sales and the company. That also means that everyone else in the company—C-level, management and others—will have access to that vital data and it will always be available.

Ease of use is enabled in several ways:

Data migration. The critically important exporting and migration of data can be performed in Pipeliner with just a few clicks. Our bulk update means that updating the database can also happen rapidly, saving hours of work.

Today there are so many forms of data out there that data entry is no longer such a major task. For example, if people are leaving business cards with you at a trade show, our mobile application business card scanner means you don’t have to enter all that data. Data can even be entered verbally, through speech-to-text.

Multiple means of help. Just like we provide multiple views of data, we also provide several methods of help, when the user needs it. There is a searchable knowledgebase where any topic relating to CRM can be found. Through our online chat, questions can be quickly asked and answered. And if required, a support ticket can be generated that will be rapidly addressed.

Power Panel. The power panel is, again, a totally unique feature in the CRM industry. The Power Panel allows you to create multiple profiles to instantly view and sort data. These profiles can be copied, pasted and renamed. They can also be shared with individuals or groups.

These profiles can contain multiple filters and roles, and different kinds of targets. The Power Panel is the primary example of Pipeliner’s Instant Dynamic Visualization.

Profiles can be created for different positions in the company, so they can view the data in a format specific to their individual needs. You can even create one profile for a group of 50 people, for example, and simply share it with all of them.

Sales Methodology

There are many different sales methodologies out there, such as SPIN Selling, the Challenger Sale, Sandler Sales, and many others. Pipeliner CRM, right out of the box, can be implemented with any of them

B2B Focus

As I said earlier, Pipeliner CRM is designed for process-driven companies with larger B2B sales teams. The product can certainly be used by a single user, but the beauty and utility of the system becomes much more apparent with larger sales teams. 

It is with B2B sales teams that feature such as our Dynamic Target become incredibly valuable. For example, let us say you’re near the end of a sales period and would like to figure out realistically what deals will come in by the end of that period. You could eliminate sales from the first 2 sales process stages because you know that sales in those stages won’t make it in by the end of the period. This gives a realistic view of the sales goal, as well as commissions.

Manager View

Of course, CRM is utilized by sales management in managing sales reps. A key difference between Pipeliner CRM and others is that, with Pipeliner, the manager is not viewing “hidden” information that the sales reps never see. The rep is able to view the exact information that the manager sees. The only difference is that the manager can see everyone’s data, where the rep can only see their own.

Why do we do it this way? Because we believe that as the sales rep is responsible for their own sales, they need to have all the information relating to them available.

It is that responsibility that should motivate the sales rep. It is not the job, in my opinion, of the sales manager to motivate salespeople. It is the manager’s job to coach, but not to motivate. In another field, if a basketball player comes to a game and is not motivated, they would likely be sent home. It is true for sales, too. If a salesperson wants to learn more and is already motivated by their own sense of responsibility, then, by all means, the sales manager should jump in and help with coaching.

Coaching cannot effectively be done with the automatic selection of data, such as with machine learning. It has to be done within a live, real-world environment. Machine learning can certainly support salespeople, but it cannot possibly coach them in real life.

Other Uniquenesses Supporting Effectiveness

There are numerous other features that support the idea that Pipeliner is the most effective CRM on the market.

Another totally unique feature is the Appointment Planner. This feature automatically provides the time zone in which an appointment is scheduled; the most accurate information is available right there in CRM, eliminating scheduling errors and mishaps. This feature is automatically synchronized with the Calendar View.

Our AI-driven Navigator feature provides a visual display of suggested activities for any given day. It lets you know what opportunities should be focused on—for example, ones that are almost qualified enough to be moved to the next stage. It also displays leads that should be followed up. It shows your largest opportunity so that you can focus on that if need be. It even highlights any issues associated with your sales velocity.

Summary

At the very heart of our reasoning that Pipeliner CRM is the only effective and most efficient in the world is its powerful visualization. It is a tool that means no opportunity will slip through your fingers, greatly reducing risk for your sales team. Without sales, no company can exist, so it stands to reason that they need to be as empowered as possible.