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Pipeliner: A Buyer-focused Business

Pipeliner: A Buyer-focused Business

As you are aware from our blog posts and our extensive library of ebooks, we at Pipeliner CRM are deeply in-tune with the business of business and the ever evolving needs of the market. In simple terms we are obsessively focused on what our buyers need and want. We are proud and humbly grateful that this focus has been rewarded by our company doubling revenue every year for the past three years and increasingly our customer base massively as a result. After all the greatest vote of confidence is when someone becomes a customer and then goes on to renew time after time, which we have been fortunate to experience and is evidenced by our extremely high renewal and retention rates. The nice thing about success, however, is that it does not allow you to rest on your laurels, rather it drives you to always evolve, innovate and adapt.

One of the biggest by-products of our success has been that we are now attracting potential customers from every market segment. Small businesses are attracted by the ease of use and intuitive nature of the product, mid-market businesses love the unique productivity tools such as Navigator and Insights and Enterprise businesses are discovering our ability to deliver top class services and integrate with their other business-critical systems. As a consequence we decided that the time had come to create multiple versions of our CRM aligned to different market segments and priced appropriately for that segment.

Today we are proud to introduce our new three tiered model for business:

Pipeliner Starter: This version is designed for smaller or less complex businesses and provides them with basic sales management, tracking and collaboration.

Pipeliner Business: This version provides full CRM functionality with advanced reporting features, customization capabilities and all the productivity features unique to Pipeliner CRM.

Pipeliner Enterprise: Designed for the largest and most sophisticated of businesses, this version includes advanced services, customizations and integrations.

For more detailed information click here.

As you can see not only do we have a version that can meet the needs of any business today but our solution can grow and scale along with that business. This is a significant moment in the evolution of Pipeliner CRM and we thank our customers, prospects and partners for continually driving us forward – to state the obvious, we literally couldn’t do this with your support!

Now, of course, we could have stopped here as for most companies this would have been plenty of change at one time but as you have come to know, we are not most companies! No, we are also entrepreneurs (as a look at our bios will show you, especially that of our CEO & Founder Nikolaus Kimla who regularly writes on the subject) and firmly believe that entrepreneurship is foundation of a vibrant, thriving economy and indeed, society. From our experience we know how hard it can be when you start out on your own and there are so many demands on what is often your very limited funds. We also know from experience that if you are not well organized and don’t set your business up with good processes from the start it can be a long, hard road. For any business creating leads and contacts, tracking prospects and turning them into customers is critical to success but for a single person business it can be the difference between building a sustainable business and losing everything.

So as always, we at Pipeliner are here to help. We are now offering a free version of our CRM for a single user that will provide them with basic sales management and tracking functionality plus we are offering an enhanced version for a nominal fee. So now for an entrepreneur, a consultant, contractor, home business operator, indeed student or whoever else needs to bring organization to their daily activities, Pipeliner Personal is available at no cost.

Research has shown that there is an explosion in people leaving traditional employment to branch-out on their own. Remote working is becoming the norm as people locate to places they believe give them a better quality of life and many are choosing to operate as a contractor or consultant for greater flexibility and work/life balance.

At Pipeliner we salute the entrepreneur, the risk taker, those who choose to stand alone and build their own future and with Pipeliner Personal we support them in a very real way.

We would like to thank all of our existing customers as well as those who we have engaged with over the years who may not have become our customers. All of you have helped us arrive at this point where we now have a product for all market segments from the individual entrepreneur to the small business, to the mid-market company all the way to the global enterprise.

And guess what? The journey is only starting!

How is Leicester City Football Club Like Pipeliner CRM?

How is Leicester City Football Club Like Pipeliner CRM?

As much of the world now knows, England’s Leicester City Football Club, otherwise known as the Foxes, has come from virtually nowhere to win the 2015-2016 Premier League victory. Nobody saw it coming—a year ago the team was in last place, with 9 games to go.

As noted in more detail in a brand-new ebooklet, Pipeliner Sales shares a lot in common with the Leicester City Football Club.

Humble Beginnings

Leicester City Football Club began their heroic run in last place. Something—the more superstitious among us would say the reinterment of King Richard III’s remains in Leicester—changed all that. They began winning, then they began totally shutting out the competitors. In the end, they came from nowhere to the top.

Pipeliner has also come from virtually nowhere, humbly beginning in Vienna, Austria. We made the move to America in 2013, and virtually nobody knew who we were. Since then, we’ve had consistent year-over-year growth of 100%.

No “Stars”

Now that Leicester City has achieved such an incredible victory, a number of its players will now be viewed as stars (notable examples Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and striker Jamie Vardy). But prior to its incredible triumph, the team sported no “star power” of the likes of Lionel Messi, for example. The team simply had incredibly talented and experienced players that, in the end, brought them through.

The same could be said for Pipeliner. While we don’t (yet) have business-fame A-listers, we have a tight, powerful team of great experience that have brought Pipeliner through to its incredible success thus far. In addition to its 100% year-over-year growth, we have developed an amazing, well-reviewed product that has become a major contender on the world stage.

Up Against the Giants

As Leicester City rose through the ranks, it certainly came up against far better financed and extremely powerful teams such as the Manchester clubs, City and United. Yet no matter the competition, the Foxes faced them down and vanquished them.

Pipeliner, too, has been up against some incredibly well-funded and powerful competitors, some of which are many times our size as a company. Yet we have not only shown we can grow at rates equal or better than those competitors, but have proven with real statistics how much superior our product is:

Who Cares? Then…and Now

When Leicester City began its amazing run to victory, very few people outside their home town were paying any attention to them. But as they began their rise, people began paying attention in ever-greater numbers. And today, the whole world is watching.

Likewise, when Pipeliner first came to America in 2013, almost nobody knew who they were and, as with Leicester City, most didn’t care, either. But Pipeliner has not only attracted the avid ever-increasing interest of customers, but the media, too: Leading lights such as Forbes and The Wall Street Journal are now watching Pipeliner with keen interest.

The Best are Simply The Best

The moral of the story? The best are the best—whether well-financed and famous, or unknown yet fantastically skilled and hard working.

Leicester City Football Club has proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt. And here at Pipeliner, we’re proving it, too!

Find out why we’re the best! Try a free trial.

Brand New Pipeliner Mobile CRM: Pipeliner On the Go

Brand New Pipeliner Mobile CRM: Pipeliner On the Go

Concurrent with the release of the Pipeliner CRM’s breakthrough version Automata, we are also very proud to be releasing a brand new mobile CRM version! The new Pipeliner Mobile CRM App brings key Pipeliner functionality to iOS and Android Smartphones.

Pipeliner CRM acts as a guide through today’s sales complexity, bringing focus and clarity to a salesperson’s job. It is instant intelligence, visualized. But today’s salespeople are most often not chained to desks in offices—they are out and about, visiting sites, giving presentations, attending conferences and trade shows. We wanted to make sure that no matter where a salesperson is located, Pipeliner CRM is always accessible.

 

Pipeliner Mobile CRM brings key Pipeliner functionality to mobile CRM, including:

Account Management

Access or edit account data right from mobile. For instance, you’re at a trade show, and you run into Bob Smith from the XYZ company, who also introduces you to his colleague Randy Johnson. Both provide cards. Afterward, you look up XYZ company in Pipeliner mobile Account Management, and you find Bob’s name in his former position at XYZ (he’s obviously been promoted). You update the data in Pipeliner to reflect Bob’s current situation. Then you find that Randy Johnson isn’t in Pipeliner at all, so you add him as a contact for the XYZ company. Learn more about Pipeliner Mobile Account Management here…

Contact Management

Keeping prospect and client contacts accurately recorded in CRM is crucial to selling—you want to make sure you are reaching the right contacts, at the right companies, at the right time. For example, one day you’re out at lunch and remember there is a contact at one of your prospect companies that you really would like to reach out to. Contact data is just a click away—and you’re able to do so. Learn more about Pipeliner Mobile Contact Management here…

Lead Management

Leads are the lifeblood of any sales organization–and in reality, of any company. Therefore lead management doesn’t just happen when a salesperson is at a desk in the office–it can and does need to happen anywhere. For instance you’re at a trade show, conference or other similar function, and collect a lot of business cards. In off moments, you can enter the new leads into Pipeliner through the Pipeliner CRM Mobile App. Learn more about Pipeliner Mobile Lead Management here…

Opportunity Management

Since a salesperson is often away from the office, their Smartphone may be their only connection with CRM, and the opportunity data they need to view and update. For example, you’re waiting in the airport after a successful client visit, and receive an email that your deal with another prospect has closed! You can enter that fact into their opportunity data in Pipeline mobile so that your manager will see it. Learn more about Pipeliner Mobile Opportunity Management here…

Additionally, Pipeliner Mobile CRM brings these additional Pipeliner features to mobile:

Try a free trial of Pipeliner CRM now. It’s Instant Intelligence, Visualized!

The Real Power Behind Pipeliner CRM Navigator

The Real Power Behind Pipeliner CRM Navigator

Pipeliner’s newest and most powerful feature is Pipeliner Navigator—the first view seen when Pipeliner is opened. Navigator takes CRM far beyond the traditional dashboard view, providing instant intelligence specifically tailored to that user, allowing them to easily navigate complexity and focus immediately, in real-time, on what is most important.

Once you use Navigator, you’ll see how far it exceeds any similar feature in other CRM applications. There is very sound reason for this—Navigator is based in very proven and powerful economic and scientific principles.

A Brief “Behind the Scenes” History of Pipeliner CRM

Pipeliner CRM has, from the beginning, had its roots in such principles. Several years back we had been studying the Austrian School of Economic Thought, which places the entrepreneur front-and-center in economic theory. At the time we realized that a salesperson is actually an “entrepreneur within the enterprise,” and coined a new term to describe the salesperson: salespreneur.

We then realized that the concept of Pipeliner also embodied various economic principles from the Austrian School of Economic Thought—and so we brought these into the program as well.

Moving forward, we realized that sound management principles were also needed. In truth, there is good or bad management—there is no in-between. In our own company we adopt and follow the management principles of economist and management scientist Fredmund Malik. So we incorporated these into Pipeliner, too.

Today we see that the complexity in the world is only increasing. We certainly witness such complexity in sales—with data, leads, opportunities, the sales cycle, multiple pipelines, multiple companies, multiple product lines, tier pricing, and much more.

So today we have arrived at the best possible way to face and deal with this complexity.

Cybernetics and Complexity

The best definition of the word cybernetics that I know of comes from cybernetics pioneer W. Ross Ashby, who defined it as the “science of simplification.” The science of cybernetics is employed to approach and understand complexity.

Cybernetics simplifies complexity by providing models of systems that are too complex for the viewer to understand without some kind of assistance. These models act as dynamic moving maps of these complex systems. They are real-time navigators that enable shared understanding and communication.

Interestingly, the root of the word “cybernetic” is the Greek kubernētēs, which means “steersman,” one who steers a boat. With cybernetics as a background, we have designed Pipeliner Navigator for the purpose of safely navigating a sales representative—and therefore a sales team and business—through the world’s growing complexity.

Visual Models

With Pipeliner Navigator we are presenting a rep with the data they should have to proceed—much as the navigator on a ship or an aircraft would present navigational data to the captain. It is still up to the captain to guide the ship in its actual voyage.

Put another way, we are presenting the salesperson with visual models to plot a course to success. The sales rep can then take that data—that instant intelligence, visualized—and utilize it to proceed forward toward the target in the most efficient way possible.

Such a powerful tool takes a salesperson’s attention off of all the details—now details are right there in front of him or her, not inside their head. They can put their full attention on moving forward toward that target.

Navigator visually prioritizes a rep’s tasks, activities, and opportunities. In Navigator’s target view, the rep can see, in real-time, how they are proceeding toward attaining their target. This display can be customized by target type, by quota and by time period so that they really understand what is needed to make it.

At any time, the salesperson can drill down and readily see any of the opportunities that make up the target, and what needs to be done with that opportunity.

Sales Manager

Navigator is an extremely useful tool for the sales manager as well. The sales manager can utilize Navigator, through Pipeliner’s Profiles feature, to look at the opportunities, tasks and priorities for any single rep, a sales unit or the whole team. Of course, the sales manager can also utilize Navigator for their own tasks and priorities.

The Future

The future for Pipeliner CRM will always go along the lines of proven scientific concepts and principles. Join us in our journey—for your business success!

Pipeliner CRM Automata: Bringing Vitally Needed Simplicity to Today’s Overwhelming Complexity

Pipeliner CRM Automata: Bringing Vitally Needed Simplicity to Today’s Overwhelming Complexity

If anything could be said about today’s world, it’s certainly filled with complexity. Today’s sales landscape is reflective of this trend: complexity in data, leads, opportunities, the sales cycle, multiple pipelines, multiple companies, multiple product lines, tier pricing, and much more.

How can salespeople and sales managers deal with all this complexity? Well, we have at least one answer: with Pipeliner CRM, and it’s new version: Automata.

Okay, What’s With the Name?

Automata was a work written by Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria (c10-c70 A.D.). It was a description of machines which enabled wonders in temples by mechanical or pneumatic means. Two thousand years ahead of its time, Automata is considered some of the first formal research into the science of cybernetics.

Cybernetics

Cybernetics is the study of how machines can be created to think and act like humans. But cybernetics is also described as the “science of simplification” and is used to approach and understand complexity.

Cybernetics simplifies complexity by providing models of systems that are too complex for the viewer to understand without some kind of assistance. These models are real-time navigators that enable shared understanding and communication.

And with that concept, we move right into Pipeliner CRM Automata.

 

Navigator

The prime feature of Pipeliner CRM Automata is its new Navigator feature. With Navigator, Pipeliner has totally parted ways with the traditional concept of a CRM dashboard and is providing far more innovative and targeted ways to deliver instant intelligence to the user. With it the user can cut out the noise, navigate that complexity and focus right in on what is most important.

Pipeliner Navigator is composed of 5 basic components:

  • Activity Stream—This is a list of activities, tasks, and opportunities in date order, beginning with the closest to the present, displayed on the right-hand side of Navigator. You can click on any item to drill down and get the full information on what needs to get done. All priority items are here, in one convenient, visual location.
  • Target Overview—This component combines our Dynamic Target feature with a Target Trend graph that displays progress toward a sales goal over a specified time period, using 3 different metrics. Pipeliner users always know where they are at in relation to a target, and what needs to be done to get there.
  • Notifications—This section contains “Tasks,” “Missed Close Dates,” “Velocity Issues” and “Largest Open Opportunity”–all important notifications of various issues within a user’s pipeline.
  • Suggestions—In this section can be seen other areas in which actions should possibly be taken. These include Cold Accounts, Inactive Accounts, Inactive Leads, Stuck Opportunities, New Leads and more. This component is always providing guidance to help improve a rep’s performance.
  • Business Overview—This section provides a graphical display of Open Opportunities, Open Sum, Won Sum, and Lost Sum—for the user-defined date range for which Navigator is currently set. A user can look in the rear-view mirror to see what has already happened, and look forward to assessing where they are going– allowing them to make the necessary adjustments for the road ahead.

 

Forecast Report

Automata introduce a new Pipeliner report: the Forecast Report. It allows a sales manager to set quotas for each member of a sales team, and track quota achievement through a sales period for each quota set.

Like many Pipeliner features, the Forecast Report is fully customizable can be filtered with profiles, and shared with team members.

Dynamic Dropdowns

This new functionality allows user-defined drop-down menus to dynamically relate to one another. For example, if a particular sales territory is selected, then another dropdown menu of “sales reps” would only be those reps for that territory.

 

User Rights Management—Greatly Simplified

Administrators will be very happy with the ease of which user rights can now be managed, within Pipeliner Automata, in several different areas.

Pipeliner Automata is a major leap forward for Pipeliner CRM. If you have yet to try Pipeliner, the time has never been better! Do it today.

CRM Has Failed in the Past. But If You Don’t Have It Today, You’re Sunk

CRM Has Failed in the Past. But If You Don’t Have It Today, You’re Sunk

In this series, we’ve covered why CRM has failed in the past, what is really needed for a CRM today, what we at Pipeliner are doing about it, just how Pipeliner empowers salespeople, and where CRM should be in the future.

For our final article in the series, let’s talk about why CRM is so vital today—and why it is that, if you don’t have it, you’re not going to make it.

The Internet and the digital revolution has created an “age of the buyer” in which the buyer wants to be addressed personally, individually, and very clearly.

On top of that, today we’re in a global economy. That means customers are, quite literally, everywhere. And as businesses become more decentralized and more people are working remotely, so are the employees quite literally everywhere (note: this is a description of my own company). For both these reasons SaaS businesses continue to boom tremendously.

It All Leads Back to Processes

All of these things create a crucial demand for processes. Everything done in a company is done on a process, and requires a process. A process is how things get done—how staff know to, speaking figuratively, pick up the ball and pass it to the next player.

The demand for exact processes goes back to manufacturing. The original master of process creation was Jack Welch, former Chairman and CEO of General Electric. In the early to mid-1980s Welch pushed manufacturing to a whole new level—and it was all through optimizing processes. It is worthy of note that during his tenure the company’s value rose an astonishing 4,000%.

Processes in the Digital Age

Today the requirement for processes has become extremely acute—if you don’t have every one of your processes optimized, your business runs less efficiently, which of course can lead to a loss of marketshare or even failure. Hence the digital revolution is constantly forcing people and companies to think in processes.

It’s a cold, hard truth that whether or not you create and hone your processes, your competitors will. They’ll be continuing to address customers, vendors and needs with digital processes, and with ever-improving agility. As stated by Pierre Nanterme, CEO of Accenture: “Digital is the main reason just over half of the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000.”

0So it has become a very salient fact that without core processes—whether they be for accounts, contacts, activities, sales, HR or whatever—your business is lost and will not survive.

Processes and CRM

Which of course leads us back to our main topic: CRM. For it is CRM that is expanding to incorporate all of a company’s processes, beginning with its most important activity: sales.

In order for a CRM application to stand up to the demand for processes, and in order for it to integrate and run with them, a CRM:

  • should be reasonably priced, so that companies can acquire and implement it with relative ease.
  • should be easy and fast to get up and running. Companies can no longer afford administrative runways of months on end, and fortunes spent on administrator training.
  • should be intuitive and easy for users to train on. Training times of weeks and months are no longer acceptable—should be hours or, at most, days.
  • should empower users, no matter where they exist inside or even outside the company. Users should have their jobs made easier, not more complex.
  • should be extremely flexible and customizable, as no 2 companies are alike.

These are the deciding factors of who will in the battle in the CRM industry. While it may seem that Salesforce today has all the good cards, user polls clearly show that users don’t like Salesforce.

So the question remains, based on the above deciding factors, who is really the winner?

I’ll leave you to figure that out for yourself.

Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

Navigating Today’s Sales Complexity

Navigating Today’s Sales Complexity

If one flat statement could be made about today’s sales environment, “It is really complex” would certainly serve. Going back in time, there were 2 basic sales jobs—a salesperson and a sales manager. Today we have field sales, inside sales, SDR sales, vertical sales, horizontal sales, and more. Sales has become a complex team sport which requires precise coordination.

On top of that, we’ve also moved into the digital age. We have multiple systems gathering data. We’re constantly seeking to integrate further data sources, more inputs, and greater and additional technology. The digital age has also meant an enormous diversification and proliferation of sales channels that must be monitored, acted upon and supervised.

Complexity is also reflected with customers, especially in B2B sales. It’s not simply a matter of a buyer approving a purchase—now there are committees and multiple decision-makers, all of which a salesperson must keep track of and deal with if a sale is to be made.

For sales, all the above can unfortunately boil down to one thing: losing track of the person on the other side of that screen: the prospect, the buyer, the customer. In other words, the one individual or group of individuals that in the end will mean a win or a loss.

Technology Must Help, Not Complicate

Here at Pipeliner, we’ve been watching this complexity evolve since the beginning of our company. Because of it, we started out on a completely different footing than traditional CRM applications. We designed a CRM solution to empower sales teams, not weigh them down with data entry and administration.

Technology is only as good as the results that come out of it. If technology is not helping to deal with and solve that complexity, then all it’s doing is making complexity more complicated. Which, unfortunately, has been the end result of many of the leading CRM applications over the years.

Enter Cybernetics

Now there is a word you probably didn’t figure you’d hear in a blog post about sales and CRM—cybernetics!

What is cybernetics, and how does it apply? Well, cybernetics is the study of closed cognitive learning systems—specifically the study of how machines can be created to think and act as humans. But moreover, the science of cybernetics is used to approach, understand and deal with complex systems.

Pipeliner’s next version, due very shortly, will incorporate cybernetics. It is the next quantum leap in CRM technology—and will assist sales teams, organizations and companies to squarely face today’s complexity head-on, instantly sort it out and navigate it.

Stay tuned for further news!

CRM Has Failed in the Past. Where Must It Be in the Future?

CRM Has Failed in the Past. Where Must It Be in the Future?

In this series, we’ve covered why CRM has failed in the past, what is really needed for a CRM today, what we at Pipeliner are doing about it, and just how Pipeliner empowers salespeople.

Now, where should CRM be as we move out into the future? And how should CRM relate to the ongoing digital revolution?

Avoiding Extinction

Today if a business is to survive, it must embrace technology. Many companies have disappeared simply because they didn’t embrace it—and they really had no chance.

Businesses and society seem to be undergoing one of the most fundamental transformations in history. What is happing might better be understood as an Old World dying because a New World is being born. There will hardly be any bridges back to the old state of affairs. Perhaps the most practical premise to navigate by is that whatever can change will change.

Fredmund Malik

Relation to CRM

So what does this mean for a CRM solution? First, it means kind of a reverse look—in order to be embraced by those seeking technology, CRM must in turn deal directly with the business pains that need to be addressed.

There are 3 main parts to a CRM today, and any CRM that is to survive must contain all 3:

  1. It must be easily scalable
  2. Integration of data into it must be easy
  3. It should replace multiple tools

Cutting Down the Multiple

Focusing in on #3 there above, there is an issue that is becoming ever more problematic when it comes to the sheer volume of solutions out there. There are many thousands of applications a company can avail itself of. Companies attempt to play it smart hunt out the “best of breed” for such applications—but in so doing they find the financial outlay to be considerable. Then when a company purchases them, or subscribes to the SaaS, it becomes even more expensive because these solutions require regular updates.

In my opinion the industry is headed for considerable risk because of this. A company can buy yet another app to address just about any problem, which means mounting costs. On the other hand, vendors cannot make such solutions too cheap, else they themselves won’t survive.

The risk factor is that some of the applications aren’t bad—but if left to stand alone they couldn’t survive. They themselves depend on other applications because they are too specialized. If you have too many specialized apps in a company, not only is it a financial problem but one of complexity.

I believe that in the next 2 years companies will be advised to cut down on the volume and complexity of such applications. CRM solutions such as ours are stepping in to pick up the slack.

The 6 Deadly Sins of CRM

Additionally, as we move into the future, any CRM solution to survive must avoid these 6 deadly sins.

#1: Don’t be a “Big Brother”

George Orwell’s famous novel 1984 gave us the term “Big Brother.” In the story, and as it’s used today, the term means having someone constantly watching and monitoring you in order to control you. Nobody likes to live like that—including salespeople or other CRM users.

Pipeliner set out to totally avoid the “Big Brother” syndrome right from the start. Pipeliner is completely designed to empower salespeople, not to control them.

The magic of such an approach can be seen in any company that has implemented a CRM such as this: one of the primary CRM issues is solved—that of correct data in CRM. If users are happy, and using the system because it brings them benefit, the data entered is going to be correct. Correct data is fundamental to everything, including all of your reports and forecasts.

So a CRM shouldn’t motivate with control—it should motivate with actually helping.

#2: Don’t make an easy system complex and difficult

A CRM system (such as ours, for example) can be designed to be totally easy to customize and use. But at the same time, when the system is implemented, it can be overloaded with mandatory fields and be made to require twice the data that is really needed.

In addition to being easy to customize and use, a CRM should be intelligently implemented. What data is really needed for users to use it? All customization should be targeted directly to helping users do their jobs better.

#3: “Always access” to CRM

Despite the fact we’re living in the 21st century in a very technical age, there are still many places in the world—even in fully developed countries such as the US—without Internet access. Anyone using CRM, especially salespeople, must have access to the full system with or without Internet access.

A CRM should make it possible to get the job done online or off.

#4: Don’t kill your adoption rate before you’ve even started

Steering clear of these CRM deadly sins, especially #1 and #2 above, you will make CRM something users desire to use and will adopt. A complex, control-oriented application that users will find difficult to take to will mean a low adoption rate—and your CRM project has died before it was ever born.

#5: Don’t make CRM an island

Although it should certainly be central, a CRM should also not be the only tool that a company or even a sales force depends on. CRM is important, and is becoming more and more the heart of an organization (as we’ve noted, the term “CRM” is no longer correct because it does far more than simply “manage customer relationships”). But even so, CRM should not be an island. It should not be isolated, it should be integrated. When you don’t integrate CRM with your other main systems, it becomes a silo—and the age of the silo is long over.

#6: Don’t choose a CRM that is slow to set up

Don’t choose a CRM that has a ramp-up time like many of the traditional ones do—3–4 months or longer, and long training periods for users. In addition to being intuitive and easy to grasp and understand, a great CRM works best when it has context-sensitive help that can be rapidly accessed when a user doesn’t remember an operational point or needs to learn it newly.

When a CRM is slow to implement and hard to learn, the motivation for using it starts dipping into minus territory—and you’re back into Sin #4 once again.

Heading into the future not only means adopting technology, it means adopting the right technology, and ensuring that your CRM solution conforms to the same standards.

What makes Pipeliner CRM the CRM to bring you into the future? Find out!  Get your free trial of Pipeliner CRM now.

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