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The conversation around CRM (customer relationship management) is always shifting. Over the past several years, we’ve seen cycles of increased focus on enterprise CRM technology and strategy and periods where the conversation has largely centered on the ways in which small and midsized businesses (SMBs) can utilize these tools to compete with larger corporations. At times we’ve seen a lot of buzz around CRM technology in specific industries (real estate, insurance and financial services comes to mind) and yet there’s also been a push toward customization and adaptability, particularly in the SMB space, for the CRM to flex to fit the needs of the specific business — regardless of their vertical or geographic location.

This is all part of the ebb and flow of the technology as providers race to meet the evolving needs of the day’s business landscape. However, there has been one sizable shift which has developed slowly but is really picking up steam in 2019 — and that is the move toward all-in-one CRM solutions.

When was the last time you read an article, saw a news item or held a conversation or planning meeting about your business’s CRM needs that focused solely (or even primarily) on contact management? More than likely, not any time in recent memory. Instead, any discussion of CRM today will almost invariably include a focus on additional connected tools and services that businesses are increasingly expecting to see included as part of the broader CRM solution.

And there’s good reason for all the chatter about all-in-one CRMs. For starters, they provide more features that help improve customer interactions that, in turn, can lead to increased transactions if utilized correctly. They can help improve communication — both between the business and its customers and between departments like sales, customer service, tech support, R&D and the organizations management. Last but not least, bundling additional features into an all-in-one CRM can help drive the price down significantly.

CRM providers have caught on and are beginning to position themselves as all-in-one solutions ready to handle all your business’s needs, both now and as you grow in the future. However, upon closer inspection this isn’t always the case. Many CRM providers will add a tool here, a feature there and try to pass their technology off as all-inclusive. But if you’re considering adopting an all-in-one CRM solution, there are a variety of features you’ll want to make sure the product you’re looking at has covered to make sure your business will be able to benefit from all the opportunities that come with a truly comprehensive platform.

First, you’ll want to make sure any all-in-one CRM you evaluate is built on solid, easy to use contact management technology. While many CRMs are looking to stretch into supporting sales, marketing and other business functions, the reverse can be true as well. If the tool you’re looking at doesn’t appear to have a well-built contact management dashboard that easily captures and displays all of your essential customer info, understand that this may be a marketing or sales-based tool that is adding in a layer of contact management functionality rather than using this core CRM technology as its basis.

Next, take a look at the automation technology included in the software. A recent Forrester report revealed that marketers have already spent more than $11 billion on automation solutions — and are projected to more than double that spending by 2023. With both current and projected adoption rates this high, marketing and sales automation technology is becoming increasingly vital in any all-in-on CRM solution. And it’s no surprise, the right automation tool can help maximize the efficiency and impact of email marketing campaigns and provide insight into website, marketing and sales material engagement. An effective marketing automation tool natively integrated into your CRM can help accelerate sales and provide the boost you need to scale your business quickly.

Additionally, if you’re looking for a robust, all-inclusive CRM solution, be sure to evaluate the platform’s predictive analytics technology. Understanding the most effective course of action throughout each touchpoint with a current or prospective customer is an essential component of effective CRM technology in today’s business environment. As your customer moves through the sales funnel, your CRM should be able to tell you — based on both your interactions with that specific customer and similar interactions with others — the best way to communicate with them to ultimately produce a sale.

Finally, get a feel for the API of a prospective CRM and whether or not the platform is designed to seamlessly accommodate valuable third party applications. No single CRM can have everything natively built into their solution. Therefore, it’s essential that any CRM purporting to be an all-in-one solution be able to deliver high value platform integrations with third party solutions to help deliver a truly comprehensive tool that provides the highest level of utility for the end user.

All-in-one is indeed the future of CRM and this technology will increasingly be relied on to serve as the hub of a business’s sales, marketing and customer experience efforts. However, not all CRMs are equal and they aren’t all ready for that future today. Take some time to consider how your existing CRM, or the solution you’re evaluating, measures up against these touchpoints for true all-in-one capabilities and you should have no trouble finding the right technology for your business.

*Source: https://betanews.com/2019/07/18/all-in-one-standard-in-crm/

Are you thinking about using Zoho CrM for your business? Visit our Zoho Advanced Partner page to learn how we can help you.

Zoho Campaigns can help you do more besides saving time and efforts. In this webinar from our partner Zoho, you’ll learn how to make your email marketing smarter with the help of Zoho Campaigns. Click play and learn the Zoho way!

Are you thinking about using Zoho Campaigns for your email marketing campaigns? Visit our Zoho Advanced Partner page to learn how we can help you.

Our partner Zoho has delivered the world another cool integration that makes life easier and more beautiful. If you have Zoho Mail, you can now access your notes directly from your mailbox! Not only with Notebook within Mail you won’t need to have keep around another tab, but this also opens up many possibilities that will help you improve your productivity and creativity. Let’s see how this can be done!

Do you feel the need to spill and save your thoughts? The Zoho Notebook and Mail integration allows you get a note card’s content into the Compose Mail section. In other words, you can email your thoughts, plans, and/or ideas to others, all from the same place!

Another feature is that you can turn important emails as note cards. This will save you time by viewing them at any moment instead of searching endlessly throughout your inbox.

Last but not least, you can now also associate notes with email conversations. If you have some important details in an email conversation, you can make a note of that in a note card and associate the note with the original email thread.

According to Zoho, they will be making improvements to the Notebook and Mail integration. We can’t wait to see how this integrates with other systems, and we hope they will work on a Notebook integration with Zoho CRM as well. Fingers crossed!

To learn more, read the full article at Zoho’s blog.

Do you have issues with your Zoho integrations or would you like to know more about them? Visit our Solutions page to learn how we can help you.

When we hear the word automation, we immediately think of soulless robots and/or processes. However, if properly mixed, marketing automation and personalization can be “perfectly balanced, as all things should be,” like an infamous villain says. This will help to maximize the business objectives without making common mistakes associated to both areas. But, how to do it? We’re about to find out!

What’s the Problem?

First of all, let’s identify the problems. The first one is that when it comes to automation, many want artificial information (AI) to solve everything, which is not possible. To do that, they would need tons of way more information than the one retrieved by marketers and stronger security measures that block malicious access. For technology that is made to evolve, it’s very difficult to do at this point.

Meanwhile, the second problem is the old-fashioned, personalized communications, which are hard to do in an increasingly digital world. Not everyone wants physical junk mail or phone calls at an inconvenient moment, yet, at the same time, a personal touch is crucial in order to effectively deliver the message to customers and to get good results.

What’s the Solution?

Use data to segment your audience beyond titles and industries. Create a different message for different groups of people. That way, you can make sure that the right content is going to the right audience. After personalizing your communications, use an email automation platform to deliver the targeted messages to suitable recipients.

Also, add small personalization hacks to automated processes. You can do this by going beyond email messages and making requests for calls or social media connections.

Last but not least, make personalized touches throughout automated workflows. Tell salespeople to reach out personally after sending connection requests. The consumer will feel like they are dealing with a human being and not a soulless robot.

To read more details about perfectly balanced marketing automation and personalization, read the full article here.

Picture this: you own a small business. As you already know, no matter the size of a business, it will always have its own challenges and sacrifices. You start dealing with the fact that small businesses have less human and technology resources. Therefore, you must maximize them to their fullest potencial to avoid bottlenecks that might slow down processes and profit-earning activities. That leads you to look for solutions, which might lead you to answers… but with a question mark.

A challenge that your business might run into is data management. When most businesses start, they purchase single applications that include office tools, marketing, CRM, communications, among others. However, there’s a catch: every application must be integrated with the other ones or function as a standalone product, and either option will be less efficient. This is the moment when you might feel like panicking, but stay calm! There is a very practical solution.

That need for integration inspired the creation of Zoho One a few years ago. This software’s mission is to give businesses an integrated solution with applications that work together smoothly in a continuous way. An integrated software eliminates the problems caused by using standalone applications, resulting in streamlined company operations. This happens by giving everyone (including decision makers) increased visibility of all the processes and accurate, updated information in real time on any device. This will avoid misinformation and/or misunderstandings within the team.

All those benefits lead to this conclusion: you will save money and increase productivity in your business by implementing the Zoho One integrated system. You won’t have to buy and install (among other steps) different standalone applications and you will spend less money on IT. Remember that when you save money on one area of your business, you can use it for another one or for unforeseen expenses. Pretty awesome, eh?

If you’d like to learn more about Zoho One and the benefits of integrated systems, check the full article.