CRM in Action: ProfitLinc and Entellium

When Billy Shepherd took over leadership as executive vice president at ProfitLinc, he knew that managing telecom expenses and assets for his midsize company clients should have two common themes: simple and seamless. Telecom expenses are often one of the top three line items on a large company’s expense sheet, and ProfitLinc’s mission is to make telecom contract, invoice and asset management easy and worry free for their clients. This is why, when Shepherd took a look at ProfitLinc’s internal systems, he couldn’t justify the cumbersome, expensive CRM system in place at the time of his arrival.

Starting Over
To maximize the return on every dollar a client spends on telecom, ProfitLinc must pay critical attention to detail. Whether it’s reviewing contracts from many different carriers or maintaining accurate asset inventory for clients, the core of ProfitLinc’s customer service lies in its ability to keep every line item, every contract and every expense in perfect order. When Shepherd realized that fundamental CRM details were lacking in their current system, he turned to Entellium’s eSalesForce to start sales and marketing contact management anew.

“I conducted a direct-mail marketing campaign that I couldn’t run a simple report on without buying an additional application from a third party,” Shepherd said. “That’s when I knew it was time to make a change and start over with Entellium.”

The change was a good one for ProfitLinc. As a result, the company can now handle a wide range of reporting tasks. “The reporting is so simple,” he said. “I can administer and post information with ease.”

The intuitive nature of Entellium’s eSalesforce also caught Shepherd’s eye. “The ‘What Would You Like to Do?’ feature in eSalesForce keeps me on track when I’m moving through the system. When I’m done with one task, it takes me directly into the next without any guessing. It’s like ongoing training that I enjoy daily.”

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The CRM Advisor
You ask the questions, and our resident CRM guru shares her wisdom.

This week’s question:
“The CRM vendors we are currently evaluating have been talking about opportunity relationship management.  What is it and what value can it provide?”

A: Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions are highly effective at helping businesses manage clients throughout their lifecycle – from the time they first make contact with the company, until they “sign on the dotted line” and continue to interact with various members of the organization as they use its products and services.  In most cases, these relationships become more multifaceted after a prospect is converted to a client, when multiple departments – such as sales, service, and accounting – interface with customers on a day to day basis.

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By Lee B. Salz - President of Sales Dodo, LLC

Companies think that once the sales person agrees to join their company that the goal has been accomplished. The truth is that this is only one more step of the process and there is still much work to be done.

It’s a great day at Newman Industries today! For the last month, they have been actively recruiting a hot candidate to join their sales team. Today, Steven Harmon agreed to join them. They see him as a true rainmaker. The recruiter and sales manager share high-fives. Mission accomplished! Spike the ball in the end zone. The job is done! The competition was fierce for Steven, but Newman Industries won.

While Newman Industries was celebrating, Steven resigned his position with his present employer and enjoyed a celebratory dinner with his wife. That night, Steven lay in bed wondering if he made the right decision. He came to terms with his decision and looks forward to his first day at the company.

It’s 8:28am when Steven arrives for his first day at Newman Industries. He is excited while also apprehensive. When Steven walks into the office and introduces himself to the receptionist, he is surprised to hear, “Oh, I didn’t know we had a new person starting today. Who did you say you were here to see?” Steven brushes this off as it is not completely foreign for the receptionist not to be notified about a new employee joining a company.

The receptionist calls around and tells Steven that he is in the right place, but his manager Jamie has not arrived yet. Steven sits in the lobby as person after person walks by without saying a word.

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By Jason Kort - Director of Marketing, SoftVu

Most salespeople tend to focus on the high-probability “hot leads” that recently came in the door. They don’t have time to stop and sweep through a list of aged leads on a regular basis. SoftVu recently completed a “meta study” compiling four years worth of data across 38 clients to quantify what we already knew—when you ignore aged leads, you’re throwing away money. Here’s a quick look at results for a typical lender. In general, our findings show that:

• 58% to 76% of aged leads remain viable for a significant period of time after initial contact.
• The typical sales team misses somewhere between 600 to 800 aged lead opportunities for every 1,000 initial leads.
• Most respondents still want to be contacted with follow up information, offers, etc.

The simple message is, “Stop ignoring aged leads!” But, how you go about doing that is not quite so simple. There are three primary takeaways here…

• The vast majority of aged leads are still viable (and most sales teams ignore them).
• Staying in front of your potentials results in significantly more closed deals.
• Your sales staff is doing a good job if they’re just keeping up with new leads (someone else needs to qualify and nurture leads after the initial contact).

One solution to this problem is a consistent lead nurturing campaign that can be automated to…

• Identify which aged leads are still viable
• Stay connected with viable aged leads with relevant, timely messages, and
• Route “new” leads and recycle viable “aged” leads back to your sales team in a timely fashion, so they can stay focused on high probability leads.

Learn more, please visit Business-Software.com’s marketing automation vendor showcase for SoftVu.