Free – You Can’t Get it Any Cheaper

Like the faithful salespeople at your organization, I was working a few evenings ago, when I integrated the Google Apps into Pardot’s Salesforce.com instance.  These free tools are pretty cool add ons to SFDC.  After I integrated Google Docs, and Gmail, I started thinking…what other cool things are available for my CRM?

For you CRM administrators, take the time to look at the native eco-systems available for your Salesforce Automation Tool. 

Salesforce.com  AppExchange-http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/

Tons of free tools, dashboards, and interesting widgets such as the Google Apps.  There are a couple of Dashboards that are awesome.  Most of the apps can be tested within your instance of Salesforce, enabling you to Try it before you Buy it.

NOTE – Salesforce enables AppExchange partners to integrate (for free) with their Professional Tier of service, which opens these solutions to many more customers (e.g., API Access is required to integrate third party applications – This is normally included only with their Enterprise tier of service)

NetSuite SuiteFlex-http://www.netsuite.com/portal/partners/applications.shtml

Not as many tools as Salesforce, however NetSuite does a great job of categorizing these applications to fit your organization’s needs / pain points.  Based upon the names I see out there, there are some very widely distributed packages (LivePerson, Epiphany and Five9) which are noted to be quite powerful. 

SugarCRM SugarExchange –http://www.sugarexchange.com/

Tools for the Open Source community.  If you haven’t heard of this powerful Open Source CRM system, check it out.  It’s powerful (full disclosure – I love SugarCRM), and has a growing eco-system of tools that extend the power of this terrific application. 

Friday Rant – Cleanliness is next to Godliness – Keep your CRM Data Clean

I’ve had several conversations this week with Sales Managers who lament that, although their reps are utilizing the CRM, they aren’t mandating that the data be clean,, which really shortchanges themselves in the form of implementing automation.  2 places where cleanliness can show immediate dividends is in your CRM’s E-mail and Assigned Rep fields.

E-mail: Although you may not have the customer name spelling right, and multiple people can have the same name (yes Bill Smith…I’m talking to you), e-mail accounts are always unique.  Even if it is a free account provider, they enforce a 6 month waiting period before another person can get kewl_guy7@hotmail.com (Yes Bill – I’m still talking to you).  Ensuring that you have the e-mail address, and that it is unique allows you to nurture your prospects via e-mails, newsletters, press releases, etc….  Also, many third party marketing systems (Bulk E-mail Marketing, Marketing Automation) will attempt to put information into your CRM, and the most logical key to utilize to synchronize that data is the e-mail address field.

Assigned Rep:  When you are automatically nurturing prospects via e-mail correspondence, the best way to make it APPEAR as being individualized is to have it originate from the assigned sales rep, which is information contained in the CRM system.  Although getting an automated e-mail from your sales rep can appear sincere, getting an e-mail from the guy who hasn’t worked for the company in 6 months looks disengenuious.  And what if the message resonates with the person and they respond to the old rep’s account???  Does that address bounce?  You just lost a prospect.  (AUTHOR’S NOTE:  Most CRM systems allow for the bulk update of Account Rep, so if it isn’t right, it’s easy enough to fix)

De-duping the e-mail address field, and keeping the assigned sales representative field up to date can open a world of 1-to-1 “lights out” e-mail marketing, which is personalized, inexpensive, and can be highly effective as a sales and marketing tool.

Have a Great Weekend Everybody !