Sales Prospecting: Why you should LOVE your CRM

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Mark Hunter over at thesaleshunter.com has an interesting post titled “Why I hate CRM systems for Sales Prospecting”

The reason is simple — far too many salespeople either blame their CRM system for being so complicated that it prevents them from doing what they need to be doing. Or they use the lack of a CRM system as an excuse for not doing anything.

At Zoho, we’ve always understood this challenge. As a sales rep, your CRM system should work for you and not against you.

Which is why we’ve redesigned our CRM with a focus on simplicity and ease of use. Our main aim is to create a CRM that helps sales reps minimize the time that they spend within the CRM system. So that they can maximize the time they spend on actual selling.

Of course, we’re constantly evolving the CRM interface towards achieving this aim.  And it really helps when we get feedback from our customers, telling us whether we’re on the right track.…


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Hiring freeze? Consider the part-time solution

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This is a guest post by Craig Keolanui of SmBizSuccessTeam. To read more from Craig, visit his blog.

Today’s slowly moving economy has made many small business owners have second thoughts about hiring any new help. Many businesses are starting to experience more growth, which inadvertently puts extra stress on an already thin staff. Following over two years of adjustments, staffing levels are at all time lows and many businesses are now finally starting to look for some relief.

Part-time help makes sense. If your company has experienced slow growth, you might remain fearful about the effect hiring will have on your bottom line. Adding part-time help can alleviate some of that stress by helping out where needed without adding the extra cost of a full-timer to your payroll.

  • Part-time help allows you to plug holes in the schedule and gives added flexibility.

    • …


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Do you know who your customers are?

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This is a guest post by Sandra Faleris of SmBizSuccessTeam. To read more from Sandra, visit her blog.

Used to be customer demographics led marketing departments’ strategies. Mass media filled the bill for just about any retail-oriented small business that had a decent-size advertising budget. Vertical publications used to be one of the few vehicles with which business-to-business companies could reach their targets.

It was a shotgun approach but didn’t require “keeping up with the Zuckerbergs, Brins, Pages or Hoffmans”. These days, social media and online advertising can more directly reach your target audience, depending on who they are.

Yet, there are still oodles of customers who are dying to spend their money with companies that answer their phones and offer the personal touch during their purchase.

Loyalty has slipped in place of value.…


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No employee left behind: When an employee is struggling

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This is a guest post by Shabana Shiliwala, who owns The Financial Sort, a financial planning company based in Austin, Texas.

Take a look at your last auto repair receipt. What makes up the majority of the cost of the repair? Labor. You don’t need to ask an accountant what is often the largest expense on an income statement. Labor. Why is labor so costly? Because it’s the most valuable asset your business has.

Finding the right staff and keeping them happy and productive is one of your greatest challenges as a business owner. Your staff have an impact on your company’s image, profitability, ability to meet project deadlines and level of customer satisfaction. But their performance is also dependent on your management skills, so when an employee’s performance is suffering, ask yourself first “Could the problem be me?”

Micromanaging.

…


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Zoho Invoice Android App Update: Expense Categories Introduced!

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We’ve got some good news for Zoho Invoice android app users. You can now add, delete and modify ‘Expense Categories’ right from your android phone. It’s simple, smooth and you are going to love not having to turn to the web app each time you add an expense.

Add Expense Category in Android App

If you want to edit a category name or description, just long press (touch it and hold it for a moment) the category name and the action mode is displayed.

Edit Expense Category in Zoho Invoice android app

Next time you want to track your expenses on the go, all you need to do is take out your awesome phone and turn to our android invoicing app. You can categorize your expenses, choose the currency, add tax , enter amount and bill it to your client.

Go ahead and update your android app to the latest 1.6.2 version in Google Play. Check it out and drop us your feedback right below in the comment section.…


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Zoho CRM Analytics Add-on: Compare Sales Rep Performance Against Set Sales Targets

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Ever since we announced the Advanced Analytics Add-on for Zoho CRM‘s Enterprise Edition users, the response has been enthusiastic. We have had a good many requests – for opening up the add-on for Zoho CRM’s Professional Edition users and to sync up more CRM modules. All would be available in good time :)

We have had requests for particular types of reports as well, one of the oft requested being the Sales Target report. A Sales Target or Quota report compares a sales person’s set sales target vs the sales actually achieved. The below slide show explains how this can be done easily using the Zoho Reports Advanced Analytics Add-on for Zoho CRM.

Try creating the Sales Target report in your account and post your thoughts of how it went. We will be back with more.…


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Import Bank Statements into Zoho Books in 3 Quick Steps

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In our last post, we had announced feeds from more than 2000 banks in Zoho Books and we’ve been getting some great feedback from our customers. For those who still haven’t been able to enjoy the benefits of automatic bank feeds, you can still reduce data entry to a considerable extent by importing your bank statements directly into our accounting software.

All you have to do is ‘Select’, ‘Map’ and ‘Import.’
Import Bank Statements in accounting softwareSelect: Your first step, requires you to select the ‘statement’. Begin your journey by getting hold of an electronic format of your bank or credit card statement (CSV or TSV file) and feed it into Zoho Books. Choose your preferred amount column format, so your withdrawals and deposits may be arranged by Zoho Books in the right manner.

Map: Your next pit stop is the ‘Map Fields‘.…


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