Category Archives for "Uncategorized"

Reason #6: Stay in touch

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

For all those good, strong businesses that have been operating for years without CRM systems…we are with you and acknowledge your success as well as the success of innumerable others.

But the world, and the way we do business, has changed exponentially in this new age of information. The change has been at the same time exciting and challenging, welcome and feared, embraced and shunned.

Customers, be they individuals or businesses, are digitally connected and highly informed. They are accustomed to a personalized approach from almost all avenues of experience with products and services they receive. They may be on their couch, in their car, at a sporting event or even out of the country when surfing for published reviews on social media channels and connecting with friends and associates for referrals.

Without a CRM system, a business is simply out of touch with today’s consumer.

Feel free to contact me regarding these or any past posts.  I would love the opportunity to speak with you about Customer Relations Management and what RedHorse can do for your organization.

See our original blog about Six Good Reasons NOT To Install A CRM System.

Reason #4: CRM is about relationship

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

And now for those whose marketing, analytics and record keeping are outsourced…

If you are avoiding a transition to a customer relations management system because your marketing and analytics are outsourced, you are in a very small minority. According to a survey by Ascend2 and their related marketing partners, only 4% of over 500 businesses surveyed trust a third party enough to completely outsource their inbound marketing and analytics.

Essentially what this and many surveys like it show is that 96% of the businesses out there consider customer relations management to be far too essential of a factor in the operation of an organization to leave to a third party.

What these figures tell us is that if you are not “handling” or “personalizing” your customer – almost all of your competition is equipped to do so.

Read our original blog on Six Good Reasons NOT To Install A CRM System.

Reason #1: You would, if you did!

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

More on my post about the most common roadblocks to adoption of a customer relations management system for your business… In my last post I addressed the heavily disputed ROI issue.

In this post I will cover another objection: the assertion that “you don’t have time”.

First I would like to offer the following analogy:

Take a small farmer, about a hundred years ago whose cows produced a healthy supply of milk that was then delivered to general stores in several nearby towns as well as to friends and neighbors by horse and cart.

The farmer is not interested in automation or the newest fad, the automobile. He is busy but wealthy and happy with his prosperity. Over the years the town builds up around him and two more milk producing farms develop in the wake of the increase in demand.

These farms have automated pasteurization processes, automated bottling and delivery trucks.

You can see where I am going with this.

So let’s get back to present day thoughts on resistance to adopting a CRM system based on lack of time.

There is going to be an immediate investment of time spent on the acquisition of the system and the scheduling of installation and implementation. That is a given. And it is a hurdle – but a very short lived one.

The return on time saved – once installed – is staggering.

Imagine all future information between personnel and customers passing at the speed of electric flow which is measured in billions and trillionths of a second. It would quite literally take one day of operations with a CRM system to pay back in time saved.

Imagine documents, invoices, reports, statements, ticketing, emails, scheduling and related processes being automatically and quickly generated. A CRM system can carry out a sequence of many data processing operations – without human interaction – at a significantly higher rate of efficiency and accuracy.

When human interaction is factored, those accessing the information are retrieving and sending it to and from multiple locations, departments, entities, and applications, eliminating massive amounts of duplication – saving a phenomenal amount of time with each and every action.

Essentially, what you are doing is trading in that horse and cart for a rocket ship.

See our original blog about Six Good Reasons NOT To Install A CRM System.

Reason #2: Solving the Missing Equation: Return on Investment

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

In a recent blog I brought up the most common obstacles to adoption of a CRM system.

The first listed was the lack of supporting documentation for return on investment.

The reasons for the absence of figures of any kind are numerous however,
the two most significant, which I will address here, account for the lion’s share of cause.

One of the core functions of the software is that it is modular and mutable.  It updates and changes as the market changes and the functions we need to measure change.
It is nearly impossible to identify a single fixed entity to measure.

Different business use different components seeking different solutions in an ever changing market.

Second, savings over what might or might not have been spent are speculative. A turn of events in the business process could alter the trajectory of any measurement significantly.

Therefore, the single real measure of the value can only be calculated by gauging:

a) What expenses will be eliminated when installing and operating a management system:

Man hours: eliminating cost of multiple entries of data from sales cycle processes such as lead generation, initial and follow up calls, estimates, services, order dispensation and customer satisfaction tracking

Man hours spent on, and advertising dollars spent on, non-performing methods and markets

Man hours spent on communication – information is logged and passed instantaneously

Man hours spent on correcting errors in the multiple entry system

Costs of separate software for separate functions

b) What gains are expected in the new process:

The means to generate emails and ad campaigns from the customer data base

The means to analyze the viability of advertising campaigns

The means to provide comprehensive information access to all management and employees from a single data base

The means to access customer profiles, history and stage in the sales process from a single source

The end focus therefore when seeking a measurable ROI, is the fact that a business’ ability to succeed or fail hinges on the cost of labor vs productivity.

The beauty of the installation of a CRM system is that it directly reduces labor AND increases productivity through efficiency in a single method thereby doubly affecting your bottom line.

See our original blog about Six Good Reasons NOT To Install A CRM System.

Six Good Reasons NOT To Install A CRM System

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

1)      YOU DON’T HAVE THE TIME

2)      YOU CAN’T CONFIRM THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT

3)      NO ONE IN-HOUSE IS CAPABLE OF RUNNING THE SYSTEM

4)      ALL OF YOUR RECORD-KEEPING IS OUTSOURCED

5)      YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT

6)      YOUR BUSINESS HAS OPERATED FOR 40 YEARS WITHOUT IT – YOU DON’T NEED IT.

That should do it…it’s a slam dunk…unless you can think of any others…

Please let me know.  I’d love to hear from you.

 

For the next few weeks I will address these common roadblocks to automation and computerization and the outlook in the next decade for businesses looking to operate without digital automation.

Did Anyone Out There See “Runaway Jury”?

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

(The blockbuster movie after the novel by John Grisham)

Every time I run across a business with substance and longevity, with all its participants earnestly working long and hard to maintain a volume that will at the very least insure everyone has a job tomorrow…

It makes me think of that movie.

Earnest, warm, competent, solid legal professional, Dustin Hoffman insists he will try his case “the old fashioned way” using intuition and impassioned reasoning to persuade a jury while the younger professional, Jeremy Pivens tries to convince him that his case cannot be won without the new methods of tracking and analysis of prospective jurors.

Hoffman won’t buy into the new method until he sees his opponent or competition is operating so far out of his league that he won’t survive if he doesn’t adapt to the new methodology.

It reminds me of companies trying to operate without a CRM system or any of its corresponding features like social media marketing analytics or automated real time customer service recording.

Forever the bad guy – Gene Hackman of course loses in the end but the point is he’s automated – digitally connected – he knows his jurors inside out and it isn’t until Jeremy Pivens’ character is able to convince Hoffman that he needs to get automated as well that the good guys get the analytical tools they need to win the jury!

It’s a great watch for entertainment purposes but the lesson is there as well.  Good old fashioned hard work and ethics will need to meet the digital world in order to stay in business.

Let’s Address The Elephant In The Room

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

Who the heck has the time – to chase this crazy – ever changing – marketing business and consequently new business model?

It is all we can do to answer calls, fill orders, service customers, toss the paperwork in the direction of a bookkeeper, pay the bills, hire and train help, order supplies and get home before it is time to get up and do it all over again.

Very often businesses don’t have the depth to dedicate manpower to the task of researching, choosing and implementing a CRM System.

The oversight will have to come from an outside source.
That is where the true measure of a qualified Reseller is made or lost.

Of course there is a learning curve. Of course there is a cash outlay. But it is the job of the Reseller to mediate those inconveniences through:

1. Accurate, comprehensive customization
2. Quick implementation
3. Simple clarification of system operation and
4. Seamless transition from the multiple entry business model to a single entry, well-coordinated business management system

Effectively buying you the time you thought you didn’t have.

When you and your staff all have access to the same information with a touch of the screen everyone saves time.

Communication moves from muddled and unreliable to instantaneous.

Informative results appear simultaneously with date entry.

You no longer calculate the viability of a campaign – with proper customization, the analytical tools built within the software does it for you. You simply repeat what works and eliminate what doesn’t.

Your new business model is one that provides time management – not drains it.

BAM – goodbye elephant in the room.

Let Someone Else Pay For Your Advertising – “That’s What The Fox Says”

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

IT’S A TRICK THAT’S AS OLD AS THE HILLS BUT ITS GAINING MOMENTUM IN THE DIGITAL AGE

At the top of the list this week in “new advertising gimmicks” is the idea that you can put your business on the map by aligning yourself with another, larger rocket to stardom.

The notion is that none of us can possibly pay enough to get our advertising up front, on top of all the competition, for longer than it takes someone to blink and scroll to the next thirty advertisements. We are therefore all consigned to a struggle for recognition that will never be achievable…unless…

You design your advertising to refer to a greater entity so that one of two things happens.

The piece, the display, the post or the advertisement contains something so compellingly popular that it becomes self- circulating because of its universal appeal.  Think adorable pet pictures or unprecedented acts of kindness caught on camera.

Or

And this – the second – is more complicated and potentially much more explosive.  It involves creatively tying your advertising to a viral news piece or personal interest story.  This process is threefold.

First the piece you are looking to tie to has to be both an overnight sensation and immediately current,

Second there has to be an artistically creative tie between your business advertisement and the news and

Third there must be a campaign built through blogs, twitter posts with hashtags, Facebook likes, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.,

It’s headline news now, this new/old gimmick for advertising but it’s viability as a course of action is questionable.  I am all for it but whether or not that illusive combination of the right rocket and the right connection and the work to propel it all might be a little more elusive than is being conveyed.

For more on the subject see the recent post “5 Brand Marketing Efforts That Took Newsjacking to the Next Level” by Brint Klontz.

Image Source David Meerman Scott

You Can’t Buy This Kind Of Advertising

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

“We just purchased RedHorse from Eric L. Turnipseed after using Goldmine since 1999. Not only is your program exemplary, but Eric’s knowledge, professionalism and communication skills are second to none. I’ve been in business for myself for 40 years and have seen and experienced my share. I just can’t say enough about good about RedHorse and Eric, both STANDOUTS! Thank you, Thank you….”

– Bill West, Scottsdale AZ, SculptSite

THANK YOU DEVOTED CUSTOMER!

How Do We Engage Customers? “Content Marketing”

By RedHorse Systems | Uncategorized

The only way to cope with the plethora of advertising thrown at us daily is to turn it off, block it or ignore it – unless it is useful – and that’s where CONTENT MARKETING comes in.

Too often our email boxes, the sidebars on our applications, the top half of a search on Google are inundated with advertisements and the only defense against this plethora of advertising stimuli is to shut it out. Since you do it yourself, you know your prospects are doing the same.

Hand your customer CONTENT and they may just stay for a moment, they may just scroll back through in a day or two. Every visit increases the chance that prospect will turn into a customer.

Image Source MarketingProfs.