SaaS for dummies

If you’re confused about SaaS, you’re not alone. What is SaaS? SaaS software or Software as a Service is a very mature area of cloud computing. SaaS hit its stride with the customer relationship management (CRM) market and has since spilled into other areas such as the collaboration market, the enabling tools, and management environments.

What are the benefits of SaaS?

The SaaS platform has many benefits. Here’s some of them.

1. It is affordable – SaaS is usually sold on a subscription basis which includes upgrades, maintenance and some form of customer support. The subscription model operates on a monthly basis, and as such there are no substantial up-front costs which make it very affordable.

2. It is quick to deploy – The only requirements for SaaS are a web browser and internet access. This is very different from traditional software which usually requires weeks or sometimes months to roll out. SaaS doesn’t need any software to be installed which means that the user is able to access new software immediately.

3. There is zero infrastructure involved – The complexity of underlying IT infrastructure involved when delivering business applications through SaaS is handled by your SaaS vendor. Users do not need to concern themselves with the maintenance of the hardware or which operating system version supports your database. All of this is taken care of by your SaaS vendor.

4. Backups and data recovery are seamless – It is very arduous to perform backups of data on a weekly basis unless an expensive automated solution has been implemented. SaaS software takes care of this task by automatically backing up data without user intervention which ensures the integrity of your data.

5. High adoption rates – SaaS solutions are delivered over the internet which means that there is no learning curve with using a new solution. This is because employees tend to already be used to working over the internet.

SaaS is being adopted by many large players in the market today for many more reasons than the ones stated above. It is simple, effective and secure while being affordable. Take a look at SaaS and see for yourself.

Inbound Marketing – Everything You Need to Know

When it comes to running a successful business, it is necessary to know everything about marketing. By increasing the reach of your business, you get more clients, which will add to your revenue streams. One important element in marketing is inbound marketing, a discipline which provides immense value to your business and your consumers.

What is inbound marketing?

The first question you will have in your mind is, what is inbound marketing? It is a technique, where you provide valuable information to your consumers so that they trust what you have to offer. These days, a lot of consumers go online, to research a product or service, before investing their money. As a result, they want access to all types of information, which will shed light on the product or service.

When you are running a business, it is your job to provide this information, which will help you gain the trust of consumers all over the world. But how will you make this come true with inbound marketing? Simple, you create content for your consumers on various platforms, which attract them to your site.

For instance, you can make e-books, podcasts, blogs, PPT presentations, and videos about your products and services. With this type of comprehensive information, you are showing the consumers, that you want to empower them so that they can make the right decision.

In the age of the Internet, outbound marketing seems like a lot of effort, as you need to fight for the attention of your target audience. However, inbound marketing is different, because you don’t have to resort to these types of tactics. You provide them with special content, which solves the pain points of your consumers. Due to this, prospects will start flocking to your website, because you are focusing on building credibility and trust.

Once they are on your website, you use tools such as chat and email, so that you can continue to have conversations with the consumers. As you continue to provide a world-class experience, they will invest your offerings. With this technique, you can grow as a business, while meeting the demands of your customers!

Why your startup needs a CRM?

Do you have a startup or are a part of one? Then it’s important to know about sales CRM definition and how it boosts the sales and marketing function. But did you know that other than the standard uses such as sales tracking, contact, and lead management, a CRM can be used in many other ways to help grow your business?

Let’s see how a service CRM powers up the dynamic functioning of a startup:

Features of CRM Services

1. Networking and following up

Most employees at a startup are always networking. Without a CRM System, it is impossible to manage that list of connections in one place. The right CRM system can enable organizations to organize that customer database and interactions on a single platform.

2. Internal Transparency and Collaboration

Startups and small businesses are all about collaboration and transparency today. Transparency creates trust, and trust is the foundation for great collaboration within team members. With a CRM system, you can easily track all the activities of your teams to make sure you are always on the same page.

3. Scalability

CRM services may not look a good investment in the startups and small businesses but as the business grows the customer list increase. Scalability may become a concern at this point time. CRM system can store a high amount of data and you can track the entire customer journey at a few clicks

4. Automation & Reporting
Modern CRM solutions offer reporting tools that allow business owners to generate a report in a way they want. You can import and export data to other business processes with the help of the CRM system. Now, you can spend more time on crucial business tasks rather than drafting dashboards.

Signing Off

Have you ever think what happens if one of your top salespeople leaves the company? How will you retrieve the information about employee’s work, contacts, and interactions with customers?  Using a CRM will ensure that all these information can be access anywhere from any device as it is stored in a cloud. That’s why every startup should use CRM services to keep important information organized, centralized, and visible by its team members.

How to Improve Your Customer Support with a Ticketing System

As a business, you need to respond to the queries of your customers and resolve their issues immediately. One of the best solutions available in the market is ticket management system. With the help of tickets, you can organize the requirements of your customers. Here are three ways ticket management system will improve customer support:

Improve quality of support

With this type of software, you can improve the quality of support your customers receive for various problems. It allows you divide your customers into groups, depending on various attributes. For example, if certain customers use a specific product, you can ensure that employees who have expertise in them can handle their queries.

When you have employees who will help your customers out in resolving their problems, you can bring the situation to an end much faster. With this technique, your customers are happy with the level of support you provide.

Reduce customer support backlog

Ticket management system is great for your business, as it allows you to reduce customer support backlog immensely. Without these types of software, your employees get swamped by the number of queries. As a result, the time taken to respond to queries increases, which has a negative impact on your brand image.

At the same time, your employees will be under immense pressure, to bring this to an end as soon as possible. Large volumes of stress will affect their productivity, making it challenging for them to focus on the task at hand. With ticket management system, your employees can work on customer queries in an efficient and effective manner.

Personalize customer support

While providing customer support, you need to personalize the experience, to ensure your consumers continue to use your products and services. Thanks to the automation feature of ticket management system, your employees have a lot of free time to focus on the needs of your customers. As a result, your customers will see your business in a positive light, as your employees make them feel valued.

If you want to improve the your customer support, make sure you invest in ticket management system!

Lead Management Software – How will it help your Business?

Managing leads are extremely important for your business, as it connects your company to the world. Although you have a lot of efforts which allow you to get leads, you don’t know which techniques are effective.

The best solution is to invest in lead management software, which makes it easy to track your leads. Here are four ways lead management software will help your business:

Analyze reports

One of the main reasons why lead management software remains popular among businesses is due to its ability to analyze reports. For instance, you can analyze every single process of your business, such as the demographics and geography of your customers and the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns. By going through these reports, your business can take the necessary steps to improve your processes.

Gather more leads

For your business to thrive in the highly competitive environment, you need to continue attracting more leads. With lead management software, you can start identifying the behaviors and preferences of your clients. By customizing your marketing efforts, you can attract more leads to your business, which has a positive impact on sales.

Qualify leads

As a business, it is great to have a large customer pool, as it shows the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. However, you want to focus a greater number of resources on clients who are more likely to invest in what you have to offer.

With lead management software, you can track the progress of your prospects as they move down the sales funnel. Thanks to its ability to filter leads, you can qualify leads and pass them over to the sales team, to convert them into customers.

Makes processes cost-efficient

One of the biggest advantages of investing in lead management software is its ability to make your business processes efficient. You can optimize your marketing campaigns, prioritize the leads according to various parameters, and automate capturing data of the prospects. Not only does it decrease the cost of various processes, but the amount of time you and your team members spend in them will also come down significantly.

Now that you are aware of how lead management system will help your business, it is time you invest in one!

Reasons Why Sales People Need CRM

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a sales tracking system which offers a number of benefits. CRM strategy helps in central storage of all the data and presents it in a format which is simple and uncomplicated to follow. This, in turn, assists in monitoring the sales procedures and staff performance which leads to enhanced sales. CRM is a tool which is helpful in solving all the pressing issues faced by the sales people. Here are some of the reasons why CRM is needed by the sales people.

1.      Provides a secure storage area

Speed and ease, both are very essential in sales. CRM is a sales tracking software which provides a full and accurate record of a representative’s complete communication with a prospect. Along with this all the contacts, activities, sales prospects and are centrally put in storage in a sound manner.

2.      Helps in organization and time management

Apart from a centralized and safe data storage a sales team tracking system like CRM can helps in task prioritization in such a manner that the significant prospects are not overlooked and communicated on time. It also helps in rearranging daily schedules of the sales people generating more number of finalized deals and a sturdier customer base.

3.      Gives updated information

Calendars, e-mail integration, document templates, etc. are all distributed by the CRM among all the team members to keep them updated. It also shares selling methods and patterns to allow the sales people to decide for themselves as to which among them is the best. Communication between the management and the sales people is also strengthened by the use of a sales tracking system.

4.      Offers valuable targets

Flipping and turning various documents for hours to look for valuable prospects can be very tiring and time consuming. Criteria centered selection is done by the CRM system which helps the sales people in splitting data and distinguishing valuable prospects.

5.      Easy activity reports

Sales lead tracking by CRM software can also help in organizing easy reports for the administration. These reports can be prepared on a weekly or monthly basis and the process is completely mechanized and transparent.

In conclusion, if CRM strategy is implemented properly it can lead to enhanced productivity of the sales team. CRM bring a lot of developments in the sales management as well as the sales people.