When it comes to process automation and the data we gather into our CRM, applying it becomes the tricky part. There comes a point when too much automation it too much, and when over-personalization can get just a bit creepy. This can result in haters rather than likers.

So how do you convert these haters back into likers with a custom CRM? Here are the most important tips and tricks.

Cut Down on Your Bad Habits

Spending too much time staring at your website and comparing it to that of your competition or wondering what topics to write about next on your blog, stop. You are wasting time. There are some really simple ways to do this, and you should probably have writers doing it for you.

If you are wasting a lot of your time scrolling through Facebook, staring at your Twitter feed, or opening up Instagram, you are wasting your customer’s time too. Look, you can learn from the data associated with your social media followers, but turning them into leads is an entirely different story.

On the flip side, over-automation of your website and social media can result in a news feed that is dull and lacks character and interaction. Such a news feed or website is a waste as well. So where is the balance? Here are some tricks:

  • Avoid personal topics like religion and politics on your business page or even your personal, public profile.
  • Stop spending time trolling. Limit your time to 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 in the afternoon with maybe one daily check-in.
  • Whenever possible respond to messages, either email or chat, social media or on your website, with human operators and not with bots. It is okay to let the user know an answer is coming through a bot, but unless you have a sophisticated AI that’s very intelligent, don’t rely on them to answer anything but the most basic of consumer queries.

Overthinking of your process, over-automation of your site, and wasting time only take away from your primary mission, running your company. Remember the purpose of your CRM is to make your company more profitable and efficient.

A custom CRM lets you do just that. Break your bad habits by letting the software do the work for you.

Look at the Data (no, really look at it)

Data is not designed to simply look pretty in charts and spreadsheets. Instead, it is meant to inform and influence behavior. What is the data from your analytics and your CRM telling you? Are your processes effective at bringing in and retaining leads?

This is often the issue with “out of the box” CRM systems. Unless they are designed for your specific industry or can be customized to meet your specific needs, the CRM often is holding data you don’t need, but have to secure anyway, and that excess data is clouding your view of what really matters.

Look at your data closely. Study what it is telling you. Act on that information. A good CRM enables data-based sales decisions that get better results.

(Re)Define Your Audience

When you really look at your data, you should see a couple of things emerge. Got some haters out there? Maybe you are targeting the wrong people, or targeting the right people, but reaching the wrong ones.

If my target marketing persona is a young CEO of a startup company, but when I look at my CRM, many of the leads entering my sales funnel are older CEOs of established companies, then I have a disconnect there. This can be for one of two reasons:

  1. My marketing persona is wrong: my product applies to older CEOs who run more established companies.
  2. My messaging is wrong. I really do need to reach young CEOs of startup companies, but my message is resonating with a different audience instead.

Use the data you are gathering with your CRM to make the necessary adjustments to define or even redefine your audience.

Simplify Everything

Cutting down on your bad habits, looking at the data, and defining or redefining your audience all really comes down to one thing: simplify everything. The truth is that your customer likes simple things: a smooth path through the sales funnel that is not confusing, distracting, or boring; a checkout process that is simple and offers multiple ways to pay; a simple feedback process and customer service process.

Here’s a question: does your CRM make your salespeople geek out over all the cool technology and data involved, does it inspire then to sell and simplify their jobs, or does it make them harder and more complex?

The reason for a good, custom CRM and automating many business processes is to make your business more efficient and therefore profitable. Making things too complex can cloud your data and your vision, and even lead your staff the wrong way.

Ready for a change? Out of the box CRM just not working for you anymore?  Or are you a startup who wants to get things off on the right foot? Contact us here at SIxtySixTen today for a consultation. We’d love to hear about your needs and see how our range of products might best help your company

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