Business

5 Reasons Why Any Successful Shopify Dropshipping Business Needs The Right CRM

Published

3 years ago

April 27, 2020

Here at SaleSource we often get questions like: “Is dropshipping legal?”, “Is dropshipping dead?”, etc. It’s important to get it out of the way first – the short answer is no, dropshipping is not dead and yes, dropshipping is absolutely legal.

Next off, what is a CRM? Well, CRM stands for customer relationship management. Essentially what that means is your CRM is your customer database and your leads database, and also your business management software. So it’s really important. If you want to effectively manage your business and scale your business, you’re going to need a great tool to do so and that’s a CRM. And that’s why it’s so important to have the right CRM. So if you’re not using a CRM, if you’re using yellow pads or spreadsheets, it’s a no-brainer, you need a CRM. And if you’re using a CRM that you don’t love, maybe this article will help you identify the right CRM to use to truly grow your business.

So there’s really six points that I want to touch on to help you determine if you’re using the right CRM for your business or which CRM you might use that would be the right CRM for your small business, so let’s go through those one by one.

1. Lead management

So the first thing to look for within a CRM is the appropriate lead management tools you have for your sales team. For any small business, such as shopify stores, to grow – they really need a good convertible process with regards to taking a lead and turning it into an account, that’s your sales process. And all of the leads that you have are your lead pipeline. And so you need a sales team to be most effective to grow your business in terms of taking those leads and turning them into accounts. Well, your CRM really helps for that because CRM will allow you to do things like when somebody fills out the lead form on your website or on social media, let’s say, like on an ad, it will automatically build that contact within your CRM, automatically assign it to your sales rep, and also give them the process that they should follow in order to close that deal. Whether it’s an initial call and then seven days later an email follow-up, and then another call; you can predetermine what that needs to be and you can build that template right into your CRM so that your sales team can just follow that and close more deals. So a CRM is really, really valuable because it allows you to optimize that process so that all of your sales people are following the same process with the same piece of software system so that you can have consistent performance over time.

2. Account management or customer management

Customer management is really important because you don’t want to have a bad customer experience and you want those customers to keep coming back. So a CRM allows you to do that because it does such things as when a lead becomes a customer, it unlocks additional fields of information that can be populated by your account managers and your customer service reps, et cetera, so that you have all the information you need for all of your customers. It can also do things like send email communications automatically. So as that customer moves through their life cycle, at key points when they need certain information sent to them, instead of counting on somebody to do this manually all the time, your CRM can serve as an automated worker for you, basically, and send this messaging out in an automated way to your customer base, which is really, really powerful if you create these journeys in the right way. The CRM also has all the notes and history logs that you might have had on a client, and it pulls in all of the data and all the pieces so that you can see the full story of each customer within a CRM. So if you don’t have that right now, definitely take a look out there and see if there’s a CRM software that fits what you’re looking for with regards to customer management.

3. Task management tools

So task management, really important. Basically everybody in your company has tasks that they’re trying to accomplish every single day. And so a CRM is a great way to have that basically streamlined in a more automated way to where as certain tasks are completed, other tasks are unlocked. So it really helps you to identify the things that need to get done. I found over the years that if somebody doesn’t really have their day planned out, they’re not very efficient because they’re always spending a lot of time thinking about what to do next, instead of just having tasks organized for them so they can come in and just start knocking them out one after the next. So a CRM allows you to think proactively because you can create these tasks for different leads you’re talking to, for different customers you’re working with, you can schedule them out so that you’re always building out your future plans of what needs to get done proactively so that when that day comes into today, I have the things that I need to do right in front of me and it keeps a log of all of this for me automatically within the CRM so that I always have a history of what’s been done.

4. Project management tools

The fourth thing to look for within a CRM is the appropriate project management tools that you might need. So you always have these little side projects going on, right? Whether it’s something you’re personally doing, or something for a customer, it could be a project you’re doing for a customer, it could just be something you’re doing yourself because you just want to do some self-development or something like that. Within a CRM, you should be able to create a project with different stages within it and tasks that need to be accomplished within each of those stages. And then you can use those templates moving forward if you wanted to, maybe it’s a project that you typically do for customers over and over again, right. Maybe it’s like a kitchen remodel, you need to do these things whenever there’s a kitchen remodel, it’s like a checklist, it’s a no-brainer. So if that’s a service that you provide, every time you have a new customer that needs a kitchen remodel, you just add that project to it and then your team can start working on it. This is really effective because it allows you to streamline and make sure that you have all of the checklists or processes built out ahead of time for all of your projects. And then if you ever need to add a stage or add a step, when you do that, it immediately is added to all the other projects because it’s a template. And so it really helps your whole team make sure that nothing gets missed along the way.

5. Company calendar

Company calendars are really nice because it helps you just see what’s going on at the company level with regards to all the events, things coming up, different customers that you’re interacting with for the day, that kind of a thing. So we all have our personal calendar usually in our email whether it’s in Gmail or those things, and that’s really good. What I’m talking about here though is a company calendar. As a team, you want to be able to see what the rest of the team is doing, and so a CRM is nice because the calendar there shows you from a business perspective what’s going on for the day for not just you but you can toggle and you can say, hey, show me everything that, all the events happening today for my whole team. And that helps you identify what’s going on as an organization, especially if you’re a manager, so you can make sure that you’re effectively managing your team appropriately.

Business

The Ultimate Guide to the Essential Social Skills in Business

Published

1 week ago

May 30, 2023

Matthew Wiles

Effective communication and strong relationships are essential for success in the workplace. One factor that can greatly influence these qualities is emotional intelligence, often abbreviated as EQ. EQ refers to the ability to identify, understand, and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Research has shown that individuals with high levels of EQ are better equipped to handle stress, communicate effectively, and work collaboratively with others (Chamorro-Premuzic & Sanger, 2016).

Research has consistently shown that emotional intelligence (EQ) is an important predictor of job performance and success in the workplace. EQ is comprised of a set of skills that allow individuals to recognize, understand, and regulate their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. In addition, individuals with high EQ are better able to communicate effectively, build relationships, and navigate complex social situations. As a result, they are often viewed as effective leaders and collaborators, and are more likely to achieve their personal and professional goals.

In fact, a number of studies have demonstrated the significant impact that EQ has on job performance and success. For example, one study of 85 upper-level managers found that those with higher EQ scores were rated as more effective leaders by their subordinates (Law, Wong, & Song, 2004). Another study of 151 employees found that those with higher EQ were more likely to be promoted within their organization over a five-year period (Carmeli, Brueller, & Dutton, 2009). These findings highlight the importance of EQ in the workplace and suggest that developing these skills can lead to significant benefits for both individuals and organizations.

According to a study conducted by TalentSmart, a leading provider of EQ assessments, EQ is responsible for 58% of success in all job types (Bradberry & Greaves, 2009). In contrast, IQ only accounts for about 4% of success in the workplace. This suggests that EQ is a crucial skill set for individuals in any professional field. Fortunately, EQ is a skill that can be developed and honed over time with practice and awareness.

There are several key components of EQ that are particularly important for success in the workplace. These include:

Self-Regulation: This refers to your capacity to recognize and control your emotions. Sometimes treating them when they arise may be necessary. Understanding how to manage your anger is essential. However, it can also cover how to control the feelings you’ll experience.

Self-Awareness: This implies recognizing and understanding your own feelings. Do noisy places make you nervous? Do other people talking over you make you angry? Knowing these truths about yourself shows that you are working on your self-awareness. Being conscious of yourself is necessary for this phase, which can be more complex than it sounds.

Socialization: This category focuses on your capacity to manage social interactions and direct relationships. It doesn’t entail dominating others but knowing how to work with others to achieve your goals. This could entail presenting your ideas to coworkers, leading a team, or resolving a personal disagreement.

Motivation: Strong motivators include external forces like money, status, or suffering. Internal motivation, however, plays a significant role in Goleman’s concept. By doing so, you demonstrate your ability to control your cause and initiate or continue initiatives of your own volition rather than in response to external demands.

Empathy: It’s equally critical to be sensitive to others’ feelings. This may entail learning to identify different emotional states in individuals — for example, can you tell the difference between someone at ease and someone anxious? — but it also requires comprehension of how other people may react to their current situation. Empathy is one of the essential traits in business and business leadership.

A thought leader in this space, Michael Ventura has built a career advising organizations on the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace. In his book, Applied Empathy, Ventura highlights the value of empathy in business and provides strategies for developing and applying this skill set. With two decades of experience as a leader, facilitator, and educator, Ventura’s work has made impact in with prestigious institutions such as Princeton University and the United Nations as well as corporate clients such as Google and Nike.

Through his work, Ventura advises leaders to focus on the development of EQ in order to help individuals improve their communication, collaboration, and leadership skills, ultimately leading to greater success in the workplace. Experts like Ventura continue to support the growing body of research on the value of EQ in business, and the evidence that organizations who invest in the EQ of their teams help to create a more empathetic and successful professional environment.

And it’s worth noting that EQ isn’t just important for individual success in the workplace, but also for overall organizational success. A study by the Center for Creative Leadership found that EQ was a better predictor of success than IQ or technical skills in the workplace, and that teams with higher levels of EQ tend to be more effective and productive (Boyatzis, Goleman, & Rhee, 1999). By cultivating a culture of empathy and emotional intelligence, organizations can improve their overall performance and create a more positive work environment for their employees.

In conclusion, emotional intelligence is a crucial component of success in the workplace, and individuals and organizations alike should prioritize the development of these skills. The ones that do not only develop a leading edge in their category, but also become a meaningful place to work for their teams. And in today’s rapidly changing talent landscape, the retention of highly capable, emotionally intelligent leaders is one of the greatest keys to unlocking success.

References:

Boyatzis, R. E., Goleman, D., & Rhee, K. S. (1999). Clustering competence in emotional intelligence: Insights from the emotional competence inventory (ECI). In R. Bar-On & J. D. A. Parker (Eds.), Handbook of emotional intelligence (pp. 343-362). Jossey-Bass.

Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional intelligence 2.0. TalentSmart.

Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Sanger, M. N. (2016). Does employee happiness matter? Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 3(2), 168-191.