Salesforce.com recently launched CampaignForce, a new type of CRM app designed specifically for politicians to manage their campaigns.  The new app gives campaign managers a slew of benefits including, a web based single point of access to campaign-related and a view of important info such as polls, fundraising progress, media buzz, etc.

If demand drives innovation, then it’s interesting to note that SalesForce.com, the leading CRM application that allows business to understand their client base in order to better address the needs of their customers, began offering services in 2000.   Now, 7 years later, enough demand has finally led to the launch of the same type of application for the political arena. 

Can CampaignForce do for politics what it has done for businesses?  Let’s hope so.  The intuitive information collection process and instant mashing up and comparative analysis of different types of data available through Salesforce has a tendency to really open the eyes of businesses about what their customers really want.  Information is easy to ignore when there is no real way of seeing it clearly and analyzing it effectively in real time. 

This is certainly the year for e-lections.  From the widely publicized Barack Obama fan video on You Tube depicting Hillary Clinton as on the classic 1984 big screen, to candidates creating profiles on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, to the launch of CampaignForce, the web is a major force in today’s campaigns. 

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Salesforce.com recently announced that it will be moving into the content management space.  Gartner.com says that this move is “evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model.”

So far, SalesForce has had succeeded either because of or despite its “software-as-a-service” (SaaS) model for their CRM application.  The question now is, will companies like the idea of SaaS for content management? 

What is Software as a Service?

To quote Wikipedia: 

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates (either independently or through a third-party) the application for use by its customers over the Internet… As a term, SaaS is generally associated with business software and is typically thought of as a low-cost way for businesses to obtain the same benefits of commercially licensed, internally operated software without the associated complexity and high initial cost.

The critical success factor of SaaS is embedded within Wikipedia’s definition.  SaaS is ideal when the cost of owning the software is steep.  Instead, use of the software becomes a service.  The downside is that your data is intricately bound to this the SaaS company.  Sure, data can be exported, but it instantly loses its functionality without the software platform.   

The question then is, can SalesForce.com create a content management system with so many perks, bells, and whistles that businesses will be willing to “rent” the software platform in which their content is stored as opposed to paying outright for software?

Time will tell!  If SalesForce proves as successful in the Content Management space as it has in the CRM space, the answer is a certain yes.  But as we know, the winds can change quickly in the technology game. 

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A lot of people come to us for Sales Force implementation solutions after trying to do it themselves without much luck. I mean, Sales Force seems like a simple enough CRM right? There are tons of tutorials, lots of documentation, a support line—what’s so difficult? That’s what most people think… and then they beat themselves up for not being able to get the seemingly “intuitive” CRM to react the way they envision.

If this sounds like you, don’t think you’re alone! Here’s a real story of a typical Sales Force integration.

The VP of customer service for a mid-sized internet start up company knows they need to do something to organize customer inquiries and has heard about CRMs. After doing some research, he decides on Sales Force.com and gets an annual budget of $24,000 approved to pay for it.

He has no idea how to implement it, but that’s ok, he’s just hired a new Operations Manager, and that will be her job. The Operations Manager knows zilch about Sales Force, but is pretty smart and can normally tackle technical challenges, so they assume everything will be fine.

Armed with copy of “SalesForce for Dummies” the new Operations Manager begins the long learning curve of setting up this new system for a new company. Between reading books and watching video tutorials, there were numerous calls to the Sales Force support line, during which the customer service department staff often overheard a profanity or two.

6 weeks later, the task was accomplished and it was time to test out the results in real time with the companies real customers. Here’s the story from the point of view of the Operations Manager:

“The rollout worked out ok, there were definitely glitches and there were a LOT of things that I kind of rigged up to work right… I found out later that there were more effective ways of doing some of the earlier tasks, but at that point there was no turning back. Oh! And scalability for other departments! I didn’t even think of that!

Once analytics and biz dev saw the cool graphs, they wanted to add user accounts. But because I hadn’t planned it for interdepartmental scalability, we had to do more work-arounds to separate the data. At some point I just felt that the entire CRM was a house of cards that could collapse at any moment. I mean, this was what was housing some of the company’s critical business data and it seemed like it could implode at any moment. Whenever someone from one department would add a user or a new functionality, I would just hold my breath… and that’s when we decided we needed some help!”

So if you’re hiding a dirty little secret about the potential instability of your CRM, rest assured that there are plenty of others out there just like you. It might be uncomfortable to ask for the budget to bring in CRM software experts, but it can be a lot more difficult to explain what happened to all of the company’s data! If anything, getting a second opinion about your architecture and having an xpert poke around for signs of potential future problems is a smart idea.

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Economists have estimated that it costs 6 times less to keep business relationships with existing customers than to find new ones. Therefore, successful businesses do their best to ensure maximum profits from customers they already have. To do this companies need to identify customers that bring in the most money and make sure those paying clients won’t switch to a competitor.

Intimacy vs. standardization

A small store in a small town generally has no problem connecting with and keeping it’s clients. A store manager calls customers by name and knows most of them personally. As businesses have grown, the intimacy has quickly faded away. Marketing for masses and standardized production is simply not conducive to building intimate customer relationships. Companies no longer know who their customers are. In turn, customers lose their trust. Is there a way for companies with tens of thousands of customers to find a way to avoid alienating their customers and understand them on a more personal level?

CRM Response: From Concept to IT

A CRM is a complex system that allows businesses to evaluate the economical value of each customer and to create effective strategies that encourage customer loyalty.

Customer relations management wouldn’t be possible without CRM software. CRM software collects, processes, and organizes customer information. It manages millions of interactions between the company and its customers. Some of the key players in the CRM software market are Salesforce, GoldMine, Heat, Epicor Clientele.

CRM Technology Alone Is Not a Solution

No matter how advanced the CRM software your company is using, IT platforms won’t solve customer relationship management problems. The key functionality in all CRM systems is the automation of business processes and tasks. Therefore, customer relations management should be regarded as a company’s business philosophy rather than a single project.

All company employees should be introduced to the CRM because without their involvement and use, the CRM system is a waste of time and money. Before you decide to implement CRM software for your website, you need to carefully scrutinize your ecommerce business and identify business processes and practices that can be automated or must to be automated.

Not only will a well-crafted CRM strategy will reinforce your online business and yield good economical gains, but it will also help to foster customer confidence and loyalty. CEOs however, should realize that the effective implementation of a CRM will require a certain amount of investment and attention.

Our company can help you integrate CRM software to your website. Contact us for more information about CRM software integration and management.

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Each e-commerce website might have a slightly different approach to their online sales process. Methods of how websites handle orders, leads, accounts, and communicate with other websites may vary.

In spite of that, whatever functions or actions your visitors take while shopping can be recorded as data points and can be transferred over to a database driven CRM system automatically if two systems are properly integrated. Salesforce.com is one of the best examples of CRM software that can be integrated with your ecommerce site.

At the end of your day you can look at your Salesforce account and know how well your business performed in relation to your goals. You’ll know how many products you sold, who you should contact with an offer and when, what time of day was best for business, customer demographics, etc. You’ll also have plenty of customer contact information to build a valuable profile for each potential customer.

Automated functionality within Salesforce will choose customers whom you should give most attention and care based on predefined criteria. Salesforce also will filter out bad customers, bad leads, and inactive accounts automatically.

Top 10 reasons to connect CRM software to your e-commerce website:

1. Application exchage (import your settings/data from other database driven software, use in tandem with other applications e.g. QuickBooks, google adwords, MapQuest etc, )
2. Estimate which PPC keywords bring in more money
3. Online/offline access
4. Make decisions on the fly (make decisions based on your business data)
5. Works the way your online business works (fully customizable to suit your online business model)
6. Provides the right information to the right people (data security, access levels)
7. Simplifies sales pipeline, less steps, more qualified leads
8. Enhances email marketing campaigns with personalized information
9. Identifies paying customers
10. Offers long term economical gain

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