Prodigm - Blog , Zoho CRM

FastStarts for Implementing Zoho

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 10:52:23 -0500

How to get started with Zoho One

FastStart programs are designed to introduce you to what Zoho can do for your business and how Prodigm professional services will help you achieve your goals. It's like a maiden voyage on a new ship.

"We don't know what we don't know."

We work with you to initially configure the Zoho applications so you can test and use the key aspects of the each application that you plan to implement. During the Discovery process we demonstrate what the Zoho applications can help you to achieve in business benefits. At the end of Discovery process you are far better informed, and ready to define the project plan with us.

"That's Perfect!"

The phrase we hear a lot in Discovery is "That's perfect." It reflects that we can often exactly meet, not just the stated requirements, but those unspoken requirements, like total data security, guided procedures or cross-silo integration, that makes such a huge difference to productivity and collaboration.

"How much?"

You select an appropriate initial FastStart budget, and we demonstrate how much we can get done for that price in advancing your project.

Our aim is to provide you with a plan which includes addressing your immediate urgent priorities, setting up a detailed project plan, configuring your required system applications so we can illustrate how they work and how they can be configured to meet your needs.

Internal Resources?

If you have internal IT resources resources, they may be able take the project from the project plan point. If not, we work with you on a schedule and budget plan that meets your requirements to implement the system and support it.

During the Discovery process, your staff and management are being introduced and trained in the new possibilities that Zoho application integration provides for greater efficiency, easier management and a more consistent process management and reporting system.

Is one Sprint enough to go live on the new system?

For some clients with very limited requirements it may be possible to go live in a limited way, but typically a first sprint is to get the system to a complete enough point, where realistic decisions can be made about important topics like:

Training your staff
Importing and cleaning your data for every aspect of your system functionality
Enforcing internal security of Data and access
Defining your specific requirements, workflows, automations and procedures
Establishing and training your Administrator
Integrations with your website and forms
Creating workflows and process controls

FastStart Advantages

FastStart service packages offer you initial set up and planning to ensure that you will understand your objectives and how they will be met by using the system and procedures we design with you. We integrate the Zoho One system components that you will use, with users assigned appropriately to the applications that you need to use immediately.

FastStart packages deliver several advantages:

You get to know Zoho One applications better, so you can make informed decisions

You will understand what Prodigm can do for you, so it makes it easier to decide to make a larger commitment if required, in building a long-term relationship.

You will avoid big “Showstopper” mistakes that will derail your implementation. Early mistakes can cause your project to lose credibility with Management and Staff.

You can assess how much Prodigm can accomplish for a fixed price, and the immediate value of Prodigm services

You will be able to assess to what extent your staff is capable of taking on the various strategic, organizational and technical tasks that are required. We want you to be confident and self-supporting users of a system that you understand well. If you have the right staff and management, you may be able to take on the next phases using internal resources with minimal support from Prodigm or Zoho. If not we will help you beyond the initial stages outlined with ongoing support and coaching for as long as you want using our monthly-paid support program

Increased insight into the business advantages that Zoho can bring your business, provide guidance into the opportunities in the “next phases of the project.

You will understand how Prodigm professional services enhance and augment the standard support processes offered by Zoho as part of your license fee.

You will understand the training required to on-board a new user, how to protect your data security and how to be consistent in your sales process.

You can add the balance of the functionality available in Zoho One once you and your staff are ready. That way you are not overwhelmed with all of the training and changed procedures all at once.

Get Started Now

Automated Sales and Marketing

Mon, 06 Nov 2017 11:00:00 -0500

The Best Small Business Strategy

Small businesses have it hard. You are low on manpower and resources, low on budgets, and still need to compete with larger, more established organizations. Losing even a single client can hurt you as a small business. Faced with the dilemma of whether to spend more for future pay-offs, or struggle through with limited resources, many small businesses often make expensive compromises.

Automation can be the solution for you, if you feel frustrated by your resources but don’t have the budgets to change that. Automated sales and marketing tools help you provide the same level of service to your customers as the ‘big guys’, without breaking the bank with extensive hiring.

The right tool, when tasked with the right job, can perform better than the average human, improving your overall efficiency. Automated tools can position you better for great business results.

Here are a few examples of sales and marketing tasks that can be automated.

Software can identify prospective customers based on analytics and customer profiles and automatically create a database.
Automated contact management and lead capture can help turn inbound traffic into leads. This means, you won’t have to spend a lot of money on resources for outbound tactics like cold calls.
Email automation software can set up personalized campaigns to target prospective customers, as well as existing ones, nuturing them into closing the deal faster and cheaper.
Automated tools are smart enough to recognize prospective customers based on industry and other business specifics.
There are tools, which can make the job of a salesperson on the road a whole lot easier and more efficient. Besides acting as an assistant, helping set up meetings, and keeping track of emails, these tools can also provide the data and numbers you need, in real time, to talk to your customers.
Automated tools can be used to crawl through social media sites to mine vital customer information like email IDs and phone numbers, which can form the basis to build a database for lead generation. That’s not all, social media tools can keep track and alert you to specific changes in a profile.
Social media automation tools exist to help you maintain and post to your social feeds, keep track of conversations about your brand, and more.

Help Them Work Better Using An Integrated CRM

Today automation is no longer only available to the select few. Different price points and various subscription models that deliver software as a service means that you can pick out the automation level that works best for you and give it a try.

An integrated CRM offers many benefits at relatively low costs. And there’s only one sure way to get everything you can from your CRM. Learn to use it well! Take our two-day course designed for business owners, executives, and sales management professionals - Mastering CRM Implementation and Configuration Strategies. It teaches you all you need to know about using cloud-based CRMs to increase business. We’ll even help you apply for a Canada-Ontario Skills training grant, if you are eligible, and give you access to the latest version of our tool! Fill out the form online, call 416 564 1446, or email sales@prodigm.ca for more information

Everybody Wins - Helping Your Salespeople Perform

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 00:14:18 -0400

Sales is the cornerstone of every business.

If we’re not selling, money isn’t coming in, and if money isn’t coming in, there is no business. While holding salespeople accountable is fair, are we as businesses doing everything we can to help them get to their goals?

Here are some ways in which we can support our sales force in bringing their best game, so we, as an organization, win all round.

Find the right people

Not everyone can be a successful salesperson. A good sales team complements one another and consist of individuals who have the inventiveness, capacity, and tenacity to approach and close a sale. Don’t put your sales team together lightly. Invest time in finding the right people for the job.

Make sure they are up for the task.

Training is the next piece of the puzzle. Making sure your sales teams are well trained to sell on behalf of your company. Many organizations committed to excellence have one thing in common – they are dedicated to investing in the people who represent their brand. Training in different forms, from strategic to technical, along with rewards that incorporate a learning model is a great way to make sure everybody wins!

Help them prioritize

Sales staff need to be fully on-board with your strategy as a business. Ensure that the company’s goals are understood and their impact on the sales proposition is clear. Setting strong goals and outlining how they will be tracked is a good place to start building accountability with teams. Make sure that your performance reviews feed into your process. Giving employees the feedback they need on an ongoing basis is more likely to get you results than formal, once-a-year meetings. Make all metrics that will count as KPIs , clear up front.

Give them access to the information they need.

For inbound leads, sales teams need systems, processes, and tools to do their jobs efficiently, especially when they are on the road. Ensure they have access to product information, as well as updated pricing and inventory information, in real time. For outbound teams, ensure they have qualified leads, target profiles, clear priorities, and the technology they need to nurture and feed content into their prospecting.

When all this information is available in a format that works across devices, remotely, your sales teams will spend a lot less time looking for information and more time making sure the customer requesting it has it. This spells more effective conversions.

Use your CRM effectively to help Salespeople sell.

With a few focused efforts, we can all get more out of our sales processes. The easiest way to get started on this process is to use a CRM that works for you, if you aren’t already.

An integrated CRM offers many benefits at relatively low costs. And there’s only one sure way to get everything you can from your CRM. Learn to use it well!

Take our two-day course designed for business owners, executives, and sales management professionals - Mastering CRM Implementation and Configuration Strategies. It teaches you all you need to know about using cloud-based CRMs to increase business. We’ll even help you apply for a Canada-Ontario Skills training grant, if you are eligible, and give you access to the latest version of our tool! Fill out the form online, call 416 564 1446, or email sales@prodigm.ca for more information

OUR COMMENTARY ON ZOHO's NEW 2017 CRM UPGRADES

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 12:54:56 -0400

Introduction

Zoho has just announced a raft of new CRM functionality (the full report can be found here). This is the first upgrade since the new user interface was rolled out 7 months ago. To help you make sense of this, here is Bernard McLeod's (a Zoho Partner and Prodigm Associate) take on what you need to know.

We’ve also noted which features require which (minimum) edition of Zoho CRM.

The usual disclaimer applies - these are our opinions and not necessarily those of Zoho Corporation. As always, if you have further questions or would like to learn more just let us know.

Scoring Rules (Standard Edition)

This is a simple but hugely useful addition - particularly when applied to Leads and Opportunities. In essence it allows you to define rules to add or subtract “score points”. For instance, if the lead source is a personal referral, the lead has an approved project and is operating in the financial services sector, then you might add 10 points to that Lead’s score. Conversely if an opportunity has been stalled for 6 months and is worth less than $1,000 you might deduct 8 points. Scoring Rules are a powerful tool to sort and prioritize large numbers of Leads or Opportunities and thus pursue those that are likely to yield the best outcomes.

Conditional Fields (Enterprise Edition)

This is a major CRM interface enhancement - designed to remove clutter and hide distraction. You can now build layout rules that determine when record sections / fields are visible and which fields are mandatory.

For example - say you sell insurance. The CRM Insurance Module would display as a spartan page, with a single Select Insurance Type field. If you select “Car Insurance” multiple fields appear - requesting vehicle type, vehicle age, etc. However if you select Travel Insurance you instead see fields related to destination, medical condition and so on.

Also if you state that you are married than the Spouse Name field becomes mandatory. This is a big productivity boost and there are any number of scenarios where this becomes valuable.

Blueprint (Enterprise Edition)

Blueprint is a game changer that is relatively unique in the CRM world. Zoho believes that this will become a key product differentiator.

Blueprint is used to control workflows and information capture through any CRM process. We expect it will be used primarily for sales processes but it is available for all standard and custom modules.

Consider how sales pipelines work today. If you have an opportunity tracking process with 6 stages (e.g. New, Qualification, Quotation, Negotiation, Won and Lost) - there is nothing to prevent the opportunity owner changing the opportunity stage from “New” to “Won” or to “Lost” with little explanation. So what just happened?

Using Blueprint you can now enforce a repeatable sales process. You map out the transition between each stage and the requirements that must be met in order to transition. For instance you are only permitted to move from Qualification to Quotation (not jump to Won), you are not permitted to offer a discount of more than 10%, a deal worth $10k+ must be approved by person x. You can also mandate which contextual information is captured each time the opportunity advances through the workflow. To set all of this up Zoho has built an intuitive drag and drop interface.

The Blueprint feature will become increasingly important as organizations grow or when teams are geographically dispersed. It enforces best practices and provides the necessary management controls.

Slack Integration (Standard Edition)

Not a major change but Slack (the popular business messaging and collaboration platform) can now integrate with Zoho CRM. You can share reports, dashboards and other information via a Slack channel.

Zia Artificial Intelligence (Enterprise Edition)

Cortana, Alexa, OK Google, Siri et al - meet Zia. Zia is Zoho’s AI engine for CRM. While it doesn’t have a voice interface (at least not yet!) it does do trend analysis, identify anomalies and make suggestions based on past CRM interactions or behaviour patterns. It can recommend the best time of day to call a client, flag a slowdown in deal closures or suggest a macro to automate repetitive tasks. There is nothing to enable or configure - Zia runs continuously in the background.

AI and expert systems are an emerging trend in CRM. We have not yet had the chance to judge its real-world performance - but suffice to say AI is here for the long term and will become ever more powerful. The tech world has moved far beyond the old Microsoft Word “it looks like you are trying to write a letter” days.

Other Feature Updates

Voice over IP Telephony integration (Standard Edition) for 10 additional cloud telephony partners. Important if you wish to integrate VOIP and CRM and are using one of those vendors.

Office 365 Integration

Office 365 Integration (Standard Edition) to sync users / contacts / calendar / email etc. with Microsoft’s Office 365 service.

Sales Signals

Sales Signals (all editions) enable CRM to accept real-time “signals” from a range of 3rd party cloud apps such as MailChimp and SurveyMonkey. Zoho has also developed an open API for integration with many more cloud services.

All of these new features will be made available by Zoho in the upcoming weeks. We have significant experience in implementing sales process control and other advanced features. We will be happy to assist your implementation project for any of these enhancements.

Contact us to book a call to discuss these options and how they will help your business to grow.

Zoho Hints and Tips - February 2016

Thu, 25 Feb 2016 11:09:47 -0500

Zoho Motivator helps you achieve your sales targets

Zoho Motivator is a great new product that helps boost revenue and engage your sales team. Motivator creates a competition between sales staff related to your KPI. The latest results are displayed on a big screen in your sales office, so everyone can see where they stand in this week's competition.

This simple concept motivates sales personnel to meet and exceed their sales objectives. It draws data directly from the CRM on a minute by minute basis. You can also review the latest state of the current competition on your mobile phone app.

The sales data and KPIs are presented in clean and attractive dashboards that are easy to read. This makes it easy for everyone to quickly see important data, such as if the company is meeting their sales targets and who is the best performing sales person for this month.

Motivator also makes it easy to analyze your sales pipeline. Employees can view the speed with which deals are closing, win rates, and much more. Find out more about Zoho Motivator here.

Get leads directly from web pages with no data entry

Capturing prospective client data from a web page has just become fast, accurate and easy! Zoho offers a Google Chrome extension called "Zoho CRM - Contact Info Extractor" that extracts and saves contact information with a few clicks of the mouse.

If you find yourself on the 'contact us' page of a potential client or staring at an email signature, the extension makes it easy to collect that information and store it in the CRM. The Extension can be found in the Chrome Web Store. Search for "Zoho CRM - Contact Info Extractor".

Simply highlight all of the relevant information with your mouse. Either right click and select "add to Zoho CRM" or click on the Zoho CRM Extension icon in the top right of your browser. A window will appear and you can review and edit the information collected. Click add lead and a new lead will be created in the CRM.

Tagging users in notes for fast sharing of breaking news

One feature that we love to use within the CRM is the ability to tag users when writing notes or commenting on an event in feeds. For example, if I learn something about a client that I believe will be useful to a colleague, I simply tag them by using @, much like is done on social media. The tagged user receives a notification that they were mentioned in a comment and can review the comment. This also works in the New Zoho Mail client (type mail.zoho.com in your browser to preview it.) More on this feature at this page.

Ten Reasons to use Zoho Sites

Fri, 28 Feb 2014 15:09:33 -0500

1. No HTML required. Drag and drop material directly into your site with Zoho's WYSIWYG editor. Also, unlike other template based hosts you have the option to customize with access to the CSS pages if you like.

2. Choose from a number highly professional templates. If you're a small business, freelancer, or looking for a personal site, you can find the right template for your needs.

3. Add Google Maps directly onto your site inviting potential clients to your location.

4. Create a custom form that feeds directly into Zoho CRM. A newsletter sign up, order form orclient feedback form are all ways to engage the user and broaden your reach.

5. Easy to add Facebook, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn share buttons plus the ability to enable comments to directly engage users with your site and on their profiles, gaining credibility and exposure among their circles.

6. The templates included in Zoho Sites are mobile friendly . It's a necessity these days to have a website that's easy to navigate on a smartphone.

7. Connect Google Analytics with ease or stick with the basic statistics included in Zoho sites.

8. Integrate engaging visuals such as YouTube, Pinterest and Flickr easily added and showcased within your site.

9. Have the ability to manage a blog within your site. Including a blog gives your website a personal and up-to-date feel for your user.

10. Signup for your free trial of Zoho Sites!

Top 10 Reasons to have a cloud-based CRM

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:42:23 -0500

1. Security

Anyone who has ever lost or dropped a laptop or had it stolen, knows that sinking feeling. Having data online in the cloud is very secure, you don’t lose work and miss commitments because of lost data. For the company
security means that critical and valuable data and relationships
are stored securely in one place, including the full history of the relationship with a customer or prospect.

2. Coordination

Whose client is this? Without central coordination one sales person’s efforts can be sabotaged by another, or the marketing department may be sending out offers and messages inviting clients to apply for a product which they already know does not suit them. For example, it is embarrassing for a life insurance company to send offers of life insurance to a person who is dead and currently having a claim processed.

3. Customer-facing quality

There is nothing more embarrassing than to get in front of a client or prospect and not know about the history of the relationship – With Zoho CRM you have all the interaction with each client in one place.

4. Communication History

To the client, your company is just one entity, so it is essential that all commitments or communications are stored for
historical reference. Otherwise the client will say “I told Bill that I wanted the Yellow one, not the Green one” and you will have no rebuttal.

5. Integration with other company services, like invoicing and commission payment

Most companies need to send out an invoice to the person who is authorized to OK the payment. Why store information about that person twice? We all want to be paid our commission on time and there is no finer guarantee of delaying payment than to send the invoice to the wrong person. Having one company-wide source of up-to-date information is a great efficiency that benefits everyone.

6. Easy Sales Reporting

With a CRM all the information a sales manager needs is already available to him or her. They can manage by trend and exception. They do not need to ask the sales people to produce reports. The only conversation required is coaching, about how certain sales situations may be progressed or how certain barriers may be overcome. – A huge time-saver, no Excel!

7. Marketing and Sales Integration

Leads are generated by marketing and passed directly to sales people by email. There is a direct correlation between marketing dollars spent and sales closed. The quality of the marketing response can be easily monitored and a campaign refined for better results.

8. Integrated Order Entry

Entering an order can be performed in the field by a salesperson if necessary; it is then ready for approval by the accounting department and shipping by the shipping department, all controlled by a workflow process that emails alerts to the appropriate personnel with links to the order for immediate action. This creates tremendous time saving and improvement in service and customer satisfaction.

9. Automated Drip Programs

Staying in touch with customers or prospects who qualify as customers but are not currently ready to buy, is a key “farming” technique that ensures you are not forgotten when decisions get made. Your drip program may involve a friendly phone call, an email update or an invitation to a social event.

10. Email History and Critical Documents in one Place

There is nothing worse than chasing through paper files looking for a key contract or communication. A CRM automatically gathers all of this information around the entity – the person, project or organization in a highly indexed storage. You save hours of frustration and delay.

Contact us to find out more!

How to improve your business- plan to sell it!

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 11:53:42 -0500

Try preparing to sell, it may be the shot in the arm your business needs.

Cleaning out the attic

Whether you sell or don't sell, cleaning out the attic (physically and metaphorically) is often long overdue.

By preparing to sell you are automatically going to focus on those aspects of your business that need decisions:

"This part of the business is always a headache

and unprofitable,
let's get rid of it."

"This kind of customer is our best prospect."

"We should fix up our customer waiting room."

"let's collect our customer's email addresses."

If you have ever "staged" your home for sale, you know what we mean.

You paint, tidy, repair, mow, plant, get rid of clutter. You get around to doing those fix-up projects you have been putting off.

By the time you have finished, you begin to think:

"Wow, this is actually a really nice place! Perhaps I should stay."

About Prodigm Inc.

At Prodigm we provide and configure the business systems you need based on relatively inexpensive, easy-to-use cloud-based software.

If you know of someone trying to sell their business, or who needs to spruce up their business and communication systems, we can provide a high value upgrade to their existing client management system

Contact

Peter Coy,

+1 416 564 1446

petercoy@prodigm.ca

www.prodigm.ca

Scan Business Cards With the Zoho Leads App

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 11:42:15 -0500

This app is quite useful after a trade-show or networking event when I have a million business cards and no time to go through them. I don't want to just throw them in a drawer and forget about them, so now I take a photo of the business card with my phone using the Leads App- and it makes a Lead directly in Zoho. I then use a template I've created as an immediate follow up and hello, and the gates of communication have been opened.

Zoho Leads App for iPhone

Integrating calendars using Zoho CRM

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 11:37:39 -0500

One feature we can't live without is integrated calendaring.

You can use a fully integrated Zoho/Google/Ical calendar across all devices. So no matter if you check your calendar on your phone, tablet or laptop, the commitments are the same.

Another key feature that keeps us organized is prioritized tasks that can be processed and even delegated throughout the work day. An easy way to never forget a commitment!

Easily sync your Google calendar to Zoho