Hey everybody, Jeff Helvin here with Ballen Brands and today I wanted to visit a pretty simple topic, but I think it makes a big difference for all of us here.
There is no shortage of CRMs out there – so many options – and as the saying goes, “the one that you use is the best one for you.” One of the things I’d like to recommend, is that you really try to push a little further than what comes out of the box.
The CRM of our choice
What we use in our business is Infusionsoft, and there is quite a bit we can do as far as building campaigns for “if this happens, then do that”.
One of the things that is a simple piece, a simple function of the CRM that really makes all the difference in what I get out of using it, is how we interact with the system.
I am encouraging you to take a look at your CRM now and see if you can get more out of it by doing some of these following things. If you find what we’re able to do valuable, and you need help with your CRM, we’re happy to have a conversation on where we can help!
Getting Help with InfusionsoftInfusionsoft Dashboard
What we’re looking at here is my dashboard. In Infusionsoft, we have the ability to actually customize our dashboard with our own login as we care about different things in the system.
In my case, I like to see how many new contacts we have, what my current tasks list looks like, maybe what the last email was.
Now this is my sandbox application, so of course, you’re not seeing any data in here, but you can see things like what our pipeline stages are. There are many different things that I can put on here that I’ve customized based on what matters to me in my day.
That’s number one – if you’re still working with the default layout and output of what your CRM gives you, and you have the ability to customize it, make sure to do it now!
I encourage you to go in and take a look at your dashboard and try to set this up because you will find yourself engaging more and finding more use out of the system, as opposed to just living with what’s already been provided.
Ballen Brands as your Infusionsoft Setup TeamMy Day
Now, the other key feature in our CRM is what is called My Day.
The My Day section is basically like a recap of what’s going on. Today, this is what’s on my agenda, so the first thing I do when I come to my desk is I log in and I go to My Day – this gives me the ability to see what appointments I have, if we have the synced up to Gmail calendar. Then I can see what tasks I have to follow up with. This could be anything from reconciling the bank account, talk with a team member, or it could be specific to clients or other contact followups.
Opportunities
Lastly, we also have in Infusionsoft what are called Opportunities. These are actual potential deals that we’re working toward.
As a sample, I’m able to see that I’ve got Tom Smith. I want to show Tom more properties that you can buy so this is a real estate sample.
For example, we have Tom’s information, the history of notes, I can see if there are any other tasks that I have for him, I could see our email history communication if we had any, and so forth.
There are many different things I can do here, but basically this is telling me I need to show Tom more properties that he can buy.
What’s great is that after I’ve done that I can simply click edit and then I can decide what are we doing with him next, such as “show Tom more properties,” or choose that he’s now In Escrow.
After doing that, I can put what the next date is supposed to be, when this is going to happen, then I hit save. This now is off my list. I’ve done what I can do today, it’s gone, it’s done.
It’s now going to show back up on my list when that day rolls around, so I don’t have to worry about dropping anything through the cracks.
Having a technology that works with you
The point is that there may be more that you can be doing with your CRM, and I encourage you to take a look at that. I’m an Operations guy by nature and I truly believe in having technology work with you, and for you, not against you.
So many times we get comfortable with working around certain things or working with what’s been given to us and there may be a lot more that we can do.
If you wanted to talk all about that and explore your CRM, talk about if Infusionsoft is a good option for you, then don’t hesitate to reach out for a discussion. We look forward to continuing to help.
Have Questions? Ask Ballen Brands!
You can reach us at Team@BallenBrands.com and of course, our website is also BallenBrands.com, I look forward to connecting with you.
