11 Ways a QuickBooks CRM Amplifies Business
When evaluating software for business, we want it to accomplish as much as possible so we don’t end up needing to implement and access multiple applications. Consolidating processes, data, and business intelligence into a single application (either by itself or through integrations) is the goal; this creates efficiencies previously unknown. A well adopted QuickBooks CRM is commonly this solution, and becomes the nucleus of an organization. How does a QuickBooks CRM system amplify business exactly? Well, there are a plethora of real-world examples to pull from but here are our top 11 to consider:
#1 – Understanding the Client Relationship
When evaluating CRM solutions, we want to find one that integrates well with the financial software of the organization. Since QuickBooks is the #1 accounting software for businesses in the U.S. we will use that as the benchmark. When you integrate QuickBooks with our CRM software, we have an instant snapshot of client relationship lifecycles. We can see in one centralized location what they have purchased, when they purchased, how often they purchase, and any problems they may have had. CRM’s record every touch in client management.
#2 – Easy Collaboration
When we have a QuickBooks CRM solution it is simple for anyone in the organization to have access to specific information at a moments notice. Since most CRM solutions are located in the cloud, anyone in the company (at anytime, and from anywhere) can access the information, give feedback, make additions to the data and more. This ensures real-time data and allows collaboration between employees to be hassle free.
#3 – Easily Manage and Maintain Tasks
When running a company it is essential to have visibility into what has been completed and items that remain outstanding. With a QuickBooks CRM solution, you can easily view progress reports as well as notes contained within the CRM. This data is updated instantly so there is no need to second guess if you are wasting time, money, or resources on tasks that have already been completed. It also provides visibility into bottlenecks that need to be resolved.
#4 – Track KPI’s
KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) can be tracked within a QuickBooks CRM as the data is pulled from not one, but two sources of critical information: your CRM system and your accounting software. You can evaluate the health of the organization through KPI’s such as profit and loss, cash on hand, and time to conversion in the sales process. Integrate QuickBooks with a CRM to keep track of all your sales, inventory, and the financial health of your organization. Adding an integrated CRM solution to QuickBooks is a no-brainier.
#5 – Improve Sales Conversions
If you are looking to amplify your business, increased revenue is at the top of your list. When working with a QuickBooks CRM solution, you can increase sales as more data on the client is being tracked and tasks that employees would normally have to manually perform are automated giving them more time for actual sales work. On average, it will take 7 prospect touches (email, phone, social, ad, video etc) before they engage. A CRM system makes sure to remind your sales team of the necessary touches and doesn’t let anything fall between the cracks.
#6 – Assess Employee Productivity
CRM systems enable managers to track the progress of employees and identify high-performers, bottlenecks, and more importantly – those that are a time or money suck. If they are performing then you know who to count on for the big deals. If they are underperforming then you know where your dead weight is and you can adjust to hire more productive people.
#7 – Upsell Opportunities Realized
Integrated QuickBooks CRM systems assist in increasing revenue not just through the acquisition of new clients, but by identifying new opportunities within your current customer base. Purchasing habits can be identified and other products/services that work in conjunction or solve other problems can be proposed. One of the most underused assets of a business are the customers you already have. Use your QuickBooks CRM solution to keep these relationships happy, and healthy.
#8 – Predict the Future
By integrating the accounting software with your CRM solution, you can forecast future trends as well as make better informed decisions. Easy to understand charts, reports and graphs are like a crystal ball into the future of your company.
#9 –Communication Enabled
Communication is vital, both internally and externally. With staff, asking for status updates can slow your team down and hinder productivity. If a CRM is being used, then the information that you need is already inside the CRM. Clients need to be communicated with regularly to set realistic expectations and log deliverables. Business will be amplified if communication is enabled and that is exactly what customer relationship management is all about!
#10 – Up in the Clouds
We are in a digital world, and we need accessibility to information wherever we go. This is why a QuickBooks CRM solution that is hosted in the cloud is essential. Accessing data on a mobile device or via the internet on your PC amplifies the connectedness with clients, other staff members, and data. This in turn keeps your business moving regardless of if someone is in the office to keep the lights on.
#11 – One-Stop Shop
At the beginning of this amplified business journey, we discussed the importance of creating a nucleus for your organization so that staff don’t have the cumbersome task of jumping between multiple applications. With a QuickBooks CRM, your team has one place to get everything that they need. This type of one-stop shop empowers employees to work smarter, not harder. It sets them up for success and improves company morale.
When it comes to your business management solutions, these 11 benefits are just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of reasons why you want to implement a QuickBooks integrated CRM system for your company, and why not use the most award-winning QuickBooks CRM of them all? Results CRM. Delivering exactly what we are named for. Try for free today, and see the difference.
7 Bottlenecks that a CRM for QuickBooks Clears up for Good!
When it comes to running a business, not everything will go as planned. In fact, many companies find themselves repeating the same tasks over and over again, trying to track down exactly what another employee may have done; ultimately costing the company time and money that could have been avoided with the right tools. Rinse and repeat tasks as well as status updates can be automated within the organization by implementing a CRM for QuickBooks.
Bottlenecks can kill productivity within an organization. The key to unblocking bottlenecks is fixing unbalanced processes. Process bottlenecks occur when data received (input) is delivered quicker than the following step can use it to create the output. There are short-term and long-term bottlenecks and both must be identified. Short term examples are if an employee goes on vacation and there was not backup staff to perform the work while they are gone so a backlog of activity occurs. Long term bottlenecks are created when a single person or department can’t complete the required tasks in a timely fashion and the process they are holding up is a recurring task.
A CRM for QuickBooks solution can address these issues as well as help to identify them:
Bottleneck #1 Leads
Leads are the foundation of your business’ future growth. Without leads, you will never identify prospective revenue. Many organizations have “sellers” (often times the CEO or owners of the business) that meet with someone, give them a business card and then follow up once, or forget to call. With a CRM for QuickBooks solution you can easily capture leads as they come in and then assign them to other members in your team to follow-up and close.
Bottleneck #2 – Information Overload
Multi-tasking has become synonymous with the average work day. We have so much information coming at us from all different directions, it is easy to forget things we may have remembered in a previously disconnected time. With a CRM, you can easily gather all of the information in one place, scan through the information that is important to you and still have reference points to refer to when needed. You can also make quick notes regarding the prospect or client that help you connect with them upon the next encounter (their daughter was about to get married, or they were planning a trip to Hawaii). When using the right tools you can avoid information overload fairly easily and build relationships that really foster engagement.
Bottleneck #3 – Communication Chaos
It is easy to have communications with a client, prospect, partner or vendor lost when dealing with everything in email only. Some people will miss out on something important that they should have been cc’d on, and others are
buried in emails that don’t matter to them because of cc abuse. On top of the email chaos that only proliferate bottlenecks, we add communication via messengers, social platforms, in-person and phone contacts. Nobody can pick up where another left off. With a CRM for QuickBooks solution, all messages and communications are self-contained. It is the nucleus of the organization and all client records. The system can be setup for quick logging of tasks. CRM email integration helps so a manual log of the contact isn’t necessary, and notifications can be established for other individuals so status updates don’t have to be requested. If these communications are somehow overlooked, an employee can easily log into the CRM for quick access review, make notes, and mark as completed.
Bottleneck #4 – Missed Opportunities
Did you know that within the first hour of contacting a company with no response, a lead begins to lose interest? Probably already looking for alternative solutions. And within the first 24 hours of no call back, the prospect is 50% less interested than when they first inquired. With a CRM for QuickBooks solution missing opportunities is now a thing of the past. The prospect and lead is assigned to a sales rep with corresponding reminders for lead harvesting. Any overdue contacts can be seen by management to stop sales process bottlenecks in their tracks. This helps increase your sales conversions but also gives more visibility to the executive team in identifying problems before they cost the company lost revenue.
Bottleneck #5 – Employee Performance
CRM systems don’t just provide insight into bottlenecks and work-overload; they report on those employees that can take some of the weight off the overworked ones to create scalability. With a CRM we can see what jobs have been assigned and when. We can see how long it takes for jobs to be completed, and if the jobs are being held up at any stop-gaps. Employee performance is easier to gauge when there are benchmarks of peers and data to support activity.
Bottleneck #6 – Resources
A CRM for QuickBooks provides a full snapshot with dashboards of how the business is performing. You can see what products are selling, what clients are creating revenue, the projects of the day, and how sales funnels are projecting. These informed views provide resources that help us predict bottlenecks but also reassign based on future needs.
Bottleneck #7 – Transferring Data
When QuickBooks is your accounting software, it is essential that you have a CRM system that integrates with it. This not only solves the headache of manual double entry of data, but ensures human error and bottlenecks don’t leave one system outdated. When we work with a CRM for QuickBooks solution we keep data flowing smoothly and provide the data visibility needed to manage the full business relationship.
Since QuickBooks is your main invoicing and customer portal it makes perfect sense to have an award winning CRM for QuickBooks solution as your initial contact point for the business. Contact Us today for a free trial to get started.
Top 7 Features of a CRM for QuickBooks
Starting and running a business can be a dream of many people. Developing a product from scratch or offering a service that is filled with benefits can be beneficial both personally as well as monetarily. One aspect of this process however is being able to manage the customers you have, leads you encounter, and ensure that everyone is taken care of. The easiest way to accomplish this is to implement a CRM, Customer Relationship Management software program. If your business is like the top 80% of SMB’s in the U.S. then your accounting software is QuickBooks, by Intuit. To ensure accuracy and reduce double data entry, the ideal solution would be to integrate QuickBooks with a CRM software seamlessly.
CRM is a software program that allows you to track and manage a wide range of aspects related to your customers, prospects, employees, and the overall health of your business. Using a CRM solution can be the difference between growing your company or watching it wither and die.
So what should you look for in a CRM for QuickBooks solution?
Feature #1 – Simplicity
When running your business you want tasks to be simple. Overcomplicating tasks for yourself or your employees will lead to mistakes. Choosing a CRM solution that is simple to use and easy to manage is vital. When evaluating simplicity, you want to look at the user interface; is it clean, documented well, have a defined collection of features that are useful and not cumbersome? These are all questions you need to ask yourself as well as your employees. Get your employees input on what is most comfortable and user friendly for them since they will be the ones using the CRM most of the time.
Feature #2 – Accessibility
When looking at a CRM for QuickBooks you want to find something that is accessible anytime, and anywhere. Since QuickBooks has an online version, you will want a CRM that you can connect 
to via a mobile device. No matter where you are in the world or from what type of device you are using, you should have the capacity to allow your employees the ability to login whenever and wherever they need. We are in the age of internet and disabling this function is no longer an option.
Feature #3 – Campaign and Project Management
Depending on your company, you may have several different people working on the same project. In fact they may be working on several different projects within different groups and with people from all over the world. Finding a CRM for QuickBooks that allows designation of campaigns and projects will ensure everything is organized and tasks are completed in a timely manner.
Feature #4 – Flexibility and Customization
The world would be a perfect place if everything worked straight out of the box. The truth however, is that each business is unique and the CRM that you choose will need to be flexible as well as customizable. These customizations can be as simple as creating user accounts with different permission levels to provide protections from sensitive data being seen by the wrong staff member.
Feature #5 – Leads and Customer Conversion
When dealing with customers, not everyone will jump at the chance to purchase your products or services. These leads may have a specific barrier to entry such as budgets, employee constraints and even contracts that need to be renewed. When it comes to leads and the process of converting these prospects, your CRM for QuickBooks solution needs to be able to handle all aspects of the sales process. Your CRM should have intelligence to note when the conditions are met and your lead converts into a client; you want to be able to click a few buttons and integrate them directly into QuickBooks without having to duplicate data or manual entry.
Feature #6 – Pricing, Users and Migration
Budget constraints are a real concern for businesses of all sizes. When selecting a CRM solution you want one to find one that has an affordable price point. Open source solutions are great but may not be the perfect fit for your organization. Another feature you will want to look at is the number of users you can have per license. The final aspect you want to look for is the migration challenge. Once you start entering data into the CRM, the last thing you want to do is switch. Running a small company with three to five employees and data being entered in on a daily basis can turn into a large chunk of information that would be a nightmare to migrate over into another CRM. This is why selecting a CRM for QuickBooks solution that you have vetted thoroughly is a wise move. Since you are already using QuickBooks for your bookkeeping, adding in this solution just makes sense.
Feature #7 – E-mail and Communication Support
The final feature that you will want to look at is its integration with email and communications between the office, other employees, and possibly even clients and prospects. When researching CRM for QuickBooks solutions you want to ensure the application will be able to have e-mail notifications sent to employees if there is a change in a scheduled appointment or other reason. The use of communication between all of your departments is a well desired asset and one that should be heavily considered when choosing your CRM.
Finally when it comes to choosing your CRM for QuickBooks test several of them out. Make sure that they really fit your company’s needs. Jumping into a CRM that will only become outdated in six months is not a wise investment. The CRM for QuickBooks solution you choose will act as the nucleus of your organization, so choose wisely. One QuickBooks CRM to try is the award-winning Results Software.
How to Fill Your QuickBooks CRM Pipeline Like a Pro
Sales prospecting is the #1 challenge for business development teams; primarily the ability to keep the sales funnel full on a consistent basis. Growing companies cannot fall to slow times, whether that be due to seasonality or lack of events to capture leads. It is vital to keep the pipeline filled with sales prospects, but keep in mind this is not something that can be attained overnight. It takes patience, practice, dedication, and hard work – but above all, it requires consistent harvesting of leads. Establishing a set of processes that can be automated within a QuickBooks CRM will be the foundation on how you will manage the sales cycle.
Here are 4 Tips on how to fill your QuickBooks CRM Pipeline like a Pro:
1) Use All Possible Modes of Communication
Create a timeline of touches that includes both phone, email, and in-person contacts. Roll out that timeline as a set of tasks in your QuickBooks CRM with designated times in between each touch. This way you have a calendar of events for each prospect and you build consistency without forgetting any of the quiet leads. Reminding them who you are every so often can warm up a cold lead that maybe had larger priorities earlier in the year.
Remember that it will, on average, take at least three connections to establish a trusting relationship. Understand that people of different generations prefer different modes of communication. If you know that your lead is a baby boomer, don’t just email. Pick up the phone! If you are dealing with a Millennial, a quick LinkedIn message or connecting with them on Slack may be a faster way to get their attention. Also, keep in mind that everyone learns in different ways. Some like to hear (phone), while others like to see (email), and a growing population demands a more interactive experience (video or demo). Adapt to their needs, not your preference in communicating.
2) Be Proactive When Asking for Referrals
Referrals can be a tremendously effective way to increase your pipeline. Don’t wait for them to come to you. Be proactive and ask happy clients for referrals. Thank them for their connections and keep them in the loop on engagements so they understand the weight of their referral. Make it easy for them too, send them business cards, remind them of any referral program you may have and if a conversion occurs, send a Starbucks gift card or other token of appreciation with more cards to keep the referrals coming. Be sure to track all lead sources in your QuickBooks CRM so that you can reference back to the original referrer.
3) People Don’t Like to Say No
The outcome of your attempts are usually not seen on the first exchange you make with a sales prospect. Converting a prospect into a new customer takes time, effort and patience. People generally don’t like to say no. So keep contacting them until they do. You never know how their needs, budget, or timeline will change. Far too often to sales reps convert a lead to dead just because they didn’t hear back on a proposal. Then it gets reopened later when the lead contacts again. What about the leads that didn’t remember you and contacted someone else? Setup your QuickBooks CRM to remind you to contact every prospect every month, or at least quarterly, just to keep you in their mind until they tell you to go away.
4) Don’t Try to Avoid the Gatekeeper
Decision makers are inundated with sales calls so the receptionist, office manager or assistant is tasked with keeping solicitors from getting to their desks. Gatekeepers screen the sales prospect so that their manager’s time is not disrupted. Rather than treat this person as a barrier and try to bypass them, befriend them! Educate them and get them on your side about why their company needs your solution. The gatekeeper has the ear of your target, and many times their calendar. It would be wise to get them on your side. Before you build a relationship with your sales prospect, try evolving with them. This tactic might help you in reaching your prospect faster.
Filling your pipeline like a pro doesn’t have to be expensive, or difficult. It just requires consistency and a good system as the backbone to ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Results CRM is the award-winning QuickBooks CRM system that will integrate with your accounting software while enabling your sales team to do more, and better. Contact Us today for a live demo!
How to Get Results at QBConnect (Pt. 2)
Packing List for QBConnect
QBConnect is only a few weeks away! Hopefully you have already been checking items off of your Pre-Conference Checklist!
Before you know it, it will be time to pack your bags and head to San Jose. This week, I’d like to discuss what and how to pack for a successful conference besides clothes. Here are some things I take along for a smoother conference experience:
1. Devices of every kind. You can never have enough devices at a conference; make sure to bring your laptop, tablet, phone and anything else that will help you stay connected. As you walk the floor, attend events, hang out after hours, or communicate with the office, you’ll want to be connected. If I had to choose one item in addition to my iPhone, it would be my iPad. Why? I can connect to the office and answer emails, receive texts, watch a TV Show in my room, read a book, or surf the web.
2. Extra power cords and battery packs. You need power and cords and so will everyone else! With extra power cords handy, you can reach “hero” status fairly quickly by offering an extra plug to the guy next to you running on 5%. The dreaded red “low battery” icon – it happens to us all!
3. Comfy shoes. You’re going to be doing a lot of walking. And then you’ll walk some more. Make sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes and not the ones you just bought that haven’t been broken in yet. Band-Aids. No matter how comfy your shoes are, blisters happen. And if they don’t happen to you, they will happen to someone near you! Be prepared.
4. A picture of your business cards. Old-fashioned business cards are an essential. Take it one step further and have a picture of your business card stored on your phone at all times! Text the picture of your card to your new contacts and they will have your contact with them wherever they go!
5. Extra room in your suitcase. You will be coming home with a lot of “conference stuff”. Make sure to leave room for the t-shirts, brochures and giveaways that you’ll accumulate over your stay.
6. Hand sanitizer. You’ll be shaking lots of hands…..enough said!
Stay tuned for the last, but probably the most important, article in this series: how to turn your conference leads into revenue!
About the Author:
Richard Roppa is the Owner of Quasar Cowboy Consulting. Richard is passionate about Business Process, the entire QuickBooks Eco-Sphere, and helping businesses grow through integrated CRM. Richard has presented in a variety of accounting shows on topics including QBO for Accountants, Engagement Letters, Practice Growth Strategies, CRM, SmartVault, Sales, Practice Management Software, and Cloud Applications. He is also a published author on AccountingWEB.com and The Intuit Accountant Blog.