Outlook CRM for Sales & Marketing

Prophet CRM by Avidian

Comparing Outlook Customer Manager and Prophet CRM

Prophet-CRM-works-how-you-work

What to use next after OCM?

Microsoft’s Outlook Customer Manager (OCM) is coming to an end of its run as a lite CRM solution embedded in Outlook. Microsoft has published that it will cease to support OCM in June 2020.

Outlook Customer Manager provided incredible benefit to firms in the the 1-5 CRM user space by allowing users to manage daily business sales and marketing operations through Outlook. OCM’s essential Outlook integration helped to simplify these functions, consolidating efforts into a single portal rather than multiple softwares.

If you are a small business owner you may be wondering where to turn for a sturdy and simple CRM replacement.

Fortunately, firms using OCM can easily transition to Prophet CRM, the leading provider of Outlook-based CRM. As with OCM, Prophet CRM users can manage pipelines with opportunities and projects within Outlook. Teams can consolidate deal-specific information and interaction for collaboration, and managers can have a high-level view of all the functions within the business.

For Outlook Customer Manager users who are comfortable within the Outlook interface Prophet CRM provides a familiar and recognizable experience. This allows onboarding to Prophet CRM to be quick and easy for transitioning OCM teams.

What can you do with Prophet CRM?

  • Contact Management
  • Account Management
  • Opportunity Management
  • Relationship Management
  • Pipeline Reporting
  • Activity Reporting
  • Sales Automation
  • Workflow Automation
  • Document Generation
  • Email Tracking
  • Track Notes and Meetings
  • Plan Next Steps

Contacts, Companies, and Deals

Outlook Customer Manager and Prophet CRM follow a similar database format, categorizing individual records as Contacts, Companies, or “Deals/Opportunities.” The comparable format will allow for OCM users to easily transition information from OCM to Prophet CRM. Additionally, teams will not have to change the familiar language and processes to accommodate an unfamiliar solution.

OCM users will be pleased to find that Prophet CRM offers a similar “Excel-like” interface where they can easily filter and select records. As with OCM, Prophet CRM provides the user flexibility to create multiple custom views to explore and recall information from the database.

CRM Reporting – The Big Difference

The primary differentiator between Outlook Customer Manager and Prophet CRM is the incredibly detailed pipeline and activity reporting Prophet CRM provides. Through Prophet CRM managers have access to traditional PDF-style reports or modern analytic reports to measure their team’s progress.

Prophet CRM utilizes embedded Power BI, enabling users to see trends in their key metrics. These reporting tools enable sales and project teams to visually reflect KPI’s related to customer interaction, pipeline conversion, and team productivity towards goals.

Mobile CRM

Both Outlook Customer Manager and Prophet CRM offer mobile apps to assist teams on the go. OCM and Prophet CRM’s mobile applications are separate environments from the Microsoft Outlook mobile application.

Contact an OCM Migration Specialist

Adding A Contact

How to add a contact in Prophet CRM.

Back to Prophet CRM Beginner’s Guide

There are many different ways to add a contact to Prophet, but this video will cover the simplest way to do so from the Contact Manager.

Step One: In the Contact Manager, click on the button that says “New” near the top left of the window. A drop down menu will appear.

Step Two: In the drop down menu, select “New Contact”. A pop up window will appear.

Step Three: In the pop up window that appears, enter all of the relevant information and click “Create New Contact”.

Step Four: An Outlook Contact window will come up with all of the contacts information that you had typed automatically filled in. You can make any additions if needed.

Step Five: Click on “Save & Close” to add the new contact to both Prophet and Outlook.

Congratulations! You’ve just added a Contact in Prophet!

Using CRM to Recession Proof your Business

How to revamp your CRM adoption and put the data to work.

In the last few months nearly every recognized recession leading indicator has flashed.  The yield curve has inverted. The Dow continues to play hopscotch. Pundits are doing their best to look grim. 

In SMB, sales organizations are either armed to the teeth with preemptive recession strategy or are entirely looking the other way.  If you’re unsure which column you fall into try the following exercise:

The next time one of your firm’s junior reps lands a deal worth a handshake ask them what they’re doing to recession proof their pipeline. 

Maybe wait a few minutes, and then ask.

Hopefully the answer includes CRM.  I’d cross my fingers, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.  Hopefully there’s noble pledge to focus on the fundamentals, preferably one with lots of eye contact.  If not, or if the pledge has a history of running out of steam don’t worry. Here’s a Sales Small Business Recession Field Guide as it concerns CRM, or SSBRFG:CRM for short.  (I’m not in marketing)

Taking these steps will help you sell strategically through a recession by leaning on your CRM, whether your CRM been a well-oiled machine or the Spruce Goose.

1.     Let’s reexamine what we know.

The first step to preparing a recession strategy for your Sales Org should always start with the CRM—specifically the data and trends housed within.  Even if you feel like your solution has been underutilized, odds are very good that the CRM has collected much more data than you anticipated. Get the data and put it in Excel, Power BI, Tableau, or into the hands of someone proficient with these things and start to figure out the basics:

-How many contacts are being made week over week, and what is the trend?

-How many activities have been auto-logged, and what are they?  Who are they being done to?

Ask increasingly complex questions until the answers become untrustworthy.  This step is getting to the start line. Don’t evaluate the quality of the data, that comes later.

2.     Synthesize data sources.

Let’s suppose your SMB sales team has not been saintly with CRM entry and there are a holes.   It’s invaluable to put that data in context with the other business systems. The easiest method is to overlay data from the accounting ERP.  (This can be done quite easily with Microsoft’s Power BI*)

*Shameless plug, Prophet CRM uses embedded Power BI to give you top tier reporting ability.

In the same manner as the first point look for any obvious correlations.  Here are a few basic ones to get moving:

-Is there higher activity on high revenue accounts?

-Does activity increase with revenue?

-Do we see regular activity, no matter the sales volume or is there a correlation in purchase activity?

3.     Reconcile the systems to give your team a head-start

Truthfully, you should get the systems integrated, but if the cash or time is not forthcoming the next best alternative is to make sure both systems have equal information where there is overlap.  This step is critical, as readily available customer history is a critical ingredient in building the sales team’s confidence and reliance.

Any CRM worth its salt will have a function to import Excel sheets.  Get spreadsheets from the ERP and make sure the following items are imported:

-Any contact.  Be scrappy—on occasion the billing department penetrates a client organization better than the sales team.  You can easily get a name, phone number, email, job title, and address/location at the minimum.

-Any Purchase.  Have the sales team fill out pertinent details on the Excel spreadsheet for the deals they won (lead source, sale type, the basics).  Excel will enable this to be done reasonably accurately en masse, saving time and frustration.

Import the completed sheet into the CRM so that both systems have the same data.

4.     Time for a new map

By now you’re fairly familiar with the key organizational metrics and how to report on them.  From here you can set out a new strategy for engaging with prospective and current clients based on the metrics you can track.

During this stage it is important to envision these KPI’s in terms of real-life actions and outcomes, save the details of execution for the next two steps.  Ask yourself the following questions, and increase in specificity with each one:

-How many touches should be put on each prospect before they are declared unqualified or dead?

-How many touches should be applied during each stage of the sales cycle?

-How many phone calls do you want your team making on a daily or weekly basis?

-How many contacts should an AE make in a month—and at what level of the organization?

-How often should we be calling or emailing existing clients?

Remember, the goal here is to have the team hit its stride with these metrics BEFORE the recession hits.  These goals must be realistic and accomplishable for each week or each month in the year.

5.     Time for some tweaks

Once your strategic goals are outlined from point four the next step is to ensure the CRM reflects those aspirations.  There are two benchmarks to be achieved in this course:

Benchmark A: Is the CRM configured correctly to capture the appropriate data? 

Example:     As a Sales Manager, I want to have a very good understanding of our lead source performance—do we have a field where Opportunities or Contacts can be categorized by lead source?

If the answer is no, then a field must be configured to capture that data AND the team must be appraised of the expectation for that data entry.  As always, trust the team to do it—and then inspect that it has been done on a routine basis.

Benchmark B: Is the CRM configured to assist the user while simultaneously capturing the data?

Example:     I want to see that my sales team has followed up on every proposal, is there a way to automate proposal follow ups and report on that?

***If the answer for your current solution is no, please skip the rest of the article below and submit your contact information so we can help you! 

Users will rely on the CRM when it is a vehicle to make their immediate task easier.  The key concept is to introduce accessibility. It must be easy to set reminders, or action items will be left unfinished.  It must be easy to enter notes, or the team will keep all the information in their heads. The brain is not scalable, but Prophet CRM sure is.

6.     Re-Train the Team

Odds are good that it’s been a while since your team has had some instruction on the CRM.  If you have introduced new practices per Point 5 you’ll want to make sure everyone is on the same page.  Many CRM solutions have excellent resources available online, or you can call your account manager to schedule some directed training.  This training ensures that everyone is accountable for using the CRM as directed—nobody can claim ignorance.

7.     Inspect what you expect

To ensure that CRM usage is habitual, review the system daily or weekly.  Use a specific report which provides visibility to your key metrics, and ensure they are being met on a weekly or monthly basis.  If your CRM doesn’t provide the exact report you require odds are very good that your provider can create a custom report, or guide you to creating your own.

CRM Implementation Strategy

Designing a CRM can seem like an overwhelming task.  A customer relationship tool touches all aspects of the business.  Anytime a customer is interacting with sales, support, engineering, or development your CRM tool should be assisting by providing meeting notes, relevant documents, and helpful email templates.  So, where to start?

Upper Management

Define exactly where the company is today in terms of products, services, margins, tools, outside resources and inside talent.  It is also critical to know how your company compares to the competition. Upper Management should also provide realistic and concrete goals and sales targets.  These two factors will form the foundation of your sales strategy.

Sales Strategy

Customer relationship management software is key to crafting a sales strategy.  Once upper management has defined revenue goals the sales leadership should craft a series of key performance indicators or KPI’s.  Each KPI must be something that can be measured, such as “Cold Calls” or “Proposals Sent.”  

An organization’s CRM must be designed so that it can measure each KPI and provide reports.  CRM reporting ability empowers leaders to notice trends and lead from the front.  

CRM Data Migration

Prior to importing data into the CRM, we find that most clients are sitting on gold that they didn’t have the knowledge or tools to mine.  All of the history with respect to sales and customer relationships is buried in thousands of emails and calendar appointments.

Data Migration organizes your customer engagement history by importing it into the CRM.  Categorizing, tagging, grouping and identifying network connections is the first step to effective contact management.  

PRIORITIZATION

When we work with clients to categorize and segment their databases in order to mine the gold, they are quick to show us the analysis of everything those clients have purchased in the PAST. While that information is important, it only tells part of the story. In today’s competitive environment, you need to partner with your clients and find out where else they are doing business that could and should be done with you. 

Viewing it from that perspective, the questions is how much business could they potentially do with us? If you are only getting 10% of their business, how can you go after the other 90% that is going to your competition?  This is especially true in the B2B sales environment where a large firm may be consuming the same parts from numerous suppliers.

Defining what you EXPECT so the CRM can be built to enable Management to INSPECT

Create actionable and measurable goals in terms of practices, products, services, business or brand lines, new accounts, deeper penetration, lower service requests, higher repeat business etc. It isn’t enough for Upper Management to create the Vision and Mission Statement. The key to success is how that message is:

*Delivered to all levels of in a manner that allows every employee to understand the logic of how and why it will benefit everyone to execute on it;

*How those goals will be supported;

*How those goals will be measured;

*How those goals will be driven;

*How the meeting of those goals will be enforced!

Clarify the actual steps to be taken and the people, (by role), who will execute on those in order to achieve the goals. The CRM enables Management to monitor those steps and the results so that you can make adjustments and provide recognition or coaching. It also enables your employees to more efficiently organize and monitor the results of their own day to day efforts and achievements.

USER ADOPTION makes or breaks your CRM implementation

We work to garner User Adoption and the achievement of your goals by designing and customizing a CRM that intuitively matches the flow of your business processes and drives your specific activities. In addition, we train according to the specific User’s role. We deliver the system in a manner that demonstrates how they as individuals can benefit and grow their productivity and revenues by using the CRM. As our CRM solution is EMBEDDED with Outlook, the majority of their daily “Blocking & Tackling” activities are automatically captures. 

All of those activities and relevant data points can then be rolled up in order to allow management complete transparency without asking for activity reports from your employees. A properly designed CRM can put the data at your fingertips. Management can then inspect what they expect and make adjustments in order to drive success.

It is easy to demand more sales. It is Management’s responsibility to provide clear goals, strategies, tools and guidance in order to achieve real ROI for the company, the shareholders and employees. Provide a few times when you can be available for a conversation. I’ll confirm one with an invite. Let us further discuss what we are seeing in terms of best practices in your vertical and what a properly implemented CRM can do to raise the bottom line for your company. Also, how we can facilitate your CRM seamlessly within your Microsoft Outlook!

The Best Sales Tools After CRM

What other tools can help SMB sales teams be more successful?

Customer Relationship Management systems have been recognized as the top tool for sales teams for the past twenty years.  It’s undisputed, and likely not a title CRM’s will lose in the next twenty years. This begs the question, once you’ve equipped company with a CRM, what’s the next best tool to evaluate for the sales team?

Let’s take that one step further and introduce a few natural constraints such as a skinny budget and limited technical resources.  What tools are highly adoptable, nearly implementation free, and provide great value for your dollar?

1.     Zapier for integrating the CRM with other business systems

Zapier is an integration tool that can be used by individuals or companies.  In short summation Zapier is an If This Then That platform whereby users connect the business systems in their tech stack.  Zapier has more than 1,500 applications on its platform ready to be connected to each other. All a user needs to do is translate the desired data flow and timing into Zapier’s array of application “triggers” and “actions”.  These processes of triggers and actions are called zaps. 

No technical experience is required, and Zapier has user-friendly pricing.  

Example 1: A zap triggers when a website contact form is submitted, sending the information to the CRM.

Example 2: A zap triggers whenever a salesperson wins a deal in the CRM, and sends an email notification to the Sales Director.

2.     Slack for chat and virtual meetings

Slack is the premier workplace chat app.  Slack is a key tool in the increasingly decentralized and remote-friendly corporate environment.  Slack’s ability to dramatically increase collaboration and centralize project communication between distant colleagues is crucial for sales teams with reps in the field.

Slack simplifies the user’s inbox.  A primary benefit of sales teams communicating on Slack is the reduction of internal emails in users inboxes.  Instead of long and unwieldy internal email chains creating clutter Slack orchestrates workplace communication into topic focused “Channels” as well as direct chat communication between individual users. 

Slack meets our criteria with its free and paid options, as well as its natural ease of adoption.

3.     SmallChat for Website Chat

SmallChat is a chat application which embeds on your website and uses Slack as the portal for conversations.  Website chat functionality has been skyrocketing in acceptance by users. Any sales team that relies on web leads should be equipped with chat functionality on their website. 

The smallchat interface is easily used and highly adoptable.  This is perfect for small businesses where chat responsibilities will be split between two or three people with other job functions.

4.     WordPress for Website

Firms who rely on website leads for business must have a modern, clean web presence.  It’s hard to overstate the impact a website can have on your brand’s perception. The impact of an unkempt web presence will only continue to grow.  

Thankfully a modern website is achievable and economically viable with WordPress and a few Youtube tutorials. The wealth of free tutorials and resource material makes a new website possible for teams with varying (to zero!) technical ability.

We enjoyed this read by Jeff Bullas listing your digital marketing assets. 

CRM Workflow Automation for Account Managers

Stage Based Workflows will save you time!

Workflow Automation is an essential tool for managing large volumes of Prospects, Clients, or Accounts.

“Workflows” are automated emails, calendar appointments, or tasks which are associated with specific stages in the Opportunity Record.  You can collate multiple items with a particular stage, and set certain items on a delay. These emails,calendar appointments and tasks have the ability to be auto populated with client information, saving an enormous amount of time.

Since the concept of Automation can be somewhat abstract. I will illustrate Workflow’s flexibility by taking you through my own process.  Hopefully you will find something that is applicable for your own business!

In 95% of cases the introductory email I send out follows a basic formula:

1. Welcome to Prophet

2. My role

3. A few Prophet features to utilize

4. Call me if you have any problems! 

I am a big Outlook Calendar user as opposed to Task user. (Task users fear not — it can be made as a task as well).  To wit, I like to call to follow up on my proposals, rather than sending an email. I rely on an automated calendar event associated with my “Proposal” stage to help stay on track.  (I can’t tell you how much money this particular reminder has helped make for me!)

After I have a call or meeting I like to send a quick follow up message to the attendees.  This demonstrates that I am attentive to any issues they may be having, and that I am accessible.  The “Meeting Follow-Up” Email Automation is flexible and editable, and I usually like to consolidate the action items into that email for future reference.

1. Know your process.  There inevitably will be elements of your process which are mundane and repeat items — that’s what we want to automate!

2. Outbound communications like emails should be set to a “0” day-delay.  This means that when you trigger the automation they will appear and offer you one final chance to make any necessary edits (“Great round of golf last weekend, Bill….etc).

3. Utilize the “Delay Days” feature for reminders with Tasks and Calendar Events.

4. You can attach documents to your templates, such as Brochures or Forms.  That will save a few steps for introductions, etc.  

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Workflow can accomplish.  My recommendation for beginners is to automate reminders first, and then build out into external communications.

7 Questions to Ask Yourself When Buying CRM and SFA Software

What is the best way to buy CRM Software?

When we talk with our customers, they maintain that sales is the most important role in their business. If you agree with that assertion, as we do, then isn’t it in your best interest to ensure the department is at its peak performance?  In order to measure performance, you need measure points and instrumentation – in our world this is CRM, often referred to as Sales Force Automation SFA. Sales teams that leverage CRM / SFA are most likely to improve year over year.

Based on our experiences over the last 15 years, we would like to help you position yourself to buy CRM effectively.  Here are the top 7 questions you should ask yourself when buying a CRM / SFA solution:

1. Should I be personally involved in the CRM choice?

If you’re going to introduce CRM into your company, do it to the same level of vigor that you invest in every other aspect of your role. No pressure, but CRM technology is a conduit for your vision for sales success. Own it and others will notice and buy in. Let them know at every turn why it’s important to you and the exec team. Leverage your experience and understanding of your current and desired sales process(es) and goals to assess the suitability of your CRM shortlist.  Instructing a team member to “see what’s out there” is typically a waste of time and resources, or will tend to lead you down the wrong path.

2. If I buy the CRM, will the team use it?

Adoption is the single most important metric in determining CRM / SFA success, and likewise the culprit in failed projects. Our Customer Success team measures adoption as a key component of our overall Customer Health Score; the ratio of purchased licenses to daily active users of licenses.  If you have ten licenses for ten sales people, use ten, accept nothing less.

So how do you ensure buy-in from the sales team? Give them a founding role in the buying process.  Select one of your top sales folks (one that all of the other sales folks look up to), and your most organized and/or methodical sales rep. Give them a voice, listen to their needs and opinions. Let them help with mapping the current and desired sales strategy development.  The Sales team will adopt if they know one of their own was involved in the selection and it is tuned to their needs.

3. How will the team understand the seriousness of this project?


Get C-level mandate and give the new CRM project a name

Avoid trite or overused terms like “Phoenix”.  Use terms that align with the desired outcome of the project. Ensure the Owner/ CEO / President echoes your CRM Value statements and goals.  Alignment up top is key. Ensure that you are updating the executive team with milestone achievements and have them reflect that back to the team during regular staff meetings.

4. How should I approach this project to ensure success?

Let your company goals and how your team supports those goals dictate your requirements. While it’s important and recommended to plot a 3 to 5-year plan, you will be better served if you break down the full CRM deployment and optimization into discreet phases or “wins”.  Take on only as much as your team can handle while they are making the trains run on time. Remember, CRM strategy primarily involves the very front line of your business. Unless you are planning to waive quotas for the year…which is definitely not recommended… you would be wise to break the project into bite-sized chunks and make a point to celebrate the successful completion of each.

Taking heed of change management principles is important here for your plan and design. Sales people are conservative by nature when it comes to behavioral / procedural habits.   Too radical a change can impact negatively on near term sales quota attainment. Go for the initial big win e.g. “all sales data in one place” or “accurate forecasts” and announce that to the team to inspire confidence and greater personal investment.

5. Should I set a time frame for this project?

Yes! We have found that well defined (and adhered to) time frames are essential… This does not necessarily mean conducting a lengthy RFP process, but we do recommend a level of project discipline that enables a group of this size to be efficient and effective. Taking advantage of proven methodologies, such as the RFP project approach, will pay dividends… You may also decide to employ one of my favorite tactics and consider publishing and prominently displaying a Gantt chart detailing important vendor selection milestones. Everyone who has a role will understand the role they play and when their deliverables are due. This also underlines the formality and importance of the project. Projects that have no published end date tend to fizzle and die, wasting resources on all sides and diminishing enthusiasm for future attempts.

6. Who can I rely on – the vendor?

This should be a 50/50 thing: 50% vendor and 50% you.  Assess your vendors’ partnership potential and assign added weight to that specific criteria.

Ask yourself, do they “get me” and “do I get them?”  i.e. do they know my space, my sales challenges, my customers and my needs?  Do the balance of their customers look like me? Are they overselling my team?

Assess your needs and don’t let the software companies set the agenda alone. You share the goal of a successful project, but that’s where the overlap ends. They measure success across many CRM deployments, while you care only about one…yours. Getting the right vendor resources engaged at the right time can make the difference between success and failure. You are best served to create and cultivate a mutually beneficial relationship with your vendor of choice so that you can be sure they are bringing their best to the project.

7. How about my team?

Does your buying team fully understand your selling process, existing or desired?  I mean, really understand the process? Can they articulate the current sales process, from new lead to closure?  Have they interviewed the Sales team? Do they understand their / your priorities?

Don’t “outsource” this important role.  Polled clients have noted in previous failed projects that they allowed teams outside sales, such as IT to lead the project.  Your CRM system will play a leading role in the future of your go-to-market strategy and tactics. Because it is so core to the sales and marketing function, it’s too risky to insert a proxy decision – making the body (or department) that may have their own set of criteria influencing their behavior.  A large percentage of failed CRM deployments can be traced back to issues of misalignment and competing priorities that surfaced during vendor selection.

The important point here: Include your owner / CEO in the framing of your CRM goals. What reporting / informational needs does his team need? Involve the CEO at critical milestones of vendor selection and ensure you deliver to his/her goals for the project.

Manage More than Contacts

Must have capabilities in any 2019 CRM platform.

“We are just looking for something to help us manage our contacts.”

We hear prospective customers say this nearly every day.  ProphetCRM will absolutely help you manage your contacts, but this is merely the tip of the iceberg.  At ProphetCRM we take pride in answering questions and providing resolutions.  Our product has been designed with “Stupid Simplicity” in mind, and our goal is for Users to not only take advantage of ProphetCRM’s features, but to use these features to create robust systems centered around a marquee client experience.

Our most important feature should go without saying: ProphetCRM is truly embedded in Outlook.  This enables incredible adoption, as anyone who is using Outlook is also using ProphetCRM.  A Sales Team that has partially adopted a CRM cannot take full advantage of that CRM, but with Prophet adoption is easy and natural.

More sales in less time.

One of ProphetCRM’s greatest strengths is allowing Sales Reps and Account Managers to decrease the length of their sales cycles.  This allows Sales Professionals to use that time to extend their reach beyond typical levels.  ProphetCRM’s Sales Automation and Workflow features are great assets to help move Suspects to Prospects, and Prospects to Customers.  

Quote Instantly.

Your customers should never have to wait on a Sales Rep to put together a quote.  Your Customer relies on you for excellent service, their time is valuable and your team’s time is valuable.  Quote, Document, and Form Generation is made easy with Prophet’s File Gen feature.  In a click of a button you can populate Excel or Word Documents with Customer Information, Product Information, Discounts, Billing and Shipping addresses, and Custom Fields.

Have all the answers.

Sales Managers are probably not used to being on the wrong end of a Pop-Quiz, and without Prophet’s PowerBI driven Analytics we think most would fail!  The good news is that any Sales Manager who can pass our Pop-Quiz probably does not need ProphetCRM.  Give it a try:

  1. How many quotes were sent out last month?
  2. What is the conversion ratio from Qualified Lead to Close?
  3. Which of your lead sources provides the most quality leads?  
  4. Which of your lead sources provides the highest ROI?
  5. Are your Sales People spending dollars to chase dimes?
  6. Who is your most efficient Sales Person?
  7. What is the weakest stage in your sales cycle? — And what are you doing to fix it?

Be Mobile.

We all spend too much time on our phones.  The least we could do is try to be productive!  ProphetCRM’s mobile app puts the power of Prophet in the palm of your hand.  Add and call contacts, record notes with talk-to-text, and bring in the revenue no matter where you are.