Parker Software Improving the CRM Opportunity Pipeline
Thursday 7 October 2010
The traditional role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has primarily been used for managing either a database of prospects or an existing customer list but many of the companies residing in these lists are not being contacted regularly and organisations are failing to realise when there customers are checking back in via the website.
Organisations invest a significant amount of time, money and energy meeting potential prospects, pulling lists, attending trade-shows, reading articles, doing research, optimizing their websites and numerous other activities to identify the most ideal prospects for their business, however many of these prospects never end up in an opportunity pipeline.
From a marketing standpoint, the goal of any CRM application should be to convert prospects into buyers. Typically when a lead is generated, a company may follow-up to see if there is immediate need or interest and if there is an immediate need the focus tends to shift to these prospects, and the other pipeline prospects often go ignored.
In a typical sales process, a prospect needs to be contacted 5 to 7 times in some way shape or form whether that be email, newsletters, phone calls, webinar invitations etc., before they are exposed enough to your brand and offering and have enough trust and interest in making a buying decision. This level of exposure is time consuming and costly however between, 75 and 90 percent of a company’s potential annual revenue is sitting in longer term prospects within the pipeline i.e. those prospects that require more exposure. Most prospects will buy somewhere between 6-12 months it is therefore crucial that organisations proactively reach out to these longer term sales opportunities to ensure they convert on into revenue opportunities when they are ready to buy.
Parker Software, specialists in online customer engagement, conversion and email parsing are helping organisations to prospect more effectively for longer term opportunities with little human intervention by integrating their software applications with leading CRM providers Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
To help improve prospect exposure Parker Software have two areas of core focus WhosOn and Email2DB. WhosOn enables organisation to track website visitors in real-time and engage with those via chat. The ability to create new and update existing CRM records with this information has already proved to be popular with both Dynamics and Salesforce users. The ability to track and record website visitors significantly improves pipeline opportunities and brand exposure and also leads to improved relationship management for companies utilising this functionality.
Email2DB is at the forefront of pipeline development for longer term prospect engagement. Email2DB automates email processes by parsing emails, a unique application used by both large and small organisations globally.
Email2Db provides the ability to extract information from an email and convert this information into fields this data is then automatically entered within a database or in this instance directly into the CRM all without manual intervention. Email2DB goes somewhat further, so not only can it create and update pipeline opportunities it can also utilise database pull. Database pull within Email2Db enables the creation of automated responders which can be automatically triggered to be sent at future intervals instantly improving contact with those long term opportunities.
The integration with Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics dramatically improves any organisations ability to automatically process incoming emails into their CRM systems without manual intervention, enabling organisations to further streamline their business processes, and improve new and existing business relationships, more importantly significantly reducing costs.
As a result of this recent development Parker Software's order book has grown significantly, with more companies utilising CRM software to improve their customer relations the WhosOn and Email2DB acts as a natural add on.
About Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company. The company's portfolio of Salesforce CRM applications has revolutionised the ways that companies collaborate and communicate with their customers across sales, marketing and service. The company’s Force.com platform helps customers, partners and developers to quickly build powerful business applications to run every part of the enterprise in the cloud. Based on salesforce.com’s real-time, multitenant architecture, Salesforce CRM and Force.com offer the fastest path to customer success with cloud computing.
As of October 31, 2009, salesforce.com manages customer information for approximately 67,900 customers including Allianz Commercial, Dell, Dow Jones Newswires, Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE, and SunTrust Banks. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM".
About Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of familiar, adaptable enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions designed to meet almost any business need and help your people make important business decisions confidently. Microsoft Dynamics works like and with familiar Microsoft software – easing adoption and reducing the risks in implementing a new solution. These solutions automate and streamline financial, customer relationship and supply chain processes in a way that can help you drive business success.