What is a CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. This term is used by sales teams to describe contact management for leads. Among high-tech marketers, it usually refers to the software or systems used to manage relationships. 

    Before you jump into a CRM software, remember that first and foremost CRM is a part of your sales and marketing strategy. If your goal is to grow long-term relationships with customers and prospects over time to increase revenue and lifetime value, then you are seeking a smart CRM strategy. Everyone has a different bend on what CRM Strategy means - ranging from personalized communications to retargeting email ads. At the end of the day, CRM is all about how you can optimize Customer Relationships to maximize your sales.

Since Beckmann Collaborative is based in Austin, TX it is easy for us to visit clients in nearby Texas cities. It is also fun to go on a road trip! This week, we had the pleasure of visiting Killeen, Texas to work with the incredible team at NextHome Tropicana Realty  Our focus was on using social media marketing as an individual agent and how you can cross-pollinate your content with the company's social media. 

Quick Brag About This Team of Realtors

The team at NextHome Tropicana Realty is passionate and driven to support their local community in Killeen, TX. When we talked about their professional goals as an agent, the focus was not on money or becoming a "local celebrity."  These individuals were all about giving back and empowering others. Their target audience includes active-duty soldiers and their families, veteran retirees, army...

UPDATED July 2021

Kajabi for your LMS (Online Courses)

As a company with education and professional development rooted in our mission, we spent a good amount of time searching for the right LMS (Learning Management System).  While we loved using Wordpress for our website, finding an LMS plugin with a smooth integration was a challenge. 

We Compared Kajabi to Several Others

Several clients and partners talked about Teachable, Udemy, and Thinkific. All of those platforms are great for certain people and companies. For us, we found them limiting.

Those other LMS platforms have a big database of customers who are often categorized as "casual learners" or inactive. Those are not the people who get value from deep-dive training that requires focus and some elbow grease to get the work done right.  

For Beckmann Collaborative, ...

UPDATED March 7, 2023

Blogging in itself offers a wide array of benefits to your brand. Not only does it increase SEO, but it can also reflect your expertise to potential customers or clients.  Businesses of all sizes and across many different industries have found blogging to be a strong tactic in their content marketing strategy. 

What is guest blogging?

Guest blogging is the practice of writing an article or blog post for another company's blog. This is a way to build relationships, increase your authority, get broader brand exposure, and (of course) build backlinks for SEO.  Inbound links, also called backlinks, are a primary SEO ranking factor for search engines. Guest blogging offers an opportunity for you to write valuable content and link back to your own website.

Quick Lesson About...

Guest Post by Don Matejko

Strong presentation skills are important for any sales professional, especially when the products or services being sold are complicated, expensive and/or unfamiliar to the prospect. Some salespeople are naturally gifted presenters, but most acquire their skills through experience and training. If you are responsible for training in this area, here are important tips to bring your salespeople along quickly in the art of sales presentation.

1. Establish a training knowledge base

Effective presentations require the presenter to be credible and authentic. No amount of pre-packaged text and dazzling imagery can cover up a presenter who doesn’t really know what he or she is talking about. In contrast, a presenter who exudes confidence and understanding can effectively turn prospects into customers even if the presentation itself is flawed. With this...

UPDATED: July 2021 

Data Vs. Experience in Decision Making

For thousands of years, business owners made decisions based on their prior knowledge - the data in their minds. Within the past 15-20 years, the digital age has shifted decision making to lean exclusively on hard data. It makes sense. Your ability to set goals and plans based on data can significantly shorten the testing time. The guesswork is removed. 

As it is with so many other shifts during the digital age, we may have reached a point of going a little too extreme. Yes, data is vital to decision making. Is it the exclusive way to identify patterns and make wise decisions?  I don't think so. 

A recent survey of business decision makers presented some very interesting results.

"86.8% of respondents report that their work environment is in constant flux or lacking clear correct...

The following information is sourced from the Zoho CRM help guide. I found it to include helpful insights, so I'm sharing it with you. 

While customer relationship management is an important aspect of running a business, it can often become overwhelming due to the extensive amount of work involved. You must always ensure you are keeping in touch with your customers through email and over the phone so you don't miss out important leads or a potential deal. In the meantime, it is also crucial to stay on top of your projects. Sometimes such multitasking may show downside effects on the overall functioning of your business.

Zoho CRM aims to make this easier for you by providing multiple features under a single platform. Collectively, these features can help you a great deal in enhancing communication with your customers.

Email: You can send emails to your customers...

Earlier this year, I was invited to become an instructor with General Assembly. A few times each month, I would go to their offices in downtown Austin to lead classes such as Intro to Digital Marketing and Intro to Content Strategy. The experience has been more enriching than I originally anticipated. Yes, I’m getting the opportunity to share what I’ve learned by trying and failing or succeeding to others. Hooray for knowledge transfer! Along the way, I learned some valuable lessons and so I perked up when they asked if I wanted to teach even more.

This month I’m leading a 10-week part-time course two nights per week. In preparation for teaching this course, General Assembly (GA) has a thorough onboarding procedure. I call it Training the Trainer. Stepping outside of the usual approach and getting new ideas from GA was incredibly helpful. 

...

UPDATED: August 31, 2020

Conversion from a lead into a customer does NOT require magic or manipulation. There are many misconceptions about what a conversion is and how to measure it. Before we get into the how, let's define conversion. 

The traditional definition of conversion is the process of changing or causing something to change from one form to another.

A marketing definition of conversion is getting a potential customer/client to respond to your call-to-action. When marketers talk about conversion, it often relates to views, clicks, likes, and paid transactions.

One example of a marketing / sales conversion is getting someone to open an email, while another may be someone making a purchase. 

I thoroughly appreciate Steven Wong's comment about conversion conversations when he writes:  "Imagine leaving the corner...

Keeping a good friend is a lot easier than making a new one, right?  The same goes for customers / clients. Maintaining your existing customer relationships is less expensive and has a better return on your investment. While it's important to put energy into your "top of funnel" efforts to find new people, I would argue that it's MORE important to work on customer retention strategies.

Creating a Customer Retention Strategy

The biggest challenge for many companies looking at their customer retention is where to begin.  Here are 5 practical customer retention strategies you can use to keep your existing customers happy over the long-term and increase your profits.

1. Customize Your Content Strategy

Speak / Write to your existing customers like you know them - because you do! No one wants to feel like another number, so create customized messaging for your...