Just a brief post about the technology used to create SalesGoals.com. We use Grails & Groovy. And we love them! But we hear questions, quite often, actually, about whether or not Grails is ready for prime time. Well, here is some social proof, from some VERY big companies.
How to Set Activity Targets in SalesGoals.com Online CRM
February 10th, 2012 by SGWPAdmin1 | Permalink
To track your progress of calls, visits, emails and presentations, you’ll need to set the target amount of each activity you want to complete each day. To do this, click on the “Target Status” link at the top right area of the page. Then click “Set targets…”
Once you’ve clicked on “Set targets…” you’ll see the Edit Daily Activity Target page. To set your targets, simply type in the number of each activity you want to complete each day. Click “Save,” and your targets will be saved. If at any time you wish to edit the number of targets, just repeat the process and change the numbers of each activity. If you’re not sure how many of each activity you should be completing each day, use the “target setting wizard” to set your targets for you. Click on the blue link to get started.
The Target Setting Wizard will ask you how much you want to sell this year, the average value of a sale, how many calls, visits, emails and presentations it will take to close one sale, and your target time period. When you’ve entered in all the information, click the “Calculate” button.
After you’ve clicked “Calculate,” the wizard will tell you how many of each activity you’ll need to complete each day. Click finish, and you’re done! Your targets are set and you’re ready to start making sales.
How to Create a New Deal in SalesGoals.com Online CRM
February 8th, 2012 by SGWPAdmin1 | Permalink
To create a new deal, start by clicking the “Deals” tab. If you don’t have any deals yet, your screen won’t show any entries. To add a deal, click the “Create New” plus sign.
Once you’ve clicked the “Create New” button, you’ll be able to add the details of your deal. To add the contact that goes along with the deal, start typing the name of the contact in the contact search bar. After the first couple letters are entered the contacts matching your criteria will pop up. Select the one you want and then move on to the product search. To add the product associated with the deal, simply search just like you did for the contact and select your product. Add the amount, status, expected close date and deal temperature. If you want this deal to be private, just check the “Private” check box so only you and your sales manager can see the deal.
To edit, pop-up, delete or disable a deal, click on one of the action buttons. They’re on the far right side of your deals. The edit button allows you to update all aspects of the deal. The pop-up button pops the deal out of the screen and into another window for you to easily view or add deal data. The delete button deletes a deal, and the disable button disables the deal from use but doesn’t delete it, incase you want to use it again someday.
When you click on the edit action button, you’ll be able to update your deal. You can change the title, contact, product, etc. When you’re finished, just click the save button.
The temperature of the deal lets you, your teammates (if the deal isn’t private), and your sales manager see how the deal is going. Change it from cold to warm to hot as the deal progresses.
All deals start out as open, but as you go along you’ll win some and lose some. Hopefully most deals will be changed to “Won,” but just incase, you can update the status of the deal to whatever it needs to be. This keeps you, your team and your sales manager in the loop.
After you’ve added several deals, there might be too many for you to easily view. To find a deal fast, use the search bar located on the far right. You only need to type in the first two characters before the search automatically narrows down to deals that match your criteria.
How to Work Through Your Day in SalesGoals.com Online CRM
February 6th, 2012 by SGWPAdmin1 | Permalink
When you’ve planned out your week, you’re ready to start working through your day. When you click on the action tab, it will show you a list of all the activities you have planned for the day. If you don’t have anything planned for the current day, it will show you tomorrow’s activities. Or, if you don’t have any activities planned for the next few days, this section may be blank. If you do have activities planned for the day, click on an activity to view its details.
After you click on the activity, you’ll see where the type of activity is listed at the top. If it’s a call, it will read, “Today’s Call,” and if it’s a visit, it will read, “Today’s Visit,” etc. Scroll through the details of today’s action and make any necessary changes. Add a description or some notes about the appointment. Check out the location in the map. View the contact details such as phone number, address, email and website, as well as the type of contact (lead, prospect, customer or former customer). If you’ve had previous appointments with this customer you’ll see them under interaction history, just below the map. If you have any pending deals with this contact, you’ll see them under contact deals. To add a deal, simply click the new deal plus sign.
On the new deal screen, enter the details of the deal such as the deal title, product, amount, status, expected close and deal temperature. If you would like to make your deal private, check the “Private” box so that only you and your sales manager can view the deal. Once you’ve added all the details of the deal, click the save button.
To go ahead and schedule a new appointment, click the “New Appointment” plus sign under contact appointments on the today’s activity screen. Simply add the details of the meeting and click the save button. The meeting will show in blue under contact appointments. Your previous meetings will also be there. Click on them to change details or move them to another date. You can also check the complete check box to show that these meetings have been completed.
Once you’ve marked an activity as complete, click the save button. This will remove the item from your scheduled contacts list, leaving you with your remaining activities to work through.
After an activity has been marked complete, it will show up with a green border around it on your planning calendar. It will also be automatically updated in your performance charts on the dashboard so you can keep up with how you and your team are doing. All of the information you update on your computer will be synced with your iPhone on the Salesgoals app and vice-versa.
How to Plan Your Week in SalesGoals.com Online CRM
February 4th, 2012 by SGWPAdmin1 | Permalink
To start planning your week in Salesgoals, click on the Planning tab. Once you’ve added your contacts, you will see them under the contacts bar on the left side of the screen. To add an appointment with one of your contacts, simply click on the contact and drag it to the day of the week you will be meeting with them. Once you add them to the correct meeting day the new appointment box will pop up.
Most of the information will be filled in for you, such as title and event date. Select what form of action (call, visit, email or presentation) this meeting is, add a description if you’d like, and set the meeting address. Click on the circle next to meeting address and start adding the address. You don’t have to add the complete address; just type in the street address and city and the rest will be automatically filled in for you. Then click save, and you’re done! Your appointment is set.
Now you’ll see your meeting location pop up in the map. If you click on your meeting, a pop up box will show you the details of your meeting. Notice that it’s the same color as the day of the week you set the meeting for. So, if you plan a meeting on Friday your pin in going to be purple, if it’s on Wednesday it will be green, etc. This way you can see where you’ll be on what days and plan your meetings accordingly, so you’ll spend less time driving around and more time with your clients.
To remove an appointment from your calendar, just click and drag it back to your contacts list. A pop-up message will appear like the one above. Click “Ok” to delete, or “Cancel” to keep it where it is.
Once you plan out all your meetings for the week, your map might get a little crowded. To view individual days at a time, simply click the colored box in the calendar of each weekday you don’t want to view in the map so it turns white. Then you’ll be able to see only the days you want to view in the maps. Once you’ve planned your week, it’s time to start working through your day. Don’t forget, your meetings and their locations in the map will all be synced with the iPhone app so you can find your way when you’re on the go!
How to Import Contacts to SalesGoals.com Online CRM
February 3rd, 2012 by SGWPAdmin1 | Permalink
The fist thing you’ll want to do after registering for Salesgoals is import your contacts. First, you’ll need to put your contacts in an Excel spreadsheet. Include their name, company, title, address, phone number, email, or whatever you want to have on file in SalesGoals. To make things easier later in the import process, make sure you title each field (ex: First Name, Last Name, Company, etc.).
*If you are importing current and former customers, prospects and leads, a good idea is to have a separate .csv file for each type of contact.
After you have all of your contacts in an Excel sheet, save them as a Comma Separated Values (.csv) file. Once they’re saved as a .csv file, they’re ready to be imported.
To import your contacts, go to the “Contacts” page in Salesgoals. Click on the “Import” button in the upper left corner.
After you’ve clicked the “Import” button, your screen will look like this. Click the “Choose File” button and select your .csv file with your contacts you want to import.
Once you’ve selected your file, you’ll see the file name next to the “Choose File” button. Click “Next” to import your file.
If you already titled your spreadsheet with name, company, address, email, etc. fields, some of the information will already be populated for you. If some of your titles don’t match up (ex: “Phone” instead of “Work Phone”), you’ll need to click on the drop down list of each field you have populated in your .csv file and select where it should go in SalesGoals. If you don’t have all the fields populated, don’t worry; you can always add that information later. Once you’ve checked over all the fields and decided whether to import them as leads, prospects, customers or former customers, click the “Preview Contact Import” button.
It may take a few minutes to import all of your contacts. Be patient, the process is almost done!
Once all of your contacts have been imported, you’ll be able to preview them. If everything looks correct, click the “Finish Import” button. Your contacts are now added to your “Contacts” page and ready to be used!
An Introduction to SalesGoals.com Online CRM
February 2nd, 2012 by SGWPAdmin1 | Permalink
Welcome to Salesgoals, a complete online sales CRM solution. Created by salespeople for salespeople, it provides everything you need and nothing more. From helping you find your way to keeping track of your daily activities to staying connected to your clients, making sales has never been easier. To start using Salesgoals, visit Salesgoals.com and click “Register.” After you’ve signed up and logged in, you’re ready to begin.
First, let’s look at the dashboard. You’ll see that your recent activity will show up as a log of what you and your team has been up to. You can click on the different clients, deals and companies to view them individually. Under the performance charts, you’ll be able to track your calls, visits, emails and presentations. To set your target, click on “Target Status” at the top right corner of the screen and select how many calls, visits, emails and presentations you want to complete each day. Click on the different scope and period views to see performance charts of how you, your organization and your team are doing over time.
Click through the different tabs to start planning your week, importing contacts, adding products and deals and establishing teams. And don’t forget the Salesgoals iPhone app. It’s free and automatically syncs with your Salesgoals account to make sure you’re always connected to your world.
Why use an online sales CRM tool?
July 9th, 2011 by SGWPAdmin1 | Permalink
Have you made the shift to an online sales tool? If not, it is time to consider it.
Right now you may be thinking, “I’m doing fine now. Why would I want a CRM tool?”
Well, let’s think about that for a minute. You probably use Microsoft Outlook for email. You probably have a lot of good reasons for it:
- You’re comfortable with the interface
- It does a good job of managing folders and mail
- It even synchronizes with your smart phone
But it isn’t enough.
“Why?”, you might ask.
Quite simply, because it wasn’t designed with relationship management in mind. When did you last contact a customer? How often have you spoken to them? Did you complete the follow up activity you promised? These things are hard to see in Outlook. To compensate, we end up carrying mental maps of all our customer relationships in our head, and we use Outlook to support us by searching for past emails. Anytime you want the details, you have to fire up the laptop and search for your information. Ever try to do that in an airport while checking in for a flight?
This is baggage we can all do without.
Instead, you should consider using a tool that provides the insight you need to manage your relationships. A tool that provides the information you need right when you need it, whether at your desk or on your phone.
I can hear your protests already, “I’ve tried CRM tools before and they’re hard.”
I’m sure you have. And I’m sure they were. Many CRM tools, online or off, were built for other purposes than to support the salesperson. They were built for call centers. They were built for reporting. They were built for management. Very few were built with the salesperson in mind.
Astounding, isn’t it? You were hired with the express purpose of managing and improving relationships, yet they didn’t give you a tool to help you do your job. Instead, they gave you a tool that was built for someone else. And now they pressure you to use this tool, despite the fact that it doesn’t really help you sell.
Times are changing.
SalesGoals.com has been built for salespeople. It is easy to use. It is pre-configured when you start. It syncs with your iPhone, but lets you keep your customer contacts separate from your personal contacts. Oh, and it lets you make updates on the road straight from your phone. So the people in the office are updated immediately. And you don’t have to open the laptop once you finally get home to play catch up.
So you can wind down. Do something fun. Go play with the kids.
What better reasons can we offer?
Goal Setting 101
February 26th, 2011 by SGWPAdmin1 | Permalink
It’s almost March. Do you know your goals for the year? Are you on track to meeting them? Is your progress where it should be? If not, or if you don’t know, here’s a quick list of the steps you need to follow to figure this out.
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