Telenotes The Problem With CRM Software eBook

The Big Problem With CRM SoftwareAND HOW TO SOLVE IT

The Big Problem With CRM Software And How To Solve It

Which is why Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software has exploded

onto the business scene over the past decade.

However,

Effectively managing the customer relationship is essential to success.

CRM software continues to cause more pain than profit for businesses.


This only serves to exacerbate the issues already plaguing typical CRM software.

Difficult to use and even harder to get adopted by the sales team, it seems as if the only answer from big CRM software

providers is add more layers of complication.

COMPLICATED DATABASES,

CONFUSING SOFTWARE PROGRAMS

POOR SALES TEAM ADOPTION, SALES REPS ARE NOT DATA ENTRY

CLERKS

MAKING A BAD PROBLEM WORSE


In this eBook, we’ll uncover the big problem with CRM software and dig in to

the simple solution.

1 The Sole Purpose of CRM Software

2 The Big Problem: Why Your Business Isn’t Seeing Those Returns

3 The Simple Solution

4 The Ripple Effect of Dictation

5 The Ideal CRM Solution


The Sole Purpose ofCRM Software

As mentioned previously, CRM software has become almost commonplace among

businesses of all sizes, in all industries. Due in large part to what the software

promises to provide:

CONNECT SALES TEAMS TO CUSTOMERS AND TO

THE HOME OFFICE

INCREASE VISIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

INCREASE SELLING TIME AND REDUCE

ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN

But when it comes down to it, CRM solutions have the same singular purpose as

every asset acquired by a business...


Obvious, right? We’re used to making business decisions based on this simple fact:

will the revenue outweigh the costs? A simple concept, with an infinite number of

influencing factors.

We’ll dig deeper into those variables within the next section.

Generate a Return on Investment

FOCUSES ON THERELATIONSHIP

MANIFESTATIONS OFRETURN ON INVESTMENT

For now, let’s flesh out the purposes of CRM solutions.


A CRM solution impacts almost every relationship within

a business. The most evident of these is the relationship

between your business and its customers, but it spreads

further than that.

Focuses on the ‘R’

BUSINESS CUSTOMER

C-SUITEMANAGEMENT

SALES REP

CUSTOMER SALES REP

MANAGEMENT

While the customer is the focus of a CRM solution (it is in the name itself), it also

dictates the relationship between the customer and the sales rep herself, the sales

rep and management, and between management and C-level executives.


When operating as it should, CRM solutions let management and the C-suite see

the big picture of what’s happening on the sales front. Allowing everyone, from sales

reps to CEOs, to make decisions based off insight, not assumption.

All of these relationships have the opportunity to be fostered and grown with CRM software, or strained and lessened.

Insight is greater than assumption.


There are two outcomes you’ll experience when a CRM

solution serves its core purpose. The first is fairly obvious and

the second may be a bit unexpected, but no less impactful.

Manifestations ofReturn on Investment

SALES TEAM GROWTH

THE BOTTOM LINE

A CRM solution improves the business’ profit.

When you build better relationships and have

greater visibility into more insight and data, it’s only

logical that your business will experience higher

revenues. Furthermore, with greater insight, you

should be able to lower costs as well.

While not a dollars and cents outcome, the growth

of a sales team can be priceless. With a CRM

solution, each sales rep should be able to asses

their own gaps in knowledge and take the proper

steps to fill them. In addition, the increased visibility

to management only proves to enhance this

professional growth.


The Big Problem:Why Your Business Isn’t Seeing Those Returns

After laying out the potential return experienced from CRM solutions, why on

earth is there such difficulty actually enjoying these returns? The answer is the

problem.

It’s a problem that almost every single CRM software inherently possesses.

BIG CRM SOLUTION PROMISES

DISSENGAGEDSALES TEAMS

NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT


The big problem lies in the time required to simply maintain the database itself. If

you’re wondering why CRMs have notoriously low adoption rates, maintenance is

behind that as well.

Maintaining the System

UPDATING SALES CALL NOTES

Every sales rep is instantly expected to input troves of clerical data, a task that wasn’t

even considered when they were hired.

ENTERING PROSPECT INFORMATION

UPDATING EXISTING CUSTOMER INFORMATION

CONTACT UPDATES

ATTACHING DOCUMENTS

UPDATING CALENDARS & FOLLOW-UPS

TRACKING EXPENSES

MANAGING OPPORTUNITIES

MANAGING PIPELINES

MANAGING MULTIPLE SALES REPS & REGIONS

DISSEMINATING INFORMATION TO OTHER DEPARTMENTS

CREATING SALES MEETING REPORTS

CREATING & UPDATING MANAGER REPORTS

ENTERING MILEAGE


Systems require a level of maintenance, that’s understood. But in order to see the

entire picture of return on investment, you need to take into account the costs

associated with this necessary upkeep.

In a recent survey, we found that field sales representatives spend an average of 1

to 1.5 hours every day updating and maintaining their CRM database.

Time Spent Maintaining the System

Field sales representatives spend an average of 1 to 1.5 hours every day updating and maintaining their CRM database.


An hour or so every day may not initially seem like a

detrimental cost. But, when you look at it in aggregate, it

becomes jaw dropping. For ease of explanation, let’s assume

a sales rep is paid $40 per hour. We’ll leave out benefits and

other incentives and focus on the simple hourly wage.

Monetizing the Time Spent

That 25 hours is taken away from each and every sales rep. Which means that’s 25

less hours spent on making sales and building relationships with customers. Or it’s

taken from time spent with their families.

Either way, it’s not an effective use of your sales team’s valuable time.

HOURS PER DAY WORKING DAYS PER MONTH

HOURS SPENT MAINTAINING EVERY

MONTH

=1.5 20 25


How valuable is that time? When we

look at it from a monthly standpoint,

your business is spending $468.75

for each sales rep to enter data into a

CRM system. When we look at annual

costs, it gets even scarier.

MONTHS IN A CALENDAR YEAR

ANNUAL CRM MAINTENANCE COST

PER SALES REP

=12

HOURS PER MONTH PAID HOURLY MONTHLY MAINTENANCE COST

PER SALES REP

=$40.0025 $1,000

That’s just for one of your sales reps.

How big is your team? Five people?

Ten? Fifty? It’s evident that the cost

increases exponentially. Try $28,000,

$56,000, and $281,000 of annual

costs!

This cost is often not considered when pricing out a business CRM solution.

MONTHLY MAINTENANCE COST

PER SALES REP

$1,000 $12,000


It’s clear that the labor costs associated with CRM maintenance are

massive. However, you also need to assess the wide impact this loss of time

creates.

Looking at Total Costs

You’re not just losing an hourly pay rate, you’re missing opportunities and critical business intelligence.

With an hour of each day allocated to maintenance, the sales rep is entering data

instead of making an extra sales call. Instead of carrying out follow-up tasks with

potential customers, sales reps are more concerned about checking off the right

boxes and filling out the proper forms.


Now, what about that offhand request made by a top client at the end of a sales

meeting...

It’s lost, because the sales rep put off data entry until the next day, and just failed to

recall it. As a result, the business is missing out on priceless business intelligence.

Information that could help close more deals or increase average

order value is rarely relayed to the management team.

OPPORTUNITIES BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE


The Simple Solution

CRM software is supposed to generate a return on investment, but that’s

inherently impossible with the time required to implement and maintain the

database. You can’t experience a return when you’re spending hundreds of

thousands of dollars to use the software, on top of the price of the solution itself.

Stop asking your sales team to perfrom clerical data entry.

THE BEST SALES REPS ARE RARELY AT THEIR DESKS

HIGH DEMAND FOR QUALITY DATA

COSTLY & INEFFECTIVE ‘SOLUTIONS’


Stop typing. Start talking.

Instead, ask them to talk.

That’s right, dictation is the solution to the big CRM problem. Information gathering that once took hours takes only minutes,

when a sales rep is talking instead of typing.

NO MORE COMPLICATED

DATABASES

TOTAL SALES TEAMADOPTION

MAXIMIZES SALES REP PRODUCTIVITY

It’s what you hired them to do, and what they’re best at.


Human Propensity to Speech

Our ability to write evolved from our ability to speak, but the systems behind talking

and writing are completely independent of one another in the brain.

So separate, that cognitive scientists from Johns Hopkins University1 found that

someone who cannot write a grammatically correct sentence has the ability to say

it aloud in perfect form.

1"Say What? How the Brain Separates Our Ability to Talk and Write." ScienceDaily. 5 May 2015. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150505112216.htm


In writing of any kind,humans encounter cognitive fixation. Cognitive Fixation2 is the failure to address or solve a problem because you fail to

find or form alternatives. This happens because as we write, the majority of our

brain power is consumed by fulfilling the task of typing and editing text.

Which makes our visual imagination skills and analogical reasoning skills difficult

to utilize. On the other hand, while dictating, humans engage our imagination,

analogical reasoning skills, and mental stimulations.

Dictation allows us to utilize our problem-solving skills.

2Beaudoin, Luc P. “How Dictation Benefits Cognitive Productivity.” CogZest. 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. http://cogzest.com/2012/03/some-benefits-of-dictation-for-cognitive-productivity/


When it comes to humans, ultimately we prefer talking over writing in terms of

clarity and ease of communication. Even the most renowned novelists the world

has ever seen preferred dictation over writing.

LEO TOLSTOY

Speaking heightens clarity and eases communication.

CHARLESDICKENS

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth, and James Joyce are just a handful authors who dictated their works.3

3Grigg, Cindy. “13 Advantages to Dictating Your Writing.” Cindy Grigg. 27 Oct. 2014. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. http://cindygrigg.com/2014/10/27/advantages-to-speaking-or-dictating-your-writing-or-novel/


The Ripple Effect of Dictation

Humans prefer talking, that is clear. But how does dictation transform clerical data

entry within a CRM solution?

EASE OF USE TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATION

PROFESSIONAL GROWTH

It does so in many more ways than one. From your sales team, to the executive suite.


Not only does speaking come easier to us, it results in

increased productivity. When using a traditional keyboard,

the majority of individuals type 20 to 30 words per minute.

Even professional typists net just 57 words per minute.4

Ease of Use

ON A TRADITIONAL KEYBOARD

And that’s simply copying sentences; it doesn’t factor in the actual brain power

required to form ideas, and ultimately sentences, through typing.

20-60wpm

How does speaking compare? The average lecture speech pace is 142 words per

minute. Speaking instead of writing increases productivity almost three-fold! With

a CRM solution equipped with dictation capabilities, you’re no longer placing a

clerical burden on your sales team. You’re actually giving them more time to spend

on something in which they truly excel: selling.

Dictation nearly triples productivitycompared to typing.

AVERAGE LECTURE SPEED

140wpm

2Beaudoin, Luc P. “How Dictation Benefits Cognitive Productivity.” CogZest. 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. http://cogzest.com/2012/03/some-benefits-of-dictation-for-cognitive-productivity/


Too many times we sacrifice detail in the name of productivity.

Dictation is unique because while it supercharges the

productivity of the sales team, it also results in richer details

and information gathered.

Transparent Communication

The root of this lies in the ability of dictation to mitigate the majority of cognitive fixation, which we described earlier.

When sales reports are spoken instead of written, the sales rep gives a more

accurate depiction of the relationship between themselves and the client. This gives

management visibility into the relationship, translating into the perfect allocation

of assets and education to the sales rep.


The singular benefits of dictation result in a whole that is

greater than the sum of its parts. Because dictation is easier

to use, sales reps have no qualms calling in and completing

reports. Because dictation mitigates cognitive fixation,

Professional Growth& Development

Think of the opportunities created for education when details are consistently

collected and easily viewed. It gives every party the chance to learn from one

another and improve their own selling or management skills.

managers are given better understanding into the client-sales rep relationship.

What this ultimately results in are clear growth paths for not only sales reps, but

managers as well.

VISIBILITY INSIGHT

EDUCATION GROWTH


The Ideal CRM Solution

Now we understand the fundamental problem with the majority of CRM

solutions. But, what aspects of a CRM software will actually aid in the realization

of a return on investment?

DICTATION MOBILITY VISIBILITY

The ideal CRM software should provide your business with dictation, mobility, and visibility.


Obvious, right? Dictation is the core differentiating feature between CRM solutions

that help your company and those that just end up hurting it. The solution you select

for your business needs to integrate dictation, no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it.

When you dig into dictation, it becomes clear that two methods exist. The first is

voice-to-text software and the second are live transcribers.

Dictation

VOICE TO TEXT LIVE TRANSCRIBERS


While we all love and use voice-to-text software

on our smartphones, this software still has its

glitches. Think about when you’ve been in the car,

realized you haven’t had lunch yet so you grab your

phone and ask Siri what food places are near you.

Voice to Text

If you’re lucky, she picked up exactly what you said and pulled up your options.

But unfortunately Siri is just a computer, and she’s prone to fallibility, so half

the time you use her she only catches part of what you say or she thinks you

said something you didn’t.

A computer’s inability to always pick up on what you have to say is one problem voice-to-text software faces.

Another is that a computer isn’t knowledgeable with specialized terms or industry-

related vocabulary words your reps use on a daily basis.

INDUSTRY VOCABULARY

COMPANYJARGON

SPECIALIZEDTERMS


Live transcribers catch everything a sales rep says, and if

for some reason they need clarification, they can replay

the message to ensure they transcribe it word for word.

Live Transcribers

This is where live transcribers prove that people are better than machines.

Transcribers can also be taught your industry-specific terms and vocabulary so

they’re just as knowledgeable as your team.


Another factor that puts voice-to-text software a grade below live transcribers is

time. The learning curve of this software is difficult, and difficult things take time,

more time than your sales team can afford to take.

It’s also time-consuming for a sales rep to try and dictate all their client meeting

notes using voice-to-text. They can’t just push a button, leave their message and

know it’s going to be typed exactly how they said it. Rather, they must click a field,

dictate a portion of their message, check to see that the computer typed their

dictation word for word, and then repeat those steps until they’ve said all they

need to say.

With live transcribers, you avoid the steep learning curve associated with voice to text software.


With live transcribers, your reps pick up their phone, call in their entire message,

and it’s immediately sent to a transcriber. These transcribers are also able to

disseminate the information provided, and enter it into the correct form fields. It’s a

more convenient and normal way to record their thoughts and notes.

CONVENIENCE

What would take less than one minutewith a system using live transcribers, takes reps using voice-to-text ten times longer.

NATURAL TIME-SAVER

Live transcribers are as necessary as dictation itself.


Dictation is the first quality of a CRM solution that helps cut the tether between a

sales rep and their desk. Mobility is what takes dictation from a good feature to a

business-changing one.

Mobility

Choosing a CRM solution with a mobile application is no longer optional — it’s

required. It’s what keeps your sales reps up to date on all client accounts and

happenings, no matter where their day takes them.

THE FEATURES YOUR SALES TEAM NEEDS

AVAILABLE ANYWHERE THE CLIENT TAKES THEM


A CRM mobile app gives your team access to company accounts, customer

information, calendars, and more. It allows them to access real-time data while

they’re on the go meeting with clients and making pitches to potential clients.

Plus, most mobile apps work whether your system of choice is iOS or Android so

your reps can use the device they already own and are comfortable using. As you

can see, a mobile CRM strategy only benefits your sales reps. Your sales team is

mobile, so it only makes sense that your CRM solution is mobile as well.


The ideal CRM solution will not only be welcomed by management, but by the sales

team, too. Visibility is the critical element in widespread CRM solution acceptance.

Visibility

The sales team needs to understand the value they gain in terms of professional

development. While management needs to understand the power and accountability

that visibility requires.

SALES TEAM MANAGEMENT

ACCOUNTABILITY

Visibility + Accountability = Productivity


The Telenotes Difference

The Telenotes goal is to work with your company to eliminate any wasted time,

save you money, and grow your business. And we know what a sales rep wants

because we’ve been in their shoes, which is why our CRM solution is the only one

with dictation that uses live transcribers.

DICTATION

After all, Telenotes was designed by sales reps, for sales reps.

LIVE TRANSCRIBERS


Our team at Telenotes, along with our live transcribers — who based in the United

States — work with each company using our system to find industry-specific terms.

We then take and share those terms with our transcribers so they’re familiar with

them. Because our transcribers are real people, when you’re dictating product

numbers and parts, Telenotes identifies those much quicker than computer software

does.

We know we aren’t perfect, and it’s possible for us to miss some of the terms, but we work to quickly pick up on any that we miss and get them added to the list.

REAL-TIME LEARNING LOCAL TRANSCRIBERS

Telenotes only uses US-based transcribers.


Besides catering to your individual industry, Telenotes saves

your sales reps time, which saves your company money.

Even if your sales reps spend only half of our estimate, or

15 hours, each month on data entry, they’ll still be left in the

dust by sales reps using Telenotes.

Accounting for more than 7 million entries, the average time a sales rep spends per call is only 50 seconds!

Spending less than 5 minutes each working day totals to less than 2 hours per month.

HOURS PER MONTH MONTHS IN A CALENDAR YEAR

HOURS SPENT ANNUALLY

=1.5 12 18


The ROI with our CRM solution and dictation feature is better than any other

out there. Because our services save your sales guys numerous hours a month

inputting their own notes, that saves you from having to pay them for their extra

hours of work, adding up to thousands of dollars a year.

RECLAIM HUNDREDS OF WORKING HOURS

STOP PAYING FOR CRM MAINTENANCE

Telenotes is unmatched in both user adoption and overall efficiency, making it the most cost effective CRM solution in the industry.


On top of offering live transcribers and a better ROI, we provide an awesome

mobile solution. With the Telenotes app, your sales reps don’t just stay up-to-date

on accounts and data, they’re able to record their notes from within the mobile app

with a simple tap.

Our app isn’t dependent on cell service, so even if your rep is in the middle of

nowhere, they can dictate notes clearly and with less mistakes. They can dictate

from wherever they are, they’ll just need to wait for an Internet connection before

uploading.

DICTATE NOTES ANYWHERE, EVEN WITHOUT CELL SERVICE

UPLOAD WHERE EVER YOU’RE CONNECTED TO WIFI


Ready to solve your big CRM solution problem?We’re ready to help.

When a CRM solution meets its core purpose, the bottom line improves —

STRENGTHENED CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

ACCURATE & AUTHENTIC CUSTOMER INSIGHTS

ENERGIZED SALES TEAMS

INCREASED REVENUE

more accurate and authentic customer insights, strengthened customer

relationships, energized sales teams, and increased revenue — and that is exactly

what Telenotes does for you.

Solve the big problem with CRM solutions.CONTACT TELENOTES TODAY!

TRY FOR FREE CONTACT US

Telenotes The Problem With CRM Software eBook

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Transcript of Telenotes The Problem With CRM Software eBook