10 Relationship Management Systems that Work

Posted on June 30, 2021July 30, 2021 by promotorasys

10 Relationship Management Systems that Work

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Once you have implemented your lead generation strategies and relationship-building steps, you need to manage your list of network connections.

Nurturing your business relationships is the best way to turn those connections into long-term customers. Since every company is different and every connection has different marketing needs, there may not be a one-size-fits-all tool. Each company needs to determine what features its relationship management system needs. We have a list of the 10 best business relationship management systems that work.

10 Relationship Management Systems

Leadfeeder is a website visitor identification tool. The tools allow you to discover which companies visit your website, and whether they completed an online form or contact you on the site. This provides the user with information about the site visitor, including which pages visited and how long spent visiting, where the visitor was before using your site, and vital information about the company including contact information, number of employees, and industry.

Sumo is a simple and easy tool that takes two steps: Install the software and activate the capture form. That is all it takes to begin lead generation and email capture. Sumo offers a free plan, as well as paid plans that start at $39 per month.

Autopilot is a program that builds lead generation and the lead nurturing process. The lead generation then becomes automatic without any more effort on your part. With Autopilot, you can design your personalized connection experiences that capture the leads and convert them.

One of the best tools for relationship management and lead generation is Act-On. The features for this tool include landing page optimization, website visitor tracking, and A/B testing tools. Act-On also provides the user with the ability to create custom website templates.

Lead Squared is a great tool for capturing leads. The platform has tools that help the user understand and identify buyer intent signals. The features that help you manage and organize all business-to-business leads include Merchant Lifecycle, Marketplace CRM, and Vendor Onboarding.

Turn “clicks into customers” with Leadpages. This platform is designed for the smaller B2B business outlets. Leadpages allows the user to create a webpage that permits the business to connect with new leads and convert them to regular users.

SharpSpring allows users to get to know their potential connections better. This paves the way for you to market to them, and eventually sell to them. The platform has features such as dynamic form and landing page builders to help enable lead nurturing. Plans for SharpSpring start at $550 per month.

One of the original and still the best email marketing solutions is Constant Contact.This B2B platform has email templates and the ability to make your own marketing website. The platform also has social media marketing tools so that you can use Facebook and Instagram ads to bring leads to your website. Constant Contact has a free 60-day trial period; its plans start at $20 per month.

Litmus is an email marketing tool that is designed around continuous improvement. The platform makes it easy to build, test, and analyze email campaigns. Litmus has a seven-day free trial, then plans start at $99 per month. For email marketing made better, use Litmus.

HubSpot allows you to have all your marketing tools in one place. The features included with this platform are blogs, social media management, live chat, video, and ad tracking and management. HubSpot Marketing Hub also includes the ability to create content, attract visitors, and convert leads. The paid Marketing Hub plans start at $50 per month.

Creating a business relationship strategy can be a tough task to implement. Your individual company needs will determine the relationship management system that works best. PS Inc can help with all your business networking and relationship management needs. Contact us today to get started.

How To Avoid the Most Common Relationship Management Errors

Posted on June 23, 2021June 24, 2021 by promotorasys

How To Avoid the Most Common Relationship Management Errors

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A huge part of the business networking process is to grow business collaboration and create strategic relationships. A new business connection can be precarious at first. While the first impression of your new connection is still fresh, you must avoid these common business network relationship mistakes.

Common Business Relationship Mistakes

Error: Too Much Friction in the Sales Process

Nothing will turn off that new lead more than a tumultuous sales process. No one likes being passed around to different salespeople on a call when you have an issue with a product or service. Doing it this way can greatly damage your brand new business-to-business network connection.

How To Avoid It:

For efficiency’s sake, it is best to have one experienced salesperson handle all the stages of the sales process for each lead. This experienced salesperson will be able to sort out the potential leads from the stale ones. Another way to avoid this mistake is to increase training and communication between the sales teams. These may be two-person teams consisting of a junior and a senior salesperson. This helps create strong sales management, low staff turnover, and rigorous sales.

Error: Following Up Too Slowly

It is unacceptable to wait several days for a follow-up contact. We are all busy and we all meet many people every day, but so do your connections. One way to cause a new connection to go from hot to cold is to fail to cultivate the new relationship right away. It won’t take long for the relationship to go from business collaboration to just another contact on the list.

How To Avoid It:

A quick follow-up to all connections should happen as soon as possible after the initial meeting. It can be as simple as a quick greeting on a social media message platform, or an email fully introducing you and your business. If you have something to share, such as an industry newsletter or a resource list, include it in the email to add value to the connection.

Error: More Lead Generation than Brand Credibility

Many people are so fixated on growing their business connections that they neglect promoting brand credibility. You do not want to be aggressive with accumulating connections to the point that you turn them off, both to you and your business. If your brand is unknown in the market, it will be a long and hard battle to get it to grow.

How To Avoid It:

Start out planning lead generation strategies and combine them with brand building. If you implement too much lead generation but neglect to equally work on the brand building, you may not be happy with the results. Gathering the leads is the easier part of the plan. But, if these new leads do not connect with your brand, they may drop you and go to the competitor’s site. This is why you must invest in building your brand credibility.

Error: Not Utilizing Your Marketing Department

If sales slow down, your prospects may be hesitant to buy right away. When your company does quite a bit of lead generation, it will take a great deal of time to nurture these leads. The problem develops when the salespeople become in charge of nurturing the leads. This takes away from their time working on the sales in progress.

How To Avoid It:

One of the primary functions of any marketing department is nurturing new clients. Have your marketing department handle everything involved with nurturing your leads until they are ready to buy.

Error: Failing to Deliver Value with Every Interaction

When networking, people connect over some common ground. People want to interact with someone that they can view as an advisor or mentor position in their industry. That is why networking without delivering some value to the relationship is a mistake.

How To Avoid It:

Give your connections something to take away from every meeting, post, or message. When you are trying to make new connections, give them a fact or some information that will keep them interested in you and your business.

Business-to-business relationship management is an extremely important part of growing your business. PS Inc can help with all your relationship management needs. Contact us today to get started.

How Can You Make Your Network Work For You

Posted on June 16, 2021December 17, 2021 by promotorasys

How Can You Make Your Network Work For You

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Business networking can greatly increase the visibility and productivity of your business. Proper network management requires time and a few simple steps to make it happen.

The key to making your network work for you is developing a relationship strategy that fosters constructive relationship building. These relationships can lead to many wonderful business collaboration opportunities.

Attend Networking Events

Attend all the industry networking events that you can. Any business can benefit from these events, but is it especially important for small business owners and business professionals to attend local business functions. Contact your local chamber of commerce to see if it has a schedule of local networking events. For regional and national networking events, you can find many through LinkedIn. If you join industry-specific LinkedIn groups, you will be in the loop for newsletters and invitations to networking events.

Pick a Goal for the Networking Event

It does not matter what networking endeavor in which you choose to participate. Set an agenda before attending the event. Ask yourself what exactly you would like to accomplish during this time. For instance, are you there to make new connections, learn more about your industry, or participate in a community charity event?

Always Be Socially Active

As far as networking is concerned, it does not only happen at business events. Be socially active with people you interact with in your leisure time, as well. This is as easy as casually chatting it up with people at the gym, local sporting events, or your children’s school activities. You never know if that casual acquaintance could become a new network connection.

Know the Worth of Your Business and Promote It

Take the time to create a pitch about your business to generate referrals and connections. Make sure that the pitch you create is clear about what you do, who your customers are, and what makes you stand out over the competition. People are very impressed when a colleague can clearly articulate their business and its objectives. Doing this can pique the interest of this new connection to your company and hopefully begin a new business relationship.

Find an Icebreaker

If beginning conversations with strangers is awkward for you, try to find an icebreaker to get the dialog flowing. You can do this as easily as a compliment on someone’s tie or dress. This gives the other person the chance to talk about themselves. You can also base it on some common ground like owning the same cell phone or other product and comparing notes.

Be An Extrovert

Once you get to a networking event, make the most of your time. Don’t sit alone at a table or bar quietly, actively work the room. Smile, make eye contact, and say hello to everyone. Walk around and introduce yourself to people and tell them about your business. Take this time to get to know others, as well. Actively listen to what they have to say, and parlay that into a dialogue about your industry and your respective businesses.

Follow Up

While at networking events, collect business cards and contact information for everyone you meet. Connect with these people on Linkedin and other social media channels. Try to find some reason to follow up with the new connection. Send them an email that says it was nice to meet them at the event and you look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship. You can keep yourself in their orbit by occasionally sending them an article online, inviting them to another event, and even wishing them happy holidays.

Give and Take

Networking cannot be a one-sided relationship. Successful networking involves quite a bit of reciprocity for both parties to benefit from the relationship. A business network relationship can fade fairly quickly if one person is always asking for some kind of favor but is unwilling to do the same for others.

Ask for What You Want

One sure way to not get what you want is neglecting to ask for it. For your networking efforts to be a success, you will need to ask for assistance. Make sure that you have a clear understanding of what you need and be able to articulate that. When the other person asks how they can help you, you can tell them exactly what is needed.

Not sure how to make the most of your network? PS Inc can help you. Contact us today to get started on growing your network and utilizing the connections you already have.

How to Grow Your Network Organically

Posted on June 9, 2021June 10, 2021 by promotorasys

How to Grow Your Network Organically

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Business networking is a task that takes quite a bit of time and effort to build, maintain, and grow. A business’s network of mentors and colleagues has become one of the most important facets of building and maintaining a business.

Why is growing a business network so important?

There are numerous benefits to building a strong business network. If you were to ask any small business where they get most of their new clients, they will tell you by word of mouth. That type of in-person meet-and-greet marketing is what networking is all about. In fact, a study reported that as many as 78 percent of startups say networking is paramount to all of their business endeavors.

The benefits of growing your business network are limitless. You will meet people in your industry at both the local and national levels. You will learn about innovations from people in your industry. There will be the opportunity for valuable business partnerships, the ability to generate new connections, and maybe even land a new job. So the best bet all around for your business growth is to start a network and keep it growing.

Below are a few network management tips to help you grow your business network.

How to Grow Your Business Network Organically

Deepen Your Already Existing Network Relationships

When it comes to networking, quality is sometimes more important than quantity. In other words, don’t put your focus on just accumulating as many people in your network as soon as possible. First, get to know the people already in your network a bit better. Read and comment on their posts, and try to keep a dialog going about a topic of mutual interest. Don’t make the mistake of reaching out to a colleague only when you need something. Instead, you can just message them to chat about the business. This relationship-building method will create a sense of camaraderie within your network and make the relationship stronger.

Learn Something New

To avoid stagnation in your business growth, learn a new skill to broaden and expand your professional network. Of course, it is beneficial to keep the focus on your area of expertise, but don’t limit yourself. If you decide to dabble in another professional discipline, you are opening the floodgates to a whole new group of contacts to expand your professional network. Beyond just learning and connecting online, you can also attend a conference or trade show in this new skill or discipline. The opportunity for new network connections at these events is well worth the price of the ticket, and then some.

Start a Monthly Networking Event

Plan an informal networking event every month. Reach out to all your relevant contacts with an invitation to your event. If there are many people in your network that are in your city or local area, you can plan a monthly breakfast or luncheon. This can be a great opportunity to speak to your colleagues, and swap industry information and tips. If your network is more spread out over a distance, why not host a virtual event? You can schedule a Zoom conference with all your network.

Volunteer with a Professional Organization or Serve on a Board

One of the best ways to grow your network organically is to volunteer your time to a cause or serve on a board based on your career field. The benefits of networking this way are double: you grow your network and you earn a boost with professional references. Participating with these organizations also usually provides passes to great events, which, of course, will then become additional networking opportunities. These naturally expand without much effort if your initial goal is connection.

Increase LinkedIn Activity

LinkedIn is the premier site for business networking. One of the best ways to grow your network is to increase your activity and your visibility on LinkedIn. Share your own posts on LinkedIn frequently, while liking and sharing those relevant posts of your colleagues. This will put your business front and center in the feed where your connection’s network members can see your activity. This could lead to new connections, a possible business collaboration, or even an opportunity to create strategic partnerships. Do not go through all the trouble of creating a LinkedIn profile and gathering contacts, and then just disappear from the site.

Need help with the steps to grow your business network? PS Inc can help you. Contact us today to get started on growing your network organically.

The Insider’s Guide to How Networking Can Help You Stop Selling

Posted on June 2, 2021December 17, 2021 by promotorasys

The Insider’s Guide to How Networking Can Help You Stop Selling

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Does your network work for you? If not, you’re going to want to keep reading.

It’s no secret that networking can be a time-consuming process, but if done correctly, a good network will bring you all the leads you’ll ever need for your business. If you start with a solid foundation and nurture the relationships within your network, your connections will do all the work for you and you’ll never have to sell again. So, how do you get started?

The first step is to stop selling your product and start selling you.

This might sound crazy, but trust us, it works.

As you meet new people and get to know them, take the time to genuinely get to know them. Don’t try to throw them a pitch or sell your products to them.

Take time to learn about them and ask about their business. This will go a long way in growing your relationship with them and will come in handy in the future when you are sending them leads because you know the type of client they are looking for.

People don’t want to be sold to constantly, so they will remember you as the person they enjoyed getting to know and who didn’t sell to them right away, or ever.

Also, let them get to know you.

It’s normal to want to be a little guarded when you are meeting new people, but try to open up and let them learn about you. Show them that you want to learn from them. Be fully present in the process. Let them see your passion for your business or your industry without talking about your products or selling your services. This will help them to form a relationship with you, and make them feel like they know you and can come to you in the future with leads.

The next step is to give energy.

We also like to call this “being a value-added connector.”

We’ve all met people that just drained all the energy from the room because all they wanted to do was sell you something. Don’t be that person.

When you find a way to give energy, people will want to be around you and work with you because when they interact with you, they feel good about the interactions. They walk away more energized and excited for the next opportunity to work with you, and, in return, introduce more people to you. The more value and good energy that you can give to your connections, the better.

Giving energy or adding value can be as simple as offering to do a favor for someone, writing a referral on LinkedIn, or making a recommendation for a restaurant or even a book. Regardless of how you give energy, it will show your connections that you are dedicated to building a real connection, not just a business connection. They will be happy to introduce potential leads to you because they know you’ll treat the people within their network with the same care and compassion that you treat them with.

The last step is to stay in touch.

You don’t have to talk to everyone in your network every single day, but reaching out from time to time just to check in and say hello keeps the relationship fresh and shows that you haven’t forgotten about them.

This can be as simple as a text or an email — just a little something to let your connections know that you’re still around and you still want to have a relationship with them. You can add extra value by sending an article or a book recommendation with a note that lets your connection know that you thought they might find value in it. This lets them know that you’re keeping an eye out for things that might be beneficial for them and reminds them to look for things that might benefit you, such as leads, for instance.

If you follow these three steps with all of your connections, you’ll never have to sell again. The people within your network will bring you all of the leads that you need because they are going to want to provide you with the same value that you have provided for them.

So, if you take the time to nurture your relationships and truly get to know your network, it will do the work for you. You just have to put in the effort to connect with people. That’s a lot easier than cold calling, right?