In a nutshell…
- Project Management
- Sales Process
- System Integration
A small company that had grown organically, Sales Shift Global had no formal system in place for storing customer information. Details were spread across spreadsheets and emails and not always easy to find. The team sometimes recorded meeting discussions on sticky notes, or relied on memory. They were using Xero for invoicing.
Realising that they were spending valuable time looking for information, and that some information was getting lost, Sales Shift Global decided that it was time to implement a system that would help them store information centrally and share it between different parts of the business. The called on Squirrel Business Solutions for help.
“We didn’t have information at our fingertips when we needed it – we had to hunt for it. We really needed everything in one place,” recalls Andrea Boyle, Business Administrator, Sales Shift Global.
Sales Shift Global
Sales Shift Global advise, coach and train companies and individuals in order to develop and grow their sales effectiveness
The brief
A small company that had grown organically, Sales Shift Global had no formal system in place for storing customer information. Details were spread across spreadsheets and emails and not always easy to find. The team sometimes recorded meeting discussions on sticky notes, or relied on memory. They were using Xero for invoicing.
Realising that they were spending valuable time looking for information, and that some information was getting lost, Sales Shift Global decided that it was time to implement a system that would help them store information centrally and share it between different parts of the business. The called on Squirrel Business Solutions for help.
The solution
- Xero
- Zoho Campaigns
- Zoho CRM
- Zoho Projects
Squirrel’s CRM consultants met with the team at Sales Shift Global to gain a clear understanding of how their business works and their existing systems, requirements, pain points and goals. Describing the early stages of the project, Andrea Boyle continues, “What was really good was that Squirrel sat down and listened to what we wanted – we didn’t always know what this was, but they helped us to work it out.”
After a period of detailed planning and further consultation, Squirrel carried out the following implementations and integrations:
Zoho CRM
The first step was to implement Zoho CRM and the Zoho CRM mobile app, which gives Sales Shift Global the option to access and work with their data from their mobile devices. Crucially, they can work in the offline mode to add, modify or delete records. These are saved locally and synchronised with their online account when they connect to the network.
Squirrel then migrated Sales Shift Global’s cleansed data from their Excel spreadsheets into the CRM.
Zoho CRM-Xero integration
Squirrel went on to integrate Zoho CRM with Xero and set up a series of rules in the CRM. These rules make invoicing easier and more efficient by, for example, enabling Sales Shift Global to simply select one of their services in the CRM and automatically create a draft invoice for the appropriate amount in Xero.
Sales Shift Global can also create recurring invoices, whereby payments are split over a period, in Xero. Triggered in the CRM by the completion of a particular stage in the project, the first invoice is automatically created and sent from Xero. A copy is pushed back into the CRM. Subsequent invoices follow at set intervals and are also stored in the CRM. In this way, the CRM provides an easily accessible record of the client’s full payment history.
Zoho CRM-web integration
Sales Shift Global have an online business diagnostic tool for clients to complete via a form on their website. Once this has been completed, the system generates a report, which is made available for purchase.
Squirrel integrated Sales Shift Global’s web form with Zoho CRM, which ensured that all relevant information is captured in the CRM when the client completes the form. When the client pays for the report, this is recorded in both Xero and the CRM for easy reference.
Training
The final stage of the process was training the team to use the system. This consisted of hands-on and online Q&A sessions with Squirrel’s Zoho consultant, and the provision of training videos and a comprehensive training manual.
The benefits
- One centralised, up-to-date database accessible to everyone in the company.
- Easy access to customer information in the CRM via the mobile app.
- Increased efficiency, as notes and diagrams created during meetings can be photographed and stored immediately in the CRM.
- Improved communication within the team, who now have access to the same information and follow the same processes.
- Clear visibility of the status of leads and opportunities in the pipeline.
- Improved visibility of project progress.
- More efficient invoicing, as all members of the team can view the status of projects in the CRM, and receive automatic reminders to send invoices at the appropriate time.
- Improved cash flow, as all payments are visible in the CRM and late payments can be followed up more easily.
- Improved efficiency and enhanced professional image as a result of using Zoho Projects for project management. This will become even more important as the company grows and the volume of work increases.
We can now see our sales pipeline, contacts and opportunities in a very visual way, which is fantastic. We have all the information we need in one place. We’ve also started using other Zoho applications, such as Zoho Projects and Zoho Campaigns. Everything just links together. Our systems were quite ad hoc before, but with the CRM in place we can get our message out in an efficient and professional way.
Andrea Boyle
Business Administrator
Sales Shift Global
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Squirrel Business Solutions implements and integrates CRM and other cloud-based systems, and provides training and support, for small and medium-sized businesses all over Australia, including Melbourne, Bendigo, regional Victoria, Tasmania, Sydney and Brisbane. This empowers them to automate their processes and improve their efficiency.
Elizabeth is our resident customer engagement lady. She checks in with our clients regularly to help the team at Squirrel efficiently deliver what’s important. She’s a bit of a wordsmith too!