Certified public accountants aren’t the only ones feeling stressed this time of year. Consultants (like me!) and business owners of all types are doing their best to close out last year‘s books, get feedback from their accountants, and file accurate returns. In my experience, preparing for April 15th (or, as this year’s calendar falls, April ... Read More

You’ve taken the first step in the right direction by getting a CRM like Insightly onboard. If you want your sales team to get the most out of their CRM you need to make sure there are clear guidelines in place in the form of a CRM playbook. Not having a playbook which maps out ... Read More

Despite your dream of an agile sales force, 2018 is shaping up like every prior year in recent memory. A handful of sales reps definitely do their own thing, while everyone else tries to make the best of your CRM. “No thanks, my spreadsheets are working just fine. Just look at my close rate!” Spoken ... Read More

Each new customer represents a world of upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Unfortunately, for some companies, the sales process halts within moments of a deal converting into an account. Although there are many possible explanations for this issue, a common cause stems from the divide between sales and frontline operations. In this post, we’ll explore a ... Read More

As college basketball season draws ever closer to its culminating event, offices around the country are beginning to buzz with bracket fever. Who will be this year’s Cinderella story? Which #2 seed will be upset by a #15? And, perhaps most importantly, whose bracket will reign supreme? At your office, this time of year is ... Read More

“This year’s award for best regional sales manager goes to…” It’s safe to say that these words have never been spoken at any red-carpet event in the history of Hollywood. And, perhaps rightfully so. The general population could care less about your company’s sales revenue or top-performing contributors. (Their loss, right?) Despite the public’s lack ... Read More

2017 was a big year for the CRM world, we saw the rise of chatbots, and customer data enriched with social media feeds but what are this year’s top CRM trends? 2018 is already shaping up to be an exciting year for CRM users, with talks of AI helpers, unified omnichannel customer service supports, and ... Read More

Don’t blink…February is already here. February can sometimes serve as a hard dose of reality. This year was finally going to be the year you realized all those ambitious resolutions. Unfortunately, with January being a month filled full of budgeting, accounting, and other year-end obligations, you probably haven’t had a spare moment to think strategically. ... Read More

Are you part of the 36 percent of the U.S. workforce currently engaged in freelance consulting? I am, and I’ve been doing so for the greater part of a decade. Consulting offers a number of benefits: flexible work schedules, the freedom to chart your own course, and the opportunity to meet a ton of interesting ... Read More

Let’s start with the numbers and the major problem we face as sales people… or practically anyone who schedules lots of meetings. Sales people spent 20% of their time doing CRM, administrative, and report related tasks in 2015, according to the report State of Sales Productivity. Of that 20%, we can imagine much of that ... Read More

The ultimate goal of the SaaS product marketing is lead generation. The overall success of your marketing campaign whether you are making changes to a website, creating a next piece of content or running Facebook ads will be judged by a number of emails these activities deliver. In the long run, the question you should ... Read More

“Yes, let’s move forward with your proposal.” For consultants (like me!), few sentences are sweeter to the ear than this one. In addition to boosting next year’s revenue forecast, new clients help you hedge against uncertainty. After all, you never know when an existing client will decide to unexpectedly change course. As great as new ... Read More

The New Year brings with it a renewed sense of hope and optimism. Will this be the year you land that record-setting contract? Does expansion into adjacent markets represent a growth opportunity for your company? Will that “pet project” you’ve been toying with for years finally become a reality? Business owners across the globe are ... Read More

Your sales reps add a ton of value to your business. With your sales department playing such an instrumental role, you might want to consider giving them an extra special gift this holiday season. No, I’m not talking about a premium subscription to the ‘jelly of the month’ club. I’m talking about turbocharging your CRM. ... Read More

This is part 2 of a 3 part blog series. Part 2 provides you with guidance on managing duplicate records and bring best practices together with a worksheet to help implement processes in Insightly CRM. Part 3 will explore dashboard reporting.  Part 1 provided a technical overview of backup, security and support CRM best practices. ... Read More

In this post, we’ll explore six CRM integrations for Insightly worth trying in 2018. Your CRM is doing some amazing things these days. In addition to tracking all of your leads, contacts, sales opportunities, and tasks, you’ve even deployed a few outside-the-box project pipelines. Yes, your CRM sure is a vital asset for your business. ... Read More

This is part 1 of a 2 part blog series. Part 1 provides a technical overview of backup, security and support CRM best practices. Part 2 will provide you with guidance on managing duplicate records and bring best practices together with a worksheet to help implement processes in Insightly CRM. Data integrity is key to ... Read More

When you think of the word “pipeline,” what comes to mind? If you’re like most business owners, you probably think of the sales process. Leads, opportunities, and new customers are all top of mind. Although sales pipelines are vital to any company, a “project pipeline” can be equally useful from an operations standpoint. If you’ve ... Read More

We all love Insightly. That’s a given. And, for sales-driven companies like yours, Insightly’s CRM features can be a real lifesaver. Contact management, opportunity tracking, and your Insightly mailbox help you close more deals with less effort. Though you’re already getting value from Insightly, you might be missing out on some lesser-known features. In this ... Read More

A project management tool, such as Insightly, can certainly make the delegating work at the office process much easier. Of course, that statement depends on your team’s approach to using the software. No matter how amazing a tool might be, “garbage in” almost always results in “garbage out.” With this in mind, it’s usually a ... Read More

“No thanks, we’ve decided to stick with our current vendor.” Such words are never easy for a sales rep to hear. Despite your hours of preparation, proposals, and in-person meetings, the prospect decided your solution wasn’t the right fit. Was it something you said? Could you have done something differently? How did you not see ... Read More

New and long-time Insightly users to the customer relationship management platform, recently experienced the latest version of Insightly’s CRM.  From the introduction of visual Kanban drag-and-drop boards to customized list views, customers rave about a variety of product UI and enhancements. Learn more about Insightly’s CRM by attending our upcoming CEO-lead webinar on Wednesday, November ... Read More

Convention center concessions never win Michelin stars for their wallet extortion beer, shrink-wrapped limp lettuce sub sandwiches, blowfish-puffed chip bags, and hockey puck cookies.  Dreamforce may boast best-in-class swag, but you can’t chew on stress balls, chapstick or organic cotton socks. Don’t hold your caffeine fix hostage to metallic coffee carafes at break-out sessions. Rebel ... Read More

The web fuels your company with the timely information and business intelligence you need to stay competitive. When are our estimated quarterly taxes due this year? How will the new privacy regulations affect how we interact with customers? Which software is the best fit for our exact needs and budget? In which social media groups ... Read More

Your business is doing well. Sales are up and clients seem happy. In the back of your mind, however, something has been bothering you lately. It’s your sales process. Since opening your doors, you’ve always relied on spreadsheets for managing the pipeline. Leads in one spreadsheet, customers in another. You even have spreadsheets to track ... Read More

Find out what enterprises can do to go beyond sales force automation to create profitable and sustainable relationships. Since its inception in the late 90’s, the proponents of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and its community, have been promising a new nirvana of customer centricity. They have been working hard to build software platforms and social ... Read More