FreshSales: How to Transform Your Sales Process in 3 Months and Acquire 50+ Customers

• I will research the CRM industry and why it’s a good idea for businesses to invest in a seamless CRM tool

• I will research the best features offered by FreshSales

• I will build a marketing case to use FreshSales for your business and set objectives

• I will build a marketing strategy and a marketing plan with a set of activities with FreshSales

What’s the current state of sales for founders running a business on the internet using a CRM tool?

Challenges faced by business owners in using CRM:

1. Data Disarray: Many businesses struggle with data management, including lead information, customer interactions, and sales pipelines. Data inconsistency and disorganization hinder efficient decision-making and lead to missed opportunities.

2. Sales Team Alignment: Coordinating sales efforts among team members can be challenging. Assigning leads, tracking communications, and ensuring a consistent customer experience can become disjointed without proper CRM tools.

3. Scalability Concerns: As businesses grow, managing sales processes manually becomes increasingly impractical. Entrepreneurs often find it challenging to scale their sales operations efficiently.

What can businesses achieve with an effective CRM:

1. Streamlined Sales Processes: Enables businesses to automate and streamline their sales processes. This leads to increased efficiency, reduced manual work, and faster lead-to-conversion times.

2. Enhanced Customer Relationships: Provide a 360-degree view of customers, helping businesses personalize interactions and provide better customer service. This leads to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.

3. Data-Driven Decision-Making: With analytics and reporting features, businesses can gain valuable insights into their sales performance. This data empowers informed decision-making, optimizing sales strategies and ROI.

Challenges faced by business owners in using CRM for Sales:

1. "I'm drowning in data but starving for insights. Our CRM feels like a black hole where valuable customer information gets lost."

2. "Getting my sales team to embrace this CRM is like pulling teeth. They resist change, and I need them to see the value in it."

3. "Integration headaches are eating up our time and resources. I wish there was a smoother way to connect CRM with our other tools."

Real-world examples of businesses that have won with FreshSales CRM:

How Humn (London-based Insurtech) doubled its revenue in less than a year by partnering with Freshworks and adopting a multiproduct suite:

• Humn doubled its revenue in less than a year after adopting FreshSales as part of the Freshworks suite. They overcame challenges such as data disarray and a lack of integration, streamlining their sales processes and improving data accuracy

• With different versions of the same customer data floating across disparate systems, sales teams were spending most of their time organizing data and performing repetitive tasks with no single source of truth about customers

• The lack of a unified platform to manage their end-to-end processes prevented them from catering to customer needs and enabling a seamless customer and employee experience. Humn’s need of the hour was a solution that brought marketing and sales teams together. The team was in search of a scalable solution that offers a 360-degree view of the customer on a unified platform

• With the drag-and-drop landing pages and marketing journey builders, the team now creates landing pages and sends out campaigns in minutes without depending on other teams.

“Over the last year, we’ve acquired 10X more customers and are rapidly scaling. To our surprise and relief, through this busy phase, the time spent on administrative tasks by teams dropped by 20%.” ~ Alexandra, CRM Operations Manager, Humn

How Blue Nile, the world's leading retailer of diamonds and fine jewelry achieves seamless and unified customer experiences by bundling Freshdesk and Freshsales to make lifelong satisfaction.

Reducing our no-show rate was important to have higher utilization of our sales team. With Freshsales, we brought it down to about 20%, and time is money. ~ Mike Hopkins, Senior VP, Sales, Blue Nile

How Freshsales’ automation capability is helping Sify's digital sales team ride the digital wave

• Sify was selling to a range of businesses through a mix of channels and sales teams - direct, reseller partners, and the web. Among these, the web became the preferred channel for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) to enquire and interact with Sify. This was not surprising but certainly new - several startups and small businesses were riding the digital wave to adopt web-based tools and platforms to run their businesses.

“Sify needed a sales force automation solution that would deliver on the scale, scope, and premise of SMB customer requirements,” says Arun Rajamani, Head – Digital Sales at Sify.”

• The evaluation was accelerated as some team members had prior experience with the platform. Once the evaluation process was initiated, Freshsales (formerly Freshworks CRM) quickly became one of the shortlisted products that ticked all the boxes, and ultimately, the contract.

• The ability to classify customers into specific segments based on various criteria and send relevant communications. They use these features extensively for brand building, retargeting, and customer communications to keep them informed about upcoming events and collate data through form fills on the page.

• At Sify, adoption was rapid given the minimal training and intuitive UI that Freshsales is known for. Over time, adoption rates touched 80%. Moreover, the product, according to Arun, was able to help plug gaps between the tactical and strategic arms of their broader sales goals, unifying efforts across the sales hierarchy.

• Sify's digital sales team achieved higher customer engagement and streamlined their selling processes with FreshSales. They successfully addressed user adoption challenges and leveraged the CRM's features for better prospect engagement and account management.

What are some of the best features offered by FreshSales?

1. 360-degree View of Customer Information: FreshSales empowers sales teams with a single view of the customer, allowing them to deliver stellar experiences.
• Problem Statement: Many businesses struggle to consolidate customer information from various sources, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for personalization.
• Solution: FreshSales will transform how you understand your customers. It's like having a crystal-clear lens to see every interaction and make data-driven decisions.

2. Chat Campaigns: FreshSales enables businesses to deliver personalized messages on chat through trigger-based campaigns and custom chatbots.
• Problem Statement: Handling customer inquiries on multiple chat channels can be overwhelming and time-consuming without automation.
• Solution: FreshSales chat campaigns will be a game-changer for you. You can see a 30% increase in customer engagement and a 20% reduction in response times.

3. Sales Sequences: FreshSales allows users to set up engaging outreach campaigns with trigger-based sequences, automating follow-ups and reminders.
• Problem Statement: Sales teams often struggle to maintain consistent follow-ups, leading to lost deals and revenue.
• Solution: FreshSales sales sequences can make your sales process more efficient. Your team will spend less time on manual follow-ups and more time closing deals.

Building a Marketing Case for Using FreshSales to Grow a Business

1. FreshSales Subscription: To maximize the benefits of FreshSales, we recommend the payment plan priced at $19 per user per month. For a team of 3 sales representatives, this will cost $57 per month.

2. Email Marketing Tool: We'll use an email marketing tool to complement our FreshSales campaign. A budget of $25 per month for a tool like MailerLite is advisable.

3. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: To enhance lead generation, LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a valuable tool. The cost is $79.99 per user per month, and we'll have 2 users dedicated to this task. This sums up to $159.98 per month.

4. Content Creation: Developing engaging content for email campaigns and LinkedIn outreach may require some investment. Allocate a monthly budget of $100 for content creation and design.

5. Advertising Spend: Depending on your target audience and campaign goals, allocate a budget of $300 - $500 for LinkedIn ads and Google Ads over the campaign period.

6. Additional Costs (optional): Consider expenses for webinars, landing page creation, and SEO tools, which can range from $100 - $300 per month.

• Anything over 34 customers with a $19 price point is a profit.

• Anything over the $19 price point is a profit.

• Any recurring payment going forward is a profit.

• Any upsells or cross-sells going forward are a profit.

• Anything over 45 customers with a $19 price point is a profit.

• Anything over the $19 price point is a profit.

• Any recurring payment going forward is a profit.

• Any upsells or cross-sells going forward are a profit.

Marketing Campaign: Transform Your Sales Process with FreshSales

Step 1: Introduction and Awareness

1. Educational Content: Create a series of blog posts, videos, and infographics highlighting common sales challenges faced by businesses and how FreshSales can solve them.

2. Webinars: Host webinars explaining the benefits of FreshSales and showcasing its features to potential customers.

3. Social Media Promotion: Share informative content across social media platforms, focusing on LinkedIn, Twitter, and relevant industry groups.

• Engagement rates on social media posts.

• Click-through rates on blog posts and webinars.

• Number of webinar attendees.

• Social media engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments).

• Webinar attendance rate.

Step 2: Lead Generation

1. Lead Magnets: Develop downloadable resources such as e-books, templates, or cheat sheets related to sales improvement with FreshSales.

2. Landing Pages: Create dedicated landing pages for each lead magnet with clear calls to action.

3. Email Marketing: Use email marketing to promote lead magnets to the existing subscriber list and website visitors.

• Conversion rates on landing pages.

• Open and click-through rates of email campaigns.

• Number of leads generated.

• Conversion rate on landing pages.

• Email campaign performance.

Step 3: Nurturing and Engagement

1. Email Drip Campaigns: Set up automated email sequences to nurture leads and educate them about FreshSales benefits.

2. Personalization: Customize emails based on the lead's interaction with previous content.

3. Web Personalization: Use website tracking to personalize the user experience for known leads.

• Email open and click-through rates.

• Conversion rates from email campaigns.

• Engagement with personalized website content.

• Lead progression through email sequences.

• Conversion from lead to trial or demo.

Step 4: Free Trial and Conversion

1. Free Trial Offer: Promote a limited-time free trial of FreshSales to qualified leads who have engaged with the content.

2. Personalized Onboarding: Provide personalized onboarding support to free trial users.

3. Follow-up: Send reminder emails and offers to encourage users to convert to paid plans.

• Conversion rates from free trial to paid plans.

• Email open and click-through rates for trial users.

• Number of trial sign-ups.

• Conversion rate from trial to paid plans.

Step 5: Customer Retention and Expansion

1. Customer Support: Provide excellent customer support to address any issues or questions.

2. Feature Education: Continue educating customers about advanced FreshSales features to maximize their value.

3. Upselling: Identify opportunities to upsell customers to higher-tier plans.

• Customer satisfaction levels.

• Upsell conversion rates.

• Customer retention rate.

• Revenue from upsells.