Elms A Business Management Soluiton - Part 2

This is the 2nd part of a  series of blogs discussing the Elms Advantage Online Business Management System.   This blog discusses how Elms can be a key tool in your company's sales and marketing efforts. Click here to find the previous blog,  "Elms, A Business Management Solution - Part 1".

There is most definitely and art behind Salesmanship.  I have met a few who can sell the proverbial "ice cubes to Eskimos".  But,  it is the good systems and processes that control what you sell, the customers you attract and the process from initial contact to production.   The goal of Elms Advantage Online is to help you attract the leads that fit your market and sell jobs that are profitable.

Your marketing plan is a source for lead generation and is used to help define your target market.  Elms can help you analyze your marketing efforts and fine tune your plan.  Elms tracks the source of each lead.  Lead sources are custom to your company allowing you to filter your lead generation down to the finest levels.  Elms Enterprise reporting has a series of marketing and sales reports that will help you analyze where your leads are being generated and what what your customers are looking for.

Imagine running a report in Elms and realizing that 75% of your leads are looking for kitchen remodels or 90% of leads purchased from a third party that is expensive and  is only resulting in 2% of sales.  This information can help with decisions as to how to divide your marketing budget and attract the leads that result in new customers.

Marketing is also about branding.  Your colors, your logos and tag lines should recognizable and everywhere.  Elms will propagate your company's branding information on all customer facing output from the Elms System.  This includes reports, contracts, agreements, and especially our Customer Portal.

Much of the sales process is about persistence and follow up.  The Elms CRM tools help you qualify leads allowing you to prioritize your sales efforts.  Elms tracking dates, sales and appointment reminders (integrated with Google), sales aging reports, and stock customer documents and letters will help ensure that potential customers are not left wondering where you are.

The beauty lies in the fact that Elms is an integrated online system.  You have access from anywhere in the world with an internet connection.  The hand-off to design and estimating and even production is already built in and part of your Elms Advantage Online Business Management System.


Read part 1 of this article