This is a very special episode for us as it marks the new season of the Goodish Show! We were joined by Jeroen Corthout, the CEO & Founder of Salesflare to talk about Using Sales Funnels & Automations vs. CRM Software in 2021.
What is Salesflare?
Salesflare is an intelligent CRM software that makes managing data simple so you can focus on people instead. Build as a response to the frustrations that came with Salesforce, this is one of the best CRM software out there right now. Here are just some of the things that make this CRM system special:
It gathers data from public sources such as the company website, social media, etc, helping you generate leads more easily.
Salesflare logs all of your calls & emails.
It integrates with your mailbox, Trello, Slack, Mailchimp, as well as offers API integration.
Provides a smart overview of your leads.
Can generate an automatic to-do list.
First Steps Of Building a company
Jeroen started the talk by explaining that it took them 1 whole year to launch their intelligent CRM software off the ground and getting their first customer. Even after their first customer, their growth wasn’t instant because they were doing mostly guided sales. Usually, it went like this:
- The client would get in touch.
- They would arrange a call where the Salesflare team would explain the benefits of its intelligent CRM software.
- They would then offer to set the software up for the client by sharing screens.
- Together they would set up the software.
- The client would come back with any questions they might have.
- Finally, they would close the deal.
Overall it was a very manual process. However, Jeroen pointed out how valuable the experience was, as he could very quickly understand what was going well and what wasn’t. This enabled the team to constantly improve on the things that weren’t working well.
Automation & Sales Funnels vs. using a CRM Software
We asked Jeroen how to decide which is better – automation or sales. Here’s what he had to say:
What kind of marketing strategy worked best for Salesflare?
Their marketing strategy and techniques have changed dramatically through time. Their first customer came from their PR efforts when they were published in an online magazine. After that traffic either came from their SEO efforts by publishing useful articles or from their network directly. Jeroen emphasized that the latter technique wasn’t all that scalable.
How to build a solid relationship with a client?
Jeroen believes there are 2 basic skills that every salesman should have and those are empathy and organization. He believes in the importance of listening to your customers and taking the time to understand what they need and what circumstances they’re in. As a salesman, it’s your job to understand the whole picture and the client’s desires, only after which you can start explaining and showing what your product or service does, why is it better than the rest, etc.
What should one look for when hiring new people?
The first important aspect of hiring new people for Jeroen is knowing whether or not the person you’re hiring is actually good at what you need them to do in your company. The second aspect is to recognize if they share the company’s values and can collaborate with the team. The last thing Jeroen looks for when hiring someone is if they can express themselves in written form as a significant portion of communication they have with customers is in written form.
All in all company owners need to be very careful about who they hire because introducing just one new person to your team can completely change the atmosphere.
Salesflare in the future
Salesflare is already one of the best CRM software in the industry. In the future, they would like to be able for their software to track every single movement that a salesperson makes, so the only thing left for us to do is to interact with our customers.
Hope you enjoyed our show! Make sure to also read:
Get Started
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
