Agile CRM Lead Prospector Accelerates the Lead Capture Process
I just found something that made grabbing the contact information of prospective clients just hit a whole new level of ease.
The changes that have affected the way we do business in the last few years have come to redefine what a small business CRM is and what tools smaller companies should invest in.
It used to be that a small company would get away with keeping an Excel document with their leads' contact information and shoot an e-mail or make a call whenever it 'felt right'.
Well, not anymore.
These days every company (from mid-sized franchises to the tiniest family businesses) demands increasingly powerful and diverse tools to boost their lead generation, sales processes and e-mail campaigns.
Even one-man operations can make the most of a small business CRM software. Ask any blogger or online coach worth their salt, they will confess to fearing the day they can't use their preferred solution.
Until recently however, there wasn't a specific product that could be truly considered a small business CRM. Most of the options available were either too clunky, not intuitive enough or cost an arm and a leg.
It was in that context that Agile was born and has been rising ever since. By appealing to small businesses worldwide and catering to the very specific demands of that niche, Agile CRM software has experienced an explosive growth in a mere 3 years.
In yet another effort to make entrepreneurial lives easier, the company recently released their own Chrome extension. Available on the Chrome Web Store, this extension is the closest thing to a CRM Swiss Knife you will find. If you're constantly browsing the web for your daily tasks, the extension will give you access to a bunch of features that will make your sales and marketing efficiency shoot through the roof.
The ability to track e-mails (ever wondered why Gmail doesn't do this natively? You're not the only one), manage deals and tasks in real-time and having access to a whole catalog of e-mail templates is really sweet, no doubt...
...But what really packs a punch and makes this extension an absolute must is the built-in Lead Prospector tool, which allows you to capture leads with a single click - all while you're browsing LinkedIn and Facebook.
All you will have to do is navigate to your potential lead's LinkedIn or Facebook profile and press the shiny 'Fetch' button in Agile's Chrome Extension. The tool will collect all the available contact information for this profile and add it as a contact - which you can edit to fill in relevant details before it gets saved to the contact list.
Why waste your valuable time copy & pasting information from a web browser to your CRM? Point and click - It's just that simple.
Imagine two employees at the same startup and let's call them Dave and Chris. They have both taken on the task of racking up as many leads as possible on LinkedIn this morning.
Dave opens up Chrome and starts clicking on profile after profile - cluttering his browser window with 20+ extra tabs. He then frantically copies all of the information from these leads and creates a contact for each of them on the CRM.
Of course, his laptop will slow down in the process since he's opened a myriad of tabs at once and he'll be quite annoyed - all while wondering why Chris seems so relaxed.
In the meantime, Chris just went on LinkedIn and simplified his life: find an interesting lead, click on Agile CRM extension's fetch button and sit back as the contact gets automatically saved onto Agile. Rinse and repeat.
By the end of the morning, Dave is shocked at the amount of leads Chris has captured - and Chris just wonders why his coworker kept a million tabs open rather than taking the easy way.
Once Dave starts using the Agile Chrome extension, the only tabs they'll have to worry about are the ones at the bar during happy hour.
Now, let's take a look at what the process really looks like.
STEP 1: FIND A POTENTIAL LEAD
Simply navigate to someone's public profile on Linkedin or Facebook. Since we are realistic people and always aim for the stars, we want to pitch our solution to our good friend Billy.
STEP 2: CAPTURE DETAILS
Now that we have found him all we need to do is click on that magical fetch button:
STEP 3: CHOOSE A TEMPLATE & DIRECTLY SEND E-MAILS
Bill will be automatically stored as a contact on Agile CRM once we edit the info as needed and click on 'Add Contact'. From there on it will be possible to choose a template, customize it and shoot him an e-mail.
The Agile plugin will send real-time notifications when a prospective contact opens an e-mail, but you can always navigate to the notifications tab for an overview of what has been happening.
I wonder why Bill hasn't read our mail yet...
In short, Agile's Prospector extension for Chrome will make your life a helluva lot easier when the time comes to go on the hunt for leads.
Not only will your Gmail or web based mail feel like it's on steroids, but you will also get access to a whole set of tools to accelerate and streamline the whole lead capture process.
