The Hope of a
CRM
There is a misconception in the industry that automatically and by itself CRM = ROI. And many CRM companies even promise they will magically improve your performance, reduce the complexity of your marketing efforts, automate your sales processes, and simplify your business life just by having the right CRM.
But has that happened? Of course not.
Because a CRM by itself is a framework that you, the financial advisor and your team, must invest the thousands of hours necessary to understand and then customize to your needs.
With any CRM, you must be able to capture, record, retrieve, and USE the data that is housed in your CRM to generate any ROI. And if you or your team don’t have at least some best practices on data management, then your CRM will degrade into nothing more than a digital database of clients and probably some prospects.
It’s certainly not the goldmine you were sold.
alright, you have a crm...
now what?
There are four steps that can convert CRM to ROI when followed. It is a law of contact management and following it will give you real results.
STEP #1
Capture
For any data to be useful, you must be able to capture it easily in a phone call or meeting. You can capture it by remembering it, making notes, gathering it from a questionnaire, or a survey, and so on. These are the details about your clients and prospects that will help you do more business with them, such as future opportunities, real estate holdings, the names and birthdays of the spouse and heirs – the details of their lives that come up in the course of social conversation.
STEP #2
Record
With your captured data, you have to now record it somewhere. This means you associate that captured information to the individual in a household. (It is NOT a best practice to capture and record data in a single step, and we do not recommend it. While it may be convenient, typing while you talk to a client or prospect is very rude and if this is your habit, we can help you adopt a better way.) Some CRMs provide you with fields for this information, and others will need to be customized to accommodate it. The best practice to record your captured data is to define a standard method for the entire team and then repeat it across all your records. Don’t change what works halfway through or you will regret this choice in step three.
STEP #3
Retrieve
You may be really good at capturing and recording details about your clients and prospects, and if you are, great! You’ve got 50% of the formula down. But the next step is crucial to your ROI conversion. This step involves retrieving this information. To test the viability of this step in your current CRM, take a moment and think of your best client. In your head make a mental list of all their future opportunities, sale of a house, CD due, whatever it is, you’ve got it noted somewhere, right? Of course you do.
So, here’s the test: In 34 seconds, produce a list of all your future opportunities for the next year.
Can you do it? If not, the breakdown in your CRM-to-ROI conversion happens in this step. You have all the data, but no ability to retrieve it. Thus, your formula ends, and your CRM will NEVER produce the expected ROI. This is not your fault, or the fault of your firm, or your team. It is the inherent complexity of a CRM built by engineers who have never fully run a marketing campaign. Ever. And probably never will.
STEP #4
use
If you are able to rapidly retrieve data in your CRM (key word: RAPIDLY), then you are probably in the very small category of sophisticated computer users. The fourth and final step in the CRM-ROI conversion lies in how you USE YOUR DATA. This data is the gemstone in your CRM goldmine. And your ability to properly categorize, systematize, organize, and utilize it can determine the value of your book and your business. Yes, it is that important.
We recently coached an advisor’s office who kept their opportunities in their planning software. The data was certainly captured, recorded, and retrievable. But it wasn’t very usable, meaning it took a lot of effort to be able to analyze what was coming due. So, we went to their office and re-organized a few things, implemented many of our best practices in data management, and made it possible for the Advisor to use the information.
Do you know what we found in there? Opportunities worth over $120M in new assets.
So, how did we use that information? We targeted those clients with a campaign we designed to move outside assets in-house. They are still gathering those gemstones from their goldmine, and so far it has been quite profitable for them. Just as it can be for you.
Why
Gorilla 5?
Gorilla 5 is built by people who have decades of experience in running effective marketing campaigns, and not by engineers with none. We understand what it takes to convert a prospect to a client, and then from client to raving fan. We know the systems needed to build client engagement, create client retention, and what will walk a client through tumultuous market turns. In short, we understand the client lifecycle down to its finest details.
And then we built THAT lifecycle into a piece of software, and we called it a CRM. But Gorilla 5 is so much more than that!
It combines cutting-edge technology with laws of contact management to automate processes that help you grow.
Out-of-the box
automations
Gorilla 5 optimizes your practice through strategic automations. Routine business processes can be run and re-run with a few mouse clicks. In less than an hour, your first marketing campaign is set up and ready to go. Once you complete our data purification process, the pipeline management tools will seamlessly integrate your sales process into your CRM. And that magic ROI conversion begins.
An industry legend
Reborn
Gorilla 5 is OS Independent, regardless of your device (desktop, laptop, tablet, or phone), all your information is available wherever you are. It enables you to do more with what you already have. With more than 40 years of experience and industry best practices, we know growth and retention. With the cutting-edge technology built out of that experience, we make it possible to grow consistently, efficiently, and rapidly. We routinely create ROI from CRM.
FROM THIS GENERATION
to the next
We drive the future. With AI rapidly evolving, our plans incorporate the next generation of AI driven tools that will help you automate and optimize that much more.
new Customer View
360°
Want an in-depth personal demo?
Schedule it now with Jill!
- Guided personal tour via web-conference.
- Takes about 30 Minutes, with Q&A.
- Experience the true power of Gorilla 5 live.
