Zoho Meeting has a new annotator function which offers basic annotation features for presenters sharing their screen to an audience in Zoho Meeting.

Areas where this is useful could be (for example) to share a complex architectural design document where the presenter needs to highlight a certain portion of a design drawing;  Or to highlight certain parts of a legal document that need approval or input from other teams.

The text feature allows you to type in comments or changes to any text that night be required and, especially if you are recording the meeting at the time this can be referred to later on or can be made in real time in the document using Zoho WorkDrive.

There's an old phrase "junk in junk out", which is also true when it comes to CRM systems.

Over the years we have done many projects implementing Zoho CRM as well as Salesforce on Sage CRM, and have come across a wide variety of quality of data within those systems.

Are the key stakeholders the best users?

In our experience often the key stakeholders who push the systems are the worst at maintaining them!   And low level employees are absolute champions but not giving enough credit for being so.

All users, even the top stakeholders, need to use a CRM system correctly. CRM championms should be given recognition, even a new role, to coach other users, if necessary, so that a culture of CRM perfection sets into the organisation.

Inability to make decisions

Much of the success of the CRM implementation and end system is reliant on the quality of its data. This is where "junk in junk out" comes into play.

If the corporate policy is to record absolutely everything in a CRM system, no matter how relevant or important to the progression of a sale, even to the point that it penalises users if they do not do this (we have seen this in some organisations!), then it may it is easy for the team to suffer from information overload and searching of data becomes very difficult because it's swamped in meaningless updates. In addition, sales users for example become so focussed on data entry that they do not do as well in what they are emplyed to do - sell.

That said, on the other end of the spectrum, if users do not update data regularly or if the fields in the system configuration are not well customised and do not match what manages need to see in order to make informed decisions then the data is also meaningless to them.

Irrelevant marketing and spam

If you've ever received an email newsletter that is utterly irrelevant to what you do or what you are interested in then there's a high chance it's been sent from an organisation that has harvested data from data sellers without any four thought of whether that information is of relevance to you.

Mostly this is because they do not know you and may have purchased your name and contact information from list providers which is still a legal business model, here in the UK anyway, and list providers although they claim to segment their data really have no idea who you are either.

This means the CRM owner has lots of data but absolutely no way of knowing if it's correct and no real way of really segmenting that data into smaller more focused lists, despite the claims of list providers.

Accuracy of data affects accuracy of analysis

CRMs contain all kinds of information, not just the data that users key in.

For example, sales duration is a key metric that's automatically tracked within a CRM based on the stage progression of a deal and this is important when understanding sales metrics such as pipeline and closed deals.

It's no good addressing one area of the business in the hope it fixes the performance if that is not really the area that needs addressing.

Use all of the fields and other data points generated by your CRM software to make better decisions.

Correct Reports and Dashboards

When considering the quality of the data in a CRM system it is also important to consider the reports and dashboards that it generates.

If the data is inaccurate then the dashboards and the reports will be inaccurate and decisions cannot be made.

For this reason we often recommend the use of the Zoho CRM mobile app to all core users because it allows them to update information in real-time directly from their mobile phone.

For example, if a meeting has just been done then a user can update the meeting notes and also the deal stage and any other related information, immediately after the meeting, whilst in the field so that the reports are as date as possible.

Conclusion

Make sure your users are aware of the data that is required to be captured in each of the CRM modules, and importantly, why it is required and by who. Sometimes you will get more 'buy in' and more accurate data entry if people are aware of what data is used by what team(s) and why.

Make sure the modules have been configured correctly and include all of the key data points as 'fields' that your organisation needs in order to analyse data effectively.

Ensure key fields are set to mandatory so that there are no missing fields and set as many fields as possible to pick lists or drop down fields and add validation to text based or numeric-based fields to avoid human errors.

Set up the relevant dashboards and reports and have regular reviews during the implementation phase and thereafter, on an ongoing and regular basis, so they can be tweaked then refined and improved over time,.

A true CRM system is never finished!

Conducting webinars can often involve a learning process but there's really no limit to what you can do.

Make use of the webcam and a blank background and make use of props whiteboards videos and other media to make the webinar as engaging as possible and suitable to your audience.

Make sure you do not have any distracting posters/wallpaper/pictures in the background of the presenter.

Make sure you prepare all all relevant materials and handouts for the webinar in advance and make the handout materials available immediately after the webinar has finished.

Ensure you have only relevant websites or applications open on your computer that you need during the webinar. Close unnecessary browser tabs and make sure anything you do not want attendees to see is closed in case you wish to share your screen.

Try not to have numerous apps or browsers open at the same time as this will cause your computer to struggle unnecessarily, which can potentially disrupt the webinar.

If you are conducting the webinar at home or where the connection speed is temperamental or on a shared network, ensure all unnecessary devices are either switched off or have Wi-Fi turned off.

Shut the window/door/turn off any audio devices that may result in ambient sound.  For example radios, TVs, music etc., it is very hard for attendees to hear presenters if there is ambient noise in the background.

Mute your mobile phone! It will certainly impact the perception and attention span of the attendees if the presenter's own phone is buzzing or ringing during a webinar. Never take a call if you are presenting a webinar.

When presenting a webinar, it is impossible to read body language to ensure audience understanding. Ask lots of questions and encourage interactive feedback by asking attendees to type their answers in the chat pane. Setup several polls beforehand and ask attendees to vote, this will also increase attention and make it more interactive. When asking questions, publishing polls, give the attendees time to respond.

Layout your webinar topics in front of you, allocate a time for each, maintain momentum.

Learn to deal with inevitable technical glitches! These most often relate to connection issues. If you have an old computer, understand your computer's limits. Or if you can, upgrade to a modern machine. Learn how to quickly shut down unnecessary apps/browser tabs (see above). Be prepared to instruct attendees to do the same.

Finally, if in doubt, practice the webinar beforehand, especially if it's your first time, and do a dry run with colleagues or friends so you can tweak and improve anything that potentially stalls the momentum. With a webinar it

Zoho Campaigns is a fantastic email marketing tool that can be used by businesses of any sizes to carry out simple or complex email marketing campaigns.

The best thing is that Zoho Campaigns synchronises to Zoho CRM so that you can build complex email marketing automation to get the most out of your your prospect and customer database.

One example of a commonly occurring situation is when businesses have lists of leads from various sources, also known as legacy data, which they want to qualify before following up up-do with their sales team using the CRM as a tool for sales follow-up processes.