CEO of Chiropractic Advertising. Expert digital marketer, John C. Maxwell certified coach, speaker, & international philanthropist.
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It’s important that entrepreneurs, especially those in marketing, don’t shy away from software that can make them more competitive. There are many online software options entrepreneurs should embrace to help grow their business. This includes tools to help with lead generation, task automation, prospect nurturing, customer relationship management and countless other aspects of business management and growth.
As valuable as these tools are to your business, it’s important to continually evaluate the tools implemented. By routinely evaluating software choices, marketing entrepreneurs can determine which ones are obsolete, which ones are yielding a good ROI and how to better leverage underutilized tools to maximize results.
Because of this, I have provided four habits entrepreneurs can start implementing to better utilize their current software choices.
1. Consolidate Your Tools When Possible
Paying for various software-as-a-service offerings, more commonly known as SaaS, can start adding up over time. There are tools that may have been financially infeasible or even nonexistent when you first started investing in SaaS that you now need to reevaluate.
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For example, I used to pay for countless SaaS offerings, including website builders, funnel builders, email autoresponders, reputation management, call tracking, a dedicated line for outbound calls, automated two-way texting, ringless voicemails, HIPAA-compliant online forms and more.
Technology did not exist at the time that could accommodate all this functionality into a single place. By continually investing in the latest strategies and keeping up to date on SaaS trends, we were the first agency to consolidate all these tools into a single technology for our niche. This provided a competitive advantage that is now seen as an industry standard by many competitors.
2. Routinely Evaluate SaaS Pricing
From time to time, it’s helpful to evaluate what tiers are currently offered by your SaaS providers, what functionality is included and how much you’re paying. You may be on a legacy plan paying a premium for something that is actually discounted or discontinued altogether. Your SaaS may not contact you when they lower their pricing or modify their service offerings.
For example, at one point I was paying for software that provided real-time social proof. When I first purchased this software, the technology had just been released, and this company was the only one providing this service. Countless other competitors eventually emerged resulting in this company lowering their cost to remain competitive. When I reevaluated the plan I was on, I realized I was on a legacy plan that was no longer available and paying over twice as much as what I could have been paying for the same thing.
3. Evaluate Your Usage
It can be easy to purchase the latest software that you feel will make your business more productive. However, entrepreneurs can find themselves investing in software they never actually end up using. They may have purchased the software out of excitement from a product launch, through a recommendation from a friend, or simply by being overly zealousness in expanding one’s operational procedures and product offerings.
For example, I once invested in a service to help increase lead conversions by providing dynamic lead magnets that I had good intentions of eventually using. Based on client feedback, these lead magnets were not a good fit for my industry. I continued to pay for this service with the good intention of trying to make it work before eventually canceling the service. I should have immediately canceled the service after I realized I wasn’t using it.
4. Update Your Credit Card Number Quarterly
One entrepreneur I know cancels his credit card number and gets a new one quarterly. He does this to remove unnecessary charges on autopay that are hitting his account every month.
You may have signed up for a product that included a free trial you had intentions of canceling but never got around to doing. Though it may not be a lot of money, if done consistently over time this can add up.
If there are important SaaS programs you use, just update the credit card number in your various SaaS accounts. Doing this will enable you to cancel SaaS and purchases you never meant to purchase or have been unable to cancel due to complicated cancelation processes.
Conclusion
Marketing leaders should be utilizing the latest technology and software to maximize the productivity of their business. However, it’s important to occasionally evaluate your software and processes to determine if you are getting the most out of your current tools. If not, it’s important to determine what changes need to be made to stay organized and maximize one’s resources and software assets they have available.
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Author: Bryan Citrin, Forbes Councils Member