Gmail sales productivity application Yesware does not align with any particular CRM vendor or industry or even sales methodology. That possibly accounts for its wide- ranging and especially large user base, founder and CEO Matthew Bellows told CRM Buyer.
In six months, Yesware has picked up 20,000 business users — from chimney sweeps to law firms to PR shops. The main reason for its success, according to Bellows, is its ease of use and tight integration with Google.
“Yesware is a Chrome extension. It plugs into the Chrome browser, then modifies the user’s Gmail account,” he explained.
The only integration point is the BCC field in the CRM application’s email address. Every CRM app on the market can be supported, said Bellows, except for Zoho CRM, which does not have a BCC field.
Yesware just updated the application to add new features, Bellows said. It is also working on another release, hopefully timed for this fall, which will support Microsoft Outlook.
As the feature set becomes more integrated, Yesware will become a staple in sales professionals’ online toolsets, he predicted. “Our focus has always been to make the salesperson’s job easier. Nothing else.”
Features and Functionality
Yesware provides a library of sales templates; the ability to save information into a CRM app via email; and tracking functionality to see how prospects and customers are responding to messages. This last category is new, while the first two have been enhanced.
The application originally launched with just a personal library of sales templates, noted Bellows. Team templates are now included, and the application lets teams share the templates that are working best for them.
“We also added a series of reports for managers to see how their teams are doing,” Bellows said — how many emails they are sending out, what are the open rates and so on. It also shows if the prospects are clicking on links.”
Another enhancement is Google Maps integration, which lets user see where their messages are being opened on a geographical basis.
It can be helpful for a salesperson to know a prospect opened an email at an office in New York, for example, and then again at home in New Jersey over the weekend, and then forwarded it on Monday to the company’s headquarters in California where it was also opened, Bellows said.
A Feedback-less Existence
Such nuances are important to sales people who often don’t get any feedback from their prospects, Bellows pointed out. “They will send out prospects and may not hear from anyone for days or weeks. Knowing that an email has at least been opened is important.”
The functionality also helps sales staff better connect with prospects.
“If you see that an email has been opened on the road, you know to call that person’s cellphone and not the land line,” Bellows said.
Two-Thirds Have CRM Already
Bellows has been tracking his own user base as well, which makes it easy for him to describe how it is mainly used.
About two-thirds of the application’s users have a CRM system and use Yesware as an interface, he said. Many of these users have CRM systems touted as user-friendly and intuitive, such as Salesforce.com and Microsoft CRM Dynamics.
While all of Yesware’s users are involved in sales, they are not necessarily full-time salespeople, Bellows observed. “We have a lot of business owners that use Yesware because so much of their job revolves around sales, but it is not necessarily their main job.”
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