SugarCRM Brings Relationship Intelligence to CRM App

When it comes to selling anything, being able to make a personal connection with a prospective customer is often the difference between making a sale or not. To make it simpler for salespeople to gain those insights, SugarCRM today unveiled SugarCRM Hint, a module within its namesake CRM application that salespeople can employ to search the web to gather both personal and corporate information relating to any prospect.

Clint Oram, chief marketing officer for SugarCRM, says SugarCRM Hint is the first in a series of Relationship Intelligence apps that make use of predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms to better inform salespeople of potential prospects.

Over time, Oram says, SugarCRM will also expand the number of data sources it is accessing well beyond the 70 it provides today to analyze both sentiment and intent.

“You can analyze both structured and unstructured data,” says Oram.

Of course, how much salespeople care to share with customers about what they know about them will vary. But the fact is that everything about a prospective customer, from their favorite team to the school they went to is all part of their digital footprint. Correlating that information against, for example, a report that says the company they work for is building a new warehouse is simply making good use of public information.

In fact, putting all that information together before contacting a prospect shows a level of commitment most other salespeople that don’t have access to the same information can’t provide. The only challenge for most salespeople is going to distinguishing that fine line between being informed and stalking them online and off.