crm for sales: 5 things yours should be doing
TRANSCRIPT
CRM FOR SALES:5 THINGS YOURS SHOULD BE DOING
CRM adoption among salespeople is notoriously low. According to Gartner it is just under
50%
The reasons?
Sales see CRM’s data entry and maintenance
needs as a time-wasting bind.
Sales complain that CRM isn’t tailored to their specific needs.
Sales believe that CRM is too ‘scientific’; that sales is actually an art.
These are misconceptions.To counter such false impressions, it’s
essential to highlight the benefits of CRM to your teams.
A good CRM solution will help your team to:
Increase automation
A good CRM solution will help your team to:
Create better forecasting and reporting
A good CRM solution will help your team to:
Boost alignment
A good CRM solution will help your team to:
Go mobile
A good CRM solution will help your team to:
Drive business benefits.
1. Increasing automation
Specific criteria for lead scoring can be assigned from job roles and location, through to email activity and web behaviour.
Scores can be applied to each and every lead generated by your CRM platform, with the best being prioritised automatically.
CRM can judge which leads are ready to be exploited, routing them to the right sales representative so they can act immediately.
Small but time-intensive tasks can be automated as well; for instance, saved call scripts can be sourced in seconds, allowing Sales to access the right script at the right time.
CRM can automate tasks that normally damage Sales’ productivity and efficiency:
Automation means sales teams only deal with
the best leads, reducing cycle times and boosting
conversion rates.
2. Creating better forecasting and reporting
Banish inefficient report creation by exploiting CRM’s ability to generate pipeline reports on the fly.
Deploy them to create accurate and up-to-date sales forecasts that are backed up by live data, not nebulous sales ‘gut instincts’.
CRM can aid Sales’ understanding of the pipeline and potential sales opportunities:
3. Boosting alignment
increase in annual revenue growth for aligned
companies
decline in revenue for unaligned enterprise.
32% 7%
CRM can align Sales and Marketing more closely, ripping down silos and boosting cross-departmental collaboration:
vs
CRM offers a suite of benefits to help achieve this alignment, including real-time virtual dashboards featuring charts, metrics and KPIs. Both
departments can use these in real-time, monitoring each other’s progress and enabling them to offer feedback on performance.
3. Boosting alignment
CRM helps the teams to share access to the same customer accounts or types so both departments are ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’, not pulling against one another. Leads can be judged as ‘qualified’ by CRM
based on preset criteria, meaning there is no need for either Sales or Marketing to make judgement calls that the other may disagree with.
3. Boosting alignment
Purchase histories can be easily tracked, offering excellent opportunities for up- and cross-selling, thus maximising the potential of your existing client base.
3. Boosting alignment
4. Going Mobile
Access live data as and when needed from account histories to promotional materials.
Enter data out in the field and synchronise it with the company CRM via the Cloud, instead of being required to return to the office.
CRM allows sales reps out in the field to enjoy full access to all critical sales information via mobile or tablet. They can:
Meanwhile, managers stay plugged in wherever their team are in the world, able to monitor their work in real-time.
4. Going Mobile
increase in sales productivity.
14.6%
Implementing CRM mobile capabilities creates a
£
5. Driving Home The Benefits
Bad data in,bad data out.
While the benefits of CRM are numerous, it remains up to management to advocate and train their sales teams to ensure buy-in.
Failing to do so risks:
5. Driving Home The Benefits
Drive home the benefits by highlighting:
The effortlessness of CRM data capture if
protocols are followed.
The increased potential for sales
opportunities.
The ability for sales reps to offer their feedback so the
platform is tailored to their needs.
If you don’t have time to implement a training programme, bring a third
party consultant on board to take Sales representatives through the benefits of
CRM. It will transform their work lives and increase their sales success stories.
Common errors in CRM implementation have traditionally crippled rollouts but Redspire’s 2016 benchmark report reveals that enterprises are now successfully overcoming them and reaping the rewards.
2016 Benchmark Report:Measuring CRM Success
Choosing a partner is an important part of assessing and choosing the right CRM for your business - find out more by downloading:
Benchmark Report: Measuring CRM Success
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