Sales teams kind of hate CRM systems!
Why? Oh you've heard most of the reasons.....
"CRM systems are counter productive to my selling activities!"
"I hate typing my notes into the darn thing!"
"I know what management gets but what do I get!! "Big Brother" watching my every move."
"CRM systems were invented by a bunch of geeks that never sold anything in their lives!!"
Now that we've gotten that out of the way, here are a few must for creating a more sales friendly CRM system.
Start with the traits common to the most successful sellers;
- They are organized - plan their work and work their plan
- They don't lose their leads - they follow up fast and often until the lead closes or is disqualified.
- They don't fumble for information. They know the background of every buyer and a history of everything that's happened in the account. They have product application at their fingertips.
- They communicate quickly and effectively
- They follow a process to close the sale - qualify, analyze needs, provide solution with accurate info and fit to needs, gain agreement, close the sale, follow up through delivery, assure satisfaction, build on the original sale, expand the business and relationship
- They keep score and look for ways to improve / make more money!
So can a CRM system help sellers do more of these good things? You bet!
Stay organized - By scheduling all activities in the CRM. Each activity links to the contact and is completed in history. Follow up activities are scheduled after every call.
Manage every lead - Use a simple lead management function to capture lead info and then track it through a process like - emailed, contact made, qualified, potential, no potential, unqualified, future potential.
Information access- Use a knowledge base to collect and store product, competitive or other valuable info in the CRM. Centrally controlled and immediately available. Newer systems even include Social Network connections to LinkedIn, Twitter, facebook etc.
Communicate - All contact info including phone #s, emails, and social links are included in the CRM. Find the contact and click to communicate.
Follow a process - A Simple drop down menu in your CRM, where seller indicates what step the lead or sale is at, is a huge first step. A process keeps the reps on track, provides a common forecasting language, and eliminates 'Creative forecasting".
Keep Score / Measure performance - If they didn't have scorecards, no one would play golf. So in sales the work being done, should be measured and that happens with reports. A few good reports will get the job done for managers and sellers. Too many reports may lead to lots of slicing and dicing and not much coaching.
Implementing these basics, can make all the difference in a Computer Aided Selling system. If you need some help or would like to talk about your situation, give us a call at Tech.Sell, 847-382-4500.
Follow a process - A Simple drop down menu in your CRM, where seller indicates what step the lead or sale is at, is a huge first step. A process keeps the reps on track, provides a common forecasting language, and eliminates 'Creative forecasting".
Keep Score / Measure performance - If they didn't have scorecards, no one would play golf. So in sales the work being done, should be measured and that happens with reports. A few good reports will get the job done for managers and sellers. Too many reports may lead to lots of slicing and dicing and not much coaching.
Implementing these basics, can make all the difference in a Computer Aided Selling system. If you need some help or would like to talk about your situation, give us a call at Tech.Sell, 847-382-4500.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments: