July 23, 2015
10 tips to Boost Sales Productivity with CRM Software
BY John Paul Narowski IN CRM Software, Productivity, Sales and Marketing 0 Comment
It does not matter which type of business you own, customer relationship management (CRM) software is there for you to make your sales processes much easier. We all know that CRM is a great way to establish and maintain great relationships with clients and improve customer service. However, if you think that this is the only benefit of CRM software, you are missing an important part of it. CRM software is great tool to increase sales productivity. Below we present 10 tips for sales directors to boost sales productivity with CRM software.
1. Control the Sales Processes
Whether you have a 2 step, 5 step or 10 step sales process, sales automation software (same as CRM) is there to help your staff gain leads and close deals. It’s a great monitoring tool, which helps you make sure that your team follows the sales process. Now, when your team says that all the steps have been accomplished, there is a fast and easy way for you to check the work done.
2. Organize Sales Activities
CRM is very useful when it comes to organizing your activities. We have all been in a situation when we received several phone calls from the same company. It seems that employees are not aware of their coworkers making the same calls and their activities are unorganized. Would you do business with them? Of course, no! So, you, as a sales director, should also use sales automation software to share information among your team members and coordinate the activities: who is responsible for the task, when is the deadline and so on.
3. Make Reporting Easier
CRM software simplifies many parts of sales teams’ job and that includes also the reporting part. There are some mobile CRM applications which automatically control and keep track of all activities. For instance, these apps record how many calls were made during a day, how much time the calls took and so on. Tools like this make it much easier for sales team members to report all the activities they have done during a day.
4. Use GPS in Your CRM App
Besides the fact, that CRM apps give salespeople a way to make reporting much easier, they also help them be closer to leads and potential customers. GPS enabled CRM applications can lead salesmen right to the client’s door. Face-to-face meetings are much more effective than phone calls or emails. So, try to enable GPS in your CRM software and it will be easy for you to see how many prospects are there near you and how you can organize a meeting with them.
5. Let Your Team Members Know Where They Stand
It is, of course, very important to know where your team stands as a whole, however it’s equally important to understand on which level are the members of your team. Each member of the sales team should clearly know what his/her position is and whether he/she meets the goals or not. It’s said, that the best way to self-improve is to analyze your progress. CRM software gives salespeople the opportunity to view their performance, understand where they stand and strive for development.
6. Better Allocate the Resources
Clients are very different and their needs are different as well. One thing that is useful for one client can be completely useless for the other. So, there are some clients that need more resources from your sales team than the others. This means that you should be very good at allocating your resources. CRM software allows to easily make your choice on how to allocate your resources . By having access to this information, it becomes a lot simpler to make clever decisions and give your clients what they want.
7. Add “Web to Lead” System
“Web to lead” is a great system which creates a form on your website and captures leads. After capturing the lead, this system routes him/her right to the person in your sales team who is able to make a connection with him/her. With the help of this system, there won’t be any hot leads missed.
8. Follow Your Potential Customers
In order to always be in contact with your potential customers, you need to keep track of them. You should identify the people you need to reach out to when it’s the time to make the next sales call or send an important email. Sales automation software can help you here as well. You will be able to monitor changes in social media networks, like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and get notified whenever there is a change related to that lead.
9. Make Sharing Materials and Documents Easier
To increase sales productivity, you need to simplify some activities for your sales team to do, such as sharing documents and important materials. In this case, there will be a win-win situation, as it will be easier for your team to work and their performance will be improved. If you have a sales team that is geographically spread out, this is a MUST for you.
10. Pay Attention to Alerts and Notifications
Just as you should follow your potential customers, you should also pay attention to alerts and notifications. Sales automation software provides you with important alerts relating your potential customers, for example that you haven’t connected with them for a long time. If you follow these notifications, you will be in touch with them and won’t miss the chance to keep good relationships.
Utilizing your sales automation software to its full capacity will increase the productivity of your sales team’s efforts and make your life much easier. Make sure to follow these 10 tips in order improve your processes and stay one step ahead of competition. Are there any other tips that we have missed? Please share them with us!
