How to boost your sales with CRM solution

A guest post by Paul Anderson

 

Although there is a general consensus among managers and sales heads about usefulness of CRM in boosting performance salespersons are not always in agreement with them. Lack of adoption of the system by the sales representatives is one of the major reasons of CRM project implementation failures. They reject the system as a tool for management to monitor their performances. 

Another reason is that sales are often seen as an individual success. A salesperson pride on himself for the client base he has and quite naturally is reluctant to share the information on a common platform. 

Lack of IT know-how is another deterrent in the path of wide acceptance of CRM system. Often decisions regarding CRMs are taken by the management without really consulting the actual users – resulting in adoption of a complex system that puts off the users. 

But the most important of them all is that salespersons aren’t fully aware of the benefits that they can receive by adopting the customer management system. They fail to realize that it is actually a tool to help them with sales to drive in more profit. But whatever the reason is unsuccessful implementation of CRM project can have far and wide impact on your business and will become an expensive burden on your IT budget.

The success of project implementation therefore depends upon enlightening your sales teams on the advantages of CRM and by making them appreciate the benefits they can receive from it. 

CRM helps in boosting business

 Here is how you can boost your business using CRM customization.

• Consolidate your phonebook: Often salespersons have to maintain several phonebooks containing the contact details of prospects and clients. But now you can import all your contacts and compile them on a single platform. Further, you can also arrange your email contacts to send mails directly from the CRM.

• Organize conversations: Remember what you have told your client the other day? Or, what price you have quoted? No! But now you can since the CRM will log each contact that you make with your client and help you to quickly update yourself before a meeting.

• Improve quality of interaction: Data, if inputted correctly, can help you get a 360⁰ view of client profile such as – communication history, pricing, preferences etc. These can help the salesperson determine the right product and service to offer to the customer.

• Search efficiently: If you want to find customer details quickly you can now do so by using the smart searching option of the customer management interface. You can also use the powerful features of a smart CRM to delete duplicate information and merge segregated data.  

• Stay updated: Wouldn’t you love to receive updated information on market, deals, new closing and more while out in the market? The customer relationship management software available on your smartphone will help you access live feeds on business updates.

• Lead management: The lead management feature allows you to attach scores to your leads and let you concentrate more on the prospects that are more likely to fetch results. Manage your pipeline to monitor the progress of your sales.

• Don’t forget to follow up: How often have you forgotten to follow up with your client on scheduled time and date? It is easy to forget to follow up with an old prospect since you are continuously chasing new ones. But with the customer management system you can set alert that will remind you to follow up on said date and time. 

• Create account: You can now create personal login details in the CRM to create an account that is only accessible to you. You can also use CRM customization options to add and delete features to best suit your needs.

CRM is a powerful tool to promote your sales and boost your business. But its success is often clouded by rejection by the users. To avoid such problems with CRM adoption consult with your sales team and take user feedback before implementing the project.  

           

Author Bio: Paul Anderson is a CRM software consultant based out in California. For over five years he is offering CRM consulting services to a wide market vertical. During this period he has observed what works and what doesn’t work for companies. He brings in his wealth of experience on CRM customization and solutions to his writings on webs and blogs. He is an avid reader and enthusiast blogger and engaged with many online communities. He also loves outdoor sports and often goes fly fishing with fellow enthusiasts.