There are tons of articles explaining what it takes to be a killer salesman. Charisma, persistence, consistency, and persuasive abilities are all important characteristics. However, no matter how good you are, you’ve got to be organized and on top of your game with every single client and lead. CRM is like the Texas Instrument you needed in high school and college. That machine got us all through our dreaded math classes and most definitely played a huge part in all of us (I’ll admit it) passing those classes.
So, just like that amazing little tool, CRM is your new incredible tool to help you be better at your job. It’s as simple as that. You will do business better when you use a CRM. Here’s why:
1. More information about your leads and clients
As a sales person, great power lies in the knowledge you have of not only what you’re selling, but who you are selling to. Understanding – and I mean a deep understanding of your leads/clients is going to help your ability to relate and of course, seal the deal.
A CRM collects and stores so much data, anything from demographic data to the emails they opened and the links they clicked on. With this information, you can answer their questions before they even ask. That’s power.
2. Makes the follow up process easy
I know it, you know it, we are all busy. CRM helps you stay on track with your follow ups. Track every single interaction with your leads and customers, so one, you don’t mix up your leads, what was said, and when it was, and two, because if you try and do that you might drive yourself crazy.
Schedule both one off and recurring follow ups, so you can nurture and engage your clients without having to remind yourself on a daily basis who you need to call and what you need to discuss. It’s all there in the CRM, right in front of you and ready for you to use to close the deal.
3. Makes you more productive/efficient
I don’t know about you, but I like to work smart, not hard. We already work enough as it is, so being your most efficient is like living in a dream. Gone are the days of searching through endless spreadsheets, business cards, and notepads. With a CRM you have access to all of the pertinent data you need to efficiently do your job. Without having to lose time, you get a 360-view of your customer in one dashboard. Now, that’s smart thinking. The more you have to hunt, the harder you have to work, and your sales calls dwindle.
Sales is still a numbers game, so the more leads you can connect with in one day, the better. Let a CRM help you get in touch and stay in touch with all of your contacts.
4. Say goodbye to that spreadsheet life
Just like I explained earlier – no more spreadsheets. Seriously, get out of that spreadsheet life. It’s not only hard on the eyes, they do not automatically collect, append, and make data easily accessible or digestible.
A CRM is much more dynamic. You have access to a whole new world of information that would be so much harder to collect and sort through in one of your spreadsheets. The way you organize your CRM lets you easily view and utilize information for your follow ups, marketing efforts, lead nurturing, and more. You can’t automatically personalize your emails with just a spreadsheet, you would have to import that spreadsheet into an email marketing system, create your emails, identify your segments, and the list goes on. With a CRM, all you have to do is put in a few placeholders or setup some rules to accurately and effectively segment your contacts. Easy, right?
5. Throw away your business cards
Networking is great, but there is nothing more annoying than having to sort through your cards and try to remember who was who, why they are important, if they were interested, and so on. A lot of CRM platforms integrate with card readers, like Evernote, so you can quickly scan the card, have the contact automatically uploaded to your contact lists, and ready for follow up. Boom, boom, bam, done. You can now throw away that huge clutter of cards that’s slowly consuming your office desk, purse, or suit pockets.
Even if your system doesn’t integrate with a card reader, it is still easier to get that contact manually into the system and to toss the card. You will still be more organized and able to collect more data in the future….automatically.
6. Find out who’s hot and who’s not
If only we were all mind readers, we could really optimize our time with people. But, unfortunately, we’re not, so it helps to have a CRM system with built-in lead scoring to tell us which of our leads are purchase ready and who’s just beating around the bush.
Lead scoring is the act of giving your contacts a score based on demographic and active behaviors. For example, did your lead attend a webinar, click on a link you sent over, setup a meeting with you, or download a whitepaper? Is this lead a college student just perusing your site or is it a Sales Manager, actually looking to purchase your product or service? All of this information lets you know whether or not this person is actually a viable lead or someone who has barely entered your funnel.
Built-in predictive analytics is also a very valuable tool when trying to determine your hottest leads.
Learn more about closing more deals with predictive analytics.
Overall, you might be an amazing sales person, but don’t we all wish we had a second brain sometimes to help us get through everything we have to do throughout any given day? That is why CRM is such a critical tool for the modern day sales person. A CRM really does help keep us sane, and when you’re sane, you get things done. Win with CRM.
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