Sales Prospecting Perspectives

How Are Your Inside Sales Reps Using Your CRM?

  

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Have you ever been getting ready for work, a night out on the town or any other time sensitive event and the missing piece to your outfit is under a pile of junk?

You search through the loads of laundry for your other shoe or the favorite shirt and eventually give up. Sitting in a disorganized room is much like using a disorganized CRM. When I get to the point where I can’t find things I need and I’m rushing out the door with the back up shoes on, I remind myself of the importance of organization. Once the shirts are folded, the shoes are put away and the laundry basket is ready for wash I feel a sense of relief. The same sense of chaos is connected to poor CRM usage.

Aside from the impact organization has on reporting, it directly impacts an inside sales rep's performance.  Specific organization tips that drive CRM success are:

• Follow up tasks according to your call plan.
• Filling out custom fields highlighting data points from your conversations. i.e: Systems that a prospect is using, time frame they may be evaluating, if they are familiar with your client etc.
• Prioritizing your homepage. Assigning interested pipeline as high priority and taking notes in the comments section so you can evaluate your pipeline monthly.
• Avoiding “getting in the red” keep a healthy amount of pipeline so you don’t overwhelm yourself with past due tasks.
• Assign your conversations to the appropriate lead status.

Organized CRM usage results in more leads, more talking points with a client, a much easier homepage to maintain, and a smooth transition from one BDR to another in sharing data.

An interested account without a follow up task can be a needle in a haystack. BDRs make on average over 100 activities a day through direct dials and emails. No one is capable of remembering every good conversation they had and follow up action item, without a CRM. It’s a tool designed to help you organize your business. It is in place to help you maintain the quality of your list.  In keeping good records, we can report on how much of the list was bad data, transitioned into pipeline, and when its time for fresh accounts. Let’s face it; we all know these things, its just not second nature to do it all the time. We don’t walk into an immaculate room each night, but we keep it as neat as we can. Treat your business like a clean room, I promise you will feel that sense of relief.