- Many of you may remember the days before Customer
Relationship Management software, or CRMs.
Depending on the companies that we worked for,
as sales people, we kept our account information
in a variety of formats.
Going far back in my sales career, I kept a lot of account
information on spreadsheets, in unsophisticated databases,
and even on some off the shelf tracking software
that I purchased at an office supply store.
My sales manager tracked and measured my results
with revenue that was updated monthly
from some corporate mainframe.
And expense details came from a different system.
Sales people guarded their account details
like it was top secret information, and we only
deviated out on a need to know basis.
Our lists of prospects, new accounts opened, and pending
sales were discussed during our weekly check ins.
It was really unsophisticated, and performance management
reviews candidly had a lot of subjective opinions.
Today, all of our businesses are much more competitive,
and we can no longer afford not to be open in sharing
account data with others in our companies.
Candidly, not to do so puts you at a real disadvantage.
Thankfully, we have much better tools than what
we had just a few years ago.
CRMs have become so much more user friendly,
and have become a part of most companies'
organization computer systems.
They integrate well with technology tools, ranging from
customer care support to lead generation.
Some even work with LinkedIn to enable networking
with professionals globally.
The value of the detailed account information
in our CRMs assist sales people to greatly improve
their efficiency and their sales process.
However, for managers, it can take performance measurement
and reporting to a whole new level.
CRM implementation and usage is now one of the most critical
tools and responsibilities within an organization.
The following five factors are the key benefits of CRMs
for evaluation purposes.
Leads, opportunities, close rates.
All of this information is now in one location,
rather than in rogue databases and spreadsheets.
Fields can be created to track this information
and so much more.
You can get a real feel of the sales pipeline.
Forecasting.
This cuts down on the time to prepare a forecast,
since everyone's numbers are there and weighted
by potential close rates.
Accuracy of projections improve dramatically,
and it can be done rapidly.
Market feedback.
The level and quality of feedback from sales professionals
is an important performance measurement.
The CRM enables all staff to input data in a consistent way,
and enables managers, along with other critical departments
to retrieve it easily.
Analysis by channel.
The reviews of accounts by channel, resources spent,
revenue achieved, and cost to sales ratios calculated
can be measured so efficiently.
Team work and engagement.
Departments working together to focus on plans
to provide solutions to customers is what we're all
trying to accomplish.
The CRM encourage and reinforces that important objective.
Using CRMs does mean that our companies must reinforce
and require its usage.
Managers must model the way and be visible with feedback
to the sales staff, along with other departments.
A CRM, along with revenue and expense reporting,
can give a great overall view of the business,
individual sales representatives, channels, and accounts.
For performance management analysis, a CRM has become
such a valuable tool, and in my view, indispensable.