Customer Relationship Management

A CRM (customer relationship management) software program is a vital sales tool that stores contacts and customer information and also helps your sales team move opportunities through the sales pipeline. It also provides a centralized place for your sales team to work on each opportunity and prioritizes key activities. This program prevents leads from being overlooked or missed through follow-up and keeps your sales team focused on the task.  

 

The CRM program will allow you as a sales rep to prioritize your day so that you spend the necessary time with each prospect until a buying decision can be made. The more organized and structured you are, the more productive you will become and greatly improve your chances of increasing your income!

 

CRM solutions are a great resource for new salespeople to uncover opportunities and new revenue streams.    

 

Best Practices for Using a CRM: ​

 

• Keep your CRM up to date. All customer interactions and follow-up dates should be entered daily. 

• Review your pipeline frequently and remove opportunities that are not engaged in the sales process, and/or those that are not qualified.  

• Be realistic when setting the probability of closure for each stage. 

• You should have 3x your sales goals in your pipeline to ensure you have enough opportunities to achieve your sales goal. Example: If your goal is $500k, plan on adding $1.5mm to your pipeline.

• Use your CRM daily and let it work for you!

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Check out some good examples of CRMs below and see how they will help with your selling activities:
 

Trello CRM   |   Zoho CRM​   |   Hubspot CRM

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Homework Assignment:

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Work with your sales manager to familiarize yourself with your organization's CRM platform.

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