Implementing a CRM in your business or company is not only to have the best tool that allows you to follow up from prospecting to post-sales; each member of the organization must play a role that allows the machinery to achieve the objectives.
Implementing a sales CRM in your company is a technological advance that brings many benefits, not only to the business, but also to the salespeople, because it allows them to visualize a prospect from the moment, he/she approaches, buys and becomes a customer to whom we would like to build loyalty.
However, when the scope of CRM is not clear, there are objections from salespeople and, consequently, they do not take advantage of the tool. "I don´t know how to use it", "it´s too complicated", "I don´t understand it very well", "I´d better write it down in my diary", and so many other excuses.
What is needed? Everyone should do his or her job. In other words, the manager or director must explain and, above all, demonstrate that the use of the tool will save them time and effort, thanks to the automations, reports, daily planners and other tasks that the CRM will do for them.
It is also important to understand what the salesperson is feeling, because they may think that you are trying to replace their functions and tasks.
In many opportunities, the manager must ensure that his sales team has all the information about the tool, since they are the ones who will be implementing and using it. A CRM is something that will help them organize, follow up effectively and save time.
In addition to this, you must know and empathize with what they are feeling, since any implementation always generates "resistance to change", which involves several stages: Denial, resistance, exploration and commitment. The best way to reach this last stage is to involve salespeople from the moment the CRM is implemented.
You should allow them to experiment with the tool and make them feel that they can become the experts in using CRM to teach others.
Once the manager or owner of the company has involved his sales team, he can focus on designing the follow-up process that best suits the company, to be applied in the CRM (through segmentation and tagging). This process is based on the well-known sales funnel.
You can also set up the reports you want to obtain with the information uploaded by the salespeople, such as sales closing rates, performance per salesperson, proposals sent, etcetera. You can even get detailed management information in a very easy way.
Finally, management can automate and profile their mailing campaigns and design templates that salespeople can use to get in contact with the customer.
Once this is done, you can rest assured that CRM will do the rest.
What´s Next for the Salespeople?
If there is a well-defined process from management, the salesperson just has to carry it out, it´s as simple as that.
At the same time, they should update the system, which means uploading everything related to each meeting or call so that the follow-up is recorded, in case the manager wants to review it or someone else needs to continue with the process.
Another salesperson´s responsibility is to send commercial proposals and automatic communications from the system, in order to take full advantage of the automations and make the customer feel cared for.
Finally, feed the prospect information at least once a week to know their status and to be able to propose a strategy for their conversion. In this sense, the salesperson must constantly review the CRM.
If the company is clear about whose role is whose, it will be easier to adapt the CRM to daily tasks, allowing time savings, quick responses and, above all, more sales.
Upnify´s Editorial Team; formed by professionals and experts in Marketing, Sales, Communication, Design and other areas. They share their experience through articles enriching the commercial culture.