Upgrading the sales function : Part 3 : Getting organized by implementing a CRM system

Organise, forecast, report and analyse your sales with CRM

In parts one and two of this series, we looked at what a sales methodology is and how it can help you. We also looked at a real life sales methodology, Solution Selling. The next step in upgrading your sales function is bringing it all together in an organized manner with the help of a CRM system.

The efficiency and effectiveness of any sales methodology is increased hugely when supported by a web-based customer relationship management (CRM) system – a database, accessed through a password-protected website, into which all the information about sales is entered. It helps managers in two key ways:

Organisation: A CRM system helps managers keep track of the many individuals, companies, opportunities and tasks they deal with. Multiple users can input information into one CRM system, thereby centralising all the sales data within the organisation. This is particularly useful if a manager requires an organisation-wide view of sales activities or when several people are working on one opportunity.

Forecasting, reporting and analysis: With a few clicks, managers can analyse the information in their system to give answers to such questions as:

● Which opportunities are likely to close in this financial quarter?
● How much business will we close this year?
● Which are our best lead sources?
● What percentage of our sales came from product X?
● At which selling stages do our lost opportunities ‘drop out’?

Most importantly, the answers to these and thousands of other questions can be used to guide managers’ future sales activities – to capitalise on strengths and improve where there is weakness. Furthermore, reports can be generated in order to give other stakeholders in the organisation an understanding of sales activity.

For the sales person, the system provides them with a way to store and quickly recall all information about an opportunity, company or contact. This sounds like a simple task, but anyone who has spent more than a few months selling without such a system knows that things get very complicated, very quickly and knowing what was said, by whom and when, or retrieving a number ASAP when under pressure, is an extremely valuable thing.