When we go do a demonstration of our system to sales mangers many of them tell us that they want a tool that can show them what their sales team is doing. Some of these sales managers want a tool that can track every minute of a salesperson’s day – they want sales call reports and activity reports. Many employees think that a CRM system is just a tracking tool used by managers to track their day to day activity.
A CRM system is not meant to track every activity of every sales person’s day. A CRM system is not a micro-management tool. A CRM system is meant to track key interactions and key information about your customers and prospects – not your sales team.
So, how can managers use a CRM system? Your sales team should update their CRM systems by adding notes when appropriate, updating opportunities and creating quotes when needed – managers can go through these updates which will give them a clear understanding of what’s happening in sales.
How managers can properly use a CRM system:- Use the Sales Pipeline: The sales pipe line of your sales staff can be used to make sure that your sales staff are effective at each stage of the sales process from prospecting to closing deals. For example you don’t need to see every prospecting call your staff members have made all you need to see is how many of these prospects have been added to the sales funnel.
- Sales Process Steps: Managers don’t need to track every little action in the sales process they only need to track major mile stones, for example how long does it take for a salesperson to close a sale after they have quoted a potential customer. Managers can see how long it takes a salesperson to complete each step in the sales process or they can see which steps their sales teams are battling on. They can then see where the salesperson needs some improvements and guide that salesperson to be more effective in that step.
- Important Reports To Go Through: To see how well a salesperson is performing sales managers need to pull reports, in BluWave CRM I would recommend managers pull the following reports:
- Activities By Rep and Date
- Opportunities Due By Sales Staff, Status Report
- Opportunities Won Lost By Rep Report
This will help managers to successfully judge a sales employee’s performance.
A CRM system is an amazing tool that managers can use to monitor important conversions and vital information about your customers and prospects. Managers can now get a clear understanding of how well their sales team is performing and can see where their sales team will need additional training to become a more effective sales person.
