Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Throughout my career I have seen many sales representatives’ creative ways to manage their leads. Some collect as many business cards as they can and file them in a drawer for reference or try to enter contacts in spreadsheets, on post-its or with their email provider. Using these methods is not very effective and can cause a sales representative to forget follow-up appointments and tasks.
Sales leads and retention are critical for business growth and managing your leads properly is a must. A well built CRM bring leads and client information together in one system that can be viewed instantly from anywhere and at anytime. CRM eliminates the need for fragmented systems throughout departments. This allows sales, customer service, management and marketing teams to work together creating a streamlined workflow and better customer experience.
Take a look at the following questions to help you determine if a CRM is a good fit for your business.
| Yes | No | |
| Are you or your sales representatives making enough prospecting calls every day? | ||
| Are you or your sales reps following up on all potential business? | ||
| Do customer service and sales know what is being said to your clients? | ||
| Are your leads resulting in sales? | ||
| Do you need more than one database to manage your business? | ||
| Do you know how your sales reps are performing on an individual basis? | ||
| Are you tracking your marketing campaign results? | ||
| Can you manage your client documents all in one place? | ||
| Have you set-up email drip campaigns to communicate with your clients? |
If you’ve answered no to one or more of these questions, you should consider a CRM to manage your clients, acquire new clients and track your marketing results. Storing client information on business cards, post-its and spreadsheets is inefficient and can lead to poor follow-up and customer experience.