Too many organizations are using yesterday’s sales tools to tackle today’s sales challenges. Yet many organizations who invest in CRM don’t get the results they expect. We help sales teams leverage CRM and other tools for maximum sales performance.
Separating vendor hype from practical sales reality is key, so too is adopting a balanced approach that sees technology as the enabler, and sales priorities, sales people and a sales process as key to successful CRM implementation.
Looking to boost sales productivity?
In a difficult marketplace, organizations are looking to maximize the levels of productivity and effectiveness of their sales teams. The use of an effective sales/CRM system is an important part of the sales performance equation.
Managers who have successfully implemented a CRM system (either for the first time, or the unlucky ones who have had to replace an old system that was struggling) will describe the result as nothing short of transformational. Indeed, they cannot imagine how they existed beforehand.
The sales organization of 2014 has the widespread use (by both sales and marketing) of an effective CRM system at its core. The system:
- Provides greater visibility, predictability and control of the sales function.
- Increases pipeline viability and improved forecast accuracy.
- Supports the effective alignment between sales and marketing.
- Provides a balanced view of activity and effectiveness in all areas from lead generation to proposal/tender success.
- Support the design of effective sales and marketing campaigns.
- Enables the effective coaching of salespeople by their managers.
- Reduces sales reporting and sales administration time.
A sales organization that is run on spreadsheets and paper based files is leaking efficiencies and wasting resources.
Can CRM Deliver A Sales Advantage?
Is a poor CRM system, or no system at all, holding your sales team back? One way to check is to do a simple test to assess the time required to gather basic information in respect of 10 randomly chosen target companies.
Another is to ask a manager about the strength of the pipeline, the rating on a key deal, how solid the rating is, and what the next actions are in respect the deal. Then ask about the numbers, the KPIs of selling, such as conversion and win rates.
We help managers to determine the impact of their existing CRM systems on sales, the scope to improve the results from existing systems, relate performance back to user adoption, as well as system effectiveness (usability, data quality, functionality, etc.).
Want To Build The Business Case For CRM?
The number one mistake is to see the purchase of CRM as a technology decision, it is not. CRM is a business / sales decision with a technical dimension, not the other way around. That means it must be driven from the top in terms of addressing particular business strategies and sales priorities.
CRM is driven by a vision of the future of the organization in terms of its approach to sales, marketing and support/customer service. It is strategic.
We help managers and their teams calculate and validate the potential impact of sales / crm system implementation. That includes the impact on sales activity levels (selling time), sales support / administration costs, marketing innovation and more difficult but important to measure impact on sales.
Need Help Making the Right Decision?
Buying CRM is both a complex and a risky decision. Getting it wrong is easy. It is not just the choice of vendor, or feature set of the system that determines success. So, being confident you are buying the right system is not enough.
The success of a CRM system is in large part determined by how the system is bought and implemented. But, how to buy a system?
We provide a vendor neutral guidance in respect of:
- The key features that are most required.
- Features that are nice to have, but not required.
- The level of customization required.
- Integration of data, data cleansing and buying new data.
- Sales process / work flow automation.
- The key success factors and risks of implementation.
- User adoption: key challenges and risks to effective adoption.
- The level of integration that is required with existing systems.
- The requirements of project managing CRM.
- The support and administrative requirements of the system.
We enable managers to learn from the experiences of many other successful, as well as less successful CRM implementations.
Are You Confident Of Successful CRM Adoption?
Too many organizations are dogged by poor levels of CRM adoption. Key strategies to ensure high levels of adoption include:
- Openly addressing key project risks and barriers to success.
- Viewing the system implementation as a change management initiative.
- Ensuring extensive consultation and involvement from all stakeholders.
- Ensuring leadership from the top – it must be seen as a strategic sales priority.
- Making adoption easy, but also mandatory.
- Providing adequate training, administration and support.
- Profiling users in terms of those who will struggle most with the system and tailor support/training accordingly.
We help organizations adopt a best class approach to system implementation. We work with teams on requirements gathering, user consultation, embedding sales processes, planning system training/mentoring and building the business case for rollout and adoption.
To learn more about successful CRM system implementation please contact us.
