CRM for Sales Teams: A Necessary Tool

Maab Saleem

Oct 21 2018 comments- 1

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Sales agents like to be vigilant in their dealings with leads and customers. Their productivity is often dependent on their efficiency, more than anything else. This is why some sales teams frown at the concept of using a seemingly cumbersome software. They also assume that adding software to the mix will limit their ability to personally interact with a client. All the preceding misconceptions don’t change the fact that a CRM can be a real game-changer for sales teams. However, when implementing a CRM for sales teams, the proof is in the numbers: sales teams report a 65% boost in sales quotas after CRM adoption.

CRM for sales teams is more than just a data warehouse

A CRM is not just a software that allows you to store information against potential leads and customers; it’s an underappreciated, comprehensive tool which lets you track leads efficiently, solidify your relations with customers, bridge the gap between organizational teams, streamline your workflows and pipelines and obviously, increase sales. We are not just talking in theory, the worldwide CRM revenue in 2017 was $39.5 billion, which was more than that of any other software market in the world. This is why it’s of paramount importance that all constituents of a sales team realize the effectiveness of using a CRM to increase sales. If you are a sales agent and are still unsure about CRM adoption, or if your sales team still isn’t being receptive to the idea of using a CRM, then here are a few reasons that should surely make the nay-sayers jump on board.

Safe storage, available everywhere

A CRM stores the details about all your contacts, leads and customers in a safe, centrally-managed reservoir. This database is accessible from anywhere, and at any time. Wherever you are, you can note important details using your mobile or your laptop. The best part is, they’ll never get lost. Modern CRMs for sales teams like Pipedrive also give you the ability to add customized attributes to a customer, which can come in handy at a later time. For example, if a potential customer talks about their dog, you can add a custom field against their name. The next time you talk to them, mention their dog in order to establish a rapport.

crm for sales teams

CRM for sales teams keeps everyone in sync

Without a CRM, important information about valuable prospects is scattered around multiple spreadsheets and email accounts. Often the inability to know something quickly can be a deal-breaker. A CRM keeps your whole team on the same page by storing everything in one place. It also helps bridge the gap between marketing and sales teams, as most top CRMs like Freshsales integrate with most top marketing software.

Simplified time and lead management

A CRM lets you plan and manage your time efficiently. Just scheduled a meeting with a potential client? Add it to your CRM’s calendar and receive a reminder in case you forget. Want to forego some of the dead leads to focus more on the hot ones? Make a CRM tell you where to look. There’s nothing more wrong than thinking that using a CRM makes you spend less time with customers; in reality, it does the exact opposite.

Strike the iron while it’s still hot

By keeping track of things like contract tenures and subscription periods, a CRM lets you target the customers, precisely when the chances of them converting, are the highest. If a customer has just subscribed to your newsletter, chances are that they want to know more about your services. By striking while the iron is still hot, you increase your chances of selling.

Actually see your sales pipeline

A sales pipeline divides your leads across multiple stages of the sales cycle. This allows you to do better overall management. With a CRM for sales teams, you can really visualize your sales pipeline. You can also quickly identify the opportunities or shortcomings that you would otherwise miss. For example, if a majority of your leads are stuck on the second appointment stage of your pipeline, with only a handful making it to the third stage, then you know you need to revamp the efforts you are making during your second meeting. This is another one of the many benefits of CRM for sales teams.

Insightful analytics

A CRM for sales teams and upper management can provide you with important statistics. Revenue per call, up-sell rates, dead leads, case times, call volumes, leads per agent, and sales quota per team can all be used to devise sound business strategies for the future. Top-of-the-line CRMs also give you the ability to generate insightful reports that can show you important trends in important business metrics.

crm for sales teams

Share documents and collaborate seamlessly

CRM benefits for business are numerous. In addition to the obvious mentioned above, a CRM also provides you with a dedicated documents library, which is shared with different users of the application. This allows you to make document sharing a seamless affair. Instead of going through emails to retrieve important sale-guaranteeing information, it’s better to have a central repository to house documents that matter.

Social media integrations

Many teams who use CRM to increase sales leverage the potential of social media. By integrating your CRM with social media applications, you are able to retrieve valuable information about your customers like their age, preferences, demographics and purchasing behavior etc. Knowing all these important details makes you more likely to gain their trust and make them believe in what you are offering.

In a nutshell

The fact that a CRM lets you receive $8.71 for every dollar you spend, should be enough to convince anyone to trust in CRM. If not, then the CRM benefits for sales reps mentioned above should do the job. These feature-rich applications provide you with the ability to do better lead management. They also help you streamline your sales process and increase revenue. By allowing you to segment your customer base and by helping you eliminate the dead leads from your database, a CRM lets you make targeted marketing efforts, which can make all the difference. If the benefits of CRM for sales teams mentioned in this article were enough to convince you, go ahead and invest in a state-of-the-art CRM, but make sure you review all available choices extensively.

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Questions & Answers

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Christian Cherniawski

Love the insights! I especially love that “a CRM lets you receive $8.71 for every dollar you spend”. Thats the first quantification of a CRM’s value I’ve seen so far.

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