Implementing and using a CRM

Organizational communication and management of expectations are crucial to the successful implementation of a CRM. 

 

Making the transition from no CRM or another CRM to a new CRM is fraught with challenges.

Here’s how we recommend tackling those challenges:

• Take a long-range approach and communicate early and often. Open up communication channels and identify power users and or support people.
• Set expectations and support them.
• Break implementing a CRM up into small bites that can be managed and accomplished. A simple expectation of mandating the use of a CRM to capture all sales information can be very problematic for many salespeople, particularly seasoned salespeople who have relied on other methods to record and track their sales efforts. Patience and persistence will be rewarded.

Information in VS. Information out

The old adage: Crap in = Crap out is very much at play. Your talented salespeople have been turned into data entry and data management people. Sometimes it’s new data or it’s cleaning up old information and there could be a lot of it. Quality of data is critical to reports and the value that comes from them.

You may need a data person to clean up old data. You will likely want to set some standards to make sure that the language of your sales team is well understood – for example, when a word such as lead is used there should be a common understanding/definition of what that means.

The reports you count on from your CRM will be so much more valuable to your salespeople, management, and other departments when the foundations, structure and process elements are in place.

 

Read more about implementing a CRM on our website!

Are you ready to begin your sales management journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution?

Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

The Importance of a CRM for Sales Management

Most companies use spreadsheets to keep track of their customers, correct? Some companies still use them, and many more have been employing CRM’s – Customer Relationship Management software. 

CRMs are often robust platforms that perform a multitude of tasks. Sometimes they are found in fully integrated ERP’s (Enterprise Resource Planning software) and in many cases CRM’s range from very basic to more complex systems. 

There are free versions and ones that are very costly. So, how do you confidently select and implement a CRM or change from a current one to a new one?

What is a CRM?

In its most basic form, a CRM supports and houses information. We can actually call it a database – one where data is captured, entered, and organized to help a sales organization carry out its strategies, sales function, and sales management.

Once information is recorded into the system, we can call up reports and information that can provide valuable feedback. This feedback can range from results to the health of a sales pipeline (discussed in our November post) and whether sales activities are at desired levels.

If you do an internet search for CRM’s, you will quickly become overwhelmed with the number of choices in the marketplace. Because choosing a CRM can be a daunting and time-consuming exercise, we encourage you to build in enough time to learn, evaluate, and make an informed decision. 

What CRM is best for our organization?

Depending on your business model there may be many or a small number of options for a CRM that meets your needs.  We encourage our clients to build a criteria list for what they think will best work with their business model. The other major factor is that any business that selects a CRM should expect to make changes and adjustments.

Read more about CRM choices on our website.

Are you ready to begin your sales management journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution?

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

How Can Effective Sales Management Processes Help Your Business Grow?

We recently had a discussion with a client about what a pipeline is and is not. Looking online only added to the confusion for the client. Sales Pipelines have become increasingly important because they lead to a visual representation of your sales process – one that can be captured in your CRM (customer relationship management) software. Your sales pipeline will chart the process from a contact to a client or customer. Not all pipelines will be the same and they should be very specific to each organization. 

With many of our clients, we use the analogy of a section of PVC pipe – empty at the start. Representing sales activity, we insert balled-up athletic socks. When the first pair is inserted, nothing comes out the other end. We must keep inserting the balled athletic socks into the pipe, until the pipe is full and the first set of socks, representing closed-won business, comes through the other end. With this simple analogy, we represent the most basic elements in sales – activity, pipeline state, and results. Said another way, results will follow a healthy pipeline that is well supported by activity that is based on a solid strategy with great execution. 

Sales Management and a Sales Coach for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

In the day-to-day operation of a small business, it’s easy to become short sighted. You begin to take for granted that the way things are is the way they have to be, or always will be. It often takes an experienced outsider to remind us that we really can change things for the better.

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales efforts on track. If you’re not happy with how your organization’s sales function is doing, coaching can be a great option. 

In some cases, we operate as a Fractional Sales Leader and other times we coach with an existing Sales Manager and sales team. We often work at all levels of the organization to help build a Sales Focused Organization - leadership, strategic direction, systems, sales management, departments, and individual contributors. We also assist in the recruiting and evaluation of “Qualified, New Business” Sales representatives.

Read the full article about sales management here!

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? 

Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact us form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

What is a ‘Healthy’ Pipeline?

Your pipeline will consist of discrete stages, each with goals, activities/tasks and/or milestones that must be met before the next stage or step can be pursued. Each transition from one stage of the pipeline is considered a ‘conversion’. These transitions become critical to sales success because they can be analyzed numerically, and they provide important data and feedback to sales management. 

Let’s say your pipeline looks like this: Contact > Lead/Opportunity > Sales Qualification > Decision > Closed Won/Lost. If we analyze the conversions at each stage, we’ll gain insight into what is and isn’t working. Our analysis will be dramatically enhanced when we add specific goals and milestones that must be met before transitioning from one stage to the next. Many organizations will have multiple pipelines that represent different scenarios in sales – maybe the existing customer pipeline is different from that of a prospective one or there may be stages that are different for an inbound inquiry as compared to an outbound cold call.

Whatever your pipeline and criteria needed to transition from one stage to the next is, the labels and sales-specific language within your organization must be clear to the entire sales team and everyone in the organization. No plan is a plan to fail. A great plan that’s launched without clear communication will struggle to be as successful as intended. 

What is your pipeline, and how well understood and effective is it? What CRM are you using and how well does it reflect your pipeline and support analysis of your sales efforts? With today’s CRMs, Sales Managers/Leaders rely heavily on reports that can help bring to light training possibilities for their team, and to enhance the performance of individual sales team members.  

We’ve heard from many organizations that their biggest current issues are supply chain and staffing levels. These current challenges overshadow sales as a concern. This may be the perfect time to examine or re-examine your sales efforts, the process, stages, and pipeline(s). So don’t wait - proactively evaluating your sales will lead to stronger conversion rates and results. 

Read more about sales management here!

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? 

Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

Sales Coach: Building Blocks for Success

When it comes to defining and making distinctions between sales and marketing, are the roles and the language used clear to everyone in your organization? Marketing is responsible for exposing a brand product (could be tangible or non-tangible) to the marketplace. Sales is responsible for converting leads to prospects and then to customers. With this simple distinction we may not know who is responsible for lead generation. 

So, who is? Is it marketing, sales, or is it the entire company? Some companies will have more marketing and less sales, others will have the reverse. There is no right answer when it comes to distinguishing sales from marketing and each area’s responsibilities. Over time, a given organization may change these distinctions to impact processes and results. Most importantly, is the structure and its function clear to those who must deliver and act on that understanding?

When it comes to positions in sales, clarity about what an organization wants and needs in a sales position will set the stage for a successful hire. Will it be new sales (hunter), repeat sales (farmer), account manager, or a customer support role/position? What are the expectations for this position? Will the person in this role be responsible for prospecting, making cold calls, building a pipeline, and closing opportunities at a certain pace (quota/goal)? Will they be required to function in a CRM? From a marketing perspective, will the position open a new territory or build out an existing one – vertical vs. horizontal market penetration?

Once the role, expectations, and desired results for a sales position are clear, we can turn to thinking about the kind of candidate that might be suitable for this position. Hiring a customer- and service-oriented person for a new business sales position will likely fail. So, what characteristics should a great candidate for your position have? How will you recognize a good candidate from one that would be a poor fit?

Read how a sales coach can help on our website!

Get Started with an Experienced Southeast Michigan Sales Coach

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

To find out how a sales coach can work with your company to help you achieve success, contact us today!

A Sales Coach for Your Southeast Michigan Sales Team

In the day-to-day operation of a small business, it’s easy to become short sighted. You begin to take for granted that the way things are is the way they have to be, or always will be. It often takes an experienced outsider to remind us that we really can change things for the better.

As business and sales coaches in Southeast Michigan, we’ve helped many local businesses get their sales efforts on track. If you’re not happy with how your organization’s sales function is doing, sales coaching can be a great option.

We work with sales leaders, managers, teams, individual salespeople, and their organizations.  With both our standard offerings and our customized coaching and consulting engagements, we focus on the gap areas to drive better sales results. Our work varies in length from just one quarter to multi-year engagements depending upon the size of the organization and needs.

In some cases, we operate as a Fractional Sales Leader and other times we coach with an existing Sales Manager and sales team. We often work at all levels of the organization to help build a Sales Focused Organization - leadership, strategic direction, systems, management, departments, and individual contributors. We also assist in the recruiting and evaluation of “Qualified, New Business” Sales representatives.

Read more about the sales coaching process here!

Are you ready to begin your journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.

What Can a Sales Coach in Southeast Michigan Do for You?

As founders of Open Book Selling, we’ve been business coaches in Southeast Michigan and Greater Detroit area for many years. In this time, we’ve realized there’s a surprising amount of confusion about what Sales Coaches actually do.

Many businesses and their teams could benefit from sales coaching, but only know about consultants, are embarrassed to ask for help, or might not even know what their options are. Think about all the instances of where a coach is a given, for example individual and team sports. When the stakes are higher such as in professional sports, many coaches may be employed to impact the performance of a single player!

So, let’s go over what sales coaching really is, what it isn’t, and what a real story of successful business sales coaching looks like!

What Sales Coaching Is

Sales coaching is fundamentally about developing sales leaders, sales management, and their sales team members. We work directly with all levels of the organization.

This can take many forms based on your situation, but the end goal is always to transform you, your leaders, your managers, and team members into strong performers equipped with the tools and skills needed to meet any challenge today and in the future.

This often involves digging into some deeper questions—questions that may be tough to answer, and ones that get at key areas that once addressed, can open up pathways to greater success. We may examine motivators, support, and expectations that once met lead to success.

Read more about sales coaching on our website!

Are you ready to begin your sales coaching journey?

Are you ready to build a sales-focused organization with a high performing sales team and an effective sales management solution? Whether you’re satisfied with the effort, focus, and results of your sales team, many people we speak with have been hesitant to act – simply because they don’t know where to begin. If you’re open to a brief call, let us know and we can take the first step together.

Call us at 248-468-7400 or fill out our contact form to receive a sample sales candidate assessment report! Together, we can assess how your company is doing, what potential it has, how to realize this potential, how long it will take along with expected gains. We are here to help you determine the best way to achieve your goals.