Kapture CRM-oriented sales team

9 Steps to make a smarter and sharper sales team

Kapture CRM-oriented sales team

It is no secret that an organisation’s greatest strength is a successful sales team. A strong sales team can create right business image. In the modern era of dog-eat-dog world, organisational growth presents visible and invisible challenges to the sales team that cannot be overcome by grit and sweat anymore.

A successful sales team is a combination of enthusiastic team mates, solid leadership driving them in a focused way and the right tool that can become a valuable and efficient component propelling the organization to greater heights. CRM system is a sales effectiveness software tool that can equip the sales team with data which benefits them on the run.

The following are the 9 Steps to make a smarter and sharper CRM-oriented sales team :

1. Convincing the sales team into CRM adoption

Sales teams are mostly people-oriented and not software-oriented and seem resistant to any change. They do not understand the personal benefits of using a CRM system and view it simply as a management tool that wastes their time. Demonstrating the aspects of CRM such as automating common tasks like providing follow-up reminders, scheduling of tasks etc; automatically pulling contact information from email or social media communication; and providing all critical sales information on a single platform will convince them into CRM adoption. Once on CRM, the sales team will have more time to focus on productivity and performance.

2. Providing adequate training of the CRM software

Conducting training sessions enable the sales team to accept the benefits of the CRM software and appreciate its role in improving productivity. Make sure the team is geared up before they use the system for sales activities to ensure a smooth work flow.

3. Enabling Mobility

Sales team should have the luxury of an easy access to data when they are on the go. Mobile access can be offered to CRM systems to make it simpler to login anywhere anytime making data available on their finger tips.

4. Collaboration through CRM

CRM gives room to collaboration which works as a catalyst to the system. Different access profiles can be created for the team members based on their individual needs. The software can give access to the real-time data, follow files, leads, cases, etc. and get alert messages in case of any changes. The benefit of social collaboration platforms is being able to access the right people and information on a mobile device through CRM which can be a game-winner !

5. Integrate Configure Price Quote with CRM

Another way to empower the sales team is to arm them with the detailed data from the pre sales CRM software like the source of the lead, whether it is a prospective lead, specifications and requirements to understand the costumer better, access to pricing list to help configure product solutions and price them, and then produce an accurate and attractive proposal to convey that information.

Eliminating the need for the sales team to manually create quotations on separate systems saves a lot of time and energy. CRM can generate documents and quotations based on the requirements and other details. This minimizes data entry errors.

6. Using CRM to drive sales strategy and account planning

Whatever the type of organisation, be it a highly transnational business or a very consultative relationship-based business, a good planning stems from the information stored. The CRM stores all information, ideally in the cloud so the information is accessible on a single platform in real time. The plan is nothing but a link between these pieces of information that hints at a particular approach which clinches the maximum deal for the sales team. The post sales CRM software stores data that helps in building reports that highlight activities and trends that predict future patterns of sales. Doing this will help the sales team to draw correlations between the objective milestones in the sales process and the likelihood of winning more deals.

7. Assessing daily plans, pipelines and forecasts with CRM

The sales team must be equipped to assess their plans, know about the pipelines and be able to forecast the consequences of their plans. Creating, assigning and executing daily sales plans can be done using the sales CRM software. The CRM helps in implementing the daily process such as creating realistic sales targets, assigning tasks, processing leads, making transit plans, and managing lead flow. The CRM helps to identify opportunities in the pipeline and total bookings on probability. It tracks activities such as latest opportunities, biggest deals, stalled opportunities etc. This helps to forecast the long term and short term targets. The CRM provides a better picture of the revenue system which helps to collaborate on opportunities that affect the forecast, and do so with a concrete understanding of how the actions will affect the outcome. This is when forecasting becomes truly collaborative.

8. Win-win sales technique is a reality with CRM

Sales team have nightmares when a potential customer is unreasonable and adamant about the demands and gets fixed on getting deal fitting their way. Often, sales people try to convince clients for a win-win strategy, but at some point gives in to their demands or folds the demands. In such situations, sales guys often desire for a common ground at finding a middle ground. CRM analysis provides necessary insights and augments the insights to act in a competitive environment. It also documents difficult client demands on a systematic way which helps in formulating and directing the strategies to make each sales decision with more intelligence.

9. Build a team of top performers with CRM

The sales team is driven by incentives and poaching opportunities from each other is a real snag to the team performance. This could lead to an environment where the customer could potentially pit one sales person against another that is not conducive for a Win-Win situation during a deal closure. The culprit could be an under performer and the root cause could be anything ranging from insufficient qualified leads, ill organised methods of assigning leads, unable to identify hot leads or shelved prospective deals. The CRM application is a one-time solution to these problems. With CRM system in place there will not be any under performers, the team will have an environment that will help in building an entire team of top performers !

Free CRM Trail Banner

Leave a Comment

BOOK A DEMO

Can't read this? click here to refresh.