Now is the time to really manage your team.
As a manager right now, if you’re separated from your team and unable to rely on hitting the phones to fill salespeople’s diaries – what can you do? And do you know what your team is doing?
Our team has collated a series of practical instructions to get your employees to contribute to the future success of your business by actively using sales-i’s range of CRM features. Getting your teams online and building CRM data now will fuel growth later. Make no mistake, this isn’t housekeeping – this is all about proactivity and creating future opportunities.
The sales team.
Many usual methods of sales are untenable and are progressing slowly at best. Even social selling relies on your team being confident to reach out, and prospects to be online rather than fire-fighting a mixture of homeschooling, slow network speeds and illness. So, how can you ensure that your team is maximizing their time working from home, so you are equipped with the best information to supercharge your sales when you get back to the office?
CRM enrichment.
The key to building actionable insights is using the sales-i CRM Analysis and Soft Data Fields. These fields relate to customizable sections you can add to a customer’s CRM record card, allowing you to segment your customer base into groups of your choosing.
A good example of this is adding a soft data field that identifies your main competitor on a customer’s CRM record card. Capturing this information will allow you to use the data to run reports at a future date to investigate any drops in spending. The reports can be used to investigate changes in regular ordering patterns which you can then compare to promotions by your main competitors, market trends and more.
In the current climate, it is essential to identify and capture as many details about your customers and record them in a usable format. This can then inform your immediate and later actions on the account. An example of this may be to keep track of customers who have furloughed staff who may be key contacts, or those reporting growth via emails and voice calls.
CRM reporting – for sales teams.
The reporting options within the sales-i CRM are a great way to identify which previous sales tactics were most successful.
This can be achieved by using a combination of the Call Outcome Report and the Call Spend Summary Report. Between them, you are able to see the different types of interactions being recorded and what the financial return has been as a result, which allows you to analyze any commonalities or themes in the call notes attached.
Sales Managers.
If you are in a player-manager role at your company, you must be mindful not to skip the tasks detailed above for your salespeople. Lead by example and encourage your team to keep up their efforts whilst working remotely.
During this time, the best way for you to see where your team needs support is by monitoring each person’s activity, analyzing current and historic actions and how they relate to results.
CRM reporting – for sales managers.
Using the Call Outcome Reporting features will enable sales managers to do two important tasks:
1 – Review tactics being used by the sales team that is resulting in a successful outcome, usually an order.
2 – Provide a detailed report on the actions taken by each member of your team for full visibility of their work.
Both will drive discussions on the best way to proceed for long-term success thanks to data-driven insights on performance and sales strategy successes.
Review the pipeline
With each salesperson updating their pipeline probability figures, sales managers can use the Sales Opportunities report to identify and prioritize those high-probability opportunities, or those prospects that are most likely to convert to customers. The report also provides quick access for you to add notes, including any new opportunities, allowing you to guide and support your team.
The whole company.
Of course, there is a whole world outside of sales. Many of the employees finding themselves sitting at their kitchen tables have a vital role to play in supporting the business. As part of their remote daily schedule, try to get them engaged in the sales-i system and enrich the data within it.
Your marketing team can utilize the Campaigns capabilities of sales-i to identify groups of customers who meet certain criteria. For example, you may run a campaign to identify customers who you would expect to be buying a certain product line from you but haven’t made that purchase. It then prepares the data for you so you can use those insights in your marketing outreach and take full advantage of the current market demand.
The Customer Success and Support teams can use MyCalls to keep a detailed view of which customers they are working with day to day, coupled with account record cards and CRM reporting, they can document who has been contacted during this period. The Generate Calls feature can be quickly used to allocate calls directly into a user’s Outlook calendar. Plus, a continued effort of logging detailed call notes and setting follow-up call dates will feed back into the program of CRM enrichment.
Foundations of greatness.
The focus now can’t be just about selling, it’s also about preparation. Now is the perfect time to dig deeper into your processes and strategies so you can learn and grow. Right now may be the only time you will get in the coming years to build-out rich, detailed CRM records that will bear fruit for the difficult times ahead.
If you need any further support or suggestions, please contact your CSM who is on hand to assist.
