How are your sales? Could they be better? If you answered yes (and who wouldn’t?), you may want to consider the benefits of integrating email into a Consumer Relationship Management (CRM) software package.
“Information is power” is a true phrase in sales just as it is in life. The more information your sales reps have, the more powerful their pitch to your customers. Let’s take a look at an example of how CRM can help you by looking at life before CRM and after CRM.
Let’s assume that your company produces widgets, sprockets and vulcanium, and your salesman is going to visit Professor Blackacre, then to Mr. Spock, and then to Mr. Spacely. Let’s see how these calls work before CRM and after CRM.
Before CRM: Your salesman goes to visit Professor Blackacre first. Based on knowing Professor B for years, he’s sure that the Professor is interested in some vulcanium. He arrives with a sales pitch, and gives it to Professor Blackacre, who listens politely and then sends your salesman away, saying blandly, “Some other time.” As soon as your salesman is out of earshot, he tells his secretary not to let him past you again, as he never has been interested in vulcanium.
Next, he goes to see Mr. Spock. He thinks that sprockets will work particularly well for the vehicles Mr. Spock is building; however, Mr. Spock tells him that he thinks it’s illogical to purchase them at this time.
His last call of the day — and last hope to make a sale for the day — is to Mr. Spacely’s office. Your salesman is excited to tell him all about the benefits of widgets. But as soon as he mentions widgets, Spacely loses his temper, and throws him out of his office. At the end of the day, your salesman has made no sales, which is a bad result for both you, and him. He’s also wasted three customers’ time trying to sell them products they had no interest in. When he comes around next time, they’re going to find a meeting to be in.
After CRM: Your company sends out three emails to your customer lists — one for vulcanium, one for widgets, and one for sprockets, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, your salesman checks the CRM interface and notices that Professor Blackacre opened the vulcanium and sprockets emails, but did not click through; however, he opened the clicked through to read all about widgets, and spent a considerable amount of time on your spot. Professor Spock didn’t open the sprocket email, but he opened the widget email and he clicked through on the vulcanium. Meanwhile, Mr. Spacely didn’t even bother opening the first two emails, but he opened and clicked through on sprockets.
Armed with this knowledge, he goes out to see each customer and knows what they will make time in their busy schedules to talk about. Even better yet, he makes a solid sale at each place he goes.
The communication channels, especially email, that a strong CRM provide will help boost your business in more than just the flashy ways. Every bit of additional information you can give to your sales professionals is going to help them, and with CRM, there’s a lot of information to learn. That means power — and that means more sales.
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