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The Six Best Reasons to use CRM
Posted by Colin Wilson
In Jul 09
I take it all back… CRM is the future of sales… the amount of value that CRM has contributed to sales efficiency and sales results is unimaginable. I was working with one of my clients last week when the moment arrived. How I have been so blind to the obvious over the years goodness only knows. I am now a convert and have taken the mature management approach to CRM and concluded that there are at least six good reasons why every sales rep should adopt CRM…
1. Keeps you busy. In this current climate, when real opportunities are as rare as a happy CRM user, sales reps need something else to occupy their time. Think about it, use CRM and you are going to be busy filling in all the data. Meetings, tasks, activities, notes, emails, recording phone conversations, etc. It’s a great way to be sales productive.
2. Allows you to focus on something else rather than selling. Let’s face it, times are tough and what better way to take your mind off selling then focusing your activity on updating the CRM system. If you spend a couple of hours a day you will find it so rewarding.
3. Keeps management happy. There is no better way to keep your management happy. The amount of time they spend on policing the CRM system to make sure sales reps are using it must mean this is their priority. In the old days it was about making your number, but no longer; CRM has changed the priorities.
4. Return on investment. The amount of money that organisations spend on CRM is enormous and they need to make sure there is a return. It seems the ROI is measured by usage, which is probably why the focus is on getting people to update the system. Therefore the more you use it the greater the return on investment figure.
5. Allows you to be creative. For me this is the best bit. Update your notes with anything you like. The chances that anyone would read them is minimal… so have fun and update your sales notes to read like a fairy story. Remember, the more you put in, the busier you look, the busier you look the happier your management!
6. You keep your job. Ahhh… perhaps this is the best reason for updating the system.
There we have it, the six best reasons why CRM is so good for sales… and if you make your number then it just goes to show what could have been achieved if you had taken the irresponsible approach of focusing on just selling.
7 Comments
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Colin,
I agree with you. Sales reps work hard and they should have tools to help them.
Emcien has a “recommendation engine” that simplifies selling products with configurations. The recommendation engine helps sales reps to quickly find and offer the best products to customers. Companies offer increasingly complex products and services, but do not expand their sales teams.
Our solution helps sales reps to sell more, increase conversion and reduce cycle time. This makes CRM ever more powerful, sales reps more effective and drives higher revenue.
Too funny - and, too often, too true. We just did an agenda topic on “using your CRM as a sales tool”. The goal is to try to find some way to make it advance instead of hinder sales efforts. Can’t hurt to try! Ha!
Funny post - thanks.
Another reason for CRM use is to leave an electronic trail. If the sales rep quits or gets fired, there should be a trail of activity and evidence for the next rep to follow.
I agree that CRM is the future of sales..all the sales representative have been in pretty tough time when sales come into picture. CRM helps the Sales Representative to be productive. It updates you Business regularly. You can have plenty of creativeness among the sales people. CRM helps business to give right priorities to right things..but now a days Online CRM have been too expensive.I never ever heard that CRM is for FREE!!But when I came across PMAM CRM I had a different Experience. I went to their url http://www.pmamcrm.com and registered there for free..And saw amazing feature provided for free, which really helped my business to grow…Thanks to PMAM to provide free CRM for every business.
you make good points Colin.
I found your post by searching for “how to remember to use crm” since I’m always so busy and can’t seem to discipline myself to use it.
I’ve setup and installed many different solutions, both in-house and hosted and encourage all my customers to use CRM. Unfortunately, when it comes to using it in-house I’ve been ignoring my own advice.
Regardless: Thanks for the info!