Written by guest bloggers: Brent Barbara and Jeff Silbert

Why do CRMs
frequently fail to deliver the business breakthroughs they initially
promised? How can a sales team best utilize all the features of their
CRM? These complicated questions can be answered simply: CRMs are great
but they are underused.

Sales people use CRM systems because their management requires them to do it. Managers love the wealth of information the CRM
system could potentially provide -- linking reports and activities to
individual sales staff and giving them the data to forecast future
success. Within the CRM, sales people are supposed to store their
contacts, track their activities and update all leads. But the reality
is most sales people keep their contacts and activities in Outlook or
in a folder and they use the CRM simply to protect their leads and
forecast for management. By using CRM in this limited capacity, sales
people are missing a huge opportunity to improve their sales and
productivity and sales managers are missing critical information needed
to create an accurate strategy for maximizing revenues.

The sales staff regards using the CRM
as a labor-intensive chore rather than a helpful tool. As a result, the
information in the CRM is limited, incomplete, and not up-to-date.
Traditionally, CRM systems are known to be difficult to keep current
and sales people keep their contacts and notes someplace else while
many key activities, like phone calls, never make into the CRM systems. Utilizing the CRM in this way this does not improve forecasting at all.

In addition, leading indicators are too hard to track in CRM
systems (e.g. how many calls did my new inside sales people make today,
which phone call led to a substantial new client), leaving the sales
manager tracking results rather than analyzing the key activities that
drive results.

But it doesn’t have to be this way anymore. If done right, sales people
can be empowered to live and breathe within the CRM and see how it can
help them sell more, and as a result, earn more.

If the sales person had a wish list, this is what it would include:
1. I want to be able to click on any contact and be connected on the phone
2. When my phone rings I want to know who is calling and have
all my notes in front of me so I am prepared to answer the call and
make the sale.
3. Before placing or answering a call, I want to know what was said in my last conversation with the caller.
4. I want tools to maximize the number of activities I can accomplish in a day
5. I want be able to measure how effective my efforts were.
6. I want all of this to be easy to do.

If the sales manager had a wish list, this is what it would include:
1. Based on activity, I want to forecast with confidence at any time in the quarter.
2. I want leading indicators rather than trailing indicators so
I know if the sales team is performing according to plan and have the
opportunity to change tactics if they are not.
3. I want sales people to make all the required calls and I want to know whether or not they did them.
4. I want all contacts, and all notes kept within the CRM, not on paper.
5. I want tools to provide more effective coaching.
6. I want to ensure my sales people are focusing on the right activities.
7. I want sales people to use the CRM to its fullest potential because they want to -- not because they have to.

Until recently, these requests were impossible to fulfill for the
mid-sized sales team who could not afford an enterprise call center.
Now the same tools available to large call centers are available to
everyone when delivered “As a Service.” This model makes it possible
for any sales team to connect their phone system to their CRM, much like large enterprise call centers effectively do today.

Solution
When connected to your CRM systems,
the phone system can give your organization the tools from both the
sales person and manager’s wish lists – helping the team to sell more.
The best tools and the best coaching separate the good teams from the
great teams and trustworthy leading indicators let you know how you’re
doing along the way.