If your CRM software is only used to house contact information about sales leads and current clients, you are wasting money and time. In fact, any company that is conducting their sales process like they did a decade ago is losing business…lots of business.
In the sales profession – times they are a changing! You probably are using a CRM tool now, but does it do these things? If it doesn’t, sales leads are pouring out of your sales bucket.
- Online CRM – available anywhere with internet connection, plus mobile
- Provide a way to download data and initiate contact with new sales leads.
- Implement marketing automation, autoresponders and email campaigns.
- Available to all customer-facing staff members to be customer-centric.
- Offer training focused on growing your business success.
Let’s take you through the new sales process:
(You can learn more about this new sales process in our Sales Growth eBook Series
1. Define your ideal client by studying your best clients stored in your CRM software.
2. Discover the pain these customers experienced before they used your product/service.
3. Create content that offers education about resolving that pain. WARNING: Don’t make the content about your product or service. It should be educational and useful – even if they do not purchase from you.
4. Download online contact data of people who fit the persona of the ideal client you have identified.
5. Send very brief emails to the contacts you downloaded. In those short emails, provide a link to the content you created in step 3 above.
6. Monitor who opens the email and who clicks on the content. These sales lead responses become a call list for your sales team. They should contact the clicks first because they have shown interest. With an online CRM, the sales staff can be notified by email on their smart phone.
7. Disqualify as many sales leads as quickly as possible. Those not-yet-qualified sales leads are placed into a lead nurturing email campaign delivered through the CRM software.
8. Make appointments for in person or telephone meetings for all the sales leads who pass the qualifying questions.
9. Monitor every step of the sales process: qualified, appointment, presentations, proposals, deliverables, follow up appointments, etc. With that information stored in your CRM you can accomplish two important things.
First, everyone with access to the customer data is aware of the status of the sales lead and offer help to them immediately.
Secondly, by monitoring the steps in the sales process, you can see where things break down and make critical improvements to your process.
1. Make all customer data available to everyone in the company…from the receptionist to accounting. That way, the customer is placed in the center of your company operations. Customers are delighted with the way they are served.
2. Use the data about the sales process to improve your pipeline reports. Beyond just the sales manager, this data is valuable to the company CFO and improves company cash flow. Banks love good, data-rich sales pipeline reports and will be much more likely to give you a cash advance when you need it when your company expands.
3. Develop marketing automation for your current clients that deepen the customer relationship. Send them information rich emails that they will be happy to read or send them highly personalized emails that show the human part of your business.