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To answer this, it’s worth asking the following questions: Where do we store our customer contacts? Where are interactions such as appointments, calls, and emails recorded? Do we have sales projections? Do we have a pipeline of sales?
Generally, I encounter clients who answer yes to all of the above, but that yes is related to multiple Excel files, which are “productivity killers” for sales staff. In worse circumstances, we find a response similar to: “No, I only manage my contacts in my email”.
The answer to the initial question requires some prior preparation, as when I should implement the CRM is generally associated with the moment we find ourselves needing to unify our customer information in a database (the disorder). This is the moment when we’re in urgency, it’s the moment when the organization’s leader asks you to research the best CRMs on the market. Here I share some small recommendations based on my experience after working on multiple implementations, these could help you reduce implementation costs and even lead you to a more successful implementation:
· Involve collaborators from the beginning. Most of the failures we encounter when implementing any system is not involving the end user.
· Organize and consolidate your customer data by asking yourself: What information do I want to know about my customer? What information do I want to know about their company? (think of Excel fields, like name, surname, birthday)
· Think about what information you want to record about activities such as tasks, appointments, calls, lunches, among others. This will help us measure potential opportunities in a “predictive” manner
· What is my sales funnel? Here’s a little help: https://www.pipedrive.com/es/blog/embudo-ventas
· Create a work process (remember the first point, involve the staff)
· Keep in mind that implementation is not 100% a task for the technology department. Do you take driving lessons in a mechanic’s workshop? Information Technologies adapt the tool to the needs of the internal customer and the implementation should be managed from the sales management.
With the above clear and organized: It’s time to implement a CRM! This will help us increase our sales, create projections, analyze the customer portfolio, make better decisions and improve the level of customer service through proper follow-up.
Which CRM is the best? I’ll leave that to your judgment, but this is the one I recommend PipeDrive and even by entering here you can get a free trial month which will help you get an idea of the potential of having a CRM.
#technology#technologicaladvances#IT#Cloud#CloudComputing#Security#DevOps#Tech#Apps#Productivity#Mobility#BI#CRM#Sales
