Your CRM should be your company’s greatest sales asset, but, in reality, it is often treated as an annoying technology platform that salespeople, project managers, and many other employees are required to use. Why is that? Why do employees not take it seriously? It could be that it is the third CRM in 2 years. It could be that everyone uses it differently. It could be there is no accountability or incentive. There could be many reasons that is causing your CRM to be an expense rather than a profitable asset.
From our experience helping company’s setup and use our CRM, X2CRM, we would like to share 4 things you can do to make your CRM your greatest asset:
- Pick a CRM that is right for your company and commit to it. We have seen companies go under because they were constantly changing CRMs. Not only is changing CRMs frequently expensive, it creates confusion and stress for the employees. Commit to that CRM for a minimum of 3 years. Making a commitment will challenge you to learn everything about the CRM and how to use it most efficiently for your company.
- Make sure the sales process in your CRM aligns with your department’s sale process. You may have a great sales process using specific terminology and stages in your buyer’s journey, but if it is not mirrored in your CRM, anything goes. Employees will make things up in the CRM with the best of intentions, but we guarantee, this will cause confusion, angry bosses, and heated meetings. Taking the time to align your CRM with your sales process will increase sales conversions and bring more unity and peace throughout your company.
- Set up automatic reporting. Every department wants reports for various reasons. The request is sometimes delegated to different employees. This can be very inefficient, especially if the reports are created differently by each person. Setting up automatic reporting gets the same report to right people at the same time. Not only does this free up the administrative assistant to help with other meaningful tasks, it reduces the stress of the recipient, because they do not have to interpret the report.
- Invest in proper training. Companies are always trying to cut overhead. CRM training often makes the cut list. Why? Because companies see the CRM as an expense. It is an expense when employees have to figure it out for themselves. It is very hard to change habitual patterns. When a company looks at the value of the CRM as an asset, training is worth the investment, because, as an asset, it is a tool that contributes to generating profit.
There is a common theme to making your CRM your greatest asset. It is consistency. From your commitment to your sales process to your automatic reporting to your training, consistency increases efficiency. Why reinvent the wheel or put your employees in a position where they are forced to reinvent the wheel? Follow these recommendations and you will turn your CRM into your greatest asset rather than an expense.
