“I would never get a CRM!” said Jim who sold operational consulting services. Mary Jones (MJ), his boss, wanted to implement a CRM and Jim was opposed. What were his reasons?
MJOPS
MJOPS is 5 years old. MJ has 3 salespeople and has yet to experience consistent growth. Jim was her 1st hire. “Jim is old school and has his own methods,” said MJ.
JIM’S VIEW
“I’ve been selling for 20 years and never needed a CRM,” said Jim. Jim had some serious reasons:
- I have to learn another new system that I won’t use.
- It requires a lot of time to enter the data.
- Everyone will know what I am doing.
Jim used business cards, sorted by date, to remind him when to follow up. MJ knew it was time to move into a 21st-century system.
MJ’S CHALLENGE
Mary had to choose how to manage Jim. How could Mary make Jim a believer? Mary and Jim met several times and Jim agreed to try the CRM. What factors led to Jim’s change in heart?
MJ showed Jim how to use his methods in the CRM. “You mean I can set up my business cards with due dates in the CRM?” he asked.
MJ shared several ways for Jim to use the CRM:
- Task list – No more business cards organized by date. The CRM listed his tasks with notes, actions, and due dates.
- Email templates – Jim wrote four routine emails every time he met a new prospect. Now Jim chooses an email template that auto-populates his message to personalize it.
- Automation – Jim is reminded to call a prospect automatically based on the criteria he sets.
- Drip campaigns – The team now has a 90-day drip campaign where nine emails are sent to every prospect to educate and nurture them automatically.
- Segmentation – Prospects now receive messaging by geography and industry, the two most important buyer characteristics.
“Now, I have all my notes, due dates, and emails all in one place,” said Jim. “I no longer have to remember everything in my head.”
MJ’s VICTORY
Rather than try to change Jim, MJ created Jim’s sales methods in the CRM. Once Jim saw its ease of use, he became a power user. Here are the benefits according to Jim:
- More time to spend with the best prospects – The email templates, drip campaigns, and call reminders freed up their time for higher priorities;
- Centralized records – Information was at their fingertips. No one had a go searching for notes.
- Task management – To do lists by due date became the norm.
- Sales funnel – All prospects are tracked by stage so that MJ knows the sales pipeline by sales value, rep, and stage.
MJ and the sales team use the CRM every day.
MJ smiles at getting Jim to be a power user. “As operational consultants, I got Jim to see how the CRM would improve our sales operation.”
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