Reasons Not to Get a CRM

“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.”

Want to Experience MJ’s Victory? Click Here

When you stack magnets, their power is exponential.

Stacking Magnets

Think about your best clients and what actions they took when first buying from you. Build magnets based on these actions. Here are examples of how to stack magnets:

Fractional CFO Service Company

TOFU – Cash-Flow Forecast Template for Founders.
MOFU – 3-part email class on “Scaling from 500K to 5M using videos.
BOFU – Free 30-minute “Financial Check” with a 90-day pilot option.

. Residential HVAC / Plumbing Contractor

TOFU – Seasonal Maintenance Checklist to Avoid Breakdowns
MOFU – Educational videos on “What To Check Before Calling For Help.
BOFU – Free home system inspection plus a discount on annual plans.

Specialty Retailer or E-Commerce Shop

TOFU – “Find Your Perfect Product Style” quiz with personalized recommendations and a small first-order discount.
MOFU – How-To Guides, Lookbooks, and Comparisons

BOFU – Limited-time starter kit, cart-abandonment coupons, and free shipping.

This “magnet stack” approach—clear value at each stage, linked to your core offer—will pull the right prospects from curiosity to commitment.

Getting it Done

Apex Advisory Group, a professional services firm, had four sales reps plus the owner selling and servicing clients, but deals were inconsistent and follow-up was ad-hoc.

Apex engaged CCC, www.cccsolutions.com, to help build their sustainable sales pipeline. The team focused on the ideal client’s journey, selected magnets, and created a sales process to manage prospects. The magnets were:

TOFU – Risk and Readiness Checklist.

MOFU – Quarterly Webinars and Case Studies

BOFU – Business Circle Invitation

CCC set up X2CRM to segment, track, and reach prospects and remind salespeople to follow up. At every stage, the CRM captured new information and responded based on specific prospect actions.

Apex Today

Apex now has a repeatable sales engine: Their magnets consistently attract new prospects, X2CRM nurtures and scores them, and the sales team focuses its energy on the best opportunities.

With CCC Solutions guiding strategy and configuration, Apex built a sustainable, measurable pipeline that increased sales while reducing the chaos of manual follow-up.

FREE ebook:
Build More Revenue with Less Follow Up Fatigue

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