Tracking Prospects To Close More Sales

Sandy Jones owns Jones, Jones, and Jones, Inc. “3Js” as it is known, has a sterling reputation, selling home maintenance services in its geographic region. 3Js employs 18 people with 5 in sales. Sandy and her 2 sisters own 3Js and Sandy oversees sales.

Sandy is a great sales manager, has 5 salespeople, and 3Js has experienced healthy growth. She shows respect for her salespeople but is frustrated as no one updates her about a prospect’s status. Sandy’s salespeople love Sandy but complain that she is always bugging them about a prospect’s status. Sales meetings are a disaster as some reps are not prepared.

Sandy’s Concern

Sandy is concerned that 3Js, was missing out on opportunities due to its disorganization and lack of sales processes. 3Js had an old CRM with clients and prospects in one place but did not use it very much.

One day, Sandy confided in a friend about her concerns. Her friend introduced her to a CRM specialist who gave her 3 questions to ask her team:

• What steps do they follow when pursuing prospects?
• What obstacles do they face when trying to close a sale?
• How can we improve our update process, so Sandy doesn’t bug everyone?

The CRM specialist reviewed their CRM and discovered a built-in, unused sales funnel. Sandy set up a team meeting and the CRM specialist showed the “Built-in” sales funnel and how to track prospects. The team saw the benefits and asked great questions.

Behold the Sales Funnel…

The sales team appreciated being asked, analyzed their obstacles, and jumped at the idea of using a sales funnel to report a prospect’s status. The team identified 7 stages of their sales funnel:

• Inbound prospect in response to 3Js marketing promotions.
• Sales rep’s 1st call to prospects to schedule meeting.
• In-person or online scope definition completed.
• Estimating, pricing, and quote prepared.
• Sales rep’s 2nd contact to deliver quote and contract.
• Prospect asks for references.
• Sale completed (or not).

The specialist configured 3Js’ 7-stage funnel where all entries were viewable by the team. Immediately, the team started making entries and the sales pipeline became visible to everyone.

The CRM specialist made the sales funnel easy to use. All a salesperson had to do was enter a date into the contact’s record to open or close a sales stage. The status was updated with a click of a button, and everyone was informed.

The Team’s Reaction

What a relief to all! The pipeline was in front of them. “Wow,” they said, “It’s fun.”  Everyone saw the sales pipeline by stage with estimated dollar values per prospect.

Sandy saw the pipeline by sales rep, by stage, by prospect, and in total. She no longer had to pester anyone. Sandy was a hero by including her team in the analysis and using her specialist to dig into their CRM, building camaraderie and loyalty along the way. 

What Did the Team Learn?

The team met every 30 days to learn more about the sales funnel and the best ways to use their CRM. Over the first 6 months, Sandy and the team learned a lot including:

• Engage your team from the onset when implementing changes to your CRM.
• Prospects got clogged at Stages 2 and 3 because it was hard to reach the homeowner who responded through 3J’s website.
• Shift the timing of the sales rep’s calls to mornings and evenings from afternoons based on testing by the sales reps.
• Set up tasks with deadlines and keep notes in a prospect’s record including quotes. They no longer needed spreadsheets or yellow sticky pad notes.

The team committed to learning more about their CRM and best practices for the future.

Best Practices

The team studied other CRMs and realized that there were many benefits not available in their system. Especially, newer CRMs include automations and Dynamic Lists, as standard, so that sales reps can focus on their best prospects and clients.