Gone are the days when business transaction details are tracked on an Excel sheet. As your company grows, those manual methods will no longer suffice, especially as your sales team scales its efforts when identifying, tracking down and managing their leads.
The whole sales process usually becomes tricky since there is a ton of information being passed around and updated by the sales team on a regular basis. As there are more data involved, the challenge to identify which leads to interact, and at what time, becomes complex. Automating the process, however, will help empower and enable your team to have bigger goals and focus more on what they do best—growing your sales.
That sounds easier said than done because the truth is most B2B companies have no CRM in place. In fact, only 47 percent of all companies have CRM software, according to Smart Insights.
The importance of lead tracking and the role of CRM
Being able to track your leads allows your sales team to identify opportunities when they arise. Therefore, it is crucial to establish a process that enables them to track their buyer’s’ journey and tie their messaging to the sales process until they finally close the deal. Fortunately, lead tracking and management becomes easier with the right CRM software in place.
Data from the Aberdeen Group shows that 51 percent of companies that use CRM software saw higher customer retention rates, better team attainment of quotas, and better attainment of quotas among individual sales representative. Not only does having a CRM prove valuable in tracking and managing the relationship, it only provides great ROI as CRM gives an average of $8.71 for every $1 spent, according to Nuclear Research.
How else can a CRM solution help your sales team work efficiently?
It gives you better quality leads
Truth be told, around 42% of sales people think that prospecting is the most difficult part of the sales process, according to HubSpot. This difficulty often stems from three common issues which include:
- Lack of information on prospective clients
- Not enough knowledge about a potential client before contacting them
- Inability to direct leads to the right sales representative
A CRM tool counters these issues by automatically directing the lead as they come in along with the person’s contact and relevant company information, as well as their account activity. The team immediately has a whole lot of ‘ammunition’ to direct the lead into the sales process and eventually aid in closing the deal.
It gives you a 360-degree view of your customer
Any sales person knows that researching a lead can be quite a boring and daunting process – from finding out about their last account activity, understanding their company as well as their industry, and gathering their interests, complaints, and concerns on their social media accounts. Moreover, researching a single lead often can take up most of your sales team’s time.
Having a CRM, you can get all the information you need and aggregate all the existing and supplemental information your sales team may need during the sales process. You can see that prospect’s latest activity, update prospects and customers’ information beside the critical details of their company.
By putting all your engagement history and tasks in one place, your sales team’s research process becomes more efficient. Aside from making your team’s lives easier, your clients and prospects will also get personalized approach as a result.
It gives you a centralized system accessible to the team
Fragmented and unlinked data can create a sales disconnect. Signs of a fragmented system include sticky notes in front of the computer, business cards strewn inside the drawer, selling tools, and many central location easily accessible for the whole team when needed. Moreover, it also provides your sales team with email templates for follow-up, introduction, confirmation of appointment, case studies, and other necessary tools that may be required to close the deal.
Aside from this, your sales team will have the ability to easily access and update all this information in real-time instead of waiting for someone else to access it every time there are changes to be made.
It gives you an accurate and updated snapshot of your customer
When team members have the ability to access and update the centralized system, it’s easier for them to focus on what they do best—close the deal. When your data are accurate, you will be able to handle your leads much better, which in turn yields better results.
With the right CRM in place, your sales team will be empowered to sell easily and effectively and identify the best communications and timing during the lead purchase journey.
