Does CRM really “help” make the sale? Depends on which one you use.

Written By Jeffrey Gitomer
@GITOMER

KING OF SALES, The author of seventeen best-selling books including The Sales Bible, The Little Red Book of Selling, and The Little Gold Book of Yes! Attitude. His live coaching program, Sales Mastery, is available at gitomer.me.

Are you using some form of database management to “control” your customer data?

Customer Relationship Management or CRM has been around in one form or another for nearly 30 years. But in the last five years it’s become more sophisticated, more of a sales necessity, and a lot more competitive.

The main multiple-user programs include Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho, Oracle, and Hubspot.

Since I am often asked “which one” I recommend, I think it’s best to develop criteria for what I feel needs to be included (you should do the same), and go from there.

Logging on your CRM application gets you to your opening desktop dashboard. At a minimum there has to be an eyeful of “now.” You want to see hot prospects, top proposals, a forecast, their report card, and today’s appointments. You want a quick path to contacts, emails and calendar – and maybe a motivational quote.

From there, it should only be one click to new leads, current accounts, opportunity accounts, activity lists, phone book, email, contacts, tasks, a daily to-do report, a won-loss report, and/or a lead analysis report. And just a double click away from account detail, key issues, key people, and a sales plan to close each deal.

ALERT: CRM is MISSING sales coaching. Coaching helps the salesperson make the sale, either internally with product knowledge, or externally with sales answers by means of online coaching when you demand it.

If I’m a salesperson using CRM, and I am, I want to have access to better questions, a way to follow-up, pathways to decision makers, strategies to close my sales AS I progress through each sales cycle, and a way to build a relationship once a sale is made.

Monitoring a sales cycle is one thing – that’s what databases are designed to do. But assisting salespeople with each step in the sales cycle, that is the missing element.

Now with the domination of e-mail communication to single and multiple customers, PDF proposals, video chat and AI, a new dynamic has emerged in CRM: Monitoring all social and face-to-face activity.

REALITY: The tragic flaw in CRM is that salespeople (maybe even you) avoid entering sales data even though it could help them. Yes, salespeople are reluctant to enter data for one silly reason or another, pain in the butt, EVEN though it’s for their own good.

Me? I look for what I need and the user-friendliness of the application.

Me? I look for what I use every day and how efficient it is.

That’s why I chose Pipedrive, ease of use (I programmed it myself to my sales cycle), and amazing sales oriented and sales friendly functions.

You? Do the same as I do. Figure out what’s best for you and do that.

BUT, do something. If you don’t have a CRM application in your life, get one. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself at a technological and informational disadvantage. And in sales, that’s no place to be.

If you want the Pipedrive info and a free 30-day demo, go to www.gitomer.com/crm and get the offer.

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of seventeen best-selling books including The Sales Bible and The Little Red Book of Selling. All of Jeffrey’s sales and personal development training programs, including his coaching program and a sales skills assessment, are available at www.gitomer.com. Gitomer’s NEW 3-day sales certification program is now available LIVE – go to www.GitomerTraining.com/coach. For information about keynote speaking, customized training and seminars visit www.gitomer.com, or email Jeffrey personally at helpme@gitomer.com.