Where CRM can help a Sales Professional accelerate performance

Areas for Improving an Individual's Productivity

A new system is only useful if there are perceived benefits for the individual actually using it. The opposite is also true. A system introduced by dictate where the perception is that this is only useful for collective benefits but actually adds a bureaucratic layer for the individual will fail. This is a frequent complaint about poorly managed CRM implementations; the effort to benefits analysis falls in favour of the effort and there are few perceived benefits for the user. This leads to users by-passing the system and consequent gaps in the information held and ultimately a failed CRM initiative.

This is easily avoided. No one, for example, complains that email makes his or her job harder. Quite the reverse. The same can also be realized in a well-used CRM system.

Example of "My Dashboard" in Infor CRM:

4 Areas Where CRM Can Help an Individual Perform:

Daily Management:

Build a daily diary (list) of meeting or calls that provides a single click link to all historical information on each contact including; a record of emails sent and received, notes on previous calls, attachments of previous letters, contracts and transactions between companies. It is also of course possible to hide sensitive information from the view of every employee where inappropriate. Developing a complete picture of the person your company is contacting avoids those embarrassing calls where a salesman tries to sell to a company currently in dispute. Nothing will kill the sale, and future sales, quicker than that.

Mobile access of Infor CRM:

Call Lists:

Need to build a call list? Why not select criteria for the list (all of my contacts not contacted in 5 months, for example) and have it automatically and dynamically build a group list. A manager can do this and assign the list at a click to all his or her direct reports by any criteria.

My_Activities_List

Eliminating Spreadsheets:

Spreadsheets are great. Managing them is a nightmare. Trying to record call numbers or prospects or contact lists in Excel is a great quick fix but quickly the user has dozens of sheets of varying quality in numerous folders. All this information can be recorded, stored, manipulated, imported, exported, aged and kept up to date through pulling the information from CRM. And it is just as easy to use. Even if a user is addicted to manipulating spreadsheets this can either be replicated in CRM but with actual live information as opposed to a static list. Where it simply has to be Excel, export the list, manipulate it and simply reimport either as a live list or store as a static document.

Measuring Performance:

It is always helpful to know where you stand meeting your personal sales goals and those of your sales team. A well-used CRM system provides the tools to continuously measure performance and help to keep you on track

It's helpful to filter what are your best opportunities and how have you been performing.