Internet Profits Exposed Sidekicks
It's been said quite a few times that the only difference between a great salesperson and an average on is the attention to prospect follow-up. We've all seen the stats and we know the numbers, the average sale takes 6 contacts but the average salesperson stops at 2. What does that tell you? It doesn't seem difficult to understand that the more consistent you are with your follow-up, the more business you can expect. What holds salespeople back though? If the stats are on their side, then why in the world would a salesman start over with a new prospect when they still haven't exhausted the existing one. One of the reasons might just be a lack of organization and that's where a good crm software program can make all the difference in the world.
CRM Solutions are programs that allow sales staff the ability to keep in contact easier with exisiting cliens and prospective clients. There are many options available for contact management software. You can go with an open source crm, hosted crm, or one that you install on your own servers. Each one of these has it's advantages and disadvantages, but any start is a good start to having your salesman rank their leads and then put them into a follow-up sequence.
One of the more popular solutions in recent years has been a hosted CRM solution. There are a lot of reasons for this. As salespeople are on the road, it's so important to be able to access customer records from their laptop, PDA, or any other computer via a remote connection. Hosted CRM gives them that flexibility. As working from home becomes more popular, more are opting to do as much work as possible from the comfort of their own home. The advantages are great for both the salesman and the sales manager. Being in sales means that salesperson needs to be on the road most of the day. Being on the road means that they need to stick around the office to fill out their call notes when they would much rather go home to their family and complete their notes from their home on their time. For managers, it's nice because salespeople can still be productive if they are at home with a sick child or if they just want to work from home for one day.
Small businesses are also discovering that CRM is not only for big companies. More and more business owners are looking for small business crm solutions to grow their business and take it to the next level. Many CRM Software companies have seen this trend and have come out with programs specifically geared at small businesses, even ones that require just one user for a nominal monthly fee. To be able to followup with key contacts is so important to the growth of many of these small businesses.
So, there are many reasons to have a business contact manager in place. You might be in the middle of trying to justify the cost to yourself. I always look at purchases like this by thinking about what the impact of just a few more clients could have on the business. When you think about it that way, it's very easy to justify the cost to anyone. Contact managers give management and sales one spot where their information is kept so it allows everyone to accomplish more as they are now better organized. It also allows managers and owners to plan their pipeline as they can see new opportunities coming from salespeople everyday. Besides the obvious benefits, sales contact management programs are great for even the little things, like remembering an important customers birthday. What a great way to let your customer or prospect know that you are thinking about them Those little things make a big difference and are just some of the reasons that a good contact manager can be valuable to your company.
