10 reasons to fall in love with your CRM tool

Customer relationship management (CRM) tools are integral to an effective sales team, but sales members can be notorious for not using the systems properly. Media sales expert Ryan Dohrn provides 10 reasons for your sales team to fall in love with your CRM tool.

Every day I hear about sales people refusing to use their customer relationship management (CRM) software for one reason or another.

The most common reasons for resistance are old habits, CRM inadequacies and flat out insubordination. I am here to tell you that no matter the CRM tool you choose, you will find ‘things’ you do not like. Think that switching CRM’s will help? Most of the time, not.

So, what if I told you that sales experts tell us that sales people that use a CRM daily show improved performance by as much as 25 per cent? Would you get busy now?

Here are 10 key functions that will help you fall in love with your CRM tool.

1. A good CRM tool will help you identify repeatable patterns of success.

All too often sales people are successful but they can not repeat the success because they did not track the success. CRM tools help you take ownership of these patterns of success.

2. Experts tell us that we forget 25 per cent of tasks that are considered ‘important’.

Don’t believe me? Think back to a time when you were driving home or riding the train and you realised you had forgotten to call a client or complete a task. Good thing you remembered that task. What about the other 20 per cent that you forgot?

3. Leading data is critical to your success as a sales person.

The data about your clients on the front end of the sale cycle allows you to set up for success on the back end. If you use your CRM correctly, you can track leading data and not just closed deals. Owning this critical piece of the sales funnel separates the good from the great.

4. Improving your patterns of prospecting.

Using your CRM you can track what emails or voice mails are getting you the desired response needed to book those critical meetings. You first need to start with templates and then you need to track their success.

5. Improve your timing.

If you look closely at #4 you can take prospecting one step further by tracking what times you sent an email or left a voice mail. Remember, once you identify a pattern of success, rinse and repeat. Also, some CRM tools allow you to share these success stories with the rest of your team using the CRM.

6. You time management will improve.

Your day-to-day time management will improve ten-fold when you stop attacking tasks randomly and instead block out time to complete the task. Almost all CRM tools allow you to track your calendar and tasks in the tool. Remember, randomness kills your sales process.

7. Deeper research.

The data in the tool allows you to stay abreast of all your activity, notes and research. Block out time to complete research on your clients so that you do not have to spend time before each call researching. Most CRM tools will let you save PDF files from LinkedIN as well into the tool.

8. Pay it forward.

Have you ever walked into a new sales job and there where no notes on any clients? Keep the CRM current. Enough said.

9. Covering your own butt.

Use the CRM to prove that you are an active and efficient sales executive. Very often the sales manager wonders what you are doing on a daily basis. So, show them by using your CRM each and every day.

10. Client data is owned by the company.

Gone are the days of the Rolodex. Also, God forbid something happens to you and a colleague needs to take care of your clients… refer to #8. Your insistence that the accounts are “yours” is futile.

Lets end where we began… What if I told you that sales experts tell us that sales people who use a CRM daily show improved performance by as much as 25 per cent? Would you get busy now?

Ryan Dohrn is the creator of the 360 Ad Sales training system and an internationally recognised media revenue consultant. Dohrn runs a popular You Tube channel and podcast.