Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
What pipeline management tips do you have?
Best Answer
Adoption has everything to do with ease of use. The more clicks, drop downs and multiple screens that are required, the less usage. Really think through what data is mandatory for capture and put the ability to capture that information on one screen. You can have additional screens but they should never be more than one click away. The best way to ensure adoption is to use the system yourself in the same manner that you are asking your team. It will quickly highlight for you what works and what doesn't. Hope this helps.
To make the best use of a CRM platform, you must first have a system for the sales reps to follow in order to keep the pipeline properly formatted in a activity vs. effectiveness process. Pipeline process and prospect management is all we teach, as one must lern how to walk before they can run. If you are interested in more information about our worldwide teaching program, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Robert
Assuming that the sales team will be calling the lead, very rarely in the tradeshow world does marketing and sales collaborate to provide questions that will facilitate a call from a sales team. Often, BANT is the default process and a poor process used in the tradeshow world. I was in a room full of Pharmaceutical sales people and asked what they wanted to know from the Doctors that visited the booth. They all agreed that the name of the nurse/administrator that set the Doctors schedule would be of the most value. That is very far from BANT. Sales people are looking for a hook; something to facilitate an emotional connection to the lead. Simply knowing what college someone graduated from will allow for a faster connection to the lead.
I would say there is a direct correlation between the quality of the information imported into a CRM and the level of successful use by the sales team. In the tradeshow world it must be communicated to booth staff that the sizeable commitment by the company to the rolling out a CRM can be impacted by the level of commitment of the booth staff to collect quality information. The quality of the information should be defined by sales; of course, they then fall prey to being hoisted on their own petard.
I was a straight commission broker during the eighties and I know firsthand that cold calling is mind numbing. You have to give sales a leg up and only import quality information as defined by sales. It is a shame for a potential customer to spend in a tradeshow booth communicating their needs only to have a faulty process for delivering the information to the CRM. We use SalesForce and it is a very powerful tool if only for its ability to define customized fields for information to be directed to for the sales team. If all you are going to do is pump badge data into a CRM, you might as well give the sales team a metropolitan phone book. Sit down with sales and ask what they feel would be the most beneficial information for advancing a sale and then task marketing to put in place systems to collect the information. We use the term Service Level Agreement (SLA) to document the expected performance agree upon between two business units. Using a SLA can help with the implementation of a CRM.
I've spent my whole 7 years here making our CRM work for us, and we do this for all our clients as we are a telemarketing agency.
The first key think is to make sure that the CRM system has all the fields you think you will ever want. So, think who you want to target - if you want to market to your database by industry sector then make sure you have this field in it. This will give you a long list of fields e.g. company size, competitor information, year end etc.
Once you have this, make sure that the team really understand why the information is important- we have regular meetings between sales and marketing so the sales team really buy into filling in the information. You need the telemarketing and sales team to all champion it! If they're not, your marketing will never work for you so it's really important.
Lastly, you need really good sales people who understand the importance of pipeline management and will feel comfortable asking the questions and gathering the information. Our people really notice when they've had a week off as their pipeline dries up. Sales is about relationship building, and a healthy pipeline is key. If you put the information into the database you can be more specific and accurate with your targeting.
Beth Baxter
Great Guns Marketing
Rachel:
If I were to add anything it would be this:
Be careful that the information you collect helps the sales people do their job. Resist attempts by other groups to have sales people track information that is not relevant to the act of selling. For example, if marketing wants to use the CRM system to track # of employees that's great. But if this number isn't something a sales person needs to track as part of the sale (and I would argue that it is not) put the field in the database, but don't make it a mandatory field for sales to fill out. Let someone on the marketing staff have access to the account level records and let them put that information in the system.
If sales people start to perceive the CRM system as something that is designed to provide "food for the gods" rather than help them sell, they'll resist using it.
Steve
You also want to ensure your database is as clean as possible at the outset - and keep it clean. Sirius Decisions has shown that companies with strong CRM data practices recognize 66% more revenue than average. Databases tend to double in size every 12 - 18 months, while data quality degrades at a rate of 1 - 2% per month. The average sales and marketing database will errors in 25% of the records. Eliminating errors, dupes, and bogus records reduces wasteful efforts on the part of your sales team, saves cost, and increases revenue. Let me know if you'd like to chat more.
Hi Erik
Getting sales and marketing to work as a team is key. They both need to see how they benefit from this CRM tool. They are then more likely to use it. Here are some slides on how CRM and sales and marketing should work together.
http://www.slideshare.net/daniellemacinnis/sales-and-marketing-workshop
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
Both Trish and Robert offer outstanding suggestions. One of the challenges with many CRM implementations is the focus is on managers rather than the sales people. To maximize both adoption and the results, this has to be turned upside down.
In implementing the CRM system, the focus has to be, "How does this help the sales person sell more, faster, more effectively?" If you can't answer this question, your CRM system is likely to fail.
Key issues that rise when you focus on this perspective are those that Trish and Robert have brought up: how do we minimize data entry (or make it more natural or beneficial for the sales person to enter the data), have we implemented a current and competitive process representing our best practices within the CRM system.
The fantastic thing is that if you are successful in getting sales people to see the value of using the system for their own personal productivity and they are using it, the system provide management with phenomenal reporting and insight into the effectiveness of their teams.
Trish makes another point that I want to emphasize as well. I've seen too many failures of CRM because the sales managers don't use it as a tool for their own productivity. Managers need to set an example (not just from a big brother is watching you) by using the system themselves. If they don't use it, why should the people use it?
Good luck in your implementation. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Regards, Dave