Three reasons why every seller should be using a CRM!
The life of an entrepreneur can be difficult as you are a one-man-band. Staying organized, motivated, and ready to compete is on my shoulders and it's up to ME to make the decision on how I will show up each and every day.
Through this newer path of life, I'm often reminded of the little things I did along my 20-year sales & sales leadership journey to create positive outcomes, not just for myself and my team, but more importantly, for my customers. These daily lessons are such a great reminder for me about what it took to achieve great results and help my customers achieve so many positive outcomes. One of the most powerful lessons I learned throughout my career as a sales professional, was the importance of using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Today, I went forward with Hubspot and so far I'm loving my early experience with them. Embarrassed as I must admit, my sales nerd skills were quickly brought to the forefront. Seriously, who gets excited to use a CRM? Me!?!!! I was eager to begin entering new contacts into my system, schedule follow up activities, and track revenue that has been generated to date for coaching, speaking, and book sales. Simply put, I AM NOW MORE organized and can begin seeing all of my sales and customer activity in one place. Becoming more organized with my customer data will further help me work smarter, simplify my sales & marketing activities, and begin growing my business. You might be thinking why am I sharing this level of detail with you, but there is a point - actually, there are three points on why YOU as a seller or sales leader should be using your CRM daily too! Let me explain.
ALWAYS DOCUMENT AND FOLLOW UP
The title above says it all. So much of my success in business was tied to every CRM I ever used which is why I dedicated a complete chapter to documentation and follow up in my book - "WIN the RELATIONSHIP, not the DEAL." You're customers want to work with salespeople who are organized, who follow up, and who do what they say they will do. The only way that you will make sure you achieve those three goals is by making the choice to use your CRM each and every day. One of my favorite Tommy Lasorda quotes states, "There are three kinds of people in this world: people who make it happen, people who watch what happens, and people who wonder what happened." As a seller, make the choice to MAKE things happen. You are the leader of your company and you must lead by example to help the organization grow. One of the easiest ways to achieve customer growth is by documenting each conversation you're having and using your CRM to remind you when to follow up. Not only will your life become easier by making this a habit, but your customers will appreciate you even more. You will begin to build more trustworthy relationships by showing your customer that you always follow up based upon guidance or advice they provided you from your last correspondence. Without using a CRM daily, you put those three tasks at risk. This might sound simple, yet so many companies are still getting this wrong.
NEVER LOSE TRACK OF A PENDING DEAL
Earlier in my career, I made the mistake of not documenting in real-time and I forgot to follow up. Ugh! Just writing this makes me cringe and takes me back to that day of failure. But, what a great opportunity to learn. I had to own the mistake, accept it, and move on! At the time, I didn't think it would be that big of a deal until I remembered to call my customer. When I finally got her on the phone, she let me know that the opportunity was closed and she had gone with a different supplier. I was so angry, not at her of course, but at myself! I made the mistake of not documenting in real-time and I made the mistake of not following up. How could something so simple be forgotten? Does this story sound familiar to you? Well, you're not alone and there are many sellers that choose not to use a CRM and will get lazy and not follow up. When these bad habits start to form, I like to say that complacency will kick in and become a silent killer to your business. As Tommy Lasorda said above, be the seller who MAKES things happen. Make the choice to become an elite seller by documenting all of the time and never take for granted what you have control over during your daily sales journey.
CLEAR THE CLUTTER AND INCREASE YOUR VELOCITY
Changing your daily habits is the only way that you will change your outcomes. You can have all of the goals listed and planned for, but if you don't change your habits then you will always feel like you're running behind or late. By using your CRM daily, leveraging the technology, and the "follow up" activities function, you will remove the clutter from your desk, your brain, and consistently stay ahead of all of your activities. Think for a minute, imagine you walk into your kitchen and the dishwasher is full, the sink is full of more dirty dishes, the mail is spread across the table, your kids need to be fed, and lastly, don't forget to feed your pets too. Now, with all of that said, did you just get a little anxious visualizing this scenario? If you said NO, then I don't believe you. I felt anxious and I'm writing the article! This same scenario can be described for the salesperson who is just "winging it" and is writing down customer conversations on sticky notes, or inside of his/her email which also is not a scalable option that will support your customers in the way they need to be treated. If you're reading this article and you've made it this far, then I know you are someone who wants to win. Make the choice today to get better at the little things and make using your CRM a MUST have activity!
As a sales & leadership coach, my mission is to SERVE others, bring positivity, and share my years of experience to help others learn things more quickly. I always loved the analogy to send the elevator back down when you make it to the top. Others in my new space are doing it for me and I want to continue to help others as well.
I now want to hear from you! Why do you use a CRM? Tell me how these lessons have helped you win new relationships and grow your business? Please leave a comment below or share with someone whom you think should be reminded of getting back to basics and begin using their CRM again! Tag your favorite CRM and send them some love!