Years ago, when I worked at an insurance company, the insurance agents’ most important tool was their notebook. It held the phone numbers of all their clients and when to contact one client or another to renew their insurance contract. When an agent decided to leave for another insurance company, they took the notebook with them… Although almost every agent had their own notebook, some agents were still more successful than others. Sales success didn’t come from the notebook itself, but from how the agent used the leather-bound notebook.
Although many salespeople have swapped the leather-bound notebook for electronic tools, the question has remained the same: “How does a successful salesperson organise their work?” Having introduced and used sales and customer management software in different companies, I notice the same questions and the same resistance to the new tool again and again. What are the most common myths and misconceptions about introducing sales management software?
THE FIRST MYTH – A CRM is yet another reporting tool so that managers can control salespeople
Every salesperson has organised their work somehow, and surely they sell the company’s products and services to someone every month. Otherwise you wouldn’t keep them on the payroll, would you?! So how does writing down every sales activity help them do all this better? It’s extra time spent that doesn’t bring extra sales! True: reporting doesn’t bring extra sales.
Extra sales come from systematic and consistent sales work towards customers. Successful salespeople are those who know how to stay in touch with the customer. For some customers a short phone call is enough; in other cases a thorough face-to-face meeting is needed.
The approach “I have everything in my e-mails!” or “It’s easier for me to keep everything in my notebook!” unfortunately doesn’t help grow sales in any way. More urgent things always come up, and thoughts like “I should get in touch with them” get forgotten, disappear onto post-its or into the depths of notebooks.
THE CRM’S FIRST PURPOSE: A CRM helps you systematically think through the activities that need to be done towards one customer or another, and keep track so that they actually get done. An electronic notebook is many times more consistent at reminding you of activities and promises than a leather-bound one.
THE SECOND MYTH – A CRM is a pointless place the salesperson has to struggle to fill in, and whose data no one uses in the end anyway.
One of the most common questions salespeople ask when a CRM is introduced is: “Why do we need to start entering sales information somewhere?! No one is ever going to use this information anyway!”
A CRM is a tool for growing sales that makes it possible to understand, based on facts, for example why we lose offers or which customers haven’t been contacted for 3 months. For the company, a CRM leaves a clear trace of every customer contact. Even if the salesperson leaves, the company has an overview of the communication with the customer and the promises made.
A CRM also makes it possible, when needed, to hand sales opportunities over to each other quickly and bring each other up to speed with the history of a sales opportunity. Salespeople, too, want to rest a few weeks a year without having to keep checking their e-mails and making sales offers.
THE CRM’S SECOND PURPOSE: A CRM helps you get a systematic, fact-based overview of why we lose offers, which customers haven’t been contacted for a long time and so on. These are all values that can’t be created on the basis of leather notebooks.
THE THIRD MYTH – I am a successful salesperson right now and I don’t see how a CRM can help me. If anything, it will get in my way.
Sales is consistent and focused work with the details that matter to the customer. And there are a lot of these details. Most CRMs were originally created by people who are successful salespeople – precisely to make their own work easier. Why dial numbers on your phone when you can contact the customer with one click from the CRM? How many phone calls do you make a day? A year? These are the small things that help save the salesperson’s time and valuable time resources.
THE CRM’S THIRD PURPOSE: A CRM makes simple and routine sales activities as quick and convenient to do as possible. The more different customers and sales contacts there are, the greater the benefit of introducing a CRM.
In my experience, people only start to feel the benefits of using a CRM after 6–9 months of daily use. During this time the new tool has become familiar, and the leather notebook seems like a nostalgic object from the past.
Make the CRM an everyday tool for yourself. Believe me – it really does make sales work considerably easier!
* CRM – Customer Relationship Management software
