Why CRM is your most important sales tool

Are you focusing on the right things with the right tool….

“The most expensive thing you can do in sales is spend your time with the wrong prospect”, Jeff Blout  from his new book Fanatical Prospecting – the ultimate guide to opening the sales conversations and filling the pipeline by levering social selling, telephone, e-mail, text, and cold calling.

I recently picked up a copy of Jeff’s book and went directly to Chapter 11 “Own Your Database: Why the CRM is your most important sales tool” because there are too many books relating to “selling” that leave out the importance of CRM and authors who can’t get across the importance of having a well-used CRM system. 

While he states he is not a fan of CRM, like many sales people I come across, Jeff does make a strong case and the brutal, and often ignored, reality.  “There is no weapon or tool in your sales arsenal that is more important or impactful to your long-term income stream than your prospect database. Nothing.”

Jeffs identified 4 key reasons why your CRM is the most important tool in your sales arsenal and you must consider it the “golden goose” that keeps on giving – provided that you use it (more on this …)

1. CRM allows you to manage the details and tasks related to many different contact without having to remember everything.
2. It keeps your organized, manages your pipeline, and saves your deals and relationships from getting derailed.  It makes life easier by doing work for you.
3. CRM allows you to segment and sort your prospect database and build prospecting lists based on any field or group of fields in the database.  This makes you exponentially more effective and efficient in your prospecting activities.
4. It helps you systematically qualify prospects so that you move them up the prospecting pyramid.

Examples of putting CRM to use….

Infor CRM mobile with quick access to your scheduled activities:

Infor CRM showing a 360 degree view of your most important work to be done

Work within Microsoft Outlook and access your contact database directly using Infor Xbar:

As you can see your CRM remembers important things, helps to keep you focused on what important things need to get done all while your key contact information is readily available.

Own It Like a CEO

The real life truth about CRM is that you must be fully engaged and really ‘own’ it to get the most earning potential.  The sales people who get the most from their prospecting is using CRM as if they are the CEO of their company.  Jeff states that means:

• “Being accountable for maintaining the integrity of your prospect database.
• Not waiting until your manager is screaming at you because you haven’t updated a record in a month.
• Taking time to make copious notes following sales calls and logging those calls.
• Putting new leads in the system rather than carting around a pocket full of business cards you have collected from prospects.
• Rather than sitting around whining about how you don’t understand CRM, taking the time to learn it through trial and error and online learning tools.”

With today’s Infor mobile CRM you can start that phone call from a tap on the contact’s phone number and either type in the notes or better yet use the voice to text conversion of your browser and the microphone icon.(more on that here…)

This CEO mindset and understanding ways to achieve better CRM user engagement and full adoption will make CRM your most important tool and become an appreciating asset!