Pre-sales is a very crucial curve in any business. If you are in a business which require you to chase the prospect a bit to close the deal, then you need some help in doing so.
Having identified the need for a CRM, many orgaizations choose a CRM of their choice, based on requirements, budget, star rating etc. Inspite of this, many CRM implementations have failed.
The so called CRM market leaders have miserably failed to help the SMEs. Let us discuss "What happens when you choose an enterprise CRM (and also expensive CRM) for an SMEs" in the next blog.
Today, let us discuss the most important aspect of CRM impementation in this blog, and that is, The Human Touch.
The human touch
CRM implementation cycles play a major role in deciding whether a CRM implememtation works for your organization or not:
1. How much time did it take for you to roll out CRM?
Did it take a month or more to roll out CRM at your business? If yes, then it's already a red flag. Enterprise CRMs take many months. But being an SME, your CRM implementation shoud not take more than a day!
That takes us to the next question: What are the important things to cover during a CRM implementation?
a. Define your sales process (Deal stages). You may already have it prior to implementation
b. Add team members
c. Train them
d. Complete all the required software "settings" (monthly targets, Terms and conditions for quotations, SMSs, Mails etc)
You should be set to go from here !
2. Trainng your team
As I said before, CRM implementation involves training. It should not take more than ONE day for you to explain your CRM to your team on all it's features and benefits.
3. CRM evangelist in your team
You need someone to drive the team to regulalry use CRM. It has to be their routine. Team members often ignore or resist any changes.
4. Monday meetings
Yes, those Monday meetings that set the tone for the week, they need to be focussed on the pipelines of each member of your sales team. Discuss what the strategy is for each lead in their pipeline.
5. Friday meetings
Friday meetings revolving around "Successful closures", "Losses" and "New leads" in pipeline. You CRM software should generate a report for the week for any sales guy in your team.
6. Lead your team when it matters
Is someone struggling to close the deal in the n'th stage ? Ask him to assign that lead in your CRM and take that lead forward from there.
7. Comprehensive reporting
You need to measure each of your team members' performance. And you can't expect them to spend hours doing those reports. Instead, a time saver would be, a CRM that can send you weekly activity report for each of your team members.
This reporting makes them understand that proper use of CRM is absolutely essential.
8. Data security from theft!
You need to protect data from theft from your own team membes who quit your company. This is needed to boost the morale of the remaining team members.
You need to disable users who have quit and assign these leads to new users.
You are not only doing very effective Knowledge Transfer here, but also you are protecting your company from competitors who would have misused your hard earned data.
You need a CRM with the right features and your involvement will make your CRM implementation successful.
Hope this information helps!