Less than 24 hours before a big sales meeting my boss told me he wanted me to report on our marketing statistics for the year to date. Yikes - what is an overworked, overstressed, marketing manager like me to do! Two years ago I would have been up all night trying to come up with statistics I needed for the meeting. Good thing we now use !
With Microsoft CRM I was quickly able to get these reports ready in about an hour:
- # of leads received – total year to date, and broken out by month.
- # of leads received from each marketing activity – such as telemarketing, direct mail etc..
- % of leads that turned into opportunities and sales
- % of leads from each marketing activity that turned into opportunities and sales.
Plus I was able to compare all this information with the same time period from last year.
The information is tracked in CRM, then I can easily export it into Excel to do subtotals and analyze data. Then I can make it easier to present in graphical charts. (My strategy in meetings has always been to dazzle people with the fancy pie charts).
Based on the statistics I pulled out of Dynamics CRM, our sales team could figure out helpful trends such as:
- Our average close rate when selling .
- What times of the year are our “slow seasons” for new sales. (so we can plan vacations)
- What marketing activities are generating not only the most leads but also the most closed deals. (so I know where to spend my marketing budget)
I truly believe that information is power. And having the information at my fingertips has not only empowered our organization and my marketing efforts – but now I can get much more sleep too!
By CAL Business Solutions,
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