Don’t Let Your Sales People Be Data Entry Clerks Just Because You Want Information – use Microsoft CRM

Every company that implements a CRM system expresses a common concern “We don’t want to turn our sales staff into data entry clerks, we want them meeting with clients and prospects”. Obviously, the value of your sales team is having them meet with clients, prospects, networking contacts and other people who can drive opportunities. Having them chained to a desk entering information in a CRM system isn’t helpful. We at Logan Consulting couldn’t agree more!

First, let’s agree that some feedback from the sales team is necessary and they have to enter that information into some system. Whether that is Microsoft CRM, an internally developed tool or by typing an email to update everyone, some updates are necessary. The sales staff is constantly meeting with clients and prospects so they need to be the liaison to the customer. The issue we constantly see is that most of the updates are responses to ad hoc requests and “important updates for management”. How many times do you burden your sales staff with preparing a special report for an upcoming meeting? How many times do you ask for the same pipeline report in a different format to meet management’s most recent request? Whether you want to admit it or not, these efforts are turning your sales staff into data entry clerks. The same can be said for the myriad of emails that are sent between sales, marketing, executives, sales engineers and other contributors to the sales process.

So how do reduce that administrative burden?  The answer is by comparing CRM software solutions and finding a solution that meets your requirements.  We at, Logan Consulting, believe Microsoft CRM is great solution for reducing the administrative burden on the sales team.  First of all, Microsoft CRM provides a common database for accounts, contacts, opportunities and other important sales and marketing information. People often dismiss this as a “glorified contact management system”, but it is one of the biggest time savers that drives efficiency within an organization. The sales team at most companies wastes too much time looking for information, entering redundant information in systems and responding to emails with the latest contact information for a key client.

The second part of the answer is integration between Microsoft CRM and Outlook. As a principal at Logan Consulting, a Microsoft parnter located in Chicago, Illnois, and a heavy sales user of Microsoft CRM user I can speak firsthand of the time savings from the integrated environment.  I spend my entire day and only use Outlook and Microsoft CRM is essentially CRM for Outlook.  Regardless of whether I am working in or out of the office and connected or not connected I can use Outlook as a CRM tool. Other systems claim to have an “Outlook plug-in”, but it is not true integration. I can access my entire Microsoft CRM environment from within Outlook. Furthermore, there is no exporting and importing of information, it is true integration. Allowing users to engage with a single application that they are probably already familiar with is a huge time saver.

I know this may seem like a basic topic for an application that has been around for over six years, but hopefully everyone is finally beginning to realize that Microsoft CRM will reduce the administrative burden on your sales staff and this is a key consideration when choosing CRM software.

By Logan Consulting - Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner