Many companies don’t appreciate the value of a CRM system until they understand its pivotal role in closing more sales. CRM’s virtues are not always apparent unless one is intimate with the ins and outs of how business gets done in the organization.
The most fundamental requirement for growing a business is having sound sales processes that can be tracked, measured, and audited. Such processes must be written down and followed closely, not shared through word-of-mouth like an urban legend. Having formal processes further supports growth when you use /CRM.
Documented sales processes allow you to create a repeatable blueprint for success. To begin, we recommend taking note of what your most successful reps do to close more sales with the right kinds of customers. By designing and implementing policies that institutionalize their processes, you create sales best practices that raise the bar on individual and organizational performance.
Check out our recent blog post to better understand the different types of sales processes and how CRM supports growth with more accurate and predictable sales forecasting.
Ask These Questions. Act on the Answers.
An excellent way to determine your need for a CRM system is to assess how well you’re handling the essential business functions listed below. We suggest collaborating with your executive, sales, and marketing leaders to evaluate which of these concepts are part of your day-to-day processes. Some may be automatic and well integrated into your activities. Others may be sporadic or not practiced at all.
All these issues and data points are managed and analyzed within CRM. Your assessment will clearly determine the extent to which a CRM system can help you achieve greater efficiency and sales success. Although this list is broken down by line of business, leadership and functional areas must embrace these concepts to ensure sustainable growth.
Sales
- Sales Cycle per Product: It is too long or what you’d expect? Do you track each phase of the sales cycle? What steps can you take to reduce the cycle length for each product?
- Revenue per Closed Lead: What is the average revenue generated per closed lead? Are improvements needed?
- Cost per Lead: Can you quantify this cost and if so, is it higher than you’d like? What can you do to reduce it?
- Quote-to-Sales Conversion Ratio: How easy or difficult is it to calculate this metric? How are you using it to evaluate your sales success?
- Win-Loss Ratio: How are you calculating this measure relative to quotes issued? Are you losing more than you’re winning? What factors are driving these wins and losses?
- Average Cost per Sales Call: Is it higher than expected? What should it be to maintain profitability? Do you which costs provide the best returns?
- Sales Losses: Why do reps lose sales? What are the patterns relative to market, product, and individual sales rep? Do you have the data needed to convert more losses to wins?
- Sales Process Compliance: Do you have documented sales processes? Which sales reps are (or are not) following those processes? How do you track and follow up on individual compliance?
- Buying Potential: Are reps approaching the right customers with the right opportunity? How do they assess a customer’s buying potential for a particular product?
Marketing
- Lead Generation: Is marketing generating the right kinds of leads for your business? How do marketing and sales collaborate on lead generation? Are the lines of responsibility clear and formalized?
- Sales Territories: Do you know your market share by sales territory? What tools do you use to regularly assess and define each territory?
- Sales Pipeline: Is it robust enough to sustain continuous growth? Are prospects viable and easily qualified? Which lead sources add the most value to the pipeline?
- Value Proposition: Are marketing and sales aligned on your product’s value proposition? Is sales selling what customer service can effectively support? How do you monitor this alignment?
Customer Support
- Customer Satisfaction: How do you define it? Measure it? Analyze it? Do you have the appropriate insights to improve customer engagement and satisfaction?
- Problem Resolution: How many open services issues have key customers had in the last 30-days? Do stakeholders across the organization have visibility into outstanding and resolved customer issues, including billing concerns?
- Customer Engagement: Are sales reps and account managers communicating regularly with key customers? How do you determine where improvements may be needed?
- CLV: Do your reps known the lifetime value of their top 20% customers? How do they calculate this metric?
CRM as a Path to Growth
If your organization is well positioned for growth, you and your leadership team responded quickly and unanimously on the majority of issues. How many business functions were not being addressed, in whole or in part? Which functional areas need more attention? Is there agreement on how to improve specific areas?
CRM systems are designed to pull data and processes together and provide with a single view of every customer relationship. From detailed sales tracking to marketing, sales, and customer satisfaction analyses, a well-deployed Microsoft Dynamics system can bring rigor and accountability that helps your business grow.
InfoGrow specializes in helping companies find and keep their best customers using Microsoft Dynamics 365/CRM. If your CRM is not living up to your expectations, then seek us out. Our pledge ensures your satisfaction with our carefully chosen processes that will improve sales and organizational growth. Call me at 330-929-1353, extension 224, or email me at bsullivan@infogrowcorp.com to talk further.
Bob Sullivan - President, InfoGrow, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner
