Not all data is created equal. How are you feeding your CRM?

If you’re in the business of sales, you’ve likely invested in a quality CRM (customer relationship management) system. Implementing a CRM has become a survival necessity for sales. In fact, according to CRM Magazine, 91% of businesses with 10 or more employees use one. However, if you aren’t using it correctly you could experience negative long-term impacts on your company’s ability to grow.

We think of CRM systems as a monster that consumes data. It is up to you and your sales team to provide this monster with good data that will lead to direct revenue. However, because it is a data monster, if you are feeding it bad data that is inaccurate and unrepresentative of your customer base, it will still consume this information leading to unsuccessful relationship management.

We have set out 3 key elements that your CRM should be accomplished through the consumption of good data. Is your organization utilizing these tools for the most optimization?

1. Lead Management
   1. Track where each contact is at in the buyer’s journey, and nurture them further down the sales funnel.
   2. Identify your top prospective customers to ultimately close more deals.
2. Sales Forecasting
   1. Visibility into your sales pipelines, qualified leads, and how accurately you’re hitting target metrics.
3. Automation:
   1. Automate marketing efforts and time-consuming administrative tasks.

Is your CRM accomplishing these items successfully? If so, great! But the truth is, although most businesses are using a CRM, adoption rates are still quite low at an average rate of 26% across industries.

Your sales organization is putting out thousands of calls per week, and your marketing department is sending out thousands of emails. What you need is a strategy that maps out exactly what happens when all of those new prospective customers are put into your CRM system.

Have you thought about who these new customers are? What triggers are resulting in purchase decisions? How can your CRM system assist with closing deals knowing this data?

Let’s use the example of your sales team making cold calls. Instead of blindly calling on business prospects, let’s equip them with a list of contacts that your CRM has indicated as more likely to purchase. Lead indicator sales data is gold. The ROI of your sales organization will increase by 20% in the first year.

The way you map out your CRM system matters. Equip your sales team with better data.

Looking for new prospects to add to your CRM? Our product, R.A.M.P., tracks thousands of organizations going through change and helps companies drive revenue through lead generating efforts. Let’s start the conversation, contact me at Donna.Gliha@salesgroup-global.com

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Happy Selling!