When interacting with existing and potential customers, you need the right principles, practices and guidelines in place. This is why you need a customer relationship management (CRM) system that is tailored to your business and caters for both sales and service-related interaction.
The role that comprehensive CRM plays in your sales department cannot be underestimated, but it is important to distinguish between the ways CRM, specifically when it comes to sales force automation, can add value when it comes to the ground force, mid-management and the upper echelons. As you move up the ladder, roles tend to change from more tactical to more strategic, and that is why CRM should be a blanket application across the business.
In the previous two parts of this article we looked at how CRM – through sales force automation – can and should empower your sales team as well as those who manage them. Today’s blog concludes this article by examining how CRM and sales force automation can provide a holistic view of the company’s sales performance and help to drive the company’s sales strategy while not losing sight of the tactical aspect.
The Command Centre
The CEO and executive squad of leaders of a company are responsible for seeing the bigger picture while those lower on the ladder are more involved in the day-to-day execution of the sales strategy that supports this long-term, bigger-picture goal.
The company’s CRM system is there to provide them with immediate access to the metrics that track how the sales strategy is being enforced, or rather the reports compiled by mid-management regarding the execution of the sales strategy. The command centre (CEO, Sales Director, etc.) is responsible for analysing these reports and actions and subsequently determine how to move forward.
The CEO and executives in charge of sales need to think in terms of quarterly, yearly as well as long-term goals; therefore information and data of day-to-day operations they receive needs to be immediately and easily accessible. Just because their priority is to think in terms of strategy doesn’t mean they can lose sight of the tactical aspect of the sales strategy.[/vc_column_text]
Reports and reviews is the best way to do this and for accurate data you need an effective sales force automation system as part of your CRM. These reports can provide information on pipeline growth, product trends, forecast models and performance across the different divisions within the sales organisation. Predictive forecasting and implementation of best practices are made easier by the data that has been collected, collated and presented in an accurate manner via the correct CRM. This provides the numbers so that the command centre can run the tactical side of the sales strategy without taking their eyes off the long-term view: what the market trends are and where they should make long-term investments and implement long-term policies in the sales department.
The right CRM system, specifically one with a customised and comprehensive sales force automation function, allows the CEO and the senior team to keep an eye on the tactical efficiency of the sales force while providing the information that helps them to manage the company’s long-term sales strategy.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the perfect solution to your CRM needs. More than four million users worldwide use it as their preferred CRM solution. It offers Outlook integration, which means that all your emails, appointments, tasks and contacts are flawlessly and effortlessly synchronised. It is also fully customisable: you get automated notifications, custom fields on your forms and custom reporting, to name a few standouts. Finally, it is cloud-based so you can access Microsoft Dynamics CRM from anywhere, at any time.
