Making a Case for Salespeople Not Currently Using CRM to Re-evaluate

Making a Case for Salespeople Not Currently Using CRM to Re-evaluate

The evolution of CRM is incredible.

If you are familiar with CRM, you will remember the good old days when most customer relationship management tools had basic offerings of mainframe systems.

Today, CRM has transformed into an all-in-one solution, covering all aspects of the operations, goals, needs, and functionality an organization has.

It caters equally (and excellently) to the organization and its customers.

More impressively, it continues to grow and expand, offering organizations of all types and sizes answers to their everyday challenges. CRM is expansive and helps sales, customer service, marketing, I.T., and more, be successful.

However, if you remember the good old days and haven’t revisited CRM since then, you may be living in the past with it. At least, with your mentality. Trust me, I understand.

It’s not uncommon that your first impression of CRM in a sales role is poor. Many companies struggle to introduce and adopt it.

That’s why I want to make a case for salespeople to re-investigate the tremendous value it brings to their roles today.

Hear me out – 

I started in sales directly out of college, first working in banking in a grocery store setting to oversee bank kiosks. I was responsible for handling teller-like tasks and selling new accounts like money market accounts, non-licensed investments, and home equity lines.

This was my first real understanding of what sales is.

Today, I have accumulated over 20 years of experience selling different products in different verticals. Looking back, even then, I was collecting information. The general concepts of my now nostalgic entry-level role reflect in my approach today.

I’m sure many of my fellow salespeople can relate. In my initial role, I didn’t know if the people I was selling to were active customers or what kinds of products or services they were interested in. (Sound familiar?)

I would have to uncover information and develop relationships with these people to understand and meet their needs, collecting notes on these prospects and entering them into whatever system I had at the time or simply by keeping these notes on my desk.

I would use that information to grow the relationship with them and help with customer service issues. Though now I am working higher up in a professional work setting with more advanced technology, there are many synchronicities my strategies today compared to years ago.

Today, CRM has helped me eliminate spreadsheet needs and enter all my account, contact, prospect, lead, and opportunity information directly into a central hub.

Technology has enabled me to store important information in the most optimized fashion. As Eugene Feldman, Senior Manager, SMB Product Marketing, Salesforce, once said, “Customer relationships are too important to be managed with spreadsheets!”

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself…

CRM reflects all the processes that I have recollected from my first-ever sales experience and then some!

I invite you to learn more about my journey with CRM, overcoming common misconceptions and user adoption hurdles, to now use it every day to drive real business results.

More than anything, I want to help you overcome your own misconceptions and hurdles to use the software to your benefit.

If you’re still on spreadsheets, I hope by the end of this eBook, you are considering a new path with CRM that leads to your ultimate success as a salesperson.