CRM systems house what is arguably the most valued asset a company owns: its customer data. The content within the CRM system contains contact information, communication updates, purchase history, deal status, pricing, discount data, and much more. This data is accessed and updated daily by the sales team as they work their accounts. A best of breed CRM system not only houses the data, but provides insights that enable leaders to improve processes and increase revenue.
To ensure the most value possible from your CRM, your sales team must be required to use it as the single source for managing their accounts and tracking their deals. This can be a challenge, but keep in mind, the more your sales team understands how CRM can save them time and effort, the more likely they will be to rely on it exclusively.
There are many reports that provide critical information to guide sales activities and identify customers that need immediate attention. Below are a few reports that are especially helpful to sales management. Keep in mind, you can also create customized reports as needed to match your specific sales processes.
Sales Reporting – Run reports any time to see detailed information on each of your team members including a chart that ranks them based on qualifiers you choose. Gain insights and actionable data such as which reps repeatedly get stuck at a certain sales stage, or which ones have the shortest sales cycle overall. Charts and graphs make this data easy to digest and provide helpful talking points when reviewing with your team.
Pipeline Management – Add as many sales stages, team members or activity types as you need. You should be able to customize your CRM to fit your unique sales processes. Assess opportunities and momentum month over month or by team member. Easy-to-use drag and drop functionality simplifies the step of moving accounts from one sales stage to the next.
Sales Forecasting – Sales forecast data gets reviewed more frequently than any other information. The interface is key here. You should be able to easily see which deals are imminent as well as the remaining steps required to complete each deal. Ensure that your CRM enables you to customize and filter reports to match your sales processes, and displays exactly the data that you want to see.
The value of a CRM system extends well beyond sales. Marketing teams can better segment your company’s customer base enabling them to develop campaigns that specifically address the needs of individual customer segments. Customer service representatives can identify trends in customer behavior and build programs that alleviate customer pain points.
For even more in-depth intelligence about your business, feed your CRM data into a BI tool that combines the data collected from the CRM system with additional data from other disparate systems to provide the most complete picture possible. This wealth of customer insights gives a clear and complete view so that all departments can collaborate on plans to best address an individual customer’s needs. The executive team can make informed decisions on digestible analytics and insights that result in necessary adjustments to improve overall company health.