The demo has been done. Questions have been asked and answered. A proposal has been submitted. So why are we afraid to ask for the deal? Do we think that by asking it will sour the deal? Of course not. Prospects that have identified their need or pain and have a budget in mind are looking for reasons to do the deal with you. They look for reasons to qualify you in rather than out.

As sales people we need to be very careful of our time management. We can easily get caught up in chasing hope rather than substance. We feel that we need to be playing more defense because it feels less threatening and keeps the hope alive. But in reality it is a weak place to be. Games are won on offense. Playing a strong offense with customers builds a lot of credibility and makes the customer feel more secure. Of course it needs to be done sincerely and with a solid business case.

Remember a sales cycle should be driven as a continuous qualification of an opportunity. Each call and meeting is a constant test to see where this deal falls on your qualification meter thus allowing you to determine its priority in your pipeline. It also should tell you when it’s time to ask. A real prospect will never be upset when you ask for the deal. You will not always be the solution for them but they will not look to waste your time any more than is necessary for their vetting process.

Tags: crm, CRM Basics

One of the most overlooked components when trying to manage a complete picture of your customers is your post sales activities. This includes all project services that were part of your deals. It is important to track these projects in CRM so anyone looking at this account can see what projects were completed or in progress. It allows others in your organization to leverage post sales activities in deals they might be working in other divisions or locations. It also helps transition teams be consistent.

Tracking your post sales projects helps new reps be credible when talking to the account for the first time. What can be more embarrassing than not knowing your company has a services engagement currently active in the account.

Project management with CRM is not meant to replace software like Microsoft Project. It is only meant to be used as a place holder and track some basic information. Most customers will attach the detailed project plan to the CRM project record. You can also track all your activities against the project.

Post sales activities should round out your 360 degree view of your customer. Many CRM solutions will have a component for it. If your does not you can create a new activity type and use that as your place holder. I have included some basic information you might want to track on the project record. Again, remember this is not meant to replace project management software, it is just a way to account for your post sales activities within CRM.

Sample Project Management Record

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Tags: crm, CRM Basics, crm productivity

A great consequence of reps using CRM is that forecasts will always be current (assuming you are using the opportunity mgt component). There is no more waiting for weekly or quarterly updates. As you are updating your deals, your forecasts are coming along for the ride. This not only allows you to have an accurate picture of your deals but also management and production people. It allows everyone to be proactive and in this economic climate that is critical. Waiting until after the fact could lead to missed opportunity, wasted money and people’s time. It also allows for much better planning by your production department so they don’t over produce products and have to incur inventory costs. Or not be prepared with products to meet a customer request. Analyzing pipelines and forecasts are easy when the data is being maintained by the reps. Everyone behind you will be in a much better place to do their job proactively and consistently to ensure a smooth and cost effective transition from sale to delivery.

In order to easily provide aggregates of territory, regions and corporate your CRM solution should allow you to setup a sales hierarchy. This is how the solution will automatically roil-up the numbers depending on your role. So Sales Managers will see the aggregate of their Reps under them; and Regional Managers will see the Sales Managers that report to them; and a VP of Sales will see their Regional Managers, etc…

You might also want to give your production or service delivery group access to parts of your pipeline. This will allow them to be prepared with the right production and delivery levels.

I included some samples below. The complexity and level of detail will vary.

Setting up your Sales Hierarchy

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Managers Pipeline

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Regional Pipeline

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Corporate Product Forecast

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Corporate Opportunity Forecast

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Tags: crm, CRM Basics, crm productivity

I am a firm believer in the power of CRM. But to harness that power you have to be dedicated to its usage. I have come across a lot of sales reps that like some of the features of their solution but find others not workable. For many companies opportunity management seems to lack the sustained support most of the other features have. It is mostly due to the lack of flexibility sales rep wants to manipulate the data. While many CRM solutions allow for ad-hoc reporting it might still fall short and IT does not want to spend time on each reps specific way of wanting to look at the information. For those reps, using Excel continues to be their preference. Just because you go that route does not mean you should not be leveraging the basic features offered in your CRM solution. I have worked with a lot of reps who maintain their deals in their CRM solution but use Excel for their day to day tracking and strategizing.

Most solutions offer easy import and export of data from the opportunity management system. The best way to leverage Excel is to record the basic data required in CRM. This will ensure consistency when others are looking at the account and can see there are opportunities being worked on. It also helps with management reports. The opportunity component is excellent for the weekly and quarterly reports they need at a high level. Once the data is in CRM do a simple export to Excel. From there you can manipulate the data and layouts anyway you want. Some people also attach the spreadsheet to an activity report and update it when changes occur. Another reason people use Excel is they want to track additional fields they like to use. This is an easy way to do it and requires no help from anyone.

So it is ok if you find the need to work with Excel but make sure you either enter the minimum amount of data needed in CRM or attach the spreadsheet as an activity to ensure everyone can be on the same page as you regarding the customer.

Tags: crm, crm productivity