CRM Analytics
Over my career as a sales expert, I’ve personally and contractually worked with over 500 sales organizations. I’ve learned some things. Here’s one: Very few chief sales officers have a good handle on the economics of the sales force. And very few entrepreneurs think about the economics of a sales system.
Almost everyone can tell you what the amounts of the various categories on a P&L statement indicate. So, sales salaries, expenses, advertising costs, etc. are readily at hand. However, very few decision makers dig deeper. And that means that significant information is never uncovered, and decisions are made on the basis of superficial, and often flawed, information. Let’s dig deeper.
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Reporting is one of the most important and critical components of CRM software and should not be overlooked when evaluating CRM software packages. Basic CRM solutions provide standard pre-built reports primarily for account and contact management or for sales such as 30, 60, or 90-day forecasts. Other more robust packages offer customizable reporting where you can edit the pre-built reports…
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Small to mid-size businesses are struggling to differentiate themselves from the competition and acquire more customers, but help is on the way. Several CRM software providers are teaching their customers how they can use CRM software to get re-focused. What does getting re-focused mean? It simply means to get a better understanding of what you do well and to use…
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Larry Caretsky, Commence CEO, has released the white paper “Don’t Let Quality Leads Slip Away: Executive Takes Action with CRM Software.” Here’s an excerpt including the introduction and you can download the full white paper below: “As a sales executive of a computer software firm, I became consistently frustrated when comparing the number of leads that we generated every quarter to…
Read MoreIn part one of this paper, we discussed how critically important it is to select a sales model that is appropriate for the products or services you are selling. In our case study the ‘NewCo’ company needed to transition from a high cost direct sales organization to selling via the internet and channel partners. The second and equally important strategy to…
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As a sales manager when I get together with some of my colleagues the conversation is often centered on what deals each of our teams has closed. My colleagues seem focused on the size of the deal or the number of deals coming in. One day I decided to ask a question that seemed to confuse them all: where do…
Read More Sales are the driving force of any business. With competition getting tougher and tougher it is imperative that you develop, train and coach your sales team to be the best they can be. Experienced sales managers can train sales representatives to be better qualifiers and closers, but salespeople need more than basic sales training to be successful. They need the…
Read More One of the biggest dangers in sales is letting a prospect hang out there too long. Most sales people will tell you that time is traditionally your enemy and not your friend. The longer a prospect waits to move forward; the risk of losing the deal greatly increases. Today’s sales professionals are constantly in a race against the clock. Not…
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With the plethora of affordable sales tools and CRM software available today there is simply no reason why sales managers continue to have difficulty accurately forecasting monthly and quarterly revenues. For years sales management relied primarily on the skills of the sales representative to forecast monthly revenue. This process was flawed right out of the gate because management had to…
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