Any good salesperson is aware of the foundation of sales is relationship building. Even as our world turns into more and more digital, for companies to thrive, there’s nonetheless a want for robust relationships to develop between reps and prospects. A pc can’t build relationships by itself; you still want individuals for that. Retail Dive says that 70 % of consumers still need to interact with people versus bots. And in line with HubSpot, 58 % of gross sales groups are growing in dimension. With a rise in employees comes the necessity for knowledgeable managers who know the worth of face-to-face, personalised customer relationships.

Sales managers have a lot to take care of of their position. They are accountable for reporting to the board, managing technology wants, and of course managing individuals. With all of those tasks come a number of ache factors for sales managers, and one of many greatest is technology. Technology is more and more integral to at this time’s enterprise world, however typically plainly the instruments which can be supposed to assist us find yourself making issues overly difficult and never intuitive.

One of the most central and mandatory technologies utilized by salespeople is, after all, a CRM (customer relationship management) system. It is important to not only the sales team, but in addition the manager. The proper CRM solution can prevent money and time whereas serving to shut more deals. But it will possibly additionally get in the best way and find yourself being a hindrance to your capacity to efficiently handle people if it’s too troublesome to make use of. Here are 4 issues for sales mangers to search for and leverage in a CRM system as they run their gross sales groups.

A CRM system ought to support workflow, not hinder it. If the workflow is interrupted by the CRM, it’s not doing its job. There are tools accessible in CRM methods which can be constructed to permit groups to perform extra effectively. Find a CRM that permits you to standardize workflows all through your total group. There are plenty of instruments and settings that may fuel effectivity of the group; they only must utilized.

Collaboration

A sales staff can flourish by way of collaboration. And a CRM system can fuel the teamwork by giving every staff member a shared view of the mandatory info. There are quite a few options that may be leveraged to higher encourage collaboration, like the power so as to add notes, monitor the historical past of conversations, and share contacts. You’ll have entry to real-time information, so everytime you’re visiting with or speaking to a prospect, you have got all of the wanted data at your fingertips — you’ll by no means be caught off guard.

Automation

A CRM ought to reduce your have to micromanage. When somebody in your team enters data, it updates the whole group. There needs to be automation inbuilt so you possibly can keep watch over the progress of offers and be up to date with out having to consistently test in in your group members. This frees up managers to have the ability to spend time investing of their employees. Developing a group takes time, and in case you are too busy attempting to trace down workers for updates, you then can’t spend time teaching them. This may also be a large turnoff for workers preferring extra autonomy.

Integrations

CRM system ought to work seamlessly alongside the opposite instruments your sales staff makes use of, like e-mail, contracts, and stock. CRM system needs to be the middle of workflows, with every thing else working by way of them. This limits the period of time managers spend monitoring down info. You can as a substitute see a holistic view of your customers and leads in a single place, immediately.

At the top of the day, technology has the potential to enhance your sales staff and free you as much as spend more time managing your staff and serving to them develop as salespeople. Find a answer that automates and will increase the effectivity of your workflow. When you do, you possibly can spend more time investing in your workers and shutting offers as a group.

Author's Bio: 

A business solution centric Odoo Consultant and IT professional with about 11+ years of experience spanning Odoo delivery, Sales, pre-sales, Odoo product development, Odoo business consulting, outsourcing & ADM services in leadership positions.

• Has headed Practices for Enterprise Solutions ( SAP, Baan & Odoo )

• Experience across domains likeSales and Marketing, Logistics, Manufacturing, Retail, Chemical, Automotive maped to Odoo

• Extensive experience in large program delivery & business process transformation consulting (Odoo Consultant) for multiple programs

• Demonstrated experience in designing new product & service offerings and executing global Go-To-Market strategies for new offerings for new market penetration

• Proven leadership skills with balanced focus on people, processes & technology

• Pioneered the use of ERP systems in various Processing Industry

• Worked as Process Heads of Marketing, Sales, Purchase, HR, ERP Project deliveries and also worked as Business Heads for many companies like IBM, JKT, Denave India, FCS and presently at Apagen