The invention of any tool or a machine is always primarily triggered because of a human limitation. It is more so in case of sales than any other function of business. You are probably a champion seller with 100% lead conversion but yet time is wasted in lead generation, data sorting, sales follow ups and identifying the sales-ready leads. This simple reason makes the salesperson more occupied in paperwork more than actual sales. Not only that, humans can’t garner the data already collected, refine it and find the hot leads among those. It is even impossible for us to remarket and nurture our old leads and find out who is interested among those whom we already interacted with.
CRM conducts these activities, carries out sales follow ups, and serves as a sales assistant helping the organization in the long term. It can create a well-established system of recycling your leads, nurture them and find newer ways to sieve the probable buyers who are actually looking for you now. People often underestimate the power of a CRM and tend to look at a CRM software as a customer relationship management tool that helps sales and relationship management with the present database fed to it. But there are myriad ways that a sales CRM can help you in automating the sales function altogether and perform the work of a backend sales team and furnish the sales-ready leads to your sales force at the minimum cost. Here is how you can use a CRM for long-term sales strategy and action.
Long-Term Lead Management
In any organization irrespective of whether it is a B2B or a B2C campaign, the average conversion ratio hovers around 2% to 5%. In such a scenario, if the lead acquisition cost of the rest of the 95% of the leads goes in vain, it is undoubtedly a colossal wastage for the organization. A CRM software or even sales CRM keeps these leads ever nurtured and hot. Through a sales CRM, you can keep in touch with these leads and prospects and make arrangements so that they contact you when they need your product or service.
As they often say, ‘out of sight is out of mind’, it is perhaps more applicable for marketing than any other chore of life. A sales CRM software will keep your prospects ever nurtured making the name of your product always poignant in the minds of your prospective customers. Thus in the long-run, continuous campaigns through the automated processes of a CRM like SMS campaigns, email campaigns, and automated calls keeps your customers and prospects aware of your products and services. The result is, you will never fall short of hot leads and conversion.
Lead Nurturing
A research conducted by Gleanster shows that through lead nurturing, companies garner a conversion rate of about 15-20% from the ‘not yet ready to buy’ leads and prospects. That would seem amazing to an organization in the long run. A CRM software would allow you varied means of lead nurturing opportunities like SMS campaigns, voice mails and email marketing. It can also help you in sales follow ups as well, saving the precious time of your sales reps making them more productive. An unprecedented percentage of your prospects would respond to such campaigns and would convert into closures.
Trend Analysis
It is always not fair and justified to blame the sales team or their efficiency for fluctuations in sales conversion rates. The fluctuations do happen due to variations in the market conditions, customers’ mindsets, customs and varied other factors. The salespeople or the managers are not often aware of these trends of the market in quantitative terms. A sales CRM or a CRM software effectively gives the analytics of each year and month for you to effectively gauge the trend and take appropriate measures according to the trends.
Sales Team Efficiency
It is also a fact that the efficiency of the sales team also fluctuates making a tangible difference in the sales figures. The efficiency of the sales team is correlated with many factors like attrition, experience, job design, number of sales personnel, and numerous other factors. The managers are often aware of the events happening around them and their probable impact but a quantitative analysis of the facts and figures always helps them to chalk the plan of action to be taken and be aware of the impending perils and devise a preventive management system.