One of the key things in sales success is having a plan and for B2B sales that means also using CRM deals. I know you may think that if you are using a CRM then of course you are using the CRM deals function.  Recently I have run into a couple companies that were not using CRM deals effectively.  One company was entering deals, but not updating or managing them. They even had an automation to create a deal from an inbound lead. The other company was using more of the service, contact, and company functions of their CRM. As they were growing the team and moving to outbound sales CRM deals made more sense. Here are a few of the key reasons to use CRM deals.

Visibility

Using a CRM view is an excellent way to get visibility on your deals.  With a quick look you can see deal size, close date, last step, next planned step, and where they are in the sales process. You can then also focus efforts on the deals that are closing sooner, larger deals, and strategic deals.  

Measurement

There are many properties that can be included when you add a deal. You can make some fields mandatory or have them be required as you move a deal through the funnel. Organizations can run reports and measure some of these properties to better understand your deals. You could track deal source, product set, why you lost, and many other items.

Sales Forecasting

Sales forecasting is important for any business.  Understanding the revenue and timing is very important, especially in the short-term. You can also use CRM to look farther out.  It is not just all about the revenue and cashflow, but there are other operational impacts. If you are selling a physical product you need to know how many you should make, selling a service when resources will be needed, and selling software when the customer success team is needed for onboarding.

Defined next steps

A big part of sales is driving the next steps through to the close.  Using CRM deals  can help by tying in the sales process. The deals are in stages based on what has been done and what is left to do. Completed tasks are recorded and linked to the CRM deals.  Future tasks are also linked and marked as deals to ensure they are prioritized.If you would like some help with your CRM deals, reach out and connect with me .