I use our CRM for sales rep management and you should too. A CRM is a must have tool for modern sales. It keeps all of your customer information, records for previous tasks, planned future tasks, sales/marketing automation, and visibility on your opportunities. It is also a great tool for sales rep management. I have weekly reviews with our sales reps and we always spend some time on the CRM. I like to say inspect what you expect. Here are a few ways you can use your CRM for sales rep management.
Deals
I like to start with the board view of deals. We can check on new deals and how deals are progressing. Accounts, contacts, and tasks are all connected. This will show you how well the rep know the deals and that they are moving them through the funnel. You can see where they may need help and also what the next step is. The opportunities should be progressing through the funnel. By meeting on a regular basis you can easily measure and communicate the expectations.
Leads, Contacts, and Accounts
If you are looking for your sales reps to generate some of their own leads then they will need to do research and add new contacts or leads. Again expectations can be set and easily viewed. Many CRM solutions have reports and dashboards that can show you the number of new accounts, leads, and contacts over a period of time. The sales reps can easily see how many they have added.
Activities
Activities drive outbound sales forward. The reps email can be integrated into the CRM so all emails should be there. All calls should be recorded in the CRM. This means both when they connect, leave a voicemail, bad number, or no answer. This will help with planning as you scale the business as you can gauge the time and effort needed to create opportunities.. It also is very helpful in judging activity levels and the effectiveness of those activities. As an example a common occurrence for startups is sales people that would prefer emails versus calls.
Personal Development
The CRM can also identify a number of opportunities for personal development with your sales reps. This is also why I like to do the CRM review in my individual meetings versus in a team meeting. Here are a few examples:
- Not progressing deals: Maybe the rep is stuck after the demo. This could mean they aren’t confirming next steps. They could be rushing to a demo too early.
- Not enough new leads: This could indicate they are having trouble finding new targets. Maybe they are not researching in an efficient way.
- Lots of connected calls, but not enough discovery calls: This could mean they need some help with their cold call practice and objection handling.
If you would like some help creating a plan to manage your sales reps please reach out.