I’ve come across many types of CRM softwares over the years — for ourselves and our clients — and I’ve found that one of the key benefits of a CRM system is its ability to automate routine and repetitive tasks. This frees up the sales leadership, the direct sellers, and their support staff, to focus on more strategic activities. Automating tasks such as data entry, follow-up emails, lead scoring, and reporting can improve your team’s overall performance by giving them more hours to work on client discovery, building relationships, and upsell strategies. Automation not only increases efficiency, but also ensures consistency and reduces the likelihood of errors, too (in other words, you can’t forget to send a follow up if it’s automated). We’ve implemented automation in CRMs for our own sales funnel and for many of our clients. Be advised, however, that automation can also become spammy and counter-productive if set up poorly. Specifically, we’ve found that automating email outreach can be very successful, though it requires a lot of set-up time. Creating the funnels of prospects, tailoring the messages and the campaigns, making sure the copy is as perfect as it can be, etc., is not easy and shouldn’t be rushed. But when the right message gets to the right person at the right time—well, that’s a thing of beauty and is even sweeter when it’s done automatically. Then, as a salesperson, the job is to close the deal and grow the relationship over time.
We use simple CRM integrations to help our sales team with visibility and timely follow-ups. All company communications happen in Slack, so the logical standard integration is to push CRM notifications to a dedicated Slack channel where the team can pick up on prospects and coordinate the follow-up efforts internally. The same integration is possible within Microsoft Teams. It's a matter of choosing a CRM that integrates easily with enterprise platforms.
Another well-coordinated effort that has changed my sales team for the better is the practice of automating common inputs. As much as the CRM is used as a stand-alone software for managing customer information, we can easily integrate it with other tools like email platforms or lead generation forms that enable a smooth capture and update of the customer data. For instance, with a client in the real estate business, we synchronize the contacts from on the website with the CRM. This was beneficial for our sales team as new leads were automatically input into the CRM database therefore eliminating any leads slipping past the sales team. Therefore, our client realized a 25% improvement in lead conversion efficiency in the first three months of adopting the described automated integration.
One strategy we've employed that's powered up our sales team is integrating video calls into our CRM system. It gives us the chance to put faces to names and build a more personal rapport with potential clients. It's like having field sales experiences right in our office, creating a closer connection, and enhancing trust. This strategy lets turn digital data into a human connection, thus driving better sales outcomes. The customer feels seen and valued, boosting our overall sales performance.