Why Sales People should Embrace Dynamics CRM 2011?

Bina Limbu, 01 August 2011

In the past week I read an article titled “14 steps to selling smarter” by nationally respected sales consultant Paul Newsom which was featured in NZ Sales Manager e-Magazine.

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As much as I find such insight and consultation very useful for every sales personnel, I also find the relevancy of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 as an equal important tool to actually bring into practise the sales suggestions and recommendations given by experts. I would like to share some of my thoughts on why I think Dynamics CRM will help sales people to sell smarter or in other words overcome the barriers that stops you from giving your 100%.

As we cannot run away from the truth that we have finite hours in a day, time related issues seems to be on the top list of frustration for the sales people.

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We can identify some of these problems as no time for lead nurturing or follow up, cannot meet the need for demanding customers, too much paperwork, meeting targets, too many emails to answer and no time for reports etc. Paul Newsom claims that time management is not the issue but it is self-management. If it’s true than I think Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the most appropriate and realistic remedy for sales people to help prioritize their activities and manage time and effort the best way as possible.

Self-management will give enough time for the sales person to prepare and engage with the prospective client and existing customer and establish credibility, tap into the opportunities at the right time with the right message. Microsoft Dynamics CRM sales features allows you to organize tasks, summarize background information and sales messages for each customer in custom reports which is important in preparing for the sales calls. It can help sales person to free their time from tedious and repetitive internal admin work with its sales automated features and invest their time more on building relation with their prospective clients. Dynamics CRM also allows testing and measuring the activities and responses to identify the weak links and area for improvements. Moreover it will help the sales person to identify productive tasks from unproductive which in return prevents their precious time being wasted.

All said and done, it is very important to realize that the usefulness of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is only good as the information that goes into it. For many sales people, updating CRM can be another task that takes off your valued time especially for those who are paid in commission. However Paul Newsom says “Allow yourself 10 minutes at the end of a day to maintain and update client records. This takes discipline but the rewards are huge”. I strongly agree and believe that giving small amount of time for self-management is better than having your large chunk of time consumed looking for information that is not filed and recorded well.

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Some sales person might think CRM system can be overwhelming but Microsoft Dynamics CRM uses familiar Microsoft Outlook interface and can be accessed with smartphones. Hence, whenever there is some downtime, sales people can easily access Dynamics CRM and update customer information.

Please follow this link to read the full article:14 Steps to Selling Smarter

Image 1 http://apogeehps.com/sales_force_development
Image 2 http://www.themarketingblog.co.uk/e_article001407447.cfm?x=bcVffmn,bb1MgtVg,w
Image 3 http://www.self-esteem-enhances-life.com/self-management.html