Sales: Microsoft CRM in Small to Medium Enterprises (CRM in SME’s)

www.metisc.com.au

There is so much competition out in the business landscape today that Business Development Managers and Sales Consultants need some help in their everyday business – finding, nurturing and converting leads into sales.

Whether you sell products and services to the public or B2B (Business to Business), you will find that knowing your customers is always going to help in making the sale, up-selling, return business or referral clients. This is easy in a shop, because generally the customers come to you and your marketing is broad reached and localized by geography and demographic only.

What about businesses that do not have a shop-front? What about businesses which sell services on a website, or businesses which sell products wholesale?

In the business landscape today Potential Clients are precious: They are to be nurtured and serviced to the best of your ability. Aren’t leads are also very different when you are selling B2B or to the end user? No. It’s the way that you come about these leads which differs from retail to wholesale. Once you have them they are the same; they are people, a user or a decision maker, which needs to be serviced to the best of your ability.

This is where Microsoft CRM 4.0 can help you.

Microsoft CRM 4.0 has the ability to capture leads through your website, through list imports or through email-to-lead conversion so that nothing slips through the cracks in your business. You may think that you can remember everything, however how many times has your boss (or your business partner) asked you if you have completed something and your response been “no, not yet – I’m swamped”??? This is where CRM helps you – it does the thinking and prioritizing for you. So you can run your business, or wine and dine your best customer tonight.

The way that Microsoft CRM handles information is Dynamic. It works with information the way you do, so you don’t have to adapt to the software, the software adapts to you. Through the Workflow engine, you can automate the simpler tasks, ensure that all leads are followed up, make sure service cases are finished on time, and ensure that your POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS are happy!

Gone are the days when customers are not contacted because a staff member is sick – if that happens, CRM can send them an email informing them that they will be contacted in due course, keeping those lines of communication going so that your customers and POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS are not neglected because Johnny got the flu.

Now let’s look at the Sales Cycle and how Microsoft CRM 4.0 can help you win more business.

Generally a sales cycle will look like this:

Lead comes in through phone, website, walk-in, or referral
Sales person speaks to the lead
Lead displays pains they are experiencing
Sales Person suggests a way that your business can help
Lead requests to see your product or service (Demo or reference)
Once the lead is happy with your service – they ask for a Proposal or Quote
Sales Person creates and presents the quote
Lead may take other quotes on the same product
Sales Person follows up with Lead
Lead comes to a decision
Sale is either won (Champagne) or lost (Cold Calling)


Now in this simple scenario there are loads of ways that CRM can help.

First with the lead coming in:

CRM can help you determine the right sales person to speak with the prospective client. This can make or break the sales from the outset, because the lead may want a bicycle, and your rep specializes in Harley Davidson’s.

CRM can channel the request to the correct sales person through some simple steps so that your bicycle guy is talking to a potential bicycle client.

Microsoft CRM 4.0 can also help with your information, converting a lead to an Account, Contact and Opportunity simultaneously with the click of a button.

Solutions:

CRM has a knowledge base which can help your sales people come up with great solutions for your clients through your own internal network of intellectual property. It consolidates all of your data and makes it searchable, so that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel every time you have a customer. This sees less Business Development time spent on each customers, higher conversion rates and return business. In short, lower costs and much larger revenues.

Proposals:

Microsoft CRM 4.0 can load templates to help your Sales Consultants provide more accurate quotes and proposals quicker than ever.

How many times have you been proofing a Proposal and seen another clients name mentioned, or incorrect versions, or the wrong date, or spelling mistakes? These scenarios can become a thing of the past when all your guys have to do is choose the solution from a list and put some quantities next to it. The rest is done by Microsoft CRM 4.0.

Also, you know that your Proposals are being sent out in a format that has been proven within your business time and time again. You have a standard company branding policy which is conveyed through your proposals, the company information is controllable and correct, and you can ensure that your format for all future proposals is one that has worked before.

In short – All of your sales team is sending out the best proposal – not just your best sales guy.

Following up Proposals:

How many times have you had a mountain of proposals to get out and when you have finished, not seen or heard any response from them?

Microsoft CRM 4.0 can provide you with the ability to get reminders in your email, or in your Outlook tasks to follow up proposals a set number of days after they have been sent out. This way you can ensure your POTENTIAL CLIENTS are all getting the best chance at becoming an existing client.

REPORTING:

How well are your sales guys going? Is someone in your team all talk? Who is getting the real ($) numbers on the board?

The reporting functionality in Microsoft CRM 4.0 is second to none. You can see who is meeting their targets over a month, a quarter or a year. Who is the most consistent, and who lands the biggest deals. Channel your sales representatives to the sales that they are best at closing.

Are there some sales reps that close every deal, whilst others just close the big sales? Check your win/loss ratios and drill down into each opportunity.

And once you have done that… export it to Excel, make some nice graphs and go and brag to your boss or business partner that told you “software wont help sales”. Tell him he was wrong, and that he may need some help in marketing now…

Next week: Marketing with Microsoft CRM and Metisc.