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Many companies ask the question of “When is the right time for a Full Scale CRM system?” I would submit that when you are asking that question then you are probably ready to move to a full scale CRM system. If you are asking “Do I need CRM?”, then it probably makes sense to start off easy and grow from there. The assumption is that by virtue of asking the first question, you would already have the following in order:
- An effective lead management process. You are satisfied with the way leads are flowing into your sales system and that over 75% of your sales team is using the system on a daily basis to help them sell more.
- Sales Teams are all effectively using your existing CRM software and are demanding more. Your sales teams see the benefit of the Sales system you’ve put in place and are constantly asking you for new features in the product to do their work better. You no longer have to demand or threaten that their job is at stake if they don’t use the new CRM system.
- You are effectively using your Sales Reports to optimize your sales process. You have all of the necessary sales reports that you need, i.e. running an effective Sales Funnel or Sales Activities Report without much effort from your end. Your management team encourages you to continue on your success with the reports and want similar success in your respective departments.
- You are ready to tie in your marketing efforts right into your Sales System. Sales and the marketing team are ready to work together to make the marketing results more seamlessly integrated into the sales process. You know you’ll have huge benefits when you implement this.
- You are ready to tie in your sales process right into your operations or client services delivery and accounting/financial team. Each of these departments sees the benefits of tying in customer information that is collected during the sales process and integrates it into their own process to improve the overall customer experience.
If you are still working on or to put it more accurately “struggling” with any of these issues, then you are probably not ready to implement a full scale CRM system. CRM is like fine wine, it needs to be grown with care, conscious effort and ages well over time with proven success. Successful CRM works in small, bite size changes. Going from no CRM to a full scale CRM is equivalent to attempting to run a Full Marathon without having run a 10K race. Start small and you’ll have more chances for success.
Here is our little commercial: This is the approach we took with Prophet – The Sales CRM Software for Outlook. Prophet is an easy and simple Sales CRM software that gives you CRM in bite size pieces. We also made it easy by building Prophet entirely inside of Outlook.
Then look at the features and benefits of Prophet and Prophet Server Edition. It ADDS sales tools TO Outlook so you don’t need an entirely new platform to create or improve your sales process.
Click here to learn more about Prophet
Click here to learn more about Prophet Server Edition
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