CRMs aren’t all made equally, as we’ve established. Many of the older ones just haven’t updated the technology to suit the fast-paced, visually minimalist needs of modern users. The best CRMs, like SugarCRM and monday.com, make the user experience easy on the eyes, but more importantly, offer customization to make various tasks easier and automated to each company’s specific needs. This customization is game-changing and essential to higher productivity and efficiency. But, it also requires sales leaders to, first, think deeply and strategically about what they can and should automate, and how their teams operate.
In a proper CRM implementation process, there should be a significant amount of research and strategy on what’s working and what’s not. The sale process needs to be examined in great detail. All too often, when leaders hear about the upfront work, they shrug their shoulders and say they’re too busy without realizing that automating their sales processes can increase their productivity and sales drastically. Moreover, they don’t see the tangible value they can gain when they apply the technology correctly and train their teams to use it correctly.
Take this stat from Nucleus Research, for example:
“Data accessibility for salespeople shortens their sales cycles by 8-14%.”
If teams are trained on how to access this data, they are doing themselves and their customer a favor, but they need to see the technology in action, and the results first.
This is where sales leaders need to really step up, learn the benefits, embed themselves in the CRM implementation process, and automate cumbersome, boring, and inefficient routines, so their teams can focus on what they do best—creating exceptional sales experiences. It doesn’t hurt to throw in ROI too, since “the average return on investment for CRM is $8.71 for every dollar spent (Nucleus Research).”
If sales leaders viewed customization of their CRM as critical as customizing, say, their phone preferences, they’d begin to see the benefits. People spend time changing their smartphone settings, from ring tones to shortcuts to screen sizes because this makes using the phone easier and more enjoyable for them. The same goes for CRMs. If they are customized to the organization’s specific needs, using them becomes enjoyable and executing the tasks you need to do more frequently becomes seamless.
Here is where Eligeo Business Solutions can make all the difference. Let us help “rescue” your CRM with a thorough audit and comprehensive recovery plan to get you back on track, or transition your operations to a new and highly customizable CRM solution, with a CRM implementation process.