CRM as a tool has many options, it is up to consultants who will implement CRM and up to its users, how the system will be used.
Each client should go through contacting cycle monthly. This basically means that a salesman would have to call the client once a month, send an email or go to a client for a meeting.
In the real world, the situation is a bit different!
Each commercialist, depending on the company in which he operates and the branch in which he operates, is responsible for 30-50 clients, for some that the figure goes up to 100 and in some spheres even and up to 300 (telecommunications).
Not all customers will buy each month on a regular basis, neither will buy the same, it depends on many factors, such as season, price, demand. But they will definitely not buy if you do not remind them that you are there, and that you can meet their exepectations regarding the price, delivery or any other sales segment.
People in sales department can very easily get used to regular clients, and also they can very easily forget customers who do not buy regularly, and that is not because they do poorly their job , but because it’s natural to forget companies ( or people in those companies) that do not buy on regular basis.
We must not forget that people in sales are heavily burdened and that for their day-to-day activities they are spending a lot of time, so they can easily miss out on various chances if they do not have a good tool to help them in their day-to-day work.
This tool is CRM.
CRM will keep track of customers on a daily basis, slowly learning their habits along with people in sales, and provide you real-time reporting that will give you accurate informations about customers tha you forgot to contact as part of a regular tour of the client or, for example, a reminder of the offers you provided.
CRM is a “machine” and it does not have the problem to process 1000,10000 or 100000 clients in one second, while for humans this is an unattainable, and in the bottom line totally unnecessary.
One of the examples from practice may best show how CRM can dramatically increase your efficiency.
In a company where CRM was implemented, there were 20 commercialists and 3,000 clients. Which means that every salesman was in charge of approximately 150 clients.
Six months after the introduction of CRM, sale results were reviewed and everyone in the company was satisfied, except our consultants. We called a meeting with the management and showed them a devastating picture. Of the 3000 clients from database, only 300 have been active, 2700 have never been contacted for those 6 months, and the company was satisfied with the sales?
Of course, the management intervened immediately, and tasked commercialists to contact all other clients at least once or twice in the next 6 months. The results were incredible, sales was increast by 45%. There were situations that the clients completely forgot that the company worked in the branch, some of them thought their prices were too high and the terms of payment were bad and so on.
A simple report such as an overview of uncontacted clients can provide a real picture of your business. Of course, you do not have to think that it’s important to have just an overview of the non contacted clients. The same principles should be followed by the leads.
Also, you need to remember one simple thing, contacting your client will not guaranteed sale, but if you do not contact him and do not take care of him, he certainly will not, or will very rarely invite you to provide him an offer.