How to sell a crm system. How to choose it. How CRM helps you sell

Why are sales falling? Who among the leaders has not tried to answer this question?

we have a seasonal product, so the peak of purchases has decreased;
we have high prices, and competitors are always dumping;
we are not well known in the market, we are not yet trusted enough.

And only a few are looking for a problem in the sales process itself. How do most companies that do not use a CRM system work?

the manager saw the application on the site, called, tried to close the person for sale;
the client did not buy right away, promised to think about it, decided to compare the conditions on other sites and left;
the manager received an initial rejection and forgot about the potential buyer.

Without CRM, the firm has no “next steps” system. Meanwhile, there is a category of people that takes a very long time to buy, up to several months or a year. They will benefit from newsletters, notifications about promotions, bonuses. This will allow them to buy a product from you when it becomes relevant to them.

Or another situation: you call a person and offer to use your service here and now. He asks you to call him back in a day, and you forget (lost the reminder sticker, accidentally deleted the contact from the phone). A potential customer never becomes a real customer.

What is useful in this regard CRM - system:

you will never forget to call the client back;
you will not schedule multiple calls at the same time;
thanks to local time tracking, you will not wake a person up in the middle of the night with your call;
you will be able to ungroup calls by importance and urgency: first we call Petya, who asked us commercial proposal, and then Kolya, who still doubts the need for a purchase.

CRM allows you to build a system of constant contacts with each of the potential buyers of the company. The more you mess with the client, the more likely he will buy from you, and from an unknown company in the future.

Thus, you do not lose people who did not purchase your goods (services) the first time. Due to this, your sales grow, despite the season and the presence of competitors.

CRM - the system allows you to personalize each customer, study his needs and wishes, get closer to him using mailing letters and gain his trust.

What functions should a good CRM system have?

customer agreement card - you put down the time and date that are convenient for talking to your potential buyer;
a card for transferring a contact to certain hours - you will not have a situation when at 11 o'clock in the morning the manager has several important calls assigned at once;
module of daily tasks for each manager;
the ability to track whether an email has reached your client, whether he has read it;
differentiation of clients by importance and priority.

It would be useful to integrate the company's website with CRM and service Google Analytics. You will be able to track how many sales each manager makes during their working day.

Do you want to sell products (services) without losing a single lead? Order the development of an individual system at TEO

Initially, CRM systems were created specifically for sales. Group software, designed to facilitate the work of salespeople, was called sales force automation (SFA) - sales force automation. Actually, it is from this fact that one of the oldest and most famous systems in the world got its name - Salesforce. But the management did not stand still - in modern sales, the client has become at the forefront, CRM systems (customer relationship management systems) have become more popular than SFA (but not equal to them!). At this point, they usually talk for a long time about loyalty, predictive marketing and other PR tricks, but the message is much simpler. Whatever we create, whether it is corporate software, a game, an application or a data center, it needs to be sold, quickly bypassing competitors. And we, programmers, do not do it very well. More precisely, it doesn't work at all.

But we can help our salespeople. For example, create or implement CRM. This is approximately how RegionSoft CRM appeared - as an internal tool of the company, which today would be called a system integrator. In 10 years, the system has grown, survived six major releases and has helped tens of thousands of sales people, buyers, logisticians, commercial directors and support staff. We know a lot about CRM, no less about sales in IT and we are sure that we need to talk about this on Habré - here we have discussed many times what and how to create, but rarely and shyly they say how to sell. And there is nothing to be ashamed of - this is a key business process in any company.

How does a salesperson work and why does he need CRM?

There are hundreds of sales manager KPIs and dozens of sales methodologies. Some require lengthy negotiations, others are valuable with a short sales cycle, others are based on analytics, and still others are based on pullbacks. Here's a list that shows you are doing well in your sales:

Your revenue and sales are growing.
Your revenue and sales are growing.

This is partly a joke. Indeed, growth in both sales and revenue is considered a generally accepted measure of salespeople's performance. However, the actual list looks different.

Your revenue and sales are growing by increasing the speed of sales - and this is a key focus.
Your revenue and sales are growing, while the cost does not increase and the proportionate level of marketing and advertising costs remains.
Your customer base is expanding, but there are loyal customers.
The loyalty system works: discount program, cards, mailings, bonuses and discounts. At the same time, sales go even outside of promotions and sales.
You have few complaints and customer complaints.
You do not have an overstocking of the warehouse (if it is supposed to be) or any other product in which you invest, but it has not been sold steadily for a long time.
You don't have a constant turnover in sales.

At first glance, it seems that these indicators are easy to achieve. But this is not the case - achieving each of the points requires serious work, combining both sales and analytics. In the past few years, success in sales has come to require the use of an appropriate level of automation - CRM systems for sales, which are included in the cycle and have an effect. So, according to a study by the already mentioned Salesforce, after the implementation of CRM, sales growth is plus 29%, sales force productivity grows by 34%, the accuracy of forecasts and plans increases by 42%. But our survey for Habr (you can still take part) showed that 57% of respondents use CRM only for sales, and 37% automate everything. The most popular options are: contacts and clients (cards) - 79%, tasks and projects - 56%, planners and calendars - 56%, business processes - 56%, printed forms and documents - 47%. At the same time, 36% of respondents admit that the situation has improved after implementation, only 4% note a deterioration, the rest admitted that they do not have information or did not measure the effect.

The key concept in sales is the sales cycle. This is the lifetime of a business opportunity, measured in units of time (days, weeks, months). This is the period in which you have a chance to sell a product or service ahead of your competitors. And what competitive market, the more critical the cycle shortening becomes. Moreover, it is important to ensure that the stages within the sales cycle itself do not stretch and the competitor could not get ahead of you at any time interval. Effective sales speed management is possible only in a CRM system.

This is how the sales cycle looks in general terms (clickable picture):

Of course, a lot depends on the approach to sales, but the main stages are unchanged and CRM must fit into each of them, providing information, notification, communication, reporting, at each stage automating the salesperson's work: using ready-made templates, telephony, reminders, planners, business -processes, etc.

How does a CRM system help you sell?

CRM systems automate and accelerate the work of a sales manager in three main areas.

Operational work - work processes and procedures.
Working with information and reporting - collecting, storing and analyzing data.
Incremental sales - working with clients for the purpose of up-sales and repeat deals.

Let's consider these areas in more detail and try to build a general picture of the interaction between the salesperson and the sales automation tool - the CRM system.

Operational work

The first and foremost thing that a CRM system does is shorten the sales cycle and increase their speed.Each customer contact represents a business opportunity - a chance to move to the next stage of the sale and ultimately close the deal successfully. Accordingly, you need to have time to find out the needs of the client, present a product or service to him, answer questions, prepare a formalized offer, conclude an agreement, issue an invoice and complete the sale process. At the same time, your competitors are not asleep in almost any market - you must have come across a situation when a client directly reported that he was considering other options. In addition, delaying any stage can cool the customer's ardor - then he will change his mind or postpone the purchase for indefinite term... And this is already a missed commercial opportunity and benefit.

And where there is competition, everything is ultimately decided by the time, the speed of the process. The sales cycle, which is formed after the accumulation of a certain amount of experience, allows you to fairly accurately assess the moment when your customer is ready to make the final purchase decision - this knowledge is invaluable. Sales automation through CRM opens up excellent opportunities for working with a cycle:

saves and displays a list of unclosed commercial opportunities (transaction states);
fixes the length of the cycle (below we will talk about a special report on the speed of sales);
allows you to control the length of each stage of the sales cycle;
helps to identify the reasons for the loss of a client at certain stages.

In sales theory, there are classic process loops within a cycle. During these processes, the manager applies his skills to lead a customer to a purchase.

The problem is that one manager has not one or two such cycles, but many, and they can be of different lengths and be at different stages, which means that they require the use of different skills. It is difficult for the human brain to navigate through multiple cycles. Moreover, the presence of a paper notebook, stickers or Word does not change the situation. To correctly manage multiple sales cycles, you need an intelligent system - CRM. The user enters the data in a timely manner, and she processes them and helps navigate the sales cycles, make contacts with customers on time and complete the processes.

In turn, if the client sees the commitment and punctuality of the manager, receives all the necessary information on time, he has no reason to go to competitors and he makes a purchase decision faster. Sales cycles are completed faster, several cycles are serviced at the same time, the number of sales increases, and revenue grows.

CRM helps sales teams prioritize tasks and activities, aimed at working with the client.In addition, for example, RegionSoft CRM has built-in capabilities for communication with contractors without departing from CRM: telephony (by the way, we do not impose an IP telephony operator, but only provide a SIPphone of our own design, integration with Asterisk and, if necessary, a VoIP Connector telephony server) , Skype, a native mail client (through it you can conduct business correspondence or send mailings - it can withstand all the loads; unlike some CRMs, mail goes well both ways and can be used as the main one). The CRM system sends out reminders for tasks and events; it is very difficult to miss something important. In the visual planner, the manager can visually assess the workload of the day and easily drag overlapping tasks with the mouse. At the same time, the properties of reminders do not change - the task does not need to be edited.

CRM sets up a working mood.Of course, if it is properly designed by the developer. For example, at RegionSoft CRM we have made a KPI monitor, which shows progress bars for achieving planned targets: each employee sees his own KPI monitor, and the manager sees everyone's “monitors”. And when it is clear that things are moving and exactly how they are moving, it is more pleasant to work, plus you can redistribute forces to lagging tasks. This is a great assistant for a sales manager who always has many different tasks and cannot keep track of them.

CRM system is an interactive assistant to a sales manager. Perhaps the most beloved question of our clients: "Does the card rise when you call?" This is no coincidence - the information about the client, available during the conversation, and the CRM that recognizes the caller, are dear, because they give the opportunity to a) address by name, b) demonstrate that you remember the history of the relationship. So, these a) + b) \u003d the client's feeling of importance and exclusivity, a significant factor in making a purchase decision. Recording conversations allows you to remember an important nuance, resolve a conflict, and learn from your mistakes (invaluable for beginners!).

A CRM system is a tool for exchanging information between divisions of a company.In small and medium-sized businesses, all divisions are closely linked: commercial service (sales, marketing, logistics), accounting, production (development, etc.), technical support... Information constantly passes between them, and often this circulation takes a lot of time, the data is re-requested, refined, periods change, etc. In CRM, employees can independently view the necessary information, having access rights.

The value of CRM lies in the fact that a significant part of information automatically passes between services. That is why our team is greatly annoyed by vendors and consultants who claim that CRM is only for sales. Modern CRM systems are simply required to be able to work with a warehouse, transport, delivery, etc. at the first request of the client.

For example, if you have a warehouse and RegionSoft CRM is installed, you do not need to carry papers, call and write letters: when a sale is made, the goods are automatically written off from the warehouse and the manager can generate closing documentation. If the goods or components are running out, you can form an order right in the CRM system and send it to the supplier. At the same time, everything works in the opposite direction - the sales manager sees the balances in the warehouses and knows exactly which batch can be shipped, and the marketer can estimate the speed of movement from the warehouse of various names and decide on a promotion or excluding a slow-moving product from the assortment.

CRM system - the ability to unify the sales process and streamline the work of managers. There are many ways in the system to build a boilerplate procedure to optimize the sales cycle time, as well as the distribution of time within, between the components of the cycle. For example, you can create a business process with regulated time lags and motivate salespeople to fit into this timeline. Thus, everyone, from the slow but smart salesperson to the novice, will adapt to the process, the result will be more stable, and productivity will increase.

When there is such a sales cycle, you cannot do without automation. It was worth starting on the first block.

Information handling and reporting

Information storage.If you try to define a CRM system in one word, it will be the word "information". It is its accumulation, storage and processing that give the value of CRM, which, in terms of its class, belongs to corporate information systems (CIS). The manager enters data into the client's card and thus forms a pool of information about him. Therefore, it is important that the data is accurate, current and complete. We are in RegionSoft CRM We thought over all the fields of the client's card so that it is she who is the object in which everything is stored: from the phone number to documents and the complete history of relations.

The company card in RegionSoft CRM (clickable picture) - information that can only be collected about the relationship with the client. If something seems superfluous to you, absolutely everything can be disabled in the system interface settings.

The data accumulated in the CRM system serves as new job sales manager. He can…

… To segment customers - to make selections according to the required parameters and create individual mailings. Recently, in management and marketing, the concept of complete personalization of proposals has come forward. This is correct, and the CRM system is able to provide the user with all the data for segmentation. For example, you can choose low-income, but regular customers and take measures to increase the average check - at least offer a discount on repeat purchases if the conditions are met.

… To form commercial offers. In the CRM interface, you can create document templates and load data from the stock list, price lists, and counterparty details into them. This greatly speeds up paperwork and preparatory work.

… Lead a sales funnel. Conversion (going from lead to purchase) is highly dependent on the industry, product, sales cycle, and manager's qualifications. Funnel control helps not only to assess the efficiency of salespeople and the department as a whole, but also to find best practices.

... conduct a plan-fact analysis and generally work with a sales plan. Based on historical sales data, the best sales forecast is built and a competent plan is set, the implementation of which can also be viewed in CRM.

In some companies, the sales plan is set from the ceiling - and this is wrong, especially if wage depends on the KPI. Setting an adequate and feasible plan is the task of management. Be sure to take into account seasonality, recessions business activity or good moments. An overestimated sales target can backfire, including outright fraud and employee abuse.

In general, you can build any analytics with data and find solutions that are non-standard or new for the company. But for this, a few simple rules must be followed.

Collect accurate information - carefully check the entered details, do not include inaccurate or doubtful data. The worst thing that can be is to think out information. For example, a client calls you from a number with the Moscow code, but you do not specify his city, add “Moscow”. And he called through IP-telephony, sits in Vladivostok, and next time you call him at night. The contact may not go well.
Collect complete information - the more information about the client is collected, the deeper the analytics and easier operational work. If a lead spills over into a prospect, try to collect as much data as possible. Do not forget that some of the information you need can be found in open sources.
Collecting relevant information means collecting it on time. It's simple - it's enough to enter data into CRM during operational work, and not at the end of the month from stickers and not when the CEO remembers the existence of the CRM system.
Unify data - this issue is mostly solved by entering using drop-down lists (they are filled in from reference books). You should not be too lazy to fill in all the directories at the start of CRM (they are filled in RegionSoft CRM, it remains to enter custom values) and then the work will become easier, and managers will not record the client's status as potential, future, then, potential, soon, etc.
Check data for duplicates, obvious errors, etc.
Keeping backups (backups) of databases is very strange, but they are often forgotten. And by the way, backup protects your valuable asset - customer base - both from force majeure and from not very decent employees who, for example, upon dismissal, may want to spoil the data or delete it. By the way, differentiation of access rights additionally helps to protect against such problems.

Reports, the visual implementation of which helps to see the gaps and achievements of the sales team.There are many of them (there are about 20 sales reports in one RegionSoft CRM), but there are the main ones, among which - sales funnel... This report helps to view the passage of customers through the stages of sales in the context of the desired time period, manager, industry, etc. The wider the base in relation to the neck, the higher the conversion, the better. You can see at what stage the most customers are lost and take action. The picture shows a very primitive funnel - in fact, the user can set up any sales stages in the CRM system (set custom stages of client development in directories) and see, for example, how customers fall off at the stage of the first call, mailing, approval of technical specifications, etc. - on the basis of such analytics, it is possible to take measures to increase the conversion rate, working precisely with problem stages.

Sales speed - the most important indicator, which also falls into the reports of RegionSoft CRM (I will again make a reservation that such reports can be in other systems, we are just talking specifically about our own). In general, the rate of sales depends on the industry, sales model, and other factors. Each company should be aware of its regulatory length of the sales process and strive not to exceed it. Of course, we are talking about standard sales. If we are dealing with complex, so-called long sales in industry, tenders, etc., then it is very difficult to focus on the average value - too many external factors influence the course of the transaction. However, you should always follow the chronology of the process (remember 50/35/15 above?) And apply those skills that will help you move from stage to stage.

In the table you can see the date of customer registration and the time of the first sale. The interval between them is the sales cycle. And if you impose on the interval the passage of the sales funnel and the dynamics of development, you can check the chronology of the stages within the cycle and understand what is taking too much time.

The report shows that the efficiency of one day of work is somewhat inversely correlated with the cycle length: the longer the cycle, the lower the efficiency of one day of work. This is not a rule or a law, but a too long cycle relative to the normative for the company is a wake-up call of the problem that caused such a delay in sales. It is necessary to analyze such cases in detail.

Another important report, which in theory is considered marketing, but is actually corrupt, is ABC analysis, it shows the shares of customers with the highest revenue. Such an analysis must be carried out - this is how the business receives information about customers with whom it should work especially carefully, build a loyalty system, give discounts and other bonuses, and provide a VIP manager. It is convenient to view it in tabular and pie chart form.

Another type of analytical information in sales is aggregated statistics. This is aggregated data, for example, by county, city or industry. They contribute to the assessment of the most promising areas of development, and a comparison of such analysts for different periods gives an estimate of the growth rates of each of the areas. Such reports are of interest to executives and regional managers.

In addition to standard reports in CRM, the user can write his own using the report designer, use filters and save them, or upload data from the CRM system to a spreadsheet editor and build analytics in the desired context.

CRM makes it easy to compare historical and current sales results and sales-related metrics. Since it stores historical data of the required depth, you can always compare periods, evaluate the impacts that were at the peak of sales or at points of decline, and establish market trends. This data can form the basis of planning and forecasting - this is the basis for drawing up an adequate and feasible sales plan. You can also accumulate and analyze information on competitors.

Incremental sales

Cross-Sell & Upsell - another feature of the CRM system for sales. Based on the information on previously completed transactions, the manager can select a complimentary product or service, prepare a commercial offer and send it to the client. In general, the manager's awareness of the client's background and its mention in communication is a sign of the company's high loyalty to its customers. The sales team can track the purchase history by customer or group in order to identify a new point of contact, offer additional products or services in time.

For example, construction company shipped bricks for the construction of a country house in April. In August, you can offer roofing materials, protective compounds before autumn, facing bricks or an iron door at a discount (or without it, or with a surcharge - this is a matter of conscience and the seller's policy). In fact, the company shares the client's interest and tries to "help" him - this is very captivating. And valuable data on the customer's purchase profile is collected and stored in the CRM.

Better upsell can only be a loyalty program. Despite the disappointing forecasts for retail, discount cards, loyalty programs, points and other models of long-term friendship with customers continue to work successfully. The reasons for this lie both in the economic and in the psychological plane, but the post is not about that. CRM takes into account discount cards, personal discounts and markups for clients or groups of clients, including when forming price lists. By the way, in our case, the automation of loyalty programs works with software package for hypermarket automation - RegionSoft Retail.

Once one of our employees witnessed an interesting conversation at the pharmacy: the pharmacist (A) and the client (K).
A: Do you have a card of our network?
K: Oh, I left at home. What a pity!
A: Well, you have, in principle, still without a discount.
K: And I am pleased to just show that I am a regular customer of the pharmacy.
A simple example that illustrates everything. Just as we often go to those stores whose cards we have, although everything in the neighboring one is cheaper, adjusted for this very loyalty.

Thus, the CRM system fits perfectly into the sales cycle, provides managers with information, accumulates and retains a customer base. In general, it performs all the functions that are assigned to it by sales managers. In short, a CRM system is definitely a salesperson's friend.

What's wrong between CRM and salespeople?

We have already written about the typical difficulties of implementing CRM systems, and they all apply to the sales department. Moreover, it is with him that they begin. Sales managers often see CRM as another tool that will bring in a lot of new work or a new way of control from the bosses. As a rule, this is the opinion of those who consider themselves hardened sales wolves, are accustomed to working with a notebook or memorizing all the moves. For them, automation is stress and an apparent waste of time. In fact, if you invite them to use the system and tie all successes to new program, psychologically, even the most stubborn salespeople get used to the software, and then they even begin to love it, since the speed of the operation is growing. Still, it's one thing to go into a folder, select a form, type names, compare prices, drive in requisites, add up the totals, and it's another thing to automatically generate an invoice and immediately send it by e-mail... I'm not even talking about business process chains that turn any routine into a fast and reliable machine.

Another common need for CRM users is to cram their sales model into the system. SPIN sales, long sales, dealer model - according to customers, everything should be taken into account in CRM. And there are dozens of these methodologies! This approach is fundamentally wrong. CRM collects data, stores and unifies the customer base, helps to create any tasks and business processes. And for which model do you use such a powerful resource - a matter of imagination and competent management of the company (who really needs it - you can write part of the methodology into the business process). A CRM vendor in a sober mind and sound memory will never go for improvements for any methodology - this is really absurd. At least until the number of these methodologies is reduced to two or three.

It is no coincidence that the post has made a special emphasis on sales speed several times. CRM automates the sales management process, thereby accelerating them. This is a key value that salespeople must be aware of as they enter data, monitor system signals for each customer, and apply their persuasion and presentation skills. This approach helps the manager to close deals quickly and without misses, which means to fulfill KPIs, make a plan and earn more.

So, briefly about the benefits of CRM, if it is mainly aimed at sales:

increasing the speed of sales and active management of the sales cycle
reallocation of resources for large and profitable deals
truly individual approach to clients
understanding customer dynamics
colossal time savings for salespeople
reliable storage of the client base
reduction of development / production / creative costs due to accurate forecasting and planning of the range of goods and services
single workplace \u003d telephony + mail + base + schedulers
deep and accessible analytics.

We all love to create the perfect - this is especially the case for developers. Yes, we all often think that we have created best product in the world, and the world will soon find out about it by itself. No, he will not know if there are no professionals who promote and sell. And behind them there is also a sin - it consists in a joke about the fact that a sales person only needs an ear, a mouth and a telephone. In 2016, sales without automation do not allow you to shorten and optimize the sales cycle, break away from competitors and work with customers more intensively. Actually, this is why CRM systems were created in order to manage sales and learn to look ahead. In turn, CRM can be implemented because you need it and because you need it. Do you feel the difference?

Often a company starts thinking about implementing CRM for sales when there is an urgent need:

the need for IP telephony;
call tracking for call control;
system of registration of requests, etc.

This local approach is not the most effective, since CRM is inherently global. Therefore, introducing the system, it is necessary to think through and close the maximum of your business tasks with its help.

CRM for sales: reporting

Main function CRM is about control. Therefore, your CRM for sales should allow you to control maximum amount indicators and generate reports for further management decisions.

Daily reports to monitor the work of managers
Sales channel reports
Reports on fact and payment plans
Reports on transactions with a specific status
Reports on different sections
Client cost
Trade length

There are up to 36 critical indicators... It should be remembered that the real potential of CRM for sales is measured by the number of reports that the system is able to generate.

Pay attention to whether it is possible to track metrics over time using the CRM you are implementing. This is necessary in order to evaluate the effectiveness decisions taken by changing one or another indicator.

CRM for Sales: Revenue or Profit?

Implementation of one or another CRM-system must be correlated with the global goals of the company. Global goals include profit growth and revenue growth /

1. Sales and revenue growth. To work in this direction, CRM should allow you to control:

number of requests;
cost of circulation;
revenue;
in the funnel for new customers;
daily reports broken down by managers by quantitative indicators of their activity

2. Profit growth. For better control over profits, it is necessary that information on such indicators can be extracted from CRM as:

number of orders by segment;
conversion by segment;
segment profitability;
purchase cost;
the effectiveness of different channels;
plan / fact on margin by managers.

Receiving such data from CRM, it is possible to develop algorithms, scripts and loyalty programs for the most profitable segments and abandon unprofitable ones.

Also, CRM must "be able" to prioritize segments depending on profitability, as well as depending on the size of previous transactions with a particular client.

CRM for sales: working with deals of different lengths

The settings and choice of CRM for sales depends on such a key parameter as the length of the deal.

1. Long sales. When it comes to long deals, the need to analyze business processes comes to the fore. This is best done with sales funnels. Therefore, a CRM for this type of sales must be configured to work with funnels in different aspects.

For new clients
For current clients
By channels
By products
By target audience
By region
By employees

In funnels, you need to analyze:

funnel entrance
output results
total conversion
conversion between stages
funnel length
the length of each stage of the funnel.

In addition, taking into account the specifics of long deals, it is important that CRM reminds of the need for this or that action for a specific client. At the same time, reminders should also come to the head of the sales department, and not just to the ordinary manager.

2. Short sales. This type of transaction includes sales up to 3 days in length. In this case, a service with the ability to customize sales funnels may be redundant for you. If short deals prevail in business, then you need to choose the appropriate CRM for these needs. Such a system should maximize efficiency for here and now transactions, as there is no deferred demand for the product.

CRM for sales: settings depending on the specifics of the pre-sales stage

Simplified, the standard step process before closing a trade looks like this:

sending a commercial offer→ receiving a response (sale or rejection)

But in some business sectors, one cannot do without a preliminary pre-sale assessment of the current state of the client. They require a longer stage of work. And such business specifics should be taken into account when choosing the appropriate CRM for sales.

A simple system with standard settings cannot provide support for a non-standard preparation stage.

You should not accept offers from developers to set up some kind of universal CRM for sales with complex pre-sales stages. The settings are not saved during version upgrade and any failure. The system is unstable. Its service and support is constantly required. Therefore, immediately choose a specific CRM with built-in capabilities to support the complex stage of pre-sales.

CRM for sales: working with current customersand

A high-quality CRM for sales solves the problem of the regularity of interaction with customers. This process can be called a sales skirt. CRM should provide regular repeated customer contacts depending on:

product life cycle;
the level of competition in the industry;
repeat sales opportunities

CRM for sales: lead redistribution function

CRM should be customizable automatic system redistribution of leads between managers. It happens that for some reason the current manager cannot close a deal. Then, according to the regulations spelled out in CRM, it is necessary to transfer the client for service to another seller. And, in most cases, this decision leads to a purchase. Thus, you do not lose anyone and retain control over the sales process.

CRM for sales: the best leads are for the best managers

Your CRM needs to be "trained" to deliver the best leads to the best managers. It works better in every sense: in terms of profit and employees. Managing sales this way increases the likelihood of closing a deal. Therefore, choose systems with the ability to customize such a useful regulation.

CRM for sales: automatic sales

CRM can “sell” itself with the help of properly configured mailing of letters to customers from whom you expect a solution. Perhaps such mailing will serve as a decisive factor for this category of consumers. This feature should also be used before launching a new product for upselling to current customers.

A correctly selected and configured CRM system makes the business more transparent for the owner, and the ways to increase profits are clearer.

Imagine a customer calls you for a secondary purchase, or a customer just walks into a store. So CRM has already "recognized" him and, by his previous needs or simply by the composition of the check, formed an additional offer. A person is pleasantly surprised that he is offered exactly what he needs. And you are happy to re-sell.

CRM for sales: key opportunities

So let's summarize. Implementation of a CRM system allows to increase the efficiency of the sales department, as the routine is reduced and control is increased. Data in CRM makes it easy and fast to:

segment customers in order to create individual offers, mailings for individual segments. Segmentation can be done according to different criteria. For example, you can identify regular customers with low checks and develop a program for their development.
generate commercial offers using templates with the inclusion of counterparties' data
form sales funnels in different sections - by product, region, manager, etc.
create reports and monitor up to 36 key indicators
analyze the results, predict further sales
prioritize tasks and activities
receive reminders to contact the client
exchange data between structural units
distribute leads

We looked at some of the aspects and features of CRM that can have a big impact on sales.

Initially, CRM systems were created specifically for sales. The group of software designed to facilitate the work of salespeople is called sales force automation (SFA) - sales force automation. Actually, it is from this fact that one of the oldest and most famous systems in the world got its name - Salesforce. But the management did not stand still - in modern sales, the client has become at the forefront, CRM systems (customer relationship management systems) have become more popular than SFA (but not equal to them!). At this point, they usually talk for a long time about loyalty, predictive marketing and other PR tricks, but the message is much simpler. Whatever we create, be it corporate software, a game, an application or a data center, it needs to be sold, quickly bypassing competitors. And we, programmers, do not do it very well. More precisely, it doesn't work at all.

How does a salesperson work and why does he need CRM?

Your revenue and sales are growing.
Your revenue and sales are growing.

This is partly a joke. Indeed, growth in both sales and revenue is considered a generally accepted measure of salespeople's performance. However, the actual list looks different.

Your revenue and sales are growing by increasing the speed of sales - and this is a key focus.
Your revenue and sales are growing, while the cost does not increase and the proportionate level of marketing and advertising costs remains.
Your customer base is expanding, but there are loyal customers.
The loyalty system works: a discount program, cards, mailings, bonuses and discounts. At the same time, sales go even outside of promotions and sales.
You have few complaints and customer complaints.
You do not have an overstocking of the warehouse (if it is supposed to be) or any other product in which you invest, but it has not been sold steadily for a long time.
You don't have a constant turnover in sales.

At first glance, it seems that these indicators are easy to achieve. But this is not the case - achieving each of the points requires serious work, combining both sales and analytics. In the past few years, success in sales has come to require the use of an appropriate level of automation - CRM systems for sales, which are included in the cycle and have an effect. So, according to the research of the already mentioned Salesforce, after the implementation of CRM, sales growth is plus 29%, sales force productivity grows by 34%, the accuracy of forecasts and plans increases by 42%. But our survey for Habr (you can still take part) showed that 57% of respondents use CRM only for sales, and 37% automate everything. The most popular options are: contacts and clients (cards) - 79%, tasks and projects - 56%, planners and calendars - 56%, business processes - 56%, printed forms and documents - 47%. At the same time, 36% of respondents admit that the situation has improved after implementation, only 4% note a deterioration, the rest admitted that they do not have information or did not measure the effect.

The key concept in sales is the sales cycle. This is the lifetime of a business opportunity, measured in units of time (days, weeks, months). This is the period in which you have a chance to sell a product or service ahead of your competitors. And the more competitive the market, the more critical cycle shortening becomes. Moreover, it is important to ensure that the stages within the sales cycle itself do not stretch and the competitor could not get ahead of you at any time interval. Effective sales speed management is possible only in a CRM system.

This is how the sales cycle looks in general terms (clickable picture):

How does a CRM system help you sell?

CRM systems automate and accelerate the work of a sales manager in three main areas.

Operational work - work processes and procedures.
Working with information and reporting - collecting, storing and analyzing data.
Incremental sales - working with clients for the purpose of up-sales and repeat deals.

Let's consider these areas in more detail and try to build a general picture of the interaction between the salesperson and the sales automation tool - the CRM system.