Its very clear that many companies use technology to manage and nurture their sales leads. Salesforce.com, Zoho, InfusionSoft and services like such are in the business market to help you to manage your leads. However, it is also true that most of the companies still use pencil, paper and excel sheets to do this. Definitely these companies are not being productive as they can be and more likely may be loosing potential customers. I would to title it as a big mistake as none of these methods work well for better sales management.
An automated system can qualify and create the leads and further the sales system for tracking and processing will help tremendously. Sales Management Software ensures that your sales leads are followed up, pipelines are being managed and goals are being met. Regardless of the size of your sales team, a good CRM tool will pay of the results in profits.
Firstly, it is a wise idea to understand that CRM is an important tool for the business and not just an application that should be used by your executives when they find time. It must become a part of the day to day business process. CRM software should be used as a mandatory process as it offers flexibility and is very informative and resourceful.
With Maple CRM, we continuosly look ways to provide an efficient tool that eases the work process. In fact, we do a lot of customization based on the real time analysis of our customer requirements. Effective functional features would defintely increase the usage benefits.
Your sales people should be provided with the right tools for their operations. Email marketing, to-do lists, contacts manager etc. are all the tools that sales team find very useful. This way, by giving more useful tools they are likely to use the CRM tool on a necessity basis thus enabling them let CRM be the part of their business life.
Make a note that speed is one of the important strategy when dealing with sales leads. Research shows that calling new leads in less than one minute can increase conversion rates.
If all the business functions and activities are recorded, assigned and managed at one place then your CRM Software will be a valuable resource. You will also have to make sure everything comes in and goes out through the CRM system only. The better you plan and execute the CRM process flow, the greater your chance of success.