Sales management CRM

What is sales management?

Sales management is the art and science of leading a sales team to achieve a company's sales goals. From setting sales strategies and targets to hiring, training, and motivating salespeople, sales management makes an impact from several directions. 

Here are some key points:

• Building a Sales Force: Recruiting, hiring, and onboarding talented salespeople.

• Setting Goals & Strategy: Developing sales targets, crafting winning sales strategies, and aligning them with the overall business plan.

• Coaching & Training: Providing ongoing coaching and training to equip salespeople with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.

• Motivation & Performance Management: Motivating the sales team, setting clear expectations, and monitoring performance to identify areas for improvement.

• Sales Process & Technology: Designing and implementing a smooth sales process, and utilizing sales management software (CRM) to streamline operations.

How can a Sales Management CRM supercharge your sales team?

A sales management CRM is a powerful tool specifically designed to keep your entire sales funnel organized, track leads, manage deals, improve conversions, and boost your team's productivity. Your sales team can now sell smarter, which translates to increased sales, happier customers, and a thriving business.

With the right CRM tools, your sales reps could have a complete customer history at their fingertips, allowing them to personalize interactions and close deals faster. Freshsales CRM, for example, uses advanced AI features to score leads based on their profile and behavior and predict how likely they are to convert, empowering sales reps to prioritize their efforts and focus on the most promising leads. By automating repetitive tasks like sending emails, scheduling meetings and more, Freshsales CRM helps businesses turn their sales team into a high-performing, revenue-driving function.

How can a sales management CRM benefit your business?

Effective sales management ensures your sales team is operating at peak efficiency, which has the power to drive revenue growth and propel your business forward. 

A sales management CRM streamlines sales processes and automates repetitive tasks freeing up valuable time to close more deals. Make data-driven decisions with a CRM that provides holistic customer data and captures the entire history of engagement with the prospect. This goldmine of insights allows you to track performance, identify trends, and go after leads that would convert faster.

A sales management CRM enables seamless communication and collaboration within your sales team. Everyone can access the latest customer interactions ensuring a smooth and coordinated sales process. CRMs help you nurture leads, personalize communication, and provide excellent customer service — happier customers + higher customer retention rates = increased revenue.

Key features to look for in a sales management CRM

1. Lead scoring and lead assignment

So your sales team is caught in a bustling marketplace, overflowing with potential customers. But how do they know who's ready to buy and who's just browsing? That's where lead scoring and lead assignment come into play, the dynamic duo within your Sales Management CRM:

Lead scoring is a result of each lead's behavior – website visits, downloaded content, emails opened. CRM assigns every prospect a score based on how likely they are to convert into a paying customer. High scorers are perfect leads for your top salespeople to jump on. Lower scores are leads that are warm but might need some nurturing with targeted sales engagement or personalized outreach campaigns before they turn into paying customers.

Lead assignment features take the guesswork out of who should contact these leads. With the power of automation, your CRM can assign qualified leads (based on lead score) to the most suitable salesperson, ensuring the right lead gets the right attention at the right time.

2. Live chat

Faced with a scenario where a potential customer lands on your product page, brimming with questions but hesitant to pick up the phone? Live chat, seamlessly integrated within your CRM, swoops in like a sales superhero.

Live chat acts as a magnet, attracting website visitors who are actively interested in your product or service. The CRM captures their information, allowing your reps to personalize the conversation and qualify leads instantly. No more waiting days for email replies. Live chat facilitates instant interaction, allowing reps to address questions, overcome objections, and guide visitors toward a purchase decision in the moment.

Easily boost conversion rates by addressing concerns and guiding visitors through the buying journey —making every chat a potential sale opportunity.

3. Built-in phone capabilities

Built-in phone capabilities within a sales CRM allow sales teams to dial up the prospect directly, build a more human connection, and close a big-ticket deal more easily.

With integrated phone functionality, your sales reps can make and receive calls directly from within the CRM platform, which eliminates the need to switch between multiple tools, saving huge cost overheads and ensuring that all interactions are logged and tracked in one central location.

One of the key advantages of built-in phone capabilities is that sales professionals can better personalize conversations and provide tailored solutions that resonate with each prospect or customer. By tracking call metrics such as call duration, frequency, and outcome, organizations can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of their sales efforts. This data-driven approach makes meaningful connections for decision-makers so they optimize their strategies, allocate resources efficiently, and drive greater results.

4. Sales pipeline management capabilities

An ideal CRM is a clear visual roadmap for every potential sale, allowing you to see exactly where each deal stands and how close it is to closing. Your CRM will typically offer customizable sales stages, which could be something like "Prospecting," "Qualification," "Proposal Sent," "Negotiation," and finally, "Closed Won" or "Closed Lost."  Here's where the magic happens:

Drag and drop simplicity? Check. With a few clicks, your sales reps can move leads between stages as they progress through the sales cycle. This visual representation provides an instant snapshot of your sales pipeline's health. Also, the CRM analyzes the value and stage of each deal within the pipeline, allowing you to forecast future revenue with greater accuracy. This empowers you to make informed decisions about resource allocation, hiring plans, and overall business strategy. Something to look for as well – sales pipeline management should expose potential roadblocks in your sales process, so you can see which stages hold deals up the most and quickly come up with a solution to keep your sales flowing again.

5. Advanced automation capabilities

CRM platforms like Freshsales use automation features like workflows and sales sequences to streamline repetitive tasks. Workflows trigger actions (like sending emails or assigning tasks) based on specific events (e.g., a new lead signs up). Sales sequences automate outreach by sending a series of personalized emails or calls over time, keeping prospects engaged until they convert. These, along with other features, free up your sales team's time to focus on building relationships and closing deals.

6. Analytics and reporting

When choosing a Sales Management CRM, the analytics and forecasting features are like having a built-in business intelligence dashboard for your sales team. Here's what you, as a business owner, should prioritize:

Actionable insights, not just data dumps. Don’t get bogged down in endless spreadsheets and look for a CRM that provides clear, easy-to-follow visualizations of your sales data. Think – insightful charts that reveal trends, identify top performers, and highlight areas in line for improvement. Remember, the best CRMs allow you to dive deeper into the raw data. 

And another thing, don't just track the past, predict the future! Look for a CRM with robust forecasting capabilities. By analyzing historical sales data, current pipeline value, and industry trends, the CRM can generate realistic forecasts of future revenue. This empowers you to make informed decisions about resource allocation, hiring plans, and overall business strategy. Sales success is knowing with greater certainty how much revenue to expect in the coming months, allowing you to plan for growth and navigate challenges with confidence.

What is the best sales management CRM software?

In today's competitive business landscape, a strong sales team is only half the battle. Equipping them with the right tools is crucial for maximizing their potential and driving revenue. But with so many options on the market, choosing the perfect sales management CRM can feel overwhelming.

In this guide, we'll help you find the sales management CRM that best aligns with your unique business needs and propels your sales team toward success:

1. Freshsales CRM

If you’re looking for a modern, easy-to-use CRM software for your sales teams to organize customer information, personalize customer engagement and automate sales activities — Freshsales is a superior choice. As an AI-powered, all-in-one solution for sales teams, Freshsales CRM comes packed with sales force automation, built-in multichannel engagement, and live chat.

Key features:

• Affordable pricing

• Easy-to-use interface

• AI-powered insights

• Built-in phone, chat and email

• Advanced sales automation

• In-depth reporting analytics

What Makes Freshsales the Ultimate Sales Management CRM

Streamlining your processes and equipping your team with the right tools is crucial – that’s where Freshsales stands out as the best Sales Management CRM. It’s designed to put your sales success first, from AI-powered lead scoring and intelligent deal pipelines to built-in phone and comprehensive email automation, Freshsales empowers your team to focus on what matters most: closing deals. With a 360-degree view of every customer interaction, your team can personalize outreach and build stronger relationships, ultimately driving sales growth and exceeding targets.

Price: 21 day free trial with pricing editions starting at $9.00/user/month, and an enterprise edition at just $59.00/user/month.

2. Monday

A dedicated sales CRM platform that enables business owners, sales teams, and RevOps to manage the entire sales cycle from pre- to post-sales — managing all customer data in one centralized place.

Key features:

• Platform customization

• Lead management

• Case management

• Data import and export tools 

• Mobile user support

Pros: 

• Good option for small and mid-sized businesses

• User-friendly and visual interface

• Collaborative features and automation capabilities 

Cons: 

• Expensive for larger sales teams

• Not ideal for complex sales processes

• Lacks advanced functionality

Price: Free trial with 4 unique pricing editions starting from $12.00/month.

3. HubSpot

An effective and easy-to-navigate CRM platform where customer data, tools, and teams come together to create a single source for unprecedented sales rep efficiency. Includes sales engagement tools, configure-price-quote (CPQ) functionality, and robust sales analytics for growing teams.

Key features:

• Opportunity and pipeline management

• Marketing ROI analytics

• Case management

• Social collaboration features

• Contact management 

Pros: 

• Good option for startups and small businesses

• Ideal for inbound marketing

Cons: 

• Steeper learning curve for paid plans

• Less flexibility compared to some CRM solutions

Price: A free Hubspot CRM is available with a Sales Hub starter edition priced at $20.00/seat/month.

4. Zoho

A cloud-based 360° customer relationship management tool that caters to the business needs of mid-scale businesses to large-scale enterprises.

Key features:

• Sales funnels

• Pipeline management

• Workflow automation

• Sales forecasting

Pros: 

• Customizable 

• Affordable 

• Scalability for all sizes of businesses

Cons: 

• Steep learning curve 

• Clunky interface for some users

• Basic automation

• Limited reporting functionalities

Price: Offers a 15-day free trial with an ultimate tier plan at $52.00/user/month.

5. Salesforce

A CRM that packages self-service experiences, engagement, processes, automation and sales operations all-in-one AI-driven platform.

Key features: 

• Social media integration

• SLA management 

• Ticket collaboration

• Live chat support 

Pros: 

• Highly customizable  

• Scalable for complex sales processes

• Security

• AppExchange ecosystem ideal for large enterprises

Cons: 

• Cost

• Complexity

• Implementation time 

• Not user-friendly and budget-conscious for smaller teams

Price: Offers 5 pricing editions from $25 to $500/user/month with a free trial.

Optimize your sales management with Freshsales

A well-oiled sales force drives your business forward, right? But even the most talented salespeople need the right tools to reach their full potential. Here's where Freshsales CRM steps in. By harnessing the data-driven insights and automation capabilities of Freshsales, you can make informed decisions, prioritize effectively, and transform your sales team into a revenue-generating machine. You could be headed towards a future where your sales reps are laser-focused on qualified leads, armed with the tools and insights they need to close deals faster. Freshsales CRM can turn that vision into reality.

Freshsales offers an exceptional blend of user-friendliness, affordability, and powerful features designed to streamline your sales process. With features like AI-powered lead scoring, insightful sales analytics, and seamless third-party integrations, Freshsales empowers your team to focus on closing deals, not getting bogged down in administrative tasks.  Whether you're a startup looking for your first CRM or a growing business seeking to optimize your sales management, now is a good time to let Freshsales help you unlock the true potential of your sales force, sign up for a free trial and see for yourself.