What to look for in a productivity CRM?
Here are five essential hacks that a CRM system must have to improve your sales team’s productivity.
Less data entry, more automations
Data entry defeats the purpose of your CRM tool. But ironically, this is still a basic requirement today because plenty of CRMs don’t fulfill this capability for sales teams. Why should CRM help you avoid data entry—because 29% of salespeople spend an hour or more on data entry every day (Source: State of Inbound 2018). A good CRM software allows you to automate some of your daily tasks, and the best one will let you automate even 95% of sales tasks.
Built-in email and phone
Email and phone are the most used methods of communication for sales teams. Imagine going in and out of your CRM frequently to access your emails. Quite the time killer. Now imagine the same when you need to call prospects. It’s undoubtedly the most ineffective way for teams to operate on a daily basis. Find a CRM that comes with the two most basic functions so you don’t have to work outside of your sales tool.
Mobile app
Mobile access to a CRM increases sales force productivity by an average of 14.6% (Source: Nucleus). That’s reason enough to pick a CRM that’s compatible with mobile to enable your team to sell anywhere, anytime. Most CRMs come with a mobile app. The smart choice is not to pick any mobile CRM but choose one that enables you to work smarter and faster in the palm of your hand.
Reporting
Without reports, businesses have no frame of reference to make decisions and take appropriate actions. Although buyers look at this feature as solvable by third-party tools, the grunt work—export data, filter data, create charts, share with team—can take up hours of your time. It’s far easier and effective to have the CRM create your business reports. The best ones even offer a live dashboard to view your reports right off the bat.
Visual pipeline
Sales, opportunities, deals. Whatever you want to call it, that’s what it all comes down to. CRM software give sales reps a systematic approach to close deals. Modern systems allow you to customize the stages in your sales pipeline to align with your sales process. Data accessibility for sales teams shortens the sales cycle by 8-14% (Source: Nucleus). And the best CRM offers the benefit of visualizing deals along with the capability to access information directly from the pipeline view.
If your CRM enables you to achieve all of this without having to integrate with other systems, and without burning a hole in your pocket, then you’re good to go. But if it doesn’t, here is a starting point.
Sales reps don’t need multiple tools. What they need is a CRM software that understands their asks and provides solutions—within the tool.