Information, the secret treasure of sales.

Think about a consultation in which you, as a purchaser, were positively impressed: Presumably, for every meeting, the salesperson had all the information from the previous time of contact on hand and knows your order history. You received documents you requested immediately and agreed-upon callback deadlines were always met punctually. Maybe even years after the first purchase you still receive a nice birthday greeting or - if you become a VIP customer - even invitations to football matches of your favourite team. 

Sales and marketing is the key to success

Your decision to buy comes easily with this particular salesperson, however the reality is, is that sales do not always flow so professionally in all businesses  - every one of us has their fair share  of negative examples to tell. Yet new business is a decisive factor for the healthy development of the company: companies that neglect their customer acquisition lose between 15 to 35 percent of their customer base every year.

To make matters worse, in the internet age classic acquisition has changed. Prospective customers research in advance so that at the time of first contact the investment decision is already well advanced. And speed is becoming increasingly important: Up to 50 percent of all contracts go to the provider with the fastest response time.

Is that then worse than before? Not necessarily, just different. Within the new buyer mentality also lies an opportunity because, at least for warm acquisition, the interested parties with a very high willingness to buy can be roped in. Suppliers who can take advantage of this involvement, who get in touch quickly and at eye level, clearly have a head start in the acquisition.

And how do Sales Managers reach „at eye level“?

Sales people who still work with notes or Excel lists are giving away potential. In addition to the response time to requests, increasingly the quality of data which sales employees can access counts. In short, time is money; and information is gold. With a modern CRM system you can collect, manage, sort and prioritise all of your prospective contacts with a few clicks.

What a CRM should be able to do

• Master data management of prospective customers
• Contact data management of all persons who play a role in the context of a prospective
• Individual indexing for easy retrieving and selecting of selected target groups
• Management of "soft" factors that belong to classic relationship management (birthday,hobbies, personal preferences, etc.)
• Contact history (complete chronology of all sales activities) with access to email and documents such as offers
• Resubmission lists & appointment management
• Selection options for inventive marketing campaigns
• Forecast / analysis of sales opportunities
• Statistics

Your sales representative can fully prepare for consultations, not miss any appointments, have all the necessary data and documents to hand at all times and so make a positive impression - the best way to win that next new customer.

And how do you deal with your leads? We would be delighted to hear about your experience with using a CMS for acquiring new customers!