Adopting a CRM is crucial for any sales team, but ensuring it is being used - and used effectively - is the biggest challenge for any organisation.
Most organisations appreciate the benefits of using a CRM successfully, but few do so. Some organisations don’t use a CRM because they’ve never been able to agree which one is right for them, and the process they should use with their chosen platform for business - and sales - success.
Even the most expensive CRM isn’t necessarily the ‘right one’, it’s the CRM that is most easily used and integrated into your team’s ethos and processes that is the ‘right one’.
We’re firm believers in that, especially having held meetings with organisations of various sizes and who use all different methods as a CRM, from the trusty spreadsheet to Salesforce, to Sage, to HubSpot. But the crucial factor is whether they truly use the software they profess and if they constantly review and improve their sales processes.
You’re using a spreadsheet solution
Yes, the trusty spreadsheet is truly a sign of ‘out with the old’, unfortunately. Without a truly wide-reaching, intuitive CRM solution, you’re not going to be easily, effectively and painlessly answer the common questions, that often have the biggest rewards.
A spreadsheet isn’t easy to manage and once it gets unruly with the masses of data it needs to store, it’s so much easier for your sales team to input data, but never be proactive, or even reactive, to the information in front of them.
A CRM will allow you to answer:
- When did we last reach out to our prospect?
- Did they open the email and did they click a link/download a file?
- How many times have they opened/clicked?
- Did we follow up with the last email they received?
HubSpot’s CRM is completely free and incorporates an activity log and speedy follow up tasks, ensuring you never ‘miss a trick’. Allow us to introduce you to HubSpot’s suite of free marketing, customer service and sales tools.
It doesn’t offer true website insights or you’re doing a lot of juggling
OK, if you’re not incorporating any digital marketing tactics, this might be irrelevant to you, but given you’re reading our blog, we reckon you at least have a website (even if you’re not 100% happy with it at the moment). You can make faster, stronger business decisions for realigning marketing and sales performance. A trusty CRM will show:
- How many blog posts they’ve read
- If/how many downloadable resources they’ve downloaded
- How many times they’ve opened emails
- When they were last on your website
This also ties into how sales and marketing teams often have to balance your time between platforms and tools, from social media tools to email marketing platforms, to your website itself, before we even venture into sales tools. If you want to pull your team’s knowledge and data into one cohesive solution, HubSpot offers free marketing, CRM and sales tools, as well as different increments to suit every budget.
HubSpot’s free suite of tools including its free CRM provides data on your contacts’ behaviour on your website, with emails and more, thanks to clever cookie tracking (it also offers GDPR provision and considerations too!).
It doesn’t give obvious, actionable results
Your CRMs will store valuable data, but because of the way this data is presented, or because your team don’t know how to make the most of data, or have the time to dig deep, these insights can be missed.
A successful CRM should be able to easily reveal:
- How much revenue your sales team should be bringing in at end of month
- How many stalled deals are in the pipeline
- How many proposals have yet to be signed off
- Which activities are slowing down your sales team
By having answers to these questions you should be able to support your sales team to implement a more effective, efficient sales process, as well as understanding how you can improve everything from their actual workload, to close rates.
Your HubSpot dashboard and reporting tools will allow you to access suggestions for how to do just this for your team.
If you want to explore HubSpot and are worried about the expense, we recommend organisations, particularly SMEs get started by integrating the free marketing and sales tools, such as the CRM. Get support with our in-house HubSpot specialists who will help you implement such options without conflict, and as painlessly as possible! Call Johnny Woods, our director, on 01325 778 786 or email hello@thriveability.co.uk to discuss integration.
