10 CRM Functions That Advance Sales In Corona Times
Sales employees should do one thing above all else: advise customers and sell goods or services – whether on-site or from their home office. However, your everyday life usually looks different. You spend a lot of time looking for customer records and compiling meeting reports or expense reports. Mobile sales solutions integrated into an ERP system promise a remedy here. ProALPHA has listed the ten most essential functions that should not be missing today.
The pandemic abruptly shifted many sales activities to the home office. Most companies have now come to terms with the new normal: According to a study by management consultancy McKinsey, at the beginning of April, 50 percent still found working with less direct customer contact to be very or relatively inefficient. In August 2020, it was only 32 percent. B2B customers in Germany think the current situation is great: They don’t want to change anything about the existing communication channels with their suppliers, according to the study.
The rapidly developing mobile possibilities in the CRM area play into the cards for both sides: Mobile applications also ensure better customer service in addition to a consistent sales process. The ERP manufacturer proALPHA reveals the ten functions that advance sales today:
Query Of Availabilities
Is the desired number of products in stock? How long is the waiting time for a particular variant? Salespeople shine with excellent service and competence when answering customer questions immediately and promising binding delivery dates. To do this, they need a mobile CRM with direct access to the ERP system, the current inventory, and other relevant values from production planning.
Direct Receipt Creation – From The Offer To The Order
The highlights of mobile work are undoubtedly the binding offer and the direct order entry, along with a legally valid signature. The customer receives the desired goods faster. The order data can be recorded both in online mode and offline, without an Internet connection. Because the data does not first have to be sent to the head office by fax, e-mail, or telephone and then manually typed in again, the lead time for production, assembly, or shipping is shortened by a day or even more. The fast, fully digital process also minimizes the risk of errors.
The Systematic History Of All Activities
Templates for structured visit and interview reports help to record requirements and agreements as meaningful as possible. After all, they serve as a reminder and a reference, for example, for assembly. Even if the customer advisor changes, the new colleague must know what has “happened” in the past and what orders and sales a customer has placed so far. He calls up all relevant data from the ERP system. In this way, he can competently pick up on his previous work on the start date.
Manage Contacts And Appointments Efficiently
Mobile CRM not only strengthens the relationship with the customer. It also ensures increased efficiency internally, for example, through the integrated management of appointments, tasks, and reminders. To work efficiently with calendars, customers, and contact data, synchronization with Exchange should, of course, not be missing.
Fact-Based Sales Strategy
It is also helpful if the sales department can view meaningful, graphically prepared statistics, for example, on the sales history in a year-on-year comparison. From this, potentials and sales opportunities can be derived more profoundly than with an eye times Pi.
Project Management For Sales
The more complex a sales project, the more critical it is that all notes, tasks, visits, memos, offers, orders, and statistics are bundled in one place. This not only makes daily doing things much more accessible. It also allows solid sales control. If an additional opportunity arises in the deadline, creating a new sales project on the move must be quick and easy.
Route And Tour Planning
Even if the number of customer visits has decreased significantly during the pandemic, a sales representative’s time in the field is precious. A sensible visit planning for an efficient route is, therefore, the be-all and end-all right now. It is particularly time-saving to display all contacts in the immediate vicinity on a map. In this way, the course of a visit can be designed in a meaningful way.
Take Care Of The Paperwork From Anywhere
There are still administrative tasks for many sales representatives in the evening, especially the interview reports and travel expenses. If receipts can be recorded and billed on the move, this noticeably relieves the after-work hours. It also speeds up approvals and reimbursements – to the delight of everyone involved.
Comprehensive Research Options
A comprehensive search is at the heart of a user-friendly interface. Researching a company’s metadata is just as part of this as searching for freely chosen keywords.
Support Of Complex And International Organizations
Large and international sales organizations have additional requirements for a mobile CRM. For example, not everyone is allowed to see and change all data. Therefore, multi-level rights and role management are just as necessary as the support of various national languages. Companies planning to introduce a mobile CRM solution should also ensure that the solution used can be set up for an unlimited number of sales employees. It must also run platform-independently on Android, iOS, or Microsoft devices and laptops and smartphones and tablets.
A mobile CRM is an essential component in the digital transformation of a company. The associated plus in efficiency naturally benefits sales first and foremost. But that’s not all. Because all employees who work with information from sales can find all the necessary data and documents always up-to-date and directly in their work context – be it in the ERP system or other downstream applications.
Also Read: Project Management: The 5 Most Important Factors For Project Success
