How Do You Improve CRM Use Compliance with Your Sales Team? 

If sales are flat, your company may want to implement a solution to upgrade your team’s approach to gaining new customers or upselling current ones. Sometimes, there’s a gap that need not exist between available tools and a mindset. 

The Gap 

The main reason salespeople do not use CRM (customer relationship manager) software combined with pricing software is because they approach their jobs from a people angle, not an analytical or data angle. Salespeople are people-oriented, not data- or analysis-oriented. If a person prefers working with data, machines, or other more neutral things s/he is not going to enjoy sales. On the other hand, a great communicator and lover of people and their relationships very often makes a good salesperson. 

It’s All About the Interpersonal Relationship

The first words out of a salesperson’s mouth when s/he meets with a customer is likely to be: “How’s the family?” compared to “How can we improve inventory levels?” With a new prospect, a salesperson is likely to talk about the weather or last night’s game as opposed to immediately talking about business.  

When interacting on a personal level, the main objective is to develop a rapport with the customer or prospect, not necessarily to sell, at least in the beginning. This makes sense because the number one job of a salesperson is to develop trust with people and instill confidence in them. Without trust and confidence, no relationship exists. (Some business relationships may exist without trust and confidence, but, in general, these are the building blocks of a successful association and eventually to doing business with a company or an individual.) 

A Symbiotic Relationship – Software and Human

Using CRM and pricing software and building and maintaining relationships from a personal standpoint are not mutually exclusive. Far from it. They are, in fact, symbiotic: each can help the other toward achieving the best relationship between the two human parties, the salesperson and the customer.  

CRM Attributes 

Businesses use CRM software to manage their company’s interactions with existing and potential customers, the objective being to learn about customers and how to best meet their needs. The software employs data mining and organizing to make this happen. It analyses data about a customer’s relationship with the enterprise, including basic information such as what the customer buys from the company, how long they have been a customer, when they last purchased items, etc. The software gathers information from a wide range of areas. These include: 

• The company’s website 

• Phone and email contacts 
• Live chats 
• Print and mailing materials 
• Social media 

The Goal of CRM 

The main goal of using CRM software is to allow companies to automate and integrate the sales force, the marketing area, and customer services. The software provides a dashboard that shows these three areas in an overall view for each customer. It includes basic contact information, previous sales, marketing endeavors, current sales, and other items with the objective being to provide a complete summary of the relationship between the company and the customer. The software works with all stages of the sales sequence. It starts with the initial contact and moves through the time when a prospect becomes a customer. The software applies sales promotion analysis and automatically tracks the customer’s account history in an effort toward up- and cross-selling. It coordinates sales, call centers, marketing, and retail centers and helps prevent duplicate efforts on the part of the customer and the salesperson while it keeps track of all contacts and follow-up contacts.  

Pricing Software 

Pricefx is ISO certified and a proven global leader in creating and implementing pricing software solutions for large, medium-sized, and small companies. The software is cloud-native. This means it was originally built in and for the cloud so there’s no add-ons or adapting different versions to a previously-written and installed package. Cloud-based Pricefx provides immediate updates and improvements, in addition to current security changes. Installation is fast and straightforward after initial planning and strategy meetings.  

Our software is easy to learn in both B2B and B2C scenarios. Pricefx provides: 

• an algorithm-based function of analytics 

• quoting functions  
• price setting 
• promotion setting and tracking  
• rebate and claim management  
• price optimization 

• market simulations  

All in all, it is a complete package that we maintain with you after installation. Plus, we continue working with your company as future needs develop.  

Resistance, Change, and Opportunity 

With all of this information, data, and analyses from CRM and pricing software, what salesperson wouldn’t want to use them? The answer: the more “traditional” salespeople, those for whom personal, one-to-one relationships are paramount. However, there’s no need to change from a people person to an analyst. Salespeople can use the information these two softwares provide to become more of a people person.  

Picture a scenario where you have a good relationship and you are also armed with pertinent information about his or her business. When you are interacting with your customer and, for example, you start talking about the customer’s past performance with a product, bad or good, s/he has a sense that you are intimately familiar with the company. When you show that you know about upcoming sales, sale prices, and specials, your customer will be happily surprised. Anytime you can prove you have knowledge of the customer’s products, needs, and prospects, s/he is more willing to establish a close relationship with your company and its products or services.  

When a salesperson uses CRM and pricing software, s/he is not depending totally on analytics, data, and statistics but rather incorporating them into an overall relationship with the customer. You present to the customer a great blend of the human approach and the science of pricing solutions.  

Think what an advantage you have as a salesperson if you know exactly what the current prices are, if you know about rebates, if you know when upcoming sales are happening, and if you can inform your customer when, how, and why your company offers refunds. With Pricefx, this information is always available so you don’t have to defer or change the subject if you don’t know answers. Instead of saying, “I’ll get back to you,” you become the answer person. This is a big confidence and trust builder.   

As a model for success in sales, the team works together to instill confidence and trust in prospects and customers. This means being human, honest, open, and sincerely friendly to make the work environment a place where both you and your customer want to be. Adding the knowledge and information that CRM and pricing software provides is an additional “plus” that will make your team’s efforts ever-more successful.