Most businesses today are forced to live with “blind spots” in their businesses when it comes to tracking key customer activity. The problem is, there is simply too much information available from disconnected sources and pulling that information together into a single source that is useful is next to impossible.
Today’s businesses are often stymied because they cannot easily view invoices, contracts, inventory, fulfillment status, nor support/service issues. With less than the desired 360 degree view of a customer, sales reps can be unaware of both potential problems and potential opportunities.
The important intersection of sales teams, business owners/managers, and customers is central to optimizing sales effectiveness: real-time visibility into every aspect of the customer life cycle from initial lead through revenue transactions is vital. Having this information within one business solution improves productivity and efficiency across the entire sales and support teams. Through a single integrated system, the sales team and management can obtain more timely, accurate data while reducing the need to chase down information from disparate systems to re-enter in multiple applications.
To achieve this 360 degree visibility of the customer, an effective CRM solution must allow staff to accomplish each of the following critical steps without ever leaving the application:
See Entire Sales Transactions, Service, and Support History
CRM Software should provide your team with real-time visibility into the entire history of each customer. Open Contracts, Equipment on Rent, Invoice History, Open Receivables, etc.
Support Up-Sell and Cross-Sell campaigns
Based on the customer’s available transaction and support history, sales teams can create new campaigns and identify new sales opportunities, resulting in more effective renewals, up-sells, and cross-sells to their customers.
Check Inventory and Order/Contract Status
It is essential that your staff be able to check inventory and equipment availability from within the CRM System. This allows staff to properly set customer expectations without having to either make a bold guess or query other staff members.
Forecast Accurately
Sales Management should be able to quickly and easily compare forecasts to actuals, greatly increasing the reliability and accuracy of their forecast.
Create a Quote
A Salesperson must be able to automatically create a quote with a press of a button directly from the CRM System. The system should be able to auto-calculate the quote incorporating discounting and customer-specific pricing rules.
If you are missing this 360 degree view and you believe that your current accounting and rental management systems will not be able to provide a complete, integrated solution there is hope! Automated Rental Management (ARM) is the only solution on the market today that offers industry specific expertise, world class accounting, and the power of a 360 degree accounting system.
