4 Key Steps to Turn Your Sales Team into a Deal-Closing Juggernaut

Using WORKetc CRM for a more efficient, productive sales team.

Selling is simple.

You get a sales lead, you offer goods and services, the customer picks one and pays you.

But just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s easy.

The idea itself may be simple, but the actual execution is a difficult task requiring a lot of time, effort, and even a little luck.

And with a CRM, you can help make sure that the time and effort you put into every lead—whether it ends up in a sale or becomes a lost cause—isn’t wasted further down the line.

Here are four key steps on how to use WORKetc CRM to make your sales team a more efficient, more productive lead-closing machine.

1. Stop Wasting Time With Manual Data Entry

Sales people want to close leads, not waste time manually entering data.

Let’s say you just came from a successful booth exhibit at an industry trade show. You’ve got an entire spreadsheet of people who’ve shown great interest in your company’s services.

Instead of asking your sales team to enter that data manually into WORKetc (and incurring their lifelong resentment in the process), simply format the spreadsheet and import it directly into WORKetc to automatically turn all those signups into active leads.

You can even prepare a pre-formatted spreadsheet in advance to make the import process go even smoother.

You can also automate the lead capturing process by creating and adding a custom webform to your website.

Every time a prospective customer completes the webform, the data they enter can automatically be turned into a new lead, contact, or support case within WORKetc.

WORKetc CRM custom webform drag-and-drop interface.

With the WORKetc CRM Gmail add-on, you can also turn any email from a prospective client into a sales lead with one click. You can then attach the email itself to the new lead so whoever you assign the lead to can get an immediate overview of what the prospective client needs.

Even when you’re out of the office, you can still capture leads quickly and on the fly with the WORKetc CRM mobile apps for Android and iPhone. And if you have an Android device, you can also use the Gmail add-on with the Gmail mobile app.

2. Don’t Forget to Follow Up

Experience, instinct, and pure skill play a large part in how successful a sales person is. They know in their gut when a lead is close to becoming a sale.

It takes time to master or even just gain these skills, but with a CRM even a novice can just simply check the sales pipeline to get a quick view of which leads are close to being won and which ones need more nurturing.

And since WORKetc CRM lets you create the exact custom sales processes that your team needs, your sales team can also see what the next steps are for any lead at a glance.

Used with custom fields, which allow you to capture any information no matter how esoteric, your sales team immediately knows if a lead needs to be contacted and what they should be contacted about.

Let’s say your graphic design company’s sales process has a stage that requires prospective clients to fill out a full design brief webform.

You’ve also used custom fields to keep records of when the client was last contacted and when they should be contacted again for a follow-up regarding the current stage.

Any sales person can then check all leads at the “Design Brief” stage and see which leads need to be sent a follow-up email regarding the design brief.

You can even use custom fields to indicate your prospective client’s preferred means of communication, so your sales rep doesn’t waste time writing an email when the client wants to be contacted by phone.

Still need more? You can also set simple timed reminders and tasks to keep specific leads top of mind for your sales team.

3. Slice and Dice Your Data to Success

You can store a lot of information in WORKetc CRM. Every lead, project, support ticket, product sale, and invoice will automatically be attached to a customer’s contact record.

But it’s not enough just to have all this data in the system. You need to slice and dice all of this information to gain a better understanding of what your customers need and how you can give it to them.

This is where smartlists shine under the spotlight.

Smartlists let you create complex searches using multiple variables and filters. With a single click, you can then access a smartlist that constantly evolves as new data comes in.

Creating a WORKetc CRM smartlist.

Using smartlists, you can dive deep into your sales data and pinpoint bottlenecks, issues, and opportunities.

Let’s say you work for a water cooler company. You have a wide service area, you’ve divided it into three zones.

You create a smartlist that filters for all active and inactive leads in Zone 2 and notice that there are a lot of inquiries about a particular line of water cooler but only a few actual sales.

With a little digging, you discover that businesses in Zone 2 typically have higher electricity rates compared to those in Zones 1 and 3.

You can then instruct your sales and marketing teams to offer a similarly-featured but more energy efficient line of water coolers to leads that come in from Zone 2.

Smartlists also help you further refine your sales process and follow-up schedule.

Let’s say you’re working sales at an online marketing company. You need a list of your most important leads that you need to call for a follow up. You can then create a smartlist that filters for:

Once you’ve created this smartlist, you can then run it on demand to get a list of leads you need to focus on anytime you need it.

4. Prioritize Experiences, Not Transactions

Just because the Internet makes selling even without any real face-to-face interaction possible doesn’t mean you have to be impersonal.

In fact, marketing agency Bloomtools claims that 68% of customers are lost because of “perceived indifference” and not because of mistakes.

It’s clear that every customer wants to feel that the company they’re doing business with actually listens to and values them.

WORKetc CRM’s activity history plays a key part in helping you make your clients feel that way.

The WORKetc CRM activity history

The activity history, which shows up in every single contact on WORKetc CRM, is a running record that shows every single interaction you’ve ever had with any customer throughout all stages of the customer lifecycle.

Everything from the very first email they ever sent you to the most recent invoice you sent them is automatically recorded on a client’s contact record.

The activity history makes it easier for your sales team to form a more complete profile of your clients—what products and services they’ve purchased, what issues they’ve run into, how timely they are with payments and even their digital body language.

Say a current client gets in touch with your software development company and requests a quote for a new app that they want you to make.

The sales agent in charge of that lead does a quick scan of the client’s activity history and notices that they have an open support ticket for the last app you developed for them.

Fortunately enough, the internal discussions indicate that the problem has been identified and a fix is being rolled out.

The sales agent can then use this information to quickly mention the open ticket in his reply as well as the steps your dev team is taking to fix it.

Something as simple as this can show that your sales team takes an active interest in that client’s interactions with your company beyond the possible sale that’s currently on the table.

This helps the client feel that, to your company, he’s more than just another soulless transaction. Maybe it could even be the final push the client needs to sign a new deal with you.

What’s your hottest tip on nurturing and closing a sales lead? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments section.