Does a CRM get you better appointments?

I spent a very late night this week customizing a CRM, standardizing data, importing it and creating a new reports...in fact the whole process took about two weeks.  Somewhere around 2am I asked if it was really worth it.

The answer is yes.  Why?  Because in sales prospecting two elements have to be perfectly balanced:  efficiency and effectivenss.

You have to be efficient at making calls, printing letters and sending emails...the more efficient you are, the more prospects you contact and the more results you generate.  But you also have to be effective...contacting the right people, in the right industry and at the right size companies.

And the key to being both efficient and effective is having the right tools.  And that means the right tools which let you address the requests of prospects immediately and move on to the next.  In my experience, both small companies and large fail their staff in this area, but it's their obligation to provide the right tools if they are going to require results and compensate based on results (as they should!).

So yes, if you are a sales prospector/appointment setter, it's worth having a well-tuned CRM.  And if you are a manager or company owner, it's also in your best interests, so put in the time & money it takes to get it right!

We, too, are seeing signs the economy is stabilizing.

It's not a change or return to growth by any means, but we're seeing two signs businesses are at least realizing that life is continuing and they better do something about it.

First, it is getting easier for us to get leads and appointments for our clients. Of course, "easier" is a relative term...it's not like every person we call is excited to hear about the next new thing, but we're also not getting the total don't-talk-to-me shut down of the last two quarters.

Second, we're seeing an increased number of clients talking with us and signing up to ramp up their prospecting efforts through out call center. It's as if business owners are finally sticking their head up out of the foxhole and realizing if they don't grab some market share now, someone else will!

We're all getting used to the new reality. It's like my sister the rock-climber used to say, "Once you've had your first fall, you're never really quite as afraid of falling again."