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!

A secret prospecting opportunity

For a number of years I've followed prospecting results to see if there was a pattern to timing. You know what I mean...everyone says don't call Monday morning or Friday afternoon (bunk!), or don't call the day before a holiday. Is it really true, or is it just folklore so we can all squeeze in a long weekend?

Turns out it's not true. Regularly, we have some of our best results on Mondays and Fridays. More surprising is the consistently strong prospecting results we get between Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Sound strange? Maybe. But think about it...after Thanksgiving business travel and meetings slow down, budgets are set, new initiatives are waiting until January.

This all means your prospects are more available, which is exactly what you want when making a prospecting call. You don't want them to make a decision or even necessarily meet with you...you just want them to take your call and have an initial conversation to see if the topic is worth pursuing for a future in-person meeting.

So don't ignore Mondays and Friday, but especially don't ignore the two weeks after Thanksgiving. It will set you up for a very strong January!