Pat Helmers of the Sales Babble Podcast recently sat down with Craig Klein, CEO of SalesNexus to discuss the challenges of lead follow up and How to Automate Follow Up With A CRM
In this episode, Craig and Pat chat about the issues sellers and sales managers face nurturing leads.
They then go into problem solving mode and discuss strategies and tactics that can be used to leverage the power of a CRM.
The key is to automate follow up with a set and forget solution, like a CRM.
CRM Conundrum
The biggest failure in sales is follow up. On average sellers follow up twice when they need to follow up at least 8 times.
What are some of the characteristics to automate follow up?
- Lead nurture is a necessity for follow up. Automating the process demands having a CRM.
- Use a drip campaign for the majority of leads who never get back to you.
- Follow up emails should not be salesy. Instead they should share free advice similar to blog posts.
- Simple little emails is the focus to automate Follow Up
KPIs Matter
We talked at length on what data to collect and when. The most important metrics are KPIs, Key Performance Indicators:
- Every business is different. Don’t take the metrics out of the box, focus on data that make sense for you.
- Number of calls, number of new leads are a good place to start.
- Focus on little details e.g seller collected 100 qualified leads. But ask the question, is the target industry correct? Is the size of organization correct?
CRM Value to Manager and Seller
Configure the CRM in a way that adds value to both seller and sales manager. Make the CRM the source of all leads. Don’t forward the leads via email. The desire for new leads will keep sellers in the CRM. Inconsistency shows up when leads arrive all over the place. It’s a killer when you hope to automate follow up.
We thought you’d enjoy this. Give it a listen and let us know what you think!