I’ve been writing posts for my blog and my LinkedIn group for almost five years. Posts that have “CRM” in the title get the lowest readers but the most comments. This tells me something: sales people hate CRM systems and don’t want to read about them, and the ones that do have an opinion strong enough to share. It’s a polarizing topic – especially in the security industry where sales is not an entry level position, resulting in an average age a bit higher than other industries. We all know that older populations adopt new ideas and technology slower… hence the reluctance to use CRM systems.
So, I like to be realistic when helping my clients develop a sales process that included CRM data entry. The question that always has to be addressed: how often should my sales people update their info?
The best answer is whenever your boss needs it, but that’s not the point of the question.
In a perfect world, you should update your CRM system immediately. (Please read on … this is only my recommendation in the perfect world.) The percentage of info that you retain exponentially decreases after the next meeting. Think about it: you have sales meetings at 9:30, Noon, and 3:00. When you get back to your office at 4:30, will you really remember much about the 9:30 meeting? Regardless of the notes you took, the intangibles that can make or break a meeting will be forgotten and not documented.
In the real world (meaning that not every day runs perfectly), you should update your notes daily and your forecast or pipeline weekly – at least. With the mobile access to most CRM systems, this is very possible. (I’ll agree that the mobile apps are not the best, but there is no reason you can’t modify an opportunity or update an account’s status while in the lobby following the meeting.)
