For as long as we have had the CRM, salespeople have complained about it being "Big Brother," like sales managers watching them—as if they have the time. Let me provide you with a better way to think about your sales relationship management. Instead of worrying that your sales managers are watching you, make your CRM your own.
Documenting Sales Conversations and Stakeholder Insights
The best way to think about the CRM is that it documents your relationships with your contacts and other stakeholders you will need to work with. You want to document your meetings: who said what, who was not paying attention, who was asking tough questions, and the leader who excuses themselves for another meeting.
You should take careful notes, as you may only have one opportunity to capture the sales insights your contacts share with you and their stakeholders who are also asking questions while answering yours. The more you are able to document your sales conversation, the better. This is something that is now being done by sales enablement technologies that can not only document the conversation but tell you who said what and identify other people who added more context to the sales conversation.
Centralizing Data: From Legal Pads to HubSpot
You should make certain your notes find their way into your CRM software, where they belong, instead of being on a legal pad that might be thrown out by accident. At some point, you are going to wish you had your notes from your meetings, phone calls, and the emails your contacts sent you to make certain you got the details.
Protecting High-Value Client Relationships
Later, someone will reach out to you to ask for the notes of the conversation with a big sales client that you are pursuing—the one that spends millions of dollars annually. Your CRM is the safest place for these notes and their insights. Your contacts will think you are all buttoned-up because you remember your conversations.
If it has value in the future, you want to know that it is safe in your CRM. Even if you don't know for certain that you will need it, your CRM has more than enough space to include your notes. It is better to document it in your CRM than on a scrap of paper that might disappear. I use HubSpot, but you can use the CRM that your company provides you and your team.
