What does characterize a good salesperson? Motivating, convincing, communicative – these are certainly all qualities that characterize a good salesperson. With these talents, nothing should stop a successful turnover. But if it were not for those unloved administrative tasks...
Entering contact data manually
The phone rings incessantly, the email inbox bursts at the seams and the next sales meeting are just around the corner: This is certainly the daily routine of many sales employees. And then do they also have to enter master data and all customer-relevant information? There is simply no time for that between all the calls and meetings. As a result, a business card is quickly pocketed or the contact data is noted down on paper, which then possibly disappears in some drawer.
Keeping contact data up to date
Entering contact data is one thing but keeping it up to date is quite another. Data changes at any time: contact persons change their position or maybe even the company. Of course, the sales manager would like to be aware of this. Nevertheless, updating data remains an unpleasant task, even though the research effort caused by obsolete or incorrect contact data leads to a much greater loss of time than the actual maintenance of contact data!
Researching leads
Despite all efforts, the sales pipeline remains empty? In this case, the sales employee must search for leads or potential new customers by himself. It is easy to find a company address and the telephone number of the head office, but it is more difficult to find the right contact person. Often, the only option is to go through the company's head office in the hope of being put through to the right person. This not only costs a lot of time but also does not generate any direct sales at first!
Enriching leads
Many salespeople are certainly familiar with this as well. The marketing team has successfully run campaigns and generated numerous leads. But unfortunately, important contact data such as the direct extension of the contact person or the business email address is still missing. To effectively start the sales meeting, it is essential to have correct contact data. Thus, these must be laboriously researched – and the time for the actual sales process continues to shrink.
Using a CRM system
Many companies rely on a central CRM system in which all contact data is managed. But not every sales employee enjoys using the CRM: a confusing interface, complex processes and numerous functions do not exactly increase motivation or even lead to a boycott of the CRM system! As a result, contact data is either still recorded on paper or stored in Outlook – something that not every colleague has access to in the event of an absence.
Organizing meetings and follow-ups
Organization and structure are not always among the top characteristics of a salesperson. Sometimes the one or other appointment or deadline can get mixed up. Even the callback requested by the customer may take place later because the contact details or the information noted down during the last meeting can no longer be found...
Conclusion
Salespeople are slowed down by many manual tasks because they have less time for customer meetings, take longer to close sales and thus lose out on their commission.
In an article published on Forbes.com, salespeople spend as much as 64.8% of their working time on administrative tasks and cannot make use of them in a way that is relevant to sales!
Counteract this trend and ensure that your staff does not have to bother with administrative tasks. By using snapADDY DataQuality, the sales team has more time for their customers again, because contact data is digitally captured and automatically updated, for example, by reading out email signatures. With just one click, new contact data can be transferred and assigned to an existing record in the CRM system. If the contact does not yet exist, it is automatically created. Furthermore, snapADDY DataQuality checks the CRM system in real time for avoiding possible duplicates. As a result, manual data entry is a thing of the past, all contact data is always up to date, and working with the CRM system is a pleasure again!
If contact data is incomplete or incorrect, snapADDY DataQuality makes it easy to enrich data records and reduce manual research time many times over. From now on, nothing stands in the way of selling with the time and motivation gained! After all, contact data is silver, and correct and complete contact data is gold!