3 min read
Hi, I’m Julien Azarian. I’m from France and I manage sales for ForceManager in Northern Spain. I’ve been working in sales for the past 10 years, using every type of CRM – some customised, others more traditional models.
Throughout my professional career I’d considered the CRM more as a hindrance than a help. I’ve never seen the point of “reporting for reporting’s sake”. My colleagues and I used to spend two hours every Friday afternoon writing up what we’d done over the previous days.
Let’s be honest, who remembers at the end of the week what was said at the sales meeting the Monday before? How accurate can this type of reporting actually be? We had to do it, but I’m personally convinced that my sales directors never read those reports – it was far too much information to digest.
I also noticed that the worse the salesperson’s week, the more they reported, as if it would help them feel better about their work, or justify themselves in some way. On the other hand those who’d closed a lot of sales reported very little, probably because they felt bolstered by their excellent sales figures.
The CRMs themselves were complex and not very user-friendly. It was obvious they’d been designed by technical minds – just creating an opportunity was a challenge. They had limited mobility and only worked when connected to the internet, which meant I had to go back to the office to carry out my reporting, or do it at home.
I also remember the interminable sales meetings when we went over the week’s activities. The sales director had very little objective information or clear data. And yet this was when we needed visibility on what we’d already done, or were going to do the following week.
The salespeople who had done well were obviously proud and praised for their work, while the others tried to go unnoticed and dreaded their turn. Today the pressure to sell and the need for results is palpable in all companies, but for me this type of management encourages a destructive competitiveness between salespeople, as well as wasting their time.
The turning point? The advent of the mobile CRM.
A little over two years ago someone told me about an innovative solution called ForceManager. The first time I saw it I was really impressed, so much so that I wanted to market it myself. It was simple and 100% user-friendly, designed for total mobility and autonomy. ForceManager completely changed my perception of inverse reporting, as it was clear how it could radically transform the efficiency of sales teams.
A short time later I joined ForceManager and began selling something I really believed in – essential for any self-respecting salesperson. All the problems I’ve outlined above disappeared with ForceManager’s solution. It was as if someone had perfectly understood my needs – and very probably those of millions of other salespeople and sales managers.
I think the keyword here is “help”. ForceManager is a mobile CRM that helps the salesperson work in a much more agile way, with greater efficiency – and gives the sales director more insight into the business, and its salespeople.
The 6 benefits of working with the ForceManager solution:
AUTONOMY AND PEACE OF MIND FOR THE SALES TEAM
As the application automatically records all your interaction with the market, you don’t waste time reporting your activity or meeting every week with your sales director. You can focus on what you really enjoy, which is selling and communicating with clients and prospects. At the end of the week it’s the system that generates your weekly activity report – and not the other way round. It’s a paradigm change that may be difficult to grasp, but that’s incredibly useful and necessary.
VALUABLE INFORMATION YOU CAN REALLY WORK WITH
Activity reports help you understand your performance and identify how to improve it. The added value of this type of solution lies in the metrics it provides. For example, it tells you:
A CLEAR STRATEGY FOR EFFECTIVE COACHING
This is something salespeople are not usually aware of. If you see your sales falling, the data provided by the system will help you understand why. You can then adapt your strategy depending on your sales results. From the sales management point of view, this type of information is pure gold – they can learn from the success of one or more salespeople and replicate it to the whole team.
AN EXCELLENT SWOT ANALYSIS – IN REAL TIME
The automatic recording – in real time – of your sales impacts with customers or prospects (calls, emails or sales visits) helps you improve your monitoring as you can quickly consult all previous interaction with your accounts. But above all, being responsible for an account you can see the interaction between that customer and other people in your company. For example, if you see that your customer relations or after-sales team is looking after your client you can relax – if they’re not, you can sound the alarm and let your colleagues know.
OPTIMISING THE SALES ROUTE
The geolocation of companies and the maps system ForceManager provides are also extremely useful. You can filter companies by type, size and location, and make the most of your sales route.
EASY ACCESS
Last but not least, you have instant access to any kind of document within the application’s database. The offline mode means you can also work in areas with no internet connection.
For me ForceManager is a necessary tool for any company that wants to optimise its sales activity and focus on data-driven management. As an end-user and salesperson, I can confirm it’s a fantastic solution that enables you to work in a more efficient, autonomous… and fulfilling way.
