How CRM applications increasing sales (Part 1)

The critical element to introducing an appropriate CRM solution stems from identification of the pain currently being experienced by the sales people in your organization. For the purpose of this discussion, let's define pain two ways: 1. as a process or regular encounter which causes excess work for the sales person and 2. The ramifications for another employee or department which stems from a process or act performed by a sales person.
In both cases, the pain causes unnecessary expenses and lost productivity for the organization and the employees involved.
Pain can manifest itself in a variety of ways during the normal work day of typical sales professional. Let's examine some common pain associated with the sales role and how CRM can help solve these problems
- Accountability problem
- Lead details and follow up Problem
- Creating Quotes and Proposals Problem
- Prioritization Problem
- Getting Qualified Leads Problem
- Internal communications Problem

All of these CRM application functions will help sales people get leads faster and react to them immediately. But more importantly, it automates the lead capture process using the Internet in the efforts to increase lead generation and distribute those leads appropriately.
This same situation can apply to targeted marketing and sales initiatives. A sales person or marketing professional could pull reports on various activities or product purchase history of any individual or group of customers within the CRM system. Once this report is created, the salesperson targets those customers which have purchased a particular product or service and cross-sell a related product. The historical information for each customer would be readily available to help the sales person during the sales process. CRM gives different people within different departments the ability to view customer information and historical data on the fly. It's a valuable resource which helps improve internal communications and promotes consistent customer interaction.