What tools/function helps make your reps successful, drives business & increase revenue?
Comparative reporting by product and gainers and losers is one of the most important tools.Sales reps can use them to compare booking current ads to last year’s sales, as they are selling a current product, or look at previous year’s sales to see who they can re-solicit that they may have not sold or lost last year or in previous years. Managers use comparative reports to help determine goals. Often sales reps and sales managers use these tools together to set their goals.
The reps like the pipeline report to see their goals versus actuals. Now that last year’s sales are auto populated in the pipeline, they like to see those compared to their actuals and goals.
The pipeline helps them look ahead as some months fluctuate based on products sold and seasonal businesses. For example, a rep was going on vacation and wanted to sell to all her advertisers for the two weeks she was going to be gone. She used the gauge to track her sales as she booked ads to ensure she had reached her goals before she left for vacation.
Logging activities are very important when there is a territory dispute. It also ensures reps are connecting with customers on a regular basis.
What have you done to keep your reps engaged with Brainworks CRM? We heard about your reward system for your sales reps who fully engage in the CRM. Can you tell us more about that and why it’s been a success?
Flash pop-up contests are our newest reward system for our sales reps. Reps are recognized for the work they are currently doing.
Rewards like personalized prizes, gift cards are given to the reps with the most or best of something. For example, the most calls scheduled, most ads booked through Brainworks CRM, most opportunities created, most contacts entered, etc.
Inside Sales Senior Account Executive, Norma Carstensen shared, “Now that ad reps can schedule their own ads through the Brainworks CRM system, it has freed up 10-15 hours of my time per week, which allows me to work on other revenue generating projects.”
Your sales reps are using the Brainworks CRM on a constant basis – how is it helping them and how are they relying on it?
They continuously run the comparative and pipeline to track their actual sales as they are selling. They use it as a resource for them to measure their current sales.
Our sales reps have to report losses and what they are doing to make up for those losses. The sales rep uses the “Gains and Losses” widget to analyze accounts that are up or down and where they have opportunity to grow business and make up for any losses.
CRM Usage for sales reps is huge at APG and yet sales reps for other media companies DON’T utilize their CRM systems – what is your secret?
The people are the secret and having good implementation teams. A designated team for setting the CRM vision when it is deployed is critical. Providing ongoing support and training to ensure the reps are engaged with the CRM is very important.
Let the sales reps drive the momentum! The sales reps that wanted to use it were trained first as super users and then they spread the word.
The CRM tools are there to help them do their job better. For example, email blasts are important. Reps want to enter data that will be useful for them, so later they are able to market to their customers. Keeping unsubscribe rates really low is important, so they need to market to the right audience. The Brainworks CRM specifically does that for them. We have 6 regions in Minneapolis/St. Paul that contain over 40 publications. Brainworks has been a key part of keeping territories clean, which allows for accurate tracking and development of accounts.