More and more businesses implement CRM (Contact Relationship Management) systems into their daily workflows. Why? Because it’s incredibly effective.
A CRM platform increases sales by up to 29%, boosts sales productivity by up to 34%, and improves sales forecast accuracy by 42%, a Salesforce study revealed.
The question is how to use a CRM platform to unlock its full potential and boost revenue.
After all, you want to you receive your ROI after implementing a CRM and hit your sales targets. Today, you will learn how to do it.
Lucas Perret, the sales operations manager at lemlist, shared proven and effective CRM tips, so get ready to start implementing them right now.
Lucas Perret streamlines revenue processes and drives growth with tech and workflow automation on a daily basis, so he knows the ins and outs of sales operations tools, including CRM.
Lucas shared his insider advice on implementing, operating, and managing CRM systems to get the most out of them.
His CRM tips are so simple and practical that any business can start using them right now and see the benefits on the go. Let's buckle up.
Lucas: CRM Lead Statuses and Lead Lifecycles are critical to visualizing your sales activities. They will help your team better collaborate on each lead, know what to do at what steps, and analyze your reporting activity better. So, I really advise people to spend time on this as early as possible because it will help them measure their sales performance more easily.
With it, You’ll be able to get metrics such as:
At the end, you’ll know how many leads you should contact to get one customer, and this will help you better organize your activities and optimize the whole process. With workflow automation on your CRM, you can automate lead statuses to save a lot of time from your sales time and measure your activities more accurately. For instance:
This kind of automation is key in a CRM, and I really encourage people to define them very early in their CRM journey.
Lucas: CRM is one of the most important tools in your sales team, and they’ll spend a lot of time using it. So don’t overlook UX and ease of use. CRM is very useful for C-level and managers to follow sales activities. But first, it should be a tool that helps your sales team perform better.
My advice is to:
Lucas: CRM is great at tracking a sales opportunity, but it won’t help your sales team get great results in prospection, even if they offer some features.
For instance, Hubspot offers a sales engagement solution to their suite. Even if the solution is very convenient, it won’t help your sales team get the best results. For instance, they won’t help you achieve good deliverability (many users reported issues in that domain).
Instead, I suggest you use the best-of-breed approach, where you use your CRM for sales opportunity management and a sales engagement platform like lemlist for your prospecting activities.
To make it work, always check integrations between your tools and try to choose the most flexible tools regarding this criteria.
Lucas: At lemlist, we use the company domain as an ID to identify companies within our CRM.
It helps us prevent duplicates when we add data to our CRM.
Since ID is unique, you can only have 1 entry with a value. Which will help you avoid duplicate in your CRM.
However you need to specify a format to avoid to have 2 entries for the same companies, like “lemlist.com” and “https://www.lemlist.com”.
My advice is to:
Lucas: Spend time setting your CRM so that all your emails, LinkedIn messages, and meetings are logged into the CRM.
This way, when you go back to specific records after a long time, you’ll have a complete overview of what happened with your lead.
It’s better to have too many logs than not enough since you can filter them from your views if necessary.
So try to integrate:
There are five the most effective CRM tips shared by the sales operations expert.
First, you set up and automate lead processes in your CRM to track sales performance accurately.
Second, you must ensure the CRM is user-friendly for your sales team, involving them in decisions related to its use.
Third, combine your CRM with specialized tools for better efficiency and ensure they integrate well.
Fourth, use a standard format for entering company information to avoid duplicates.
Lastly, all interactions with leads in the CRM must be logged for a complete history. These steps will make your CRM a more effective tool for increasing sales.
G2 Rating | Price | Best for | Standout feature | Con | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.9 star star star star star | $30/mo $75/mo $2,999/mo | Large, distributed sales teams | AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs | Lack of tracking system | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Sales operations and finance teams | Powerful configurability | Limited training resources and complex to navigate | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Mid-market and enterprise businesses | Comprehensive incentive management | Potentially high cost and steep learning curve | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $15/user/mo $40/user/mo Enterprise: custom price | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes | Steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Collaborative teams | Connected planning | Complexity and steep learning curve | |
4.6 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with complex sales structures | Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy | Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts | Simplicity and ease of use | Lack of features like redirection | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | $30/user/mo $35/user/mo Custom: upon request | Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software | Ease of use and adoption | Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs | |
4.8 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights | A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility | Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow | |
4.9 star star star star star | $30/user/mo $50/user/mo | Smaller sales teams | Powerful automation | Lesser user base and average user interface | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Not publicly available | Companies with scalable needs | Automated Commission Calculations | Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app |
PRM Tool | Rating | Feature | Pro | Con | Mobile App | Integrations | Free Plan | Pricing |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.65 star star star star star-half | Org-wide alignment | User-friendly layout and database | Suboptimal as a personal CRM | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-check | Team: $20/month Business: $45/month | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Social Media Integration | Easy contact data collection | No marketing/sales features | square-check | Lack of tracking system | square-xmark 7-day trial | $12/month | |
4.75 star star star star star-half | Block Functions | High customization capability | Not a dedicated CRM | square-check | Limited | square-check | Plus: €7.50/month Business: €14/month | |
N/A | Open-source | Open-source flexibility | Requires extensive manual input | square-xmark | Limited | square-check Self-hosted | $9/month or $90/year | |
3.1 star star star | Simple iOS app | Ideal for non-tech-savvy users | iPhone only | square-check iOS only | Limited | square-xmark 1-month trial | $1.49/month or $14.99/month | |
3.6 star star star star-half | Smart Contact Management | Feature-rich and flexible | Reported bugs | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 7-day trial | Premium: $13.99/month Teams: $17.99/month | |
4.4 star star star star star-half | Customizable Interface | Customizable for teamwork | Pricey for personal use | square-check | Rich | square-xmark | Standard: $24/member Premium: $39/member | |
4.7 star star star star star-half | Integrated Calling | Integrated Calling | Too sales-oriented & pricey | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | Startup: $59/user/month Professional: $329/user/month | |
4.8 star star star star star | Business Card Scanning | Business Card Scanning | Mobile only | square-check | Limited | square-check | $9.99/month | |
4.45 star star star star star-half | 160+ app integrations | Comprehensive integrations | No free app version | square-check | Rich | square-xmark 14-day trial | $29.90/month or $24.90/month (billed annually) |
Capterra Rating | Free Trial | Free Plan | Starting Price (excluding the free plan) | Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan) | Best for | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-check | €15/month/seat billed annually | €792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat | Versatility and free plan | |
4.2 star star star star | square-check 30-day | square-xmark But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations | €25/user/month | €500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI) | Best overall operational CRM | |
4.3 star star star star star-half | square-xmark | square-check Limited to 3 users | Comprehensive incentive management | €52/user/month billed annually | Small-medium businesses and automation | |
4.5 star star star star star-half | square-check 14-day | square-xmark | €14/seat/month billed annually | €99/seat/month billed annually | Sales teams and ease of use | |
4.1 star star star star | square-xmark | square-check Limited 10 users | $9.99/user/month billed annually | $64.99/user/month billed annually | Free plan for very small teams up to 10 |
CRM goal | Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months. | ||||
SMART Breakdown | 1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation). | 2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking. | 3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements. | 4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives. | 5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date. |
Actions | Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation. | Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior. | Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads. | Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up. | Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization. |
Outcomes | Increased sales and revenue | Improved marketing automation ROI | Marketing and sales alignment | Data-driven marketing optimization |