What if your business manager kept your OOH company’s financial information in their head? Or on Post-it notes? Or in a notebook they took home every night? You’d be terrified!

I continue to be surprised by how many OOH companies allow something similar with one of their most valuable assets: their customer and prospect information. Your company’s prospects, customers, contacts, history, opportunities, proposals and renewal information belong to the company—not the sales rep. Yet in practice, many companies allow salespeople to become the sole repository of this critical information.

Your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) isn’t just for management. Salespeople often resist the introduction—or required use—of a CRM  system because management hasn’t adequately shown what’s in it for them. A good CRM will help a salesperson sell more, faster. Reps need to think of the CRM as their personal sales assistant. Its job is to remember everything, prioritize opportunities, protect renewals, prompt follow-up and help determine where to spend your valuable selling time.

Salespeople sometimes complain that a CRM is management’s way of spying on them. They should think of it as a way of spying on themselves. Post-it notes are not a CRM system.

Companies who create a culture of CRM discipline gain tremendous visibility into their business.  Management can better understand the pipeline, forecast revenue, identify upcoming renewals, see where opportunities are getting stuck and determine which salespeople need additional training, mentoring or coaching.

Because not all accounts are created equal, the critical first step is incorporating Strategic Account Management into the system. (If you’d like my strategies for establishing a Strategic Account Management system within your CRM, email me at KevinJGephart@gmail.com.)

I was recently afforded a demonstration of the Apparatix CRM system. The Apparatix team has created an impressive OOH-specific sales tool. What struck me most was the visibility it provides into the entire OOH sales function.

Four things that sets Apparatix apart from the other CRMs are:

• Sales and operational information are connected.
• Prospecting is built into the system.
• AI-powered sales profiles are built in.
• It helps salespeople decide where to spend their time.

If what your salespeople truly want is to spend less time managing details and more time selling—and ultimately earn a bigger paycheck—they should embrace it. For a salesperson, the AI features alone can make investing the time to properly use the system worthwhile.

Be sure that CRM compliance isn’t optional. Every worthwhile sales initiative requires front-loaded time and effort. CRM implementation is no different. When you roll out a CRM initiative, explain exactly how it will benefit your salespeople—and then make adherence to the CRM policy non-negotiable.

If your business manager refused to properly use your accounting software, you would coach, train, and mentor them. Ultimately, if they continued to refuse to use the company’s required business system, they’d leave you little choice but to replace them.

Ironically, some companies are willing to make exceptions for their highest-billing, senior salespeople. Those are the people you can least afford to exempt. They manage your largest books of business and often possess the greatest amount of critical customer data.

The acid test I use for this and virtually every other sales initiative I recommend:

What happens if my competitor implements this and I don’t? Imagine your competitor knows exactly which accounts are vulnerable, which contracts are approaching renewal, which prospects deserve attention, where every proposal stands and where every salesperson should spend their time tomorrow morning. And your reps are still looking for the Post-it note.

The beginning of a new fiscal year is an ideal time to implement or recommit to a CRM initiative. Audit your current system now. Find the holes. Determine what information isn’t being captured. Establish expectations for your sales team and build a plan to fix it.

If you don’t have a CRM or your current system isn’t doing the job, start evaluating your options, including OOH-specific systems such as Apparatix. (Apparatix.com)

Kevin Gephart is co-author of The Ultimate OOH Sales Guide and Creator of The OOH Sales Academy.  To learn more about how Kevin can help grow your revenues contact Kevin 612-387-5349, kevinjgephart@gmail.com or visit oohsalesfaster.com.

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