How CRM can improve your sales teams' prospecting activities

CRM applications have a lot of benefits. Research has shown they can:

• Increase revenue by 41% per salesperson
• Drive lead conversion rates to improve over 300%
• Decrease sales and marketing costs by 23%

But what are the real benefits for sales prospecting activities? Here’s how CRM can help your sales team in that area.

Centralized data

One of the biggest benefits of CRM overall is having centralized data. 74% of CRM users say their CRM system offered improved access to customer data. But it really helps streamline sales prospecting in particular.

For example, if you use a CRM system to track your website, it  will collect demographic and behavioral data for your site visitors before they convert. Some solutions even offer massive databases of companies to help you find new prospects.

Find CRM systems with top-quality sales prospecting tools using our completely up-to-date CRM vendor directory

Having all your prospect information in one place also makes it easy to share. If you use mobile CRM, you can access (and add to) scripts, templates, and customer profiles right from your mobile device in a prospect’s office.

Integration with sales prospecting tools

Most major CRM systems also integrate with third-party tools that help streamline the prospecting process. Integrating with apps can help sales representatives easily access:

• A lead’s contact information
• Background information on a company and its competitors
• Information about how a prospect interacted with a brand

External tools can also help your sales representatives track productivity, monitor tasks, and watch sales pipeline progress.

But the possibilities of these CRM integrations go far beyond that. Look at Hubspot CRM, for example. Their system integrates with the Sidekick app so sales representatives can track email openings, allowing them to shift their focus to only interested prospects.

The benefits of these integrations are only going to grow as more tools become available.

Automation saves time

Even if you put aside the benefits of data and tools integrations for prospecting, having a CRM system simply helps your employees save time. Research shows that firms using formalized processes to streamline sales activity report 30% greater profit than businesses without them.

By making easy connections between data, sales materials and contact platforms, CRM systems make it easier to reach more potential leads with less effort. This automation is an opportunity for your employees to find more prospects in less time and turn them into sales.

Streamlining your sales prospecting activities is just one example of the benefits of CRM. The right system will have a lot of features to help improve your company’s bottom line.