Sales organizations can be underachieving for a myriad of reasons, but it’s typically a lack of structure and process that divides highly successful sales organizations from poorly performing ones. The structure begins right at the introductory stage of the selling cycle and that’s lead qualification.

Successful sales professionals traditionally have a specific set of skills that enable them to quickly determine a qualified prospect from a tire kicker. This skill enables them to quickly focus their energy on the most qualified opportunities resulting in higher close ratios and higher revenues. Most sales organizations however are made up of a hand full of seasoned sales people coupled with less experienced staff who are still honing their skills. A good CRM system can be a valuable tool for automating the selling processes that you know work for your organization.

One of the companies that has taken a leadership position in this area is Commence Corporation, a provider of CRM software for small to mid-size enterprises. Commence CRM incorporates a series of automated processes that add structure to the lead generation and sales management of each new sales opportunity. The structure is really quite simple and defined by each company’s sales management. Starting with the lead generation process, management outlines a set of criteria for what they believe constitutes a highly qualified lead. The questions are then answered by the sales representative. Based on the response the CRM software will rate and color code each lead as highly qualified, not yet qualified or poorly qualified. It’s a simple process that delivers effective results.

Commence CRM also incorporates a structured sales process that enables a sales representative and sales management to manage each stage of the sales cycle from introduction to closure. By being proactive during the sales process, management can play an active and valuable role in helping to move an opportunity toward closure vs. conducting a post mortem on why they lost the business.

Any successful sales organization is driven by its sales staff and its management, but CRM software systems like Commence CRM can play a vital role in automating the processes that help sales people sell more and sell more easily.

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