You have heard the term social CRM and you understand the value, but is your sales team using social CRM to drive new business opportunities?  Social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn now offer your sales team an opportunity to introduce themselves and their products to literally thousands of potential prospects; network with industry experts; and solicit your customers for people they know who may also have an interest in your product and service.  Never before has an opportunity to access such a large market been available to a sales organization. Despite this, a large majority of sales people still do not utilize these social CRM sites to solicit new business.

Every sales person knows that the close rate on customer referrals is more than double that of a new business opportunity where you are introducing yourself and your company for the first time.  So why not take advantage of it?  Well perhaps now you can.

Customer Relationship Management software providers realize the power of social CRM software and reference selling and as a result, have now incorporated direct links to these social networking sites right within their CRM software.  This is making it easier for sales professionals to take advantage of social CRM. The tools are there, the Internet is immediately available and the information is accessible anytime and anywhere via a single click.  While some CRM systems provide a direct link to social CRM sites, other more advanced CRM programs allow you to screen scrape the prospect’s information and literally dump it into the CRM system. This allows a sales executive to immediately act on the information or maintain it for future marketing programs.

What is clear is that Social CRM is here and offers substantial value to the savvy sales team that takes advantage of it.  If you are looking at CRM programs to improve sales management make sure the one you select also incorporates Social CRM capabilities within the product.