How CRM Software Improves Sales Figures

How CRM Software Improves Sales Figures

Are you looking for a good way to get better sales figures out of your business? Of course you are! Well, one of the best ways that you can improve your sales is to make use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. CRM software is also known as Contact Management Software. CRM software is a kind of program that you can use to help you keep track of lots and lots of leads on customers and clients for your business. When you are trying to sell products to anyone, there is an important principle which you have to keep in mind: most sales are made after multiple communications back and forth between the seller and the buyer.

For example, the number of people who will purchase a product from you based solely on the first time that you contact them may be less than ten percent. Similarly, the next few calls or emails that you make to a given person may only have a chance of a few percent more in getting a response. However, you are gradually informing the potential client or customer with more information about your business and making them get gradually more interested in what you have to sell. When you finally get to somewhere around the fifth, sixth or seventh communication with the same customer, you will find that you hit the point where the majority of people who are going to buy finally make their purchase, based on the bulk of the information that you have given them and the fact that they now feel like they know you, that you are a competent company and that they can trust you to deliver the goods. This is why a good sales prospecting software is absolutely critical to your business.

When you are trying to sell your products to hundreds, even thousands of clients, the entire process can become very complicated very quickly. The best way for you to keep track of where you are in the communication process with all of these customers is to use automated customer management software, or CRM software. Because the CRM software automatically records all of the communication steps that you take, you can rest assured that you will not create confusion for your customers. It is easy to keep track of all of the things that you have sent to customers, when you have sent them, and when it will be a good idea to send them additional information. You can also track the issues that your customers have reported to you in order to provide them with better, more consistent customer service and improve your chances of repeat business. The auto industry figured this out very quickly and dealerships all over the country are now using an automotive crm software to help better keep track of new customers and track referrals.

All of these things which CRM software allows you to do help you to increase your odds of making the sale to every given customer, and when you take the effect of CRM software in the aggregate over the bulk of the customers that you are working with you will be able to enjoy much higher sales levels! Customers who would have been lost as a result of not being followed up with properly will now start to make purchases from you and you will enjoy the benefits of a more trusting and involved customer base which believes in your ability to keep up to date with their needs and provide them with the information which they need to have to make a good purchase.

Using CRM software is one of the best ways that you can boost your sales, giving your sales force the tools that they need to know what they are doing at every step of the way and never lose another lead to miscommunications or due to a failure to keep up to date with your customers’ sales status. Improve your sales figures at work with CRM software today!

Drs. Christiaan Janssens
Executive Coach
CRO @ Spa Akwa Belgium

3 Types of Negotiators

3 Types of Negotiators

Essentially there are 3 personality types in any negotiation, each with their own skills and style, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. How they interact can have a great impact on the negotiation outcomes, and a skilled negotiator will learn to recognize each style in his counterpart and use it to his advantage. But they do not exist exclusively and there is an element of each style in every one of us, recognizing that and controlling the triggers can be very influential in negotiations.

The Competitor

The first is possible the most easily recognized because he is the guy most people associate with negotiations. He is the hard ball player, who thrives on the cut and thrust, on the competition and who wants to win everything. This is the guy who will advocate stronger than he will empathize, he likes to be purposeful and in control, rarely patient he seeks out an ambitious position and fights to protect it, he wants the biggest slice of the pie. In a distributive argument he has some advantages but he is also the person most likely to produce a stalemate or escalate a dispute. He is less likely to worry about relationships and may cause damage to them if the other side resents his actions. He is the man who is most likely to get riled up and lose his temper. He may be the man you want on your side for tough distributive questions but he may be the man who breaks down the negotiation. In a dual party negotiation team he will be the bad cop, having recognized him many times in past negotiations, knowing which buttons to push can be useful. If the other side want to use a delay tactic then all they need to do is to wind up the competitor until he loses self-control, then is the time to call for a recess. He is not to be discounted though, when the tough decisions need to be made, he may be the guy to make them. If it is a once off deal, and you have expanded the pie to create all the extra value, he may be the guy for the divisional process.

The Accommodator

More likely to empathize than conflict, this negotiator puts serious emphasis on the relationship between the parties. They need to be liked and will often negotiate in a style that is easy on the participants to find a quick resolution that doesn’t damage the relationship. These guys are good listeners, and they tend to have better relationships. They may even be trusted more by the other party, so if you are looking for a negotiator for a long term or repeat business deal this may be the person you are looking for. Sometimes, though, they can get played, if a tough negotiator on the other side tries to hold the relationship hostage, or makes it part of the negotiation collateral then the accommodator may give in on some value issues, or some of the distributive issue. They may not create all the value possible because they may not engage in some of the tough stuff.

The Avoider

These guys think conflict is rarely advantageous or productive and will do their utmost to avoid it. They neither over empathize nor assert, instead they tend to disengage when conflict arises. They can appear distant and uninterested. So what are they doing negotiating? Well they can have significant strategic advantages; some of the conflicts can be just avoided. Some issues do just go away without being escalated. 

The avoider may carry more weight when they speak and are listened to. However like the competitor they tend to struggle with relationship building and they may leave money on the table because they don’t use the difference in conflict to its full advantage.

What happens when these negotiators meet?

First of all it is important to recognize that none of these traits are stand-alone people, they don’t exist exclusively and we each have some element of these three characteristics. How we recognize them in ourselves and in our counterparts is crucial, and recognizing the triggers that move us from one style to the next is just as important. Know what presses your buttons and sets you off in competitive mode, this is often just as simple as a personality clash, but you need to control it. Know that when you like someone you negotiate with, at work or in another company that you may be more inclined to accommodate than to test, and definitely know who you avoid issues with. This can often be the boss, if she is a strict, no nonsense type of boss, it can be very prevalent in a small working environment, and for us all it often involves family disputes and negotiations. 

Competitor Meets Competitor:

This makes for an exciting negotiation, like a strategic dance, with offer and counter offer flying back and forth, both sides trying to win. Really high energy stuff, unfortunately with nobody listening to the other side they tend to blow completely or they reach a stalemate. They need to trade control and be very careful how they share information and interests.

Competitor Meets Avoider:

There are usually two outcomes, the competitor becomes hugely frustrated and ends up making concessions to invite the avoider in, and so becomes exploited, or the avoider becomes completely alienated and doesn’t engage at all. The challenge for the competitor is to make the negotiation inviting enough for the avoider and for the avoider to become more comfortable with assertion.

Competitor Meets Accommodator:

A nightmare for the accommodator, where has the relationship gone? The competitor can often exploit the accommodator’s will to get results quickly by forcing concessions. The accommodator needs to improve assertiveness to match empathy before he gives in and misses opportunity to advocate his own cause.

Accommodator Meets Accommodator:

There will be resolution and usually quite quickly, but not all the value will be gleaned from the process and it might be better to sometime engage in the differences and use them to expand the pie.

Accommodator Meets Avoider:

It either goes nowhere fast, because the accommodator looks after the avoider’s issues and they just avoid the discussion. However a skillful accommodator will keep the temperament in the right zone and will coax the avoider into discussion.

Avoider Meets Avoider:

What conflict? We don’t see any conflict here. They just won’t face up to the issues at all, not a good plan in the long run.

Christiaan Janssens
Executive Coach

CRO @ Spa Akwa Belgium

Source: Medation Practice

Simple Sales Statistics

Sales Statistics

Christiaan Janssens
Executive Coach
CRO @ Spa Akwa Belgium

Selling Types

Selling types

The diverse nature of the buying situation means there are many types of selling job: selling

varies according to the nature of the selling task. The figure below shows that there is a fundamental distinction between order-takers, order-creators and order-getters. 
Order-takers respond to already committed customers; order-creators do not directly receive orders since they talk to specifiers rather than buyers; order-getters attempt to persuade customers to place an order directly.

There are three types of order-takers: inside order-takers, delivery salespeople and outside

order-takers. Order-creators are termed missionary salespeople. Finally, order-getters are

either front-line salespeople consisting of new business, organisational or consumer

salespeople, or sales support salespeople who can be either technical support salespeople or merchandisers. Both types of order-getters operate in situations where a direct sale can be made.


Christiaan Janssens
Executive Coach
CRO @ Spa Akwa Belgium

Customer complaints department

Christiaan Janssens
Executive Coach
CRO @ Spa Akwa Belgium

Making your customers successful

Making your customers successful 

If you want to build a growth company, you must be customer focused. And that means waking up every day and asking, 

“What can I do to make my customers successful?”

Your customer’s success is your success, so it is in your best interest to make your customer as successful as possible. That doesn’t mean giving away your products and services. It does mean enabling your customer to tap the full potential of what you’re selling and to assist your customer even when that assistance doesn’t directly boost sales.

Take the time to get to know their business, their vision, their strategies for growth, their target customers, and their pain points. Talk with them and share your ideas for helping them be more successful.

You may be called on to offer your customer some free advice, refer them to other companies for products and services you don’t sell, or even do a little head-hunting for them to steer them in the direction of the most qualified personnel in your area.

Become your own customer, as much as possible. Try to buy the same product or one that’s similar to what you sell from another salesperson to discover insights from your customer’s point of view. (You don’t actually have to buy it.)

As an entrepreneurial salesperson, always think one step ahead. This means considering your customer’s customer. The single most important contribution you can make to your customer’s success is contributing to the success of your customer’s customer.

In many cases, this is primarily the responsibility of your company’s CEO or product development division, but because you probably have more direct contact with customers, you may need to carry the message back to your company. If you’re selling to a business that sells your product to consumers, keep that consumer, the end user, in mind.

But above all: be fair, be honest, do what you say you’re going to do, and deliver on time and within budget. 

Christiaan Janssens
Executive Coach

CRO @ Spa Akwa Belgium

How To Sell Anything

Christiaan Janssens
Executive Coach
CRO @ Spa Akwa Belgium