Managing Activities

The above sections have covered the basics of making and tracking a sale. But there is often a lot of activity that goes on around this process. Here are just some of those activities:

Depending upon the inidividual characteristics of your business, there may be a good deal of correspondence between you and your customer - either by email or phone. You may produce quotes, send fact sheets and receive purchase orders and produce invoices. You might regularly meet with your client, either alone or with other members of your organisation. An intense negotiation stage may take place. You may need to collaborate with other members of your organisation and chase them up on where they are on tasks you've assigned them.

Wouldn't it be great to have a system that helped track, organise and manage all of that in one place? That's exactly what a CRM system does. It allows you to not only manage all of your activities but also to relate those to particular Accounts or Opportunities. This makes finding information a breeze. Want to know when the quote for a client is due? It's in your diary. Want to know what fact sheets your colleague has already sent them? It's recorded against the customer. Want to review all the emails that have been sent to your client? It's all there.

A CRM system turns your office into a well oiled machine. It makes your work more efficient and gives you a complete view of your history with the customer.

It allows you to manage that relationship better, and allows you to profile customers for future marketing.

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