Welcome to "Driving Sales Success," a quarterly e-
newsletter of sales and marketing tips from
GuideMark, developer of the SalesDRIVE CRM
software.
We specialize in CRM for commercial banking and
mortgage banking. Our e-newsletter goal is to
provide you with a short, concise sheet of valuable
sales and marketing tips. What works. What doesn't.
Ways to achieve a positive result from each and
every customer contact - for you AND the customer.
Every issue will have:
CRM tips from a sales star. This issue, a top
Account Executive at First Franklin.
Pointers to free online resources. Blogs.
Websites. Forums. This issue, we'll introduce you to
a blog with some great tips on making voicemail work
for you.
Tips and Traps - Quick tips that make a
difference. Sales traps to avoid.
We welcome your feedback and contributions. Real
life tips (or traps) from fresh, recent experiences are
absolutely the most valuable. If you have something
you'd like to share or an idea for an article, please
send it to our editor, Susan Getgood at
newsletter@guidemark.com. We're happy to
give you credit for your contribution, or keep it
anonymous if you prefer.
While we do offer tips and techniques directly related
to the use of CRM software, this newsletter is not
about our product. If you would like to know more
about SalesDrive CRM, we invite you to visit our Web
site at
www.guidemark.com or contact us by email at
info@guidemark.com
To your selling success,
Gene Mehr
Managing Partner
GuideMark
SalesDrive CRM, the banking CRM
that
helps you sell more
CRM Sales Star
Chris is one of First Franklin's top Account
Executives, number 10 in the nation for the second
half of 2005. He was kind enough to speak with me
on his way out of town to attend Franklin Club, First
Franklin's annual trip for top producers.
Every day, Chris puts on the coffee (he works from a
home office) and sits down to check his CRM, called
STARS at First Franklin. First things first: he checks
his AE Scorecard to look at the previous day's
submissions and fundings. Just to stay on top of
things. He says he communicates very well with his
loan processor at month end, but checking every day
really helps him keep a handle on what's coming in.
He also looks at docs drawn but not funded.
Once a week he does an email blast to his brokers. In
fact, he was in the process of doing that when I
spoke with him. First Franklin has new rates and
some other changes, and he wanted to get the
information to his brokers asap. He told me he was
one of the first AEs in his branch at First Franklin to
do this on a regular basis, and now everyone is
copying him. I laughed and said that was a smart
sales tactic: if you want to succeed, copy one of
the successful AEs!
He said he takes a look at rate lock expirations from
time to time as well as his pipeline report, but the
biggest value he gets from CRM is staying in front of,
and helping, his brokers. For example, recently his
Sales Manager had the idea to take a look
at two-year ARMs coming due for refinancing. Chris
retrieved the 2003 activity and found 2/28 ARMs in
the closed files. He provided this information to the
relevant brokers, and sure enough, on a recent visit
to one, he learned they were indeed using his
information to chase the business.
Folks, you can't do much better than this: using the
CRM system to add value to your customer's
business.
Another area of the CRM Chris finds valuable is the
Profiles and Broker Scorecards. Sitting down to go
over these with his brokers, he's found opportunity.
At one broker, he learned that management was
focusing Loan Officers (LOs) entirely on refinances,
steering them away from purchase loans. This gave
him an opening to discuss other products with the
broker and offer training on purchase loans.
Chris is frank that he was slow to embrace CRM, and
credits his manager with introducing the system
slowly and effectively. With "baby steps," he
said. "First he asked us to just synch daily to see
what's going on. Then he asked us to pay some
attention to our AE scorecards and it progressed to
the broker profiles."
Once Chris got started, he realized he could use the
tool to have a dialogue with his brokers and he's
never looked back.
I asked him if he had any advice for his colleagues.
His answer: take the time to see what the system
has to offer. There are a lot of reports and data in
the system that can help you sell.
Here are two examples:
At the beginning of 2006, Chris knew he was losing
business to the competition. Using a CRM report, he
discovered that a significant percentage of his
previous year's business fell into a specific rate
category where First Franklin's then-rates were not
as competitive. It was in this category that he was
losing business. He forwarded this information on to
his Sales Manager and Branch Manager.
Hard data makes all the difference. Knowing why he
was losing business showed a path of action:
flagging the issue for senior management. And with
the new rates and product enhancements, Chris is
hoping to turn this situation around.
Just recently he ran a report of his top 10 LOs since
July 1, 2005. There were some surprises. Without the
report, he would not have known about a couple LOs
that slipped into his top 10. Important information
when you are deciding how to spend your sales time
for the coming quarter...
Chris, thanks for sharing your tips with us. And good
luck for the rest of the year.
Do you have tips on how to use CRM to maximize
sales success? We'd love to hear them. Email me at
newsletter@guidemark.com, and please be sure
to include your contact
information. You might be our next CRM Sales Star.
Online Resources that Help You Sell
Let's face it. There is a lot of sales "stuff" online,
and much of it isn't worth the time it takes to read
it. Or it is just trying to sell you something, and you
don't have time for that. You need to be on the
phone, on the road, talking to customers, closing
business.
So we'll help you cut through the clutter. Every
issue, we will introduce you to some online resources
worth your time. And if you have a site or a blog that
you find useful, please send it our way.
This issue, we have two blogs to tell you about:
Guy Kawasaki's
Bona
tempura volvantur. One of the original Apple
evangelists,
Kawasaki is now a venture capitalist and author of a
number of well known business books. His blog is
fairly new, and chock full of advice, some taken from
his previously published works, some new. All useful.
One recent post worth checking out: The Art of Sucking Down. How to
get people on your side, for the reservation, the
upgrade, the access to your prospect. Follow his
advice and your life will get easier.
Make voice mail work for you. Check out the
Selling to Big Companies blog by Jill Konrath.
Even though Konrath's focus is on the high ticket
sale, her advice is good for many sales situations.
One of her most useful posts, from last December, Why this voicemail
failed has some great tips on how to leave a
voice mail that just might get a call back.
And on the topic of voicemail, if there is a decent
chance that the person you are calling might actually
remember you, leave your phone number in the very
beginning part of the message. "Hi, this is Susan
Getgood from GuideMark 978-555-1212" and then
proceed with the rest of the message. That way, if
the person is busy and doesn't have time to listen to
your whole message, she quickly has your callback
number and can delete the message.
Tips on good online resources for sales people? Want
to warn your peers about sites (or scams) to avoid?
Send your tips to Susan at
newsletter@guidemark.com.
Tips and Traps
Tip: Do your homework
Before you meet with important prospects for the
first time, Google
them.
If you don't find anything, it's no big deal -- not
everyone has a Web site or a significant online
presence. But if you do get matching results, you
may find some common ground that helps you build
the new relationship. Plus some conversation topics.
If your contact's name is not unique and you get too
many results, you may want to search on name and
a geographical location.
Bonus Tips:
Check to see if your contact has a blog or is
mentioned in a blog by searching at an RSS search
engine like Technorati
Check the social networking services like LinkedIn and Zoom
We're happy to
announce a new, graphical business
intelligence tool for users of the SalesDRIVE CRM
system.
The new tool enables a user to view their customers
in a host of ways. For example, a user can:
Check all the important business metrics for their
key (example top 10) customers. Including things
like gross applications in process and closed deals for
a given time period.
Review Key Performance Indicators Year / Year
and Quarter / Quarter.*
Display key metric Trends graphs for selected or
all accounts.*
Graphically track estimated Pipeline closings by
future time periods.*
As with all other aspects of SalesDRIVE CRM, the
Business Intelligence Tool is flexible and can be
tailored to address the specialized needs of
GuideMark clients.
*Depending upon their respective level of security,
users can view Key Performance Indicators, Trends
and Pipeline by:
Individual sales contributor; or, sales teams.
Individual account; or, all accounts within a given
hierarchy (e.g. sales branch).
Individual sales branch; or, all sales branches
within a given hierarchy.
