When it comes to closing leads, sales managers know how to get the job done — but what are some of the issues that are slowing down their process?
We’re going to break down three struggles that you may deal with as a sales manager and how Simpleview CRM enables you to tear down the barriers holding you back.
Struggle #1: Messy Data
We all know the cycle – data entered, data used, data gets buried and never looked at again. So, how do we address this? It’s easy to say, “Clean up your data,” but hard to actually accomplish that if you don’t even know where to start.
The key to successful data cleanup is breaking it down to what you actually need. First, you or your support team want to look at cleaning up sales-specific data. Even though the entirety of your data in your CRM may need a good scrub, breaking it into smaller pieces and starting with what you need first will be more efficient and lead to easier organization.
So, you’re going to focus on sales data, now what? We suggest implementing processes to make data more organized from the start. Think about implementing lead triggers. Triggers allow you to set up system-generated traces when certain conditions in CRM are met. Additionally, you can look at consolidating affiliated accounts or reassign accounts and tasks that have been moved to another user.
Struggle #2: The Board and Stakeholders Seem … Meh
A huge wall many you may often face is how to get your board and stakeholders excited about bringing these events to your destination.
For your board, keeping them in the know and showing them the numbers is a great way to drudge up interest and support. Providing high-level reports that are easy to understand will enable you to make a case for continued prospecting. The Economic Impact Calculator (EIC) is also a helpful tool to use when reporting to your board. It uses industry-based standards and metrics to generate the economic value of an event and its return on investment to local taxes. The EIC is also handy when dealing with hotels.
If you find it challenging to work with hotel partners and get the good hotels in your destination to accept bids, providing them the metrics is one way to establish reputable impact from the leads. Other ways to get your hotels on board is to conduct extranet trainings and have regular meetings with the director of sales.
Also, don’t forget about Destination Dashboards and the Digital Influence Report. These are two additional Simpleview tools that can go a long way when speaking to your board and stakeholders.
Struggle #3: The Information Provided Sucks
Have you ever received a lead response from a hotel only to be let down when you realize they didn’t provide you with the required information? We get it, responding to leads takes some work and they’re busy, but when they don’t give you what you need to properly respond to an RFP, you are stuck going back and forth — who has time for that?
One way to ease this pain point is to send all leads through the Simpleview Extranet or Partner Portal and enforce rules. Using this process, you can make required fields on the response form so hotels are forced to enter the required information. This lets you get what you need right away, eliminating any back and forth, and makes responding to an RFP that much faster.
We know you have a rough go at it sometimes, and let’s not forget that the last two years have made things even more difficult. But at the very least, maybe there is some comfort in knowing that others feel your pain and there are resources available to help get you through the weeds.
