Many sales managers use their CRM to stay on top of what their salespeople are doing and the results they are getting. These are important aspects of CRM usage.

Your CRM can also be a great sales coaching aid. The data it provides gives perspective to the past so you can better help your salespeople improve and it can help you and your team members better understand the present. It can also help you follow the planned trajectory of each team member.  In short, when you use your CRM as a sales coaching, you build a better sales future for your team.

Giving Perspective to the Past: Your CRM as a Report Card

Your CRM can function as a report card for each of your salespeople. They can use it as a snap shot of how they have been doing, so the two of you can engage in a sales coaching conversation and set out a plan for greater improvement. 

To build your relationships with your team members, make your CRM-as-a-report card discussion about your team members’ higher numbers.  Then, transition the conversation to identifying their best practices and exploring if they have an interest in mentoring or peer coaching.  Within your CRM, you have the library to help your team members share best practices. 

Be on the lookout for not only best practices but also their client stories that can be documented to help others on the team better respond to objections, engage prospects more fully and make the ideas they share more memorable. 

Your CRM-as-a-report-card questions might include:

• “Let’s look at your numbers over the past month or two.  Which numbers do you notice are consistently above target?” 
• “What have you been doing to get such high numbers?”
• "How would you feel about sharing your ideas at our next sales meeting?”

When team members discuss what they are doing to get the great results they’re getting, it builds the relationship between you.  Trust is an essential ingredient to your team members performing better, you knowing more accurately what is happening on your team, and clients being treated even better by your salespeople. 

Understanding the Present: Your CRM as a Stethoscope

As you know, listening to customers is key to sales success.  When you use your CRM as a stethoscope during sales coaching, you and your team members can discover more about your customers by gathering valuable social information. 

Your CRM as a stethoscope questions might include:

• “What social source are you using to connect with prospects?”
• “Which of those gives you the best results?”  (If your team members aren’t sure, together discover the answer with your social CRM.)
• “How do you make the initial contact?”

The social aspect of selling is a great way to listen and learn about prospects.  By getting your team to use your CRM as a stethoscope, you help them better understand what is valuable and relevant sales information in prospects social profiles.

Building a Better Future: Your CRM as a Crystal Ball

Salespeople and sales managers often discuss pipeline and forecasting.  When you use your CRM as your crystal ball, you can measure how realistic and accurate you and salespeople are in these activities. 

You’ll quickly discover how large the gap is between your team members’ planned numbers and their actual numbers.  You’ll begin to know who is the most realistic when they set their personal targets.  Ideally, you want the gap between their plans and their actual numbers to be as close as possible.

To help your team members become more aware of the gap between their plans and their actual numbers, you might ask questions like:

• “Let’s look the personal sales goals you set the last few times we met.  How close are your planned versus your actual numbers?” 
• “What insight can you gain from that?”
• “How will that affect the goal you set for this coming week?”

When you use your CRM as a crystal ball, you help your salespeople set more accurate individual sales goals and narrow the gap between their projected and actual numbers.

Leverage your CRM to give greater perspective to the past, better understanding of the present, and more profitability to the future. 

This post is adapted from award-winning author Peri Shawn’s book, “Sell More with Sales Coaching.” Peri specializes in helping sales executives and their teams to sell more.   Download two free chapters at www.CoachingandSalesInstitute.com.