How to Use CRM to Your Benefit: Inside Sales

Drum roll please…for the final part of our “How to Use CRM to Your Benefit” series we will be discussing inside sales! When you google “inside sales” you’ll 1) find a LOT of job ads and 2) see definitions pretty much stating that inside sales is simply selling from an office rather than traveling. Well, when you’re in the Wholesale Distribution industry you know that nothing is “simply” anything. We don’t have time to cover everything that inside sales is responsible for, but we are going to cover some of the most common items and how CRM can simplify those tasks.

Quotes and Purchase Orders

Preparing quotes and purchase orders is one of the most common tasks that is asked of inside sales. Without a CRM software, this can be a tedious task, especially when there are multiple line items, and when it requires multiple “touches” from different teams/departments.

CRM enables inside sales to easily create quotes from customizable templates and utilizes automatic workflows to keep everyone involved up-to-date on the status of the quote or PO. CRM also has up-to-date information on in-stock items and pricing that it automatically pulls from your ERP to help streamline this task.

Seem interesting? See it for yourself here.

House Accounts

You may have a different name for these in your organization but when I say “House Accounts” I mean accounts that aren’t assigned to a particular account rep/manager. These are typically underserved accounts, and after a while, they usually fall into the lap of inside sales. When the communication with these accounts has bounced around between multiple people it can be frustrating to track down information.

That’s where CRM comes into play. With CRM, all the account and contact information is stored in one place. (WP)CRM integrates with your company email to automatically log all communication and important information so that the account is always up to date. This can also mean less data entry for inside sales, which may sound minuscule but it’s one of the biggest time savers and benefits.

Complaint Resolution

Does this sound like a customer service area? Maybe it is, but a lot of times inside sales tackles customer complaints too. CRM is all about streamlining how we go about communicating with our customers. (WP)CRM provides collaboration with experts in real-time across the extended support and technical organization. Seem interesting? See it for yourself here.

Outside Sales Support

Supporting the outside sales team is yet another hat that inside sales wears. Usually, they call needing information or a quote put together for a meeting they’re wrapping up. CRM helps in a couple of different ways for these situations. First, (WP)CRM is accessible inside and outside the office on desktop, laptop, and mobile devices, which means you’ll be getting fewer calls from outside sales asking for information. (WP)CRM enables outside sales to be able to look up the needed information themselves while they’re on the go (including route planning). Secondly, if they do call needing information, you’ll be able to go straight to the account in the CRM and see all info and history of that account, which saves you time trying to track done the information from multiple sources.

If you’d like more information on how WebPresented can make your job easier, don’t hesitate to reach out to us today at sales@webpresented.com (there’s no question too small or too big). We have a team that knows the Wholesale Distribution industry and Sales Process Specialists who can answer all your Inside Sales questions! If you’re a current user looking for more ways to utilize WPCRM please contact accounts@webpresented.com.