Why Your CRM Needs a Prospecting Platform

A CRM the perfect solution for sales, but it’s not enough for prospecting.

Let’s dig into why.

CRMs are perfect for managing sales opportunities – from opportunity to deal. They have the right framework, visualizations, and tools for it.

CRMs are amazing – for sales

Here’s what you’ll find inside a CRM –

• A funnel-oriented process
• An intuitive visual funnel tool that helps manage the opportunity process through drag-and-drop.
• Pre-built dashboards and reports such as forecast (a weighted current pipeline), existing funnel, and more.
• The right set of business objects: Account, Contact, and Opportunity, the object opportunity having three main data fields –
  • Stages showing the probability of converting an opportunity into a deal
  • Amount of the deal
  • Deal close date

For sales, that’s exactly what you need.

The CRM is not only the perfect sales management system but also the database of the company. It’s the backbone of your sales team.

Every other tool must connect to it; marketing automation, customer success platforms like Gainsight, support platforms like Zendesk, a financial system like SAGE. So your business wouldn’t function the same way without CRM.

What does a CRM offer to your prospecting team?

All your revenue teams’ needs are covered with a CRM – except prospecting.

Basically, it only offers an object called a lead. That’s it. And a list of leads to maintain through filters and forms. Inside a CRM, there’s not a specific process for prospecting that guides your team; no content or a pre-built data model to land your playbook.

You won’t find specific prospecting metrics either dashboards for reading them; nor contactability tools for sending emails or calling in one click (in SFDC). A CRM is just a database of ‘leads’ that you can create and update.

You might be thinking that; Adding a sales engagement platform to your CRM will transform a list of leads into a proper prospecting platform. Is this going to be enough? NO.

To sum up, a sales engagement platform provides the contactability tools you need within your CRM; to call, email, and automatically log these activities. That’s it. 

Nowadays, the prospecting department needs much more than just a list of leads, dialers; plus a sequence engine for sending mass mail campaigns.

What’s inside an all-in-one prospecting platform?

A proper prospecting platform should have:

1- A clear and structured prospecting process

And the prospecting process is a pipeline, not a funnel. A funnel oriented process is perfect for sales, but it’s not the right one for prospecting.

There are no drop-offs in prospecting. On the contrary, all of the leads and accounts must go through the different prospecting stages to the end, until they are:

• Contacted – pitched and converted into a meeting
• Contacted – pitched, but the lead doesn’t feel the pain
• Unreachable
• Contacted – pitched, but the lead doesn’t see our value
• Contacted – pitched, but it is not the right moment
• Considered not target – discarded

2- The right process in place to build a scalable team

Scalability needs Predictability. Predictability needs a System. And the only way to make this happen is through having a very systematic process and a team following it precisely.

A systematic team is a team where everyone does the same thing in the same way; So, they execute the process and the playbook like ninjas: Precise and lethal. It’s the opposite of having a team of free-stylers and free-riders.

Scalability needs Predictability. Predictability needs a System.

3- A data model that lands your go-to-market strategy 

A strategy within the platform and also guides the prospecting team to help execute your strategic goals.

Your playbook should be the ‘content’ of the system. So here’s what you need including in your technology –

• Target markets (TMs)
• Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs)
• Scenarios, i.e. the current situation of the ICP regarding the problem your solution solves. Defining the different scenarios will allow you to connect with the concrete pains that generate the scenario; and, create relevant messaging. The more precisely you identify the pain, the higher will be the conversion rate from conversation to meeting.
• Messaging for each combination of (TM, ICP, and Scenario)
• Qualifying questions for each combination of (TM, ICP, and Scenario).
• Rating Model
• Cadences

4- The right user experience for collecting data to maximize data entries

With more data, you’ll have a deeper understanding of what parts of your playbook are working, aren’t working, and why. The prospecting team is the only team that is consistently talking to the market; maximize the value that you get from this effort.

A prospecting platform takes your SDRs from always filling out; Complex, long (and ugly) forms, and instead guides and assists them through a conversational experience. A conversational user experience asks only for the data that makes sense at that moment and provides the right context.

More data and better data… and segmented by your playbook.

5- The right metrics and dashboards for the prospecting activity

You’ll need contactability and pitch efficiency for each combination of the target market, ICP, and scenario, non-converted accounts by each objection, conversions in cohorts, and more.

A CRM can only provide you with tactical metrics and sales-related insights. Meanwhile, a prospecting platform validates your go-to-market strategy. 

6- Finally, you need a platform that helps, assists, and guides your team

You don’t want another database to maintain. Nor a set of records (leads) to fill out through long forms, just to try and understand what’s going on. Most importantly, the best prospecting tool will make your team feel assisted and engaged. But it’s not just an extra button for cold calling or a collection of templates.

What can you achieve with a prospecting platform?

Using an all-in-one prospecting platform creates some big outcomes for your team.

You’ll get real-time assistance for the SDR team, not only in terms of process but also in terms of messaging. So you’ll build a prospecting machine of intensive and systematic activity (process) and high precision and relevance (messaging).

As all of the activities are collected segmented by TM, ICP, Scenario/Pain, Message, you can measure your playbook. What is the ICP with the highest contactability? What is the Scenario that I am converting better to Meeting? And the one that I’m not converting? Why? Is it the pain, it’s not so apparent? Is it the Messaging, that doesn’t resonate? Get answers to the strategic questions that lead to growth.

Here’s what you need to master prospecting

The easy option is to connect to your CRM a prospecting platform; For example, Bloobirds, an all-in-one, and plug and play solution. We can immediately help you define your playbook and start prospecting in an assisted and systematic way.

Or create ‘your own prospecting platform’ on top of your CRM; for instance, integrating contactability tools (if SFDC) and adding tons of workflows, triggers, custom fields for implementing your processes and playbook. This approach can make you lose focus, time, and resources.

In conclusion, don’t get distracted from what’s important in prospecting; generating good sales ops, understanding your target market and buyer personas, and continuously improving your playbook.

Your SDRs deserve a platform built just for them

The marketing team has a solution – a marketing automation platform. The sales team has their CRM. The support team has a proper ticketing system. Customer success has their own platform. Prospecting should also have their own solution – instead of a DIY system have to tweak and adjust constantly.

Provide your prospecting team with the right solution. Likewise, keep them engaged, guide and assist them, and stop micro-managing ‘free-riders’ and ‘free-stylers.’

Ready to get started?

An agile outbound sales strategy is key to scaling your SaaS. So, make sure you choose the right platform to skyrocket your growth. Bloobirds can put you on the right trajectory with our all-in-one prospecting platform customized for B2B SaaS companies.

Get a free 30-minute product demo today.

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