The first in the "CRM in the Pandemic Era" blog series, "Tracking New Guidelines", talked about the challenges facing on-the-road reps now that the economy and businesses are starting to re-open. Step One was to implement or set up a disaster plan to navigate through the pandemic crisis. An important part of your plan is to use your CRM System to keep all team members informed of the various guidelines set by government - local, regional, statewide, and/or national - and by each individual company in Phase 1 of the re-opening.
Some areas of the country are now moving to Phase 2 of their re-opening plans and many of the guidelines from Phase 1 are changing. Staying abreast of the continual updates can be confusing and time consuming. Utilizing and sharing the information in your CRM system keeps everyone in your agency up-to-date on the changes.
Once you have captured the latest rules and regulations for doing business, you need to start tracking your contacts' preferences for communicating and doing business.
Tracking preferences for each individual with whom you work is also time consuming. Their preferences for interacting with you will be varied and distinct. Prior to the pandemic, you may have kept track of when your contacts would see vendors:
Now you need to know how they want to work and communicate with vendors
Putting this information in your CRM system, where it's searchable, easy to find, and shared makes it easier to plot your sales interactions.
- what days - Tuesdays and Thursday
- what times - from 10 - 3
- what method - by appointment or by casual stop if in the area (unless it's family or very close friend, this method is most likely not going to be an option)
Now you need to know how they want to work and communicate with vendors
- by phone
- by e-mail or text
- via video conference
- in person
Putting this information in your CRM system, where it's searchable, easy to find, and shared makes it easier to plot your sales interactions.