Christmas Past, Present and Future
Tags: Bah Humbug, CRM, Sales, Sales Tools

Inspired by Christmas Carol

Recently I was running through data with a sales manager as he explained which metrics he tracked, how he tracked them and why. His CRM tool wasn’t responding correctly, which led to it being re-christened in a pretty imaginative way — his mastery of language impressed.

I had one of those moments where I started to say; You don’t know how lucky you are! In my day…”. I stopped just in time. It’s much better to celebrate all the fantastic tools we now have! As a salesperson, it is incredible how technology has enabled us all. The information available at a click of a button is so impressive — the depth, analysis & speed. History of buying, interests, peers, company information, social graphs, preferred communication styles, shared contacts, biography, sales best practices, personal preferences, sports teams followed, & comedians admired… But still, we want more.

So let’s have a look at a Christmas Past….

A long time ago… after holiday jobs and temp work, my first real job was a proper, old-school sales job. It was selling space in a phonebook (Ok… A phonebook was a big, physical book that contained phone numbers and addresses of people and businesses in your area — it was delivered to your house and lived on the table next to your phone in the hallway).

I was lucky. It was a professional outfit (there was no Glassdoor in those days). We sat in an office with windows and our chairs — I had seen some places which were Portakabins and benches.

Our key Sales Support technology included:

1 Prospect Database: The Phone Book from the year before

2 Contact Management Software: A Highlighter Pen to show which companies you had called. The more sophisticated might have a Pink one AND a Yellow one

3 Leads Enrichment Programme: A photocopied sheet which you filled in the address and contact details of anyone interested

4 Lead Management System: A Lever Arch File and a Hole Punch

5 Agenda Management Software: Day tabs in your lever arch file

6 Activity Tracker System: An A4 sheet on which you wrote down the names of the people you had called and which you handed to your manager at the end of the day. They added them up, wrote them down and handed them to their manager.

7 Automatic & Assisted Dialler — a Telephone & your Finger. There were no cordless headsets either in those days — you sat at your desk at all times — even when you were on a smoking break. Yes. You sat at your desk on your smoking break. We did have to go to the pub at lunchtime for beer though. I shake my head at myself sometimes.

The most important things never change — tenacity, resilience, creativity, practice, desire to improve, customer understanding etc — but the tools that support sales have become more advanced, slicker, easier. Rich databases painting a nuanced picture, real-time contact tracking, online training for us and the prospects, marketing influence over all stages of the purchasing cycle, statistical support to improve your own odds of success, ever faster systems… we’ve never had it so good!

Can’t wait to see what Christmas Future brings!

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