Chatter Matters

I am enamored of all the new technology tools made available through companies such as Salesforce.com. One feature in particular that I think can help revolutionize and accelerate call preparation, communication, sales coaching, and sharing of knowledge is Salesforce.com’s Chatter. It’s like an internal twitter and for large and small sales organizations it can be a game changer.

For example, if a salesperson gets the opportunity to squeeze in a meeting with a prospect or customer between his/her scheduled calls and has little or no time to prepare, aside from using a CRM, social media, etc., or if a customer asks a question in a sales meeting the salesperson can’t answer, the salesperson can use “Chatter” by typing in the name of the prospect with a topic or question and the key words will direct the short message to anyone in the organization who has knowledge to share — allowing for an almost instantaneous answer.

But before using Chatter in the Customer’s Office consider the following:

Chatter Pros
 Allows for immediate response to the customer.
 Demonstrates a well-oiled sales team and operating sales system.
 Eliminates need to follow-up with a post sales call phone call or email.
 Helps move the sales process forward.

Chatter Cons
 The answer may not be one you wish to share at that time. (But the advantage is only you can read the reply on your Blackberry for example.)
 Removes a reason to follow up and connect with the customer post sales call.
 Puts you in the position of having to explain when no response from your team.

Salespeople often see CRMs as a two-edge sword — Super pain but also super hero as a faster and better way to organize and access information. As they say, there is almost nothing new in the universe but lucky for us creative technology features such as this makes sales research and responsiveness faster and farther reaching. CRMs aren’t going away. So embrace the best part and get friendly with all the tools available in your CRM to give you a sharp edge in a tough economy.

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