Are CRMs turning salespeople into order taking button pushers?

Have you ever looked at your sales team and found yourself thinking, “They sure don’t make them like they used to“? Many seasoned managers in the car business have experienced the industry both before and after the advent of CRM systems. Interestingly, the very General Managers and General Sales Managers who hold meetings to discuss their sales teams’ failure to complete tasks in the CRM might struggle to complete those same tasks themselves. The inherent nature of a skilled salesperson often contradicts the idea of sitting at a computer and clicking buttons all day long.

The traditional CRM systems have become an essential part of the sales process, but overreliance on them can lead to salespeople prioritizing task completion over genuine customer engagement. The TECOBI process offers an alternative approach that emphasizes efficient communication and customer engagement through mass text message follow-up. In this article, we will explore the contrasting reactions of salespeople when exposed to the TECOBI process and discuss the benefits of mass text message follow-up in driving customer engagement.

Contrasting Salespeople’s Reactions to the TECOBI Process:

When exposed to the TECOBI process, two distinct types of salespeople emerge, each with a different reaction to the change.

Type 1: Salespeople Who Embrace the TECOBI Process

1. Adaptability: These salespeople are open to change and recognize the benefits of the TECOBI process, understanding that it can streamline their workload and improve customer engagement.
2. Customer-Centric: They prioritize building genuine relationships with customers and value direct communication, such as phone calls, over clicking buttons and completing CRM-generated tasks.
3. Proactive: These salespeople seize the opportunity provided by the TECOBI process to actively engage with interested customers and close deals more effectively.

Type 2: Salespeople Who Prefer Traditional CRM Systems

1. Resistance to Change: These salespeople are hesitant to adapt to new processes, preferring the familiarity of traditional CRM systems and the tasks they generate.
2. Task-Oriented: They tend to focus on completing individual tasks within the CRM, often at the expense of meaningful customer interactions and relationship-building.
3. Avoidance of Direct Communication: Salespeople in this category may shy away from picking up the phone and engaging with customers, opting instead to send emails or text messages one customer at a time.

Finding Engagement through Mass Text Messaging:

The TECOBI process focuses on engaging customers more efficiently and effectively by utilizing mass text message follow-up, which has a significant impact on salespeople’s ability to connect with potential customers in their pipeline.

1. Rapid Outreach: The TECOBI process enables salespeople to send hundreds or even thousands of follow-up text messages to customers in their pipeline instantly, ensuring that no potential lead is overlooked.
2. Higher Response Rates: Mass text messaging typically yields response rates ranging from 15-30%, depending on the messaging and filtering used. This high level of engagement allows salespeople to connect with a larger number of interested customers quickly.
3. Prioritizing Engaged Customers: With the TECOBI process, salespeople can focus on customers who respond to text message follow-ups, allowing them to prioritize their time and effort on those who are genuinely interested in moving forward right now and not randomly following up because the CRM said so.
4. Real-Time Interaction: The immediacy of text messaging fosters a more dynamic and interactive communication channel between salespeople and customers, facilitating real-time conversation and relationship-building.

Striking a balance between the use of CRM systems and direct communication is crucial for fostering a more customer-centric sales team. The TECOBI process, with its emphasis on mass text message follow-up, offers an innovative approach to drive customer engagement and streamline communication. By adapting to this new system and prioritizing genuine customer interactions, salespeople can massively increase the number of customers they talk to each day, unfortunately, some of them don’t want to do that. They would rather waste time completing tasks in the CRM.