Leadfunnel Philippines
  • About Leadfunnel
  • Blog
  • Inquire

What will make CRM mainstream in the Philippines?

6/4/2016

Comments

 
Picture
I have talked with hundreds of sales people in the Philippines. Very few teams are using Customer Relationship Management software (CRM) like Salesforce, SugarCRM or Pipedrive. Instead, sales teams are using Excel to manage their prospects and customers.

Why is this?

I think the following may have something to do with it:
1) Time of sales people are under-appreciated
2) Cost of leads are under-appreciated

Time of sales people are under-appreciated
CRM software has a cost, from $15/month/user for something like Pipedrive, to $260/month/user for Salesforce's highest tier. $260 is around PhP11,000, which is near the allowance of entry level sales people in some industries. Plus there is the investment in time to train the organization in the CRM, as well as the initial upload of data into the system.

This investment does not make sense for organizations where there is a constant flux of hiring and churning of sales people. Nor does it make sense for organizations that pays the lowest salaries in the market.

However, for organizations that retain their sales personnel for years, and compete in the upper regions of market salaries, equipping sales teams with tools that help them sell better makes a lot of sense.

Cost of leads are under-appreciated
For sales-driven companies, marketing efforts can be measured by cost per lead or cost per sale. This is difficult and expensive to compute for traditional channels like TV, print and radio. Among traditional channels, only events (like exhibits) have an easy way to compute cost per lead.

With internet-based lead generation solutions (like Leadfunnel), this computation is straightforward. Once organizations see the cost per lead, they are more likely to try to maximize their revenue from each marketing investment. The first step in achieving this is to not let leads just fall off the attention of the sales team: following-up until there is a clear Yes or a clear No, or until the right time comes. With hundreds to thousands of leads in the pipeline, this quickly becomes a headache with just Excel.

Managing leads with a CRM also allows a comparison of cost per lead and, more importantly, cost per sale of each marketing channel. We love to compete at Leadfunnel, so we like it when our clients compare our cost per sale to other channels. Sales organizations will always have more than one sales channel, but our goal is to have the best ROI among those channels (because smart companies spend more money on the channels with the best ROI).

What will make CRM mainstream in the Philippines?
If my logic is correct, higher salaries of sales professionals should make CRM and sales acceleration software make more sense. The growth of outsourced sales in the Philippines, which is a huge part of the BPO industry, should impact the demand side for sales talent.

Experience in sales pits of US organizations also trains the newer generation of sales professionals in metrics-driven sales.

CRM is also becoming more affordable. We are currently testing Hubspot CRM for a client and it seems pretty robust. Will Hubspot's free CRM bring it to the mainstream the same way Yahoo made email mainstream in the Philippines in the late 1990's?

The younger generation of sales leaders, who grew up with tech, would probably be more open to using software to make their work more efficient and effective.

Lastly, solutions like Leadfunnel will make it easier for organization to measure returns of marketing investment.

All these factors combined should make CRM mainstream. What do you think?
Comments
    What's Leadfunnel.ph?

    Sales pro? Get updates.

    Authors
    Picture
    ​Hi, I'm Jason Dizon, an Account Executive at Leadfunnel.ph. Worker by day, student at night, I am an experienced news writer but a newbie blogger.  You can reach me via email at jasonluis.dizon@gmail.com 

    When I am not working or studying, I like traveling with my friends and watching movies and series. If you want to know more, you can add me up on Facebook or follow me on twitter "@mashedpotato12." 
    Picture
    Abby Garcia is an account executive at Leadfunnel.ph. While she is an amateur as a blogger, she is an expert as an academic and creative writer. If you have comments, suggestions, and violent reactions, beep her up here: 0917-909-0754!

    ​Learn sales, while entertaining yourself!
    Picture
    Psalm handles sales development here at Leadfunnel.ph. A photographer and writer, he appreciates the different things people are passionate about. Even the small things matter. 

    Feel free to message him at psalm.pueblos@leadfunnel.ph.
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Categories

    All
    Philippine Sales Leaders

    Archives

    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    RSS Feed

Contact Leadfunnel

Mobile: +63 917 560 8519

Leadfunnel.ph is a solution from Advenient Corp.
U323 UPTBI Building, Gorordo Ave, 
6000 Cebu City, Philippines
Contact Form

Follow

Linkedin
Facebook

Browse

  • About Leadfunnel.ph​
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Picture
Header Image: Makati Skyline by Jovanie Cabrera.