[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/05\/sales-management-software-features\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/05\/sales-management-software-features\/","headline":"The sales management software features your team must have","name":"The sales management software features your team must have","description":"In 2018, 27% of salespeople spent an hour or more on data entry each day. Years before, manual data entry was accepted as part of a salesperson\u2019s job \u2013 accounting for at least 50% of the role.","datePublished":"2019-11-05","dateModified":"2022-03-22","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/tracey-wallace\/#Person","name":"Tracey Wallace","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/tracey-wallace\/","identifier":367,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/21377d3250d3cee37a219265f855ca86717424033839661349c4b6845d2250cc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/21377d3250d3cee37a219265f855ca86717424033839661349c4b6845d2250cc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/thumbnail-499857e59b7ac790619ff8db95a1e400.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/thumbnail-499857e59b7ac790619ff8db95a1e400.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/05\/sales-management-software-features\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/sales\/crm\/","name":"CRM","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_relationship_management","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q485643"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/intelligent-enterprise\/","name":"Intelligent Enterprise","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intelligent_enterprise","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q6044119"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/sales\/","name":"Sales","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sales","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q194189"]},"Sales Success"],"wordCount":976,"keywords":["CRM | Customer Relationship Management","Sales Automation Software","Sales Performance Management"],"articleBody":"Remember the days of dieting and counting calories, recording how long you\u2019d walked or run (in minutes, since it was often difficult to know distance), or how long your workout class was \u2013\u2013 pilates, yoga, cycling?\u00a0It was similar to how people used to keep track of finances. Every day, week, or month \u2013\u2013\u00a0depending on what worked best for your own routine \u2013\u2013\u00a0you’d pull out that checkbook, which was also where you stored your receipts, and account for every single penny spent.\u00a0Both of these tasks were important. They kept us on track. They showed us progress. They made sure we weren\u2019t getting too ahead of ourselves in the case we started to slack.\u00a0But most people don\u2019t do either of these things anymore. They required hours of manual data entry, which is easy to mess up. These days, people just use automated technology to do this work.\u00a0For losing weight, you can use your iPhone and Apple Watch, a FitBit, and multiple apps that connect with your scale, your workout classes (through MindBody or ClassPass), and a flurry of other \u201csmart\u201d devices.\u00a0The same is true for finances. A simple login to your bank will show you exactly what hours of manual calculation used to take. Better yet, you can use tools like Mint, Personal Capital, or YNAB to show you your full financial picture \u2013\u2013 any time you want.\u00a0Sales management software features work exactly like how we track our weight, exercise, and finances today.\u00a0In 2018, 27% of salespeople were spending an hour or more on data entry each day. Years before that, manual data entry was simply accepted as part of a salesperson\u2019s regular job \u2013\u2013 accounting for at least 50% of the role.\u00a0But as consumers demand more personalization in every single touch point, providing companies and salespeople with evermore data than before on who their customers are, it would be impossible for a sales person to both sell and keep track of all customer data points.And they don\u2019t have to anymore.\u00a0Sales management software definitionSales management software is a system that automates much of the data collection process for sales teams \u2013\u2013\u00a0recording their day-to-day activities and keeping track of their pipelines, prospects, and customers. It’s also used by sales managers and leaders to identify trends, opportunities for improvement, and team wins.\u00a0Sales management software featuresThere are about eight different sales management software features to look for as you search for the right tool for your needs.\u00a0Among those eight features, there are sub-features relevant to each. You\u2019ll want to build out an RFP and reach out to various sales management software companies to understand which tool will best fit your company\u2019s needs.\u00a0Let\u2019s look at sales management software features and sub-features:Lead management: This feature helps sales reps assign, generate, capture, and nurture leads up to the point of conversion (the sale). Sub-features for lead management include: lead assignment, lead capture, lead generation, lead nurturing.Contact management: This features works to maintain a database of leads with contact details, call history, activity tracking, and contact history for future sales campaigns. Sub features for contact management include: Activity tracking, call recording, contact database, contact history.Opportunity management: This feature helps sales reps track potential sales opportunities through order management, pipeline management, and quote management. Sub-features for contact management include: Goal setting\/tracking, order management, pipeline management, quote management.Productivity and time management: This feature helps sales reps manage their daily work schedule by organizing meetings with potential leads through calendar invites, task scheduling, and document management. Sub-features for productivity and time management include: Calendar management, collaboration tools, confirmable workflow, document storage, task scheduling, task tracking.Analytics: This features allows sales rep to visualize sales campaigns in dashboards, graphs, and charts by filtering sales data such as lead generation, pipeline, and conversions. Sub-features for analytics include: Campaign analysis, data filtering, data visualization, pipeline reports, real time reporting, sales forecasting.Security: This feature monitors file permission and sign-on of sales representatives to manage confidential sales data. Sub-features for security include: Access control, role-based permission, single sign on.Additional features: These features enables sales management software to have more features such as chat, gamification, email templates, and more. This is another spot where you can narrow down your sales management software options. If you want a chat feature, but the tool you are working with doesn’t offer it, you can cross them off the list.\u00a0Integrations: This feature helps connect with other software that has specialized functionality such as email, CRM, marketing, and more. This feature in particular will help you narrow down which sales management software to use. If you need an integration to a particular other tool, and the sales management software doesn’t have it, you can move on to the next. Sub-features for integration include:Accounting integrationAPIsCRM integrationEmail integrationMobile integrationSocial media integrationNext steps\u00a0Businesses of all sizes use sales management software to remove large portions of manual data entry from their sales team’s workload. This helps to increase sales as each member of the team can focus on more opportunities. It also helps increase efficiency and transparency within an organization, as executives pull data from the sales management software system to better forecast wins, understand the customer journey, and figure out which levers to pull to increase revenue.\u00a0If you\u2019re looking for a sales management software tool, your first step is to take the list above of features and sub features, create an RFP document, and begin reaching out to the companies that provide this software.\u00a0Your goal is to better enable your sales team to focus on what they do best \u2013\u2013\u00a0sell \u2013\u2013 so you can take your company to the next level of growth.\u00a0  Ready to pump upyour sales performance? Start HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2019","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"11","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/\/11\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"05","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/\/11\/\/05\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"The sales management software features your team must have","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2019\/11\/05\/sales-management-software-features\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]