Your CRM Holds A Treasure Trove of Data

In my last column, I discussed the importance of sales forecasting at industrial product companies. Since sales organizations are the most important organization in creating and shaping customer demand, I advised managers in these companies to get more involved with sales managers during the demand forecasting and planning process. I briefly mentioned that integrating information from CRM systems would provide useful insight for improving accuracy as well as sales productivity. In this column I discuss how three components of CRM systems might improve these processes for both industrial and consumer product companies.