crm forex solution

Forex Database | motivational artefact or disaster waiting to happen


 

Here’s to another day of calls, sales funnels and reports. You want to stay ahead of prospects but today’s vast array of information renders it impossible. Prospects are way ahead, much like those marathon runners who flash by you as you try to compete, gasping for air with each pace being more painful than the other… I know… a bit much but you get the point…

Throughout the years sales reps tend to accumulate a huge list of leads that are sitting in the forex database of a CRM system. And if the marketing strategy of the broker is strong, this list increases by the end of each day. Part of the forex sales process, requires a sales rep to know what’s in this forex database, in order to support the workflow via a focused, more targeted way of working.

 

How can a sales rep keep up with the ever increasing forex database?

Right or wrong, to simplify this question, we took the example of the ocean… Can we really know all the fish that are swimming in the ocean given the number of species, unlimited colour variations, size differences and so on? Don’t we have better chances knowing what’s in a smaller body of water, like a lake or an even smaller one, say a pond?

Point is, we cannot know all the leads that sit in our forex database unless we separate them in smaller pools of data, according to our dealings with them. Articles around the “era of Big Data” exploded and as a result of keeping up to date with today’s standards, customer relation management (CRM) systems do this for us and separate our forex database with categories and filters, more like those Matryoshka dolls that are nesting one inside the other. The idea; divide and conquer…

Other than providing segmentation and categorisation, CRM systems also act as business intelligence, analysing the information and providing input on the broker’s next steps, campaign ideas rendering the human creativity/experience/decision making obsolete.

 

What does separating the forex database mean for the sales rep’s role?

To answer that, maybe we should ask a different question first. In our quest for optimisation, automation, success, is it possible that we completely missed the point? And as a result, did we allow this quest to become a valid “excuse” for not doing what we’re supposed to do?

Let’s face it, most sales reps canvass for prospects, lose half the day reading past comments and scanning through categories rather than proactively picking up the phone and just, sell.

Truth is that there aren’t as many new/relevant leads coming on a daily basis, in contrast with a few years back. So from the broker’s perspective, how can we be sure that this tool we are providing to our sales department is working for… or against us? What happened to knowing and believing in our product, understanding and crashing our competitors, loving and hating the sales role? Correct me if I’m wrong but classifications like “not interested” or “potential” or “archive” or “active” matter very little when one’s determined to actually close a sale.

Not to level everything, having some knowledge of the prospect’s history is equally important and let’s face it; he who has knowledge spares his words and in the forex sales world, less (talking) is more, so having some of that precious history to work with definitely helps.

 

So what are we supposed to do with our forex database? I’m so confused…

To make a long story short, the sales job requires you to make the call and ultimately use your skills to get interest, not make yourself lose interest by the categorisations or comments of your forex database and ultimately lose any skills left to motivate you to make that call…

See what just happened?

Call – use skills – get interest   Vs   lose interest – doubt skills – no call.

 

Here’s what this article is trying to say:

– Brushing through the conversation history to gain perspective on how to proceed in a call is important.

– Don’t let overthinking and your emotions get the best of you. You will miss the point of why that history was given to you in the first place.

– Trust your sales training – if your training was adequate, nothing in the history you’re reading can change the outcome of the call. You will prevail.

– NOT always does a sale call equal closing business. A good sales call can be part of a series of calls, targeting a future outcome. As long as you proactively direct the calls, the target will be achieved.

 

Lastly, remember this:

A glass can be half full or half empty depending on how you look at it. In the forex sales world, everything relevant to our work, from an operation (backoffice, compliance, accounting etc) to a software like a CRM or a platform, if used efficiently and proactively can yield great results. If taken for what it is (just a system, just a platform, just compliance), it can actually make things worse both for our psychology and of course our results.

We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.Oscar Wilde


About allFX-Consult:

allFX-Consult is a boutique forex consulting agency, catering to quality rather than quantity. For over a decade, we’ve been supporting Sales Teams with training methods that aim to create proactive thinkers, rather than reacting customer support.

We don’t compete with in-house Sales Managers. On the contrary we add value to their work by working closely and efficiently towards the same goal.

We’re chosen for being discreet, detail oriented and deadline driven.

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Contact us for a private conversation to discuss any forex related topic through the contact form or one of our emails at info@allfx–consult.compartners@allfx-consult.com. We specialise in training sales teams and forex corporate structures for individuals that want to Start a Forex Brokerage.