Kanban for Sales

by CRM SalesFlow

What is Kanban?

Kanban (かんばん (看 )?) (literally signboard or billboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system for lean and just-in-time (JIT) production.[2] Kanban is a system to control the logistical chain from a production point of view, and is an inventory control system. Kanban was developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, as a system to improve and maintain a high level of production. Kanban is one method to achieve JIT.[3]

Kanban became an effective tool to support production as a whole.

Kanban has been used in many different environments including software development, where it is often used to visualize the work required to bring an application to release.

Kanban for SalesJust like software development, sales processes have a workflow. At a basic level, this could be:

Lead Opportunity Won Deal

Good sales management identifies new potential deals early and works on them to build relationships with the prospects.

Taking regular action, keeping in touch with the prospect and understanding what’s next are crucial to maximizing the chance of winning the deal.

Poor communication, deals that are hidden away or forgotten about leads to a higher rate of sales failure.

In Kanban, visibility is key. Stages are marked out, and items represented as cards.

For sales, these stages are sales stages, and cards are the deals being worked on.

NewInformation Gathering Proposal Follow Up Close

Deal A$25,000

Deal B$45,000

Deal C$14,000

Deal D$25,000

Deal E$72,000

Deal F$125,000

Deal G$83,000

Deal H$25,000

At CRM SalesFlow, we’ve created a solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM that brings Kanban to this leading CRM application.

Each stage in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM sales process is displayed as a Kanban column on the board. Each lead or opportunity is displayed as a card.

In Kanban, when a card needs to be progressed, you move it to the next stage.

In CRM SalesFlow, you simply drag the card to the new stage.

CRM SalesFlow will calculate how long the card has been in the stage, send alerts if it’s stayed in a lane too long, and update metrics so the user can see the sales velocity of their pipeline.

When a deal is won, the card can be placed in the Won stage, and the opportunity closed just like any opportunity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Users of CRM SalesFlow get all the benefits of the Kanban methodology:

Increased productivity

Reduce idle time

More time to sell

Understand where the problems are

Greater awareness

Increased focus

Efficiency

Improved responsiveness

Self discipline

is only US$15 per CRM SalesFlow User, and you don’t have to tie it to the number of CRM users.

It’s a cost effective way to make Microsoft Dynamics CRM work better for your sales team.

Visit www.crmsalesflow.com to learn more and register for a free 30-day trial.

CRM SalesFlow is a trading name of Fusion Software Limited.© 2015 Fusion Software LimitedMicrosoft and Microsoft Dynamics CRM are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.