I felt compelled to improve upon the title of the article I want to direct you to: Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? (via Marketingwonk). Essentially the question is, when you invest in marketing certain messages and positions, can your sales department be part of this process? I think CRM then becomes part of the equation.
The writer complains that the website and automated emails from a certain company were well written and thoughtful, yet an email from a salesperson was gruff and stand-offish.
That’s why at our last sales meeting I made a presentation about email manners. As we move to CRM where email is integrated and likely scripted, the risk in using different voices and putting off potential clients is high.
A cut-and-paste email reply doesn’t sit well with the reader. I try to open and/or close with a personal comment so the person knows I was thinking about them, even if the rest is cut and paste. (I’ve created a simple email body for our salespeople and I think they mostly use it verbatim!)
I’ve also avoided using auto-responders for website inquiries for the same reasons pointed out in the article–I don’t have control over the response they get from our salespeople. Instead I have instituted a function that allows them to get a copy of the inquiry they send to us.