8 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a CRM System
Networking and contact management are an integral part of any business development plan. The ultimate goal is to retain customers and cater to their needs and requirements via up-selling and cross-selling. As a result, streamlining and organizing contact data plays a crucial role. Gone are the days where organizations store contact data in spreadsheets and emails. Upgrade from these traditional, time-consuming processes to cloud-based data storage facilities. How exactly do you do that? The one-stop-shop solution to your contact data management problems is contact management software.
CRM software centralizes contact data on a single platform by combining information from various sources and creating a transparent medium for all the members in the organization. CRM users can log account information related to customer purchases, calls, emails, chats, support tickets, etc. The following are a list of routine business activities that a CRM can automate:
Thus, CRM finds its place in any organization that intends to automate regular business activities, reduce time-consuming manual efforts to save time and money, increase profitability, and optimize business activities to achieve higher efficiency.
8 Reasons Why Your Business Needs to Use CRM
1. Saves time and money by reducing manual efforts
CRM software provides businesses with the tools to structure and automate a variety of sales processes and procedures. It stores and organizes huge data on individual lead, opportunity, and customer for quick and easy retrieval. Instead of spending time sorting contact information, users can effectively utilize this extra time selling and nurturing leads.
If you’re operating on a limited marketing budget, and need to make the most of it, CRM software is your one-stop-shop solution to maximize ROI. Here you can navigate the business at a higher profit margin.
2. Streamline your business’s sales process
The advantage of a CRM software tool is that it supports your sales team throughout the sales funnel, right from obtaining a lead to converting it into a customer by closing deals. CRM streamlines the management of customer relationships.
If the sales team requires help with better organization in the workplace, which helps them work together as a team, then CRM can help in many ways. If the organization wants to operate as a group on a particular project, or if individual members are handling different parts of a project, then coordinating tasks can be difficult. The right CRM solution can help you distribute tasks to team members and help you collaborate teamwork on a centralized platform without hassle. Every salesperson has a defined role with a clear objective. No opportunity will be ignored, and no member of your team will be left hanging.
3. Centralization of customer information
CRM maintains your customer information in individual records. The files can be updated with new data every time you make improvements in your relationship with your clients. Every call, email, contract, offer, etc. will be stored on one single platform such that your whole team will be able to access the information. It will save your business both time and effort since they won’t have to search through a pile of records to find a contact.
Saving your business data in the cloud is more secure than storing them manually, and your team reps will have the liberty to access information anytime, anywhere. Most SaaS CRM providers include regular backups of your data, thus being proactive in the case of disaster recovery. Furthermore, files are less likely to be misplaced, lost, or accidentally destroyed as the cloud is much more secure than most realize.
CRM tool allows integrations with other software your business runs daily. You can keep track of support tickets, calls, live chats, emails for each client. You can cross-reference with your calendar to schedule appointments and meetings. Collaborate with multiple software providers which help you run the show successfully by creating a centralized platform to access business data.
4. Improves customer services
CRM software manages contact information of leads, prospects, and customers such that reps will be able to view complete contact activity along with past purchases, personal likes, and preferences which help them find solutions to customer enquiries faster. In many cases, when reps were provided with the contact’s previous interaction and purchase history, they were able to locate answers to the tickets within a few minutes.
Visibility across customer relationships can help your teams proactively address at-risk accounts and satisfy customers with new opportunities at just the right moment. With transparency into customer history, active campaigns, or open cases, you can provide more satisfying purchase and service experiences that keep them coming back for more. Invest your time wisely in strengthening customer relationships, as this will pay dividends for years to come.
5. Detail analytics of the sales process
An Excel sheet gives you access to only limited data and insights. Whereas, CRM tool can provide detailed and in-depth analytics of your sales activities. Track and monitor your email drip campaigns with robust reporting tools of CRM software. Moreover, it also helps you identify the source which generates maximum revenue. You can also measure the performance of individual sales reps. This data can help the administration make critical business decisions, and help sales teams achieve higher targets.
6. To automate your business process
Most of the organizations have upgraded their business operations by automating several procedures to save time, money, and effort. Automating your daily tasks such as data entry and deal management improves employee productivity and results in increasing business revenue. Moreover, a carefully crafted algorithm can never let you down, unlike a negligent employee.
CRM software integrates with several other third-party applications such as accounting software, project management, and data processing software in order to meet customer needs and requirements in all the aspects of your business.
With robust CRM technology, many of your sales and marketing tasks can be automated to provide personalized solutions. CRM software takes care of the majority of administrative tasks such as maintaining customer records, and following-up with your leads, etc., leaving you time for the activities that make an impact on your business, such as scheduling a meeting with sales-ready clients.
7. Manage contacts with ease
CRM tool offers a 360-degree view of your contact information and helps in easy tracking of contacts at the need of the hour. Small businesses which struggle with budgetary problems love CRM product due to its capability to automate business operations, which eliminates the need to pay employees. Reps tend to let leads fall through the cracks due to complex work environments and unavailability of human resources at the moment. CRM software can solve these problems for your business. It tracks all sales and marketing activities on a single platform and alerts you when you need to pay attention to hot leads.
8. Timely follow-up
Following-up on time is one of the best techniques to stay in touch with prospects which help you convert them into your existing customers. Unfortunately, following up too late is one of the biggest reasons why organizations lose their customers and fail to convert prospects. CRM software helps you solve this problem by automating timely follow-ups through emails and reminders which alert your sales reps on the emergency of the situation.
Contact Management Software in CRM
Contact management is the process of streaming and recording contact details and tracking their interactions with your business. Such systems have gradually become an integral part of (CRM) software, which allows businesses to improve sales and service levels by leveraging a wider range of data. A lead turns into a prospect when two-way communication begins, and when the lead starts to express some level of interest in your business.
The contact management tool is an essential investment necessary for organizing your sales and marketing workflows in return for a significant customer conversion rate. It forms a centralized platform for all your contact data management needs by showcasing contact names, addresses, email, notes, essential follow-ups, and much more. It aligns your marketing and sales to maximize productivity. A contact management system decreases the lead leakage by helping you push contacts faster down the sales funnel.
CRM in Cloud – Access From Anywhere
CRM is cloud-based software, which enables you to access data from any location at a given time. Being equipped with Cloud-based technology, it makes it easy for people around the globe to connect, communicate, share and manage information from one central location. The advantage of cloud-based CRM software is that the users’ data is kept in a loop, and colleagues can meet virtually and interact from any location in the world at any time.
“72 percent of small business owners think that investing in modern technology, such as CRM, is going to result in a more significant ROI and help you grow your business.”(Source: prnewswire.com)
CRM database stores huge information
CRM stores complete information in a single database. It provides the facility of storing information in one database under separate modules. By storing data in one database, you eliminate the hassles of storing data in different formats and personal devices and drives. Being equipped with cloud technology, it ensures that data remains safe and protected. Additional to providing secure and reliable data storage, CRM consolidates all the customer information in a single place such that all the users can easily access and manage it.
Three Things That You Should Keep in Mind While Choosing the Right CRM Software for Your Business
Determine your business goals
Installing CRM software is the first step towards making the most of your new software. Without defining what objectives you are aiming to achieve for your business, you won’t know how to evaluate your methods and performance. Hence the next step would involve defining business goals and objectives. Here are a few examples of possible goals for an excellent start. Do you wish to :
Having specific short and long-term goals and objectives help you select the right CRM software, which can be used to your advantage.
Check whether it is easy to use
Ultimately your team members are the ones who use the CRM tool. Hence choose a CRM that they are comfortable working with. Most entrepreneurs seek to invest in an easy-to-use CRM. The better the automation, the faster will users learn to operate and handle it as a trusted tool. A notable pain point for CRM users is that the staff dislikes updating their CRM files manually. Pick a software that is more compact and less difficult to adopt, and ensure your team gets adequate training before they start working with the CRM.
Invest wisely to maximize benefits and ROI
Depending on the volume of information, the size of employees, safety requirements, and sales processes, your CRM tool should take up to a few weeks to implement.
However, if your concern is to quickly grow and run the business, CRM software provides an instant set up and helps your team with quick instructions to get you started. You can even add and remove users immediately and pay only for what you are using. For a large business, CRM software takes longer to install and requires more significant investment in terms of funds.
No matter which software you choose, you will have to customize it to suit your business requirements. The best CRM software is the one which helps your business grow and succeed.
The Bottom Line
CRM is a go-to-market solution for small businesses. It helps you avoid hiring staff by automating and optimizing customer interactions. It’s time to take the next step and start looking for the best CRM solution for your business. The CRM system helps you find more customers, win more deals, keep customers happier, and connects your business with its stakeholders for bigger and better growth.
