If you are reading this, chances are, what you do is being done by at least hundreds of other companies. Businesses are engaged in a constant tug of war to retain existing customers while growing their existing market share.
This state of constant competition means USPs – Unique Selling Propositions take center stage in business growth strategy. In a world where most of your competition is treating their customers as mere numbers, humanizing your customer interactions can get a lead on your competitors.
Customer relationship management software (CRM) plays a pivotal role in operating a business. Entrepreneurs can sit back and relax while the software takes care of monotonous activities which otherwise take huge chunks of time off the daily schedule. However, the process involved in putting CRM efforts into plays is quite tedious, making business owners and decision makers doubtful about CRM adoption.
CRM is projected by Forbes to become a $40 billion (and above) industry. What's more, this technology can become a real game-changer when the data is secured in the cloud. Think beyond the standalone desktops of the past era, where losing a desktop meant losing long lists of customer and lead information. Newer CRMs are faster, minimalistic in design and backed by the cloud.
Small to Medium sized businesses can also enjoy the cost-effectiveness of a good CRM model. In a study conducted by Inside CRM, “ease of use,” “data snapshots” and “schedule management” are one of the most prominent factors that lead to higher CRM adoption rates in companies.
Let’s take a deeper look into the workings of a CRM and its benefits for your organization:
1. Customer database
CRM software helps you keep track of every time a customer, old or new, comes in touch with your business. This enables you to have a profile on them where you can see parameters like frequency of purchase, customer preferences, types of products and services every individual customer is interested in, and real-time status of every sale as it progresses through your sales channel. This puts you in a position to provide highly personalized service to every individual customer.
2. Automated data entry
Every business wants to achieve optimal resource utilization to get the most out of their capital and workforce. In an environment where you want your sales staff to concentrate on generating new leads for you, you want to leave data entry work to your CRM software. With this help, sales staff can concentrate on bringing in new business rather than spending time on clerical work.
3. Centralized database
Having no or separate data records for each business department means your teams are not working with the same data set. This will inevitably lead to different strategies that do not synergize for the whole business unit. A centralized database maintained by CRM software gives a singular source of information to all departments, enabling them to work in tandem and create coherent strategies and plans.
4. Remote work and data access
Having a good CRM system means you are not tied down to your geographic place of work. CRM software with cloud capabilities enable you to store all your data in the cloud and access it on the go. All changes are updated in real time which means you always have access to the most updated information about your business. For large scale operations with multiple outlets, or for entrepreneurs who like to travel, this means their business is always in their palm.
5. Sales management
It is never too late to invest in a good sales crm. Salesmate predicts that a sales playbook is one of the keys towards unlocking more leads. You should manage workflow automation with an ideal sales management software that learns the sales steps of your business from you and then works on autoplay, just like you will run it manually.
For example, if you need to assign tasks to the sales team, you can simply log into the sales crm and update the tasks. You can set notifications for the whole team if a client takes an important step during the lifecycle. It is good to free your sales team from useless tasks that lower productivity. Use good software as a helping hand in sales management.
6. Spot at-risk accounts:
Technology can help you save more clients from opting out of the buyer cycle. Bain and company found in a research that a 5 percent increase in customer retention rates can boost up company profits by 95 percent! The hub of all this activity is your CRM software, where all the customer engagement tracking takes place. Your sales team can sense the danger and save the lead from getting wasted.
For example, if a client or a company is consistently complaining about a flaw in your product or service, it might go completely unnoticed without CRM software, because the complains might be going to different people who don’t pay keen attention. You can have better business tracking and reporting to turn every opportunity into profit. How to make it work? It is simple, and most CRM tools have this feature. Set up different triggers which are common in your type of business. Repeat complaints can be one such trigger. The software will notify the team whenever a sales trigger is hit by a client.
Last word:
Managing a business is not easy, but it is easier from 10 years ago when everything was done manually. Automation, artificial intelligence, and cloud technology have made customer relationship management easier for businesses of any size. Statista estimates that the power of AI in CRM can add $394 billion value to the sales sector.
All businesses perform better when each department is synchronized with the activity. CRM tools offer the perfect platform to sync all data and power marketing campaigns through sales data. Your company can have a 26 percent higher win rate if you are aligning marketing and sales departments in perfect harmony. It is time to step into the future of customer relationship management!
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