It’s 2017 and you still don’t have a customer relationship management (CRM) solution? CRMs have several benefits for small businesses. CRMs are designed to help businesses of all sizes manage communications and customer data. While you may have an address book or spreadsheet and make due contacting your clients and leads manually, eventually you will need a better system.
Organize Your Data
A CRM can help you manage information about your clients and leads by staying organized. You can track and manage communications with all your customers and find trends in communication so you can customize sales calls and campaigns.
Keep Your Sales and Marketing Teams on the Same Page
Multiple systems or manual methods of tracking customer data do not always get updated properly. With a CRM, you can ensure your sales staff and marketing team have the same information about a client or lead to better serve them. Having up-to-date relevant information on a customer means anyone on your staff can access it at any time they reach out.
Stay in Touch
A CRM can help you boost sales by ensuring information about leads is organized. This allows you to stay in touch on a regular schedule and nurture some leads by finding ways to turn leads into sales. A CRM can also send automated reminders to leads about special offers, discounts, or the latest in your products and services.
Automated Communication
Sending individual emails and sales calls takes hours out of your day. A CRM acts as a virtual sales member to help you do more with less time by sending multiple lists and segmenting customers from leads. You can set specific groups of clients or leads customized sales information based on their recent purchases or viewing behavior because a CRM can track such detailed information.
Establish More Return Customers
You can use a CRM to focus on your current customers. While new sales are great, return customers are just as good. You can send targeted messages to customers based on their purchase history. If someone bought a specific product from your company, you can send automated messages on similar products or upgrades to that product. Customers will likely take a look at the new product or sale.
Generate Custom Reports
You may not think customer interaction is important but it can help set the stage for all of your sales calls and campaigns. You can generate reports and metrics based on past and recent communication with your clients. You can track which customers read your emails during a certain day or time of day. Some customers may be more responsive to a certain style of message or subject. Knowing this information can help you build more effective lines of communication with your customers.
Integrate With Your Other Applications
You can integrate a CRM with your Outlook or Office applications to send calendar invites to sales events or reminder emails to leads about your business. You can also use a CRM to integrate WordPress and different payment platforms.
