What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It refers to all processes, techniques and tools that most businesses use to effectively retain and acquire customers. A CRM system helps enterprises with various business aspects such as marketing, sales and service management.  Â
Apart from helping businesses build stronger customer relationships, a CRM system also enables companies to improve efficiency and increase revenue by automating essential business processes.Â
Essential Features to Look for in CRM Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can do so much more than just organising customer data and automating sales force operations. By investing in CRM software that offers powerful features, it can be beneficial for developing and nurturing leads, closing deals and strengthening customer loyalty.Â
Most enterprises are now getting the most out of CRM. However, choosing the best CRM software that suits your needs can be overwhelming. With a wide range of options available in the market today, finding the right one for your business can be time-consuming.Â
To help you make a sensible choice, here’s a list of essential features you should look for in CRM software:Â
1. Mobile adaptive
Businesses are expected to provide fast and efficient service inside and out of the office. To make it possible, you have to look for a CRM system that works on any device. Mobile adaptive CRM software enables salespeople to access customer data and manage deals on their tablets or mobile devices. A mobile-responsive CRM portal is designed to fit any device, allowing employees to improve sales productivity anytime, anywhere.Â
2. Workflow automation
Acquiring new customers and maintaining customer loyalty alone can be stressful for everyone in the sales team. Thus, finding effective ways to make sales processes easier and faster should be prioritised. CRM software has workflow automation features. These options allow businesses to automate manual and time-consuming tasks and activities through a centralised system without the need for human involvement.Â
3. Contact syncing
Along with workflow automation, CRM software also enables users to sync email accounts, contacts and calendars. This essential feature keeps the sales teams from dealing with manual data entry, allowing them to focus on more important tasks.Â
4. Lead management
Lead management is one of the most essential features you need to look for in a reliable CRM system. It allows businesses to identify their leads and monitor the actions they have made along the sales cycle, allowing them to come up with efficient and powerful sales strategies. Â
5. Reporting tools
Reporting tools are significant CRM features that enable businesses to see the results of their marketing and sales efforts. While most CRM systems offer basic reporting capabilities, most reliable ones allow users to access even more specific data. This includes the number of leads and sales during a certain amount of time, the exact stage at which leads have converted and the total number of leads closed.
Benefits of CRM: How to Improve Sales Productivity with CRM
While sales productivity greatly depends on the sales team’s commitment and efficiency, investing in powerful tools such as CRM software can make a huge difference. According to Finances Online, 65% of businesses have increased sales quota by 65%. Â
To boost revenue, increasing sales productivity is a must. For starters, eliminating mundane tasks and preventing redundancy can help the sales team focus on what they are actually good at — selling.Â
How do you improve sales productivity using CRM software? Here’s a list of 5 significant effects of CRM software to sales productivity: Â
1. Get everything under control
Integrating essential data such as your contacts and calendar into a centralised CRM system allows your sales team to have everything under control. With a CRM platform in place, salespeople can get notified for important meetings, ensuring that all details are well taken care of. Furthermore, a CRM system gives them access to vital information about the clients, suppliers, prospects and the entire team.
2. Shorten the customer sales cycle
Sales are known to be the lifeblood of any business. With CRM software in places, the sales team can benefit from workflow automation which in turn, can help shorten customer sales cycles. By automating sales processes such as creating and sending quotes and managing sales orders, converting leads and closing deals can be made easier and faster.Â
3. Share essential information across your team
Collaboration across your sales team is essential to business success. Without proper coordination, miscommunication resulting in unwanted events is likely to happen. Having your team in a centralised CRM system keeps everyone on the same page. Reliable CRM software allows salespeople to share the up-to-date information, ensuring consistency and preventing unnecessary mistakes.Â
4. Learn more about your customers
Powerful sales effort means providing customers with the best experience they can possibly have. To make this possible, knowing them well and understanding their needs is necessary. CRM software gives your sales team a holistic view of every client’s data, allowing them to create targeted services based on their needs and expectations.Â
5. Improve visibility
CRM software allows your sales team to easily generate reports from the information they have gathered. Through these reports, your salespeople can come up with sensible decisions and powerful sales strategies. A reliable CRM system can help create comprehensive reports that can help enterprises to forecast sales and measure their performance.
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