CRM

CRM software helps you manage the customer relationship process. If you’re a business-to-business company, you probably already know exactly what CRM software does because your sales team likely struggled with this at one point or is struggling now. The importance of customer relationship management it can never be overstated because it’s such a crucial process to prospecting, onboarding, and following up with clients.

CRM tools have a broad set of applications, covering everything from automating the adding of contact and company info, automatically logging meetings and sales phone calls, and organizing file uploads on a per customer basis. Customer relationship management is equally about tracking lead opportunities, which is why most CRM tools have a heavy focus on tracking sales leads and organizing where those prospects are at in the process. This makes it easy to follow up based on genuine data. CRM software also does some of the advanced metrics such as email tracking, link tracking, and website tracking. This allows you to get to know your customers inside and out and leverage your data in real time.

Let’s explore some of the unique features of CRM software and how these tools can benefit your business going forward:

Centralized file access with dedicated document libraries

When you’re communicating with potential customers or current clients, you commonly need to access the same files and as much as Dropbox or Google drive is helpful, it’s not an end-all solution. Most CRM software provides centralized file access with dedicated document libraries where you can upload commonly needed files. This gives you on the go access to the files you need, reducing your customer service time and improving your overall efficiency.

Account and contact automation

If you’ve ever run into a scenario where you had to add account or contact details to multiple tools that your business uses, then you know the struggle of not having CRM software. When you download and use CRM tools, your account and contact details are automatically added as leads are uploaded to the system. This simplifies the entire process and through integrations with automation tools like Zapier, this can be streamlined even further.

User access based on roles

Within your sales team, you probably have in-house employees, contracted labor, and of course customer accounts. Giving these different roles the same set of access to your CRM software could lead to data breaches and high levels of access for individuals where it’s not needed. Role-based user access simplify its this process and applies need-to-know access and security throughout your CRM software.

Opportunity tracking

Leads come in all shapes and sizes and they also bounce around between your different sales stages. It’s important to track leads and know where communication is at and at what level within the sales pipeline at all times. This allows you to stay on top of your most important opportunities and audit your sales team to see how individual members are performing. Opportunity tracking is essential to closing deals and bettering your onboarding process.

Workflow automation and task tracking

Staying on top of important tasks is probably the most important but also the most challenging aspect of running a business. CRM software gives every employee within your business an opportunity to have their own task manager or they can prioritize and set due dates for important tasks. These tasks can be assigned to accounts, contacts, opportunities and even email campaigns. This gives every member within your business real leverage over their efficiency and productivity.

Email campaign automation

Have you ever started to write an email and decided you weren’t quite ready for it to go out to the customer? You saved it for a later date, only to forget to follow up on that email and ultimately, the customer was neglected. This is an unfortunate reality that businesses face far too often. Email campaign automation allows you to set and automate emails, sending them out at a time that’s right for your business. You can schedule follow-ups and create tasks to rewrite emails so that you and your employees are always on top of follow-up needs.

Of course, CRM software also comes with advanced insights and reporting tools that allow you to view accounts, contacts, and opportunity tracking in real time. You can view your revenue, average sales cycles, average value per lead, percentage of won opportunities, number of new opportunities, expected revenue versus revenue goals, revenue this year versus previous years, top earning accounts, top lost accounts and the reasons for those losses, funnel analysis, and more. Reporting is how you gain ongoing value from CRM software and use it to improve the customer relationship process. This can be an immensely valuable tool to your business and your sales team. CRM tools are often open source and provided free to download.