When you hear the word CRM (Customer Relationship Management), a number of things must come to your mind. First of all, we all know that CRM or customer relationship management is a digital tool that can be classified as a process, a system, a platform, or even software. Since there are many cloud-based systems for the use of CRM, this gives it even more flexibility in its definition. Yet, before we actually define and begin to understand sales CRM and the CRM system in general, let us understand the environment that we are doing business in, so that we can understand what prompted the evolution of such a system in the first place.
About two decades ago, a digital movement called E-Commerce began. This basically helped businesses get online and sell online. At the same time, people began to do more online – starting from socializing on social media to banking, buying grocery and eventually moving all their shopping needs online, there was nothing left to the imagination any longer. With this advent of E-Commerce and the reach of digital marketing, came big data. While businesses were able to reach their target audience much more easily and at a fraction of a cost compared to other forms of traditional marketing and media, there was now the question of competition and how one was going to crunch that wealth of data to create targeted campaigns to capture the attention of fickle minded customers.
This is where sales CRM made an entry. Way back in 2006, HubSpot was the first company to evolve the system in a very basic way before it was taken up by a number of CRM companies, and today, we have a highly evolved system that can help you conduct business online and find your customers online with much ease – even as the big data piles up and demands your attention. This is a system that has been evolved in a way that can fit all sizes of businesses as well as all industries. Further, at the micro-level, a CRM system can even fit various departments and functions including sales, marketing, and much more. The beauty of this system lies in the fact that it can be used for a number of teams to create collaborations across all lines for a unified effort towards a common goal.
Here are the various reasons why you need to take on a sales CRM software in order to grow your business and reach your goals:
1. Centralization:
The sale is a field that needs to draw energy, efforts, and information from many related fields including marketing, accounts, operations, and much more. In order to do this well, the sales CRM software often creates a centralization of efforts so that the push is genuine and an all-inclusive one that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to winning those all-important conversions. With the centralization of efforts and information, the business can become a more cohesive one where all the departments and teams move together towards a single goal. Thus, all the efforts will come together rather than being scattered and the focus will be on delivering the best experience through the core product or service to the end-user.
2. Simplification:
Simplifying sales is another rather important function carried out by the sales CRM software. When you have all the information for interacting with prospects and customers in one place, you can be sure that your sales process will be a simplified one with the least amount of complications. This is something that you can easily get when you adopt the sales CRM system. This kind of CRM will ensure that all the data stored in the various fields of the database or the CRM structure would be designed and collated in a way that it would be called up for the relevant function and the relevant team member. This would be done by way of attributes that are assigned to each nugget of information so that all functions and campaigns are data-driven to ensure maximum chances of getting a conversion out of the entire process. This would also ensure a successful sales pipeline for the entire team.
3. Organization:
This is a major function that many small and growing businesses often miss out on. When your information and tasks are not aligned and organized properly, then there is little chance of an efficient and successful foray through the sales pipeline. Yet, we all know that it may not always be possible to manually sift through all the big data in order to organize each piece of information and then align it with each task. Also, it would be extremely chaotic to have each team member try and figure out which information is relevant for his or her role or task in this entire gamut. Hence, the organization is the most basic and perhaps the most important requirement which is fulfilled by the sales CRM software.
4. Team Efforts:
By organizing the teams and the information, the sales CRM also manages to align both things so that the team effort is a cohesive one in keeping with the overall goals of the organizations. The sales CRM software would give birth to a team that plays together and stays together. Not only will automated prompts help people understand when they are supposed to step in to play their part in the sales pipeline, but the information they need at that exact moment will also be right at their fingertips so as to engage the customer in a far better manner. This will also ensure that the team collaborates well and there are limited chaos and the chance of missing out on tasks. Also, in this way, the duplication of efforts would also be eliminated since the automated prompts would notify the individual team member of the tasks that they are supposed to undertake in order to further a conversion. This also helps in putting up a more professional front for the business as a whole.
