The Who, What, When, Where & Why of a CRM
Let's cover all of the bases - who uses a CRM, what is a CRM, when one should implement a CRM, where can one benefit from a CRM, and finally why one should use a CRM in the first place?
The letters "CRM" have been trending as of lately and it makes sense with the state of the working world in 2020. A CRM — Customer Relationship Management — often thought of as only a sales tool used to manage and grow relationships. CRM’s have now become necessary to effectively manage your entire business ecosystem. It can act as a single database, bringing your sales, marketing, and customer support activities together, streamlining your processes, policies, and people all in one place.
Who uses a CRM?
Until recently, CRM's have been primarily adopted by large enterprises only, but now CRMs has begun their implementation into small and medium sized businesses (SMB) globally as well. In addition to SMB's and enterprise level companies, freelancers and independent contractors are beginning to adopt these systems. If you find yourself struggling to keep track of all your leads, customer interactions, and accounting, or you are spending more time handling customers than actually working with them, then you will value from a CRM. Direct to consumer companies can also benefit from this system. Many B2C companies have shorter customer life cycles, and typically require solutions that are more direct and less time-consuming. A multi-channel CRM features lead management, automated email responses, and mass email drip campaigns. You are able to reach out to your customers easily and efficiently.
What is a CRM?
This seems obvious but CRM stands for "Customer Relationship Management" - in simplest form, a CRM is a way to manage leads (people who are interested in you) and your existing customers in the most efficient way possible. The goal of a CRM is to increase business relationships through customer retention and customer acquisition. With better lead management your acquisition of customers will improve thus increasing your sales. A CRM is much more than simply a means of managing your customer relationships - it’s a powerful accountability tool that can aid in improving your teams workflows and other processes.
When one should implement a CRM?
This will vary from company to company. It's never too soon to implement a CRM, even a team of one can benefit from having all customer data in one centralized place. A CRM will help you to grow since you're able to delegate and inspect the expectations you've laid out for your team. If your team is already well established a CRM can help unify your internal sales, marketing and support teams. Marketing is able to target the prospects the sales team is working on and the support team has oversight of everything to better assist with issues and questions as they arise.
Where can one benefit from a CRM?
There are literally hundreds of ways that you will benefit from using a CRM. One being, sales automation, which will help sales reps stay focused more on sales rather than administrative tasks. A CRM will allow you to automate your sales processes, with many systems being able to replace administrative tasks completely through automated AI workflows. A good example of this is with automatic lead assignments. With those you will know exactly when a lead comes in, who owns it, and its progress through your sales pipeline. I could write a few posts on all of the benefits of a CRM but click here to learn more.
Why one should use a CRM?
CRM systems are becoming systems we might all use in some form or another soon enough. Similar to how we now all use social media on a daily basis. Technology has matured and developed over the years, and CRM systems now help companies with nearly every aspect of their business cycle. Companies experience an increase in sales & marketing returns, all while helping lower overhead costs. An efficient CRM will help to bring your sales and marketing teams together so they can work cohesively rather than independently. A CRM will also allow you to analyze the interactions your team makes with your customers, efficiently track your leads, higher predictable forecasting, streamlining your overall sales and marketing processes, and more.