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CRM Software
Customers contribute significantly to business growth. Therefore, to succeed, companies must find ways to establish and maintain a good relationship with their customers. That’s where CRM software comes in. These digital tools are flexible and come with several options.
Featured CRM Software
HubSpot has made it so much easier for us to build and maintain relationships with our clients. Since we started using the platform, we’ve increased customer retention by 14%.
Darla Deyes, Dynamic Fitness
I’m glad that we took a chance on Pipedrive. We can now keep all our clients in the loop with customizations that cater to their unique needs and ensure they feel seen.
Tabitha Frey, HerCloset
Sendinblue has streamlined our client communications in a dramatic way – we can’t imagine going back to a world without this tool.
Steve, Gravity Solutions
What is CRM Software?
Customer relation management (CRM) software is a digital tool used to streamline customer data. Businesses often use the tool to manage customer relationships with their different departments. The software was developed to simplify the process of managing customers. Using the tool, businesses can monitor and manage customer engagements and document their interactions.
Common Features of CRM Software
To understand the basics of CRM software, it is important to explore various features. According to recent studies and reports, 20%-60% of CRM projects often don't deliver the expected results. The reasons behind this include the following: • Lack of clear insight regarding the product. • Lack of training • Unknown business objectives The main reason why CRM implementation often doesn't deliver the required results is lack of clear understanding of how the platform works. Here are the features you need to know about:
1. Sales Automation
CRM software generally comes with sales automation features. This functionality helps businesses automate sales processes and control outgoing calls and organizational data. This saves time as it minimizes manual tasks. Additionally, it helps create workflow triggers for given actions, thus preventing repetitive tasks. This comes as an upgrade. Therefore, it’s important to consider the number of repetitive tasks involved when deciding on CRM software. Keep in mind that if everything were automated, there would be more benefits than additional costs.
2. Pipeline Management
Pipeline management is another feature that comes with CRM software. This functionality provides you with a sales pipeline overview and the progress of various stages in the sales funnel. This is ideal for individuals with longer sales funnels.
3. Marketing Automation
Through marketing automation, businesses can efficiently track their potential customers. A good CRM gives you control over the terms of automating parts.
4. Lead Scoring
The tool comes with a lead-scoring system to help businesses allocate point values to their potential customers.
5. Lead Management
This is also an important feature that comes with these digital tools. The feature contributes significantly to high revenue. The CRM software often stores lead information whenever it filters into the organization. Additionally, the tool provides extra features to ensure each lead is pursued. For instance, the tool comes with lead-scoring functionality to determine the perfect lead to pursue depending on various factors, including the interaction of the lead with the organization's website. If the lead has interacted with certain pages, this can be a perfect indicator of the product they’re looking for. Again, CRM software can ease the visualization of lead information such as organization size and revenue, job titles, etc. This further helps eliminate the leads that businesses should not be chasing.
6. File Transfer
The tool also features a file transfer system that allows the organization to exchange data files.
7. File Sharing
The feature allows the synchronization and sharing of files across various devices.
8. Email Integration
The email integration feature allows the business to integrate with emails such as Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail, etc. this further allows the organization to manage and segment contact lists. Consider the primary communication of your staff members. If they don't collaborate within an app, it's worth going for CRM software with the email integration feature.
9. Data Visualization
The tool comes with data visualization feature, which allows you to represent data in graphical form. Additionally, through the feature, merchants can understand trends, outliers, and patterns.
10. Customer Management
Retrieving data from emails, spreadsheets, or papers can be tedious. That’s where customer management functionality comes in. The feature is the cluster of everything required to manage customer relations.
11. Contact Sharing
Contact sharing can be tedious, especially when done manually. Thanks to the CRM contact sharing feature, you can share multiple contacts at once.
12. Click-to-Dial
With click-to-dial, team members can simply click a button to connect at any time.
13. Call Tracking
The tool features a call-tracking functionality to trace the source of incoming calls.
14. Calendar Management
The tool comes with calendar management tools. These digital tools help create and schedule meetings. Additionally, through this functionality, members can accept meeting invites and resolve their conflicts.
15. External Integrations
CRM software also comes with an external integration feature. The functionality allows integration with other external apps.
Why Use CRM Software?
CRM software comes with several benefits, including:
- Helps the business understand its prospective customers
- Improved segmentation
- Improved customer retention
- Improved communication
- Secured data
- Improved collaboration within the business
How to Select the Best CRM Tools
With several alternatives on the market, choosing the best CRM software for your business can be quite challenging. This guide should provide you with tips to help you choose what is best for your business, including:
1. Understand the Basics of CRM
Although it sounds obvious, it's worth knowing what you intend to invest in. According to various reports, a good percentage of sales professionals don't understand the basics of CRM. As a business owner, you need to understand how these digital tools work, as well as their advantages and disadvantages.
2. Understand the Requirements of Your Organization
The requirements of your organization will determine the type of CRM software you need.
3. Understand the Various CRM Types
There are several types of CRM software. Therefore, it’s important to explore them to choose what is good for your business. Understanding various features of the software and researching software features can take extra time. However, it is something that you should never overlook. Different CRMs have different features, which can help determine the best CRM for your business. Types of CRM software: CRM software often helps organizations and businesses manage their engagements and customer collaborations. These digital tools can boost any organization's customer relations. Here are the various types of CRM software: • Operational CRM • Analytical CRM • Collaborative CRM • Campaign management CRM • Strategic CRM
4. Compare the Cost and the Budget
How much does your preferred CRM software cost? Different CRM solutions have different prices. These prices often depend on the subscription plan. As a business owner, it's worth knowing the various plans offered by different CRMs.
The Bottom Line
CRM software is common today in many organizations, and it’s easy to understand why. These digital tools help a business manage its relationship with its prospective customers, contributing to overall growth.