Collecting customer data seems to be a new concept for many new businesses. But it is a practice that has been in use for ages when business used to happen through the means of the Barter system. Now, it has just been professionalized and given a more complex name, but the concept remains the same, Taking notice of the needs of the customer and providing them with the suitable service/product while maintaining a good relationship for future prospective deals.
CRM or customer relationship management is the same thing, over the years, its definition has changed, but the meaning is still the same. It can be simply defined as a technology meant for managing a company’s relationship with its existing and potential customers.
Now, why is it important? Here are a few points:
- Time-saving: No manual work, automate all tasks. Instead of putting countless hours into filling up excel sheets, where you have to color code the sheet for audience segregation and where there are high chances of the sales rep missing a data entry or even mistyping. There is no record of who is taking care of which lead, and that leads to a lot of confusion, even after doing all this work, there is still no follow-up or notification on a lead.
With CRM software, there is no need to worry about any of these things, you can get all the customer data, and filter that data out according to your requirements. You can also keep a record of your leads and there are built-in features for follow-ups. Ultimately it saves you hours and makes the whole process more efficient.
- Tracking of employees: CRM software can also help in keeping a track of how many sales call are your sales rep making, how many leads they are closing, how many follow-ups they take, etc. Tasks that previously used to be filled in excel sheets, with no notifications and follow-ups. The CRM can have features like accurate call-tracking and call recording.
An example of an application that comes with time tracking is Bitrix24. Other companies are trying to develop similar software to enhance the efficiency of their sales team.
- Sales pipeline tracking: A sales pipeline is a line of procedures that are taken, right from the lead generation, till the sale is closed. Here, is the structure:
Lead generation > Qualification > Proposal > Post proposal > Commitment > Sale
This pipeline consists of procedures like:
- Tracking the lead stage: To determine the current position of the lead, where does that lead stand out of the 6 stages.
- Building and improving customized sales process: Customising the sales process according to the unique needs of a lead, and then building upon it.
- Personalized experience: CRM software provide more detail than any other platform such as Facebook, and just dial can to a company and this is going to lead to giving the customer a superior experience, how? Because you are going to have more accurate data, and you are going to know about different segments. You will be able to personalize the experience of the customer according to their needs. One such example is sending 1-click WhatsApp to your prospects with templates in TeleCRM.
Ultimately this is going to lead to the customer being more satisfied with your company since you know the customer so well and understand the customer’s needs. Also, the customer is going to remain loyal to you because eventually, the customer is going to develop a relationship with your company too.
- Ability to automate and scale: Ultimately, the ability that you are going to develop in terms of automation and the rate at which you are going to accelerate your growth through the help of CRM software is going to be unmatched.
To conclude, CRM software is going to save you so much time, that you can invest that time in other important things in your business. The adoption of CRM is in its early stage but it is the future of all businesses, and that is why everyone needs to have a CRM in 2022.
