Business as usual doesn’t appeal to growth-focused businesses. The benefits of CRM software for small and medium businesses go way beyond just efficient contact management and help them achieve operational excellence. Find out why SMEs should use CRM.
As a small and medium business (SMB) grows from seed to expansion to the established stage, your business challenges will vary and you’ll see a shift in the priorities over the period. However, maintaining a strong foundation for growth will always be a constant to help you power your businesses into the future. To build that foundation, you need to make the right decisions to:
- Keep your costs down so that your growth is scalable to increase profits over time. For example, if the rate of increase in revenue is the same as the rate of increase of the team, then you are growing, not scaling.
- Continue to innovate and improve your back-office business processes
- Attract and retain customers
Customer Relationship Management or CRM software can help SMBs with this level of decision-making and management. CRM system can help eradicate complexity and propel your SMB successfully through the growth curve.
So, today, Cymetrix, a leading Salesforce Consulting Partner is here to highlight the benefits of CRM for growing your Small and Medium business.
What are the benefits of a Customer Relationship Management system or why use a CRM?
Instead of sharing a list of features of CRM, I’ll answer this question by breaking it into two parts.
- What are the common problems for which SMBs are already investing in CRM systems?
- How can CRM benefits Small and Medium business and build a strong foundation of growth and scalability?
A. Some of the most common problems solved by CRM software
Recently, I interacted with two SMBs, both at different stages of growth. Both companies have recently implemented CRM in their companies. This gave me a chance to learn about the pain points that helped them build a business case for CRM implementation in their respective organizations. I’m sharing those insights here to give you a realistic idea about the kind of problems that CRM can help solve within your organization.
Problems shared by the small business owner while briefing Cymetrix before the CRM implementation:
- Difficulty in tracking sales team activity
- Forecasting revenue
- Tracking sales call history
- Inability to track leads effectively with a longer sales cycle.
- Disjointed and disorganized information spread across multiple platforms.
- Ineffective reporting leads to delayed business decisions
Pain points of a mid-sized financial investment advisory firm which they referred to while justifying recent investment in CRM software:
- Lack of internal coordination
- Difficulty in tracking and measuring the sales process
- Team management issues include tracking attendance, work shift hours, and unmeasured team productivity.
- Silo-ed departments such as sales and IT which were unable to provide a seamless experience to the customer
- Unable to resolve customer queries “on time” due to dependency on various departments.
- Disorganized opportunity management
You might also be interested in: How does lead management in CRM system can help increase sales?
B. How can CRM be of benefit to small and medium businesses?
Let’s take a look at the advantages of using a CRM system, especially from the perspective of SMBs. To present the benefits of CRM, I’ve covered five aspects directly affecting the growth and scalability of small and medium businesses.
1. Focus on leads that matter
When a business witnesses a steady increase in lead generation, the juggling of resources intensifies to nurture and convert those leads. Simply expanding the sales team is not an answer. As a growing SMB, you cannot play by the same rules as the corporate giants, yet it’s crucial to manage this growth well. So start with focusing on leads that matter. Not all leads generated through marketing efforts are ready to convert. Park cold leads and spend more time attending to those who have a higher probability of converting.
That’s where lead and contact segmentation comes in. CRM gives you the ability to create different groups of customers so that you can communicate with them in different ways. With features such as lead prioritization, automatic reminders, lead nurturing, and notes, businesses can expect to see improvement in funnel management with a clear focus on the leads that matter. That’s one of the main CRM benefits for businesses of any size.
2. Keep your team on the same page
Your sales team wants to sell – not fight with cluttered inboxes or messy spreadsheets. But with a growing team, even a small business can mismanage tracking sales activities, despite decent email trails and up-to-date spreadsheets. When the sales cycles are longer, or worse, of variable length of time, a lack of coordination between the sales team is a perfect opportunity for leads to slip through the cracks.
What do you think is the problem in the following scenario?
Consider a service-based business whose customers don’t make immediate buying decisions. Their website leads land directly in the email inbox. The sales rep manually enters the opportunity/ lead into custom software or a spreadsheet. She then establishes contact with the lead to qualify it and update the spreadsheet with her comments. She arranges for the site survey, coordinates with the engineer, and schedules the survey date. The team of engineers uploads their filed data on Google Drive. This is manageable with a smaller number of leads, but confusion starts building up when the business starts receiving a higher number of leads every day.
Imagine the pain of the sales manager when he tries to keep a constant pulse on the daily sales processes—following up with the lead after the survey, negotiations, and call logs. How much can up-to-date emails and spreadsheets help here?
Businesses can keep their teams on the same page by using one unifying platform i.e. CRM. Many CRM systems let you collaborate with your entire team and even build on cross-departmental collaboration.
3. Be known for a better customer experience
Some of the world’s leading companies have at least one thing in common- great customer Service. But such companies do not start paying attention to customer service after generating great revenue, but while they are evolving. Customer service is a part of the growth plan of any successful company. Why? Because it’s the customers, not the products or services holding the keys to profitability.
The financial advisory business in my earlier example was (and still is) witnessing rapid growth and they were increasingly facing the challenge of keeping pace with customer support due to the dependency on other departments until they invested in CRM.
By using CRM software, businesses can resort to quick labeling of customer issues, using canned responses effectively to resolve customer complaints. CRM can also improve a company’s customer service practices, helping employees respond to clients’ queries quickly and effectively.
4. Increase revenue from existing customers
Strengthening relationships with your existing customers can help you in realizing their full profit potential. They have a much higher chance of buying as compared to persuading a prospective client to make a purchase.
But up-selling and cross-selling are not the only way to maximize profits from your existing clients. If they’re happy, they’ll tell their network. It’s really that simple. Customer referrals are still one of the key sources of new business.
Using your CRM software, you can send targeted emails to segments of your customer base that relate to them and their needs. However, using your CRM software is not restricted to one-off promotional emails. You can set up elaborate nurturing campaigns that keep your customers in the loop about current offers, company happenings, and more. Thanks to its contact management, email, and nurturing features, you can reach your customers in a targeted, personalized way that encourages them to continue engaging with you. You begin to create loyalists, who will become advocates of your brand in their personal lives.
5. Accurate sales forecasting
For a growing small business, an increase in lead generation could be used as a misleading factor to make business decisions to set targets, plan resources, compensation plans, investor expectations, etc. By using a CRM with sales forecast reports, sales teams can fine-tune their selling strategy. Sales reps can see how they’re tracking against their quotas at any given moment, while sales managers can make more informed business decisions on how their team should manage its resources.
Concluding Note
The ability to organize and easily access customer information isn’t just about making it easier for you and your team. It can also make the experience much easier and more positive for your customers or potential customers. All benefits of CRM tie back to the underlying benefit of improved customer experience and as a result, deeper personal relationships. I hope I’ve answered this question for you – ‘What can CRM do for my business?’ However, if you want to know more, you can also keep reading about How CRM can help improve B2B sales effectiveness.
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Getting started with Customer Relationship Management
CRM is not just a technical solution, but a combination of methodologies, practices, strategies, and technologies which collectively help businesses develop stronger customer relationships. If your company wants to invest in your customers, a CRM consultant can bring clarity, strategic planning, and an understanding of customer-based processes at the highest level.
When looking at the top CRM systems vendors, a simple search will show you that Salesforce put cloud-based customer relationship management on the map, and is an award-winning CRM solution. Cymetrix Software can help you understand whether CRM is the right solution for your business and offer consultation to guide your Salesforce CRM project. So, don’t wait contact our team now!
