The original version of this article “Do I really need a CRM for my small business?” can be found on Gmelius Official Blog.
Do I really need a CRM for my small business?
Are you are looking for a better way to manage and grow your small business? Then yes, a Customer Relationship Management (often abbreviated as CRM) system is not only necessary but can make all the difference!
In today’s highly competitive world, you are probably looking for a leg up on your competition. By adopting a CRM system, especially one crafted for your business-specific needs, can help you gain that much-wanted edge over your competitors.
What is though exactly a CRM system?
The ultimate goal of any successful business is Customer Delight, and a CRM system is essentially all about keeping your customers happy.
Keeping your customers happy requires a personalized approach for each one of them. However, this involves a lot of data digging and time invested into dealing with each customer separately. Rushing things, in fact, may backfire.
This is where the CRM solution taps in. It empowers teams and businesses to manage customer information and data and ultimately build stronger customer relationships. By offering tools and functionalities that help you collect, process and analyze data coming from your client interactions, it allows you to organize and make sense of said disperse data to extract useful information that identifies sales opportunities and creates marketing campaigns and sales funnels.
Pushed mainly by cloud technology, the CRM industry has been on a continued upswing over the last decade and transformed from a software service for the few into a thriving worldwide sector, accessible to all size of companies and teams.
I know immediately what question pops into your mind at this point, I had the same one.
By scaling a solution down from an enterprise level one to one for the needs of small business, are the expected benefits still relevant?
Will I be fooled into adopting a “mass market” version of a CRM system just because companies identified space in the market and decided to jump in?
You need to be clever here and choose a CRM solution built with a small business needs in mind. If you do so, the delivered benefits will amaze you.
What sort of benefits?
Let’s get specific. A good CRM will empower you to:
- Scale your sales process:
With the use of a CRM, you’re able to craft your sales process expertly.
Initially, you will regard an increase in the volume of your sales. A good CRM system allows you to identify qualified leads, check conversations to identify potential engagement and conversion points or upsell opportunities.
The performance indicators and stats stored in your CRM system(i.e., tracked emails, Real-time opens, clicks and response notifications) will help you spot effective and ineffective patterns in your sales communications. It’s vital to know how effective your outreach is performing. It is of high importance for small businesses to track what’s working and what’s not.
All-in-all, a good CRM you will be able to generate an accurate sales funnel for you, making it easier to forecast sales and prepare to serve more customers with the same level of service, in less time.
We talked already about the delivered impact at the end of your funnel. But what about prospecting? Small businesses heavily rely on email marketing to drive traffic and attract website visitors to increase sales.
This is exactly why you should opt for a CRM offering email automation loaded with the smartest features available. Features such as powerful email tracking, shared templates and excellent bulk-mailing with advanced personalization options will save you time, drive awareness and help you reach more prospects.
Lastly, once your sales process is set up in a CRM, you can easily modify it as you need, test new sales motions and strategies and extend that new process across your whole team with the help of the offered automation and collaboration tools. No more having to regularly check-in with your team to make sure they remember to follow the new process.
- Make more informed and intelligent decisions:
Digging out stats,e.g., emails sent, email opens, is confusing when you don’t have all the information in one place. You’re left to rely on hunches or your gut to tell you, for example, if the client has read your proposal.
Instead of your wasting time in searching notepads and past email conversations, creating your own spreadsheets and graphs, all the info you need is right there in a dedicated dashboard.
You can also identify pattern and behaviors based on this information.
For instance, you might notice that satisfied customers are more likely to see your emails if you send them out on Thursday afternoons instead of Monday morning. Others might respond well to a particular subject line. By having this kind of information at your fingertips can help you tailor your outreach even more.
- Get more control over your communications & boost team collaboration:
CRM helps you organize your information around a conversation with a prospect or a customer. As most of our discussions happen via our main today business communication hub, our inbox, it is only logical for your business emails to be captured in your outreach tool so you will be able to access all your information in one place.
By further centralizing your communications and all information around them, you will be able to keep a detailed track of the conversations you had with customers.
For small businesses, this information is vital to get your team in no time on the same page, promote collaboration and run your sales process smoothly.
You can also keep tabs on your leads with automation tools such as reminders (follow-ups) and dedicated Boards to know when you’ve last touched base with them, to know exactly when to follow up.
- Boost efficiency and productivity:
Trying to remember every single detail in a conversation you had with a client can be arduous, and as you grow, it’s going to be more and more taxing on your mind and your sanity. By using a CRM and features such as notes, you’re able to put your thoughts in a trusted, organized, and central system instead of having to rely on spreadsheets or worse your memory.
It will not only give you some peace of mind but the upper hand in your communications with your customers. You’ll have all the needed info on a lead and not waste time on trying to remember a bunch of details.
Lastly for small companies, an investment in a robust project management solution is an unjustifiable expense, so what you need is a light task manager to go with their CRM, organize all your processes and projects and boost your team’s productivity.
More time means you’re able to get more things done.
By using a good CRM for your needs, you’re creating a more productive work environment that lets you get more things done without having to clone yourself or overwork your team.
Sure, this is all sounds good, but get to the chase finally;
How do I know if I really need one?
Here’s a list of questions that will give you an indication of whether or not your business needs a CRM solution.
If you answer “yes” to a majority of the questions, it’s high time you start your research.
- Are you sure that prospects are identified, all leads in the sales pipeline are being followed up, and customers are nurtured?
- Are you able to launch effective marketing campaigns and assess their performance?
- Are you able to provide accurate information or forecasts on your outreach on short notice?
- Are you able to view all your sales emails and results at the click of a button?
- Can you currently accurately identify the areas of the sales process in which most sales are lost?
- Are you frustrated with the time you and your team spend currently on repetitive administrative tasks?
and lastly,
- Are all your customer interactions taking place via a central hub, e.g., your GSuite account and potentially accessible to everyone in the organization?
So whether you’re just starting a business and need a way to manage your first few clients, or you need a helping hand to scale your processes as your client list expands, there are many good reasons to consider looking for the right CRM. It’s a win-win. You’ll get more organized and have more control over your business, and more importantly, your customers get a better experience!
So if I convinced you to start looking for CRM Software for your company and you would like information to help you choose the one that’s right for you, contact us at Gmelius; we’ll be happy to discuss your needs.
Stay tuned, in the upcoming weeks, and we share with you the exact criteria to take in consideration according to your sector or industry when evaluating a CRM solution.
Gmelius is a new type of CRM: lightweight, collaborative and seamlessly integrated into your main communication hub, your inbox.
