5 business benefits of using a CRM?

Irrespective of your business, you need a sales team to bring you the dollars. The size of your team may vary — depending on factors like your budget, targets, and industry — but the fact remains that a sales team is indispensable.

What your sales team will find indispensable is a good CRM (customer relationship management). Gone are the days when a CRM was nothing more than a manual data dumping ground. In today’s evolving business landscape, a good CRM intuitively understands your needs and simplifies your work. It’s like having a fully-powered salesperson in your team, who’s available 24x7.

The free CRM software model is used by companies to get potential customers interested in their product. Over a trial period (usually 15 or 30 days), businesses can try out a free CRM software before they decide if they want to buy it.

If you’re still wondering how a CRM makes a difference to your sales team (and your business), here are 5 benefits of using a CRM:

1. Organize your information: Everything about your leads and customers — from their contact number and email to their address and social profile handles — remains in one database with an interactive interface, minus the clutter. Say goodbye to those dreary Excel sheets.
2. Know where every deal stands: With a CRM, you can build a visual sales pipeline and find out exactly where a particular deal stands — whether it is still young, needs follow up, or if it is under review.
3. Stop switching between multiple applications: Make calls, send emails, set up meetings and do more, all from inside your CRM. It’s no longer about finding information in Excel and opening your email client to act on that information.
4. Discover your leads and customers in real time: Has your lead opened that last email you sent? What is your lead doing on your website? Use your CRM to get real-time notifications about your leads’ and customers’ activities, and act right away.
5. Measure your sales activities: Create in-depth reports on individual sales reps, sales campaigns and your business territories. Track your sales numbers across monthly, quarterly and yearly time periods.

If you’d like to get started with a CRM right away, try this free CRM software.

Originally published at saas-helpdesk.livejournal.com.