When you start a business, you’ll encounter a dizzying array of acronyms: ROI, SEM, CPC, PPC, OR, CTR, LTV and many more. But there’s one acronym you really need to know: CRM.
Simply put, CRM – or customer relationship management – is software that tracks your interactions with prospects and customers.
The CRM stores contact information for your deals (their name, email and phone number) and any other identifying info you choose to track.
It also logs your touchpoints with prospects – such as sent emails, phone calls, and in-person meetings. To top that off, the GetResponse CRM also lets you track deal stages and see why a deal is closed-lost, closed-frozen or closed-won.
If you’re struggling to manage your contacts, a CRM is an invaluable tool for growing and scaling your business. But on the other hand, it’s yet another tool you need to learn, implement and manage. So you’re probably thinking, is it really worth it?
Absolutely. And here are the top 4 reasons why your business – whatever its size, age or industry – needs a CRM.
1. Keeps your data in one place
In sales, speed and simplicity are essential. Spending precious time searching through your inbox or call history to get a prospect’s number – or see when you last got in touch – is a huge waste of time. It’s also unreliable. If you forget a touchpoint, you risk sending the same email multiple times, which can annoy your prospect.
A CRM gives you a full, accurate record of your entire interaction history with prospects. And it’s all accessible with one click. So you won’t have to manually reconstruct a timeline of touchpoints, because it’s all visible and easy to access in the deal.
You can also use a CRM to see the sales pipeline and opportunity queue. That way, you always know if you’re on track to reach your sales quotas or goals.
2. Connects the entire organization
CRM also improves communication across your business. What if a rep is working a lead their colleague spoke to a year ago? What if they don’t know they’re taking over a team member’s territory – and are working from an indecipherable Excel spreadsheet of prospects?
All these problems are solved with a CRM. Reps can immediately see what’s already been done with a given prospect – and the next steps. So they don’t need to reach out to their colleagues to get interaction history, because the information they need is already in the system. CRM saves time, and keeps everyone up to speed.
3. Makes your life easier
CRM also standardizes how you and your colleagues track activities and prospect interactions, which streamlines reporting.
Without one, salespeople will track activities in different ways. This makes it hard for managers and leaders to piece together data. Because CRM makes data entry uniform, managers can easily combine and analyze data to get a big picture view of the organisation in real time.
Consistent recording can also keep your sales team happier. They can easily see when leads are reassigned, and have a clear and complete picture of prospects as they move through the queue.
4. Sustainable, scalable tool for growth
“Can’t I just do this all in an Excel spreadsheet and call it a day?” you might be asking.
If you only have a handful of customers, you could manually track each interaction. But look ahead to one, two or even five years from now. I imagine you’ll want to make more sales and grow your database. Soon your salespeople will have to spend much more time recording prospect and customer information. And if you’re still doing everything yourself, 24 hours still might not be enough to do it all – and do it well!
Also, do you want to analyze your sales activities to see which outreach strategies or touchpoints work best? It can take a lot of time to pull inconsistently tracked data from different sources – and it might not give you a true picture.
It all comes down to one question: do you want to grow your business? If so, you’ll need to pinpoint the best times to contact your prospects and give them relevant info. A CRM is the simplest, most effective way to do just that.
Best of all, the GetResponse CRM is now fully integrated with email marketing. That means you can easily communicate with your contacts – and get a helicopter view of your sales and marketing efforts in one place.
Over to you
Thinking about using CRM? Or do you already use one in your business? We’d love to know what features and functionality you need to skyrocket your sales and marketing. Share your comments below – we’re always happy to help, and we might even add your ideas to our CRM!
The post 4 Reasons Why You Need CRM for Your Business appeared first on GetResponse Blog - Online Marketing Tips.
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