Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a tool that can be utilized by professionals in a multitude of industries and can be tailored specifically for specific applications.
CRM software is a tool that allows a company to manage its interactions with new and existing customers by analysing data relating to those customers’ historic interactions and dealings with the company. The key aims of effective CRM are to retain customers and drive business growth through sales.
The benefits of CRM are yours to reap if you wield it to your advantage:
Improve Customer Retention
Building quality relationships with your customers will foster loyalty and improve your business’ ability to retain the customers it already has.
It’s a well-known fact that it is much more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one: Five times more expensive!
Bear in mind that the greatest cause of customer attrition is the notion that your business doesn’t care about them, so you should be using CRM to track your existing customers’ interests, purchases and other interactions with your business. By doing this, you will be able to target those customers with specific offers, articles, advice etc. and reward those who remain active and loyal for given periods of time.
Speed Up the Sales Process
It should go without saying, but a surprising number of companies (new and experienced) overlook one simple fact:
If you close sales more quickly, you can make more sales.
CRM can aid you in this aim by automatically tracking every customer interaction without laborious input from you or your team. Simply run CRM reports to identify pinch-points in the process and identify areas that would benefit from revision.
Tailor to Your Industry
The sales process isn’t going to be same from one industry to another. For example, the way that a car dealership makes a sale (and the steps involved) are going to differ quite differently from a mortgage company. Therefore, it is important to use software that’s relevant to your industry and designed to handle the demands of your in-house processes.
For example, the mortgage CRM software available at setshape.com/mortgage can help to improve sales by prioritizing and distributing leads to a sales team instantly and allowing them to connect with clients, lenders and other parties from one platform. It can also identify and manage duplicate leads based on user-set preferences and notify your sales team when a high-value prospect re-engages.
Make More Sales
CRM can help to ensure that you’re trying to sell your products or services to the right customer. After all, not all leads are created equal and some leads are more promising than others.
CRM software can help you to identify common trends, such as demographic information:
- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Income bracket
- Marital status
It can also identify trends in customers’ previous interactions and generate leads for your company, such as:
- Email campaign opens
- Link clicks
- Historic purchases
By using this information, you can generate leads and categorize them based on a scoring system. This, in turn, will allow you to identify the highest priority leads, the “ripest” leads and the leads likely to generate the most income.
Conclusion
CRM software is probably the greatest tool you’ve never used. It can save money, make money and free your employees from expensive and time-consuming administration, which itself is often subject to errors.
