TOP 5 reasons in favor of implementing CRM

This article is aimed for entrepreneurs who can be characterized as somewhat “old-school”. We talk  here  not about age but rather about the approach to conducting business.

Most often, these are leaders of traditional, purely material businesses who have never used IT technologies before. The only exception might be the implementation of 1C, and even that happened due to unforeseen circumstances rather than as a result of a strategic decision. Ultimately, all responsibility for this process was shifted to the accountant, attempting to avoid active participation in the setup stages.

In 100% of cases, such entrepreneurs fail to grasp the value of business automation, except for 1C, where everything related to financial and inventory data is somewhat clear. However, understanding the principles of CRM is more challenging for them. Why, exactly, is this system needed? Most consultants and business schools talk about automation as something indispensable, already implemented in every business in the West. Yet, its real value remains unclear. Why invest money in yet another system? After all, tens of thousands of dollars have already been spent on 1C, from which quality reports have not yet been generated.

If you recognize yourself in this description, the following reasons “for CRM” may be particularly important for you. But first, a small remark.

These reasons are aimed for entrepreneurs who are constantly expanding their business, have intentions to scale it, actively seek growth areas, new products, markets, approaches, and methods of monetization. However, if your business is currently limited to a single building materials store in the center of the district, and your main goal is to open another one, the advice provided may not be relevant to you.

 1. Conversion from leads/interest to sales will increase by at least 10%

The system allows the rapid and timely processing of leads, controls response speed, and reminds you of missed moments in communication with leads. You gain full control over the stages of interaction with clients in a unified information field: missed calls, scheduled meetings, commercial proposals, necessary materials, documents, and more.

Thanks to this, even without using special sales skills and complex scripts, you successfully optimize routine processes, significantly contributing to increased conversion.

2. You will be able to create perfect sales processes in CRM and then scale them infinitely

This statement is particularly relevant for business owners, as their main goal in implementing CRM is to scale their business. It is crucial to realize that the absence of automation and the establishment of clear processes can lead to complete chaos in the company.

For instance, let’s say you initially had two sales managers, and later their number suddenly increased to ten. The demand for the product has grown, but clear processes are lacking. Each one sells using their own improvised scheme, there’s no properly configured telephony, all records are kept in Excel format, and there are differences in deal templates.

And what do you get in the end? Leads simultaneously go to different managers, complete confusion in the interaction history with leads, lack of quality analytics, and customer interaction standards.

In CRM, a unified business process for dealing with the customer of a product or service is established, and then managers are assigned to work with it.

This is one of the key requirements for scaling a business. Of course, the processes for three managers and ten will differ, but it is still better to refine and make adjustments to them than to have their complete absence.

3. If your business model allows up-sale to customers, then with CRM, these sales will increase by at least 25%

In the modern market, there are not many businesses where up-sale to a customer is impossible. Of course, there are goods and services that rarely have a subsequent purchase: a car, an apartment, sofa dry cleaning, and others. However, there are countless projects with a high sales cycle. For example, in the pet food sales sector, pet owners are likely to regularly return for food for their cats, creating potentially many deals that repeat.

It is considered that selling a service or product to a customer again is 6% cheaper than acquiring a new one

So, if your business model allows for the resale of a product or service, then CRM is undoubtedly necessary for you. The system not only gathers customer data in one secure place and optimizes tasks related to initial customer interactions but also automates the process of repeat sales. With its help, you can influence the customer massively through SMS, calls, mailings, chatbots. There are numerous possibilities, both manual and automatic, for working with leads.

4. You will be able to control sales managers at every step without gathering them in the offline office

Despite the challenges of COVID, a significant number of companies are returning to offices at any opportunity. Why? This is due to the inability to work remotely, set tasks, and especially sell online. For some owners, the physical presence of the team in the workplace creates a kind of illusion of control. Why do we specifically talk about an illusion?

Having a team in the office does not guarantee a successful organizational process of task execution

On the other hand, the presence of a properly implemented CRM system, trained managers and employees in working with the system, truly allows for a controlled work process. You have access to all “traces” of managers’ communication with clients: KPIs, the number of calls/meetings, accompanying documents, planning, fund receipts, invoicing, and agreements. And for this, it is not necessary to stand behind the responsible person and monitor how they perform tasks.

Another important aspect is that you can reduce office rent expenses by transitioning all employees to an online format. Or change the office size, leaving space only for special meetings, such as training new team members, etc.

5. You will have reliable sales reports even in online mode from your phone

CRM will also be beneficial because you can always obtain reliable data for decision-making. Sooner or later, a manager realizes that relying solely on intuition is not effective at all.

“Intuition” is good, but finally, you will be able to make management decisions based on objective digital data

For daily decision-making, precision is necessary. But where to get digital indicators? Asking the manager to mark things in unclear tables is not a reliable source of information.

However, when a company has a CRM system in place, where the entire customer interaction process is managed, dashboards and reports are automatically provided to you. Thus, you can evaluate the efficiency and performance of your employees more productively. All possible numerical indicators and analytics are stored, helping make thoughtful decisions: people, products, territories, and much more.

You will have a clearer picture of a wide range of issues:

• Which manager to recognize, promote, or dismiss?
• With which customer segments to work more intensively?
• Which advertising channel is the most effective and brings in leads at lower costs?
• Which manager ensures faster and higher-quality sales, and how does he achieve this?

In summary, CRM opens up broad opportunities for the strategic development of your company. It quickly and efficiently solves various tasks that usually require significant investments of time, finances, and workforce.

If you aim to achieve leadership in your industry and maintain a competitive advantage, our CRMiUM integration team is ready to provide you with qualified support in choosing and implementing the optimal CRM that suits the specifics of your business.