Many business owners believe customer-relationship-management (CRM) software is the single most valuable system that a business can implement.   Recent studies show using a CRM can increase sales by up to 25% and sales productivity by 34%.

One thing is certain.  Today’s business landscape is increasingly customer-focused.  Earning and maintaining customer trust is one of the most important – and difficult – tasks a business undertakes.

You have to be where the customer wants you to be – before they realize they want you there.  Not an easy expectation to meet when you’re dealing with thousands of contacts.

To meet these expectations, you need the help of marketing automation.  CRM software can update the status of contacts then tie into tools like email software and lead generation ad campaigns.  Trying to do all this manually is too complicated and time-consuming.

The stakes are high.  Every perceived misstep, miscommunication, or slight dissolves trust and kills deals.

You need a CRM if you want to structure, record, plan, organize – in a word – manage your customer-focus.  Either you meet their expectations or you lose their business.

If your business has one salesperson (most likely you), maybe you don’t need a CRM.  But if you’re building a sales team, automating tactics like email marketing, and prioritizing customer retention, CRM software is a must.

Here are some things small businesses should look for in CRM software.

Simplicity

Many CRM software platforms boast about the vast array of features they offer.  But these features can be deceptive.

It’s a mistake to implement a CRM tool that has features you don’t really need.  They make the system too complicated for employees, which means the tools you do need don’t get used.

As a small business, avoid enterprise-level solutions with layers of features you simply don’t need.  What you do need is:

1. Contact/lead information
2. History of communication, contacts, and projects
3. Rep/staff info connected to communications
4. Info on deals, offers, and contracts
5. Calendar with contact reminders
6. Automated integration with email and advertising campaigns
7. Task assignment and tracking

While a CRM will have a significant number of features, its main purpose is to keep everyone on the same page.  There should be no sales, project, or customer service activity that isn’t recorded in your CRM.  If it’s not there, it didn’t happen.

Two mistakes that cost more than any are when a prospect knows more about what’s going on than the staff member, and when the business forgets to follow up on a promise.  These two mistakes are acid on your foundation of trust.  Use your CRM to eradicate them from your business.

Integration

Another important thing to look for in CRM software is its ability to integrate with your lead generation channels as well as the rest of your marketing software.

For example, when you generate a lead on your website, you want that information to be automatically added to your CRM.  Same goes for lead generation on services like Facebook Lead Ads, where the lead fills out a form on Facebook itself.

If you do a lot of email marketing, it’s essential that your CRM integrate with your email campaigns.  This way you can automate emails to thousands of people and have each one update automatically in your CRM.  As sales cycles get longer and we need an increasing number of touches to close deals, this type of automation is now a competitive requirement.

If you have to manually input every lead into your CRM, you’ll squander time in your sales cycle.  These delays carry over into reaching out to the lead, which will likely kill your opportunity.  When the process is automated, the lead’s contact info is in your system automatically, ready to move into your sales pipeline.

You also want your CRM to connect with the rest of your marketing software so as you take on the new client, you can track the entire relationship, from initial to ongoing contacts.  This gives you a big picture view of how you’re gaining new clients and retaining them long-term.  Looking at your CRM documentation, you can uncover weak areas in your process so you never lose a client due to oversight.

You can also integrate this info into your marketing strategy as you discover lead generation channels, offers, and methods of communication that work best at connecting with your target audience.  You may find insights into the types of consumers you should target for future campaigns and the types of content they respond to.

The Marketing 360® CRM is built specifically to facilitate these integration features.

Training and Support

One of the big pitfalls of small business CRM use is – in fact – nonuse.  Often businesses buy into a software package certain it will streamline their process, only to find after a few months the tools are being used at a minimum because employees don’t really understand how to make the most of them.  Instead, they retreat to their old habits of documentation and the business continues to suffer.

CRM solutions that require self-implementation and are weak on training resources should be avoided.  If it’s too hard to figure out, people won’t use it.

At Marketing 360®, we offer live, ongoing support from CRM specialists so you can get properly set-up and make sure your staff is trained to the point they understand the value of the tools.

When your CRM software becomes a natural part of everyone’s work habits, you’ll reap serious benefits.  With so many different digital tools we all use today, we need one like this to keep us organized.

Wanna try our CRM? Sign up for a free trial today!