The digitization of the company is increasingly necessary for any business, from the smallest to the largest. By digitizing a company we mean migrating all operations, both internal management and acquisition and treatment of leads and customers, which were previously done in a more traditional way, to a more automated and analytical way of working, with the help of new technologies.
Digitization is so important and vital that there are aids for the digitization of companies . You have all the information about the aids of the Digital Kit in:
One of the key technological advances for the digitization of companies is CRM (Customer Relationship Management). That is, a software for customer management .
In this article we want to talk about CRM, how they can help your company, what are the advantages of using them in your business, and know what types of CRM exist.
What is a CRM
As we mentioned at the beginning of the post, CRM stands for ” Customer Relationship Management ” and it is a software system that helps business owners easily track all communications and nurture relationships with their leads and customers.
A CRM replaces the multitude of spreadsheets, databases, and applications that many companies combine to track customer data. The result: organization, efficiency, better time management and satisfied customers.
Lead management platforms like CRMs connect all your lead and customer data, all in one place. A CRM consolidates all the communications (form filling, calls, emails, texts, and meetings), documents, quotes, purchases, and tasks associated with each prospect and customer.
All teams, whether it’s the marketing, sales or customer service team, can access those details at the right time, to close a sale or provide exceptional after-sales service.
What is a CRM for?
A spreadsheet is great if you have fewer than 50 contacts, or are just tracking static information like name, email address, phone number, company name, website, etc.
But a spreadsheet can’t compete with a CRM in tracking more complex and dynamic data, like which emails a contact opened, which pages they visited on your website, or their last purchase date.
The CRM is always automatically updated as your leads and customers take action , whereas data in a spreadsheet becomes stale the moment it stops being manually filled in.
Good CRM software shows at a glance how good a lead really is thanks to a lead rating. This qualification of leads is based on the rules that have been established. For example, points can be added to a lead record for important actions, like submitting a form or clicking a link, so the sales team can identify the most interesting leads to focus on.
Lead scoring is nearly impossible without a CRM.
10 Advantages of having a CRM for your business
As you may have already seen, the use of a CRM has multiple advantages for a company. Next, we detail some of them.
1. Maintain a centralized database across your entire sales organization.
CRMs allow your sales organization to keep all prospect information, for any length of time, in a central database. This enables quick cross-team access as well as the ability to easily manage all information through a shared location.
CRMs help salespeople avoid wasting time digging through files and records to find the information they need about prospects to follow up and close deals.
2. Manage all communications and interactions with prospects.
All communication, both internal (from representative to representative) and external (from representative to potential client), can be managed through a CRM. This allows reps to track all parts of the buyer’s journey , including all interactions, emails, phone calls, etc.
For example, your CRM will help a representative determine if and when they need to contact a specific prospect . It will also help your reps remember whether or not they’ve already sent a potential customer the resources they’ve requested.
3. Automate data entry.
With a CRM, your team will never have to spend time recording emails, calls, meetings, and interactions; All of this information will be automatically collected and added within the system.
Additionally, a CRM allows reps to update all transactions based on their stage ; then the system will automatically handle the rest, keeping this process as efficient as possible for everyone involved.
4. Remember to follow up with prospects.
A CRM tracks all activity from your leads, helping your reps know when they need to follow up with specific leads . When reps are reminded about specific follow-ups, they can schedule their contact at a time when their support is most helpful to a potential customer. In this way, reps increase the chances that they will convert more of these leads into customers .
5. Organize contact details.
CRMs allow your team to easily keep track of every contact (and their related data), no matter the stage of the buyer’s journey. In fact, reps will be able to see if a contact has visited the company’s website, downloaded content from the site, or talked to another member of the sales or marketing team.
Additionally, reps can record notes of their calls or email interactions with their contacts and leads. The best part? All this information can always be searched within the CRM.
6. Customer segmentation.
Have you ever wanted to create a list of contacts to contact based on specific criteria? CRMs allow you to sort contacts by the data you’ve collected about them over time.
For example, a representative can filter by location, company size, or stage of business. In this way, your team members will always have a clear idea of how to position the reach for each segment, increasing the probability of conversion.
7. Create sales reports.
CRMs allow your team to collect and organize data about leads and deals using reporting features like dashboards and sales reports. This allows reps to automate and better manage their pipelines, deals, and contacts.
They can also assess their personal performance and track their goals and the work required to reach their quotas.
Sales managers can use these sales reports to see how their team is tracking quota fulfillment and review the number of closed deals. Vice Presidents and other leaders in the organization can also monitor the amount of revenue that has been generated.
8. Automate forecasting of your sales performance.
The key to any successful sales organization is the ability to strategically plan and make decisions based on data and not assumptions.
With the CRM reports I just mentioned, you can get key metrics like monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and year-over-year (YOY) growth that make it easy for sales leaders to identify trends and develop sales-related forecasts. performance.
Additionally, CRMs allow sales reps and managers to see which activities and sources are the most profitable lead generators . This data helps team leaders create sales projections for the coming months and adjust estimates as needed.
9. Scale your sales processes over time.
As mentioned above, a CRM will provide your sales team with a place where they can keep track of leads, prospects, and customers over any period of time. CRMs also allow you to review specific activities such as emails, calls and meetings booked.
Sales managers can use this data to identify patterns and see which sales processes are working for their team and which could be improved, which is how your sales team can use the information stored in the CRM to scale its processes as it grows. the business.
10. Make sure team communication is facilitated.
Make sure effective team communication is facilitated throughout your sales organization and between reps with the help of CRM . This communication is critical to maintaining a specific brand image among all reps who interact with prospects, as well as ensuring that reps learn from each other and work together to achieve quota.
With a CRM, your team can do this by tagging rep and manager members on specific deals they want to attract them to. Sales leaders and reps can also use the system to reassign specific leads with the click of a button.
Lastly, reps don’t need to log out to type and email team members to have these discussions; all communication can be easily facilitated from the CRM.
Types of CRMs
A CRM can help any business improve the customer experience and buyer’s journey. But not all CRMs offer the same features. In general, they belong to one (or more) of the following types: operational, analytical or collaborative CRM .
Here’s a look at how they work and what they offer to help you find the CRM that’s right for your business.
Operational CRM
An operational CRM streamlines and simplifies the main business processes of an organization. In doing so, the tool can help businesses generate leads, convert those leads into contacts, and provide the service infrastructure needed to delight and retain customers.
Main functions of an Operational CRM.
Some of the main functions of Operational CRM are:
1. Marketing automation
Operational CRMs simplify and streamline time – consuming and manual tasks for marketers, with the help of marketing automation . They automate tedious responsibilities like coordinating email campaigns, distributing content offers, and communicating with contacts at scale.
Some CRMs can also offer marketing analytics , track the ROI of online ads, and give businesses deep insights into individual leads.
Some can even help businesses with more challenging and specialized marketing practices, like SEO and blogging.
2. Sales automation
Sales automation is meant to streamline a company’s sales process , allowing reps to spend more time interacting with leads and engaging customers.
Sales automation typically includes processes such as lead email scheduling , tools that allow leads to schedule meetings with reps , and features to track sales calls.
Many operational CRMs also make life easier for sales reps by enabling workflows that allow them to easily and automatically rotate leads, delegate contacts, and create deals and tasks.
In addition, operational CRMs often offer features such as sales record creation, better visibility into sales records, and simpler lead prioritization.
3. Service automation
Service automation is the final piece of the CRM operational puzzle . Its purpose is to help a company create an extraordinary experience for customers , keep them loyal, and encourage them to promote the company’s brand .
Service automation almost always establishes a framework for one-to-one correspondence between service representatives and customers. This can include things like setting up inboxes that aggregate customer emails or coordinating live chats and setting up chatbots.
Who should use an operational CRM?
Companies with more linear sales processes tend to take full advantage of operational CRM. SMBs can get a lot out of these platforms , but that’s not to say that operational CRMs are specific to their needs. Even the largest companies can benefit from the use of this type of software.
If your company is trying to automate its workflow and remove the human element from the more monotonous administrative side of your business, an operational CRM is the way to go.
Analytical CRM
Analytical CRMs are based on the collection and analysis of data to help companies better serve their customers ; Some examples of this information are customer preferences, behaviors, and contact information.
Companies can then leverage the data they’ve collected to improve sales efforts, targeted marketing campaigns, and personalized customer service. Generally speaking, the most crucial components of an analytical CRM are data warehousing, data mining, and OLAP tools.
Main functions of an Analytical CRM.
Some of the main functions of an analytical CRM are
1. Data storage
A data warehouse is a type of database built into many analytical CRMs. It provides one of the most powerful systems that analysts can use to collect, integrate, and prepare customer data for analysis.
A data warehouse stores current and historical data in one place and makes processes such as data mining and performing data analysis easier than in more conventional databases.
2. Data mining
The next component of an analytical CRM is data mining , a general term for the process of discovering patterns in large data sets .
Analytical CRMs use data mining techniques to track information and data trends relevant to customer interests . This allows them to provide a better picture of a company’s customer lifecycle: a process that encompasses customer identification, attraction, retention and development.
3. OLAP tools
The third component of typical analytical CRM is online analytical processing (OLAP) tools. It is a category of tools used to analyze data stored in databases. These tools are used to evaluate multidimensional data from multiple perspectives.
For example, a business may want to analyze how customers interact with their website. You have access to data about the online features customers use, customer locations, and when they log in. Having a complete picture of this data could give salespeople an idea of how, where and when they should communicate with potential customers.
Instead of analyzing each of these dimensions individually, OLAP tools allow the company to analyze all of them simultaneously . OLAP solutions also allow companies to see how customers in specific regions interact with their website during specific time periods.
Who should use an analytical CRM?
Analytical CRMs are best for companies looking to leverage data to get a picture of how their customers operate.
If you’re interested, it also wouldn’t hurt to have an employee, or a few, in your company who are willing to make a conscious effort to learn some fairly technical software. Analytical CRMs aren’t necessarily hard to use, but they do take a little more work to figure out.
Collaborative CRM
A collaborative CRM brings together a company’s marketing, sales, and service data to improve synchronization within the business and give each department a better understanding of their customers’ needs, wants, and interests.
A collaborative CRM has two key components: interaction management and channel management .
Main functions of a Collaborative CRM.
Some of the main functions of a collaborative CRM are:
1. Interaction Management
Interaction management is a process that tracks every interaction between a business and its customers , whether through email, social media, face-to-face interactions, phone calls, or other communication channels.
Interaction management allows a company to keep a record of this type of correspondence, as well as team notes about them. Different business units can share this information throughout the organization.
2. Channel management
Channel management takes interaction management one step further. It is the process of using the information collected and analyzed during the management of the interaction to identify and, ultimately, search for the communication channels that best suit the customer’s preferences .
Does your company’s customer service unit need to communicate primarily via email or chat? Should your sales team be looking for one-on-one meetings or phone calls with prospects? These are the kinds of questions channel management is designed to answer.
Who should use a collaborative CRM?
Companies that are spread across multiple physical locations or have many teams stand to gain greatly from collaborative CRM’s emphasis on business unit synchronicity.
The same goes for companies that rely heavily on communication between departments. It goes without saying, but a collaborative CRM won’t be a good fit for any business that isn’t comfortable with customer information being shared freely throughout the organization.
The best current CRMs
There are more and more CRM software available in the market. We want to highlight three of the most complete, one for each type of CRM mentioned above.
Salesforce
Undoubtedly one of the best and most complete CRMs on the market.
With Salesforce, companies can break down the barriers between different departments, such as marketing, sales, customer service… Everyone will be able to work in harmony thanks to this CRM.
Hubspot. (Operative CRM)
HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM platform designed to align internal teams , gain meaningful insights, and report on growth opportunities. It does this by combining the Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub , along with hundreds of available integrations, to make your marketing, sales, and customer service processes easier.
HubSpot automates manual tasks (data entry, data synchronization, and contact data updates) and helps you create a buying experience and journey your customers will love by centering your entire business around them.
Zoho (Analytical CRM)
Zoho Analytics gives you real-time analytics to help inform smarter business decisions. These capabilities can allow you to better track key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the number of deals won and customers.
You can see the tool here .
Copper (Collaborative CRM)
With Copper, all of your customer data is stored in one place, keeping everyone in your organization on top of any customer interaction or deal. The platform’s user-friendly interface also features custom pipelines and dashboards.
Copper is a good option for small businesses looking for a simple, straightforward CRM that integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace.
