Before reading we would caution you that this is not a
comprehensive list of reasons. There are many reasons for a CRM - we simply listed out a few
that we have found helpful or that we have personal experience with in the past.
You may think of other reasons. Our goal is not to provide an exhaustive list,
but merely to get you thinking about the value of a CRM and hopefully help you
come to the realization that if you have a business, then you need a CRM.
10. Your memory is not perfect
We know you may think you've got it all stored in that steel
trap but we can attest from personal experience; it doesn't always work as
expected. Sure, you might be able to keep up with 10, or 20 or even 50 clients
in your head but there comes a point when you just can't track them all and
their associated tasks and events. Do you really want to limit your business by
what information you can store in your head? If you can only manage 20 clients
successfully in your memory then you have stopped your business from growing
any larger. With a CRM you can store and manage hundreds of clients and let a
computer system handle the task of memory and recall. Take advantage of
technology and use it for your business success. Then your business growth is
never limited by the brain that can't remember where you put the car keys.
9. Emails are decentralized
we spent many years convinced that our inbox was the perfect
solution. we mean, we could filter, we could search, and could read past emails
- what more could we want. But we started to realize something. we were having
to sync our email on our devices and store all our past email on all of them.
This was fine at first but our inbox was quickly growing in size and storage
space and becoming unmanageable. Finding sent mail is also a problem and makes
things difficult in tracking what has been said to various clients. And then
comes that great day when you hire employees. You'll never remember to CC or
BCC the team on every email sent. Suddenly email is not a good solution. Your
team may be spread completely apart and communications will quickly get lost,
and your clients suffer. A customer relations management system put all the
pertinent client information in one central location that was easy to update
and easy to see when other's updated. All communication can be kept in one
spot, nothing gets lost and you can now see and share with the rest of your
team.
8. You need metrics
Do you know how many successful projects you've had in the
past week, month, or year? Can you quickly state your conversion ratio or
explain the best method you reach your customers with absolute certainty?
Metrics are critical to your business growth and success. You may deceive
yourself into thinking you can figure out things with common sense or with some
Excel spreadsheet formula - but is that what you want to spend your time doing?
Our guess is that your time is more valuable than that, and the odds are high
you'll make a mistake in your calculations anyway. We know we do. A CRM will
give you instant metrics on dozens of aspects of your business, and you don't
have to do anything. Plus with a CRM you
can actually create custom reports to better track metrics and reports specific
to your needs. Create it once and use it forever. Once you have these reports I
guarantee you'll never look back. Who knows, maybe you'll find out it's really
not worth your time to do cold calls after all!
7. Statuses are important
Do you know which clients are ready for a quick callback? If
you knew exactly which prospects and clients were on hold and who was slightly
interested in your services would that help your business and your sales
strategies. We think it would. A CRM at its most basic level lets you see those
statuses. Every time you make a call, send an email, or contact that customer
or prospect you can update your CRM with their current status. Then, because
your memory's not perfect (as stated earlier) you will be able to review and
see exactly where each client is in the sales process. No more wondering, and
no more following up on cold leads instead of landing the hot ones.
6. History is important
If you've ever wanted to look back and see everything on a
particular contact, the stream of communication between you and them and other
members of your business then you need a CRM. Customer relations systems help
keep all those conversations in one place and make it easy for you to quickly
look back in time and see how things have progressed. Don't be confused about
why a particular customer is upset - see for yourself the progression of a
client and their communication as well as your company's notes and responses.
You'll be able to save more customers from leaving by catching something you
would have otherwise missed. And you can learn from your history.
5. Competition helps business
It's never fun to feel like you're going at it alone. It's
good to have communication between your fellow employees and compare notes on
things. And competition helps a business. CRM has leader boards and goals to
help with just such a thing. You can stage friendly inter-office competitions
to see who can close the most deals, sell the most dollars, or carry on the
most conversations. As those leader boards and competitions grow so does your
business. And everyone wins when that happens.
4. Never lose your data
If you use notepads, memo books, calendars, and other
systems for tracking your data then the odds are high that you are going to
lose it at some point. Store everything on your laptop? They can be stolen. A
web-based CRM lets you effectively protect your data from being lost. Sure,
servers can crash and hard drives fail but with the proper web host and data
backups you'll never lose your data. That's just one of the benefits of CRM, as
an Open-Source CRM you have the complete freedom to select the absolute best
web host and service provider. And you own your data. It's not stored on some
company's server leaving you at their security and their business
infrastructure. CRM lets you install, manage and maintain your own data on the
server of your choice.
3. Predict your future
Everyone wants to know the future. If only there was a way
to know what to expect. CRM helps you with that. Now of course a CRM cannot
predict the future with 100% accuracy (it's not a crystal ball), but a good CRM
can give you a reasonable expectation of the future based on past performances
and past events. If your history is stored correctly in your CRM (see History
is important) then a good CRM can extrapolate that information to give you a
good idea of what is to come. You can see your pipeline of your prospective
deals and have a pretty accurate feel for how much business you can expect to
see in the months to come. Once you realize how much information you have
access to you may start to feel like a bit like a psychic.
2. Track your tasks and events
Calendars are important, way more important then emails with
dates in them. You'll never be able to keep track of every task you need to do
and event you need to attend without a good system. A CRM will help you not
only keep track of every task and every event but also relate them to the appropriate
customer or lead. CRM provides a calendar system that allows you to see all of
your tasks and events and also your teammates tasks. Plus, with CRM you have a
dashboard that gives you a quick overview of upcoming tasks and events across
all your contacts. Need access on the go? CRM provides an amazing mobile
interface to provide instant access to your immediate tasks and events as well
as allowing you to create new tasks or events immediately. Sure there are
dedicated calendar apps and task management software you can use, but the goal
is more than just managing tasks. The goal is relationships. A CRM will relate
those tasks and events to the appropriate lead, contact, deal, or company. It
all works together to form a cohesive whole - and that leads perfectly into the
final reason.
1. Be organized
You may claim that you can manage your business using email,
task management systems, and calendar systems but you'll miss the big picture.
Organizing all your information into one system gives you that big picture. A
CRM integrates emails and tasks and calendars and so much more in one easily
maintained and managed place. Access your information from anywhere in the
world and from any internet-accessible device. You'll learn things about your
business you never knew before. By being organized and storing things in a
central location you'll bring all the pieces together. The key is business
organization.
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