The biggest advantages of CRM

The global CRM industry is a behemoth. In 2018, yearly spending on CRM systems exceeded $40 billion. This is part of a trend that has seen CRM spending increase more than three-fold since 2010, with some predicting spending will reach $80 billion by 2025.

Modern CRM solutions provide functionality across many different business units; three of the key departments are sales, marketing, and customer service. In this article, we’re going to take a look at the key advantages for each of these departments.

Three biggest advantages of sales CRM

CRM systems started life as sales tools, indicated by the ‘kingpin’ of modern CRM systems being Salesforce. CRM has many advantages across all areas of business, especially sales, here are the top three benefits for sales CRM.

1. Access valuable information on prospects

Data might be the most important commodity – the Economist certainly thinks so. In sales teams, data is crucial. Looking at prospect behavior, information and past contacts can give a salesperson the context needed to close sales.

2. Plan and prioritize sales activities

For a salesperson there are always 101 activities they can be working on; one of the hardest skills is zeroing in on the most important tasks. A good CRM will enable this through dashboards and reminders. For example, 40% of salespeople cite prospecting as the most important activity – a CRM will help you focus on these highly leveraged activities.

3. Save valuable time and energy

A CRM should store and retrieve information easily on desktop and mobile. Constantly updating CRM systems and being unable to find information is a burden to sales teams. In fact, a study by Pace Productivity suggests that sales teams spend only 22% of their time actually selling, so a good CRM is a key tool that addresses this problem.

Three biggest advantages of marketing CRM

Now, let’s move onto the benefits of CRM for marketing teams.

1. Targeted marketing campaigns

Multiple sales lists can be developed and targeted effectively. Instead of sending out the same messaging, a good CRM will allow the developments of lists, campaigns, and a medium to push those campaigns out, ensuring conversion rates are as high as possible. A huge benefit for marketers.

2. Capability to lead nurturing

Excelling at lead nurturing can develop up to 50% more sales leads. It is often possible to profile prospect behavior and draw meaningful conclusions on the types of behavior that will lead to sales. For example, if 30% of customers that have abandoned a shopping cart ultimately buy it’s important to nurture those leads so they turn into sales later. More informed data means better marketing decisions.

3. Generate leads for sales

With 60% of buyers interested in talking to sales during the consideration phase and 20% during the decision making phase, a CRM is a vital tool for highlighting to marketing when a lead is primed to be given to a sales team.

Three biggest advantages of customer service CRM

We’ve discussed the prospect pipeline, but now let’s focus on the customer service team and how CRM improves your customer’s experience.

1. Improve speed of response

A good customer service CRM will enable agents to engage with customers more efficiently and arrive at faster resolutions. This is getting more important with millennials only waiting 60 minutes after raising a complaint to find another channel.

2. Improve quality of response

47% of customer service managers rate customer satisfaction as the most important metric when processing customer complaints. A good CRM will enable great results by improving speed, answer quality and matching the right agents to the right problems.

3. Feed key data to sales and account management teams

When problems arise in a customer service setting the ability to feed that quickly and efficiently to key relationship managers can greatly improve customer retention. It allows relationship managers to be proactive and means they won’t get caught off-guard by disgruntled customers. Plus, customers with a resolved complaint tend to have a higher rate of retention and improved likelihood of returning. It’s a win-win for everyone.

So there you have it: our top advantages of using CRM for sales, marketing, and customer service teams. The benefits of CRM don’t just end there. CRM impacts the entire business and can deliver a huge ROI along with improved company-wide processes.