Advantages of CRM for small businesses

As a small business, you have many of the same problems as larger organizations, just on a smaller scale.  However, just because you are not a big corporation, it does not mean that you should run your company in any way that is not totally efficient and effective.  By taking the time to get the infrastructure right, you will find yourself far more productive and this means more profits. It is certainly true that having a good CRM system in place can increase profits for a company.

What benefits can a small business gain from a CRM?

For small businesses, CRM has many advantages.  For example, if you find yourself losing track of customers, wasting too much time on mundane administrative tasks and unable to produce valuable reports, this will change and in a good way.

Once your CRM system is up and running, you will find that staff involved in sales, marketing and customer service will become far more efficient. Here are just two of the major advantages that you will be able to make use of once you digitally transform your business.

Visibility and tracking of customers

Sales visibility will help to boost your team’s results. Knowing exactly where you stand at any one time with regard to targets is crucial and removes uncertainty.  At the same time, management can see how sales are doing, what they have done and how they can improve.

The CRM will put in place a set process for moving through the sales pipeline, making the whole thing far more scientific. Improved visibility results in the provision of accurate sales data. Strategies can be refined with the CRM, enabling staff to manage data in such a way that priorities can be set and adjustments made when needed.

Good sales visibility empowers your sales team to direct their efforts towards the more profitable opportunities and activities.

Schedule and automate tasks

Forget time-consuming tasks and let your CRM take control of them.  Here are just a few of the CRM advantages of automation:

• Lead management – entering data manually is tedious and open to error.  Your CRM can take control by collecting basic information from emails, social media interaction and web activity, funneling this data through to create new leads.  
• Lead nurturing – this needs to include details from emails, follow-up calls, metrics, and reports. Ideally, this information should be sorted into groups based upon response.  Preferences should be tracked such as buying patterns and web page visits. For each individual lead, the CRM will record metrics for sales and marketing, tracking reports and setting scores.
• Telephone calls – take advantage of one-click calling facility, recording, note taking and setting of follow-ups. This way, calls won’t be missed and sales staff will be prompted to act.

Why are time and cost saving techniques especially important for small businesses?

Your CRM will enable you to deal with large amounts of information, managing it correctly and quickly whilst eradicating the loss of valuable data.   As a small business, you will be provided with many time and cost saving techniques and processes that will shave hours off repetitive tasks.

Every penny counts and can be the difference between having a successful business or a bad one.  With fewer members of staff in place, it is imperative that each one of them is working to full capacity.  Because your CRM system will automate so many repetitive tasks whilst at the same time boosting productivity, the result is a saving of time and money.

Getting the basics right is fundamental to running a successful small business.  With a CRM system underpinning all of your crucial sales, marketing, and customer service functions, efficiency will be dramatically enhanced and profits expanded.