CRM software today fills a number of departmental needs in a company, and touts benefits for marketing, sales, support, and even other areas like inventory and project management. Often championed on the merits of features and functions such as integrated email, simplified record keeping, and powerful reporting, the fact is that as the CRM industry has matured, the need to compete has resulted in a need to differentiate on the basis of “features and functions”, sometimes leaving little room to translate those features and functions into general benefits and bottom line results for those who aren’t already well versed on how they translate. At the end of the day, CRM is about improving efficiency and results on every level in an organization. Here are three ways that happens in a sales organization:
A higher ratio of qualified leads
An organization that leverages a CRM solution can plan marketing campaigns targeting markets with characteristics of successful customers. With a CRM solution in place, an organization has the tools and structure in place to record information on all of its prospects. As those prospects move down the funnel and ultimately convert, a CRM solution will enable the company to filter on its successful customers, analyze their characteristics using reporting tools, and use that information to launch highly successful marketing campaigns that seek out the types of customers that your sales organization is already excellent at winning over.
More time to spend on deals
Salespeople are amongst the hardest workers in an organization. While hired for their sale expertise, the fact is that from taking and organizing notes, to searching through it for critical deal information, to time spent on travel, much time is spent on what we might call administrative tasks. CRM software is at home making things more efficient in this environment, providing a familiar structure to organize and search for information, and being accessible from anywhere, it ensures that more time in a day is dedicated to what salespeople are best at – driving deals.
Higher win rates
Standing alone, the first point of a higher ratio of qualified leads actually directly results in higher win-rates, but there is another, perhaps more important reason that a CRM solution results in higher win rates, and that is that, employed correctly, a CRM makes the sales process much more fault-proof. From having all customer and deal information and emails stored and organized together, leading to fewer mistakes with prospects; to being able to set up triggered reminders that ensure, for example, that if a deal goes unaddressed for two days, the salesperson that is working that deal is automatically alerted to the potential stall.
All in all, deploying a CRM correctly = (higher quality leads) x (more leads) x (higher wins) = more wins per period = a stronger top and bottom line.
And that’s just through the sales organization! Benefits extend to marketing to reduce the cost of campaigns and improve conversions through email marketing, and to support where customer retention ensures longer lasting, more loyal customers. Those extend beyond the scope of this blog post, but if you’re interested in further exploring, feel free to sign up for a free trial, or to send us an email at [email protected]. We’d love to explore with you what efficiencies Vtiger CRM can unlock in your organization.
